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 hand?’ said Gerald. ‘I trapped it in some machinery.’

‘Ugh!’ said Ursula.