Page 583 - sons-and-lovers

‘Have you had a bad time?’ asked Paul.
Suddenly again Dawes looked at him.
‘What are you doing in Sheffield?’ he asked.
‘My mother was taken ill at my sister’s in Thurston Street.
What are you doing here?’
There was no answer.
‘How long have you been in?’ Morel asked.
‘I couldn’t say for sure,’ Dawes answered grudgingly.
He lay staring across at the wall opposite, as if trying to
believe Morel was not there. Paul felt his heart go hard and
angry.
‘Dr. Ansell told me you were here,’ he said coldly.
The other man did not answer.
‘Typhoid’s pretty bad, I know,’ Morel persisted.
Suddenly Dawes said:
‘What did you come for?’
‘Because Dr. Ansell said you didn’t know anybody here.
Do you?’
‘I know nobody nowhere,’ said Dawes.
‘Well,’ said Paul, ‘it’s because you don’t choose to, then.’
There was another silence.
‘We s’ll be taking my mother home as soon as we can,’
said Paul.
‘What’s a-matter with her?’ asked Dawes, with a sick
man’s interest in illness.
‘She’s got a cancer.’
There was another silence.
‘But we want to get her home,’ said Paul. ‘We s’ll have to
get a motor-car.’

Sons and Lovers