Strife Author:John Galsworthy Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ACT II SCENE I It is half-past three. In the kitchen of Roberts''s cottage a meagre little fire is burning. The room is clean and tidy, very barely furnish... more »ed, with a brick floor and white-washed walls, much stained with smoke. There is a kettle on the fire. A door opposite the fireplace opens inward from a snowy street. On the wooden table are a cup and saucer, a teapot, knife, and plate of bread and cheese. Close to the fireplace in an old arm-chair, wrapped in a rug, sits Mrs Roberts, a thin and dark- haired woman about thirty-five, with patient eyes. Her hair is not done up, but tied back with a piece of ribbon. By the fire, too, is Mrs. Yeo; a red-haired, broad-faced person. Sitting near the table is Mrs. Rous, an old lady, ashen-white, with silver hair; by the door, standing, as if about to go, is Mrs. Bulgin, a little pale, pinched-up woman. In a chair, with her elbows resting on the table, and her face resting in her hands, sits Madgethomas a good-looking girl, of twenty- two, with high cheekbones, deep-set eyes, and dark untidy hair. She is listening to the talk, but she neither speaks nor moves. Mrs. Yeo. So he give me a sixpence, and that's the first bit o' money / seen this week. There an't much 'eat to this fire. Come and warm yerself, Mrs. Rous, you're lookin' as white as the snow, you are. Mrs. Rous. [Shivering — placidly.] Ah! but the winter my old man was took was the proper winter. Seventy-nine that was, when none of you was hardly born—not Madge Thomas, nor Sue Bui- gin. [Looking at them in turn.] Annie Roberts, 'ow old were you, dear? Mrs. Roberts. Seven, Mrs. Rous. Mrs. Rous. Seven—well, ther'! A tiny little thing! Mrs. Yeo. [Aggressively.] Well, I was ten myself, I remembers it. Mrs. Rous. [Placidly.] The Company hadn't been started thr...« less