Near the boat-house was a throng of gaily-dressed persons, small in the distance.

And on the high-road, some of the common people were standing along the hedge, looking at the festivity beyond, enviously, like souls not admitted to paradise.
'My eye!' said Gudrun, sotto voce, looking at the motley of guests, 'there's a pretty crowd if you like! Imagine yourself in the midst of that, my dear.' Gudrun's apprehensive horror of people in the mass unnerved Ursula.

'It looks rather awful,' she said anxiously.
'And imagine what they'll be like--IMAGINE!' said Gudrun, still in that unnerving, subdued voice.

Yet she advanced determinedly.
'I suppose we can get away from them,' said Ursula anxiously.
'We're in a pretty fix if we can't,' said Gudrun.

Her extreme ironic loathing and apprehension was very trying to Ursula.
'We needn't stay,' she said.
'I certainly shan't stay five minutes among that little lot,' said Gudrun.