Page 706 - women-in-love

was stretched! He would perhaps climb the ridge. The snow
was firm and simple. He went along. There was something
standing out of the snow. He approached, with dimmest cu-
riosity.
It was a half-buried Crucifix, a little Christ under a little
sloping hood, at the top of a pole. He sheered away. Some-
body was going to murder him. He had a great dread of
being murdered. But it was a dread which stood outside
him, like his own ghost.
Yet why be afraid? It was bound to happen. To be mur-
dered! He looked round in terror at the snow, the rocking,
pale, shadowy slopes of the upper world. He was bound to
be murdered, he could see it. This was the moment when the
death was uplifted, and there was no escape.
Lord Jesus, was it then bound to be—Lord Jesus! He
could feel the blow descending, he knew he was murdered.
Vaguely wandering forward, his hands lifted as if to feel
what would happen, he was waiting for the moment when
he would stop, when it would cease. It was not over yet.
He had come to the hollow basin of snow, surrounded by
sheer slopes and precipices, out of which rose a track that
brought one to the top of the mountain. But he wandered
unconsciously, till he slipped and fell down, and as he fell
something broke in his soul, and immediately he went to
sleep.

706 Women in Love