Women in Love

Women in Love
by D.H. Lawrence
CONTENTS
* CHAPTER I. Sisters
* CHAPTER II. Shortlands
* CHAPTER III. Class-room
* CHAPTER IV. Diver
* CHAPTER V. In the Train
* CHAPTER VI. Creme de Menthe
* CHAPTER VII. Fetish
* CHAPTER VIII. Breadalby
* CHAPTER IX. Coal-dust
* CHAPTER X. Sketch-book
* CHAPTER XI. An Island
* CHAPTER XII. Carpeting
* CHAPTER XIII. Mino
* CHAPTER XIV. Water-party
* CHAPTER XV. Sunday Evening
* CHAPTER XVI. Man to Man

* CHAPTER XVII. The Industrial Magnate
* CHAPTER XVIII. Rabbit
* CHAPTER XIX. Moony
* CHAPTER XX. Gladiatorial
* CHAPTER XXI. Threshold
* CHAPTER XXII. Woman to Woman
* CHAPTER XXIII. Excurse
* CHAPTER XXIV. Death and Love
* CHAPTER XXV. Marriage or Not
* CHAPTER XXVI. A Chair
* CHAPTER XXVII. Flitting
* CHAPTER XXVIII. Gudrun in the Pompadour
* CHAPTER XXIX. Continental
* CHAPTER XXX. Snowed Up
* CHAPTER XXXI. Exeunt
CHAPTER I.

SISTERS
Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen sat one morning in the window-bay of
their father's house in Beldover, working and talking. Ursula was
stitching a piece of brightly-coloured embroidery, and Gudrun was
drawing upon a board which she held on her knee. They were mostly

silent, talking as their thoughts strayed through their minds.
'Ursula,' said Gudrun, 'don't you REALLY WANT to get married?'
Ursula laid her embroidery in her lap and looked up. Her face was calm
and considerate.
'I don't know,' she replied. 'It depends how you mean.'
Gudrun was slightly taken aback. She watched her sister for some
moments.
'Well,' she said, ironically, 'it usually means one thing! But don't you
think anyhow, you'd be--' she darkened slightly--'in a better position
than you are in now.'
A shadow came over Ursula's face.
'I might,' she said. 'But I'm not sure.'
Again Gudrun paused, slightly irritated. She wanted to be quite
definite.
'You don't think one needs the EXPERIENCE of having been married?'
she asked.
'Do you think it need BE an experience?' replied Ursula.
'Bound to be, in some way or other,' said Gudrun, coolly. 'Possibly
undesirable, but bound to be an experience of some sort.'
'Not really,' said Ursula. 'More likely to be the end of experience.'
Gudrun sat very still, to attend to this.
'Of course,' she said, 'there's THAT to consider.' This brought the
conversation to a close. Gudrun, almost angrily, took up her rubber and
began to rub out part of her drawing. Ursula stitched absorbedly.
'You wouldn't consider a good offer?' asked Gudrun.

'I think I've rejected several,' said Ursula.
'REALLY!' Gudrun flushed dark--'But anything really worth while?
Have you REALLY?'
'A thousand a year, and an awfully nice man. I liked him awfully,' said
Ursula.
'Really! But weren't you fearfully tempted?'
'In the abstract but not in the concrete,' said Ursula. 'When it comes to
the point, one isn't even tempted--oh, if I were tempted, I'd marry like a
shot. I'm only tempted NOT to.' The faces of both sisters suddenly lit
up with amusement.
'Isn't it an amazing thing,' cried Gudrun, 'how strong the temptation is,
not to!' They both laughed, looking at each other. In their hearts they
were frightened.
There was a long pause, whilst Ursula stitched and Gudrun went on
with her sketch. The sisters were women, Ursula twenty-six, and
Gudrun twenty-five. But both had the remote, virgin look of modern
girls, sisters of Artemis rather than of Hebe. Gudrun was very beautiful,
passive, soft-skinned, soft-limbed. She wore a dress of dark-blue silky
stuff, with ruches of blue and green linen lace in the neck and sleeves;
and she had emerald-green stockings. Her look of confidence and
diffidence contrasted with Ursula's sensitive expectancy. The provincial
people, intimidated by Gudrun's perfect sang-froid and exclusive
bareness of manner, said of her: 'She is a smart woman.' She had just
come back from London, where she had spent several years, working at
an art-school, as a student, and living a studio life.
'I was hoping now for a man to come along,' Gudrun said, suddenly
catching her underlip between her teeth, and making a strange grimace,
half sly smiling, half anguish. Ursula was afraid.
'So you have come home, expecting him here?' she laughed.

'Oh my dear,' cried Gudrun, strident, 'I wouldn't go out of my way to
look for him. But if there did happen to come along a highly attractive
individual of sufficient means--well--' she tailed off ironically. Then
she looked searchingly at Ursula, as if to probe her. 'Don't you find
yourself getting bored?' she asked of her sister. 'Don't you find, that
things fail to materialise? NOTHING MATERIALISES! Everything
withers in the bud.'
'What withers in the bud?' asked Ursula.
'Oh, everything--oneself--things in general.' There was a pause, whilst
each sister vaguely considered her fate.
'It does frighten one,' said Ursula, and again there was a