He kept her because he never satisfied her.
In the spring they went together to the seaside.

They had rooms at a little cottage near Theddlethorpe, and lived as man and wife.

Mrs.
Radford sometimes went with them.
It was known in Nottingham that Paul Morel and Mrs.Dawes were going together, but as nothing was very obvious, and Clara always a solitary person, and he seemed so simple and innocent, it did not make much difference.
He loved the Lincolnshire coast, and she loved the sea.

In the early morning they often went out together to bathe.

The grey of the dawn, the far, desolate reaches of the fenland smitten with winter, the sea-meadows rank with herbage, were stark enough to rejoice his soul.
As they stepped on to the highroad from their plank bridge, and looked round at the endless monotony of levels, the land a little darker than the sky, the sea sounding small beyond the sandhills, his heart filled strong with the sweeping relentlessness of life.