The Voyage Out

He was silent for a moment. Silence seemed to have fallen upon the world. “That is what I have felt since I knew you” he replied. “We are happy together”. He did not seem to be speaking, or she to be hearing. “Very happy”, she answered. They continued to walk for some time in silence. Their steps unconsciously quickened. “We love each other”, he said. “We love each other”, she repeated. The silence was then broken by their voices which joined in tones of strange unfamiliar sound which formed no words. Faster and faster they walked; simultaneously they stopped, clasped each other in their arms, then releasing themselves, dropped to the earth.  “We love each other” he repeated, searching into her face. Their faces were both very pale and quiet, and they said nothing.

The Voyage Out (1915), Virginia Woolf