And she hung wavering in the road.

‘Never mind them,’ said Ursula, ‘they’re all right. They all know me, they don’t matter.’

‘But must we go through them?’ asked Gudrun.

‘They’re quite all right, really,’ said Ursula, going forward. And together the two sisters approached the group of uneasy, watchful common people. They were chiefly women, colliers’ wives of the more shiftless sort. They had watchful, underworld faces.

The two sisters held themselves tense, and went straight towards the gate. The women made way for them, but barely sufficient, as if grudging to yield ground. The sisters passed in silence through the stone gateway and up the steps,