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they were very good to her, gave her the parish nursing,
and stood by her, she would say that for them. And she’d
done it ever since, till now it was getting a bit much for her;
she needed something a bit lighter, there was such a lot of
traipsing around if you were a district nurse.
’Yes, the Company’s been very good to ME, I always say
it. But I should never forget what they said about Ted, for he
was as steady and fearless a chap as ever set foot on the cage,
and it was as good as branding him a coward. But there, he
was dead, and could say nothing to none of ‘em.’
It was a queer mixture of feelings the woman showed as
she talked. She liked the colliers, whom she had nursed for
so long; but she felt very superior to them. She felt almost
upper class; and at the same time a resentment against the
ruling class smouldered in her. The masters! In a dispute
between masters and men, she was always for the men. But
when there was no question of contest, she was pining to
be superior, to be one of the upper class. The upper classes
fascinated her, appealing to her peculiar English passion for
superiority. She was thrilled to come to Wragby; thrilled to
talk to Lady Chatterley, my word, different from the com-
mon colliers’ wives! She said so in so many words. Yet one
could see a grudge against the Chatterleys peep out in her;
the grudge against the masters.
’Why, yes, of course, it would wear Lady Chatterley out!
It’s a mercy she had a sister to come and help her. Men don’t
think, high and low-alike, they take what a woman does for
them for granted. Oh, I’ve told the colliers off about it many
a time. But it’s very hard for Sir Clifford, you know, crippled

11 Lady Chatterly’s Lover