He
spoke to her, at first softly, and then quite loud, but she made no
sign. Perhaps she was not asleep, but had fainted from weariness and
cold; he knelt beside her, and took her hand in both his own, chafing
it between them, but still she gave no sign. It was certainly a
fainting fit, and he knew that if a woman was pale when she fainted,
she should be laid down at full length, to make the blood return to
her head. Kneeling beside her, he lifted her carefully and placed her
on her back beside the Aphrodite, smoothing out his waistcoat under
her head, not for a pillow but for a little protection from the cold
ground.
Then he hesitated, and remained some time kneeling beside her. She
needed warmth more than anything else; he knew that, and he knew that
the best way to warm her a little was to hold her in his arms. Yet he
would try something else first.
He bent over her and undoing one of the buttons of the coat, he
breathed into it again and again, long, warm breaths. He did this for
a long time, and then looked at her face, but it had not changed. He
felt the ground with his hand, and it was cold; as long as she lay
there, she could never get warm.
He lifted her again, still quite unconscious, and sat with her in his
arms, as he had done before, laying her head against the hollow of his
shoulder, and pressing her gently, trying to instil into her some of
his own strong life.
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