t coast?' She pointed to a grove on the hillock of the
meadow-side, near the shore half way down the lake. 'That looks
perfectly lovely. We might even bathe. Isn't it beautiful in this
light. Really, it's like one of the reaches of the Nile--as one
imagines the Nile.'

Gerald smiled at her factitious enthusiasm for the distant spot.

'You're sure it's far enough off?' he asked ironically, adding at once:
'Yes, you might go there, if we could get a boat. They seem to be all
out.'

He looked round the lake and counted the rowing boats on its surface.

'How lovely it would be!' cried Ursula wistfully.

'And don't you want tea?' he said.

'Oh,' said Gudrun, 'we could just drink a cup, and be off.'

He looked from one to the other, smiling. He was somewhat offended--yet
sporting.

'Can you manage a boat pretty well?' he asked.

'Yes,' replied Gudrun, coldly, 'pretty well.'

'Oh yes,' cried Ursula. 'We can both of us row like water-spiders.'

'You can? There's light little canoe of mine, that I didn't take out
for fear somebody should drown themselves. Do you think you'd be safe
in that?'

'Oh perfectly,' said Gudrun.

'What an angel!' cried Ursula.

'Don't, for MY sake, have an accident--because I'm responsible for the
water.'

'Sure,' pledged Gudrun.

'Besides, we can both swim quite well,' said Ursula.

'Well--then I'll get them to put you up a tea-basket, and you can
picnic all to yourselves,--that's the idea, isn't it?'

'How fearfully good! How frightfully nice if you could!' cried Gudrun
warmly, her colour flushing up again. It made the blood stir in his
veins, the subtle way she turned to him and infused her gratitude into
his body.

'Where's Birkin?' he said, his eyes twinkling. 'He might help me to get
it down.'

'But what about your hand? Isn't it hurt?' asked Gudrun, rather muted,
as if avoiding the intimacy. This was the first time the hurt had been
mentioned. The curious way she skirted round the subject sent a new,
subtle caress through his veins. He took his hand out of his pocket. It
was bandaged. He looked at it, then put it in his pocket again. Gudrun
quivered at the sight of the wrapped up paw.

'Oh I can manage with one hand. The canoe is as light as a feather,' he
said. 'There's Rupert!--Rupert!'

Birkin turned from his social duties and came towards them.

'What have you done to it?' asked Ursula, who had been aching to put
the question for the last half hour.

'To my ha