Sons and Lovers - Daimon Club

him tired. He was not sorry when he left her.
She went on the first opportunity to Sheffield to see
her husband. The meeting was not a success. But she left him
roses and fruit and money. She wanted to make restitution.
It was not that she loved him. As she looked at him lying there
her heart did not warm with love. Only she wanted to humble
herself to him, to kneel before him. She wanted now to be
self-sacrificial. After all, she had failed to make Morel really
love her. She was morally frightened. She wanted to do penance.
So she kneeled to Dawes, and it gave him a subtle pleasure.
But the distance between them was still very great--too great.
It frightened the man. It almost pleased the woman. She liked
to feel she was serving him across an insuperable distance.
She was proud now.
Morel went to see Dawes once or twice. There was a sort of
friendship between the two men, who were all the while deadly rivals.
But they never mentioned the woman who was between them.
Mrs. Morel got gradually worse. At first they used to carry
her downstairs, sometimes even into the garden. She sat propped
in her chair, smiling, and so pretty. The gold wedding-ring shone
on her white hand; her hair was carefully brushed. And she watched
the tangled sunflowers dying, the chrysanthemums coming out,