Page 491 - women-in-love

ter of them all pressed her to himself? And how much more
powerful and terrible was his embrace than theirs, how
much more concentrated and supreme his love was, than
theirs in the same sort! She felt she would swoon, die, under
the vibrating, inhuman tension of his arms and his body—
she would pass away. Then the unthinkable high vibration
slackened and became more undulating. He slackened and
drew her with him to stand with his back to the wall.
She was almost unconscious. So the colliers’ lovers
would stand with their backs to the walls, holding their
sweethearts and kissing them as she was being kissed. Ah,
but would their kisses be fine and powerful as the kisses of
the firm-mouthed master? Even the keen, short-cut mous-
tache—the colliers would not have that.
And the colliers’ sweethearts would, like herself, hang
their heads back limp over their shoulder, and look out
from the dark archway, at the close patch of yellow lights
on the unseen hill in the distance, or at the vague form of
trees, and at the buildings of the colliery wood-yard, in the
other direction.
His arms were fast around her, he seemed to be gather-
ing her into himself, her warmth, her softness, her adorable
weight, drinking in the suffusion of her physical being, av-
idly. He lifted her, and seemed to pour her into himself, like
wine into a cup.
‘This is worth everything,’ he said, in a strange, penetrat-
ing voice.
So she relaxed, and seemed to melt, to flow into him, as
if she were some infinitely warm and precious suffusion fill-

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