Sons and Lovers - Daimon Club

"Was she REALLY getting up when she said she was?" he asked
of Annie.
"Yes, she was," replied Annie.
He waited a while, then went to the stairs again.
"Happy New Year," he called.
"Thank you, Chubby dear!" came the laughing voice, far away.
"Buck up!" he implored.
It was nearly an hour, and still he was waiting for her.
Morel, who always rose before six, looked at the clock.
"Well, it's a winder!" he exclaimed.
The family had breakfasted, all but William. He went
to the foot of the stairs.
"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.
"Have you REALLY been all this time getting ready?" he asked.
"Chubby dear! That question is not permitted, is it,
Mrs. Morel?"
She 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.
And 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.