`Silly Dora, silly Dora!' said Ursula.

Birkin felt some mistrust and antagonism in the small child. He could not understand it.

`Come then,' said Ursula. `Let us go before mother comes.'

`Who'll hear us say our prayers?' asked Billy anxiously.

`Whom you like.'

`Won't you?'

`Yes, I will.'

`Ursula?'

`Well Billy?'

`Is it whom you like?'

`That's it.'

`Well what is whom?'

`It's the accusative of who.'

There was a moment's contemplative silence, then the confiding:

`Is it?'

Birkin smiled to himself as he sat by the fire. When Ursula came down he sat motionless, with his arms on his knees. She saw him, how he was motionless and ageless, like some crouching idol, some image of a deathly religion. He looked round at her, and his face, very pale and unreal, seemed to gleam with a whiteness almost phosphorescent.

`Don't you feel well?' she asked, in indefinable repulsion.

`I hadn't thought about it.'

`But don't you know without thinking about it?'

He looked at her, his eyes dark and swift, and he saw her revulsion. He did not answer her question.

`Don't you know whether you are unwell or not, without thinking about it?' she persisted.

`Not always,' he said coldly.

`But don't you think that's very wicked?'

`Wicked?'

`Yes. I think it's criminal to have so little connection with your own body that you don't even know when you are ill.'

He looked at her darkly.

`Yes,' he said.