'Oh, it was too shameful, the way you simply swept her off her feet.' 'That was Schuhplatteln,' he replied, with a bright grin.
'Ha--ha--ha!' laughed Gudrun.
Her mockery quivered through his muscles with curious re-echoes. When
he slept he seemed to crouch down in the bed, lapped up in his own
strength, that yet was hollow.
And Gudrun slept strongly, a victorious sleep. Suddenly, she was almost
fiercely awake. The small timber room glowed with the dawn, that came
upwards from the low window. She could see down the valley when she
lifted her head: the snow with a pinkish, half-revealed magic, the
fringe of pine-trees at the bottom of the slope. And one tiny figure
moved over the vaguely-illuminated space.
She glanced at his watch; it was seven o'clock. He was still completely
asleep. And she was so hard awake, it was almost frightening--a hard,
metallic wakefulness. She lay looking at him.
He slept in the subjection of his own health and defeat. She was
overcome by a sincere regard for him. Till now, she was afraid before
him. She lay and thought about him, what he was, what he represented in
the world. A fine, independent will, he had. She thought of the
revolution he had worked in the mines, in so short a time. She knew
that, if he were confronted with any problem, any hard actual
difficulty, he would overcome it. If he laid hold of any idea, he would
carry it through. He had the faculty of making order out of confusion.
Only let him grip hold of a situation, and he would bring to pass an
inevitable conclusion.
For a few moments she was borne away on the wild wings of ambition.
Gerald, with his force of will and his power for comprehending the
actual world, should be set to solve the problems of the day, the
problem of industrialism in the modern world. She knew he would, in the
course of time, effect the changes he desired, he could re-organise the
industrial system. She knew he could do it. As an instrument, in these
things, he was marvellous, she had never seen any man with his
potentiality. He was unaware of it, but she knew.
He only needed to be hitched on, he needed that his hand should be set
to the task, because he was so unconscious. And this she could do. She
would marry him, he would go into Parliament in the Conservative
interest, he would clear up the great muddle of labour and industry. He
was so superbly fearless, masterful, he knew that every problem could
be worked out, in life as in geometry. And he would care neither about
himself nor about anything but the pure working out of the problem. He
was very pure, really.