Complete Works. D. H. Lawrence

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      Chapter IV

       The Young Life of Paul

       Table of Contents

      Paul would be built like his mother, slightly and rather small. His fair hair went reddish, and then dark brown; his eyes were grey. He was a pale, quiet child, with eyes that seemed to listen, and with a full, dropping underlip.

      As a rule he seemed old for his years. He was so conscious of what other people felt, particularly his mother. When she fretted he understood, and could have no peace. His soul seemed always attentive to her.

      As he grew older he became stronger. William was too far removed from him to accept him as a companion. So the smaller boy belonged at first almost entirely to Annie. She was a tomboy and a “flybie-skybie”, as her mother called her. But she was intensely fond of her second brother. So Paul was towed round at the heels of Annie, sharing her game. She raced wildly at lerky with the other young wild-cats of the Bottoms. And always Paul flew beside her, living her share of the game, having as yet no part of his own. He was quiet and not noticeable. But his sister adored him. He always seemed to care for things if she wanted him to.

      She had a big doll of which she was fearfully proud, though not so fond. So she laid the doll on the sofa, and covered it with an antimacassar, to sleep. Then she forgot it. Meantime Paul must practise jumping off the sofa arm. So he jumped crash into the face of the hidden doll. Annie rushed up, uttered a loud wail, and sat down to weep a dirge. Paul remained quite still.

      “You couldn't tell it was there, mother; you couldn't tell it was there,” he repeated over and over. So long as Annie wept for the doll he sat helpless with misery. Her grief wore itself out. She forgave her brother—he was so much upset. But a day or two afterwards she was shocked.

      “Let's make a sacrifice of Arabella,” he said. “Let's burn her.”

      She was horrified, yet rather fascinated. She wanted to see what the boy would do. He made an altar of bricks, pulled some of the shavings out of Arabella's body, put the waxen fragments into the hollow face, poured on a little paraffin, and set the whole thing alight. He watched with wicked satisfaction the drops of wax melt off the broken forehead of Arabella, and drop like sweat into the flame. So long as the stupid big doll burned he rejoiced in silence. At the end be poked among the embers with a stick, fished out the arms and legs, all blackened, and smashed them under stones.

      “That's the sacrifice of Missis Arabella,” he said. “An' I'm glad there's nothing left of her.”

      Which disturbed Annie inwardly, although she could say nothing. He seemed to hate the doll so intensely, because he had broken it.

      All the children, but particularly Paul, were peculiarly against their father, along with their mother. Morel continued to bully and to drink. He had periods, months at a time, when he made the whole life of the family a misery. Paul never forgot coming home from the Band of Hope one Monday evening and finding his mother with her eye swollen and discoloured, his father standing on the hearthrug, feet astride, his head down, and William, just home from work, glaring at his father. There was a silence as the young children entered, but none of the elders looked round.

      William was white to the lips, and his fists were clenched. He waited until the children were silent, watching with children's rage and hate; then he said:

      “You coward, you daren't do it when I was in.”

      But Morel's blood was up. He swung round on his son. William was bigger, but Morel was hard-muscled, and mad with fury.

      “Dossn't I?” he shouted. “Dossn't I? Ha'e much more o' thy chelp, my young jockey, an' I'll rattle my fist about thee. Ay, an' I sholl that, dost see?”

      Morel crouched at the knees and showed his fist in an ugly, almost beast-like fashion. William was white with rage.

      “Will yer?” he said, quiet and intense. “It 'ud be the last time, though.”

      Morel danced a little nearer, crouching, drawing back his fist to strike. William put his fists ready. A light came into his blue eyes, almost like a laugh. He watched his father. Another word, and the men would have begun to fight. Paul hoped they would. The three children sat pale on the sofa.

      “Stop it, both of you,” cried Mrs. Morel in a hard voice. “We've had enough for ONE night. And YOU,” she said, turning on to her husband, “look at your children!”

      Morel glanced at the sofa.

      “Look at the children, you nasty little bitch!” he sneered. “Why, what have I done to the children, I should like to know? But they're like yourself; you've put 'em up to your own tricks and nasty ways—you've learned 'em in it, you 'ave.”

      She refused to answer him. No one spoke. After a while he threw his boots under the table and went to bed.

      “Why didn't you let me have a go at him?” said William, when his father was upstairs. “I could easily have beaten him.”

      “A nice thing—your own father,” she replied.

      “'FATHER!'” repeated William. “Call HIM MY father!”

      “Well, he is—and so—”

      “But why don't you let me settle him? I could do, easily.”

      “The idea!” she cried. “It hasn't come to THAT yet.”

      “No,” he said, “it's come to worse. Look at yourself. WHY didn't you let me give it him?”

      “Because I couldn't bear it, so never think of it,” she cried quickly.

      And the children went to bed, miserably.

      When William was growing up, the family moved from the Bottoms to a house on the brow of the hill, commanding a view of the valley, which spread out like a convex cockle-shell, or a clamp-shell, before it. In front of the house was a huge old ash-tree. The west wind, sweeping from Derbyshire, caught the houses with full force, and the tree shrieked again. Morel liked it.

      “It's music,” he said. “It sends me to sleep.”

      But Paul and Arthur and Annie hated it. To Paul it became almost СКАЧАТЬ