Women in Love (1921)
D. H. Lawrence
"The fool!"
cried Ursula loudly. "Why doesnt he ride away till its gone
by?"
Gudrun was looking at him with black-dilated, spellbound eyes.
But he sat glistening and obstinate, forcing the wheeling mare, which spun and
swerved like a wind, and yet could not get out of the grasp of his will, nor escape from
the mad clamor of terror that resounded through her, as the trucks thumped slowly,
heavily, horrifying, one after the other, one pursuing the other, over the rails of the
crossing.
The locomotive, as
if wanting to see what could be done, put on the brakes, and back came the trucks
rebounding on the iron buffers, striking like horrible cymbals, clashing nearer and nearer
in frightful strident concussions. The mare opened her mouth and rose slowly, as if
lifted up on a wind of terror. Then suddenly her fore-feet struck out, as she
convulsed herself utterly away from the horror. Back she went, and the two girls
clung to each other, feeling she must fall backwards on top of him. But he leaned
forward, his face shining with fixed amusement, and at last he brought her down, sank her
down, and was bearing her back to the mark. But as strong as the pressure of his
compulsion was the repulsion of her utter terror, throwing her back away from the railway,
so that she spun round and round on two legs, as if she were in the centre of some
whirlwind. It made Gudrun faint with poignant dizziness, which seemed to penetrate
to her heart.
[D. H. Lawrence, Women in Love. New York: Seltzer, 1921.] |