He glanced round quickly, and went on to join his wife,
walking stiff with rage. And the girls followed, weak with laughter.
When the people had passed by, Brangwen cried in a loud, stupid voice:
'I'm going back home if there's any more of this. I'm damned if I'm
going to be made a fool of in this fashion, in the public road.'
He was really out of temper. At the sound of his blind, vindictive
voice, the laughter suddenly left the girls, and their hearts
contracted with contempt. They hated his words 'in the public road.'
What did they care for the public road? But Gudrun was conciliatory.
'But we weren't laughing to HURT you,' she cried, with an uncouth
gentleness which made her parents uncomfortable. 'We were laughing
because we're fond of you.'
'We'll walk on in front, if they are SO touchy,' said Ursula, angry.
And in this wise they arrived at Willey Water. The lake was blue and
fair, the meadows sloped down in sunshine on one side, the thick dark
woods dropped steeply on the other.
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