Page 247 - women-in-love

ed, inchoate eyes. She leaned forward and swung round her
arm, catching him a light blow on the face with the back of
her hand.
‘That’s why,’ she said, mocking.
And she felt in her soul an unconquerable desire for deep
violence against him. She shut off the fear and dismay that
filled her conscious mind. She wanted to do as she did, she
was not going to be afraid.
He recoiled from the slight blow on his face. He became
deadly pale, and a dangerous flame darkened his eyes. For
some seconds he could not speak, his lungs were so suffused
with blood, his heart stretched almost to bursting with a
great gush of ungovernable emotion. It was as if some reser-
voir of black emotion had burst within him, and swamped
him.
‘You have struck the first blow,’ he said at last, forcing the
words from his lungs, in a voice so soft and low, it sounded
like a dream within her, not spoken in the outer air.
‘And I shall strike the last,’ she retorted involuntarily,
with confident assurance. He was silent, he did not contra-
dict her.
She stood negligently, staring away from him, into the
distance. On the edge of her consciousness the question was
asking itself, automatically:
‘Why ARE you behaving in this IMPOSSIBLE and ri-
diculous fashion.’ But she was sullen, she half shoved the
question out of herself. She could not get it clean away, so
she felt self-conscious.
Gerald, very pale, was watching her closely. His eyes

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