e tears running down her cheeks. And she took
her sister in her arms. Gudrun hid her face on Ursula's shoulder, but
still she could not escape the cold devil of irony that froze her soul.

'Ha, ha!' she thought, 'this is the right behaviour.'

But she could not weep, and the sight of her cold, pale, impassive face
soon stopped the fountain of Ursula's tears. In a few moments, the
sisters had nothing to say to each other.

'Was it very vile to be dragged back here again?' Gudrun asked at
length.

Ursula looked up in some bewilderment.

'I never thought of it,' she said.

'I felt a beast, fetching you,' said Gudrun. 'But I simply couldn't see
people. That is too much for me.'

'Yes,' said Ursula, chilled.

Birkin tapped and entered. His face was white and expressionless. She
knew he knew. He gave her his hand, saying:

'The end of THIS trip, at any rate.'

Gudrun glanced at him, afraid.

There was silence between the three of them, nothing to be said. At
length Ursula asked in a small voice:

'Have you seen him?'

He looked back at Ursula with a hard, cold look, and did not trouble to
answer.

'Have you seen him?' she repeated.

'I have,' he said, coldly.

Then he looked at Gudrun.

'Have you done anything?' he said.

'Nothing,' she replied, 'nothing.'

She shrank in cold disgust from making any statement.

'Loerke says that Gerald came to you, when you were sitting on the
sledge at the bottom of the Rudelbahn, that you had words, and Gerald
walked away. What were the words about? I had better know, so that I
can satisfy the authorities, if necessary.'

Gudrun looked up at him, white, childlike, mute with trouble.

'There weren't even any words,' she said. 'He knocked Loerke down and
stunned him, he half strangled me, then he went away.'

To herself she was saying:

'A pretty little sample of the eternal triangle!' And she turned
ironically away, because she knew that the fight had been between
Gerald and herself and that the presence of the third party was a mere
contingency--an inevitable contingency perhaps, but a contingency none
the less. But let them have it as an example of the eternal triangle,
the trinity of hate. It would be simpler for them.

Birkin went away, his manner cold and abstracted. But she knew he would
do things for her, nevertheless, he would see her through. She smiled
slightly to herself, with contempt. Let him do the work, since he was
so extremely GOOD at lookin