Page 414 - sons-and-lovers

‘They’re off the little list I’d made to get when my ship
came in.’ He bit his lip.
Fanny was overcome with emotion. She must turn the
conversation.
‘They was all on thorns to do it; they all paid their shares,
all except the Queen of Sheba.’
The Queen of Sheba was Clara.
‘And wouldn’t she join?’ Paul asked.
‘She didn’t get the chance; we never told her; we wasn’t
going to have HER bossing THIS show. We didn’t WANT
her to join.’
Paul laughed at the woman. He was much moved. At last
he must go. She was very close to him. Suddenly she flung
her arms round his neck and kissed him vehemently.
‘I can give you a kiss to-day,’ she said apologetically.
‘You’ve looked so white, it’s made my heart ache.’
Paul kissed her, and left her. Her arms were so pitifully
thin that his heart ached also.
That day he met Clara as he ran downstairs to wash his
hands at dinner-time.
‘You have stayed to dinner!’ he exclaimed. It was unusual
for her.
‘Yes; and I seem to have dined on old surgical-appliance
stock. I MUST go out now, or I shall feel stale india-rubber
right through.’
She lingered. He instantly caught at her wish.
‘You are going anywhere?’ he asked.
They went together up to the Castle. Outdoors she
dressed very plainly, down to ugliness; indoors she always

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