Page 249 - lady-chatterlys-lover

then?’ he asked her suddenly. ‘Because I haven’t.’
’No,’ she said faintly. ‘I should hate that.’
He looked at her, then again with the peculiar subtle grin
out of the window. There was a tense silence.
At last he turned his head and said satirically:
’That was why you wanted me, then, to get a child?’
She hung her head.
’No. Not really,’ she said. ‘What then, REALLY?’ he asked
rather bitingly.
She looked up at him reproachfully, saying: ‘I don’t
know.’
He broke into a laugh.
’Then I’m damned if I do,’ he said.
There was a long pause of silence, a cold silence.
’Well,’ he said at last. ‘It’s as your Ladyship likes. If you
get the baby, Sir Clifford’s welcome to it. I shan’t have lost
anything. On the contrary, I’ve had a very nice experience,
very nice indeed!’—and he stretched in a half-suppressed
sort of yawn. ‘If you’ve made use of me,’ he said, ‘it’s not the
first time I’ve been made use of; and I don’t suppose it’s ever
been as pleasant as this time; though of course one can’t feel
tremendously dignified about it.’—He stretched again, curi-
ously, his muscles quivering, and his jaw oddly set.
’But I didn’t make use of you,’ she said, pleading.
’At your Ladyship’s service,’ he replied.
’No,’ she said. ‘I liked your body.’
’Did you?’ he replied, and he laughed. ‘Well, then, we’re
quits, because I liked yours.’
He looked at her with queer darkened eyes.

Lady Chatterly’s Lover