watched her all the time she spoke, his eyes glittering with faint rousedness. It was not so much what she said; it was she herself who roused him, roused him with a small, vivid pricking.

‘Of course,’ he said, ‘every civilised body is bound to have its vermin.’

‘Why?’ cried Ursula. ‘I don’t have vermin.’

‘And it’s not that — it’s the QUALITY of the whole thing — paterfamilias laughing and thinking it sport, and throwing the ha’pennies, and materfamilias spreading her fat little knees and eating, continually eating — ’ replied Gudrun.

‘Yes,’ said Ursula. ‘It isn’t the boys so much who are vermin; it’s