Something froze Birkin's heart, seeing them standing there in
the isolation of the snow, growing smaller and more isolated.
CHAPTER XXX.
SNOWED UP
When Ursula and Birkin were gone, Gudrun felt herself free in her
contest with Gerald. As they grew more used to each other, he seemed to
press upon her more and more. At first she could manage him, so that
her own will was always left free. But very soon, he began to ignore
her female tactics, he dropped his respect for her whims and her
privacies, he began to exert his own will blindly, without submitting
to hers.
Already a vital conflict had set in, which frightened them both. But he
was alone, whilst already she had begun to cast round for external
resource.
When Ursula had gone, Gudrun felt her own existence had become stark
and elemental. She went and crouched alone in her bedroom, looking out
of the window at the big, flashing stars. In front was the faint shadow
of the mountain-knot. That was the pivot. She felt strange and
inevitable, as if she were centred upon the pivot of all existence,
there was no further reality.
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