FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143  
144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   >>  
ht out, you can't do too much for her. It's like seeing a dog with a tin can tied to its tail; you've got to get it off. A man ought to pay for his fun; even if it isn't his fault, he ought to pay just the same. It's not so much that he's the responsible person, but he's the least _had_. That ought to settle the question." He was more diffident, but not less decided, on the subject of religion. "If there's a God at all," he stated, "He must be good; otherwise you can't explain goodness, which doesn't pay and yet always seems worth having. You know what I mean. Not that I am a religious man myself, but I like the idea. Women certainly ought to be religious." He hoped that Claire would go regularly to church unless it was draughty. It was on the Bernina, when they were nine thousand feet up in a blue sky, beyond all sight or sound of life, in their silent, private world, that they talked about death. "Curious," Winn said, "how little you think about it when you're up against it. I shouldn't like to die of an illness. That's all I've ever felt about it; that would be like letting go. I don't think I could let go easily; but just a proper, decent knock-out--why, I don't believe you'd know anything about it. I never felt afraid of chucking it, till I knew you, now I'm afraid." Claire looked at his strong hands in the sunshine and at her own which lay on his; they looked so much alive! She tried hard to think about death, because she knew that some day everybody must die; but she felt as if she was alive forever. "Yes," she said; "of course I suppose we _shall_. But, Winn, don't you think that we could send for each other then? Wouldn't that be splendid?" The idea of death became suddenly a shortening of the future; it was like something to look forward to. Winn nodded gravely, but he didn't seem to take the same comfort in it that Claire did. He only said: "I dare say we could manage something. But you feel all right, don't you?" Claire laughed until something in his grave eyes hurt her behind her laughter. The sky changed from saffron to dead blue and then to startling rose color. Flame after flame licked the Bernina heights. Their sleigh-bells rang persistently beneath them. They drank their coffee hurriedly while the sun sank out of the valley, and the whole world changed into an icy light. They drove off rapidly down the pass, wrapped in furs and clinging to each other. They did not know what
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143  
144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   >>  



Top keywords:
Claire
 

afraid

 

religious

 

changed

 

Bernina

 
looked
 
shortening
 

future

 
nodded
 

forward


Wouldn

 

suppose

 
gravely
 

forever

 
splendid
 

suddenly

 
coffee
 
hurriedly
 

beneath

 

sleigh


persistently

 

valley

 

wrapped

 

clinging

 

rapidly

 

heights

 

licked

 

laughed

 

manage

 

comfort


startling

 
sunshine
 

laughter

 

saffron

 

Curious

 
stated
 

religion

 
subject
 

diffident

 
decided

explain
 

goodness

 
question
 
settle
 

responsible

 

person

 
easily
 

proper

 
decent
 

letting