Page:Women in Love, Lawrence, 1920.djvu/74

66 WOMEN IN LOVE "I'm talking to Wupert, do you mind?" she replied, coolly and yet appealingly, like a child. "Open confession — good for the soul, eh?" said the young man. "Well, so long." And giving a sharp look at Birkin and at Gerald, the young man moved off, with a swing of his coat skirts. All this time Gerald had been completely ignored. And yet he felt that the girl was physically aware -of his proximity. He waited, listened, and tried to piece together the conversa- tion. "Are you staying at the flat?" the girl asked, of Birkin. "For three days," replied Birkin. "And you?" "I don't know yet. I can always go to Bertha's." There was a silence. Suddenly the girl turned to Gerald, and said, in a rather formal, polite voice, with the distant manner of a woman who accepts her position as a social inferior, yet assumes intimate camaraderie with the male she addresses: "Do you know London well?" "I can hardly say," he laughed. "I've been up a good many times, but I was never in this place before." "You're not an artist, then?" she said, in a tone that placed him an outsider. "No," he replied. "He's a soldier, and an explorer, and a Napoleon of indus- try," said Birkin, giving Gerald his credentials for Bohemia. "Are you a soldier?" asked the girl, with a cold yet lively curiosity. "No, I resigned my commission," said Gerald, "some years ago." "He was in the last war," said Birkin. "Were you really?" said the girl. "And then he explored the Amazon," said Birkin, "and now he is ruling over coal-mines." The girl looked at Gerald with steady, calm curiosity. He laughed, hearing himself described. He felt proud, too, full of male strength. His blue, keen eyes were lit up with laughter, his ruddy face, with its sharp fair hair, was full of satisfaction, and glowing with life. He piqued her.