his mother had lived and did not live? She had been
in one place, and was in another; that was all. And his soul could not
leave her, wherever she was. Now she was gone abroad into the night, and
he was with her still. They were together. But yet there was his body,
his chest, that leaned against the stile, his hands on the wooden bar.
They seemed something. Where was he?--one tiny upright speck of flesh,
less than an ear of wheat lost in the field. He could not bear it.
On every side the immense dark silence seemed pressing him, so tiny
a spark, into extinction, and yet, almost nothing, he could not be
extinct. Night, in which everything was lost, went reaching out, beyond
stars and sun. Stars and sun, a few bright grains, went spinning round
for terror, and holding each other in embrace, there in a darkness
that outpassed them all, and left them tiny and daunted. So much, and
himself, infinitesimal, at the core a nothingness, and yet not nothing.

"Mother!" he whispered--"mother!"

She was the only thing that held him up, himself, amid all this. And
she was gone, intermingled herself. He wanted her to touch him, have him
alongside with her.

But no, he would not give in. Turning sharply, he walked towards the
city's gold phosphorescence. His fists were shut, his mouth set fast. He
would not take that direction, to the darkness, to follow her. He walked
towards the faintly humming, glowing town, quickly.

THE END

End of Project Gutenberg's Sons and Lovers, by David Herbert Lawrence

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SONS AND LOVERS ***

***** This file should be named 217.txt or 217.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/217/

Produced by Alan Charles Veeck, Jr. and David Widger

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless y