Page 187 - lady-chatterlys-lover

she added.
’Ay! not so late,’ he replied out of the darkness. Already
she could not see him at all.
’Goodnight,’ she said.
’Goodnight, your Ladyship,’ his voice.
She stopped and looked back into the wet dark. She could
just see the bulk of him. ‘Why did you say that?’ she said.
’Nay,’ he replied. ‘Goodnight then, run!’
She plunged on in the dark-grey tangible night. She found
the side-door open, and slipped into her room unseen. As
she closed the door the gong sounded, but she would take
her bath all the same—she must take her bath. ‘But I won’t
be late any more,’ she said to herself; ‘it’s too annoying.’
The next day she did not go to the wood. She went in-
stead with Clifford to Uthwaite. He could occasionally go
out now in the car, and had got a strong young man as
chauffeur, who could help him out of the car if need be. He
particularly wanted to see his godfather, Leslie Winter, who
lived at Shipley Hall, not far from Uthwaite. Winter was an
elderly gentleman now, wealthy, one of the wealthy coal-
owners who had had their hey-day in King Edward’s time.
King Edward had stayed more than once at Shipley, for the
shooting. It was a handsome old stucco hall, very elegantly
appointed, for Winter was a bachelor and prided himself on
his style; but the place was beset by collieries. Leslie Winter
was attached to Clifford, but personally did not entertain a
great respect for him, because of the photographs in illus-
trated papers and the literature. The old man was a buck of
the King Edward school, who thought life was life and the

1 Lady Chatterly’s Lover