Page 438 - sons-and-lovers

dusk and grey, reflected the gold glow, astonished. Every-
where the trees, and the grass, and the far-off water, seemed
roused from the twilight and shining.
Miriam came out wondering.
‘Oh!’ Paul heard her mellow voice call, ‘isn’t it wonder-
ful?’
He looked down. There was a faint gold glimmer on her
face, that looked very soft, turned up to him.
‘How high you are!’ she said.
Beside her, on the rhubarb leaves, were four dead birds,
thieves that had been shot. Paul saw some cherry stones
hanging quite bleached, like skeletons, picked clear of flesh.
He looked down again to Miriam.
‘Clouds are on fire,’ he said.
‘Beautiful!’ she cried.
She seemed so small, so soft, so tender, down there. He
threw a handful of cherries at her. She was startled and
frightened. He laughed with a low, chuckling sound, and
pelted her. She ran for shelter, picking up some cherries.
Two fine red pairs she hung over her ears; then she looked
up again.
‘Haven’t you got enough?’ she asked.
‘Nearly. It is like being on a ship up here.’
‘And how long will you stay?’
‘While the sunset lasts.’
She went to the fence and sat there, watching the gold
clouds fall to pieces, and go in immense, rose-coloured ruin
towards the darkness. Gold flamed to scarlet, like pain in its
intense brightness. Then the scarlet sank to rose, and rose