
in his official capacity as inspector. She thought he seemed to acknowledge some
kinship between her and him, a natural, tacit understanding, a using of the same
language. But there had been no time for the understanding to develop. And
something kept her from him, as well as attracted her to him. There was a
certain hostility, a hidden ultimate reserve in him, cold and inaccessible.
    Yet she wanted to know him.
    »What do you think of Rupert Birkin?« she asked, a little reluctantly, of
Gudrun. She did not want to discuss him.
    »What do I think of Rupert Birkin?« repeated Gudrun. »I think he's
attractive - decidedly attractive. What I can't stand about him is his way with
other people - his way of treating any little fool as if she were his greatest
consideration. One feels so awfully sold, oneself.«
    »Why does he do it?« said Ursula.
    »Because he has no real critical faculty - of people, at all events,« said
Gudrun. »I tell you, he treats any little fool as he treats me or you - and it's
such an insult.«
    »Oh, it is,« said Ursula. »One must discriminate.«
    »One must discriminate,« repeated Gudrun. »But he's a wonderful chap, in
other respects - a marvellous personality. But you can't trust him.«
    »Yes,« said Ursula vaguely. She was always forced to assent to Gudrun's
pronouncements, even when she was not in accord altogether.
    The sisters sat silent, waiting for the wedding party to come out. Gudrun
was impatient of talk. She wanted to think about Gerald Crich. She wanted to see
if the strong feeling she had got from him was real. She wanted to have herself
ready.
    Inside the church, the wedding was going on. Hermione Roddice was thinking
only of Birkin. He stood near her. She seemed to gravitate physically towards
him. She wanted to stand touching him. She could hardly be sure he was near her,
if she did not touch him. Yet she stood subjected through the wedding service.
    She had suffered so bitterly when he did not come, that still she was dazed.
Still she was gnawed as by a neuralgia, tormented by his potential absence from
her. She had awaited him in a faint delirium of nervous torture. As she stood
bearing herself pensively, the rapt look on her face, that seemed spiritual,
like the angels, but which came from torture
