Page:Storm Over Paris.pdf/15

Their eyes met in a moment of mutual recognition, piercing blue and soft amber.

***

The Gardens were filled with a late afternoon crowd, mostly students released from their classrooms, enjoying the freedom of a day in Spring.

The white blossoms sighed voluptuously in the May breeze, then rained down on the statues as if to share their ecstasy with them. They sat down at the edge of a pond where the water lilies raised their white petals as if curious of the strange couple.

Eric and Anna glanced silently at the puzzled lilies, clasping hands until they felt the electric shock of a love that was both blissful and barbed with anguish. They knew they had set foot on a path that could not be retraced, that they must go forward together or break down separately in their individual loneliness. They had to defy convention, the racial madness of their age and assert the freedom of youth which knows no law but the law of love.

And so they began a regular series of rendezvous. Every Wednesday and Saturday evening they would meet at the Cafe d'Harcourt where they had first met. Then they would dine in some restaurant and dance to the music in some cafe cellar. The dim lights would draw them closer to each other: she would lean her head against his shoulder listening intently to the rhythmic beating of his heart. The feel of her slim body against his would drive him into a chaos of emotions.

He would whisper hot in her ear, and in response she would press her moist mouth against his until his strength