"Mei-Lien, I am wondering whether you would object to my baring your breasts. You have already permitted me to take great liberties with your body, but until now none of them has had explicit sexual connotations. Baring your breasts would give me great pleasure, but only if I knew that I was doing so with your unqualified consent. I won't pretend that my reason for wanting them bare is entirely pedagogic, although I believe that having your upper body completely exposed will add to the effectiveness of your training. In addition, having your breasts bare will make this an entirely different experience for you, one which will open the possibility of your receiving immediate, as opposed to indefinitely deferred, reward for your efforts. Do you agree?"

Looking down into her upturned face, I once again saw the furrows bunching over her brows in the way that they always do when she is deep in thought. It took her a couple of minutes to respond, but, when she did, the profundity of her words took me aback.

"If I allow you to bare my breasts, our relationship will be entirely different. Until now you have been my teacher, even though some of the things you have been teaching me have sexual implications and have involved your making intimate contact with various parts of my body. However, a woman's breasts are not just another part of her body. They are one of her greatest and, at the same time, most vulnerable assets. Allowing you to bare them means that you are no longer just my teacher but are also my lover. Is that your understanding as well?"

***

I left Mei-Lien, seated in her lotus position for five minutes, during which I tried to keep myself occupied with trivial tasks. I knew what I hoped her decision would be, but I was reconciled to accepting whatever it might be. Upon my return to the living, my answer was literally staring me in the face. Framed between her arms were Mei-Lien's naked breasts. Like those on the Cambodian statues which I had often admired in museums, Mei-Lien's breasts are perfect cones which ride high on her chest in a way which defies gravity. They are not large but are pleasingly ample and are capped with generous reddish brown areolae from which her nipples emerge as two cylindrical pegs that, when they are erect as they were, can be as much as half an inch long.

Overcome by a combination of admiration and gratitude, I stood transfixed before her. At last I pulled myself together sufficiently to say,

"Mei-Lien, you are more lovely than I had imagined. Seated there as you are, bolt upright, with your hair flowing down your back, your front a symphony of gentle contours, and a serene, nearly sublime expression on your face, you take my breath away. It's a shame that your half hour is already up and that I will not be able to savor this image longer."

With obviously feigned annoyance in her voice, Mei-Lien protested,

"I did not bare my breasts just to have you dismiss the class. I intend to remain as I am as long as it takes for you and my breasts to get thoroughly acquainted. You said that you wanted me to think of you as a sculptor who is putting the final touches on his statue. Well, there is more to your statue than just a tummy, and your statue thinks it is time for its sculptor to give a little attention to something other than its posture."