The Lost Girl
D. H. Lawrence
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I THE DECLINE OF MANCHESTER HOUSE 7
II THE RISE OF ALVINA HOUGHTON 27
III THE MATERNITY NURSE 36
IV TWO WOMEN DIE 49
V THE BEAU 64
VI HOUGHTON'S LAST ENDEAVOUR 95
VII NATCHA-KEE-TAWARA 130
VIII CICCIO 164
IX ALVINA BECOMES ALLAYE 191
X THE FALL OF MANCHESTER HOUSE 235
XI HONOURABLE ENGAGEMENT 273
XII ALLAYE ALSO IS ENGAGED 304
XIII THE WEDDED WIFE 317
XIV THE JOURNEY ACROSS 327
XV THE PLACE CALLED CALIFANO 350
XVI SUSPENSE 359
CHAPTER I
THE DECLINE OF MANCHESTER HOUSE
Take a mining townlet like Woodhouse, with a population of ten
thousand people, and three generations behind it. This space of
three generations argues a certain well-established society. The old
"County" has fled from the sight of so much disembowelled coal, to
flourish on mineral rights in regions still idyllic. Remains one
great and inaccessible magnate, the local coal owner: three
generations old, and clambering on the bottom step of the "County,"
kicking off the mass below. Rule him out.
A well established society in Woodhouse, full of fine shades,
ranging from the dark of coal-dust to grit of stone-mason and
sawdust of timber-merchant, through the lustre of lard and butter
and meat, to the perfume of the chemist and the disinfectant of the
doctor, on to the serene gold-tarnish of bank-managers, cashiers for
the firm, clergymen and such-like, as far as the automobile
refulgence of the general-manager of all the collieries. Here the
_ne plus ultra_. The general manager lives in the shrubberied
seclusion of the so-called Manor. The genuine Hall, abandoned by the
"County," has been taken over as offices by the firm.
Here we are then: a vast substratum of colliers; a thick sprinkling
of tradespeople intermingled with small employers of labour and
diversified by elementary schoolmasters and nonconformist clergy; a
higher layer of bank-managers, rich millers and well-to-do
ironmasters, episcopal clergy and the managers of collieries, then
the rich and sticky cherry of the local coal-owner glistening over
all.
Such the complicated social system of a small industrial town in the
Midlands of England, in this year of grace 1920. But let us go back
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