Page 784 - of-human-bondage-

tive insolence which carried her through. He needn’t think
she was in love with him, because she wasn’t. She hated him
sometimes, and she longed to humble him; but she found
herself singularly powerless; she did not know which way
to handle him. She began to be a little nervous with him.
Once or twice she cried. Once or twice she set herself to be
particularly nice to him; but when she took his arm while
they walked along the front at night he made some excuse
in a while to release himself, as though it were unpleasant
for him to be touched by her. She could not make it out. The
only hold she had over him was through the baby, of whom
he seemed to grow fonder and fonder: she could make him
white with anger by giving the child a slap or a push; and
the only time the old, tender smile came back into his eyes
was when she stood with the baby in her arms. She noticed
it when she was being photographed like that by a man on
the beach, and afterwards she often stood in the same way
for Philip to look at her.
When they got back to London Mildred began looking
for the work she had asserted was so easy to find; she want-
ed now to be independent of Philip; and she thought of the
satisfaction with which she would announce to him that she
was going into rooms and would take the child with her. But
her heart failed her when she came into closer contact with
the possibility. She had grown unused to the long hours, she
did not want to be at the beck and call of a manageress, and
her dignity revolted at the thought of wearing once more a
uniform. She had made out to such of the neighbours as she
knew that they were comfortably off: it would be a come-