"Now you know," I said, "why you've got to stay on in that flat."
VI
I have said already, I think, that the instinctive motive of Vera's life
was her independent pride. Cling to that, and however the world might
rock and toss around her she could not be wrecked. Imagine, then, what
she must have suffered during the weeks that followed her surrender to
Lawrence. Not that for a moment she intended to go back on her
surrender, which was, indeed, the proudest moment of her whole life.
She never looked back for one second after that embrace, she never
doubted herself or him or the supreme importance of love itself; but the
rest of her--her tenderness, her fidelity, her loyalty, her
self-respect--this was all tortured now by the things that she seemed
compelled to do. It must have appeared to her as though Fate, having
watched that complete abandonment, intended to deprive her of everything
upon which she had depended. She was, I think, a woman of very simple
instincts. The things that had been in her life--her love for Nina, her
maternal tenderness for Nicholas, her sense of duty--remained with her
as strongly after that tremendous Thursday afternoon as they had been
before it.
Pages:
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475