30
MRS. HOLROYD
[ACT I
Clara
- We ’ve got our own hair on our heads, at any rate. (Drawing herself up suddenly in front of Mrs. Holroyd) An’ I ’ve been educated at a boarding school as good as anybody. I can behave myself either in the drawing-room or in the kitchen as is fitting and proper. But if you ’d buried a husband like mine, you would n’t feel you ’d much left to be proud of—an’ you might go off occasionally.
Mrs. Holroyd
- I don’t want to hear you.
Clara (bobbing a curtsy)
- Sorry I spoke.
- [She goes out stiffly, followed by Laura.
Holroyd (going forward)
- You mun mind th’ points down th’ line.
Clara’s Voice
- I thank thee, Charlie—mind thy own points.
- [He hesitates at the door—returns and sits down. There is silence in the room. Holroyd sits with his chin in his hand. Mrs. Holroyd listens. The footsteps and voices of the two women die out. Then she closes the door. Holroyd begins to unlace his boots.
Holroyd (ashamed yet defiant, withal anxious to apologize) Wheer ’s my slippers?
- [Mrs. Holroyd sits on the sofa with face averted and does not answer.
Holroyd
- Dost hear? (He pulls off his boots, noisily, and begins to hunt under the sofa) I canna find the things. (No answer) Humph!—then I ’ll do be ’out ’em. (He stumps about in his stocking feet; going into the scullery, he brings out the loaf of bread; he
