Page 345 - sons-and-lovers

was coming. There was a silence about the youth that made
her still with apprehension. It was not his furies, but his qui-
et resolutions that she feared.
Turning his face a little to one side, so that she could not
see him, he began, speaking slowly and painfully:
‘Do you think—if I didn’t come up so much—you might
get to like somebody else—another man?’
So this was what he was still harping on.
‘But I don’t know any other men. Why do you ask?’ she
replied, in a low tone that should have been a reproach to
him.
‘Why,’ he blurted, ‘because they say I’ve no right to come
up like this—without we mean to marry—-‘
Miriam was indignant at anybody’s forcing the issues
between them. She had been furious with her own father for
suggesting to Paul, laughingly, that he knew why he came
so much.
‘Who says?’ she asked, wondering if her people had any-
thing to do with it. They had not.
‘Mother—and the others. They say at this rate everybody
will consider me engaged, and I ought to consider myself so,
because it’s not fair to you. And I’ve tried to find out—and I
don’t think I love you as a man ought to love his wife. What
do you think about it?’
Miriam bowed her head moodily. She was angry at hav-
ing this struggle. People should leave him and her alone.
‘I don’t know,’ she murmured.
‘Do you think we love each other enough to marry?’ he
asked definitely. It made her tremble.

Sons and Lovers