‘Do you know,’ he said suddenly, ‘I went and proposed to Ursula Brangwen tonight, that she should marry me.’

He saw the blank shining wonder come over Gerald’s face.

‘You did?’

‘Yes. Almost formally — speaking first to her father, as it should be, in the world — though that was accident — or mischief.’

Gerald only stared in wonder, as if he did not grasp.

‘You don’t mean to say that you seriously went and asked her father to let you marry her?’

‘Yes,’ said Birkin, ‘I did.’

‘What, had you spoken to her before about it, then?’