Page 592 - women-in-love

ied silent sawmill by the roofed bridge, which crossed the
hidden stream, over which they ran into the very depth of
the untouched sheets of snow. It was a silence and a sheer
whiteness exhilarating to madness. But the perfect silence
was most terrifying, isolating the soul, surrounding the
heart with frozen air.
‘It’s a marvellous place, for all that,’ said Gudrun, looking
into his eyes with a strange, meaning look. His soul leapt.
‘Good,’ he said.
A fierce electric energy seemed to flow over all his limbs,
his muscles were surcharged, his hands felt hard with
strength. They walked along rapidly up the snow-road, that
was marked by withered branches of trees stuck in at inter-
vals. He and she were separate, like opposite poles of one
fierce energy. But they felt powerful enough to leap over the
confines of life into the forbidden places, and back again.
Birkin and Ursula were running along also, over the
snow. He had disposed of the luggage, and they had a lit-
tle start of the sledges. Ursula was excited and happy, but
she kept turning suddenly to catch hold of Birkin’s arm, to
make sure of him.
‘This is something I never expected,’ she said. ‘It is a dif-
ferent world, here.’
They went on into a snow meadow. There they were over-
taken by the sledge, that came tinkling through the silence.
It was another mile before they came upon Gudrun and
Gerald on the steep up-climb, beside the pink, half-buried
shrine.
Then they passed into a gulley, where were walls of black

592 Women in Love