Start: MINNIE: I wish he'd come. If...

Start:

MINNIE: I wish he'd come. If I didn't want him, he'd be here half-an-hour since. But just because I've got a pudding that wants eating on the tick . . . ! He--he's never up to the cratch; he never is. As if the day wasn't long enough!

(Sound of footsteps. She seizes a saucepan, and is rushing towards the door. The latch has clacked. LUTHER appears in the doorway, in his pit-dirt--a collier of medium height, with fair moustache. He has a red scarf knotted round his throat, and a cap with a Union medal. The two almost collide.)

LUTHER: My word, you're on the hop!

MINNIE (disappearing into scullery): You nearly made me drop the saucepan. Why are you so late?

LUTHER: I'm non late, am I?

MINNIE: You're twenty minutes later than yesterday.

LUTHER: Oh ah, I stopped finishing a stint, an' com up wi' a'most th' last batch.

He takes a tin bottle and a dirty calico snap-bag out of his pocket, puts them on the bureau; goes into the scullery.

MINNIE'S VOICE: No!

(She comes hurrying out with the saucepan. In a moment, LUTHER follows. He has taken off his coat and cap, his heavy trousers are belted round his hips, his arms are bare to above the elbow, because the pit-singlet of thick flannel is almost sleeveless.)

LUTHER: Tha art throng!

MINNIE (at the fire, flushed): Yes, and everything's ready, and will be spoiled.

LUTHER: Then we'd better eat it afore I wash me.

MINNIE: No--no--it's not nice--

LUTHER: Just as ter's a mind--but there's scarce a collier in a thousand washes hissen afore he has his dinner. We niver did a-whoam.

MINNIE: But it doesn't look nice.

LUTHER: Eh, wench, tha'lt soon get used ter th' looks on me. A bit o' dirt's like a veil on my face--I shine through th' 'andsomer. What hast got? (He peers over her range.)

MINNIE (waving a fork): You're not to look.

LUTHER: It smells good.

MINNIE: Are you going to have your dinner like that?

LUTHER: Ay, lass--just for once.

(He spreads a newspaper in one of the green-cushioned armchairs and sits down. She disappears into the scullery with a saucepan. He takes off his great pit-boots. She sets a soup-tureen on the table, and lights the lamp. He watches her face in the glow.)

Tha'rt non bad-luikin' when ter's a mind.

MINNIE: When have I a mind?

LUTHER: Tha's allers a mind--but when ter lights th' lamp tha'rt i' luck's way.

MINNIE: Come on, then.

He drags his chair to the table.

LUTHER: I s'll ha'e ter ha'e a newspaper afront on me, or thy cloth'll be a blackymoor. (Begins disarranging the pots.)

MINNIE: Oh, you are a nuisance! (Jumps up.)

LUTHER: I can put 'em a' back again.

MINNIE: I know your puttings back.

LUTHER: Tha couldna get married by thysen, could ter?--so tha'lt ha'e ter ma'e th' best on me.

MINNIE: But you're such a bother--never here at the right time--never doing the right thing--

LUTHER: An' my mouth's ter wide an' my head's ter narrow. Shalt iver ha' come ter th' end of my faults an' failin's?

MINNIE (giving him soup): I wish I could.

LUTHER: An' now tha'lt snap mu head off 'cos I slobber, shanna tha?

MINNIE: Then don't slobber.

LUTHER: I'll try my luck. What hast bin doin' a' day?

MINNIE: Working.

LUTHER: Has our Joe bin in?

MINNIE: No. I rather thought he might, but he hasn't.

LUTHER: You've not been up home?

MINNIE: To your mother's? No, what should I go there for?

LUTHER: Eh, I dunno what ter should go for--I thought tha 'appen might.

MINNIE: But what for?

LUTHER: Nay--I niver thowt nowt about what for.

MINNIE: Then why did you ask me?

LUTHER: I dunno. (A pause.)

MINNIE: Your mother can come here, can't she?

LUTHER: Ay, she can come. Tha'll be goin' up wi' me to-night--I want ter go an' see about our Joe.

MINNIE: What about him?

LUTHER: How he went on about's club money. Shall ter come wi' me?

MINNIE: I wanted to do my curtains.

LUTHER: But tha's got a' day to do them in.

MINNIE: But I want to do them to-night--I feel like it.

LUTHER: A' right.--I shanna be long, at any rate.

(A pause.)

What dost keep lookin' at?

MINNIE: How?

LUTHER: Tha keeps thy eye on me rarely.

MINNIE (laughing): It's your mouth--it looks so red and bright, in your black face.

LUTHER: Does it look nasty to thee?

MINNIE: No--no-o.

LUTHER (pushing his moustache, laughing): It ma'es you look like a n**ger, i' your pit-dirt--th' whites o' your eyes!

MINNIE: Just.

She gets up to take his plate; goes and stands beside him. He lifts his face to her.

I want to see if I can see you; you look so different.

LUTHER: Tha can see me well enough. Why dost want to?

MINNIE: It's almost like having a stranger.

LUTHER: Would ter rather?

MINNIE: What?

LUTHER: Ha'e a stranger?

MINNIE: What for?

LUTHER: Hao--I dunno.

MINNIE (touching his hair): You look rather nice--an' your hair's so dirty.

LUTHER: Gi'e me a kiss.

MINNIE: But where? You're all grime.

LUTHER: I'm sure I've licked my mouth clean.

MINNIE (stooping suddenly, and kissing him): You don't look nearly such a tame rabbit, in your pit-dirt.

LUTHER (catching her in his arms): Dunna I? (Kisses her.) What colour is my eyes?

MINNIE: Bluey-grey.

LUTHER: An' thine's grey an' black.

MINNIE: Mind! (She looks at her blouse when he releases her.)

LUTHER (timid): Have I blacked it?

MINNIE: A bit.

(She goes to the scullery; returns with another dish.)

LUTHER: They talkin' about comin' out again

MINNIE (returning): Good laws!--they've no need.

LUTHER: They are, though.

MINNIE: It's a holiday they want.

LUTHER: Nay, it isna. They want th' proper scale here, just as they ha'e it ivrywhere else.

MINNIE: But if the seams are thin, and the company can't afford.

LUTHER: They can afford a' this gret new electric plant; they can afford to build new houses for managers, an' ter give blo-- ter give Frazer twelve hundred a year.

MINNIE: If they want a good manager to make the pits pay, they have to give him a good salary.

LUTHER: So's he can clip down our wages.

MINNIE: Why, what are yours clipped down?

LUTHER: Mine isn't, but there's plenty as is.

MINNIE: And will this strike make a butty of you?

LUTHER: You don't strike to get made a butty on.

MINNIE: Then how do you do it? You're thirty-one.

LUTHER: An' there's many as owd as me as is day-men yet.

MINNIE: But there's more that aren't, that are butties.

LUTHER: Ay, they've had luck.

MINNIE: Luck! You mean they've had some go in them.

LUTHER: Why, what can I do more than I am doin'?

MINNIE: It isn't what you do, it's how you do it. Sluther through any job; get to th' end of it, no matter how. That's you.

LUTHER: I hole a stint as well as any man.

MINNIE: Then I back it takes you twice as long.

LUTHER: Nay, nor that neither.

MINNIE: I know you're not much of a workman--I've heard it from other butties, that you never put your heart into anything.

LUTHER: Who hast heard it fra?

MINNIE: From those that know. And I could ha' told it them, for I know you. You'll be a day-man at seven shillings a day till the end of your life--and you'll be satisfied, so long as you can shilly-shally through. That's what your mother did for you--mardin' you up till you were all mard-soft.

LUTHER: Tha's got a lot ter say a' of a suddin. Thee shut thy mouth.

MINNIE: You've been dragged round at your mother's apron-strings, all the lot of you, till there isn't half a man among you.

LUTHER: Tha seems fond enough of our Joe.

MINNIE: He is th' best in the bunch.

LUTHER: Tha should ha' married him, then.

MINNIE: I shouldn't have had to ask him, if he was ready.

LUTHER: I'd axed thee twice afore--tha knowed tha could ha'e it when ter wanted.

MINNIE: Axed me! It was like asking me to pull out a tooth for you.

LUTHER: Yi, an' it felt like it

MINNIE: What?

LUTHER: Axin' thee to marry me. I'm blessed if it didna feel like axin' the doctor to pull ten teeth out of a stroke.

MINNIE: And then you expect me to have you!

LUTHER: Well, tha has done, whether or not.

MINNIE: I--yes, I had to fetch you, like a mother fetches a kid from school. A pretty sight you looked. Didn't your mother give you a ha'penny to spend, to get you to go?

LUTHER: No; she spent it for me.

MINNIE: She would! She wouldn't even let you spend your own ha'penny. You'd have lost it, or let somebody take it from you.

LUTHER: Yi. Thee.

MINNIE: Me!--me take anything from you! Why, you've got nothing worth having.

LUTHER: I dunno--tha seems ter think so sometimes.

MINNIE: Oh! Shilly-shally and crawl, that's all you can do. You ought to have stopped with your mother.

LUTHER: I should ha' done, if tha hadna hawksed me out.

MINNIE: You aren't fit for a woman to have married, you're not.

LUTHER: Then why did thee marry me? It wor thy doin's.

MINNIE: Because I could get nobody better.

LUTHER: I'm more class than I thought for, then.

MINNIE: Are you! Are you!

Lawrence, D.H., The Daughter-in-law, 1912, http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks04/0400871h.html

Read D.H. Lawrence’s The Daughter-in-Law free through Project Gutenberg Australia