tree. Then
abruptly
the table
broke up –
the moment
when the
guests had
been
daringly
lifted
above
conviviality
into the
rarer
atmosphere
of
sentiment,
was over
before it
could be
irreverently
breathed,
before
they had
half
realized
it was
there. But
the
diffused
magic of
the hot
sweet
South had
withdrawn
into them
– the
soft-pawed
night and
the
ghostly
wash of
the
Mediterranean
far below
– the
magic left
these
things and
melted
