It was at the Leivers farm that Paul first met Miriam. She was a quiet girl with large, thoughtful eyes, and from the moment he saw her, Paul felt a strange attraction.
The Leivers family were religious and strict, but they welcomed the Morels when they came to visit. Gertrude liked Mrs. Leiver, a woman of deep faith and simple wisdom.
"Your daughter is special," Gertrude said to Mrs. Leiver one day. "She has a soul that looks upward."
Miriam and Paul began spending time together. They walked through the countryside, talking about books and dreams and the future. Miriam was shy at first, but with Paul, she began to open up.
"You are different from other girls," Paul told her. "You understand things."
Miriam blushed. "I just try to see what is true," she said softly.
Their relationship grew slowly, built on conversation and shared thoughts. Paul found that he could tell Miriam things he could tell no one else—not about art, or his mother, or his dreams.
But Gertrude did not approve. She saw Miriam as too religious, too serious, someone who would hold Paul back.
"She will make him unhappy," she told a neighbor. "She is too intense for a normal life."
Paul could feel his mother's disapproval, and it troubled him. He loved Miriam, but he also loved his mother. Caught between them, he didn't know what to do.
Miriam, too, sensed the tension. She saw the way Gertrude watched her, and she knew that the older woman did not trust her.
"Your mother does not like me," Miriam said to Paul one day.