Read "Awakening" by Maud Diver online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"My heart in me was held at restless rest, Presageful of some prize beyond its quest, Prophetic still with promise, fain to find the best. " -- SWINBOURNE.
Martino's approval of the _houri_ and something more dated from his first sight of Nevil's sketch. Constrained by that something, he had wrought, in the sea-piece that was his wedding-gift, a symbolic portrayal of his own soul, untamed and untameable as the waters that cover the earth. All wind-driven wave and cloud it was; save for one down-sweeping sword of radiance that struck a path of gold through the turmoil: the whole smitten into life by the illusion of light and movement that was fast gaining him recognition as one of the master-painters of his time. This much, at least, of himself should be hers: the quintessence of his nature purged from the dross. For outside his art, and his touch of heroic fortitude, Martino's code of morals did not bear critical inspection.