it?’

Birkin smiled to himself as he sat by the fire. When Ursula came down he sat motionless, with his arms on his knees. She saw him, how he was motionless and ageless, like some crouching idol, some image of a deathly religion. He looked round at her, and his face, very pale and unreal, seemed to gleam with a whiteness almost phosphorescent.

‘Don’t you feel well?’ she asked, in indefinable repulsion.

‘I hadn’t thought about it.’

‘But don’t you know without thinking about it?’

He looked at her, his eyes dark and swift, and he saw her revulsion. He did not answer her question.

‘Don’t you know whether you are unwell or not, without thinking about it?’