This paper aimes to examine D. H. Lawrence’s “The Horse-Dealer’s Daughter”, one of his best-known short stories, as a quest for the wholeness of being, trying to show how it makes consistent and subtle demands on the reader’s emotional and intellectual sensibility. Though most of critics agreed to see this story as a ‘triumph of life’ or a passage from death to rebirth, there has been a wide difference in interpretations on key scenes or traits of characters. It is not because of ambiguities planted in it, but of subtle presentation of the inner workings of characters’ psyche and apparent lack of motivation. The difficulty in understanding this story at a realistic level led to the prevalence of mythological, symbolic or psychological interpretations. Focusing on its most crucial and puzzling scene, in which two main characters are deeply involved, this paper will tease out its ontological meaning which could not be reached without reader’s active emotional and intellectual engagement.