She was wearing black; and agreen jade necklace
hung about her throat. Quite inevitable, Sorrell, that you should apply. Hebent down
and propped with twigs two or three brilliant heads thathad had to bow before the
wind.
He had to enlarge the wound,and cut one of the
rectus muscles. A white blade drew a steady line that grew red upon thepale
abdomen.
To Sorrell Kits hands seemedto move slowly, with a
blessed deliberation. One autumn evening Kit stood in front of his glass pulling at
thebows of a black dress tie.
Veryabsurd, but he would not allow that there was
anything more in itthan curiosity.
Molly isone of those women who have no intention of
being limited.
He felt a trembling, a quivering of all his senses,
and this wasnew to him. Thats Molly Pentreathsattitude to marriage. That was it; she
had mystery at least for him.
And he felt a sense of conflictwithin him, as
though he were silently wrestling with her silence.
They did not put it quite so crudely,but Sir Ormsby
understood them very well. Marriage seems to happen sometimes withoutyour being able
to help it.
O, go on, please, and she knew at once that he
wanted to talk.
Full of cheek, quite acockney of a
cock-sparrow.
He told me that he had read yourBroken
Pottery.
China too, and prints, and needlework pictures, and
oldSheffield plate and silver.
Do youthink I am to correct my way of life? Other
things were happening; figures were busy about the figure onthe table.
He drifted afterher, wondering like a drawn shadow.
Her open eyes, shrewdly and widely alive to him, turned a suddenslanting glance on
Cherry.
Suddenly he straightened, as though to stretch his
muscles and toease his back.
He could not help wondering why she made him
feelcombative, confusedly quarrelsome.
I hear you spent a week-end with Maurice. She
entered a shop just where a primrose-coloureddelivery van was drawn up at the kerb.
There were threebrass plates upon the apple green door. Like going on parade
thefirst time you have to handle a company. Her open eyes, shrewdly and widely alive
to him, turned a suddenslanting glance on Cherry. In the centre of the court
stoodRolands Italian well-head, and he and a girl were looking at it.
His sense of conflict increased, urging him on
against her silence. Like going on parade thefirst time you have to handle a
company. Do youthink I am to correct my way of life?