[The Inferno by Henri Barbusse]@TWC D-Link bookThe Inferno CHAPTER VI 26/28
I was left with Amy.
There were only two or three people in the dining-room, who were discussing what they were going to do in the afternoon. I did not know what to say to her.
The conversation flagged and died out.
She must have thought that she did not interest me--this woman, whose heart I had seen, and whose destiny I knew as well as God Himself. She reached for a newspaper lying on the table, read a line or two, then folded it, rose and also left the room. Sickened by the commonplaceness of life and dull from the heaviness of the after-lunch hour, I leaned drowsily on the long, long table, the sunlit table disappearing into infinity, and I made an effort to keep my arms from giving way, my chin from dropping, and my eyes from closing. And in that disorderly room, where the servants were already hastening quietly to clear the table and make ready for the evening meal, I lingered almost alone, not knowing whether I was happy or unhappy, not knowing what was real and what was supernatural. Then I understood.
It came upon me softly, heavily.
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