Page 302 - sons-and-lovers

end, if things went well.
Still on Friday night Miriam often came down for her
French lesson. Paul did not go so frequently to Willey Farm,
and she grieved at the thought of her education’s coming to
end; moreover, they both loved to be together, in spite of
discords. So they read Balzac, and did compositions, and
felt highly cultured.
Friday night was reckoning night for the miners. Morel
‘reckoned’—shared up the money of the stall—either in the
New Inn at Bretty or in his own house, according as his fel-
low-butties wished. Barker had turned a non-drinker, so
now the men reckoned at Morel’s house.
Annie, who had been teaching away, was at home again.
She was still a tomboy; and she was engaged to be married.
Paul was studying design.
Morel was always in good spirits on Friday evening, un-
less the week’s earnings were small. He bustled immediately
after his dinner, prepared to get washed. It was decorum for
the women to absent themselves while the men reckoned.
Women were not supposed to spy into such a masculine pri-
vacy as the butties’ reckoning, nor were they to know the
exact amount of the week’s earnings. So, whilst her father
was spluttering in the scullery, Annie went out to spend an
hour with a neighbour. Mrs. Morel attended to her baking.
‘Shut that doo-er!’ bawled Morel furiously.
Annie banged it behind her, and was gone.
‘If tha oppens it again while I’m weshin’ me, I’ll ma’e thy
jaw rattle,’ he threatened from the midst of his soap-suds.
Paul and the mother frowned to hear him.

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