Women in Love

'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.