D. H. Lawrence's 'Odour of Chrysanthemums'

tiles, she heard them coming. She stood still in the pantry
doorway, listening. She heard them pass the end of the house,
and come awkwardly down the three steps, a jumble of shuffling
footsteps and muttering voices. The old mother rose and
stood silent. The men were in the yard.

Then Elizabeth heard Matthews, the manager of the pit,
say: "You go in first, Jim. Mind!"

The door came open, and the two women saw a collier
backing into the room, holding one end of a stretcher, on which
they could see the great pit-boots of the dead man. The two
carriers halted, the man at the head stooping to the lintel of
the door.

"Wheer will you have him?" asked the old manager, a
short, white-bearded man.

Elizabeth roused herself and came away from the pantry,
carrying the unlighted candle.

"In the parlour," she said.

"In there Jim!" pointed the manager, and the carriers
backed round into the tiny room. The coat with which they
had covered the body fell off as they awkwardly turned through
the two doorways, and the women saw their man, naked to the
waist, lying stripped for work. Immediately the old woman
began to moan in a low voice, "My boy!" Elizabeth followed
to see where they laid him, and she came face to face with the
manager, who was on the heels of the second bearer. Neither
noticed the other.

"Lay th' stretcher at th' side," snapped the manager,
"an' put 'im on th' cloths. Mind now, mind! Look you
now----!"

One of the men had knocked off a vase of chrysanthemums.
He stared awkwardly, then they set down the stretcher. Eliza-
beth did not look at her husband. As soon as she could get in

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