Page 247 - of-human-bondage-

O’Connors. Why on earth should you think I do?’
Miss Wilkinson put away her handkerchief. Her tears
had made marks on her powdered face, and her hair was
somewhat disarranged. Her white dress did not suit her
very well just then. She looked at Philip with hungry, pas-
sionate eyes.
‘Because you’re twenty and so’s she,’ she said hoarsely.
‘And I’m old.’
Philip reddened and looked away. The anguish of her
tone made him feel strangely uneasy. He wished with all
his heart that he had never had anything to do with Miss
Wilkinson.
‘I don’t want to make you unhappy,’ he said awkwardly.
‘You’d better go down and look after your friends. They’ll
wonder what has become of you.’
‘All right.’
He was glad to leave her.
The quarrel was quickly followed by a reconciliation,
but the few days that remained were sometimes irksome
to Philip. He wanted to talk of nothing but the future, and
the future invariably reduced Miss Wilkinson to tears. At
first her weeping affected him, and feeling himself a beast
he redoubled his protestations of undying passion; but now
it irritated him: it would have been all very well if she had
been a girl, but it was silly of a grown-up woman to cry so
much. She never ceased reminding him that he was under a
debt of gratitude to her which he could never repay. He was
willing to acknowledge this since she made a point of it, but
he did not really know why he should be any more grateful

Of Human Bondage