Dorset (England) -- Fiction; Illegitimate children -- Fiction; Textile industry -- Fiction
The weather changed as the sun went westerly; the wind sank to a sigh
and brought with it rain clouds. But they were unconscious of such
accidents. Sabina longed for the cliffs again, so they turned homeward
by Seaton and Thorncombe Beacon and Eype Mouth. Their talk ran upon
marriage and Raymond swore that he could not wait long, while she urged
the importance to him of so doing.
"'Twould shake your brother badly if you wed yet awhile, be sure of
that," she said. "He would say that you weren't thinking of the work,
and it might tempt him to change his mind about making you a partner."
"Oh damn him. Don't talk about him--or work either. I shall never want
to work again, or think of work, or anything else on earth
till--till--What does he matter anyway--or his ideas? It's a free
country and a man has the right to plan his life his own way. If he
wants to get the best out of me, he'd better give me five hundred a
year to-morrow and tell me to marry you."
"We don't want five hundred. That's a fortune. I'm a good manager and
know very well how far money can go. With your money and mine."
"Yours? You won't have any--except mine. You'll stop work then and
live--not at Bridetown anyway."
"I was forgetting. It will be funny not to spin."
"You'll spin my happiness and my life and my fate and my children.
You'll have plenty of spinning. I'll spin for you and you'll spin for
me."
"You darling boy! I know you'll spin for me."
"Work! What's the good of working for yourself?" he asked. "Who the
devil cares about himself? It's because I don't care a button for myself
that I haven't bothered about the Mill. But when it comes to you--!
You're worth working for! I haven't begun to work yet. I'll surprise
Daniel presently and everybody else, when I fairly get into my stride. I
didn't ask for it and I didn't want it; but as I've got to work, I will
work--for you. And you'll live to see that my brother and his ways and
plans and small outlook are all nothing to the way I shall grasp the
business. And he'll see, too, when I get the lead by sheer better
understanding. And that won't be my work, Sabina. It will be yours.
Nothing's worth too much toil for you. And if you couldn't inspire a man
to wonderful things, then no woman could."
This fit of exaltation passed and the craving for her dominated him
again and took psychological shape. He grew moody and abstracted. His
voice had a new note in it to her ear. He was fighting with himself and
did not guess what was in her mind, or how unconsciously it echoed to
his.
At dusk the rain came and they ran before a sudden storm down the green
hills back to West Haven. The place already sank into night and a lamp
or two twinkled through the grey. It was past eight o'clock and Raymond
decided for dinner.
"We'll go to the 'Brit Arms,'" he said, "and feed and get dry. The rain
won't last."
"I told mother I should be home by nine."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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