Page 281 - lady-chatterlys-lover

gasped with the weight.
’Don’t do it!’ cried Connie to him.
’If you’ll pull the wheel that way, so!’ he said to her, show-
ing her how.
’No! You mustn’t lift it! You’ll strain yourself,’ she said,
flushed now with anger.
But he looked into her eyes and nodded. And she had
to go and take hold of the wheel, ready. He heaved and she
tugged, and the chair reeled.
’For God’s sake!’ cried Clifford in terror.
But it was all right, and the brake was off. The keeper
put a stone under the wheel, and went to sit on the bank,
his heart beat and his face white with the effort, semi-con-
scious.
Connie looked at him, and almost cried with anger.
There was a pause and a dead silence. She saw his hands
trembling on his thighs.
’Have you hurt yourself?’ she asked, going to him.
’No. No!’ He turned away almost angrily.
There was dead silence. The back of Clifford’s fair head
did not move. Even the dog stood motionless. The sky had
clouded over.
At last he sighed, and blew his nose on his red handker-
chief.
’That pneumonia took a lot out of me,’ he said.
No one answered. Connie calculated the amount of
strength it must have taken to heave up that chair and the
bulky Clifford: too much, far too much! If it hadn’t killed
him!

0 Lady Chatterly’s Lover