Page 137 - sons-and-lovers

‘And there,’ she said suddenly, ‘when I’d got halfway to
Keston, I found I’d come out in my working boots—and
LOOK at them.’ They were an old pair of Paul’s, brown and
rubbed through at the toes. ‘I didn’t know what to do with
myself, for shame,’ she added.
In the morning, when Annie and Arthur were at school,
Mrs. Morel talked again to her son, who was helping her
with her housework.
‘I found Barker at the hospital. He did look bad, poor
little fellow! ‘Well,’ I said to him, ‘what sort of a journey did
you have with him?’ ‘Dunna ax me, missis!’ he said. ‘Ay,’ I
said, ‘I know what he’d be.’ ‘But it WOR bad for him, Mrs.
Morel, it WOR that!’ he said. ‘I know,’ I said. ‘At ivry jolt I
thought my ‘eart would ha’ flown clean out o’ my mouth,’
he said. ‘An’ the scream ‘e gives sometimes! Missis, not for
a fortune would I go through wi’ it again.’ ‘I can quite un-
derstand it,’ I said. ‘It’s a nasty job, though,’ he said, ‘an’ one
as’ll be a long while afore it’s right again.’ ‘I’m afraid it will,’
I said. I like Mr. Barker—I DO like him. There’s something
so manly about him.’
Paul resumed his task silently.
‘And of course,’ Mrs. Morel continued, ‘for a man like
your father, the hospital IS hard. He CAN’T understand
rules and regulations. And he won’t let anybody else touch
him, not if he can help it. When he smashed the muscles of
his thigh, and it had to be dressed four times a day, WOULD
he let anybody but me or his mother do it? He wouldn’t. So,
of course, he’ll suffer in there with the nurses. And I didn’t
like leaving him. I’m sure, when I kissed him an’ came away,

1 Sons and Lovers