So she could never let them go, because she never had possessed them.
Mrs.Morel saw him going again frequently to Miriam, and was astonished.
He said nothing to his mother.

He did not explain nor excuse himself.

If he came home late, and she reproached him, he frowned and turned on her in an overbearing way: "I shall come home when I like," he said; "I am old enough." "Must she keep you till this time ?" "It is I who stay," he answered.
"And she lets you?
But very well," she said.
And she went to bed, leaving the door unlocked for him; but she lay listening until he came, often long after.

It was a great bitterness to her that he had gone back to Miriam.

She recognised, however, the uselessness of any further interference.