'
He moved his feet uneasily on the marble hearth, and put his cigarette
to his mouth, looking up at the ceiling.
'I know,' murmured Gudrun: 'it is dreadful.'
He smoked without knowing. Then he took the cigarette from his lips,
bared his teeth, and putting the tip of his tongue between his teeth
spat off a grain of tobacco, turning slightly aside, like a man who is
alone, or who is lost in thought.
'I don't know what the effect actually IS, on one,' he said, and again
he looked down at her. Her eyes were dark and stricken with knowledge,
looking into his. He saw her submerged, and he turned aside his face.
'But I absolutely am not the same. There's nothing left, if you
understand what I mean. You seem to be clutching at the void--and at
the same time you are void yourself. And so you don't know what to DO.'
'No,' she murmured. A heavy thrill ran down her nerves, heavy, almost
pleasure, almost pain. 'What can be done?' she added.
He turned, and flipped the ash from his cigarette on to the great
marble hearth-stones, that lay bare in the room, without fender or bar.
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