And he stood up, and stood away, moving to the other coop. For
suddenly he was aware of the old flame shooting and leaping up in his
loins, that he had hoped was quiescent for ever. He fought against it,
turning his back to her. But it leapt, and leapt downwards, circling in
his knees.
He turned again to look at her. She was kneeling and holding her two
hands slowly forward, blindly, so that the chicken should run in to the
mother-hen again. And there was something so mute and forlorn in her,
compassion flamed in his bowels for her.
Without knowing, he came quickly towards her and crouched beside her
again, taking the chick from her hands, because she was afraid of the
hen, and putting it back in the coop. At the back of his loins the fire
suddenly darted stronger.
He glanced apprehensively at her. Her face was averted, and she was
crying blindly, in all the anguish of her generation's forlornness. His
heart melted suddenly, like a drop of fire, and he put out his hand and
laid his fingers on her knee.
"You shouldn't cry," he said softly.
But then she put her hands over her face and felt that really her heart was broken and nothing mattered any more.
He laid his hand on her shoulder, and softly, gently, it began to
travel down the curve of her back, blindly, with a blind stroking
motion, to the curve of her crouching loins. And there his hand softly,
softly, stroked the curve of her flank, in the blind instinctive caress.
She had found her scrap of handkerchief and was blindly trying to dry her face.
"Shall you come to the hut?" he said, in a quiet, neutral voice.
And closing his hand softly on her upper arm, he drew her up and led
her slowly to the hut, not letting go of her till she was inside. Then
he cleared aside the chair and table, and took a brown, soldier's
blanket from the tool chest, spreading it slowly. She glanced at his
face, as she stood motionless.
His face was pale and without expression, like that of a man submitting to fate.
"You lie there," he said softly, and he shut the door, so that it was dark, quite dark.
With a queer obedience, she lay down on the blanket. Then she felt
the soft, groping, helplessly desirous hand touching her body, feeling
for her face. The hand stroked her face softly, softly, with infinite
soothing and assurance, and at last there was the soft touch of a kiss
on her cheek.
She lay quite still, in a sort of sleep, in a sort of dream. Then she
quivered as she felt his hand groping softly, yet with queer thwarted
clumsiness, among her clothing. Yet the hand knew, too, how to unclothe
her where it wanted. He drew down the thin silk sheath, slowly,
carefully, right down and over her feet. Then with a quiver of exquisite
pleasure he touched the warm soft body, and touched her navel for a
moment in a kiss. And he had to come in to her at once, to enter the
peace on earth of her soft, quiescent body. It was the moment of pure
peace for him, the entry into the body of the woman.
She lay still, in a kind of sleep, always in a kind of sleep. The
activity, the orgasm was his, all his; she could strive for herself no
more. Even the tightness of his arms round her, even the intense
movement of his body, and the springing of his seed in her, was a kind
of sleep, from which she did not begin to rouse till he had finished and
lay softly panting against her breast.
Then she wondered, just dimly wondered, why? Why was this necessary?
Why had it lifted a great cloud from her and given her peace? Was it
real?
Was it real?
Her tormented modern-woman's brain still had no rest. Was it real?
And she knew, if she gave herself to the man, it was real. But if she
kept herself for herself it was nothing. She was old; millions of years
old, she felt. And at last, she could bear the burden of herself no
more. She was to be had for the taking. To be had for the taking.
The man lay in a mysterious stillness. What was he feeling? What was
he thinking? She did not know. He was a strange man to her, she did not
know him. She must only wait, for she did not dare to break his
mysterious stillness. He lay there with his arms round her, his body on
hers, his wet body touching hers, so close. And completely unknown. Yet
not unpeaceful. His very stillness was peaceful.
She knew that, when at last he roused and drew away from her. It was
like an abandonment. He drew her dress in the darkness down over her
knees and stood a few moments, apparently adjusting his own clothing.
Then he quietly opened the door and went out.
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