Page 607 - of-human-bondage-

and you will, he says so himself.’
‘D’you WANT to come away with me?’ asked Philip.
‘I don’t mind.’
He looked at her, and the corners of his mouth turned
down in an expression of misery. He had triumphed indeed,
and he was going to have his way. He gave a little laugh of
derision at his own humiliation. She looked at him quickly,
but did not speak.
‘I’ve looked forward with all my soul to going away with
you, and I thought at last, after all that wretchedness, I was
going to be happy...’
He did not finish what he was going to say. And then on
a sudden, without warning, Mildred broke into a storm of
tears. She was sitting in the chair in which Norah had sat
and wept, and like her she hid her face on the back of it, to-
wards the side where there was a little bump formed by the
sagging in the middle, where the head had rested.
‘I’m not lucky with women,’ thought Philip.
Her thin body was shaken with sobs. Philip had never
seen a woman cry with such an utter abandonment. It was
horribly painful, and his heart was torn. Without realising
what he did, he went up to her and put his arms round her;
she did not resist, but in her wretchedness surrendered her-
self to his comforting. He whispered to her little words of
solace. He scarcely knew what he was saying, he bent over
her and kissed her repeatedly.
‘Are you awfully unhappy?’ he said at last.
‘I wish I was dead,’ she moaned. ‘I wish I’d died when the
baby come.’

0 Of Human Bondage