Page 519 - women-in-love

ed it to be over, it was a great nervous strain on her.
He stood up—she unbolted the back door, and looked
out. A cold, raw night, not yet dawn, with a piece of a moon
in the vague sky. She was glad she need not go out.
‘Good-bye then,’ he murmured.
‘I’ll come to the gate,’ she said.
And again she hurried on in front, to warn him of the
steps. And at the gate, once more she stood on the step
whilst he stood below her.
‘Good-bye,’ she whispered.
He kissed her dutifully, and turned away.
She suffered torments hearing his firm tread going so
distinctly down the road. Ah, the insensitiveness of that
firm tread!
She closed the gate, and crept quickly and noiseless-
ly back to bed. When she was in her room, and the door
closed, and all safe, she breathed freely, and a great weight
fell off her. She nestled down in bed, in the groove his body
had made, in the warmth he had left. And excited, worn-
out, yet still satisfied, she fell soon into a deep, heavy sleep.
Gerald walked quickly through the raw darkness of the
coming dawn. He met nobody. His mind was beautifully
still and thoughtless, like a still pool, and his body full and
warm and rich. He went quickly along towards Shortlands,
in a grateful self-sufficiency.

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