The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd: A Drama in Three Acts

by D. H. Lawrence

MRS. HOLROYD (trying to be stern)

Have you finished your prayers?

MINNIE

Yes.

MRS. HOLROYD

If you want it—beastly thing! (She reaches the bracelet down from the mantelpiece) Your father must have put it up there—I don't know where I left it. I suppose he'd think I was proud of it and wanted it for an ornament.

[Minnie gloats over it. Mrs. Holroyd lights a candle and they go upstairs. After a few moments the outer door opens, and there enters an old woman. She is of middling stature and wears a large gray shawl over her head. After glancing sharply round the room, she advances to the fire, warms herself, then, taking off her shawl, sits in the rocking-chair. As she hears Mrs. Holroyd's footsteps, she folds her hands and puts on a lachrymose expression, turning down the corners of her mouth and arching her eyebrows.

MRS. HOLROYD

Hello, mother, is it you?

GRANDMOTHER