Page 390 - women-in-love

‘Doesn’t he!’ exclaimed Ursula, with a little ironical gri-
mace. ‘Isn’t he a little Lloyd George of the air!’
‘Isn’t he! Little Lloyd George of the air! That’s just what
they are,’ cried Gudrun in delight. Then for days, Ursula saw
the persistent, obtrusive birds as stout, short politicians lift-
ing up their voices from the platform, little men who must
make themselves heard at any cost.
But even from this there came the revulsion. Some yel-
lowhammers suddenly shot along the road in front of her.
And they looked to her so uncanny and inhuman, like flar-
ing yellow barbs shooting through the air on some weird,
living errand, that she said to herself: ‘After all, it is im-
pudence to call them little Lloyd Georges. They are really
unknown to us, they are the unknown forces. It is impu-
dence to look at them as if they were the same as human
beings. They are of another world. How stupid anthropo-
morphism is! Gudrun is really impudent, insolent, making
herself the measure of everything, making everything come
down to human standards. Rupert is quite right, human be-
ings are boring, painting the universe with their own image.
The universe is non-human, thank God.’ It seemed to her ir-
reverence, destructive of all true life, to make little Lloyd
Georges of the birds. It was such a lie towards the robins,
and such a defamation. Yet she had done it herself. But un-
der Gudrun’s influence: so she exonerated herself.
So she withdrew away from Gudrun and from that which
she stood for, she turned in spirit towards Birkin again. She
had not seen him since the fiasco of his proposal. She did not
want to, because she did not want the question of her accep-

390 Women in Love