“And so does Rupert, too—though he is always shouting.”
“No,” said Gudrun. “He won’t abandon himself to the other person. You can’t be sure of him. That’s the trouble I think.”
“Yet he wants marriage! Marriage—et puis?”
“Le paradis!” mocked Gudrun.
Birkin, as he drove, felt a creeping of the spine, as if somebody was threatening his neck. But he shrugged with indifference. It began to rain. Here was a change. He stopped the car and got down to put up the hood.
CHAPTER XXII.
WOMAN TO WOMAN
They came to the town, and left Gerald at the railway station. Gudrun and Winifred were to come to tea with Birkin, who expected Ursula also. In the afternoon, however, the first person to turn up was Hermione. Birkin was out, so she went in the drawing-room, looking at his books and papers, and playing on the piano. Then Ursula arrived. She was surprised, unpleasantly so, to see Hermione, of whom she had heard nothing for some time.
“It is a surprise to see you,” she said.
“Yes,” said Hermione—“I’ve been away at Aix—”
“Oh, for your health?”