Page 523 - sons-and-lovers

CHAPTER XIII

BAXTER DAWES

SOON after Paul had been to the theatre with Clara, he was
drinking in the Punch Bowl with some friends of his when
Dawes came in. Clara’s husband was growing stout; his eye-
lids were getting slack over his brown eyes; he was losing
his healthy firmness of flesh. He was very evidently on the
downward track. Having quarrelled with his sister, he had
gone into cheap lodgings. His mistress had left him for a
man who would marry her. He had been in prison one night
for fighting when he was drunk, and there was a shady bet-
ting episode in which he was concerned.
Paul and he were confirmed enemies, and yet there was
between them that peculiar feeling of intimacy, as if they
were secretly near to each other, which sometimes exists
between two people, although they never speak to one an-
other. Paul often thought of Baxter Dawes, often wanted to
get at him and be friends with him. He knew that Dawes
often thought about him, and that the man was drawn to
him by some bond or other. And yet the two never looked at
each other save in hostility.
Since he was a superior employee at Jordan’s, it was the

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