‘True?’ he echoed.

‘We haven’t killed him?’ she asked.

He disliked her coming to him in such a manner. He raised his shoulders wearily.

‘It has happened,’ he said.

She looked at him. He sat crushed and frustrated for the time being, quite as emotionless and barren as herself. My God! this was a barren tragedy, barren, barren.

She returned to her room to wait for Ursula and Birkin. She wanted to get away, only to get away. She could not think or feel until she had got away, till she was loosed from this position.

The day passed, the next day came. She heard the sledge, saw Ursula and Birkin alight, and she shrank from these also.