20 NOVEMBER 1964, Page 26

As Others See Us

She finding on his lips sour champagne, and he on her hair confetti, they enter that eclipse

the novels promise. She in his eyes, he in hers, melt as the moon devours the sun. They do not see— until a sixth, raw sense nags them to consciousness - the eye against the glass cold as a camera lens.

Sickened, they see in this a creature double-backed disturbed in a gross act. The eye blinks, vanishes: but still the staring pane holds like a negative her Adam and his Eve unparadised again.