Gudrun was born。 All these years nothing had happened save the
ing of the children; nothing had mattered but the bodies of
her babies。 As her children came into consciousness; as they
began to suffer their own fulfilment; she cast them off。 But she
remained dominant in the house。 Brangwen continued in a kind of
rich drowse of physical heat; in connection with his wife。 They
were neither of them quite personal; quite defined as
individuals; so much were they pervaded by the physical heat of
breeding and rearing their young。
How Ursula resented it; how she fought against the close;
physical; limited life of herded domesticity! Calm; placid;
unshakeable as ever; Mrs。 Brangwen went about in her dominance
of physical maternity。
There were battles。 Ursula would fight for things that
mattered to her。 She would have the children less rude and
tyrannical; she would have a place in the house。 But her
mother pulled her down; pulled her down。 With all the cunning
instinct of a breeding animal; Mrs。 Brangwen ridiculed and held
cheap Ursulas passions; her ideas; her pronunciations。 Ursula
would try to insist; in her own home; on the right of women to
take equal place with men in the field of action and work。
〃Ay;〃 said the mother; 〃theres a good crop of stockings
lying ripe for mending。 Let that be your field of action。〃
Ursula disliked mending stockings; and this retort maddened
her。 She hated her mother bitterly。 After a few weeks of
enforced domestic life; she had had enough of her home。 The
monness; the triviality; the immediate meaninglessness of it
all drove her to frenzy。 She talked and stormed ideas; she
corrected and nagged at the children; she turned her back in
silent contempt on her breeding mother; who treated her with
supercilious indifference; as if she were a pretentious child
not to be taken seriously。
Brangwen was sometimes dragged into the trouble。 He loved
Ursula; therefore he always had a sense of shame; almost of
betrayal; when he turned on her。 So he turned fiercely and
scathingly; and with a wholesale brutality that made Ursula go
white; mute; and numb。 Her feelings seemed to be being
deadened in her; her temper hard and cold。
Brangwen himself was in one of his states or flux。 After all
these years; he began to see a loophole of freedom。 For twenty
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