Page 168 - sons-and-lovers

she snatched the knee-cap from her ‘boss’, saying: ‘Yes, I’ll
do it for you, but you needn’t be snappy.’
‘Here’s your new lad,’ said Mr. Pappleworth.
Fanny turned, smiling very gently on Paul.
‘Oh!’ she said.
‘Yes; don’t make a softy of him between you.’
‘It’s not us as ‘ud make a softy of him,’ she said indig-
nantly.
‘Come on then, Paul,’ said Mr. Pappleworth.
‘Au revoy, Paul,’ said one of the girls.
There was a titter of laughter. Paul went out, blushing
deeply, not having spoken a word.
The day was very long. All morning the work-people were
coming to speak to Mr. Pappleworth. Paul was writing or
learning to make up parcels, ready for the midday post. At
one o’clock, or, rather, at a quarter to one, Mr. Pappleworth
disappeared to catch his train: he lived in the suburbs. At
one o’clock, Paul, feeling very lost, took his dinner-basket
down into the stockroom in the basement, that had the long
table on trestles, and ate his meal hurriedly, alone in that
cellar of gloom and desolation. Then he went out of doors.
The brightness and the freedom of the streets made him feel
adventurous and happy. But at two o’clock he was back in
the corner of the big room. Soon the work-girls went troop-
ing past, making remarks. It was the commoner girls who
worked upstairs at the heavy tasks of truss-making and the
finishing of artificial limbs. He waited for Mr. Pappleworth,
not knowing what to do, sitting scribbling on the yellow
order-paper. Mr. Pappleworth came at twenty minutes to

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