Page 465 - sons-and-lovers

them. The next evening he went to the cinematograph with
her for a few minutes before train-time. As they sat, he saw
her hand lying near him. For some moments he dared not
touch it. The pictures danced and dithered. Then he took
her hand in his. It was large and firm; it filled his grasp. He
held it fast. She neither moved nor made any sign. When
they came out his train was due. He hesitated.
‘Good-night,’ she said. He darted away across the road.
The next day he came again, talking to her. She was rath-
er superior with him.
‘Shall we go a walk on Monday?’ he asked.
She turned her face aside.
‘Shall you tell Miriam?’ she replied sarcastically.
‘I have broken off with her,’ he said.
‘When?’
‘Last Sunday.’
‘You quarrelled?’
‘No! I had made up my mind. I told her quite definitely I
should consider myself free.’
Clara did not answer, and he returned to his work. She
was so quiet and so superb!
On the Saturday evening he asked her to come and drink
coffee with him in a restaurant, meeting him after work was
over. She came, looking very reserved and very distant. He
had three-quarters of an hour to train-time.
‘We will walk a little while,’ he said.
She agreed, and they went past the Castle into the Park.
He was afraid of her. She walked moodily at his side, with
a kind of resentful, reluctant, angry walk. He was afraid to

Sons and Lovers