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only knew last week.”
“But I heard a month ago,” he said.
“Yes; but nothing was settled then.”
“I should have thought,” he said, “you'd have told me you were trying.”
She ate her food in the deliberate, constrained way, almost as if she recoiled a little from doing anything so publicly, that he knew so well.
“I suppose you're glad,” he said.
“Very glad.”
“Yes—it will be something.”
He was rather disappointed.
“I think it will be a great deal,” she said, almost haughtily, resentfully.
He laughed shortly.
“Why do you think it won't?” she asked.
“Oh, I don't think it won't be a great deal. Only you'll find earning your own living isn't everything.”
“No,” she said, swallowing with difficulty; “I don't suppose it is.”
“I suppose work CAN be nearly everything to a man,” he said, “though it isn't to me. But a woman only works with a part of herself. The real and vital part is covered up.”
“But a man can give ALL himself to work?” she asked.
“Yes, practically.”
“And a woman only the unimportant part of herself?”
“That's it.”
She looked up at him, and her eyes dilated with anger.
“Then,” she said, “if it's true, it's a great shame.”
“It is. But I don't know everything,” he answered.
After supper they drew up to the fire. He swung her a chair facing him, and they sat down. She was wearing a dress of dark claret colour, that suited her dark complexion and her large features. Still, the curls were fine and free, but her face was much older, the brown throat much thinner. She seemed old to him, older than Clara. Her bloom of youth had quickly gone. A sort of stiffness, almost of woodenness, had come upon her. She meditated a little while, then looked at him.
“And how are things with you?” she asked.
“About all right,” he answered.
She looked at him, waiting.
“Nay,” she said, very low.
Her brown, nervous hands were clasped over her knee. They had still the lack of confidence or repose, the almost hysterical look. He winced as he saw them. Then he laughed mirthlessly. She put her fingers between her lips. His slim, black, tortured body lay quite still in the chair. She suddenly took her finger from her mouth and looked at him.
“And you have broken off with Clara?”
“Yes.”
His body lay like an abandoned thing, strewn in the chair.
“You know,” she said, “I think we ought to be married.”
He opened his eyes for the first time since many months, and attended to her with respect.
“Why?” he said.
“See,” she said, “how you waste yourself! You might be ill, you might die, and I never know—be no more then than if I had never known you.”
“And if we married?” he asked.
“At any rate, I could prevent you wasting yourself and being a prey to other women—like—like Clara.”
“A prey?” he repeated, smiling.
She bowed her head in silence. He lay feeling his despair come up again.
“I'm not sure,” he said slowly, “that marriage would be much good.”
“I only think of you,” she replied.
“I know you do. But—you love me so much, you want to put me in your pocket. And I should die there smothered.”
She bent her head, put her fingers between her lips, while the bitterness surged up in her heart.
“And what will you do otherwise?” she asked.
“I don't know—go on, I suppose. Perhaps I shall soon go abroad.”
The despairing doggedness in his tone made her go on her knees on the rug before the fire, very near to him. There she crouched as if she were crushed by something, and could not raise her head. His hands lay quite inert on the arms of his chair. She was aware of them. She felt that now he lay at her mercy. If she could rise, take him, put her arms round him, and say, “You are mine,” then he would leave himself to her. But dare she? She could easily sacrifice herself. But dare she assert herself? She was aware of his dark-clothed, slender body, that seemed one stroke of life, sprawled in the chair close to her. But no; she dared not put her arms round it, take it up, and say, “It is mine, this body. Leave it to me.” And she wanted to. It called to all her woman's instinct. But she crouched, and dared not. She was afraid he would not let her. She was afraid it was too much. It lay there, his body, abandoned. She knew she ought to take it up and claim it, and claim every right to it. But—could she do it? Her impotence before him, before the strong demand of some unknown thing in him, was her extremity. Her hands fluttered; she half-lifted her head. Her eyes, shuddering, appealing, gone, almost distracted, pleaded to him suddenly. His heart caught with pity. He took her hands, drew her to him, and comforted her.
“Will you have me, to marry me?” he said very low.
Oh, why did not he take her? Her very soul belonged to him. Why would he not take what was his? She had borne so long the cruelty of belonging to him and not being claimed by him. Now he was straining her again. It was too much for her. She drew back her head, held his face between her hands, and looked him in the eyes. No, he was hard. He wanted something else. She pleaded to him with all her love not to make it her choice. She could not cope with it, with him, she knew not with what. But it strained her till she felt she would break.
“Do you want it?” she asked, very gravely.
“Not much,” he replied, with pain.
She turned her face aside; then, raising herself with dignity, she took his head to her bosom, and rocked him softly. She was not to have him, then! So she could comfort him. She put her fingers through his hair. For her, the anguished sweetness of self-sacrifice. For him, the hate and misery of another failure. He could not bear it—that breast which was warm and which cradled him without taking the burden of him. So much he wanted to rest on her that the feint of rest only tortured him. He drew away.
“And without marriage we can do nothing?” he asked.
His mouth was lifted from his teeth with pain. She put her little finger between her lips.
“No,” she said, low and like the toll of a bell. “No, I think not.”
It was the end then between them. She could not take him and relieve him of the responsibility of himself. She could only sacrifice herself to him—sacrifice herself every day, gladly. And that he did not want. He wanted her to hold him and say, with joy and authority: “Stop all this restlessness and beating against death. You are mine for a mate.” She had not the strength. Or was it a mate she wanted? or did she want a Christ in him?
He felt, in leaving her, he was defrauding her of life. But he knew that, in staying, stilling the inner, desperate man, he was denying his own life. And he did not hope to give life to her by denying his own.
She sat very quiet. He lit a cigarette. The smoke went up from it, wavering. He was thinking of his mother, and had forgotten Miriam. She suddenly looked at him. Her bitterness came surging up. Her sacrifice, then, was useless. He lay there aloof, careless about her. Suddenly she saw again his lack of religion, his restless