Lesbians -- Fiction; Psychological fiction; Women teachers -- Fiction
"Why, it's you!" cried Alwynne. "It's you! It's only you!" The flowers
dropped lingeringly from her slack hands, and she swayed where she
stood. He crossed hastily to her and she clung helplessly to his arm.
She looked dazed and stupid.
"Of course it is," he said. "Who did you think it was?"
Alwynne looked at him.
"Louise," she said, "I thought it was Louise. She's come before, but
never in the daytime. A ghost can't walk in the daytime. But this place
is so dark, she might think it was night here, don't you think?"
He gave her arm a gentle shake.
"Let's get out of this, Alwynne," he began persuasively. "I think you're
rather done for. There's been a hot sun to-day, and you've been stooping
till you're dizzy. Come on. What a lot of flowers you've picked! Come,
let's get out of this place."
"Yes," she said; "let's get out of this place."
"What about your bunch?" he questioned, glancing down at the hyacinths'
heaped disorder. "Don't you want it?"
He felt her shiver.
"No," she said, "no." She hesitated. "Could we hide it? Cover it up? It
ought to be buried. I can't leave it--just lying there----" There was a
catch in her voice.
He concealed his astonishment and looked about him.
"Of course not," he said cheerfully. "Here--what about this?"
A huge tussock of bleached grass, its sodden leaves as long as a woman's
hair, caught his eye. He parted the heavy mass and showed her the little
cave of dry soil below.
"What about this? They'll be all right here," he suggested gravely.
Alwynne nodded.
"Yes--put it in quickly," she said.
Without a word, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, he
did as she asked. Then, rising and slipping her arm through his own, he
pushed on quite silently, holding back the strong pollard shoots,
clearing aside the brambles, till they reached the uneven footpath once
more, that led them in less than five minutes to the further edge of the
wood. As they emerged into the open fields, he felt the weight on his
arm lessening. He glanced at his companion, and saw that there was once
more a tinge of colour in her cheek.
She drew a deep breath and looked at him.
"I thought I should never get out again," she said dispassionately, as
one stating a bald fact.
"Get where?"
"Out of that wood. You were just in time. I thought I was caught. I
should have been, if you hadn't come."
Then she grew conscious of his expression, and answered it--
"I suppose you think I'm mad."
"I do rather."
"I don't wonder. It doesn't much matter----" Her voice flagged and
strained.
They walked on in silence.
She began again abruptly.
"Of course you thought I was mad. I knew you would. I do myself,
sometimes. Any one would. Even Clare. That's why I never told any one.
But it never happened when I was awake before."
"I wonder if you would tell me exactly what happened?"
"I was frightened," she began irresolutely.
"For a moment I wondered if a tramp----"
She laughed shakily.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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