Page 670 - women-in-love

knowingly, almost sneering, at Gerald.
‘Truth is best,’ she said to him, with a grimace.
But now again she was under his domination; now,
because she had dealt him this blow; because she had de-
stroyed him, and she did not know how he had taken it. She
watched him. He was interesting to her. She had lost her in-
terest in Loerke.
Gerald rose at length, and went over in a leisurely still
movement, to the Professor. The two began a conversation
on Goethe.
She was rather piqued by the simplicity of Gerald’s de-
meanour this evening. He did not seem angry or disgusted,
only he looked curiously innocent and pure, really beauti-
ful. Sometimes it came upon him, this look of clear distance,
and it always fascinated her.
She waited, troubled, throughout the evening. She
thought he would avoid her, or give some sign. But he spoke
to her simply and unemotionally, as he would to anyone else
in the room. A certain peace, an abstraction possessed his
soul.
She went to his room, hotly, violently in love with him.
He was so beautiful and inaccessible. He kissed her, he was
a lover to her. And she had extreme pleasure of him. But
he did not come to, he remained remote and candid, un-
conscious. She wanted to speak to him. But this innocent,
beautiful state of unconsciousness that had come upon him
prevented her. She felt tormented and dark.
In the morning, however, he looked at her with a little
aversion, some horror and some hatred darkening into his

670 Women in Love