Page:Women in Love, Lawrence, 1920.djvu/178

Her appearance was a sore trial to her father, who said angrily:

"Don't you think you might as well get yourself up for a Christmas cracker, an' ha' done with it?" But Gudrun looked handsome and brilliant, and she wore her clothes in pure defiance. When people stared at her, and giggled after her, she made a point of saying loudly, to Ursula: "Regarde, regarde ces gens-lá! Ne sont-ils pas des hiboux incroyables?" And with the words of French in her mouth, she would look over her shoulder at the giggling party. "No, really, it's impossible!" Ursula would reply dis- tinctly. And so the two girls took it out of their universal enemy. But their father became more and more enraged.

Ursula was all snowy white, save that her hat was pink, and entirely without trimming, and her shoes were dark red, and she carried an orange-coloured coat. And in this guise they were walking all the way to Shortlands, their father and mother going in front.

They were laughing at their mother, who, dressed in a summer material of black and purple stripes, and wearing a hat of purple straw, was setting forth with much more of the shyness and trepidation of a young girl than her daughters ever felt, walking demurely beside her husband, who, as usual, looked rather crumpled in his best suit, as if he were the father of a young family and had been holding the baby whilst his wife got dressed.

"Look at the young couple in front," said Gudrun calmly. Ursula looked at her mother and father, and was suddenly seized with uncontrollable laughter. The two girls stood in the road and laughed till the tears ran down their faces, as they caught sight again of the shy, unworldly couple of their parents going on ahead.

"We are roaring at you, mother," called Ursula, helplessly following after her parents.

Mrs. Brangwen turned round with a slightly puzzled, exasperated look. "Oh, indeed!" she said. "What is there so very funny about me, I should like to know?”

She could not understand that there could be anything amiss with her appearance. She had a perfect calm suffi-