Page 360 - lady-chatterlys-lover

were the landlord of the Inn.
’What is there?’ asked Connie, flushing.
’Boiled ham, cheese, pickled wa’nuts, if yer like.—Nowt
much.’
’Yes,’ said Connie. ‘Won’t you, Hilda?’
Hilda looked up at him.
’Why do you speak Yorkshire?’ she said softly.
’That! That’s non Yorkshire, that’s Derby.’
He looked back at her with that faint, distant grin.
’Derby, then! Why do you speak Derby? You spoke natu-
ral English at first.’
’Did Ah though? An’ canna Ah change if Ah’m a mind
to ‘t? Nay, nay, let me talk Derby if it suits me. If yo’n nowt
against it.’
’It sounds a little affected,’ said Hilda.
’Ay, ‘appen so! An’ up i’ Tevershall yo’d sound affected.’
He looked again at her, with a queer calculating distance,
along his cheek-bone: as if to say: Yi, an’ who are you?
He tramped away to the pantry for the food.
The sisters sat in silence. He brought another plate, and
knife and fork. The he said:
’An’ if it’s the same to you, I s’ll ta’e my coat off like I
allers do.’
And he took off his coat, and hung it on the peg, then sat
down to table in his shirt-sleeves: a shirt of thin, cream-co-
loured flannel.
’’Elp yerselves!’ he said. ‘’Elp yerselves! Dunna wait f’r
axin’!’ He cut the bread, then sat motionless. Hilda felt, as
Connie once used to, his power of silence and distance. She