The Bitterness of Ecstasy

She had six weeks still before going to college. In this time
she nervously read over some Latin and some botany, and fitfully
worked at some mathematics. She was going into college as a
teacher, for her training. But, having already taken her
matriculation examination, she was entered for a university
course. At the end of a year she would sit for the Intermediate
Arts, then two years after for her B.A. So her case was not that
of the ordinary school-teacher. She would be working among the
private students who came only for pure education, not for mere
professional training. She would be of the elect.

For the next three years she would be more or less dependent
on her parents again. Her training was free. All college fees
were paid by the government, she had moreover a few pounds grant
every year. This would just pay for her train fares and her
clothing. Her parents would only have to feed her. She did not
want to cost them much. They would not be well off. Her father
would earn only two hundred a year, and a good deal of her
mother's capital was spent in buying the house. Still, there was
enough to get along with.

Gudrun was attending the Art School at Nottingham. She was
working particularly at sculpture. She had a gift for this. She
loved making little models in clay, of children or of animals.
Already some of these had appeared in the Students' Exhibition
in the Castle, and Gudrun was a distinguished person. She was
chafing at the Art School and wanted to go to London. But there
was not enough money. Neither would her parents let her go so
far.