‘And can you see that Rupert is happy as well?’
He lowered his eyelids, and looked aside.
‘Oh yes,’ he said.
‘Really!’
‘Oh yes.’
He was very quiet, as if it were something not to be talked about by him. He seemed sad.
She was very sensitive to suggestion. She asked the question he wanted her to ask.
‘Why don’t you be happy as well?’ she said. ‘You could be just the same.’
He paused a moment.
‘With Gudrun?’ he asked.
‘Yes!’ she cried, her eyes glowing. But there was a strange tension, an emphasis, as if they were asserting their wishes, against the truth.
‘You think Gudrun would have me, and we should be happy?’ he said.
‘Yes, I’m SURE!’ she cried.
Her eyes were round with delight. Yet underneath she was constrained, she knew her own insistence.
‘Oh, I’m SO glad,’ she added.
He smiled.
‘What makes you glad?’ he said.
‘For HER sake,’ she replied. ‘I’m sure you’d—you’re the right man for her.’
‘You are?’ he said. ‘And do you think she would agree with you?’
‘Oh yes!’ she exclaimed hastily. Then, upon reconsideration, very uneasy: ‘Though Gudrun isn’t so very simple, is she? One doesn’t know her in five minutes, does one? She’s not like me in that.’ She laughed at him with her strange, open, dazzled face.
‘You think she’s not much like you?’ Gerald asked.
She knitted her brows.
‘Oh, in many ways she is. But I never know what she will do when anything new comes.’
‘You don’t?’ said Gerald. He was silent for some moments. Then he moved tentatively. ‘I was going to ask her, in any case, to go away with me at Christmas,’ he said, in a very small, cautious voice.
‘Go away with you? For a time, you mean?’
‘As long as she likes,’ he said, with a deprecating movement.
They were both silent for some minutes.
‘Of course,’ said Ursula at last, ‘she MIGHT just be willing to rush into marriage. You can see.’
‘Yes,’ smiled Gerald. ‘I can see. But in case she won’t—do you think she would go abroad with me for a few days—or for a fortnight?’
‘Oh yes,’ said Ursula. ‘I’d ask her.’
‘Do you think we might all go together?’
‘All of us?’ Again Ursula’s face lighted up. ‘It would be rather fun, don’t you think?’
‘Great fun,’ he said.
‘And then you could see,’ said Ursula.
‘What?’
‘How things went. I think it is best to take the honeymoon before the wedding—don’t you?’
She was pleased with this MOT. He laughed.
‘In certain cases,’ he said. ‘I’d rather it were so in my own case.’
‘Would you!’ exclaimed Ursula. Then doubtingly, ‘Yes, perhaps you’re right. One should please oneself.’
Birkin came in a little later, and Ursula told him what had been said.
‘Gudrun!’ exclaimed Birkin. ‘She’s a born mistress, just as Gerald is a born lover—AMANT EN TITRE. If as somebody says all women are either wives or mistresses, then Gudrun is a mistress.’
‘And all men either lovers or husbands,’ cried Ursula. ‘But why not both?’
‘The one excludes the other,’ he laughed.
‘Then I want a lover,’ cried Ursula.
‘No you don’t,’ he said.
‘But I do,’ she wailed.
