The Rainbow

The story came to an end, the mother rose at last, with the

child clinging round her neck. She must be strong, to carry so

large a child so easily. The little Anna clung round her

mother's neck. The fair, strange face of the child looked over

the shoulder of the mother, all asleep but the eyes, and these,

wide and dark, kept up the resistance and the fight with

something unseen.

When they were gone, Brangwen stirred for the first time from

the place where he stood, and looked round at the night. He

wished it were really as beautiful and familiar as it seemed in

these few moments of release. Along with the child, he felt a

curious strain on him, a suffering, like a fate.

The mother came down again, and began folding the child's

clothes. He knocked. She opened wondering, a little bit at bay,

like a foreigner, uneasy.

"Good evening," he said. "I'll just come in a minute."

A change went quickly over her face; she was unprepared. She

looked down at him as he stood in the light from the window,

holding the daffodils, the darkness behind. In his black clothes

she again did not know him. She was almost afraid.

But he was already stepping on to the threshold, and closing

the door behind him. She turned into the kitchen, startled out

of herself by this invasion from the night. He took off his hat,

and came towards her. Then he stood in the light, in his black

clothes and his black stock, hat in one hand and yellow flowers

in the other. She stood away, at his mercy, snatched out of

herself. She did not know him, only she knew he was a man come

for her. She could only see the dark-clad man's figure standing

there upon her, and the gripped fist of flowers. She could not

see the face and the living eyes.

He was watching her, without knowing her, only aware

underneath of her presence.

"I come to have a word with you," he said, striding forward

to the table, laying down his hat and the flowers, which tumbled

apart and lay in a loose heap. She had flinched from his

advance. She had no will, no being. The wind boomed in the

chimney, and he waited. He had disembarrassed his hands. Now he

shut his fists.

He was aware of her standing there unknown, dread, yet

related to him.

"I came up," he said, speaking curiously matter-of-fact and

level, "to ask if you'd marry me. You are free, aren't you?"