Page 196 - lady-chatterlys-lover

was one perfect concentric fluid of feeling, and she lay there
crying in unconscious inarticulate cries. The voice out of
the uttermost night, the life! The man heard it beneath him
with a kind of awe, as his life sprang out into her. And as it
subsided, he subsided too and lay utterly still, unknowing,
while her grip on him slowly relaxed, and she lay inert. And
they lay and knew nothing, not even of each other, both lost.
Till at last he began to rouse and become aware of his de-
fenceless nakedness, and she was aware that his body was
loosening its clasp on her. He was coming apart; but in her
breast she felt she could not bear him to leave her uncov-
ered. He must cover her now for ever.
But he drew away at last, and kissed her and covered her
over, and began to cover himself She lay looking up to the
boughs of the tree, unable as yet to move. He stood and fas-
tened up his breeches, looking round. All was dense and
silent, save for the awed dog that lay with its paws against its
nose. He sat down again on the brushwood and took Con-
nie’s hand in silence.
She turned and looked at him. ‘We came off together
that time,’ he said.
She did not answer.
’It’s good when it’s like that. Most folks live their lives
through and they never know it,’ he said, speaking rather
dreamily.
She looked into his brooding face.
’Do they?’ she said. ‘Are you glad?’
He looked back into her eyes. ‘Glad,’ he said, ‘Ay, but nev-
er mind.’ He did not want her to talk. And he bent over her

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