“You know what I mean. You keep on for hours after I’ve gone off⁠ ⁠… and I have to hang on with my teeth till you bring yourself off by your own exertions.”

She was stunned by this unexpected piece of brutality, at the moment when she was glowing with a sort of pleasure beyond words, and a sort of love for him. Because after all, like so many modern men, he was finished almost before he had begun. And that forced the woman to be active.

“But you want me to go on, to get my own satisfaction?” she said.

He laughed grimly: “I want it!” he said. “That’s good! I want to hang on with my teeth clenched, while you go for me!”

“But don’t you?” she insisted.