第七章（第13/17页）

其夫泰德·博尔顿22年前死于矿难，那时正值圣诞节，撇下她和两个孩子，年幼的还未脱襁褓。噢，昔日的婴孩如今已经嫁做人妇，她名叫伊迪斯，丈夫在谢菲尔德市布茨凯什药剂公司任职。长女在切斯特菲尔德任教，每逢周末，只要没有约会，都会回家探望母亲。如今的年轻人都懂得享受生活，不像她艾薇·博尔顿年轻时那般安分守己。

Ted Bolton was twenty-eight when lie was killed in an explosion down th' pit. The butty in front shouted to them all to lie down quick, there were four of them. And they all lay down in time, only Ted, and it killed him. Then at the inquiry, on the masters' side they said Ted had been frightened, and trying to run away, and not obeying orders, so it was like his fault really. So the compensation was only three hundred pounds, and they made out as if it was more of a gift than legal compensation, because it was really the man's own fault. And they wouldn't let her have the money down; she wanted to have a little shop. But they said she'd no doubt squander it, perhaps in drink! So she had to draw it thirty shillings a week. Yes, she had to go every Monday morning down to the offices, and stand there a couple of hours waiting her turn; yes, for almost four years she went every Monday. And what could she do with two little children on her hands? But Ted's mother was very good to her. When the baby could toddle she'd keep both the children for the day, while she, Ivy Bolton, went to Sheffield, and attended classes in ambulance, and then the fourth year she even took a nursing course and got qualified. She was determined to be independent and keep her children. So she was assistant at Uthwaite hospital, just a little place, for a while. But when the Company, the Tevershall Colliery Company, really Sir Geoffrey, saw that she could get on by herself, they were very good to her, gave her the parish nursing, and stood by her, she would say that for them. And she'd done it ever since, till now it was getting a bit much for her; she needed something a bit lighter, there was such a lot of traipsing around if you were a district nurse.

泰德·博尔顿因矿井爆炸殒命时，年仅28岁。走在前面的工头高喊快点卧倒，当时他们一行四人。大家都及时趴在地上，只有泰德除外，他就这样丢了性命。调查事故起因时，矿主们声称泰德因为惊慌失措，试图逃跑，而且违背命令，所以过失主要在他。因此，赔偿金只有可怜的300镑，而且矿方还认为这是法外施恩，因为过失全在个人。而且，他们还不肯一次把钱付清，她起初想用这笔钱开个小店。可矿主们说若一次付清，她准会将其挥霍干净，天天买醉也说不定。所以她只好每周去领30先令。没错，每周一早晨她都得去趟办公室，站在那儿等上一两个钟头；是的，整整四年时间，她几乎风雨不误。可有两个孩子嗷嗷待哺，她又能怎么做呢？幸而泰德的母亲对她很好。从伊迪斯蹒跚开始学步，她就接过白天照看姐妹俩的责任，而她，艾薇·博尔顿，则去谢菲尔德参加了战地医院培训班，学到第四年，她甚至修习了护理课程，并顺利拿到文凭。她决定自食其力，把两个孩子拉扯成人。于是，她便在乌斯维特医院谋得助理的职位，在那个小地方工作了一段时间。后来公司，特弗沙尔煤矿公司，说白了就是老板杰弗里爵士，看到她如此自强自立，为照顾孤儿寡母，给了她担任教区护士的机会，还处处关照她，博尔顿太太将过往种种原原本本地告诉康妮姐俩。从那时起，她就一直在教区工作，直到感觉有些力不从心，她打算做点稍微轻松的差事，担当教区护士需要四处奔波、忙个不停。

"Yes, the Company's been very good to me, I always say it. But I should never forget what they said about Ted, for he was as steady and fearless a chap as ever set foot on the cage, and it was as good as branding him a coward. But there, he was dead, and could say nothing to none of "em." It was a queer mixture of feelings the woman showed as she talked. She liked the colliers, whom she had nursed for so long; but she felt very superior to them. She felt almost upper class; and at the same time a resentment against the ruling class smouldered in her. The masters! In a dispute between masters and men, she was always for the men. But when there was no question of contest, she was pining to be superior, to be one of the upper class. The upper classes fascinated her, appealing to her peculiar English passion for superiority. She was thrilled to come to Wragby; thrilled to talk to Lady Chatterley, my word, different from the common colliers' wives! She said so in so many words. Yet one could see a grudge against the Chatterleys peep out in her; the grudge against the masters.