1Arthur Morel was growing up. He was a quick, careless, impulsive boy, a good deal like his father. He hated study, made a great moan if he had to work, and escaped as soon as possible to his sport again.

2In appearance he remained the flower of the family, being well made, graceful, and full of life. His dark brown hair and fresh colouring, and his exquisite dark blue eyes shaded with long lashes, together with his generous manner and fiery temper, made him a favourite. But as he grew older his temper became uncertain. He flew into rages over nothing, seemed unbearably raw and irritable.

3His mother, whom he loved, wearied of him sometimes. He thought only of himself. When he wanted amusement, all that stood in his way he hated, even if it were she. When he was in trouble he moaned to her ceaselessly.

4“Goodness, boy!” she said, when he groaned about a master who, he said, hated him, “if you don’t like it, alter it, and if you can’t alter it, put up with it.”

5And his father, whom he had loved and who had worshipped him, he came to detest. As he grew older Morel fell into a slow ruin. His body, which had been beautiful in movement and in being, shrank, did not seem to ripen with the years, but to get mean and rather despicable. There came over him a look of meanness and of paltriness. And when the mean-looking elderly man bullied or ordered the boy about, Arthur was furious. Moreover, Morel’s manners got worse and worse, his habits somewhat disgusting. When the children were growing up and in the crucial stage of adolescence, the father was like some ugly irritant to their souls. His manners in the house were the same as he used among the colliers down pit.

6“Dirty nuisance!” Arthur would cry, jumping up and going straight out of the house when his father disgusted him. And Morel persisted the more because his children hated it. He seemed to take a kind of satisfaction in disgusting them, and driving them nearly mad, while they were so irritably sensitive at the age of fourteen or fifteen. So that Arthur, who was growing up when his father was degenerate and elderly, hated him worst of all.

7Then, sometimes, the father would seem to feel the contemptuous hatred of his children.

8“There’s not a man tries harder for his family!” he would shout. “He does his best for them, and then gets treated like a dog. But I’m not going to stand it, I tell you!”

9But for the threat and the fact that he did not try so hard as he imagined, they would have felt sorry. As it was, the battle now went on nearly all between father and children, he persisting in his dirty and disgusting ways, just to assert his independence. They loathed him.

10Arthur was so inflamed and irritable at last, that when he won a scholarship for the Grammar School in Nottingham, his mother decided to let him live in town, with one of her sisters, and only come home at week-ends.

11Annie was still a junior teacher in the Board-school, earning about four shillings a week. But soon she would have fifteen shillings, since she had passed her examination, and there would be financial peace in the house.

12Mrs. Morel clung now to Paul. He was quiet and not brilliant. But still he stuck to his painting, and still he stuck to his mother. Everything he did was for her. She waited for his coming home in the evening, and then she unburdened herself of all she had pondered, or of all that had occurred to her during the day. He sat and listened with his earnestness. The two shared lives.

13William was engaged now to his brunette, and had bought her an engagement ring that cost eight guineas. The children gasped at such a fabulous price.

14“Eight guineas!” said Morel. “More fool him! If he’d gen me some on’t, it ’ud ha’ looked better on ’im.”

15“Given you some of it!” cried Mrs. Morel. “Why give you some of it!”

16She remembered he had bought no engagement ring at all, and she preferred William, who was not mean, if he were foolish. But now the young man talked only of the dances to which he went with his betrothed, and the different resplendent clothes she wore; or he told his mother with glee how they went to the theatre like great swells.

17He wanted to bring the girl home. Mrs. Morel said she should come at the Christmas. This time William arrived with a lady, but with no presents. Mrs. Morel had prepared supper. Hearing footsteps, she rose and went to the door. William entered.

18“Hello, mother!” He kissed her hastily, then stood aside to present a tall, handsome girl, who was wearing a costume of fine black-and-white check, and furs.

19“Here’s Gyp!”

20Miss Western held out her hand and showed her teeth in a small smile.

21“Oh, how do you do, Mrs. Morel!” she exclaimed.

22“I am afraid you will be hungry,” said Mrs. Morel.

23“Oh no, we had dinner in the train. Have you got my gloves, Chubby?”

24William Morel, big and raw-boned, looked at her quickly.

25“How should I?” he said.

26“Then I’ve lost them. Don’t be cross with me.”

27A frown went over his face, but he said nothing. She glanced round the kitchen. It was small and curious to her, with its glittering kissing-bunch, its evergreens behind the pictures, its wooden chairs and little deal table. At that moment Morel came in.

28“Hello, dad!”

29“Hello, my son! Tha’s let on me!”

30The two shook hands, and William presented the lady. She gave the same smile that showed her teeth.

31“How do you do, Mr. Morel?”

32Morel bowed obsequiously.

33“I’m very well, and I hope so are you. You must make yourself very welcome.”

34“Oh, thank you,” she replied, rather amused.

35“You will like to go upstairs,” said Mrs. Morel.

36“If you don’t mind; but not if it is any trouble to you.”

37“It is no trouble. Annie will take you. Walter, carry up this box.”

38“And don’t be an hour dressing yourself up,” said William to his betrothed.

39Annie took a brass candlestick, and, too shy almost to speak, preceded the young lady to the front bedroom, which Mr. and Mrs. Morel had vacated for her. It, too, was small and cold by candlelight. The colliers’ wives only lit fires in bedrooms in case of extreme illness.

40“Shall I unstrap the box?” asked Annie.

41“Oh, thank you very much!”

42Annie played the part of maid, then went downstairs for hot water.

43“I think she’s rather tired, mother,” said William. “It’s a beastly journey, and we had such a rush.”

44“Is there anything I can give her?” asked Mrs. Morel.

45“Oh no, she’ll be all right.”

46But there was a chill in the atmosphere. After half an hour Miss Western came down, having put on a purplish-coloured dress, very fine for the collier’s kitchen.

47“I told you you’d no need to change,” said William to her.

48“Oh, Chubby!” Then she turned with that sweetish smile to Mrs. Morel. “Don’t you think he’s always grumbling, Mrs. Morel?”

49“Is he?” said Mrs. Morel. “That’s not very nice of him.”

50“It isn’t, really!”

51“You are cold,” said the mother. “Won’t you come near the fire?”

52Morel jumped out of his armchair.

53“Come and sit you here!” he cried. “Come and sit you here!”

54“No, dad, keep your own chair. Sit on the sofa, Gyp,” said William.

55“No, no!” cried Morel. “This cheer’s warmest. Come and sit here, Miss Wesson.”

56“Thank you so much,” said the girl, seating herself in the collier’s armchair, the place of honour. She shivered, feeling the warmth of the kitchen penetrate her.

57“Fetch me a hanky, Chubby dear!” she said, putting up her mouth to him, and using the same intimate tone as if they were alone; which made the rest of the family feel as if they ought not to be present. The young lady evidently did not realise them as people: they were creatures to her for the present. William winced.

58In such a household, in Streatham, Miss Western would have been a lady condescending to her inferiors. These people were to her, certainly clownish—in short, the working classes. How was she to adjust herself?

59“I’ll go,” said Annie.

60Miss Western took no notice, as if a servant had spoken. But when the girl came downstairs again with the handkerchief, she said: “Oh, thank you!” in a gracious way.

61She sat and talked about the dinner on the train, which had been so poor; about London, about dances. She was really very nervous, and chattered from fear. Morel sat all the time smoking his thick twist tobacco, watching her, and listening to her glib London speech, as he puffed. Mrs. Morel, dressed up in her best black silk blouse, answered quietly and rather briefly. The three children sat round in silence and admiration. Miss Western was the princess. Everything of the best was got out for her: the best cups, the best spoons, the best table cloth, the best coffee-jug. The children thought she must find it quite grand. She felt strange, not able to realise the people, not knowing how to treat them. William joked, and was slightly uncomfortable.

62At about ten o’clock he said to her:

63“Aren’t you tired, Gyp?”

64“Rather, Chubby,” she answered, at once in the intimate tones and putting her head slightly on one side.

65“I’ll light her the candle, mother,” he said.

66“Very well,” replied the mother.

67Miss Western stood up, held out her hand to Mrs. Morel.

68“Good-night, Mrs. Morel,” she said.

69Paul sat at the boiler, letting the water run from the tap into a stone beer-bottle. Annie swathed the bottle in an old flannel pit-singlet, and kissed her mother good-night. She was to share the room with the lady, because the house was full.

70“You wait a minute,” said Mrs. Morel to Annie. And Annie sat nursing the hot-water bottle. Miss Western shook hands all round, to everybody’s discomfort, and took her departure, preceded by William. In five minutes he was downstairs again. His heart was rather sore; he did not know why. He talked very little till everybody had gone to bed, but himself and his mother. Then he stood with his legs apart, in his old attitude on the hearthrug, and said hesitatingly:

71“Well, mother?”

72“Well, my son?”

73She sat in the rocking-chair, feeling somehow hurt and humiliated, for his sake.

74“Do you like her?”

75“Yes,” came the slow answer.

76“She’s shy yet, mother. She’s not used to it. It’s different from her aunt’s house, you know.”

77“Of course it is, my boy; and she must find it difficult.”

78“She does.” Then he frowned swiftly. “If only she wouldn’t put on her blessed airs!”

79“It’s only her first awkwardness, my boy. She’ll be all right.”

80“That’s it, mother,” he replied gratefully. But his brow was gloomy. “You know, she’s not like you, mother. She’s not serious, and she can’t think.”

81“She’s young, my boy.”

82“Yes; and she’s had no sort of show. Her mother died when she was a child. Since then she’s lived with her aunt, whom she can’t bear. And her father was a rake. She’s had no love.”

83“No! Well, you must make up to her.”

84“And so—you have to forgive her a lot of things.”

85“What do you have to forgive her, my boy?”

86“I dunno. When she seems shallow, you have to remember she’s never had anybody to bring her deeper side out. And she’s fearfully fond of me.”

87“Anybody can see that.”

88“But you know, mother—she’s—she’s different from us. Those sort of people, like those she lives amongst, they don’t seem to have the same principles.”

89“You mustn’t judge too hastily,” said Mrs. Morel.

90But he seemed uneasy within himself.

91In the morning, however, he was up singing and larking round the house.

92“Hello!” he called, sitting on the stairs. “Are you getting up?”

93“Yes,” her voice called faintly.

94“Merry Christmas!” he shouted to her.

95Her laugh, pretty and tinkling, was heard in the bedroom. She did not come down in half an hour.

96“Was she really getting up when she said she was?” he asked of Annie.

97“Yes, she was,” replied Annie.

98He waited a while, then went to the stairs again.

99“Happy New Year,” he called.

100“Thank you, Chubby dear!” came the laughing voice, far away.

101“Buck up!” he implored.

102It was nearly an hour, and still he was waiting for her. Morel, who always rose before six, looked at the clock.

103“Well, it’s a winder!” he exclaimed.

104The family had breakfasted, all but William. He went to the foot of the stairs.

105“Shall I have to send you an Easter egg up there?” he called, rather crossly. She only laughed. The family expected, after that time of preparation, something like magic. At last she came, looking very nice in a blouse and skirt.

106“Have you really been all this time getting ready?” he asked.

107“Chubby dear! That question is not permitted, is it, Mrs. Morel?”

108She played the grand lady at first. When she went with William to chapel, he in his frock-coat and silk hat, she in her furs and London-made costume, Paul and Arthur and Annie expected everybody to bow to the ground in admiration. And Morel, standing in his Sunday suit at the end of the road, watching the gallant pair go, felt he was the father of princes and princesses.

109And yet she was not so grand. For a year now she had been a sort of secretary or clerk in a London office. But while she was with the Morels she queened it. She sat and let Annie or Paul wait on her as if they were her servants. She treated Mrs. Morel with a certain glibness and Morel with patronage. But after a day or so she began to change her tune.

110William always wanted Paul or Annie to go along with them on their walks. It was so much more interesting. And Paul really did admire “Gipsy” wholeheartedly; in fact, his mother scarcely forgave the boy for the adulation with which he treated the girl.

111On the second day, when Lily said: “Oh, Annie, do you know where I left my muff?” William replied:

112“You know it is in your bedroom. Why do you ask Annie?”

113And Lily went upstairs with a cross, shut mouth. But it angered the young man that she made a servant of his sister.

114On the third evening William and Lily were sitting together in the parlour by the fire in the dark. At a quarter to eleven Mrs. Morel was heard raking the fire. William came out to the kitchen, followed by his beloved.

115“Is it as late as that, mother?” he said. She had been sitting alone.

116“It is not late, my boy, but it is as late as I usually sit up.”

117“Won’t you go to bed, then?” he asked.

118“And leave you two? No, my boy, I don’t believe in it.”

119“Can’t you trust us, mother?”

120“Whether I can or not, I won’t do it. You can stay till eleven if you like, and I can read.”

121“Go to bed, Gyp,” he said to his girl. “We won’t keep mater waiting.”

122“Annie has left the candle burning, Lily,” said Mrs. Morel; “I think you will see.”

123“Yes, thank you. Good-night, Mrs. Morel.”

124William kissed his sweetheart at the foot of the stairs, and she went. He returned to the kitchen.

125“Can’t you trust us, mother?” he repeated, rather offended.

126“My boy, I tell you I don’t believe in leaving two young things like you alone downstairs when everyone else is in bed.”

127And he was forced to take this answer. He kissed his mother good-night.

128At Easter he came over alone. And then he discussed his sweetheart endlessly with his mother.

129“You know, mother, when I’m away from her I don’t care for her a bit. I shouldn’t care if I never saw her again. But, then, when I’m with her in the evenings I am awfully fond of her.”

130“It’s a queer sort of love to marry on,” said Mrs. Morel, “if she holds you no more than that!”

131“It is funny!” he exclaimed. It worried and perplexed him. “But yet—there’s so much between us now I couldn’t give her up.”

132“You know best,” said Mrs. Morel. “But if it is as you say, I wouldn’t call it love—at any rate, it doesn’t look much like it.”

133“Oh, I don’t know, mother. She’s an orphan, and—”

134They never came to any sort of conclusion. He seemed puzzled and rather fretted. She was rather reserved. All his strength and money went in keeping this girl. He could scarcely afford to take his mother to Nottingham when he came over.

135Paul’s wages had been raised at Christmas to ten shillings, to his great joy. He was quite happy at Jordan’s, but his health suffered from the long hours and the confinement. His mother, to whom he became more and more significant, thought how to help.

136His half-day holiday was on Monday afternoon. On a Monday morning in May, as the two sat alone at breakfast, she said:

137“I think it will be a fine day.”

138He looked up in surprise. This meant something.

139“You know Mr. Leivers has gone to live on a new farm. Well, he asked me last week if I wouldn’t go and see Mrs. Leivers, and I promised to bring you on Monday if it’s fine. Shall we go?”

140“I say, little woman, how lovely!” he cried. “And we’ll go this afternoon?”

141Paul hurried off to the station jubilant. Down Derby Road was a cherry-tree that glistened. The old brick wall by the Statutes ground burned scarlet, spring was a very flame of green. And the steep swoop of highroad lay, in its cool morning dust, splendid with patterns of sunshine and shadow, perfectly still. The trees sloped their great green shoulders proudly; and inside the warehouse all the morning, the boy had a vision of spring outside.

142When he came home at dinner-time his mother was rather excited.

143“Are we going?” he asked.

144“When I’m ready,” she replied.

145Presently he got up.

146“Go and get dressed while I wash up,” he said.

147She did so. He washed the pots, straightened, and then took her boots. They were quite clean. Mrs. Morel was one of those naturally exquisite people who can walk in mud without dirtying their shoes. But Paul had to clean them for her. They were kid boots at eight shillings a pair. He, however, thought them the most dainty boots in the world, and he cleaned them with as much reverence as if they had been flowers.

148Suddenly she appeared in the inner doorway rather shyly. She had got a new cotton blouse on. Paul jumped up and went forward.

149“Oh, my stars!” he exclaimed. “What a bobby-dazzler!”

150She sniffed in a little haughty way, and put her head up.

151“It’s not a bobby-dazzler at all!” she replied. “It’s very quiet.”

152She walked forward, whilst he hovered round her.

153“Well,” she asked, quite shy, but pretending to be high and mighty, “do you like it?”

154“Awfully! You are a fine little woman to go jaunting out with!”

155He went and surveyed her from the back.

156“Well,” he said, “if I was walking down the street behind you, I should say: ‘Doesn’t that little person fancy herself!”’

157“Well, she doesn’t,” replied Mrs. Morel. “She’s not sure it suits her.”

158“Oh no! she wants to be in dirty black, looking as if she was wrapped in burnt paper. It does suit you, and I say you look nice.”

159She sniffed in her little way, pleased, but pretending to know better.

160“Well,” she said, “it’s cost me just three shillings. You couldn’t have got it ready-made for that price, could you?”

161“I should think you couldn’t,” he replied.

162“And, you know, it’s good stuff.”

163“Awfully pretty,” he said.

164The blouse was white, with a little sprig of heliotrope and black.

165“Too young for me, though, I’m afraid,” she said.

166“Too young for you!” he exclaimed in disgust. “Why don’t you buy some false white hair and stick it on your head.”

167“I s’ll soon have no need,” she replied. “I’m going white fast enough.”

168“Well, you’ve no business to,” he said. “What do I want with a white-haired mother?”

169“I’m afraid you’ll have to put up with one, my lad,” she said rather strangely.

170They set off in great style, she carrying the umbrella William had given her, because of the sun. Paul was considerably taller than she, though he was not big. He fancied himself.

171On the fallow land the young wheat shone silkily. Minton pit waved its plumes of white steam, coughed, and rattled hoarsely.

172“Now look at that!” said Mrs. Morel. Mother and son stood on the road to watch. Along the ridge of the great pit-hill crawled a little group in silhouette against the sky, a horse, a small truck, and a man. They climbed the incline against the heavens. At the end the man tipped the wagon. There was an undue rattle as the waste fell down the sheer slope of the enormous bank.

173“You sit a minute, mother,” he said, and she took a seat on a bank, whilst he sketched rapidly. She was silent whilst he worked, looking round at the afternoon, the red cottages shining among their greenness.

174“The world is a wonderful place,” she said, “and wonderfully beautiful.”

175“And so’s the pit,” he said. “Look how it heaps together, like something alive almost—a big creature that you don’t know.”

176“Yes,” she said. “Perhaps!”

177“And all the trucks standing waiting, like a string of beasts to be fed,” he said.

178“And very thankful I am they are standing,” she said, “for that means they’ll turn middling time this week.”

179“But I like the feel of men on things, while they’re alive. There’s a feel of men about trucks, because they’ve been handled with men’s hands, all of them.”

180“Yes,” said Mrs. Morel.

181They went along under the trees of the highroad. He was constantly informing her, but she was interested. They passed the end of Nethermere, that was tossing its sunshine like petals lightly in its lap. Then they turned on a private road, and in some trepidation approached a big farm. A dog barked furiously. A woman came out to see.

182“Is this the way to Willey Farm?” Mrs. Morel asked.

183Paul hung behind in terror of being sent back. But the woman was amiable, and directed them. The mother and son went through the wheat and oats, over a little bridge into a wild meadow. Peewits, with their white breasts glistening, wheeled and screamed about them. The lake was still and blue. High overhead a heron floated. Opposite, the wood heaped on the hill, green and still.

184“It’s a wild road, mother,” said Paul. “Just like Canada.”

185“Isn’t it beautiful!” said Mrs. Morel, looking round.

186“See that heron—see—see her legs?”

187He directed his mother, what she must see and what not. And she was quite content.

188“But now,” she said, “which way? He told me through the wood.”

189The wood, fenced and dark, lay on their left.

190“I can feel a bit of a path this road,” said Paul. “You’ve got town feet, somehow or other, you have.”

191They found a little gate, and soon were in a broad green alley of the wood, with a new thicket of fir and pine on one hand, an old oak glade dipping down on the other. And among the oaks the bluebells stood in pools of azure, under the new green hazels, upon a pale fawn floor of oak-leaves. He found flowers for her.

192“Here’s a bit of new-mown hay,” he said; then, again, he brought her forget-me-nots. And, again, his heart hurt with love, seeing her hand, used with work, holding the little bunch of flowers he gave her. She was perfectly happy.

193But at the end of the riding was a fence to climb. Paul was over in a second.

194“Come,” he said, “let me help you.”

195“No, go away. I will do it in my own way.”

196He stood below with his hands up ready to help her. She climbed cautiously.

197“What a way to climb!” he exclaimed scornfully, when she was safely to earth again.

198“Hateful stiles!” she cried.

199“Duffer of a little woman,” he replied, “who can’t get over ’em.”

200In front, along the edge of the wood, was a cluster of low red farm buildings. The two hastened forward. Flush with the wood was the apple orchard, where blossom was falling on the grindstone. The pond was deep under a hedge and overhanging oak trees. Some cows stood in the shade. The farm and buildings, three sides of a quadrangle, embraced the sunshine towards the wood. It was very still.

201Mother and son went into the small railed garden, where was a scent of red gillivers. By the open door were some floury loaves, put out to cool. A hen was just coming to peck them. Then, in the doorway suddenly appeared a girl in a dirty apron. She was about fourteen years old, had a rosy dark face, a bunch of short black curls, very fine and free, and dark eyes; shy, questioning, a little resentful of the strangers, she disappeared. In a minute another figure appeared, a small, frail woman, rosy, with great dark brown eyes.

202“Oh!” she exclaimed, smiling with a little glow, “you’ve come, then. I am glad to see you.” Her voice was intimate and rather sad.

203The two women shook hands.

204“Now are you sure we’re not a bother to you?” said Mrs. Morel. “I know what a farming life is.”

205“Oh no! We’re only too thankful to see a new face, it’s so lost up here.”

206“I suppose so,” said Mrs. Morel.

207They were taken through into the parlour—a long, low room, with a great bunch of guelder-roses in the fireplace. There the women talked, whilst Paul went out to survey the land. He was in the garden smelling the gillivers and looking at the plants, when the girl came out quickly to the heap of coal which stood by the fence.

208“I suppose these are cabbage-roses?” he said to her, pointing to the bushes along the fence.

209She looked at him with startled, big brown eyes.

210“I suppose they are cabbage-roses when they come out?” he said.

211“I don’t know,” she faltered. “They’re white with pink middles.”

212“Then they’re maiden-blush.”

213Miriam flushed. She had a beautiful warm colouring.

214“I don’t know,” she said.

215“You don’t have much in your garden,” he said.

216“This is our first year here,” she answered, in a distant, rather superior way, drawing back and going indoors. He did not notice, but went his round of exploration. Presently his mother came out, and they went through the buildings. Paul was hugely delighted.

217“And I suppose you have the fowls and calves and pigs to look after?” said Mrs. Morel to Mrs. Leivers.

218“No,” replied the little woman. “I can’t find time to look after cattle, and I’m not used to it. It’s as much as I can do to keep going in the house.”

219“Well, I suppose it is,” said Mrs. Morel.

220Presently the girl came out.

221“Tea is ready, mother,” she said in a musical, quiet voice.

222“Oh, thank you, Miriam, then we’ll come,” replied her mother, almost ingratiatingly. “Would you care to have tea now, Mrs. Morel?”

223“Of course,” said Mrs. Morel. “Whenever it’s ready.”

224Paul and his mother and Mrs. Leivers had tea together. Then they went out into the wood that was flooded with bluebells, while fumy forget-me-nots were in the paths. The mother and son were in ecstasy together.

225When they got back to the house, Mr. Leivers and Edgar, the eldest son, were in the kitchen. Edgar was about eighteen. Then Geoffrey and Maurice, big lads of twelve and thirteen, were in from school. Mr. Leivers was a good-looking man in the prime of life, with a golden-brown moustache, and blue eyes screwed up against the weather.

226The boys were condescending, but Paul scarcely observed it. They went round for eggs, scrambling into all sorts of places. As they were feeding the fowls Miriam came out. The boys took no notice of her. One hen, with her yellow chickens, was in a coop. Maurice took his hand full of corn and let the hen peck from it.

227“Durst you do it?” he asked of Paul.

228“Let’s see,” said Paul.

229He had a small hand, warm, and rather capable-looking. Miriam watched. He held the corn to the hen. The bird eyed it with her hard, bright eye, and suddenly made a peck into his hand. He started, and laughed. “Rap, rap, rap!” went the bird’s beak in his palm. He laughed again, and the other boys joined.

230“She knocks you, and nips you, but she never hurts,” said Paul, when the last corn had gone. “Now, Miriam,” said Maurice, “you come an ’ave a go.”

231“No,” she cried, shrinking back.

232“Ha! baby. The mardy-kid!” said her brothers.

233“It doesn’t hurt a bit,” said Paul. “It only just nips rather nicely.”

234“No,” she still cried, shaking her black curls and shrinking.

235“She dursn’t,” said Geoffrey. “She niver durst do anything except recite poitry.”

236“Dursn’t jump off a gate, dursn’t tweedle, dursn’t go on a slide, dursn’t stop a girl hittin’ her. She can do nowt but go about thinkin’ herself somebody. ‘The Lady of the Lake.’ Yah!” cried Maurice.

237Miriam was crimson with shame and misery.

238“I dare do more than you,” she cried. “You’re never anything but cowards and bullies.”

239“Oh, cowards and bullies!” they repeated mincingly, mocking her speech.

240“Not such a clown shall anger me,

241A boor is answered silently”

242he quoted against her, shouting with laughter.

243She went indoors. Paul went with the boys into the orchard, where they had rigged up a parallel bar. They did feats of strength. He was more agile than strong, but it served. He fingered a piece of apple-blossom that hung low on a swinging bough.

244“I wouldn’t get the apple-blossom,” said Edgar, the eldest brother. “There’ll be no apples next year.”

245“I wasn’t going to get it,” replied Paul, going away.

246The boys felt hostile to him; they were more interested in their own pursuits. He wandered back to the house to look for his mother. As he went round the back, he saw Miriam kneeling in front of the hen-coop, some maize in her hand, biting her lip, and crouching in an intense attitude. The hen was eyeing her wickedly. Very gingerly she put forward her hand. The hen bobbed for her. She drew back quickly with a cry, half of fear, half of chagrin.

247“It won’t hurt you,” said Paul.

248She flushed crimson and started up.

249“I only wanted to try,” she said in a low voice.

250“See, it doesn’t hurt,” he said, and, putting only two corns in his palm, he let the hen peck, peck, peck at his bare hand. “It only makes you laugh,” he said.

251She put her hand forward and dragged it away, tried again, and started back with a cry. He frowned.

252“Why, I’d let her take corn from my face,” said Paul, “only she bumps a bit. She’s ever so neat. If she wasn’t, look how much ground she’d peck up every day.”

253He waited grimly, and watched. At last Miriam let the bird peck from her hand. She gave a little cry—fear, and pain because of fear—rather pathetic. But she had done it, and she did it again.

254“There, you see,” said the boy. “It doesn’t hurt, does it?”

255She looked at him with dilated dark eyes.

256“No,” she laughed, trembling.

257Then she rose and went indoors. She seemed to be in some way resentful of the boy.

258“He thinks I’m only a common girl,” she thought, and she wanted to prove she was a grand person like the “Lady of the Lake”.

259Paul found his mother ready to go home. She smiled on her son. He took the great bunch of flowers. Mr. and Mrs. Leivers walked down the fields with them. The hills were golden with evening; deep in the woods showed the darkening purple of bluebells. It was everywhere perfectly stiff, save for the rustling of leaves and birds.

260“But it is a beautiful place,” said Mrs. Morel.

261“Yes,” answered Mr. Leivers; “it’s a nice little place, if only it weren’t for the rabbits. The pasture’s bitten down to nothing. I dunno if ever I s’ll get the rent off it.”

262He clapped his hands, and the field broke into motion near the woods, brown rabbits hopping everywhere.

263“Would you believe it!” exclaimed Mrs. Morel.

264She and Paul went on alone together.

265“Wasn’t it lovely, mother?” he said quietly.

266A thin moon was coming out. His heart was full of happiness till it hurt. His mother had to chatter, because she, too, wanted to cry with happiness.

267“Now wouldn’t I help that man!” she said. “Wouldn’t I see to the fowls and the young stock! And I’d learn to milk, and I’d talk with him, and I’d plan with him. My word, if I were his wife, the farm would be run, I know! But there, she hasn’t the strength—she simply hasn’t the strength. She ought never to have been burdened like it, you know. I’m sorry for her, and I’m sorry for him too. My word, if I’d had him, I shouldn’t have thought him a bad husband! Not that she does either; and she’s very lovable.”

268William came home again with his sweetheart at the Whitsuntide. He had one week of his holidays then. It was beautiful weather. As a rule, William and Lily and Paul went out in the morning together for a walk. William did not talk to his beloved much, except to tell her things from his boyhood. Paul talked endlessly to both of them. They lay down, all three, in a meadow by Minton Church. On one side, by the Castle Farm, was a beautiful quivering screen of poplars. Hawthorn was dropping from the hedges; penny daisies and ragged robin were in the field, like laughter. William, a big fellow of twenty-three, thinner now and even a bit gaunt, lay back in the sunshine and dreamed, while she fingered with his hair. Paul went gathering the big daisies. She had taken off her hat; her hair was black as a horse’s mane. Paul came back and threaded daisies in her jet-black hair—big spangles of white and yellow, and just a pink touch of ragged robin.

269“Now you look like a young witch-woman,” the boy said to her. “Doesn’t she, William?”

270Lily laughed. William opened his eyes and looked at her. In his gaze was a certain baffled look of misery and fierce appreciation.

271“Has he made a sight of me?” she asked, laughing down on her lover.

272“That he has!” said William, smiling.

273He looked at her. Her beauty seemed to hurt him. He glanced at her flower-decked head and frowned.

274“You look nice enough, if that’s what you want to know,” he said.

275And she walked without her hat. In a little while William recovered, and was rather tender to her. Coming to a bridge, he carved her initials and his in a heart.

276heart

277She watched his strong, nervous hand, with its glistening hairs and freckles, as he carved, and she seemed fascinated by it.

278All the time there was a feeling of sadness and warmth, and a certain tenderness in the house, whilst William and Lily were at home. But often he got irritable. She had brought, for an eight-days’ stay, five dresses and six blouses.

279“Oh, would you mind,” she said to Annie, “washing me these two blouses, and these things?”

280And Annie stood washing when William and Lily went out the next morning. Mrs. Morel was furious. And sometimes the young man, catching a glimpse of his sweetheart’s attitude towards his sister, hated her.

281On Sunday morning she looked very beautiful in a dress of foulard, silky and sweeping, and blue as a jay-bird’s feather, and in a large cream hat covered with many roses, mostly crimson. Nobody could admire her enough. But in the evening, when she was going out, she asked again:

282“Chubby, have you got my gloves?”

283“Which?” asked William.

284“My new black suède.”

285“No.”

286There was a hunt. She had lost them.

287“Look here, mother,” said William, “that’s the fourth pair she’s lost since Christmas—at five shillings a pair!”

288“You only gave me two of them,” she remonstrated.

289And in the evening, after supper, he stood on the hearthrug whilst she sat on the sofa, and he seemed to hate her. In the afternoon he had left her whilst he went to see some old friend. She had sat looking at a book. After supper William wanted to write a letter.

290“Here is your book, Lily,” said Mrs. Morel. “Would you care to go on with it for a few minutes?”

291“No, thank you,” said the girl. “I will sit still.”

292“But it is so dull.”

293William scribbled irritably at a great rate. As he sealed the envelope he said:

294“Read a book! Why, she’s never read a book in her life.”

295“Oh, go along!” said Mrs. Morel, cross with the exaggeration,

296“It’s true, mother—she hasn’t,” he cried, jumping up and taking his old position on the hearthrug. “She’s never read a book in her life.”

297“’Er’s like me,” chimed in Morel. “’Er canna see what there is i’ books, ter sit borin’ your nose in ’em for, nor more can I.”

298“But you shouldn’t say these things,” said Mrs. Morel to her son.

299“But it’s true, mother—she can’t read. What did you give her?”