Page 190 - sons-and-lovers

of those naturally exquisite people who can walk in mud
without dirtying their shoes. But Paul had to clean them
for her. They were kid boots at eight shillings a pair. He,
however, thought them the most dainty boots in the world,
and he cleaned them with as much reverence as if they had
been flowers.
Suddenly she appeared in the inner doorway rather shy-
ly. She had got a new cotton blouse on. Paul jumped up and
went forward.
‘Oh, my stars!’ he exclaimed. ‘What a bobby-dazzler!’
She sniffed in a little haughty way, and put her head up.
‘It’s not a bobby-dazzler at all!’ she replied. ‘It’s very qui-
et.’
She walked forward, whilst he hovered round her.
‘Well,’ she asked, quite shy, but pretending to be high and
mighty, ‘do you like it?’
‘Awfully! You ARE a fine little woman to go jaunting out
with!’
He went and surveyed her from the back.
‘Well,’ he said, ‘if I was walking down the street behind
you, I should say: ‘Doesn’t THAT little person fancy her-
self!‘
‘Well, she doesn’t,’ replied Mrs. Morel. ‘She’s not sure it
suits her.’
‘Oh no! she wants to be in dirty black, looking as if she
was wrapped in burnt paper. It DOES suit you, and I say
you look nice.’
She sniffed in her little way, pleased, but pretending to
know better.

1