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However her pity ive way for moments, she was hard and

cold as a jewel He must be put off from her, she must sleep

alone She made him a bed in the small room

And he lay there whipped, his soul whipped al, thrown back into

unreality, like a man thrown overboard into a sea, to swim till

he sinks, because there is no hold, only a wide, weltering

sea

He did not sleep, save for the white sleep when a thin veil

is drawn over the mind It was not sleep He ake, and he

was not awake He could not be alone He needed to be able to

put his arainst his breast, where she used to be He could not bear it

He felt as if he were suspended in space, held there by the grip

of his will If he relaxed his ould fall, fall through

endless space, into the botto,

will-less, helpless, non-existent, just dropping to extinction,

falling till the fire of friction had burned out, like a falling