She crept close against him, clinging fast to his thin, strong naked body, the only home she had ever known.

“Then I’ll keep thee,” he said. “If tha wants it, then I’ll keep thee.”

He held her round and fast.

“And say you’re glad about the child,” she repeated. “Kiss it! Kiss my womb and say you’re glad it’s there.”

But that was more difficult for him.

“I’ve a dread of puttin’ children i’ th’ world,” he said. “I’ve such a dread o’ th’ future for ’em.”

“But you’ve put it into me. Be tender to it, and that will be its future already. Kiss it!”

He quivered, because it was true. “Be tender to it, and that will be its future.”⁠—At that moment he felt a sheer love for the woman. He kissed her belly and her mound of Venus, to kiss close to the womb and the foetus within the womb.