Page:Sons and Lovers, 1913, Lawrence.djvu/245

Rh “You mean if it is high-class and trained?” he said.

“I think a voice needs training before the singing is anything,” she said.

“You might as well insist on having people’s voices trained before you allowed them to talk,” he replied. “Really, people sing for their own pleasure, as a rule.”

“And it may be for other people’s discomfort.”

“Then the other people should have flaps to their ears,” he replied.

The boys laughed. There was a silence. He flushed deeply, and ate in silence.

After tea, when all the men had gone but Paul, Mrs. Leivers said to Clara:

“And you find life happier now?”

“Infinitely.”

“And you are satisfied?”

“So long as I can be free and independent.”

“And you don’t miss anything in your life?” asked Mrs. Leivers gently.

“I’ve put all that behind me.”

Paul had been feeling uncomfortable during this discourse. He got up.

“You’ll find you’re always tumbling over the things you’ve put behind you,” he said. Then he took his departure to the cowsheds. He felt he had been witty, and his manly pride was high. He whistled as he went down the brick track.

Miriam came for him a little later to know if he would go with Clara and her for a walk. They set off down to Strelley Mill Farm. As they were going beside the brook, on the Willey Water side, looking through the brake at the edge of the wood, where pink campions glowed under a few sunbeams, they saw, beyond the tree-trunks and the thin hazel bushes, a man leading a great bay horse through the gullies. The big red beast seemed to dance romantically through that dimness of green hazel drift, away there where the air was shadowy, as if it were in the past, among the fading bluebells that might have bloomed for Deidre or Iseult.

The three stood charmed.

“What a treat to be a knight,” he said, “and to have a pavilion here.”

“And to have us shut up safely?” replied Clara.

“Yes,” he answered, “singing with your maids at your broidery. I would carry your banner of white and green and