Page 635 - sons-and-lovers

to be independent.’
‘Yes.
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘I only knew last week.’
‘But I heard a month ago,’ he said.
‘Yes; but nothing was settled then.’
‘I should have thought,’ he said, ‘you’d have told me you
were trying.’
She ate her food in the deliberate, constrained way,
almost as if she recoiled a little from doing anything so pub-
licly, that he knew so well.
‘I suppose you’re glad,’ he said.
‘Very glad.’
‘Yes—it will be something.’
He was rather disappointed.
‘I think it will be a great deal,’ she said, almost haughtily,
resentfully.
He laughed shortly.
‘Why do you think it won’t?’ she asked.
‘Oh, I don’t think it won’t be a great deal. Only you’ll find
earning your own living isn’t everything.’
‘No,’ she said, swallowing with difficulty; ‘I don’t sup-
pose it is.’
‘I suppose work CAN be nearly everything to a man,’ he
said, ‘though it isn’t to me. But a woman only works with a
part of herself. The real and vital part is covered up.’
‘But a man can give ALL himself to work?’ she asked.
‘Yes, practically.’
‘And a woman only the unimportant part of herself?’

Sons and Lovers