Page 240 - sons-and-lovers

were a man. And yet she hated men at the same time.
‘But it’s as well to be a woman as a man,’ he said, frown-
ing.
‘Ha! Is it? Men have everything.’
‘I should think women ought to be as glad to be women
as men are to be men,’ he answered.
‘No!’—she shook her head—‘no! Everything the men
have.’
‘But what do you want?’ he asked.
‘I want to learn. Why SHOULD it be that I know noth-
ing?’
‘What! such as mathematics and French?’
‘Why SHOULDN’T I know mathematics? Yes!’ she cried,
her eye expanding in a kind of defiance.
‘Well, you can learn as much as I know,’ he said. ‘I’ll
teach you, if you like.’
Her eyes dilated. She mistrusted him as teacher.
‘Would you?’ he asked.
Her head had dropped, and she was sucking her finger
broodingly.
‘Yes,’ she said hesitatingly.
He used to tell his mother all these things.
‘I’m going to teach Miriam algebra,’ he said.
‘Well,’ replied Mrs. Morel, ‘I hope she’ll get fat on it.’
When he went up to the farm on the Monday evening,
it was drawing twilight. Miriam was just sweeping up the
kitchen, and was kneeling at the hearth when he entered.
Everyone was out but her. She looked round at him, flushed,
her dark eyes shining, her fine hair falling about her face.