The Awakening and Selected Short Stories - Page 33/161

"I'll stay out here. Good-night."

"Shall I get you a pillow?"

"There's one here," she said, feeling about, for they were in the

shadow.

"It must be soiled; the children have been tumbling it about."

"No matter." And having discovered the pillow, she adjusted it beneath

her head. She extended herself in the hammock with a deep breath of

relief. She was not a supercilious or an over-dainty woman. She was not

much given to reclining in the hammock, and when she did so it was with

no cat-like suggestion of voluptuous ease, but with a beneficent repose

which seemed to invade her whole body.

"Shall I stay with you till Mr. Pontellier comes?" asked Robert, seating

himself on the outer edge of one of the steps and taking hold of the

hammock rope which was fastened to the post.

"If you wish. Don't swing the hammock. Will you get my white shawl which

I left on the window-sill over at the house?"

"Are you chilly?"

"No; but I shall be presently."

"Presently?" he laughed. "Do you know what time it is? How long are you

going to stay out here?"

"I don't know. Will you get the shawl?"

"Of course I will," he said, rising. He went over to the house, walking

along the grass. She watched his figure pass in and out of the strips of

moonlight. It was past midnight. It was very quiet.

When he returned with the shawl she took it and kept it in her hand. She

did not put it around her.

"Did you say I should stay till Mr. Pontellier came back?"

"I said you might if you wished to."

He seated himself again and rolled a cigarette, which he smoked in

silence. Neither did Mrs. Pontellier speak. No multitude of words

could have been more significant than those moments of silence, or more

pregnant with the first-felt throbbings of desire.

When the voices of the bathers were heard approaching, Robert said

good-night. She did not answer him. He thought she was asleep. Again

she watched his figure pass in and out of the strips of moonlight as he

walked away.