Page 578 - sons-and-lovers

Mrs. Morel did not change much. She stayed in Shef-
field for two months. If anything, at the end she was rather
worse. But she wanted to go home. Annie had her children.
Mrs. Morel wanted to go home. So they got a motor-car
from Nottingham—for she was too ill to go by train—and
she was driven through the sunshine. It was just August;
everything was bright and warm. Under the blue sky they
could all see she was dying. Yet she was jollier than she had
been for weeks. They all laughed and talked.
‘Annie,’ she exclaimed, ‘I saw a lizard dart on that rock!’
Her eyes were so quick; she was still so full of life.
Morel knew she was coming. He had the front door
open. Everybody was on tiptoe. Half the street turned out.
They heard the sound of the great motor-car. Mrs. Morel,
smiling, drove home down the street.
‘And just look at them all come out to see me!’ she said.
‘But there, I suppose I should have done the same. How do
you do, Mrs. Mathews? How are you, Mrs. Harrison?’
They none of them could hear, but they saw her smile
and nod. And they all saw death on her face, they said. It
was a great event in the street.
Morel wanted to carry her indoors, but he was too old.
Arthur took her as if she were a child. They had set her a
big, deep chair by the hearth where her rocking-chair used
to stand. When she was unwrapped and seated, and had
drunk a little brandy, she looked round the room.
‘Don’t think I don’t like your house, Annie,’ she said; ‘but
it’s nice to be in my own home again.’
And Morel answered huskily: