Page 585 - sons-and-lovers

ery and helplessness in Paul’s tone gave him a feeling of
relief.
‘Is she far gone?’ he asked.
‘She’s going like wax,’ Paul answered; ‘but cheerful—
lively!’
He bit his lip. After a minute he rose.
‘Well, I’ll be going,’ he said. ‘I’ll leave you this half-
crown.’
‘I don’t want it,’ Dawes muttered.
Morel did not answer, but left the coin on the table.
‘Well,’ he said, ‘I’ll try and run in when I’m back in Shef-
field. Happen you might like to see my brother-in-law? He
works in Pyecrofts.’
‘I don’t know him,’ said Dawes.
‘He’s all right. Should I tell him to come? He might bring
you some papers to look at.’
The other man did not answer. Paul went. The strong
emotion that Dawes aroused in him, repressed, made him
shiver.
He did not tell his mother, but next day he spoke to Clara
about this interview. It was in the dinner-hour. The two did
not often go out together now, but this day he asked her to
go with him to the Castle grounds. There they sat while the
scarlet geraniums and the yellow calceolarias blazed in the
sunlight. She was now always rather protective, and rather
resentful towards him.
‘Did you know Baxter was in Sheffield Hospital with ty-
phoid?’ he asked.
She looked at him with startled grey eyes, and her face

Sons and Lovers