Page 536 - sons-and-lovers

‘I’m sorry,’ he said; but he did not sound sorry.
He told himself easily: ‘She will come round.’ And she
did.
He told his mother about the fall of Mr. Jordan and the
trial of Dawes. Mrs. Morel watched him closely.
‘And what do you think of it all?’ she asked him.
‘I think he’s a fool,’ he said.
But he was very uncomfortable, nevertheless.
‘Have you ever considered where it will end?’ his mother
said.
‘No,’ he answered; ‘things work out of themselves.’
‘They do, in a way one doesn’t like, as a rule,’ said his
mother.
‘And then one has to put up with them,’ he said.
‘You’ll find you’re not as good at ‘putting up’ as you
imagine,’ she said.
He went on working rapidly at his design.
‘Do you ever ask HER opinion?’ she said at length.
‘What of?’
‘Of you, and the whole thing.’
‘I don’t care what her opinion of me is. She’s fearfully in
love with me, but it’s not very deep.’
‘But quite as deep as your feeling for her.’
He looked up at his mother curiously.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘You know, mother, I think there must be
something the matter with me, that I CAN’T love. When
she’s there, as a rule, I DO love her. Sometimes, when I see
her just as THE WOMAN, I love her, mother; but then,
when she talks and criticises, I often don’t listen to her.’