Page 221 - sons-and-lovers

CHAPTER VII

LAD-AND-GIRL LOVE

PAUL had been many times up to Willey Farm during the
autumn. He was friends with the two youngest boys. Ed-
gar the eldest, would not condescend at first. And Miriam
also refused to be approached. She was afraid of being set
at nought, as by her own brothers. The girl was romantic
in her soul. Everywhere was a Walter Scott heroine being
loved by men with helmets or with plumes in their caps. She
herself was something of a princess turned into a swine-girl
in her own imagination. And she was afraid lest this boy,
who, nevertheless, looked something like a Walter Scott
hero, who could paint and speak French, and knew what
algebra meant, and who went by train to Nottingham every
day, might consider her simply as the swine-girl, unable to
perceive the princess beneath; so she held aloof.
Her great companion was her mother. They were both
brown-eyed, and inclined to be mystical, such women as
treasure religion inside them, breathe it in their nostrils,
and see the whole of life in a mist thereof. So to Miriam,
Christ and God made one great figure, which she loved
tremblingly and passionately when a tremendous sunset

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