“Here steps a new creature into life.”‘

‘Don’t be too hard on poor old England,’ said Gerald. ‘Though we curse it, we love it really.’

To Ursula, there seemed a fund of cynicism in these words.

‘We may,’ said Birkin. ‘But it’s a damnably uncomfortable love: like a love for an aged parent who suffers horribly from a complication of diseases, for which there is no hope.’

Gudrun looked at him with dilated dark eyes.

‘You think there is no hope?’ she asked, in her pertinent fashion.

But Birkin backed away. He would not answer such a question.