Page 603 - women-in-love

ment and singleness. The Germans were doubled up with
laughter, hearing his strange droll words, his droll phras-
es of dialect. And in the midst of their paroxysms, they
glanced with deference at the four English strangers, the
elect. Gudrun and Ursula were forced to laugh. The room
rang with shouts of laughter. The blue eyes of the Professor’s
daughters were swimming over with laughter-tears, their
clear cheeks were flushed crimson with mirth, their fa-
ther broke out in the most astonishing peals of hilarity, the
students bowed their heads on their knees in excess of joy.
Ursula looked round amazed, the laughter was bubbling out
of her involuntarily. She looked at Gudrun. Gudrun looked
at her, and the two sisters burst out laughing, carried away.
Loerke glanced at them swiftly, with his full eyes. Birkin
was sniggering involuntarily. Gerald Crich sat erect, with
a glistening look of amusement on his face. And the laugh-
ter crashed out again, in wild paroxysms, the Professor’s
daughters were reduced to shaking helplessness, the veins
of the Professor’s neck were swollen, his face was purple,
he was strangled in ultimate, silent spasms of laughter. The
students were shouting half-articulated words that tailed off
in helpless explosions. Then suddenly the rapid patter of the
artist ceased, there were little whoops of subsiding mirth,
Ursula and Gudrun were wiping their eyes, and the Profes-
sor was crying loudly.
‘Das war ausgezeichnet, das war famos—‘
‘Wirklich famos,’ echoed his exhausted daughters, faint-
ly.
‘And we couldn’t understand it,’ cried Ursula.

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