Page 702 - women-in-love

‘Biscuits there are still,’ he said.
And reaching from his seated posture in the sledge, he
handed them to Gudrun. She fumbled, and took one. He
would have held them to Gerald, but Gerald so definite-
ly did not want to be offered a biscuit, that Loerke, rather
vaguely, put the box aside. Then he took up the small bottle,
and held it to the light.
‘Also there is some Schnapps,’ he said to himself.
Then suddenly, he elevated the battle gallantly in the air,
a strange, grotesque figure leaning towards Gudrun, and
said:
‘Gnadiges Fraulein,’ he said, ‘wohl—‘
There was a crack, the bottle was flying, Loerke had start-
ed back, the three stood quivering in violent emotion.
Loerke turned to Gerald, a devilish leer on his bright-
skinned face.
‘Well done!’ he said, in a satirical demoniac frenzy. ‘C’est
le sport, sans doute.’
The next instant he was sitting ludicrously in the snow,
Gerald’s fist having rung against the side of his head. But
Loerke pulled himself together, rose, quivering, looking full
at Gerald, his body weak and furtive, but his eyes demonia-
cal with satire.
‘Vive le heros, vive—‘
But he flinched, as, in a black flash Gerald’s fist came
upon him, banged into the other side of his head, and sent
him aside like a broken straw.
But Gudrun moved forward. She raised her clenched
hand high, and brought it down, with a great downward

702 Women in Love