Daily puzzle

Put Odour of Chrysanthemums back in order

Seven beats from our edition of Odour of Chrysanthemums by D. H. Lawrence, shuffled. Drag them, or use the arrows, until the story runs straight. No account, no streak to lose.

  1. Dusk at the colliery Against a backdrop of the pit, the railway, and the cottage garden, Elizabeth Bates waits with her children for Walter, her irritation deepening as he fails to come home.
  2. Assuming the worst She feeds the children and broods, certain her husband is drinking at the public house, her anger laced with old bitterness about their marriage.
  3. Pride and fear Unable to wait longer, she goes to the neighbors and to the pit offices to ask after Walter, hiding her growing dread behind a stiff dignity.
  4. An accident below Word comes that there has been a fall in the mine. Walter is trapped, and soon it is clear he has been suffocated, dead without a visible wound.
  5. Carried home Miners bring Walter’s body into the cramped parlor, knocking a vase of chrysanthemums to the floor, and lay him before his stunned wife and mother.
  6. Laying him out Elizabeth and Walter’s mother wash and dress the corpse together, the physical intimacy of the dead body forcing Elizabeth to truly look at her husband.
  7. Strangers all along Kneeling over Walter, Elizabeth recognizes that they were always separate, that she never knew him, and she faces life with grief, shame, and bleak new clarity.