The day
was dismal, and I thought you wouldn't mind if I called in.'
'It HAS been a depressing day,' said Mrs Brangwen sympathetically. At
that moment the voices of the children were heard calling from
upstairs: 'Mother! Mother!' She lifted her face and answered mildly
into the distance: 'I shall come up to you in a minute, Doysie.' Then
to Birkin: 'There is nothing fresh at Shortlands, I suppose? Ah,' she
sighed, 'no, poor things, I should think not.'
'You've been over there today, I suppose?' asked the father.
'Gerald came round to tea with me, and I walked back with him. The
house is overexcited and unwholesome, I thought.'
'I should think they were people who hadn't much restraint,' said
Gudrun.
'Or too much,' Birkin answered.
'Oh yes, I'm sure,' said Gudrun, almost vindictively, 'one or the
other.'
'They all feel they ought to behave in some unnatural fashion,' said
Birkin. 'When people are in grief, they would do better to cover their
faces and keep in retirement, as in the old days.
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