For our vines have tender grapes.
In this manner does she reach the very wall, and, without noticing the king, turns about and walks on, climbing the hill lightly, along the neighbouring row of vines. Now her song sounds less distinctly:
Make haste, my beloved,
And be thou like to a roe or a young hart
Upon the mountains of spices.
But suddenly she grows silent and bends so low to the ground that she can not be seen behind the vines.
Then Solomon utters in a voice that caresses the ear:
“Maiden, show me thy face; let me hear thy voice anew.”
She straightens up quickly and turns her face to the king. A strong wind arises at this second and flutters the light garment upon her, suddenly making it cling tightly around her body and between her legs. And the king, for an instant, until she turns her back to the wind, sees all of her beneath the raiment, as though naked,—tall and graceful, in the vigorous bloom of thirteen years; sees her little, round, firm breasts and the elevations of her nipples, from which the cloth spreads out in rays; and the virginal abdomen, round as a bason; and the deep line that divides her legs from the bottom to the top, and there parts in two, toward the rounded hips.
“For sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance comely,” says Solomon.