Page 254 - lady-chatterlys-lover

very still, receding into silence, and a strange motionless
distance, far, farther than the horizon of her awareness, her
heart began to weep. She could feel him ebbing away, ebb-
ing away, leaving her there like a stone on a shore. He was
withdrawing, his spirit was leaving her. He knew.
And in real grief, tormented by her own double con-
sciousness and reaction, she began to weep. He took no
notice, or did not even know. The storm of weeping swelled
and shook her, and shook him.
’Ay!’ he said. ‘It was no good that time. You wasn’t there.’—
So he knew! Her sobs became violent.
’But what’s amiss?’ he said. ‘It’s once in a while that way.’
’I...I can’t love you,’ she sobbed, suddenly feeling her
heart breaking.
’Canna ter? Well, dunna fret! There’s no law says as tha’s
got to. Ta’e it for what it is.’
He still lay with his hand on her breast. But she had
drawn both her hands from him.
His words were small comfort. She sobbed aloud.
’Nay, nay!’ he said. ‘Ta’e the thick wi’ th’ thin. This wor a
bit o’ thin for once.’
She wept bitterly, sobbing. ‘But I want to love you, and I
can’t. It only seems horrid.’
He laughed a little, half bitter, half amused.
’It isna horrid,’ he said, ‘even if tha thinks it is. An’ tha
canna ma’e it horrid. Dunna fret thysen about lovin’ me.
Tha’lt niver force thysen to ‘t. There’s sure to be a bad nut in
a basketful. Tha mun ta’e th’ rough wi’ th’ smooth.’
He took his hand away from her breast, not touching her.