Sons and Lovers - Daimon Club

"All right," he answered.
And when he got back he saw his mother presiding in state at
the breakfast-table. The woman of the house was young. Her husband
was blind, and she did laundry work. So Mrs. Morel always washed
the pots in the kitchen and made the beds.
"But you said you'd have a real holiday," said Paul, "and now
you work."
"Work!" she exclaimed. "What are you talking about!"
He loved to go with her across the fields to the village
and the sea. She was afraid of the plank bridge, and he abused her
for being a baby. On the whole he stuck to her as if he were HER man.
Miriam did not get much of him, except, perhaps, when all the
others went to the "Coons". Coons were insufferably stupid to Miriam,
so he thought they were to himself also, and he preached priggishly
to Annie about the fatuity of listening to them. Yet he, too,
knew all their songs, and sang them along the roads roisterously.
And if he found himself listening, the stupidity pleased him very much.
Yet to Annie he said: