As for me, I was filled with a new outrageous idea, begotten I scarcely
know how from this incident, with its instant contacts and swift
emotions, and that was that I must make love to and possess Beatrice. I
see no particular reason why that thought should have come to me in that
moment, but it did. I do not believe that before then I had thought
of our relations in such terms at all. Suddenly, as I remember it, the
factor of passion came. She crouched there, and I stood over her, and
neither of us said a word. But it was just as though something had been
shouted from the sky.
Cothope had gone twenty paces perhaps when she uncovered her face. "I
shan't want any water," she said. "Call him back."
VI
After that the spirit of our relations changed. The old ease had gone.
She came to me less frequently, and when she came she would have some
one with her, usually old Carnaby, and he would do the bulk of the
talking. All through September she was away. When we were alone together
there was a curious constraint. We became clouds of inexpressible
feeling towards one another; we could think of nothing that was not too
momentous for words.
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