“I have felt a horse bolt while I was driving it,” said Gerald, “but it didn’t make me know it had two wills. I only knew it was frightened.”
Hermione had ceased to listen. She simply became oblivious when these subjects were started.
“Why should a horse want to put itself in the human power?” asked Ursula. “That is quite incomprehensible to me. I don’t believe it ever wanted it.”
“Yes it did. It’s the last, perhaps highest, love-impulse: resign your will to the higher being,” said Birkin.
“What curious notions you have of love,” jeered Ursula.
“And woman is the same as horses: two wills act in opposition inside her. With one will, she wants to subject herself utterly. With the other she wants to bolt, and pitch her rider to perdition.”
“Then I’m a bolter,” said Ursula, with a burst of laughter.
“It’s a dangerous thing to domesticate even horses, let alone women,” said Birkin. “The dominant principle has some rare antagonists.”
“Good thing too,” said Ursula.
“Quite,” said Gerald, with a faint smile. “There’s more fun.”