| (1, 0) 1 | Scene: Living-room of the PRICES' cottage on the Twmp, Aberpandy. |
| (1, 0) 2 | ~ |
| (1, 0) 3 | The walls are covered with paper, bold in design, but now rather faded. |
| (1, 0) 4 | On the left, looking from stage to audience, there is, in the back corner, a door leading to the road, and, in the middle of the wall, a window with simple curtains and a plain holland blind. |
| (1, 0) 5 | Through the window is seen a rough wall. |
| (1, 0) 6 | On the right, in the middle of the wall, is an old-fashioned fireplace. |
| (1, 0) 7 | The fire has not been lit, and there is a cheap paper screen before the bars. |
| (1, 0) 8 | On the mantelpiece above are brass candlesticks, clock, flat-trons, tin tea-canisters, etc. |
| (1, 0) 9 | In the corner, up stage from fireplace, is a door leading to the back-kitchen, and thence to the little garden. |
| (1, 0) 10 | On the same side, down stage on the other side of the fireplace, is another door, leading to the parlor. |
| (1, 0) 11 | The furniture is humbly serviceable, and has seen long usage. |
| (1, 0) 12 | At the back, in a central position, stands an old dresser hung with jugs and set with plates. |
| (1, 0) 13 | A simple vase filled with sweet peas is on the second shelf. |
| (1, 0) 14 | On the lowest shelf stands a row of well-worn books, and two small book-shelves, well stocked, hang one on each side of the dresser. |
| (1, 0) 15 | There are five ordinary kitchen chairs, usually arranged in the following way ─ one a little down stage from the window, one near the parlor door, one near the kitchen door, and one on each side of the dresser. |
| (1, 0) 16 | There is also a high-backed wooden armchair. |
| (1, 0) 17 | In the middle of the room stands an old-fashioned round table, covered with a faded red cloth. |
| (1, 0) 18 | At the back, one on each side of the dresser, are pictures of Gladstone and C. H. Spurgeon. |
| (1, 0) 19 | In other places are pictures of Henry Richard and some of the well-known preachers. |
| (1, 0) 20 | ~ |
| (1, 0) 21 | When the curtain rises, JOHN PRICE is seated to the right of table in the armchair; GWEN, to the left, in the chair drawn up from the window. |
| (1, 0) 22 | ~ |
| (1, 0) 23 | PRICE is a rugged, hard-visaged man about sixty years old. |
| (1, 0) 24 | He has the collier's usual pallor, and there is a blue mark, caused by coal dust, prominent on his cheek-bone. |
| (1, 0) 25 | A ragged rim of gray-white beard runs, below his chin, from ear to ear. |
| (1, 0) 26 | He is dressed in an old suit, and wears a muffler over a shirt of gray flannel. |
| (1, 0) 27 | His movements are slow and heavy, suggesting the power of endurance, patient but somewhat grim, that is the basis of his nature. |
| (1, 0) 28 | Alone with his wife at the opening of the play, he shows, as in his attitude to GWILYM throughout, a certain rough tenderness, which is not seen in his relations with the other characters in the play. |
| (1, 0) 29 | ~ |
| (1, 0) 30 | GWEN, his wife, is of a different type ─ a gentle, softvoiced woman, whose face is very kind and a little sad. |
| (1, 0) 31 | Even in her smile there is a certain touch of wistfulness, suggesting some under-life in which memory and emotion have greatest power. |
| (1, 0) 32 | She as a well-preserved little woman of sixty, with white hair. |
| (1, 0) 33 | Her dress is simple but very neat. |
| (1, 0) 34 | When the play begins, she is busily mending stockings, of which there is a stock in a basket which lies on the table near at hand. |
| (1, 0) 35 | PRICE with glasses on the end of his nose and his face screwed into an expression of fierce concentration, is addressing an envelope into which he puts a letter. |
| (1, 0) 36 | He closes the envelope with a hearty bang. |
| (Price) {With a sigh of relief.} | |
| (Gwen) I'll be seeing his face every hour of the day, if I only shut my eyes, and his voice will keep on coming back to me as I go about the house and out in the garden by his bank of flowers. | |
| (1, 0) 206 | Saying this, she gets up slowly and puts the basket of stockings on the dresser. |
| (1, 0) 207 | Then turning a litile, she happens to look through the window. |
| (1, 0) 208 | She starts, and begins to talk more briskly. |
| (Gwen) Tan i marw! | |
| (Gwen) And I'll get that drop of broth ready for his supper. | |
| (1, 0) 220 | She takes vase of flowers from the dresser and puts it on table. |
| (1, 0) 221 | Steps are heard without. |
| (1, 0) 222 | ~ |
| (1, 0) 223 | Enter GWILYM and SAM THATCHER. |
| (1, 0) 224 | ~ |
| (1, 0) 225 | SAM is a man of forty-two, but looks older, his hair being thin and grizzled, his face tanned by exposure and adorned with a ragged gray moustache. |
| (1, 0) 226 | He has lost his left arm, and the empty sleeve is fixed into the pocket of his rough blue coat. |
| (1, 0) 227 | His trousers, strapped up under the knee, are of old moleskin with "cross" pockets, to the edge of which he hooks his thumb in an easy attitude. |
| (1, 0) 228 | Under his arm he carries a red flag, rolled up. |
| (1, 0) 229 | His accent proclaims him a Cockney, and his general air of suffering superiority to Aberpandy and all its works indicates a haughty metropolitan outlook. |
| (1, 0) 230 | ~ |
| (1, 0) 231 | GWILYM is a young man of twenty-three or twenty-four, simply and neatly dressed. |
| (1, 0) 232 | His thin, pale face tells of disease. |
| (1, 0) 233 | His expression suggests thoughtfulness and a fund of sympathy, purified of humbug by quiet humor. |
| (1, 0) 234 | He speaks in reflective manner, often searching the listener's face as if given to probing through the surface of things for the causes beneath. |
| (1, 0) 235 | In his bearing toward others there is the natural courtesy of one born with fine instincts. |
| (1, 0) 236 | He is treated by all with the greatest kindness, concern for his welfare being the common element that keeps the household together. |
| (Price) {With great sympathy.} | |
| (Gwen) You shall have your tea in a minute. | |
| (1, 0) 245 | GWEN hurries into the back-kitchen. |
| (1, 0) 246 | GWILYM moves toward the chair to the right of the dresser, but the old man, murmuring, "All right, my boy, all right," anticipates him and brings up the chair, placing it on the left of his own chair, which remains as before. |
| (1, 0) 247 | SAM, having placed flag on the dresser, takes the chair on which GWEN formerly sat. |
| (1, 0) 248 | This is his usual place at table. |
| (1, 0) 249 | The three men seat themselves. |
| (1, 0) 250 | GWILYM takes vase and examines the blossoms with the eye of a good judge. |
| (Sam) {Mopping his forehead.} | |
| (Sam) Mawk my words, boss, I'm tellin' yer nah. | |
| (1, 0) 255 | GWEN comes in with the teapot and a large plate of bread and butter and a plate of small round cakes. |
| (1, 0) 256 | She takes the chair from left of dresser and sits on SAM's right. |
| (1, 0) 257 | LEWIS's place ─ between Gwitym and Gwen ─ is thus left vacant. |
| (1, 0) 258 | GWEN pours out the tea. |
| (Gwen) Where have you been, Gwilym? | |
| (Sam) Got it, boss, got it fust taime! | |
| (1, 0) 263 | PRICE shakes his head in disgust. |
| (Gwen) Bread and butter, Sam? | |
| (Gwen) Skooliki da! | |
| (1, 0) 268 | Knock at door. |
| (Gwen) Come in. | |
| (Gwen) Come in. | |
| (1, 0) 270 | ISAAC PUGH appears in the doorway ─ an old man in a shabby suit. |
| (1, 0) 271 | Relations between him and PRICE having been strained by the affairs of Horeb, his attitude is rather formal, but, at the same time, touched with a suggestion of meek apology. |
| (Gwen) {Coldly polite.} | |
| (Pugh) But since you're so kind ─ | |
| (1, 0) 325 | He takes the tea and stirs it with vigor. |
| (1, 0) 326 | Then drinks it. |