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CHAPTER II



         THE BIRTH OF PAUL, AND

         ANOTHER BATTLE






         AFTER such a scene as the last, Walter Morel was for some
         days abashed and ashamed, but he soon regained his old
         bullying  indifference.  Yet  there  was  a  slight  shrinking,  a
         diminishing in his assurance. Physically even, he shrank,
         and his fine full presence waned. He never grew in the least
         stout, so that, as he sank from his erect, assertive bearing,
         his physique seemed to contract along with his pride and
         moral strength.
            But now he realised how hard it was for his wife to drag
         about at her work, and, his sympathy quickened by peni-
         tence,  hastened  forward  with  his  help.  He  came  straight
         home from the pit, and stayed in at evening till Friday, and
         then he could not remain at home. But he was back again by
         ten o’clock, almost quite sober.
            He always made his own breakfast. Being a man who
         rose early and had plenty of time he did not, as some miners
         do, drag his wife out of bed at six o’clock. At five, sometimes
         earlier, he woke, got straight out of bed, and went down-

                                               Sons and Lovers
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