Page 355 - lady-chatterlys-lover

’Good-bye, Mrs Bolton! I know you’ll look after Sir Clif-
ford nobly.’
’I’ll do what I can, your Ladyship.’
’And write to me if there is any news, and tell me about
Sir Clifford, how he is.’
’Very good, your Ladyship, I will. And have a good time,
and come back and cheer us up.’
Everybody waved. The car went off Connie looked back
and saw Clifford, sitting at the top of the steps in his house-
chair. After all, he was her husband: Wragby was her home:
circumstance had done it.
Mrs Chambers held the gate and wished her ladyship a
happy holiday. The car slipped out of the dark spinney that
masked the park, on to the highroad where the colliers were
trailing home. Hilda turned to the Crosshill Road, that was
not a main road, but ran to Mansfield. Connie put on gog-
gles. They ran beside the railway, which was in a cutting
below them. Then they crossed the cutting on a bridge.
’That’s the lane to the cottage!’ said Connie.
Hilda glanced at it impatiently.
’It’s a frightful pity we can’t go straight off!’ she said. We
could have been in Pall Mall by nine o’clock.’
’I’m sorry for your sake,’ said Connie, from behind her
goggles.
They were soon at Mansfield, that once-romantic, now
utterly disheartening colliery town. Hilda stopped at the
hotel named in the motor-car book, and took a room. The
whole thing was utterly uninteresting, and she was almost
too angry to talk. However, Connie HAD to tell her some-

Lady Chatterly’s Lover