Page 196 - sons-and-lovers

keep going in the house.’
‘Well, I suppose it is,’ said Mrs. Morel.
Presently the girl came out.
‘Tea is ready, mother,’ she said in a musical, quiet voice.
‘Oh, thank you, Miriam, then we’ll come,’ replied her
mother, almost ingratiatingly. ‘Would you CARE to have
tea now, Mrs. Morel?’
‘Of course,’ said Mrs. Morel. ‘Whenever it’s ready.’
Paul and his mother and Mrs. Leivers had tea together.
Then they went out into the wood that was flooded with
bluebells, while fumy forget-me-nots were in the paths. The
mother and son were in ecstasy together.
When they got back to the house, Mr. Leivers and Edgar,
the eldest son, were in the kitchen. Edgar was about eighteen.
Then Geoffrey and Maurice, big lads of twelve and thirteen,
were in from school. Mr. Leivers was a good-looking man in
the prime of life, with a golden-brown moustache, and blue
eyes screwed up against the weather.
The boys were condescending, but Paul scarcely observed
it. They went round for eggs, scrambling into all sorts of
places. As they were feeding the fowls Miriam came out.
The boys took no notice of her. One hen, with her yellow
chickens, was in a coop. Maurice took his hand full of corn
and let the hen peck from it.
‘Durst you do it?’ he asked of Paul.
‘Let’s see,’ said Paul.
He had a small hand, warm, and rather capable-looking.
Miriam watched. He held the corn to the hen. The bird eyed
it with her hard, bright eye, and suddenly made a peck into

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