leven."

He had a dislocated shoulder, and the second day acute bronchitis set
in. His mother was pale as death now, and very thin. She would sit and
look at him, then away into space. There was something between them that
neither dared mention. Clara came to see him. Afterwards he said to his
mother:

"She makes me tired, mother."

"Yes; I wish she wouldn't come," Mrs. Morel replied.

Another day Miriam came, but she seemed almost like a stranger to him.

"You know, I don't care about them, mother," he said.

"I'm afraid you don't, my son," she replied sadly.

It was given out everywhere that it was a bicycle accident. Soon he
was able to go to work again, but now there was a constant sickness and
gnawing at his heart. He went to Clara, but there seemed, as it were,
nobody there. He could not work. He and his mother seemed almost to
avoid each other. There was some secret between them which they could
not bear. He was not aware of it. He only knew that his life seemed
unbalanced, as if it were going to smash into pieces.

Clara did not know what was the matter with him. She realised that he
seemed unaware of her. Even when he came to her he seemed unaware of
her; always he was somewhere else. She felt she was clutching for him,
and he was somewhere else. It tortured her, and so she tortured him. For
a month at a time she kept him at arm's length. He almost hated her, and
was driven to her in spite of himself. He went mostly into the company
of men, was always at the George or the White Horse. His mother was ill,
distant, quiet, shadowy. He was terrified of something; he dared not
look at her. Her eyes seemed to grow darker, her face more waxen; still
she dragged about at her work.

At Whitsuntide he said he would go to Blackpool for four days with his
friend Newton. The latter was a big, jolly fellow, with a touch of the
bounder about him. Paul said his mother must go to Sheffield to stay a
week with Annie, who lived there. Perhaps the change would do her good.
Mrs. Morel was attending a woman's doctor in Nottingham. He said her
heart and her digestion were wrong. She consented to go to Sheffield,
though she did not want to; but now she would do everything her son
wished of her. Paul said he would come for her on the fifth day, and
stay also in Sheffield till the holiday was up. It was agreed.

The two young men set off gaily for Blackpool. Mrs. Morel was quite
lively as Paul kissed her and left her. Once at