Page 610 - women-in-love

sula into the dance, stamping, clapping, and swinging her
high, with amazing force and zest. When the crisis came
even Birkin was behaving manfully with one of the Profes-
sor’s fresh, strong daughters, who was exceedingly happy.
Everybody was dancing, there was the most boisterous tur-
moil.
Gudrun looked on with delight. The solid wooden floor
resounded to the knocking heels of the men, the air quiv-
ered with the clapping hands and the zither music, there
was a golden dust about the hanging lamps.
Suddenly the dance finished, Loerke and the students
rushed out to bring in drinks. There was an excited clamour
of voices, a clinking of mug-lids, a great crying of ‘Pros-
it—Prosit!’ Loerke was everywhere at once, like a gnome,
suggesting drinks for the women, making an obscure,
slightly risky joke with the men, confusing and mystifying
the waiter.
He wanted very much to dance with Gudrun. From the
first moment he had seen her, he wanted to make a connec-
tion with her. Instinctively she felt this, and she waited for
him to come up. But a kind of sulkiness kept him away from
her, so she thought he disliked her.
‘Will you schuhplatteln, gnadige Frau?’ said the large,
fair youth, Loerke’s companion. He was too soft, too hum-
ble for Gudrun’s taste. But she wanted to dance, and the fair
youth, who was called Leitner, was handsome enough in
his uneasy, slightly abject fashion, a humility that covered a
certain fear. She accepted him as a partner.
The zithers sounded out again, the dance began. Gerald

610 Women in Love