Women in Love Page #5

But you want it, don't you?

You can't help yourself.

Well, then, you go and get it.

That's what I say.

But don't come to me!

I've got nothing to do with it!

Oh, you're a fool!

Yes! Yes, I am a fool!

And thank God for it!

I'm too big a fool

to swallow your cleverness.

You go to your women,

your...spiritual brides.

Or aren't they

common and fleshy enough?

No, no, you're not satisfied, are you?

You'd marry me for your everyday use

and keep your...spiritual brides for

tripping off, into the beyond.

Oh, yes!

Yes, I know your dirty little game.

You think I'm not as spiritual as Hermione.

Well, Hermione's a fishwife!

A fishwife!

So, you go to her.

That's what I say! Go to her!

In her soul,

she's as common as dirt!

And all the rest is just pretence.

But you love it!

Do you think I don't know

the foulness of your sex life and hers?

Well, I do. And it's that foulness

that you want, you liar!

Well, have it. Have it! Have it!

You're such a liar!

- There's a bicycle coming.

- I don't care.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Maybe it's true.

Lies, dirt and all.

But Hermione's spiritual intimacy

is no rottener than your emotional...

jealous intimacy.

I am not jealous. What I say

I say because it's true.

You're a false and foul liar.

That's what I say,

and you hear it.

Very good.

The only hopeless thing is a fool.

Yes. Quite right.

So, you take back your rings

and buy yourself a female elsewhere.

I'm sure there'll be

plenty of women who'll...

be quite willing to share in your...

spiritual mess!

See what a flower I've found you?

Pretty.

Did I abuse you?

Wait...

I shall have my own back...

So, this is where

you've been living all the time?

Oh, what a perfectly lovely, noble place.

So warm, cosy...

I'm thinking we must get out of our

responsibilities as quick as we can.

We must drop our jobs like a shot.

We must say, er...we must write, er...

"Dear Sir...

"I would be very grateful if you would...

"liberate me as soon as possible..."

"...from my post as schoolmistress

of the Beldover Grammar School.

"Without, of course, waiting for

the usual month's notice."

Oh, I could be so happy here.

No. We'll wander a bit, first.

We'll get married straight away

and we'll wander a bit.

We'll never go apart.

No...

...because we love each other.

"And the third angel

poured out his vials on the river,

"and the fountains of water..."

'After Laura's death,

Father's world collapsed.

'We haven't had much illness

in the house either.

'Not until Father...

'It's something you don't reckon with,

until it's there.

'And then you realise

it was there all the time.

'It was always there.

'The possibility of this...

'incurable illness.

'This creeping death.

'There's nothing left.'

Do you understand what I mean?

You seem to be...

reaching at the void, then......

Then you realise...

that you're a void yourself.

You can't go on holding up

the roof forever. You know that...

that sooner or later,

you've got to let go,

so you don't...

know what to do.

You must...

- If I can help you...

- I don't want your help.

Because there's nothing to be done.

I just want to talk to somebody.

Sympathetically.

Ah, Mother.

How nice of you to come down.

How are you? You, erm...

You know Miss Brangwen,

of course, don't you?

Yes.

Winifred tells me the doctor

has something to say about your father.

What is it?

Oh, just that his pulse is very weak and...

it misses altogether, on occasions,

and he...

he might not last the night out.

You're not getting into a state, are you?

You're not letting it make you hysterical?

No, I don't think so, Mother.

It's just that

somebody's got to see it through.

Oh, have they? Have they?

And why should you take it on yourself?

What have you got to do

with seeing it through?

It'll see itself through.

You're not needed.

No, I don't suppose

there is much I can do.

It's just how...

it affects us, you see.

You like to be affected, don't you?

It's quite a treat for you.

Yes...

Yes, you would have to be important.

You've no need to stop at home.

Why don't you go away?

You're as weak as a cat, really.

Always were...

A strange lady...

my mother.

Yes.

With ideas of her own.

Yes.

Look, you want to go home.

I'll see to it that the car's brought round.

No. I want to walk.

You might just as well drive.

But I would much rather walk.

Would you?

Then I shall come with you.

You do help me so much.

And I can't believe it...

Why?

Why can't you believe it?

It's true.

It's as true as...

As true as we stand here.

Oh, you are so beautiful.

And I must go.

No...

Let me go alone.

How much more water

leaked into the pit?

Some more.

We'll have to run off the lake.

Ursula?

No, it's me. Gerald.

You're very muddy.

I was walking in the dark.

What do you want from me?

I came because I must.

Why do you ask?

I must ask.

There is no answer.

You must go, my love.

It's getting late.

Oh, no. Not for a minute.

Yes, you must go.

I'm afraid, if you stay any longer.

- Goodbye.

- Goodbye.

Shall Gudrun and I...

rush into marriage,

along with you?

If I were you,

I wouldn't marry.

But ask Gudrun, not me.

I mean, you're not marrying me, are you?

I thought you were dead nuts on marriage.

There are all kinds of marriages.

And there are all kinds of noses.

Snub and otherwise.

And you think that if I marry,

it'll be snub.

What's the alternative?

Well, if you don't know, don't do it.

Marriage in the old sense seems,

to me, to be repulsive.

The whole world in couples.

Each couple in its own little house,

watching its own little interests,

stewing in its own little crevices.

It's the most repulsive thing on earth.

Yes, I quite agree.

There's something inferior about it.

Well, there again,

what's the alternative?

We've got to find one.

I...I...I do believe in a permanent union

between a man and a woman.

Chopping about

is merely an exhausting process.

But a permanent relationship,

between a man and a woman,

isn't the last word.

It certainly isn't.

Quite.

We've got to take down

this love and marriage ideal,

from its pedestal.

We want something broader.

I believe in the...additional perfect

relationship, between man and man.

Additional to marriage.

Well, I don't see

how they can be the same.

No, not the same. But...

equally important,

equally creative, equally...

sacred, if you like.

I know you believe something like that.

Only I can't feel it. Do you see?

Gudrun might rush into marriage,

like we have. Wouldn't that be nice?

Rubbish. Gudrun is a born

mistress, just as Gerald is a born lover.

If all women are either wives or

mistresses, then Gudrun is a mistress.

And all men are either lovers or husbands.

Why not both?

No. No, the one excludes the other.

Then I want another.

Oh, no, you don't.

Oh, yes, I do.

- How much is it?

- Ten shilling.

Oh, no. We don't want that!

We can have my furniture, from the house.

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