Page 434 - sons-and-lovers

‘Yes,’ she murmured, and the tears came to her eyes.
‘Some sort of perversity in our souls,’ he said, ‘makes us
not want, get away from, the very thing we want. We have
to fight against that.’
‘Yes,’ she said, and she felt stunned.
As she stood under the drooping-thorn tree, in the dark-
ness by the roadside, he kissed her, and his fingers wandered
over her face. In the darkness, where he could not see her
but only feel her, his passion flooded him. He clasped her
very close.
‘Sometime you will have me?’ he murmured, hiding his
face on her shoulder. It was so difficult.
‘Not now,’ she said.
His hopes and his heart sunk. A dreariness came over
him.
‘No,’ he said.
His clasp of her slackened.
‘I love to feel your arm THERE!’ she said, pressing his
arm against her back, where it went round her waist. ‘It rests
me so.’
He tightened the pressure of his arm upon the small of
her back to rest her.
‘We belong to each other,’ he said.
‘Yes.’
‘Then why shouldn’t we belong to each other altogeth-
er?’
‘But—-’ she faltered.
‘I know it’s a lot to ask,’ he said; ‘but there’s not much
risk for you really—not in the Gretchen way. You can trust