The horses are tied tail to tail
There are many stables where Mabel and her brother live. The great draught-horses are “tied head to tail” (199), an image that comes during the family meeting of Pervin siblings. The image is particularly important in this moment, because it parallels the way in which the siblings are, in a symbolic sense, unwillingly tied to each other.
The Pervins' house
The Pervins' house is full of dark wood and heavy furniture; it speaks to a sense of security, stability, and wealth, and yet, in the context of this story, all of the dark mahogany wood serves as a mocking reminder of the luxuries they will soon lose. So, the image of opulence that accompanies their family home becomes a sad charade in the face of their financial woes.
The gloomy afternoon
As Mabel enters the graveyard, Lawrence describes a typical English rainy day: "The afternoon was falling. It was gray, deadened, and wintry, with a slow, moist, heavy coldness sinking in and deadening all the faculties" (205). The grayness and thick fog permeate the emotional content of the story. In the same way that the characters cannot see far ahead of them, Mabel and Jack have no way of seeing the love that they will feel, right around the corner. The "fog" of Mabel's depression only clears when she finds love.
