Page:The Prussian officer, and other stories, Lawrence, 1914.djvu/213

 He took a few strides, and stood obstinately, looking out of the window.

“Have you run up against anybody?” he asked.

“Nobody who knows me,” she said.

His hands began to twitch. It exasperated him, that she was no more sensible of him than if he did not exist. Turning on her at length, driven, he asked:

“Something has upset you, hasn’t it?”

“No, why?” she said, neutral. He did not exist for her, except as an irritant.

His anger rose, filling the veins in his throat.

“It seems like it,” he said, making an effort not to show his anger, because there seemed no reason for it. He went away downstairs. She sat still on the bed, and with the residue of feeling left to her, she disliked him because he tormented her. The time went by. She could smell the dinner being served, the smoke of her husband’s pipe from the garden. But she could not move. She had no being. There was a tinkle of the bell. She heard him come indoors. And then he mounted the stairs again. At every step her heart grew tight in her. He opened the door.

“Dinner is on the table,” he said.

It was difficult for her to endure his presence, for he would interfere with her. She could not recover her life. She rose stiffly and went down. She could neither eat nor talk during the meal. She sat absent, torn, without any being of her own. He tried to go on as if nothing were the matter. But at last he became silent with fury. As soon as it was possible, she went upstairs again, and locked the