At the same time, they were
good friends.
Mrs. Morel's intimacy with her second son was more subtle and fine,
perhaps not so passionate as with her eldest. It was the rule that Paul
should fetch the money on Friday afternoons. The colliers of the five
pits were paid on Fridays, but not individually. All the earnings of
each stall were put down to the chief butty, as contractor, and he
divided the wages again, either in the public-house or in his own home.
So that the children could fetch the money, school closed early on
Friday afternoons. Each of the Morel children--William, then Annie,
then Paul--had fetched the money on Friday afternoons, until they went
themselves to work. Paul used to set off at half-past three, with a
little calico bag in his pocket. Down all the paths, women, girls,
children, and men were seen trooping to the offices.
These offices were quite handsome: a new, red-brick building, almost
like a mansion, standing in its own grounds at the end of Greenhill
Lane. The waiting-room was the hall, a long, bare room paved with blue
brick, and having a seat all round, against the wall.
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