"Love, yes! We love each other, we love our world, our trees...."
"And if a young man loved you, Tsu, how would he say it?"
His heart was pounding fiercely now. A fierce zeal possessed him that was not born of her nearness, the intimacy of their seclusion. His conditioning against emotional storms had been too thorough for him to break it now. It was something else that possessed him—the excitement of the hunter viewing the first, sparse tracks of the game he seeks. He had asked. It all depended now on her answer, for the mystery was coming clear to him.
Her long eyes were heavy-lidded, candid, without guile.
"How would he among your people, sintaha Rowley?"
He thought, wildly, she doesn't know! He thought, she is inexperienced. He thought again, she would never know, unless...."
He slipped an arm around her bare shoulders and drew her to him.
"Like this," he said, looking down into her tip-tilted eyes.
Then he kissed her. Her sarong slipped....