"Why?" she said.
"I suppose you thought he was a lily of the valley, and soyou put him in an appropriate pot, and tended him according. You made up your mind he was a lily of the valley and it was nogood his being a cow-parsnip. You wouldn't have it."
"I certainly never imagined him a lily of the valley."
"You imagined him something he wasn't. That's just what a woman is. She thinks she knows what's good for a man, and she's going to seehe gets it; and no matter if he's starving, he may sit and whistlefor what he needs, while she's got him, and is giving him what'sgood for him."
"And what are you doing?" she asked.
"I'm thinking what tune I shall whistle," he laughed.
And instead of boxing his ears, she considered him in earnest.
"You think I want to give you what's good for you?" she asked.
"I hope so; but love should give a sense of freedom,not of prison. Miriam made me feel tied up like a donkey to a stake. I must feed on her patch, and nowhere else. It's sickening!"
"And would YOU let a WOMAN do as she likes?"
"Yes; I'll see that she likes to love me. If she doesn't--well,I don't hold her."
"If you were as wonderful as you say---," replied Clara.
"I should be the marvel I am," he laughed.
There was a silence in which they hated each other,though they laughed.
"Love's a dog in a manger," he said.
"And which of us is the dog?" she asked.
"Oh well, you, of course."
So there went on a battle between them. She knew she never fullyhad him. Some part, big and vital in him, she had no hold over;nor did she ever try to get it, or even to realise what it was. And he knew in some way that she held herself still as Mrs. Dawes. She did not love Dawes, never had loved him; but she believed heloved her, at least depended on her. She felt a certain suretyabout him that she never felt with Paul Morel. Her passionfor the young man had filled her soul, given her a certainsatisfaction, eased her of her self-mistrust, her doubt. Whatever else she was, she was inwardly assured. It was almostas if she had gained HERSELF, and stood now distinct and complete. She had received her confirmation; but she never believed that herlife belonged to Paul Morel, nor his to her. They would separatein the end, and the rest of her life would be an ache after him. But at any rate, she knew now, she was sure of herself. And thesame could almost be said of him. Together they had receivedthe baptism of life, each through the other; but now their missionswere separate. Where he wanted to go she could not come with him. They would have to part sooner or later. Even if they married,and were faithful to each other, still he would have to leave her,go on alone, and she would only have to attend to him when hecame home. But it was not possible. Each wanted a mate to go sideby side with.
Clara had gone to live with her mother upon Mapperley Plains. One evening, as Paul and she were walking along Woodborough Road,they met Dawes. Morel knew something about the bearing of theman approaching, but he was absorbed in his thinking at the moment,so that only his artist's eye watched the form of the stranger. Then he suddenly turned to Clara with a laugh, and put his hand onher shoulder, saying, laughing:
"But we walk side by side, and yet I'm in London arguingwith an imaginary Orpen; and where are you?"
At that instant Dawes passed, almost touching Morel. The young man glanced, saw the dark brown eyes burning, full of hateand yet tired.
"Who was that?" he asked of Clara.
"It was Baxter," she replied.
Paul took his hand from her shoulder and glanced round;then he saw again distinctly the man's form as it approached him. Dawes still walked erect, with his fine shoulders flung back, and hisface lifted; but there was a furtive look in his eyes that gaveone the impression he was trying to get unnoticed past every personhe met, glancing suspiciously to see what they thought of him. And his hands seemed to be wanting to hide. He wore old clothes,the trousers were torn at the knee, and the handkerchief tied roundhis throat was dirty; but his cap was still defiantly over one eye. As she saw him, Clara felt guilty. There was a tiredness and despairon his face that made her hate him, because it hurt her.
"He looks shady," said Paul.
But the note of pity in his voice reproached her, and madeher feel hard.
"His true commonness comes out," she answered.
"Do you hate him?" he asked.
"You talk," she said, "about the cruelty of women; I wish youknew the cruelty of men in their brute force. They simply don'tknow that the woman exists."
"Don't I?" he said.
"No," she answered.
"Don't I know you exist?"
"About ME you know nothing," she said bitterly--"about ME!"
"No more than Baxter knew?" he asked.
"Perhaps not as much."
He felt puzzled, and helpless, and angry. There she walkedunknown to him, though they had been through such experience together.
"But you know ME pretty well," he said.
She did not answer.
"Did you know Baxter as well as you know me?" he asked.
"He wouldn't let me," she said.
"And I have let you know me?"
"It's what men WON'T let you do. They won't let you getreally near to them," she said.
"And haven't I let you?"
"Yes," she answered slowly; "but you've never come near to me. You can't come out of yourself, you can't. Baxter could do that betterthan you."
He walked on pondering. He was angry with her for preferingBaxter to him.
"You begin to value Baxter now you've not got him," he said.
"No; I can only see where he was different from you."
But he felt she had a grudge against him.
One evening, as they were coming home over the fields,she startled him by asking:
"Do you think it's worth it--the--the sex part?"
"The act of loving, itself?"
"Yes; is it worth anything to you?"
"But how can you separate it?" he said. "It's the culminationof everything. All our intimacy culminates then."
"Not for me," she said.
He was silent. A flash of hate for her came up. After all,she was dissatisfied with him, even there, where he thought theyfulfilled each other. But he believed her too implicitly.
"I feel," she continued slowly, "as if I hadn't got you,as if all of you weren't there, and as if it weren't ME you were taking---"
"Who, then?"
"Something just for yourself. It has been fine, so that Idaren't think of it. But is it ME you want, or is it IT?"
He again felt guilty. Did he leave Clara out of count,and take simply women? But he thought that was splitting a hair.
"When I had Baxter, actually had him, then I DID feel as if Ihad all of him," she said.
"And it was better?" he asked.
"Yes, yes; it was more whole. I don't say you haven't givenme more than he ever gave me."
"Or could give you."
"Yes, perhaps; but you've never given me yourself."
He knitted his brows angrily.
"If I start to make love to you," he said, "I just go likea leaf down the wind."
"And leave me out of count," she said.
"And then is it nothing to you?" he asked, almost rigidwith chagrin.
"It's something; and sometimes you have carried me away--rightaway--I know--and--I reverence you for it--but---"
"Don't 'but' me," he said, kissing her quickly, as a fire ranthrough him.
She submitted, and was silent.
CHAPTER XIII
BAXTER DAWES（III）
It was true as he said. As a rule, when he started love-making,the emotion was strong enough to carry with it everything--reason, soul,blood--in a great sweep, like the Trent carries bodily its back-swirlsand intertwinings, noiselessly. Gradually the little criticisms,the little sensations, were lost, thought also went, everything bornealong in one flood. He became, not a man with a mind, but agreat instinct. His hands were like creatures, living; his limbs,his body, were all life and consciousness, subject to no will of his,but living in themselves. Just as he was, so it seemed the vigorous,wintry stars were strong also with life. He and they struck withthe same pulse of fire, and the same joy of strength which heldthe bracken-frond stiff near his eyes held his own body firm. It was as if he, and the stars, and the dark herbage, and Clarawere licked up in an immense tongue of flame, which tore onwardsand upwards. Everything rushed along in living beside him;everything was still, perfect in itself, along with him. This wonderful stillness in each thing in itself, while it was beingborne along in a very ecstasy of living, seemed the highest pointof bliss.
And Clara knew this held him to her, so she trusted altogetherto the passion. It, however, failed her very often. They didnot often reach again the height of that once when the peewitshad called. Gradually, some mechanical effort spoilt their loving,or, when they had splendid moments, they had them separately,and not so satisfactorily. So often he seemed merely to be runningon alone; often they realised it had been a failure, not what theyhad wanted. He left her, knowing THAT evening had only madea little split between them. Their loving grew more mechanical,without the marvellous glamour. Gradually they began to introducenovelties, to get back some of the feeling of satisfaction. They would be very near, almost dangerously near to the river,so that the black water ran not far from his face, and it gavea little thrill; or they loved sometimes in a little hollow belowthe fence of the path where people were passing occasionally,on the edge of the town, and they heard footsteps coming, almost feltthe vibration of the tread, and they heard what the passersbysaid--strange little things that were never intended to be heard. And afterwards each of them was rather ashamed, and these thingscaused a distance between the two of them. He began to despise hera little, as if she had merited it!
One night he left her to go to Daybrook Station over the fields. It was very dark, with an attempt at snow, although the springwas so far advanced. Morel had not much time; he plunged forward. The town ceases almost abruptly on the edge of a steep hollow; there thehouses with their yellow lights stand up against the darkness. He wentover the stile, and dropped quickly into the hollow of the fields. Under the orchard one warm window shone in Swineshead Farm. Paul glanced round. Behind, the houses stood on the brim of the dip,black against the sky, like wild beasts glaring curiously withyellow eyes down into the darkness. It was the town that seemedsavage and uncouth, glaring on the clouds at the back of him. Some creature stirred under the willows of the farm pond. It was toodark to distinguish anything.
He was close up to the next stile before he saw a dark shapeleaning against it. The man moved aside.
"Good-evening!" he said.
"Good-evening!" Morel answered, not noticing.
"Paul Morel?" said the man.
Then he knew it was Dawes. The man stopped his way.
"I've got yer, have I?" he said awkwardly.
"I shall miss my train," said Paul.
He could see nothing of Dawes's face. The man's teeth seemedto chatter as he talked.
"You're going to get it from me now," said Dawes.
Morel attempted to move forward; the other man stepped in frontof him.
"Are yer goin' to take that top-coat off," he said, "or areyou goin' to lie down to it?"
Paul was afraid the man was mad.
"But," he said, "I don't know how to fight."
"All right, then," answered Dawes, and before the younger manknew where he was, he was staggering backwards from a blow acrossthe face.
The whole night went black. He tore off his overcoat and coat,dodging a blow, and flung the garments over Dawes. The latterswore savagely. Morel, in his shirt-sleeves, was now alert andfurious. He felt his whole body unsheath itself like a claw. He could not fight, so he would use his wits. The other man becamemore distinct to him; he could see particularly the shirt-breast.Dawes stumbled over Paul's coats, then came rushing forward. The young man's mouth was bleeding. It was the other man's mouth he was dying to get at, and the desire was anguish in its strength. He stepped quickly through the stile, and as Dawes was coming throughafter him, like a flash he got a blow in over the other's mouth. He shivered with pleasure. Dawes advanced slowly, spitting. Paulwas afraid; he moved round to get to the stile again. Suddenly, fromout of nowhere, came a great blow against his ear, that sent himfalling helpless backwards. He heard Dawes's heavy panting,like a wild beast's, then came a kick on the knee, giving himsuch agony that he got up and, quite blind, leapt clean under hisenemy's guard. He felt blows and kicks, but they did not hurt. He hung on to the bigger man like a wild cat, till at last Dawes fellwith a crash, losing his presence of mind. Paul went down with him. Pure instinct brought his hands to the man's neck, and before Dawes,in frenzy and agony, could wrench him free, he had got his fiststwisted in the scarf and his knuckles dug in the throat of theother man. He was a pure instinct, without reason or feeling. His body, hard and wonderful in itself, cleaved against thestruggling body of the other man; not a muscle in him relaxed. He was quite unconscious, only his body had taken upon itself to killthis other man. For himself, he had neither feeling nor reason. He lay pressed hard against his adversary, his body adjusting itselfto its one pure purpose of choking the other man, resisting exactlyat the right moment, with exactly the right amount of strength,the struggles of the other, silent, intent, unchanging, graduallypressing its knuckles deeper, feeling the struggles of the otherbody become wilder and more frenzied. Tighter and tighter grewhis body, like a screw that is gradually increasing in pressure,till something breaks.
Then suddenly he relaxed, full of wonder and misgiving. Dawes had been yielding. Morel felt his body flame with pain,as he realised what he was doing; he was all bewildered. Dawes's struggles suddenly renewed themselves in a furious spasm. Paul's hands were wrenched, torn out of the scarf in which theywere knotted, and he was flung away, helpless. He heard the horridsound of the other's gasping, but he lay stunned; then, still dazed,he felt the blows of the other's feet, and lost consciousness.
