England, My EnglandLawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)
General
England, My England
Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)
England -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction; Short stories, English
“I towd him mysen,” said Mrs. Goodall, “’Er’s held back all this long,
let ’er stop as ’er is. ’E’d none ha’ had thee for _my_ tellin’—tha
hears. No, ’e’s a fool, an’ I know it. I says to him, ‘Tha looks a man,
doesn’t ter, at thy age, goin’ an’ openin’ to her when ter hears her
scrat’ at th’ gate, after she’s done gallivantin’ round wherever she’d
a mind. That looks rare an’ soft.’ But it’s no use o’ any talking: he
answered that letter o’ thine and made his own bad bargain.”
But in spite of the old woman’s anger, she was also flattered at
Fanny’s coming back to Harry. For Mrs. Goodall was impressed by Fanny—a
woman of her own match. And more than this, everybody knew that Fanny’s
Aunt Kate had left her two hundred pounds: this apart from the girl’s
savings.
So there was high tea in Princes Street when Harry came home black from
work, and a rather acrid odour of cordiality, the vixen Jinny darting
in to say vulgar things. Of course Jinny lived in a house whose garden
end joined the paternal garden. They were a clan who stuck together,
these Goodalls.
It was arranged that Fanny should come to tea again on the Sunday, and
the wedding was discussed. It should take place in a fortnight’s time
at Morley Chapel. Morley was a hamlet on the edge of the real country,
and in its little Congregational Chapel Fanny and Harry had first met.
What a creature of habit he was! He was still in the choir of Morley
Chapel—not very regular. He belonged just because he had a tenor voice,
and enjoyed singing. Indeed his solos were only spoilt to local fame
because when he sang he handled his aitches so hopelessly.
“And I saw ’eaven hopened
And be’old, a wite ’orse——”
This was one of Harry’s classics, only surpassed by the fine outburst
of his heaving:
“Hangels—hever bright an’ fair——”
It was a pity, but it was inalterable. He had a good voice, and he sang
with a certain lacerating fire, but his pronunciation made it all
funny. And nothing could alter him.
So he was never heard save at cheap concerts and in the little, poorer
chapels. The others scoffed.
Now the month was September, and Sunday was Harvest Festival at Morley
Chapel, and Harry was singing solos. So that Fanny was to go to
afternoon service, and come home to a grand spread of Sunday tea with
him. Poor Fanny! One of the most wonderful afternoons had been a Sunday
afternoon service, with her cousin Luther at her side, Harvest Festival
in Morley Chapel. Harry had sung solos then—ten years ago. She
remembered his pale blue tie, and the purple asters and the great
vegetable marrows in which he was framed, and her cousin Luther at her
side, young, clever, come down from London, where he was getting on
well, learning his Latin and his French and German so brilliantly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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