Page 563 - sons-and-lovers

‘And don’t think about it,’ she said—‘only try to go to
sleep. The doctor won’t be here till eleven.’
He had a dislocated shoulder, and the second day acute
bronchitis set in. His mother was pale as death now, and
very thin. She would sit and look at him, then away into
space. There was something between them that neither
dared mention. Clara came to see him. Afterwards he said
to his mother:
‘She makes me tired, mother.’
‘Yes; I wish she wouldn’t come,’ Mrs. Morel replied.
Another day Miriam came, but she seemed almost like a
stranger to him.
‘You know, I don’t care about them, mother,’ he said.
‘I’m afraid you don’t, my son,’ she replied sadly.
It was given out everywhere that it was a bicycle acci-
dent. Soon he was able to go to work again, but now there
was a constant sickness and gnawing at his heart. He went
to Clara, but there seemed, as it were, nobody there. He
could not work. He and his mother seemed almost to avoid
each other. There was some secret between them which they
could not bear. He was not aware of it. He only knew that
his life seemed unbalanced, as if it were going to smash into
pieces.
Clara did not know what was the matter with him. She
realised that he seemed unaware of her. Even when he came
to her he seemed unaware of her; always he was somewhere
else. She felt she was clutching for him, and he was some-
where else. It tortured her, and so she tortured him. For a
month at a time she kept him at arm’s length. He almost

Sons and Lovers