第59章

They discussed the collieries.Clifford's idea was,that his coal,even the poor sort,could be made into hard concentrated fuel that would burn at great heat if fed with certain damp,acidulated air at a fairly strong pressure.It had long been observed that in a particularly strong,wet wind the pit-bank burned very vivid,gave off hardly any fumes,and left a fine powder of ash,instead of the slow pink gravel.

'But where will you find the proper engines for burning your fuel?'asked Winter.

'I'll make them myself.And I'll use my fuel myself.And I'll sell electric power.I'm certain I could do it.'

'If you can do it,then splendid,splendid,my dear boy.Haw!Splendid!

If I can be of any help,I shall be delighted.I'm afraid I am a little out of date,and my collieries are like me.But who knows,when I'm gone,there may be men like you.Splendid!It will employ all the men again,and you won't have to sell your coal,or fail to sell it.A splendid idea,and I hope it will be a success.If I had sons of my own,no doubt they would have up-to-date ideas for Shipley:no doubt!By the way,dear boy,is there any foundation to the rumour that we may entertain hopes of an heir to Wragby?'

'Is there a rumour?'asked Clifford.

'Well,my dear boy,Marshall from Fillingwood asked me,that's all Ican say about a rumour.Of course I wouldn't repeat it for the world,if there were no foundation.'

'Well,Sir,'said Clifford uneasily,but with strange bright eyes.'There is a hope.There is a hope.'

Winter came across the room and wrung Clifford's hand.

'My dear boy,my dear lad,can you believe what it means to me,to hear that!And to hear you are working in the hopes of a son:and that you may again employ every man at Tevershall.Ah,my boy!to keep up the level of the race,and to have work waiting for any man who cares to work!--'

The old man was really moved.

Next day Connie was arranging tall yellow tulips in a glass vase.

'Connie,'said Clifford,'did you know there was a rumour that you are going to supply Wragby with a son and heir?'

Connie felt dim with terror,yet she stood quite still,touching the flowers.

'No!'she said.'Is it a joke?Or malice?'

He paused before he answered:

'Neither,I hope.I hope it may be a prophecy.'

Connie went on with her flowers.

'I had a letter from Father this morning,'She said.'He wants to know if I am aware he has accepted Sir Alexander Cooper's Invitation for me for July and August,to the Villa Esmeralda in Venice.'

'July and August?'said Clifford.

'Oh,I wouldn't stay all that time.Are you sure you wouldn't come?'

'I won't travel abroad,'said Clifford promptly.She took her flowers to the window.

'Do you mind if I go?'she said.You know it was promised,for this summer.

'For how long would you go?'

'Perhaps three weeks.'

There was silence for a time.

'Well,'said Clifford slowly,and a little gloomily.'I suppose I could stand it for three weeks:if I were absolutely sure you'd want to come back.'

'I should want to come back,'she said,with a quiet simplicity,heavy with conviction.She was thinking of the other man.

Clifford felt her conviction,and somehow he believed her,he believed it was for him.He felt immensely relieved,joyful at once.

'In that case,'he said,'I think it would be all right,don't you?'

'I think so,'she said.

'You'd enjoy the change?'She looked up at him with strange blue eyes.

'I should like to see Venice again,'she said,'and to bathe from one of the shingle islands across the lagoon.But you know I loathe the Lido!

And I don't fancy I shall like Sir Alexander Cooper and Lady Cooper.But if Hilda is there,and we have a gondola of our own:yes,it will be rather lovely.I do wish you'd come.'

She said it sincerely.She would so love to make him happy,in these ways.

'Ah,but think of me,though,at the Gare du Nord:at Calais quay!'

'But why not?I see other men carried in litter-chairs,who have been wounded in the war.Besides,we'd motor all the way.'

'We should need to take two men.'

'Oh no!We'd manage with Field.There would always be another man there.'

But Clifford shook his head.

'Not this year,dear!Not this year!Next year probably I'll try.'

She went away gloomily.Next year!What would next year bring?She herself did not really want to go to Venice:not now,now there was the other man.

But she was going as a sort of discipline:and also because,if she had a child,Clifford could think she had a lover in Venice.

It was already May,and in June they were supposed to start.Always these arrangements!Always one's life arranged for one!Wheels that worked one and drove one,and over which one had no real control!

It was May,but cold and wet again.A cold wet May,good for corn and hay!Much the corn and hay matter nowadays!Connie had to go into Uthwaite,which was their little town,where the Chatterleys were still the Chatterleys.She went alone,Field driving her.

In spite of May and a new greenness,the country was dismal.It was rather chilly,and there was smoke on the rain,and a certain sense of exhaust vapour in the air.One just had to live from one's resistance.

No wonder these people were ugly and tough.

The car ploughed uphill through the long squalid straggle of Tevershall,the blackened brick dwellings,the black slate roofs glistening their sharp edges,the mud black with coal-dust,the pavements wet and black.It was as if dismalness had soaked through and through everything.The utter negation of natural beauty,the utter negation of the gladness of life,the utter absence of the instinct for shapely beauty which every bird and beast has,the utter death of the human intuitive faculty was appalling.The stacks of soap in the grocers'shops,the rhubarb and lemons in the greengrocers!the awful hats in the milliners!all went by ugly,ugly,ugly,followed by the plaster-and-gilt horror of the cinema with its wet picture announcements,'A Woman's Love!',and the new big Primitive chapel,primitive enough in its stark brick and big panes of greenish and raspberry glass in the windows.