`It is true -- it is true,' she wept, `and I won't be bullied by his pretending it's love -- when it isn't -- he doesn't care, how can he -- no, he can't--'

He sat in silence. She moved him beyond himself.

`Then you shouldn't rouse him, if he can't,' replied Birkin quietly.

`And I have loved him, I have,' she wept. `I've loved him always, and he's always done this to me, he has --'

`It's been a love of opposition, then,' he said. `Never mind -- it will be all right. It's nothing desperate.'

`Yes,' she wept, `it is, it is.'

`Why?'

`I shall never see him again --'

`Not immediately. Don't cry, you had to break with him, it had to be -- don't cry.'

He went over to her and kissed her fine, fragile hair, touching her wet cheeks gently.

`Don't cry,' he repeated, `don't cry any more.'

He held her head close against him, very close and quiet.

At last she was still. Then she looked up, her eyes wide and frightened.

`don't you want me?' she asked.

`Want you?' His darkened, steady eyes puzzled her and did not give her play.

`Do you wish I hadn't come?' she asked, anxious now again for fear she might be out of place.

`No,' he said. `I wish there hadn't been the violence -- so much ugliness -- but perhaps it was inevitable.'

She watched him in silence. He seemed deadened.

`But where shall I stay?' she asked, feeling humiliated.

He thought for a moment.

`Here, with me,' he said. `We're married as much today as we shall be tomorrow.'

`But --'

`I'll tell Mrs Varley,' he said. `Never mind now.'

He sat looking at her. She could feel his darkened steady eyes looking at her all the time. It made her a little bit frightened. She pushed her hair off her forehead nervously.

`Do I look ugly?' she said.

And she blew her nose again.

A small smile came round his eyes.

`No,' he said, `fortunately.'