Women in Love

'I don't want to give you THINGS,' she said teasingly. 'But will you

have this?' 'All right,' he said, defeated, and she triumphed.

They went upstairs. There were two bedrooms to correspond with the

rooms downstairs. One of them was half furnished, and Birkin had

evidently slept there. Hermione went round the room carefully, taking

in every detail, as if absorbing the evidence of his presence, in all

the inanimate things. She felt the bed and examined the coverings.

'Are you SURE you were quite comfortable?' she said, pressing the

pillow.

'Perfectly,' he replied coldly.

'And were you warm? There is no down quilt. I am sure you need one. You

mustn't have a great pressure of clothes.' 'I've got one,' he said. 'It is coming down.' They measured the rooms, and lingered over every consideration. Ursula

stood at the window and watched the woman carrying the tea up the bank

to the pond. She hated the palaver Hermione made, she wanted to drink

tea, she wanted anything but this fuss and business.

At last they all mounted the grassy bank, to the picnic. Hermione

poured out tea. She ignored now Ursula's presence. And Ursula,

recovering from her ill-humour, turned to Gerald saying: 'Oh, I hated you so much the other day, Mr Crich,' 'What for?' said Gerald, wincing slightly away.

'For treating your horse so badly. Oh, I hated you so much!' 'What did he do?' sang Hermione.

'He made his lovely sensitive Arab horse stand with him at the

railway-crossing whilst a horrible lot of trucks went by; and the poor

thing, she was in a perfect frenzy, a perfect agony. It was the most

horrible sight you can imagine.' 'Why did you do it, Gerald?' asked Hermione, calm and interrogative.

'She must learn to stand--what use is she to me in this country, if she

shies and goes off every time an engine whistles.' 'But why inflict unnecessary torture?' said Ursula. 'Why make her stand

all that time at the crossing? You might just as well have ridden back

up the road, and saved all that horror. Her sides were bleeding where

you had spurred her. It was too horrible--!' Gerald stiffened.

'I have to use her,' he replied. 'And if I'm going to be sure of her at

ALL, she'll have to learn to stand noises.' 'Why should she?' cried Ursula in a passion. 'She is a living creature,

why should she stand anything, just because you choose to make her? She

has as much right to her own being, as you have to yours.' 'There I disagree,' said Gerald. 'I consider that mare is there for my

use. Not because I bought her, but because that is the natural order.

It is more natural for a man to take a horse and use it as he likes,

than for him to go down on his knees to it, begging it to do as it

wishes, and to fulfil its own marvellous nature.' Ursula was just breaking out, when Hermione lifted her face and began,

in her musing sing-song: 'I do think--I do really think we must have the COURAGE to use the

lower animal life for our needs. I do think there is something wrong,

when we look on every living creature as if it were ourselves. I do

feel, that it is false to project our own feelings on every animate

creature. It is a lack of discrimination, a lack of criticism.' 'Quite,' said Birkin sharply. 'Nothing is so detestable as the maudlin

attributing of human feelings and consciousness to animals.' 'Yes,' said Hermione, wearily, 'we must really take a position. Either

we are going to use the animals, or they will use us.' 'That's a fact,' said Gerald. 'A horse has got a will like a man,

though it has no MIND strictly. And if your will isn't master, then the

horse is master of you. And this is a thing I can't help. I can't help

being master of the horse.' 'If only we could learn how to use our will,' said Hermione, 'we could

do anything. The will can cure anything, and put anything right. That I

am convinced of--if only we use the will properly, intelligibly.' 'What do you mean by using the will properly?' said Birkin.