W. Somerset Maugham

“ Mrs. Sharp.
You’re a man. You have the best of it and all the credit.
Norah.
People don’t know. You mustn’t blame them. It’s only those who’ve lived out on the prairie who know that the hardships of opening up a new country fall on the women. But the men who are their husbands, they know.
Marsh.
I guess they do, Mrs. Sharp.
[Norah, on her knees beside her, strokes Mrs. Sharp’s hands. Mrs. Sharp gives her a grateful smile.]
Mrs. Sharp.
Thank you for speaking kindly to me, my dear. I’m that nervous, I hardly know what I’m saying.
Norah.
Sid and Frank will be here in a minute, surely. ”

“ Norah.
Does she look upon that as a great hardship?
Marsh.
My dear, we’re twelve miles from the nearest store. We’re thrown upon one another through the whole of the winter. Last year there was a bad blizzard, and for six weeks we didn’t see a soul outside the farm. Unless we learn to put up with one another’s whims life becomes a perfect hell. ”

“ Marsh.
My dear, these pretty little flowers which you’ve picked to make your shack look bright and homelike—they may mean ruin.
Norah.
Eddie!
Marsh.
You must have heard us talk about the weed. We farmers have three enemies to fight—frost, hail, and weed.
Mrs. Sharp.
We was hailed out last year. Lost our crop. We never got a dollar for it. And if we lose it this year too—why, we may just as well quit.
Marsh.
When it gets into your crop you’ve got to report it, and if you don’t one of the neighbours will. ”

“ Norah.
[With a shrug of the shoulders.] If you’re tired of having me here I can go back to Winnipeg. I shan’t have any difficulty in finding something to do.
Marsh.
Good lord, I don’t want you to go. I like having you here, and it’s company for Gertie. And you know, jobs aren’t so easy to find as you think, especially now the winter’s coming on. Everyone wants a job in the city.
Norah.
What d’you want me to do?
Marsh.
Well, you’ve got to live with Gertie. Why can’t you make the best of things and meet her half way? You might make allowances for her even if you think her unreasonable. ”

“ Norah.
I haven’t said a word that could be turned into the least suggestion of disapproval of anything she did.
Marsh.
My dear, your whole manner has expressed disapproval. You won’t do things in the way we do them. After all, the way you lived in Tunbridge Wells isn’t the only way people can live. Our ways suit us, and when you live amongst us you must adopt them. ”

“ Norah.
Oh don’t—don’t cry, Mrs. Sharp. After all, it may be all right.
Marsh.
They won’t condemn the crop unless it’s very bad. Too many people have got their eyes on it. The machine agent, the loan company.
Mrs. Sharp.
What with the hail that comes and hails you out and the frost that kills your crop just when you’re beginning to count on it, and the weed—I can’t bear it any more. If we lose this crop I won’t go on. I’ll make Sid sell out and we’ll go home. We’ll take a little shop somewhere. That’s what I wanted to do from the beginning, but Sid—he had his heart set on farming. ”

“ Norah.
Oh, I wish I could. I wish to God I could.
Marsh.
You know she can’t do that. There’s nowhere she can go. I’ve offered her a home. You were quite willing when I suggested having her here.
Gertie.
I was willing because I thought she’d make herself useful. We can’t afford to feed folks as don’t earn their keep. We have to work for our money, we do.
Norah.
I didn’t know you grudged me the little I eat. I wonder if I should if I were in your place.
Marsh.
Look here, it’s no good talking. I’m not going to turn her out. As long as she wants a home the farm’s open to her. ”

“ I don’t know nothing about cities. Perhaps men and women are equal there. But on the prairie a man’s master because he’s bigger and stronger than a woman.
Norah.
Frank.
Taylor.
Blast you, don’t talk!
[Norah pauses, struggling between her pride and her fear. She will not look at her husband. She feels that he is getting impatient. At last, slowly, she bends down and picks up the teapot, the cups and saucers, and puts them on the table. Then she sinks into the chair and bursts into tears. He watches her with a slight smile on his face, but not unkindly.] ”

“ Norah.
Look.
Taylor.
What’s that?
[She hands him the cheque which she has received from Mr. Wynne.]
Norah.
The nephew of the lady I was with has made me a present of it. Twenty-five hundred dollars. You can lake the quarter section next to this one and get all the machinery you want and some cows. It’s yours to do what you like with. Now will you keep me?
Taylor.
Oh, my girl, how shall I ever be able to thank you!
Norah.
Good heavens, I don’t want thanks. There’s nothing in the world so wonderful as to be able to give to someone you love.... Give me a kiss and try. ”

“ Miss Pringle.
Oh, well, everyone isn’t like Miss Wickham. The lady I’m companion to, Mrs. Hubbard, is kindness itself.
Kate.
That sounds like Miss Marsh coming downstairs [She goes to the door and opens it.] Miss Pringle is here, Miss.
[Norah comes in. She is a woman of twenty-eight, with a pleasant, honest face and a happy smile. She is gentle, with quiet manners, but she has a quick temper, under very good control, and a passionate nature which is hidden under a demure appearance. She is simply dressed in black.] ”

“ At eight o’clock next morning a maid will bring in my tea and hot water, and the day will begin again. Every day will be just like every other. And there are hundreds of women in England, strong and capable, with blood in their veins, who would be eager to get the place that’s offered to me. Almost a lady and thirty-five pounds a year.
[Taylor has been gazing at her steadily. What she means begins to dawn on him, but he restrains himself. He will not look at her now.] ”

“ Taylor.
I guess I loved you from the beginning, Norah.
Norah.
Why d’you say it as if...? What’s the matter, Frank?
Taylor.
I guess you’ll have to take that job in England. I can’t ask you to stay on.
Norah.
Why?
Taylor.
The inspector’s condemned the crop. I’m bust.
Norah.
Oh, why didn’t you tell me?
Taylor.
I guess I couldn’t. I made up my mind when I married you that I’d make good. I couldn’t expect you to see that it was just bad luck. Anyone can get the weed in his crop. But I guess a man oughtn’t to have bad luck. The odds are that it’s his own fault if he has. ”

“ Miss Pringle.
My dear, you could never have married the little assistant. He wasn’t a gentleman.
Norah.
Ten years! The ten best years of a woman’s life, when other girls are enjoying themselves. And what did I get for it? Board and lodging and thirty pounds a year. A cook does better than that.
Miss Pringle.
We can’t expect to make so much money as a good cook. One has to pay something for living like a lady among people of one’s own class. ”

“ Norah.
Is life always like that? The things you’ve wanted so dreadfully seem only to bring you pain when they come. [He gives her a quick look, but does not answer, and she notices nothing.] Month after month I used to sit looking at the prairie and sometimes I wanted to scream at the top of my voice just to break the silence. I thought I should never escape. The shack was like a prison. I was hemmed in by the snow and the cold and the stillness.
Taylor.
Are you going to quit right now with Ed? ”

“ Taylor.
See here, my girl—you was educated like a lady and spent your life doing nothing—a lady’s companion, wasn’t you—taking a little dawg out for a walk of a morning and combing out his pretty little coat? And you look upon yourself as a darned sight better than me. I never had no schooling, and it’s a hell of a job for me to write a letter, but since I was so high I’ve earned my living. I guess I’ve been all over this country. I’ve been a trapper and I’ve worked on the railroad, and for two years I’ve been a freighter. ”

“ Norah.
[Turning to him.] And you will be clearing the scrub, cutting down trees, ploughing the land, sowing and reaping. You will be fighting every day, frost, hail, and weed; you will be fighting, but I know you’ll be conquering in the end. Where was wilderness will be cultivated land. And who knows what starving child may eat the bread that has been made from the wheat that you grew. My life will be ineffectual and useless, but you will have done something worth while. ”

“ Marsh.
You’ll get used to it soon enough, Reg. It’s a bit hard at first, but when you get your foot in you wouldn’t change it for any other life.
Gertie.
This isn’t a country for a man to go to sleep with and wait for something to turn up.
Trotter.
I wouldn’t go back to England now, not for nothing. England! Eighteen bob a week, that’s what I earned, and no prospects. Out of work five months in the year.
Norah.
What did you do in England?
Trotter.
Bricklayer, Miss.
Gertie.
You needn’t call her miss. Norah’s her name. You call me Gertie, don’t you? ”

“ I ain’t done all the clearing yet, so there’ll be plenty of work for the winter. I want to have a hundred acres to sow next year. And then if I get a good crop I’ve a mind to take another quarter. You can’t make it pay really without you’ve got half a section. And it’s a tough proposition when you ain’t got capital.
Norah.
I didn’t think I was marrying a millionaire.
Taylor.
Never mind, my girl, you shan’t live in a shack long, I promise you. It’s the greatest country in the world. We only want three good crops and you shall have a brick house same as you lived in at home. ”

“ Marsh.
Oh, he’s going back to England.
Norah.
Is he?
Marsh.
Yes, he got them to send him his passage at last. His ship doesn’t sail till next week, and he said he might just as well stop off here and say good-bye to you.
Norah.
How has he been getting on?
Marsh.
What do you expect? He looks upon work as something that only damned fools do. Where’s Frank?
Norah.
Oh, he’s out with Sid Sharp. That’s our neighbour. He has the farm you passed on your way here.
Marsh.
Getting on all right with him, Norah?
Norah.
Of course. What’s that boy doing all this time? He is slow, isn’t he? ”

“ Oh, my dear, I’m so happy in your good luck.
Norah.
Take care.
[Miss Pringle slips out into the garden, and a moment later Mr. and Mrs. Wickham enter the room. Mrs. Wickham is a pretty young woman. She is dressed in black, but her gown is elegant and fashionable. James Wickham is a clean-shaven, thin-faced man, with a baldish head. He is dressed in black and wears black kid gloves.]
Dorothy.
[Cheerfully.] Ouf! Do put the blinds up, Miss Marsh. We really needn’t be depressed any more. Jim, if you love me, take those gloves off. They’re perfectly revolting. ”

“ Miss Wickham had a beautiful old silver teapot—George II.—and she was awfully proud of it. And she was very proud of her tea-set—it was old Worcester—and she wouldn’t let anyone wash the things but.... And two or three times a week an old Indian judge came in to tea, and he used to talk to me about the East—oh, why did you make me think of it all?
Taylor.
The past is dead and gone, my girl. We’ve got the future.
Norah.
[Paying no attention to his words.] One never knows when one’s well off, does one? It’s madness to think of what’s gone for ever. ”

“ The furniture consists of a rocking-chair, worn with use and shabby, a table roughly made by Taylor himself from packing-cases, one kitchen chair and two or three packing-cases used as stools. On another shelf are maple-syrup tins, in which groceries are kept. In one corner there is an old suit-case, locally known as a grip, and a heap of old clothes; in another corner is a pile of tattered magazines and numbers of the Winnipeg Free Press. The shack has an untidy, comfortless, bedraggled air. ”