Page 381 - sons-and-lovers

other. Slowly the flush mounted her cheek, she dropped her
eyes, then her head. He sat down sulkily. She went into the
scullery to adjust her hair. In private there she shed a few
tears, she did not know what for.
When she returned she was pursed up close. But it was
only a film over her fire. He, with ruffled hair, was sulking
upon the sofa. She sat down opposite, in the armchair, and
neither spoke. The clock ticked in the silence like blows.
‘You are a little cat, Beat,’ he said at length, half apolo-
getically.
‘Well, you shouldn’t be brazen,’ she replied.
There was again a long silence. He whistled to himself
like a man much agitated but defiant. Suddenly she went
across to him and kissed him.
‘Did it, pore fing!’ she mocked.
He lifted his face, smiling curiously.
‘Kiss?’ he invited her.
‘Daren’t I?’ she asked.
‘Go on!’ he challenged, his mouth lifted to her.
Deliberately, and with a peculiar quivering smile that
seemed to overspread her whole body, she put her mouth
on his. Immediately his arms folded round her. As soon as
the long kiss was finished she drew back her head from him,
put her delicate fingers on his neck, through the open collar.
Then she closed her eyes, giving herself up again in a kiss.
She acted of her own free will. What she would do she
did, and made nobody responsible.
Paul felt life changing around him. The conditions of
youth were gone. Now it was a home of grown-up people.

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