第88章

He went out and down the little path in the opposite direction from the riding.Connie watched his thin,white figure,and it looked to her like a ghost,an apparition moving away from her.

When she could see it no more,her heart sank.She stood in the door of the hut,with a blanket round her,looking into the drenched,motionless silence.

But he was coming back,trotting strangely,and carrying flowers.She was a little afraid of him,as if he were not quite human.And when he came near,his eyes looked into hers,but she could not understand the meaning.

He had brought columbines and campions,and new-mown hay,and oak-tufts and honeysuckle in small bud.He fastened fluffy young oak-sprays round her breasts,sticking in tufts of bluebells and campion:and in her navel he poised a pink campion flower,and in her maiden-hair were forget-me-nots and woodruff.

'That's you in all your glory!'he said.'Lady Jane,at her wedding with John Thomas.'

And he stuck flowers in the hair of his own body,and wound a bit of creeping-jenny round his penis,and stuck a single bell of a hyacinth in his navel.She watched him with amusement,his odd intentness.And she pushed a campion flower in his moustache,where it stuck,dangling under his nose.

'This is John Thomas marryin'Lady Jane,'he said.'An'we mun let Constance an'Oliver go their ways.Maybe--'

He spread out his hand with a gesture,and then he sneezed,sneezing away the flowers from his nose and his navel.He sneezed again.

'Maybe what?'she said,waiting for him to go on.

He looked at her a little bewildered.

'Eh?'he said.

'Maybe what?Go on with what you were going to say,'she insisted.

'Ay,what was I going to say?'

He had forgotten.And it was one of the disappointments of her life,that he never finished.

A yellow ray of sun shone over the trees.

'Sun!'he said.'And time you went.Time,my Lady,time!What's that as flies without wings,your Ladyship?Time!Time!'

He reached for his shirt.

'Say goodnight!to John Thomas,'he said,looking down at his penis.

'He's safe in the arms of creeping Jenny!Not much burning pestle about him just now.'

And he put his flannel shirt over his head.

'A man's most dangerous moment,'he said,when his head had emerged,'is when he's getting into his shirt.Then he puts his head in a bag.That's why I prefer those American shirts,that you put on like a jacket.'She still stood watching him.He stepped into his short drawers,and buttoned them round the waist.

'Look at Jane!'he said.'In all her blossoms!Who'll put blossoms on you next year,Jinny?Me,or somebody else?"Good-bye,my bluebell,farewell to you!"I hate that song,it's early war days.'He then sat down,and was pulling on his stockings.She still stood unmoving.He laid his hand on the slope of her buttocks.'Pretty little Lady Jane!'he said.'Perhaps in Venice you'll find a man who'll put jasmine in your maiden-hair,and a pomegranate flower in your navel.Poor little lady Jane!'

'Don't say those things!'she said.'You only say them to hurt me.'

He dropped his head.Then he said,in dialect:

'Ay,maybe I do,maybe I do!Well then,I'll say nowt,an'ha'done wi't.But tha mun dress thysen,all'go back to thy stately homes of England,how beautiful they stand.Time's up!Time's up for Sir John,an'for little Lady Jane!Put thy shimmy on,Lady Chatterley!Tha might be anybody,standin'

there be-out even a shimmy,an'a few rags o'flowers.There then,there then,I'll undress thee,tha bob-tailed young throstle.'And he took the leaves from her hair,kissing her damp hair,and the flowers from her breasts,and kissed her breasts,and kissed her navel,and kissed her maiden-hair,where he left the flowers threaded.'They mun stop while they will,'he said.'So!There tha'rt bare again,nowt but a bare-arsed lass an'a bit of a Lady Jane!Now put thy shimmy on,for tha mun go,or else Lady Chatterley's goin'to be late for dinner,an'where 'ave yer been to my pretty maid!'

She never knew how to answer him when he was in this condition of the vernacular.So she dressed herself and prepared to go a little ignominiously home to Wragby.Or so she felt it:a little ignominiously home.

He would accompany her to the broad riding.His young pheasants were all right under the shelter.

When he and she came out on to the riding,there was Mrs Bolton faltering palely towards them.

'Oh,my Lady,we wondered if anything had happened!'

'No!Nothing has happened.'

Mrs Bolton looked into the man's face,that was smooth and new-looking with love.She met his half-laughing,half-mocking eyes.He always laughed at mischance.But he looked at her kindly.

'Evening,Mrs Bolton!Your Ladyship will be all right now,so I can leave you.Good-night to your Ladyship!Good-night,Mrs Bolton!'

He saluted and turned away.