Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1904 (Heft 6))

and values of the scene that I merely saw her as a passing shimmer, a flash
of whiteness in my composition.
" Oh, I am merely intoxicated with the beauty of this day,” I replied,
making a sweeping gesture with my arm. " Life has at last brought me what
I thought. I am, after all, no knight of the futile quest, as you have called
me. This time I'll grip the dream before it flies away.”
" Well, let us see if your dream will come true,” and she rose, with a
weary smile on her lips, and looked toward the sea.
" Remain in that position ! ” I enthusiastically cried. I saw her at that
moment as if a curtain had been suddenly torn aside which had hidden her
beauty. With her long, tapering limbs, her strong, slender body clearly out-
lined against the sky, her skirts fluttering in the wind, she seemed to me like
an embodiment of youth and buoyant life.
That was the dream which I had guarded in the sanctuary of my heart.
All my life I had hungered for such a vision of fresh, blooming, fragrant
youth. And the calm October day, the translucent sky, and the deep blue
sea formed a harmonious background to her beauty. I worked with feverish
haste. I do not know if merely for minutes or for hours. I had lost the
sense of time. I changed my position at every moment to scan some new
pictorial wonder. And, although she was the center of all my enthusiasm,
I seemed to have forgotten her actual presence. She appeared to me like
the cloud-maiden of some fairy-tale, gliding before the wind in gowns of
snowy whiteness, with tags of golden sunlight. And yet I had noticed at
intervals that she was watching me with an interest that gradually became
annoyed.
" There, it is done! ” I cried. " I have accomplished it.”
" You act as if you had never taken any pictures before.”
" I haven’t either—not like these,” I cried. " They will be astonished.
They don’t think me capable of it. But it is done.” And I wanted to
catch her in my arms and press a kiss of gratitude on her lips; but she
evaded my grasp.
" Are you not glad that I succeeded?”
" Yes, of course ; but I am no judge of such matters.” Her words had
a peculiar, grievous sound, but I was still too happy to catch its full
significance.
" Oh, you are!” I exclaimed. " But is it not wonderful that there is a
whole world around us to look at for years and years? And yet we are never
aware of it, we never see it till some happy moment suddenly reveals it to
us. And I owe it all to you ! ”
" By ignoring me,” she said, reproachfully.
I acted as if I had not heard her words. It was merely one of her
moods. She would get over it. I packed my things and we started home-
ward. A chill wind blew across the dunes. The sun was rapidly sinking
into the darkened sea. The whole scene, so joyous a moment before,
seemed discolored and hopeiessly monotonous. The magic had passed.
Would she come to my help, I wondered, with a laugh or light word, or would

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