Page 84 - sons-and-lovers

Then he began to get ambitious. He gave all his money
to his mother. When he earned fourteen shillings a week,
she gave him back two for himself, and, as he never drank,
he felt himself rich. He went about with the bourgeois of
Bestwood. The townlet contained nothing higher than the
clergyman. Then came the bank manager, then the doctors,
then the tradespeople, and after that the hosts of colliers.
Willam began to consort with the sons of the chemist, the
schoolmaster, and the tradesmen. He played billiards in the
Mechanics’ Hall. Also he danced—this in spite of his moth-
er. All the life that Bestwood offered he enjoyed, from the
sixpenny-hops down Church Street, to sports and billiards.
Paul was treated to dazzling descriptions of all kinds of
flower-like ladies, most of whom lived like cut blooms in
William’s heart for a brief fortnight.
Occasionally some flame would come in pursuit of her
errant swain. Mrs. Morel would find a strange girl at the
door, and immediately she sniffed the air.
‘Is Mr. Morel in?’ the damsel would ask appealingly.
‘My husband is at home,’ Mrs. Morel replied.
‘I—I mean YOUNG Mr. Morel,’ repeated the maiden
painfully.
‘Which one? There are several.’
Whereupon much blushing and stammering from the
fair one.
‘I—I met Mr. Morel—at Ripley,’ she explained.
‘Oh—at a dance!’
‘Yes.’
‘I don’t approve of the girls my son meets at dances. And