Page:Sons and Lovers, 1913, Lawrence.djvu/302

290 down the fields. There was a bright little brook that ran into a bog at the foot of a very steep bank. Here they wandered, picking still a few marsh marigolds and many big blue forget-me-nots. Then she sat on the bank with her hands full of flowers, mostly golden water-blobs. As she put her face down into the marigolds, it was all overcast with a yellow shine.

“Your face is bright,” he said, “like a transfiguration.”

She looked at him, questioning. He laughed pleadingly to her, laying his hand on hers. Then he kissed her fingers, then her face.

The world was all steeped in sunshine, and quite still, yet not asleep, but quivering with a kind of expectancy.

“I have never seen anything more beautiful than this,” he said. He held her hand fast all the time.

“And the water singing to itself as it runs—do you love it?” She looked at him full of love. His eyes were very dark, very bright.

“Don’t you think it’s a great day?” he asked.

She murmured her assent. She was happy, and he saw it.

“And our day—just between us,” he said.

They lingered a little while. Then they stood up upon the sweet thyme, and he looked down at her simply.

“Will you come?” he asked.

They went back to the house, hand-in-hand, in silence. The chickens came scampering down the path to her. He locked the door, and they had the little house to themselves.

He never forgot seeing her as she lay on the bed, when he was unfastening his collar. First he saw only her beauty, and was blind with it. She had the most beautiful body he had ever imagined. He stood unable to move or speak, looking at her, his face half smiling with wonder. And then he wanted her, but as he went forward to her, her hands lifted in a little pleading movement, and he looked at her face, and stopped. Her big brown eyes were watching him, still and resigned and loving; she lay as if she had given herself up to sacrifice: there was her body for him; but the look at the back of her eyes, like a creature awaiting immolation, arrested him, and all his blood fell back.

“You are sure you want me?” he asked, as if a cold shadow had come over him.

“Yes, quite sure.”

She was very quiet, very calm. She only realized that she was doing something for him. He could hardly bear it. She lay to be sacrificed for him because she loved him so much.