Page 259 - women-in-love

‘Anywhere,’ he answered. ‘Let it drift.’
‘Tell me then, if we are running into anything,’ she re-
plied, in that very quiet, toneless voice of sheer intimacy.
‘The lights will show,’ he said.
So they drifted almost motionless, in silence. He wanted
silence, pure and whole. But she was uneasy yet for some
word, for some assurance.
‘Nobody will miss you?’ she asked, anxious for some
communication.
‘Miss me?’ he echoed. ‘No! Why?’
‘I wondered if anybody would be looking for you.’
‘Why should they look for me?’ And then he remem-
bered his manners. ‘But perhaps you want to get back,’ he
said, in a changed voice.
‘No, I don’t want to get back,’ she replied. ‘No, I assure
you.’
‘You’re quite sure it’s all right for you?’
‘Perfectly all right.’
And again they were still. The launch twanged and hoot-
ed, somebody was singing. Then as if the night smashed,
suddenly there was a great shout, a confusion of shouting,
warring on the water, then the horrid noise of paddles re-
versed and churned violently.
Gerald sat up, and Gudrun looked at him in fear.
‘Somebody in the water,’ he said, angrily, and desperate-
ly, looking keenly across the dusk. ‘Can you row up?’
‘Where, to the launch?’ asked Gudrun, in nervous pan-
ic.
‘Yes.’

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