Html 如何在边框顶部覆盖渐变（背景）？

我有一个标题，边线横向延伸（灵感来源于克里斯·科伊尔斯）。我正试图用渐变背景将边界重叠，使其淡出。然而，我不能让它工作，但我觉得它应该是可能的。为了说明我想要的效果：

这就是我现在拥有的：

这就是我想要实现的目标：

我现在拥有的代码是：

HTML

为了便于修改，代码如下：

有人知道怎么做吗？我已经尝试过绝对定位和z索引，但我无法使渐变重叠到虚线边界。

这对你有好处吗

HTML

<article>
    <p>Lorem ipsum etc.</p>
    <a class="fancy" href="#">
        <span>read more</span>
    </a>
</article>

---

如果可能的话，我更愿意用css动态地完成这项工作。但我不知道这是否能做到……是的，那绝对是完美的。您甚至使用了比我更少的元素（没有

），这甚至更好：）。非常感谢。

body {
    background: red; /* Just to show the effect of the transparency, the final background will be white */
    font-size: 150%;
}

/* This is for the horizontal borders extending sideways from the heading */

 .fancy a {
    max-width: 100%;
    margin: 0 auto;
    overflow: hidden;
    display: block;
    color: black;
    text-align: center;
    text-decoration: none;
    font-family:'Bitter', serif;
    font-style: italic;
    font-size: 16px;
    line-height: 32px;
}

.fancy a:before, .fancy a:after {
    content:"";
    display: inline-block;
    position: relative;
    height: .1em;
    width: 50%;
    border-top: 1px dotted black;
    border-bottom: 1px dotted black;
    margin-bottom: .25em;
}

.fancy a:before {
    right: .5em;
    margin-left: -50%;
}

.fancy a:after {
    left: .5em;
    margin-right: -50%;
}

/* This is the gradient I want to display in front of the border. The body will have a white background, so it will look like the border is fading out */

 .fancy {
    /* Safari 5.1, Chrome 10+ */
    background: -webkit-linear-gradient(left, rgba(255, 255, 255, 1), rgba(255, 255, 255, 0), rgba(255, 255, 255, 1));
    /* Firefox 3.6+ */
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(left, rgba(255, 255, 255, 1), rgba(255, 255, 255, 0), rgba(255, 255, 255, 1));
    /* IE 10 */ 
    background: -ms-linear-gradient(left, rgba(255, 255, 255, 1), rgba(255, 255, 255, 0), rgba(255, 255, 255, 1));
    /* Opera 11.10+ */
    background: -o-linear-gradient(left, rgba(255, 255, 255, 1), rgba(255, 255, 255, 0), rgba(255, 255, 255, 1));
}

<article>
    <p>Lorem ipsum etc.</p>
    <a class="fancy" href="#">
        <span>read more</span>
    </a>
</article>

body {
    background: white; /* Just to show the effect of the transparency, the final background will be white */
    font-size: 150%;
}

/* This is for the horizontal borders extending sideways from the heading */

a.fancy {
    position: relative;
    display: block;
    color: black;
    text-align: center;
    text-decoration: none;
    font-family:'Bitter', serif;
    font-style: italic;
    font-size: 16px;
    line-height: 32px;
}

a.fancy > span {
    position: relative;
    z-index: 1;
    display: inline-block;
    background: white;
    padding: 0 .5em;
}

a.fancy:before {
    content: "";
    display: block;
    z-index: 0;
    position: absolute;
    top: 50%;
    left: 0;
    width: 100%;
    height: 2px;
    border-width: 1px 0 1px 0;
    border-style: dotted;
    border-color: black;
}

a.fancy:after {
    content: "";
    display: block;
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    right: 0;
    bottom: 0;
    left: 0;
    /* Safari 5.1, Chrome 10+ */
    background: -webkit-linear-gradient(left, rgba(255, 255, 255, 1), rgba(255, 255, 255, 0), rgba(255, 255, 255, 1));
    /* Firefox 3.6+ */
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(left, rgba(255, 255, 255, 1), rgba(255, 255, 255, 0), rgba(255, 255, 255, 1));
    /* IE 10 */ 
    background: -ms-linear-gradient(left, rgba(255, 255, 255, 1), rgba(255, 255, 255, 0), rgba(255, 255, 255, 1));
    /* Opera 11.10+ */
    background: -o-linear-gradient(left, rgba(255, 255, 255, 1), rgba(255, 255, 255, 0), rgba(255, 255, 255, 1));
}