Page 292 - sons-and-lovers

continued the reading till ten o’clock, when they went into
the kitchen, and Paul was natural and jolly again with the
father and mother. His eyes were dark and shining; there
was a kind of fascination about him.
When he went into the barn for his bicycle he found the
front wheel punctured.
‘Fetch me a drop of water in a bowl,’ he said to her. ‘I shall
be late, and then I s’ll catch it.’
He lighted the hurricane lamp, took off his coat, turned
up the bicycle, and set speedily to work. Miriam came
with the bowl of water and stood close to him, watching.
She loved to see his hands doing things. He was slim and
vigorous, with a kind of easiness even in his most hasty
movements. And busy at his work he seemed to forget her.
She loved him absorbedly. She wanted to run her hands
down his sides. She always wanted to embrace him, so long
as he did not want her.
‘There!’ he said, rising suddenly. ‘Now, could you have
done it quicker?’
‘No!’ she laughed.
He straightened himself. His back was towards her.
She put her two hands on his sides, and ran them quickly
down.
‘You are so FINE!’ she said.
He laughed, hating her voice, but his blood roused to a
wave of flame by her hands. She did not seem to realise HIM
in all this. He might have been an object. She never realised
the male he was.
He lighted his bicycle-lamp, bounced the machine on the

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