Page 311 - sons-and-lovers

folding it, he spread it on the floor. It proved to be a curtain
or portiere, beautifully stencilled with a design on roses.
‘Ah, how beautiful!’ she cried.
The spread cloth, with its wonderful reddish roses and
dark green stems, all so simple, and somehow so wicked-
looking, lay at her feet. She went on her knees before it, her
dark curls dropping. He saw her crouched voluptuously
before his work, and his heart beat quickly. Suddenly she
looked up at him.
‘Why does it seem cruel?’ she asked.
‘What?’
‘There seems a feeling of cruelty about it,’ she said.
‘It’s jolly good, whether or not,’ he replied, folding up his
work with a lover’s hands.
She rose slowly, pondering.
‘And what will you do with it?’ she asked.
‘Send it to Liberty’s. I did it for my mother, but I think
she’d rather have the money.’
‘Yes,’ said Miriam. He had spoken with a touch of bit-
terness, and Miriam sympathised. Money would have been
nothing to HER.
He took the cloth back into the parlour. When he
returned he threw to Miriam a smaller piece. It was a cush-
ion-cover with the same design.
‘I did that for you,’ he said.
She fingered the work with trembling hands, and did not
speak. He became embarrassed.
‘By Jove, the bread!’ he cried.
He took the top loaves out, tapped them vigorously. They

10 Sons and Lovers