And Mrs Crich moved away, forgetting him.

But she returned on her traces.
'I should like him to have a friend,' she said.

'He has never had a friend.' Birkin looked down into her eyes, which were blue, and watching heavily.

He could not understand them.

'Am I my brother's keeper ?' he said to himself, almost flippantly.
Then he remembered, with a slight shock, that that was Cain's cry.