Page 56 - sons-and-lovers

She hated her husband because, whenever he had an
audience, he whined and played for sympathy. William, sit-
ting nursing the baby, hated him, with a boy’s hatred for
false sentiment, and for the stupid treatment of his mother.
Annie had never liked him; she merely avoided him.
When the minister had gone, Mrs. Morel looked at her
cloth.
‘A fine mess!’ she said.
‘Dos’t think I’m goin’ to sit wi’ my arms danglin’, cos
tha’s got a parson for tea wi’ thee?’ he bawled.
They were both angry, but she said nothing. The baby be-
gan to cry, and Mrs. Morel, picking up a saucepan from the
hearth, accidentally knocked Annie on the head, whereup-
on the girl began to whine, and Morel to shout at her. In the
midst of this pandemonium, William looked up at the big
glazed text over the mantelpiece and read distinctly:
‘God Bless Our Home!’
Whereupon Mrs. Morel, trying to soothe the baby,
jumped up, rushed at him, boxed his ears, saying:
‘What are YOU putting in for?’
And then she sat down and laughed, till tears ran over
her cheeks, while William kicked the stool he had been sit-
ting on, and Morel growled:
‘I canna see what there is so much to laugh at.’
One evening, directly after the parson’s visit, feeling
unable to bear herself after another display from her hus-
band, she took Annie and the baby and went out. Morel had
kicked William, and the mother would never forgive him.
She went over the sheep-bridge and across a corner of