Domestic fiction; Family -- England -- Midlands -- Fiction; Midlands (England) -- Fiction
They got up when it was quite dark. She hastily twisted her hair into a
knot, and was dressed in a twinkling. Then they went downstairs, drew
to the fire, and sat in silence, saying a few words now and then.
Her father was coming. She bundled the dishes away, flew round and
tidied the room, assumed another character, and again seated herself.
He sat thinking of his carving of Eve. He loved to go over his carving
in his mind, dwelling on every stroke, every line. How he loved it now!
When he went back to his Creation-panel again, he would finish his Eve,
tender and sparkling. It did not satisfy him yet. The Lord should
labour over her in a silent passion of Creation, and Adam should be
tense as if in a dream of immortality, and Eve should take form
glimmeringly, shadowily, as if the Lord must wrestle with His own soul
for her, yet she was a radiance.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked.
He found it difficult to say. His soul became shy when he tried to
communicate it.
“I was thinking my Eve was too hard and lively.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. She should be more——,” he made a gesture of infinite
tenderness.
There was a stillness with a little joy. He could not tell her any
more. Why could he not tell her any more? She felt a pang of
disconsolate sadness. But it was nothing. She went to him.
Her father came, and found them both very glowing, like an open flower.
He loved to sit with them. Where there was a perfume of love, anyone
who came must breathe it. They were both very quick and alive, lit up
from the other-world, so that it was quite an experience for them, that
anyone else could exist.
But still it troubled Will Brangwen a little, in his orderly,
conventional mind, that the established rule of things had gone so
utterly. One ought to get up in the morning and wash oneself and be a
decent social being. Instead, the two of them stayed in bed till
nightfall, and then got up, she never washed her face, but sat there
talking to her father as bright and shameless as a daisy opened out of
the dew. Or she got up at ten o’clock, and quite blithely went to bed
again at three, or at half-past four, stripping him naked in the
daylight, and all so gladly and perfectly, oblivious quite of his
qualms. He let her do as she liked with him, and shone with strange
pleasure. She was to dispose of him as she would. He was translated
with gladness to be in her hands. And down went his qualms, his maxims,
his rules, his smaller beliefs, she scattered them like an expert
skittle-player. He was very much astonished and delighted to see them
scatter.
He stood and gazed and grinned with wonder whilst his Tablets of Stone
went bounding and bumping and splintering down the hill, dislodged for
ever. Indeed, it was true as they said, that a man wasn’t born before
he was married. What a change indeed!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account