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Loerke let the sledge go wildly, and gaily, like a flying leaf, and when, at a bend, he pitched both her and him out into the snow, he only waited for them both to pick themselves up unhurt off the keen white ground, to be laughing and pert as a pixie. She knew he would be making ironical, playful remarks as he wandered in hell if he were in the humour. And that pleased her immensely.
Oh how well she knew the common callousness of it all. Dresden, Paris, or London, what did it matter? She knew it. 'Where is she now? Ursula asked. Loerke raised his shoulders, to convey his complete ignorance and indifference. 'That is already six years ago, he said; 'she will be twenty-three years old, no more good. Gerald had picked up the picture and was looking at it.
Everybody was dancing, there was the most boisterous turmoil. Gudrun looked on with delight. The solid wooden floor resounded to the knocking heels of the men, the air quivered with the clapping hands and the zither music, there was a golden dust about the hanging lamps. Suddenly the dance finished, Loerke and the students rushed out to bring in drinks.
He seemed to be the very stuff of the underworld of life. There was no going beyond him. Ursula too was attracted by Loerke. In both sisters he commanded a certain homage. But there were moments when to Ursula he seemed indescribably inferior, false, a vulgarism. Both Birkin and Gerald disliked him, Gerald ignoring him with some contempt, Birkin exasperated.
He was uneasy all the while, waiting to talk with her, subtly contriving to be near her. Her presence filled him with keenness and excitement, he gravitated cunningly towards her, as if she had some unseen force of attraction. He was not in the least doubtful of himself, as regards Gerald. Gerald was one of the outsiders. Loerke only hated him for being rich and proud and of fine appearance.
There passed through Gudrun's mind Blake's representation of the soul of a flea. She wanted to fit it to Loerke. Blake was a clown too. But it was necessary to answer Gerald. 'Don't you think the understanding of a flea is more interesting than the understanding of a fool? she asked. 'A fool! he repeated. 'A fool, a conceited fool a Dummkopf, she replied, adding the German word.
Because of what HAD been, she felt herself held to him by immortal, invisible threads-because of what HAD been, because of his coming to her that first night, into her own house, in his extremity, because Gerald was gradually overcome with a revulsion of loathing for Loerke.
Her face was flushed and transfigured. Loerke who was sitting with his head ducked, like some creature at bay, looked up at her, swiftly, almost furtively, and murmured, 'Ja so ist es, so ist es. Ursula was silent after this outburst. She was furious. She wanted to poke a hole into them both. 'It isn't a word of it true, of all this harangue you have made me, she replied flatly.
'Only we want to take a quick jump downwards, in a sort of ecstasy and he ebbs with the stream, the sewer stream. Meanwhile Gudrun and Ursula waited for the next opportunity to talk to Loerke. It was no use beginning when the men were there. Then they could get into no touch with the isolated little sculptor. He had to be alone with them.
Her heart was fluttering now, beating like a bewildered bird. She knew she had dealt a cruel wound, and she could not bear it. Gerald sat erect, perfectly still, his face pale and calm, like the face of a statue. He was unaware of her, or of Loerke or anybody. He sat perfectly still, in an unalterable calm. Loerke, meanwhile, was crouching and glancing up from under his ducked head.
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