Sons and Lovers - Daimon Club

ut he had three days that were all his own, when he was
going to do as he liked. It was sweet to rush
through the morning lanes on his bicycle.
He got to the cottage at about eleven o'clock. Miriam was busy
preparing dinner. She looked so perfectly in keeping with the
little kitchen, ruddy and busy. He kissed her and sat down to watch.
The room was small and cosy. The sofa was covered all over with a
sort of linen in squares of red and pale blue, old, much washed,
but pretty. There was a stuffed owl in a case over a corner cupboard.
The sunlight came through the leaves of the scented geraniums
in the window. She was cooking a chicken in his honour.
It was their cottage for the day, and they were man and wife.
He beat the eggs for her and peeled the potatoes. He thought she
gave a feeling of home almost like his mother; and no one could
look more beautiful, with her tumbled curls, when she was flushed
from the fire.
The dinner was a great success. Like a young husband, he carved.
They talked all the time with unflagging zest. Then he wiped
the dishes she had washed, and they went out down the fields.
There was a bright little brook that ran into a bog at the foot
of a very steep bank. Here they wandered, picking still a few