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diff --git a/old/12779-h/12779-h.htm b/old/12779-h/12779-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..184fec0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12779-h/12779-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9435 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html> +<head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /><title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of HELEN WITH THE HIGH HAND, by Arnold Bennett.</title> + + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */ + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem .caesura {vertical-align: -200%;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + + </head> + + <body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Helen with the High Hand (2nd ed.), by Arnold Bennett + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Helen with the High Hand (2nd ed.) + +Author: Arnold Bennett + +Release Date: June 29, 2004 [EBook #12779] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HELEN WITH THE HIGH HAND (2ND ED.) *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Martin Pettit and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> + <a href="#CONTENTS"><b>CONTENTS</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER II</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER III</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER IV</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER V</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>CHAPTER VI</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>CHAPTER VII</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>CHAPTER IX</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>CHAPTER X</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>CHAPTER XI</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b>CHAPTER XII</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><b>CHAPTER XIII</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b>CHAPTER XIV</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b>CHAPTER XV</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><b>CHAPTER XVI</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><b>CHAPTER XVII</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><b>CHAPTER XVIII</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><b>CHAPTER XIX</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><b>CHAPTER XX</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><b>CHAPTER XXI</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><b>CHAPTER XXII</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><b>CHAPTER XXIII</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><b>CHAPTER XXIV</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><b>CHAPTER XXV</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI"><b>CHAPTER XXVI</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII"><b>CHAPTER XXVII</b></a><br /> + +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + + + + +<h2>BY THE SAME AUTHOR</h2> +<br /> + +<p><i>NOVELS</i></p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>A MAN FROM THE NORTH</p> +<p>ANNA OF THE FIVE TOWNS</p> +<p>LEONORA</p> +<p>A GREAT MAN</p> +<p>SACRED AND PROFANE LOVE</p> +<p>WHOM GOD HATH JOINED</p> +<p>BURIED ALIVE</p> +<p>THE OLD WIVES' TALE</p> +<p>THE GLIMPSE</p> +<p>HELEN WITH THE HIGH HAND</p> +<p>CLAYHANGER</p> +<p>THE CARD</p> +<p>HILDA LESSWAYS</p> +<p>THE REGENT</p> +<p>THE PRICE OF LOVE</p></div> + +<p><i>FANTASIAS</i></p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>THE GRAND BABYLON HOTEL</p> +<p>THE GATES OF WRATH</p> +<p>TERESA OF WATLING STREET</p> +<p>THE LOOT OF CITIES</p> +<p>HUGO</p> +<p>THE GHOST</p> +<p>THE CITY OF PLEASURE</p></div> +<br /> + +<p><i>SHORT STORIES</i></p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>TALES OF THE FIVE TOWNS</p> +<p>THE GRIM SMILE OF THE FIVE TOWNS</p> +<p>THE MATADOR OF THE FIVE TOWNS</p></div> +<br /> + +<p><i>BELLES-LETTRES</i></p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>JOURNALISM FOR WOMEN</p> +<p>FAME AND FICTION</p> +<p>HOW TO BECOME AN AUTHOR</p> +<p>THE TRUTH ABOUT AN AUTHOR</p> +<p>THE REASONABLE LIFE</p> +<p>HOW TO LIVE ON 24 HOURS A DAY</p> +<p>THE HUMAN MACHINE</p> +<p>LITERARY TASTE</p> +<p>THE FEAST OF ST. FRIEND</p> +<p>THOSE UNITED STATES</p> +<p>THE PLAIN MAN AND HIS WIFE</p> +<p>PARIS NIGHTS</p> +<p>THE AUTHOR'S CRAFT</p> +<p>LIBERTY</p></div> +<br /> + +<p><i>DRAMA</i></p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>POLITE FARCES</p> +<p>CUPID AND COMMON SENSE</p> +<p>WHAT THE PUBLIC WANTS</p> +<p>THE HONEYMOON</p> +<p>THE GREAT ADVENTURE</p></div> +<br /> + +<p>(<i>In collaboration with Eden Phillpotts</i>)</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>THE SINEWS OF WAR: A Romance</p> +<p>THE STATUE: A Romance</p></div> +<br /> + +<p>(<i>In collaboration with Edward Knoblauch</i>)</p> + +<p>MILESTONES</p> +<h1>HELEN WITH THE +HIGH HAND</h1> + +<h2><i>IDYLLIC DIVERSION</i></h2> + +<h2>BY ARNOLD BENNETT</h2> + +<p>AUTHOR OF +"THE OLD WIVES TALE," ETC.</p> + +<p><i>A NEW EDITION</i></p> + +<p>HODDER AND STOUGHTON</p> + +<p>LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO</p> + +<p>1915</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CONTENTS"></a><h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<br /> + +<br /> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I</b></a><br /> + +<p>BEGINNING OF THE IDYLL</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER II</b></a><br /> + +<p>AN AFFAIR OF THE SEVENTIES</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER III</b></a><br /> + +<p>MARRYING OFF A MOTHER</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER IV</b></a><br /> + +<p>INVITATION TO TEA</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER V</b></a><br /> + +<p>A SALUTATION</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>CHAPTER VI</b></a><br /> + +<p>MRS. BUTT'S DEPARTURE</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>CHAPTER VII</b></a><br /> + +<p>THE NEW COOK</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII</b></a><br /> + +<p>OMELETTE</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>CHAPTER IX</b></a><br /> + +<p>A GREAT CHANGE</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>CHAPTER X</b></a><br /> + +<p>A CALL</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>CHAPTER XI</b></a><br /> + +<p>ANOTHER CALL</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b>CHAPTER XII</b></a><br /> + +<p>BREAKFAST</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><b>CHAPTER XIII</b></a><br /> + +<p>THE WORLD</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b>CHAPTER XIV</b></a><br /> + +<p>SONG, SCENE AND DANCE</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b>CHAPTER XV</b></a><br /> + +<p>THE GIFT</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><b>CHAPTER XVI</b></a><br /> + +<p>THE HALL AND ITS RESULT</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><b>CHAPTER XVII</b></a><br /> + +<p>DESCENDANTS OF MACHIAVELLI</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><b>CHAPTER XVIII</b></a><br /> + +<p>CHICANE</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><b>CHAPTER XIX</b></a><br /> + +<p>THE TOSSING</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><b>CHAPTER XX</b></a><br /> + +<p>THE FLITTING</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><b>CHAPTER XXI</b></a><br /> + +<p>SHIP AND OCEAN</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><b>CHAPTER XXII</b></a><br /> + +<p>CONFESSIONAL</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><b>CHAPTER XXIII</b></a><br /> + +<p>NOCTURNAL</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><b>CHAPTER XXIV</b></a><br /> + +<p>SEEING A LADY HOME</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><b>CHAPTER XXV</b></a><br /> + +<p>GIRLISH CONFIDENCES</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI"><b>CHAPTER XXVI</b></a><br /> + +<p>THE CONCERT</p> + +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII"><b>CHAPTER XXVII</b></a><br /> + +<p>UNKNOTTING AND KNOTTING</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_I"></a><h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<p>BEGINNING OF THE IDYLL</p> +<br /> + +<p>In the Five Towns human nature is reported to +be so hard that you can break stones on it. Yet +sometimes it softens, and then we have one of our +rare idylls of which we are very proud, while +pretending not to be. The soft and delicate +South would possibly not esteem highly our idylls, +as such. Nevertheless they are our idylls, idyllic +for us, and reminding us, by certain symptoms, +that though we never cry there is concealed +somewhere within our bodies a fount of happy +tears.</p> + +<p>The town park is an idyll in the otherwise +prosaic municipal history of the Borough of +Bursley, which previously had never got nearer to +romance than a Turkish bath. It was once waste +ground covered with horrible rubbish-heaps, and +made dangerous by the imperfectly-protected +shafts of disused coal-pits. Now you enter it by +emblazoned gates; it is surrounded by elegant +railings; fountains and cascades babble in it; +wild-fowl from far countries roost in it, on trees +with long names; tea is served in it; brass bands +make music on its terraces, and on its highest +terrace town councillors play bowls on billiard-table +greens while casting proud glances on the +houses of thirty thousand people spread out under +the sweet influence of the gold angel that tops the +Town Hall spire. The other four towns are apt to +ridicule that gold angel, which for exactly fifty +years has guarded the borough and only been regilded +twice. But ask the plumber who last had +the fearsome job of regilding it whether it is a +gold angel to be despised, and—you will see!</p> + +<p>The other four towns are also apt to point to +their own parks when Bursley mentions its park +(especially Turnhill, smallest and most conceited +of the Five); but let them show a park whose +natural situation equals that of Bursley's park. +You may tell me that the terra-cotta constructions +within it carry ugliness beyond a joke; you may +tell me that in spite of the park's vaunted situation +nothing can be seen from it save the chimneys and +kilns of earthenware manufactories, the scaffoldings +of pitheads, the ample dome of the rate-collector's +offices, the railway, minarets of non-conformity, +sundry undulating square miles of +monotonous house-roofs, the long scarves of black +smoke which add such interest to the sky of the +Five Towns—and, of course, the gold angel. But +I tell you that before the days of the park lovers +had no place to walk in but the cemetery; not the +ancient churchyard of St. Luke's (the rector would +like to catch them at it!)—the borough cemetery! +One generation was forced to make love over the +tombs of another—and such tombs!—before the +days of the park. That is the sufficient answer to +any criticism of the park.</p> + +<p>The highest terrace of the park is a splendid +expanse of gravel, ornamented with flower-beds. +At one end is the north bowling-green; at the +other is the south bowling-green; in the middle is +a terra-cotta and glass shelter; and at intervals, +against the terra-cotta balustrade, are arranged +rustic seats from which the aged, the enamoured, +and the sedentary can enjoy the gold angel.</p> + +<p>Between the southernmost seat and the south +bowling-green, on that Saturday afternoon, stood +Mr. James Ollerenshaw. He was watching a man +who earned four-and-sixpence a day by gently +toying from time to time with a roller on the +polished surface of the green. Mr. James Ollerenshaw's +age was sixty; but he looked as if he did +not care. His appearance was shabby; but he +did not seem to mind. He carried his hands in +the peculiar horizontal pockets of his trousers, and +stuck out his figure, in a way to indicate that he +gave permission to all to think of him exactly what +they pleased. Those pockets were characteristic +of the whole costume; their very name is unfamiliar +to the twentieth century. They divide +the garment by a fissure whose sides are kept +together by many buttons, and a defection on the +part of even a few buttons is apt to be inconvenient. +James Ollerenshaw was one of the +last persons in Bursley to defy fashion in +the matter of pockets. His suit was of a +strange hot colour—like a brick which, having +become very dirty, has been imperfectly cleaned +and then powdered with sand—made in a hard, +eternal, resistless cloth, after a pattern which has +not survived the apprenticeship of Five Towns' +tailors in London. Scarcely anywhere save on +the person of James Ollerenshaw would you see +nowadays that cloth, that tint, those very short +coat-tails, that curved opening of the waistcoat, +or those trouser-pockets. The paper turned-down +collar, and the black necktie (of which only +one square inch was ever visible), and the paper +cuffs, which finished the tailor-made portion of +Mr. Ollerenshaw, still linger in sporadic profusion. +His low, flat-topped hat was faintly green, as +though a delicate fungoid growth were just budding +on its black. His small feet were cloistered +in small, thick boots of glittering brilliance. The +colour of his face matched that of his suit. He +had no moustache and no whiskers, but a small, +stiff grey beard was rooted somewhere under his +chin. He had kept a good deal of his hair. He +was an undersized man, with short arms and legs, +and all his features—mouth, nose, ears, blue eyes—were +small and sharp; his head, as an entirety, +was small. His thin mouth was always tightly +shut, except when he spoke. The general expression +of his face was one of suppressed, sarcastic +amusement.</p> + +<p>He was always referred to as Jimmy Ollerenshaw, +and he may strike you as what is known +as a "character," an oddity. His sudden appearance +at a Royal Levée would assuredly have +excited remark, and even in Bursley he diverged +from the ordinary; nevertheless, I must expressly +warn you against imagining Mr. Ollerenshaw as an +oddity. It is the most difficult thing in the world for +a man named James not to be referred to as Jimmy. +The temptation to the public is almost irresistible. +Let him have but a wart on his nose, and they will +regard it as sufficient excuse for yielding. I do +not think that Mr. Ollerenshaw was consciously +set down as an oddity in his native town. Certainly +he did not so set down himself. Certainly +he was incapable of freakishness. By the town he +was respected. His views on cottage property, +the state of trade, and the finances of the borough +were listened to with a respectful absence of +comment. He was one of the few who had made +cottage property pay. It was said he owned a +mile of cottages in Bursley and Turnhill. It was +said that, after Ephraim Tellwright, he was the +richest man in Bursley. There was a slight +resemblance of type between Ollerenshaw and +Tellwright. But Tellwright had buried two wives, +whereas Ollerenshaw had never got within arm's +length of a woman. The town much preferred +Ollerenshaw.</p> + +<p>After having duly surveyed the majestic +activities of the ground-man on the bowling-green, +and having glanced at his watch, Mr. Ollerenshaw +sat down on the nearest bench; he was waiting +for an opponent, the captain of the bowling-club. +It is exactly at the instant of his downsitting that +the drama about to be unfolded properly begins. +Strolling along from the northern extremity of the +terrace to the southern was a young woman. +This young woman, as could be judged from her +free and independent carriage, was such a creature +as, having once resolved to do a thing, is not to be +deterred from doing it by the caprices of other +people. She had resolved—a resolution of no +importance whatever—to seat herself on precisely +the southernmost bench of the terrace. There +was not, indeed, any particular reason why she +should have chosen the southernmost bench; but +she had chosen it. She had chosen it, afar off, +while it was yet empty and Mr. Ollerenshaw was +on his feet. When Mr. Ollerenshaw dropped into +a corner of it the girl's first instinctive volition +was to stop, earlier than she had intended, at one +of the other seats.</p> + +<p>Despite statements to the contrary, man is so +little like a sheep that when he has a choice of +benches in a park he will always select an empty +one. This rule is universal in England and +Scotland, though elsewhere exceptions to it have +been known to occur. But the girl, being a girl, +and being a girl who earned her own living, and +being a girl who brought all conventions to the bar +of her reason and forced them to stand trial there, +said to herself, proudly and coldly: "It would be +absurd on my part to change my mind. I meant +to occupy that bench, and why should I not? +There is amply sufficient space for the man and me +too. He has taken one corner, and I will take +the other. These notions that girls have are +silly." She meant the notion that she herself +had had.</p> + +<p>So she floated forward, charmingly and inexorably. +She was what in the Five Towns is +called "a stylish piece of goods." She wore a +black-and-white frock, of a small check pattern, +with a black belt and long black gloves, and she +held over her serenity a black parasol richly +flounced with black lace—a toilet unusual in the +district, and as effective as it was unusual. She +knew how to carry it. She was a tall girl, and +generously formed, with a complexion between +fair and dark; her age, perhaps, about twenty-five. +She had the eye of an empress—and not +an empress-consort either, nor an empress who +trembles in secret at the rumour of cabals and +intrigues. Yes, considered as a decoration of the +terrace, she was possibly the finest, most dazzling +thing that Bursley could have produced; and +Bursley doubtless regretted that it could only +claim her as a daughter by adoption.</p> + +<p>Approaching, step by dainty and precise step, +the seat invested by Mr. James Ollerenshaw, she +arrived at the point whence she could distinguish +the features of her forestaller; she was somewhat +short-sighted. She gave no outward sign of fear, +irresolution, cowardice. But if she had not been +more afraid of her own contempt than of anything +else in the world, she would have run away; she +would have ceased being an empress and declined +suddenly into a scared child. However, her fear +of her own contempt kept her spine straight, her +face towards the danger, and her feet steadily +moving.</p> + +<p>"It's not my fault," she said to herself. "I +meant to occupy that bench, and occupy it I will. +What have I to be ashamed of?"</p> + +<p>And she did occupy that bench. She contrived +to occupy it without seeing Mr. Ollerenshaw. +Each separate movement of hers denied absolutely +the existence of Mr. Ollerenshaw. She arranged +her dress, and her parasol, and her arms, and the +exact angle of her chin; and there gradually fell +upon her that stillness which falls upon the figure +of a woman when she has definitively adopted an +attitude in the public eye. She was gazing at the +gold angel, a mile off, which flashed in the sun. +But what a deceptive stillness was that stillness! +A hammer was hammering away under her breast +with what seemed to her a reverberating sound. +Strange that that hammering did not excite +attention throughout the park! Then she had +the misfortune to think of the act of blushing. +She violently willed not to blush. But her blood +was too much for her. It displayed itself in the +most sanguinary manner first in the centre of each +cheek, and it increased its area of conquest until +the whole of her visible skin—even the back of her +neck and her lobes—had rosily yielded. And +she was one of your girls who never blush! The +ignominy of it! To blush because she found +herself within thirty inches of a man, an old man, +with whom she had never in her life exchanged a +single word!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_II"></a><h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<p>AN AFFAIR OF THE SEVENTIES</p> +<br /> + +<p>Having satisfied her obstinacy by sitting down +on the seat of her choice, she might surely—one +would think—have ended a mysteriously difficult +situation by rising again and departing, of course +with due dignity. But no! She could not! +She wished to do so, but she could not command +her limbs. She just sat there, in horridest torture, +like a stoical fly on a pin—one of those flies that +pretend that nothing hurts. The agony might +have been prolonged to centuries had not an +extremely startling and dramatic thing happened +—the most startling and dramatic thing that ever +happened either to James Ollerenshaw or to the +young woman. James Ollerenshaw spoke, and I +imagine that nobody was more surprised than +James Ollerenshaw by his brief speech, which +slipped out of him quite unawares. What he +said was:</p> + +<p>"Well, lass, how goes it, like?"</p> + +<p>If the town could have heard him, the town +would have rustled from boundary to boundary +with agitated and delicious whisperings.</p> + +<p>The young woman, instead of being justly +incensed by this monstrous molestation from an +aged villain who had not been introduced to her, +gave a little jump (as though relieved from the +spell of an enchantment), and then deliberately +turned and faced Mr. Ollerenshaw. She also +smiled, amid her roses.</p> + +<p>"Very well indeed, thank you," she replied, +primly, but nicely.</p> + +<p>Upon this, they both of them sought to recover +—from an affair that had occurred in the late +seventies.</p> + +<p>In the late seventies James Ollerenshaw had +been a young-old man of nearly thirty. He had +had a stepbrother, much older and much poorer +than himself, and the stepbrother had died, +leaving a daughter, named Susan, almost, but not +quite, in a state of indigence. The stepbrother +and James had not been on terms of effusive +cordiality. But James was perfectly ready to +look after Susan, his stepniece. Susan, aged +seventeen years, was, however, not perfectly ready +to be looked after. She had a little money, and +she earned a little (by painting asters on toilet +ware), and the chit was very rude to her stepuncle. +In less than a year she had married a youth +of twenty, who apparently had not in him even +the rudiments of worldly successfulness. James +Ollerenshaw did his avuncular duty by formally +and grimly protesting against the marriage. But +what authority has a stepuncle? Susan defied +him, with a maximum of unforgettable impoliteness; +and she went to live with her husband at +Longshaw, which is at the other end of the Five +Towns. The fact became public that a solemn +quarrel existed between James and Susan, and +that each of them had sworn not to speak until +the other spoke. James would have forgiven, if +she had hinted at reconciliation. And, hard as it +is for youth to be in the wrong, Susan would have +hinted at reconciliation if James had not been so +rich. The riches of James offended Susan's independence. +Not for millions would she have exposed +herself to the suspicion that she had broken +her oath because her stepuncle was a wealthy and +childless man. She was, of course, wrong. Nor +was this her only indiscretion. She was so ridiculously +indiscreet as to influence her husband in such +a way that he actually succeeded in life. Had +James perceived them to be struggling in poverty, +he might conceivably have gone over to them and +helped them, in an orgy of forgiving charity. +But the success of young Rathbone falsified his +predictions utterly, and was, further, an affront to +him. Thus the quarrel slowly crystallised into a +permanent estrangement, a passive feud. Everybody +got thoroughly accustomed to it, and +thought nothing of it, it being a social phenomenon +not at all unique of its kind in the Five Towns. +When, fifteen years later, Rathbone died in mid-career, +people thought that the feud would end. +But it did not. James wrote a letter of condolence +to his niece, and even sent it to Longshaw by +special messenger in the tramcar; but he had not +heard of the death until the day of the funeral, +and Mrs. Rathbone did not reply to his letter. +Her independence and sensitiveness were again in +the wrong. James did no more. You could not +expect him to have done more. Mrs. Rathbone, +like many widows of successful men, was "left +poorly off." But she "managed." Once, five +years before the scene on the park terrace, Mrs. +Rathbone and James had encountered one another +by hazard on the platform of Knype Railway +Station. Destiny hesitated while Susan waited +for James's recognition and James waited for +Susan's recognition. Both of them waited too +long. Destiny averted its head and drew back, +and the relatives passed on their ways without +speaking. James observed with interest a +girl of twenty by Susan's side—her daughter. +This daughter of Susan's was now sharing +the park bench with him. Hence the hidden +drama of their meeting, of his speech, of her +reply.</p> + +<p>"And what's your name, lass?"</p> + +<p>"Helen."</p> + +<p>"Helen what?"</p> + +<p>"Helen, great-stepuncle," said she.</p> + +<p>He laughed; and she laughed also. The fact +was that he had been aware of her name, vaguely. +It had come to him, on the wind, or by some +bird's wing, although none of his acquaintances +had been courageous enough to speak to him about +the affair of Susan for quite twenty years past. +Longshaw is as far from Bursley, in some ways, as +San Francisco from New York. There are people +in Bursley who do not know the name of the +Mayor of Longshaw—who make a point of <i>not</i> +knowing it. Yet news travels even from Longshaw +to Bursley, by mysterious channels; and +Helen Rathbone's name had so travelled. James +Ollerenshaw was glad that she was just Helen. +He had been afraid that there might be something +fancy between Helen and Rathbone—something +expensive and aristocratic that went with her +dress and her parasol. He illogically liked her for +being called merely Helen—as if the credit were +hers! Helen was an old Ollerenshaw name—his +grandmother's (who had been attached to the +household of Josiah Wedgwood), and his aunt's. +Helen was historic in his mind. And, further, it +could not be denied that Rathbone was a fine old +Five Towns name too.</p> + +<p>He was very illogical that afternoon; he threw +over the principles of a lifetime, arguing from +particulars to generals exactly like a girl. He had +objected, always, to the expensive and the +aristocratic. He was proud of his pure plebeian +blood, as many plebeians are; he gloried in it. +He disliked show, with a calm and deep aversion. +He was a plain man with a simple, unostentatious +taste for money. The difference between Helen's +name and her ornamental raiment gave him pleasure +in the name. But he had not been examining +her for more than half a minute when he began to +find pleasure in her rich clothes (rich, that is, to +him!). Quite suddenly he, at the age of sixty, +abandoned without an effort his dear prejudice +against fine feathers, and began, for the first time, +to take joy in sitting next to a pretty and well-dressed +woman. And all this, not from any +broad, philosophic perception that fine feathers +have their proper part in the great scheme of +cosmic evolution; but because the check dress +suited her, and the heavy, voluptuous parasol +suited her, and the long black gloves were inexplicably +effective. Women grow old; women +cease to learn; but men, never.</p> + +<p>As for Helen, she liked him. She had liked him +for five years, ever since her mother had pointed +him out on the platform of Knype Railway Station. +She saw him closer now. He was older than she +had been picturing him; indeed, the lines on his +little, rather wizened face, and the minute +sproutings of grey-white hair in certain spots on +his reddish chin, where he had shaved himself +badly, caused her somehow to feel quite sad. She +thought of him as "a dear old thing," and then +as "a dear old darling." Yes, old, very old! +Nevertheless, she felt maternal towards him. +She felt that she was much wiser than he was, and +that she could teach him a great deal. She saw +very clearly how wrong he and her mother had +been, with their stupidly terrific quarrel; and the +notion of all the happiness which he had missed, +in his solitary, unfeminised, bachelor existence, +nearly brought into her eyes tears of a quick and +generous sympathy.</p> + +<p>He, blind and shabby ancient, had no suspicion +that his melancholy state and the notion of all the +happiness he had missed had tinged with sorrow +the heart within the frock, and added a dangerous +humidity to the glance under the sunshade. It +did not occur to him that he was an object of pity, +nor that a vast store of knowledge was waiting to +be poured into him. The aged, self-satisfied wag-beard +imagined that he had conducted his career +fairly well. He knew no one with whom he would +have changed places. He regarded Helen as an +extremely agreeable little thing, with her absurd +air of being grown-up. Decidedly in five years +she had tremendously altered. Five years ago she +had been gawky. Now ... Well, he was proud +of her. She had called him great-stepuncle, thus +conferring on him a sort of part-proprietorship in +her; and he was proud of her. The captain of the +bowling-club came along, and James Ollerenshaw +gave him just such a casual nod as he might have +given to a person of no account. The nod seemed +to say: "Match this, if you can. It's mine, and +there's nothing in the town to beat it. Mrs. +Prockter herself hasn't got more style than this." +(Of this Mrs. Prockter, more later.)</p> + +<p>Helen soon settled down into a condition of ease, +which put an end to blushing. She knew she was +admired.</p> + +<p>"What are you doing i' Bosley?" James +demanded.</p> + +<p>"I'm living i' Bosley," she retorted, smartly.</p> + +<p>"Living here!" He stopped, and his hard old +heart almost stopped too. If not in mourning, +she was in semi-mourning. Surely Susan had not +had the effrontery to die, away in Longshaw, +without telling him!</p> + +<p>"Mother has married again," said Helen, +lightly.</p> + +<p>"Married!" He was staggered. The wind +was knocked out of him.</p> + +<p>"Yes. And gone to Canada!" Helen added.</p> + +<p>You pick up your paper in the morning, and +idly and slowly peruse the advertisements on the +first page, forget it, eat some bacon, grumble at +the youngest boy, open the paper, read the breach +of promise case on page three, drop it, and ask +your wife for more coffee—hot—glance at your +letters again, then reopen the paper at the news +page, and find that the Tsar of Russia has been +murdered, and a few American cities tumbled to +fragments by an earthquake—you know how you +feel then. James Ollerenshaw felt like that. The +captain of the bowling-club, however, poising a +bowl in his right hand, and waiting for James +Ollerenshaw to leave his silken dalliance, saw +nothing but an old man and a young woman sitting +on a Corporation seat.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_III"></a><h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<p>MARRYING OFF A MOTHER</p> +<br /> + +<p>"Yes," said Helen Rathbone, "mother fell in +love. Don't you think it was funny?"</p> + +<p>"That's as may be," James Ollerenshaw replied, +in his quality of the wiseacre who is accustomed +to be sagacious on the least possible expenditure +of words.</p> + +<p>"We both thought it was awfully funny," +Helen said.</p> + +<p>"Both? Who else is there?"</p> + +<p>"Why, mother and I, of course! We used to +laugh over it. You see, mother is a very simple +creature. And she's only forty-four."</p> + +<p>"She's above forty-four," James corrected.</p> + +<p>"She <i>told</i> me she was thirty-nine five years +ago," Helen protested.</p> + +<p>"Did she tell ye she was forty, four years ago?"</p> + +<p>"No. At least, I don't remember."</p> + +<p>"Did she ever tell ye she was forty?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Happen she's not such a simple creature +as ye thought for, my lass," observed James +Ollerenshaw.</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to infer," said Helen, with +cold dignity, "that my <i>mother</i> would tell me a +lie?"</p> + +<p>"All as I mean is that Susan was above thirty-nine +five years ago, and I can prove it. I had to +get her birth certificate when her father died, and +I fancy I've got it by me yet." And his eyes +added: "So much for that point. One to +me."</p> + +<p>Helen blushed and frowned, and looked up +into the darkling heaven of her parasol; and then +it occurred to her that her wisest plan would be +to laugh. So she laughed. She laughed in +almost precisely the same manner as James had +heard Susan laugh thirty years previously, before +love had come into Susan's life like a shell into +a fortress, and finally blown their fragile relations +all to pieces. A few minutes earlier the sight +of great-stepuncle James had filled Helen with +sadness, and he had not suspected it. Now her +laugh filled James with sadness, and she did not +suspect it. In his sadness, however, he was glad +that she laughed so naturally, and that the sombre +magnificence of her dress and her gloves and +parasol did not prevent her from opening her +rather large mouth and showing her teeth.</p> + +<p>"It was just like mother to tell me fibs about +her age," said Helen, generously (it is always +interesting to observe the transformation of a lie +into a fib). "And I shall write and tell her she's +a horrid mean thing. I shall write to her this +very night."</p> + +<p>"So Susan's gone and married again!" James +murmured, reflectively.</p> + +<p>Helen now definitely turned the whole of her +mortal part towards James, so that she fronted +him, and her feet were near his. He also turned, +in response to this diplomatic advance, and leant +his right elbow on the back of the seat, and his +chin on his right palm. He put his left leg over +his right leg, and thus his left foot swayed like a +bird on a twig within an inch of Helen's flounce. +The parasol covered the faces of the just and the +unjust impartially.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you don't know a farmer named +Bratt that used to have a farm near Sneyd?" +said Helen.</p> + +<p>"I can't say as I do," said James.</p> + +<p>"Well, that's the man!" said Helen. "He +used to come to Longshaw cattle-market with +sheep and things."</p> + +<p>"Sheep and things!" echoed James. "What +things?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! I don't know," said Helen, sharply. +"Sheep and things."</p> + +<p>"And what did your mother take to Longshaw +cattle-market?" James inquired. "I understood +as she let lodgings."</p> + +<p>"Not since I've been a teacher," said Helen, +rather more sharply. "Mother didn't take anything +to the cattle-market. But you know our +house was just close to the cattle-market."</p> + +<p>"No, I didn't," said James, stoutly. "I +thought as it was in Aynsley-street."</p> + +<p>"Oh! that's years ago!" said Helen, shocked +by his ignorance. "We've lived in Sneyd-road +for years—years."</p> + +<p>"I'll not deny it," said James.</p> + +<p>"The great fault of our house," Helen proceeded, +"was that mother daren't stir out of it +on cattle-market days."</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"Cows!" said Helen. "Mother simply can't +look at a cow, and they were passing all the +time."</p> + +<p>"She should ha' been thankful as it wasn't +bulls," James put in.</p> + +<p>"But I mean bulls too!" exclaimed Helen. +"In fact, it was a bull that led to it."</p> + +<p>"What! Th' farmer saved her from a mad +bull, and she fell in love with him? He's younger +than her, I lay!"</p> + +<p>"How did you know that?" Helen questioned. +"Besides, he isn't. They're just the same age."</p> + +<p>"Forty-four?" Perceiving delicious danger +in the virgin's face, James continued before she +could retort, "I hope Susan wasn't gored?"</p> + +<p>"You're quite wrong. You're jumping to +conclusions," said Helen, with an air of indulgence +that would have been exasperating had it not been +enchanting. "Things don't happen like that +except in novels."</p> + +<p>"I've never read a novel in my life," James +defended himself.</p> + +<p>"Haven't you? How interesting!"</p> + +<p>"But I've known a woman knocked down by +a bull."</p> + +<p>"Well, anyhow, mother wasn't knocked down +by a bull. But there was a mad bull running +down the street; it had escaped from the market. +And Mr. Bratt was walking home, and the bull +was after him like a shot. Mother was looking +out of the window, and she saw what was going +on. So she rushed to the front door and opened +it, and called to Mr. Bratt to run in and take +shelter. And they only just got the door shut in +time."</p> + +<p>"Bless us!" muttered James. "And what +next?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I came home from school and found +them having tea together."</p> + +<p>"And ninety year between them!" James +reflected.</p> + +<p>"Then Mr. Bratt called every week. He was +a widower, with no children."</p> + +<p>"It couldn't ha' been better," said James.</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, it could," said Helen. "Because I +had the greatest difficulty in marrying them; in +fact, at one time I thought I should never do it. +I'm always in the right, and mother's always in +the wrong. She's admitted that for years. She's +had to admit it. Yet she <i>would</i> go her own way. +Nothing would ever cure mother."</p> + +<p>"She used to talk just like that of your grandfather," +said James. "Susan always reckoned +as she'd got more than her fair share of sense."</p> + +<p>"I don't think she thinks that now," said +Helen, calmly, as if to say: "At any rate I've +cured her of <i>that</i>." Then she went on: "You +see, Mr. Bratt had sold his farm—couldn't make +it pay—and he was going out to Manitoba. He +said he would stop in England. Mother said she +wouldn't let him stop in England where he couldn't +make a farm pay. She was quite right there," +Helen admitted, with careful justice. "But then +she said she wouldn't marry him and go out to +Manitoba, because of leaving me alone here to +look after myself! Can you imagine such a +reason?"</p> + +<p>James merely raised his head quickly several +times. The gesture meant whatever Helen preferred +that it should mean.</p> + +<p>"The idea!" she continued. "As if I hadn't +looked after mother and kept her in order, and +myself, too, for several years! No. She wouldn't +marry him and go out there! And she wouldn't +marry him and stay here! She actually began +to talk all the usual conventional sort of stuff, +you know—about how she had no right to marry +again, and she didn't believe in second marriages, +and about her duty to me. And so on. You +know. I reasoned with her—I explained to her +that probably she had another thirty years to +live. I told her she was quite young. She <i>is</i>. +And why should she make herself permanently +miserable, <i>and</i> Mr. Bratt, <i>and</i> me, merely out of +a quite mistaken sense of duty? No use! I +tried everything I could. No use!"</p> + +<p>"She was too much for ye?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>no</i>!" said Helen, condescendingly. "I'd +made up my <i>mind</i>. I arranged things with +Mr. Bratt. He quite agreed with me. He took +out a licence at the registrar's, and one Saturday +morning—it had to be a Saturday, because I'm +busy all the other days—I went out with mother +to buy the meat and things for Sunday's dinner, +and I got her into the registrar's office—and, well, +there she was! Now, what do you think?"</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"Her last excuse was that she couldn't be +married because she was wearing her third-best +hat. Don't you think it's awfully funny?"</p> + +<p>"That's as may be," said James. "When +was all this?"</p> + +<p>"Just recently," Helen answered. "They +sailed from Glasgow last Thursday but two. And +I'm expecting a letter by every post to say that +they've arrived safely."</p> + +<p>"And Susan's left you to take care of yourself!"</p> + +<p>"Now, please don't begin talking like mother," +Helen said, frigidly. "I've certainly got less to +take care of now than I had. Mother quite saw +that. But what difficulty I had in getting her +off, even after I'd safely married her! I had to +promise that if I felt lonely I'd go and join them. +But I shan't."</p> + +<p>"You won't?"</p> + +<p>"No. I don't see myself on a farm in Manitoba. +Do you?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know as I do," said James, examining +her appearance, with a constant increase of his +pride in it. "So ye saw 'em off at Glasgow. I +reckon she made a great fuss?"</p> + +<p>"Fuss?"</p> + +<p>"Cried."</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, of course."</p> + +<p>"Did you cry, miss?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I cried," said Helen, passionately, +sitting up straight. "Why do you ask such +questions?"</p> + +<p>"And us'll never see Susan again?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I shall go over and <i>see</i> them," said +Helen. "I only meant that I shouldn't go to +stop. I daresay I shall go next year, in the +holidays."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IV"></a><h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<p>INVITATION TO TEA</p> +<br /> + +<p>They were most foolishly happy as they sat +there on the bench, this man whose dim eyes +ought to have been waiting placidly for the ship +of death to appear above the horizon, and this +young girl who imagined that she knew all about +life and the world. When I say that they were +foolishly happy, I of course mean that they were +most wisely happy. Each of them, being gifted +with common sense, and with a certain imperviousness +to sentimentality which invariably +accompanies common sense, they did not mar the +present by regretting the tragic stupidity of a +long estrangement; they did not mourn over +wasted years that could not be recalled. It must +be admitted, in favour of the Five Towns, that +when its inhabitants spill milk they do not usually +sit down on the pavement and adulterate the +milk with their tears. They pass on. Such +passing on is termed callous and cold-hearted in +the rest of England, which loves to sit down on +pavements and weep into irretrievable milk.</p> + +<p>Nor did Helen and her great-stepuncle mar the +present by worrying about the future; it never +occurred to them to be disturbed by the possibility +that milk not already spilt might yet be spilt.</p> + +<p>Helen had been momentarily saddened by +private reflections upon what James Ollerenshaw +had missed in his career; and James had been +saddened, somewhat less, by reminiscences which +had sprung out of Helen's laugh. But their +melancholies had rapidly evaporated in the +warmth of the unexpected encounter. They +liked one another. She liked him because he was +old and dry; and because he had a short laugh, +and a cynical and even wicked gleam of the eye +that pleased her; and because there was an +occasional tone in his voice that struck her as +deliciously masculine, ancient, and indulgent; +and because he had spoken to her first; and +because his gaze wandered with an admiring +interest over her dress and up into the dome of +her sunshade; and because he put his chin in his +palm and leant his head towards her; and because +the skin of his hand was so crinkled and glossy. +And he liked her because she was so exquisitely +fresh and candid, so elegant, so violent and complete +a contrast to James Ollerenshaw; so +absurdly sagacious and sure of herself, and perhaps +because of a curve in her cheek, and a +mysterious suggestion of eternal enigma in her +large and liquid eye. When she looked right +away from him, as she sometimes did in the +conversation, the outline of her soft cheek, which +drew in at the eye and swelled out again to the +temple, resembled a map of the coast of some +smooth, romantic country not mentioned in +geographies. When she looked <i>at</i> him—well, +the effect on him astonished him; but it enchanted +him. He was discovering for the first +time the soul of a girl. If he was a little taken +aback he is to be excused. Younger men than +he have been taken aback by that discovery. +But James Ollerenshaw did not behave as a +younger man would have behaved. He was +more like some one who, having heard tell of the +rose for sixty years, and having paid no attention +to rumour, suddenly sees a rose in early bloom. +At his age one knows how to treat a flower; one +knows what flowers are for.</p> + +<p>It was no doubt this knowledge of what flowers +are for that almost led to the spilling of milk at +the very moment when milk-spilling seemed in a +high degree improbable.</p> + +<p>The conversation had left Susan and her +caprices, and had reached Helen and her solid +wisdom.</p> + +<p>"But you haven't told me what you're doing +i' Bosley," said the old man.</p> + +<p>"I've told you I'm living here," said Helen. +"I've now been living here for one week and one +day. I'm teaching at the Park Road Board +School. I got transferred from Longshaw. I +never liked Longshaw, and I always like a +change."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Ollerenshaw, judiciously, "of +the two I reckon as Bosley is the frying-pan. So +you're teaching up yonder?" He jerked his +elbow in the direction of the spacious and imposing +terra-cotta Board School, whose front looked +on the eastern gates of the park. "What dost +teach?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, everything," Helen replied.</p> + +<p>"You must be very useful to 'em," said James. +"What do they pay you for teaching everything?"</p> + +<p>"Seventy-two pounds," said Helen.</p> + +<p>"A month? It 'ud be cheap at a hundred, +lass; unless there's a whole crowd on ye as can +teach everything. Can you sew?"</p> + +<p>"Sew!" she exclaimed. "I've given lessons +in sewing for years. <i>And</i> cookery. <i>And</i> mathematics. +I used to give evening lessons in mathematics +at Longshaw secondary school."</p> + +<p>Great-stepuncle James gazed at her. It was +useless for him to try to pretend to himself that +he was not, secretly, struck all of a heap by the +wonders of the living organism in front of him. +He was. And this shows, though he was a wise +man and an experienced, how ignorant he was +of the world. But I do not think he was more +ignorant of the world than most wise and experienced +men are. He conceived Helen Rathbone +as an extraordinary, an amazing creature. +Nothing of the kind. There are simply thousands +of agreeable and good girls who can accomplish +herring-bone, omelettes, and simultaneous equations +in a breath, as it were. They are all over +the kingdom, and may be seen in the streets and +lanes thereof about half-past eight in the morning +and again about five o'clock in the evening. But +the fact is not generally known. Only the stern +and <i>blasé</i> members of School Boards or Education +Committees know it. And they are so used to +marvels that they make nothing of them.</p> + +<p>However, James Ollerenshaw had no intention +of striking his flag.</p> + +<p>"Mathematics!" he murmured. "I lay you +can't tell me the interest on eighty-nine pounds +for six months at four and a half per cent."</p> + +<p>Consols happened to be at eighty-nine that +day.</p> + +<p>Her lips curled. "I'm really quite surprised +you should encourage me to gamble," said she. +"But I'll bet you a shilling I can. And I'll bet +you one shilling against half-a-crown that I do +it in my head, if you like. And if I lose I'll pay."</p> + +<p>She made a slight movement, and he noticed +for the first time that she was carrying a small +purse as black as her glove.</p> + +<p>He hesitated, and then he proved what a wise +and experienced man he was.</p> + +<p>"No," he said, "I'll none bet ye, lass."</p> + +<p>He had struck his flag.</p> + +<p>It is painful to be compelled to reinforce the +old masculine statement that women have no +sense of honour. But have they? Helen clearly +saw that he had hauled down his flag. Yet did +she cease firing? Not a bit. She gave him a +shattering broadside, well knowing that he had +surrendered. Her disregard of the ethics of +warfare was deplorable.</p> + +<p>"Two pounds and one half-penny—to the +nearest farthing," said she, a faint blush crimsoning +her cheek.</p> + +<p>Mr. Ollerenshaw glanced round at the bowling-green, +where the captain in vain tried to catch his +eye, and then at the groups of children playing on +the lower terraces.</p> + +<p>"I make no doubt ye can play the piano?" +he remarked, when he had recovered.</p> + +<p>"Certainly," she replied. "Not that we have +to teach the piano. No! But it's understood, +all the same, that one or another of us can play +marches for the children to walk and drill to. +In fact," she added, "for something less than +thirty shillings a week we do pretty nearly everything, +except build the schools. And soon they'll +be expecting us to build the new schools in our +spare time." She spoke bitterly, as a native of +the Congo Free State might refer to the late King +of the Belgians.</p> + +<p>"Thirty shillings a <i>wik</i>!" said James, acting +with fine histrionic skill. "I thought as you +said seventy-two pounds a month!"</p> + +<p>"Oh no, you didn't!" she protested, firmly. +"So don't try to tease me. I never joke about +money. Money's a very serious thing."</p> + +<p>("Her's a chip o' th' owd block," he told himself, +delighted. When he explained matters to +himself, and when he grew angry, he always +employed the Five Towns dialect in its purest +form.)</p> + +<p>"You must be same as them hospital nurses," +he said, aloud. "You do it because ye like it—for +love on it, as they say."</p> + +<p>"Like it! I hate it. I hate any sort of work. +What fun do you suppose there is in teaching +endless stupid children, and stuffing in classrooms +all day, and correcting exercises and preparing +sewing all night? Of course, they can't help +being stupid. It's that that's so amazing. You +can't help being kind to them—they're so stupid."</p> + +<p>"If ye didn't do that, what should ye do?" +James inquired.</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't do anything unless I was forced," +said she. "I don't want to do anything, except +enjoy myself—read, play the piano, pay visits, +and have plenty of <i>really</i> nice clothes. Why +should I want to do anything? I can tell you +this—if I didn't need the money I'd never go +inside that school again, or any other!"</p> + +<p>She was heated.</p> + +<p>"Dun ye mean to say," he asked, with an ineffable +intonation, "that Susan and that there +young farmer have gone gadding off to Canada +and left you all alone with nothing?"</p> + +<p>"Of course they haven't," said Helen. "Why, +mother is the most generous old thing you can +possibly imagine. She's left all her own income +to me."</p> + +<p>"How much?"</p> + +<p>"Well, it comes to rather over thirty shillings +a week."</p> + +<p>"And can't a single woman live on thirty +shillings a <i>wik</i>? Bless us! I don't spend thirty +shillings a wik myself."</p> + +<p>Helen raised her chin. "A single woman can +live on thirty shillings a week," she said. "But +what about her frocks?"</p> + +<p>"Well, what about her frocks?" he repeated.</p> + +<p>"Well," she said, "I like frocks. It just +happens that I can't do without frocks. It's just +frocks that I work for; I spend nearly all I earn +on them." And her eyes, descending, seemed to +say: "Look at the present example."</p> + +<p>"Seventy pounds a year on ye clothes! Ye're +not serious, lass?"</p> + +<p>She looked at him coldly. "I am serious," +she said.</p> + +<p>Experienced as he was, he had never come +across a fact so incredible as this fact. And the +compulsion of believing it occupied his forces to +such an extent that he had no force left to be +wise. He did not observe the icy, darting +challenge in her eye, and he ignored the danger +in her voice.</p> + +<p>"All as I can say is you ought to be ashamed +o' yourself, lass!" he said, sharply. The reflection +was blown out of him by the expansion +of his feelings. Seventy pounds a year on +clothes!... He too was serious.</p> + +<p>Now, James Ollerenshaw was not the first +person whom Helen's passion for clothes had +driven into indiscretions. Her mother, for example, +had done battle with that passion, and +had been defeated with heavy loss. A head-mistress +and a chairman of a School Board (a +pompous coward) had also suffered severely. +And though Helen had been the victor, she had +not won without some injury to her nerves. Her +campaigns and conquests had left her, on this +matter, "touchy"—as the word is used in the +Five Towns.</p> + +<p>"I shall be very much obliged if you will not +speak to me in that tone," said she. "Because +I cannot permit it either from you or any other +man. When I venture to criticise your private +life I shall expect you to criticise mine—and not +before. I don't want to be rude, but I hope you +understand, great-stepuncle."</p> + +<p>The milk was within the twentieth of an inch +of the brim. James Ollerenshaw blushed as red +as Helen herself had blushed at the beginning of +their acquaintance. A girl, the daughter of the +chit Susan, to address him so! She had the incomparable +insolence of her mother. Yes, thirty +years ago Susan had been just as rude to him. +But he was thirty years younger then; he was +not a sage of sixty then. He continued to blush. +He was raging. Indeed, it would be no exaggeration +to assert that his health was momentarily in +peril. He glanced for an instant at Helen, and +saw that her nostrils were twitching. Then he +looked hurriedly away, and rose. The captain +of the bowling club excusably assumed that James +was at length going to attack the serious business +of the day.</p> + +<p>"Now, Mr. Ollerenshaw!" the captain called +out; and his tone implied, gently: "Don't you +think you've kept me waiting long enough? +Women are women; but a bowling-match is a +bowling-match."</p> + +<p>James turned his back on the captain, moved +off, and then—how can one explain it? He +realised that in the last six words of Helen's +speech there had been a note, a hint, a mere +nothing, of softness, of regret for pain caused. +He realised, further, the great universal natural +law that under any circumstances—no matter +what they may be—when any man—no matter +who he may be—differs from any pretty and well-dressed +woman—no matter who she may be—he +is in the wrong. He saw that it was useless for +serious, logical, high-minded persons to inveigh +against the absurdity of this law, and to call it +bad names. The law of gravity is absurd and +indefensible when you fall downstairs; but you +obey it.</p> + +<p>He returned to Helen, who bravely met his +eyes. "I'm off home," he said, hoarsely. "It's +my tea-time."</p> + +<p>"Good-afternoon," she replied, with amiability.</p> + +<p>"Happen you'll come along with me, like?"</p> + +<p>The use of that word "like" at the end of an +interrogative sentence, in the Five Towns, is a +subject upon which a book ought to be written; +but not this history. The essential point to +observe is that Helen got up from the bench and +said, with adorable sweetness:</p> + +<p>"Why, I shall be charmed to come!"</p> + +<p>("What a perfect old darling he is!" she said +to herself.)</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_V"></a><h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<p>A SALUTATION</p> +<br /> + +<p>As they walked down Moorthorne-road towards +the town they certainly made a couple piquant +enough, by reason of the excessive violence of +the contrast between them, to amuse the eye of +the beholder. A young and pretty woman who +spends seventy pounds a year on her ornamentations, +walking by the side of a little old man (she +had the better of him by an inch) who had probably +not spent seventy pounds on clothes in +sixty years—such a spectacle must have drawn +attention even in the least attentive of towns. +And Bursley is far from the least attentive of +towns. James and his great-stepniece had not +got as far as the new Independent Chapel when +it was known in St. Luke's-square, a long way +farther on, that they were together; a tramcar +had flown forward with the interesting fact. +From that moment, of course, the news, which +really was great news, spread itself over the town +with the rapidity of a perfume; no corner could +escape it. All James's innumerable tenants +seemed to sniff it simultaneously. And that +evening in the mouth of the entire town (I am +licensing myself to a little poetical exaggeration) +there was no word but the word "Jimmy."</p> + +<p>Their converse, as they descended into the town, +was not effective. It was, indeed, feeble. They +had fought a brief but bitter duel, and James +Ollerenshaw had been severely wounded. His +dignity bled freely; he made, strange to say, +scarcely any attempt to staunch the blood, which +might have continued to flow for a considerable +time had not a diversion occurred. (It is well +known that the dignity will only bleed while you +watch it. Avert your eyes, and it instantly dries +up.) The diversion, apparently of a trifling +character, had, in truth, an enormous importance, +though the parties concerned did not perceive +this till later. It consisted in the passing of Mrs. +Prockter and her stepson, Emanuel Prockter, +up Duck Bank as James and Helen were passing +down Duck Bank.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Prockter (who by reason of the rare "k" +in her name regarded herself as the sole genuine +in a district full of Proctors) may be described as +the dowager of Bursley, the custodian of its respectability, +and the summit of its social ladder. +You could not climb higher than Mrs. Prockter. +She lived at Hillport, and even in that haughty +suburb there was none who dared palter with an +invitation from Mrs. Prockter. She was stout +and deliberate. She had waving flowers in her +bonnet and pictures of flowers on her silken gown, +and a grey mantle. Much of her figure preceded +her as she walked. Her stepson had a tenor +voice and a good tailor; his age was thirty.</p> + +<p>Now, Mrs. Prockter was simply nothing to +James Ollerenshaw. They knew each other by +sight, but their orbits did not touch. James +would have gone by Mrs. Prockter as indifferently +as he would have gone by a policeman or a lamp-post. +As for Emanuel, James held him in +mild, benignant contempt. But when, as the +two pairs approached one another, James perceived +Emanuel furtively shifting his gold-headed +cane from his right hand to his left, and then +actually raise his hat to Helen, James swiftly +lost his indifference. He also nearly lost his +presence of mind. He was utterly unaccustomed +to such crises. Despite his wealthy indifference +to Mrs. Prockter, despite his distinguished scorn +of Emanuel, despite the richness of Helen's +attire, he was astounded, and deeply impressed, +to learn that Helen had the acquaintance of +people like the Prockters. Further, except at +grave-sides, James Ollerenshaw had never in his +life raised his hat. Hat-raising formed no part +of his code of manners. In his soul he looked +upon hat-raising as affected. He believed that +all people who raised hats did so from a snobbish +desire to put on airs. Hat-raising was rather like +saying "please," only worse.</p> + +<p>Happily, his was one of those strong, self-reliant +natures that can, when there is no alternative, +face the most frightful situations with unthumping +heart. He kept his presence of mind, +and decided in the fraction of a second what he +must do. The faculty of instant decision is indispensable +to safety in these swift-rising crises.</p> + +<p>He raised his hat, praying that Helen would +not stop to speak. Not gracefully, not with the +beauteous curves of an Emanuel did he raise his +hat—but he raised it. His prayer was answered.</p> + +<p>"There!" his chest said to Helen. "If you +thought I didn't know how to behave to your +conceited acquaintances, you were mistaken."</p> + +<p>And his casual, roving eye pretended that hat-raising +was simply the most ordinary thing on +earth.</p> + +<p>Such was the disturbing incident which ended +the bleeding of his dignity. In order to keep +up the pretence that hat-raising was a normal +function of his daily life he was obliged to talk +freely; and he did talk freely. But neither he +nor Helen said a word as to the Prockters.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VI"></a><h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<p>MRS. BUTT'S DEPARTURE</p> +<br /> + +<p>James Ollerenshaw's house was within a few +hundred yards of the top of Trafalgar-road, on +the way from Bursley to Hanbridge. I may not indicate +the exact house, but I can scarcely conceal +that it lay between Nos. 160 and 180, on the left +as you go up. It was one of the oldest houses in +the street, and though bullied into insignificance +by sundry detached and semi-detached villas +opposite—palaces occupied by reckless persons +who think nothing of paying sixty or even sixty-five +pounds a year for rent alone—it kept a +certain individuality and distinction because it +had been conscientiously built of good brick +before English domestic architecture had lost +trace of the Georgian style. First you went up +two white steps (white in theory), through a little +gate in a wrought-iron railing painted the colour +of peas after they have been cooked in a bad +restaurant. You then found yourself in a little +front yard, twelve feet in width (the whole width +of the house) by six feet in depth. The yard was +paved with large square Indian-red tiles, except a +tiny circle in the midst bordered with black-currant-coloured +tiles set endwise with a scolloped +edge. This magical circle contained earth, and +in the centre of it was a rhododendron bush which, +having fallen into lazy habits, had forgotten the +art of flowering. Its leaves were a most pessimistic +version of the tint of the railing.</p> + +<p>The façade of the house comprised three +windows and a door—that is to say, a window +and a door on the ground floor and two windows +above. The brickwork was assuredly admirable; +James had it "pointed" every few years. Over +the windows the bricks, of special shapes, were +arranged as in a flat arch, with a keystone that +jutted slightly. The panes of the windows were +numerous and small; inside, on the sashes, lay +long thin scarlet sausages of red cloth and sawdust, +to keep out the draughts. The door was +divided into eight small panels with elaborate +beadings, and over it was a delicate fanlight—one +of about a score in Bursley—to remind the +observer of a lost elegance. Between the fanlight +and the upstairs window exactly above it +was a rusty iron plaque, with vestiges in gilt of +the word "Phoenix." It had been put there +when fire insurance had still the fancied charm of +novelty. At the extremity of the façade farthest +from the door a spout came down from the blue-slate +roof. This spout began with a bold curve +from the projecting horizontal spout under the +eaves, and made another curve at the ground into +a hollow earthenware grid with very tiny holes.</p> + +<p>Helen looked delicious in the yard, gazing +pensively at the slothful rhododendron while +James Ollerenshaw opened his door. She was +seen by two electric cars-full of people, for although +James's latchkey was very highly polished +and the lock well oiled, he never succeeded in +opening his door at the first attempt. It was a +capricious door. You could not be sure of +opening it any more than Beau Brummel could +be sure of tying his cravat. It was a muse that +had to be wooed.</p> + +<p>But when it did open you perceived that there +were no half measures about that door, for it let +you straight into the house. To open it was like +taking down part of the wall. No lobby, hall, +or vestibule behind that door! One instant you +were in the yard, the next you were in the middle +of the sitting-room, and through a doorway at +the back of the sitting-room you could see the +kitchen, and beyond that the scullery, and beyond +that a back yard with a whitewashed wall.</p> + +<p>James Ollerenshaw went in first, leaving Helen +to follow. He had learnt much in the previous +hour, but there were still one or two odd things +left for him to learn.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" he breathed, shut the door, and hung +up his hard hat on the inner face of it. "Sit ye +down, lass."</p> + +<p>So she sat her down. It must be said that she +looked as if she had made a mistake and got on +to the wrong side of Trafalgar-road. The sitting-room +was a crowded and shabby little apartment +(though clean). There was a list carpet over the +middle of the floor, which was tiled, and in the +middle of the carpet a small square table with +flap-sides. On this table was a full-rigged ship +on a stormy sea in a glass box, some resin, a large +stone bottle of ink, a ready reckoner, Whitaker's +Almanack (paper edition), a foot-rule, and a +bright brass candlestick. Above the table there +hung from the ceiling a string with a ball of fringed +paper, designed for the amusement of flies. At +the window was a flat desk, on which were transacted +the affairs of Mr. Ollerenshaw. When he +stationed himself at it in the seat of custom and +of judgment, defaulting tenants, twirling caps or +twisting aprons, had a fine view of the left side of +his face. He usually talked to them while staring +out of the window. Before this desk was a +Windsor chair. There were eight other Windsor +chairs in the room—Helen was sitting on one +that had not been sat upon for years and years—a +teeming but idle population of chairs. A horsehair +arm-chair seemed to be the sultan of the +seraglio of chairs. Opposite the window a modern +sideboard, which might have cost two-nineteen-six +when new, completed the tale of furniture. +The general impression was one of fulness; the +low ceiling, and the immense harvest of overblown +blue roses which climbed luxuriantly up the walls, +intensified this effect. The mantelpiece was +crammed with brass ornaments, and there were +two complete sets of brass fire-irons in the brass +fender. Above the mantelpiece a looking-glass, +in a wan frame of bird's-eye maple, with rounded +corners, reflected Helen's hat.</p> + +<p>Helen abandoned the Windsor chair and tried +the arm-chair, and then stood up.</p> + +<p>"Which chair do you recommend?" she asked, +nicely.</p> + +<p>"Bless ye, child! I never sit here, except at +th' desk. I sit in the kitchen."</p> + +<p>A peculiarity of houses in the Five Towns is +that rooms are seldom called by their right names. +It is a point of honour, among the self-respecting +and industrious classes, to prepare a room +elaborately for a certain purpose, and then not +to use it for that purpose. Thus James Ollerenshaw's +sitting-room, though surely few apartments +could show more facilities than it showed +for sitting, was not used as a sitting-room, but as +an office. The kitchen, though it contained a +range, was not used as a kitchen, but as a sitting-room. +The scullery, though it had no range, was +filled with a gas cooking-stove and used as a +kitchen. And the back yard was used as a +scullery. This arrangement never struck anybody +as singular; it did not strike even Helen as +singular. Her mother's house had exhibited the +same oddness until she reorganised it. If James +Ollerenshaw had not needed an office, his sitting-room +would have languished in desuetude. The +fact is that the thrifty inhabitants of the Five +Towns save a room as they save money. If they +have an income of six rooms they will live on five, +or rather in five, and thereby take pride to themselves.</p> + +<p>Somewhat nervous, James feigned to glance at +the rent books on the desk.</p> + +<p>Helen's eye swept the room. "I suppose you +have a good servant?" she said.</p> + +<p>"I have a woman as comes in," said James. +"But her isn't in th' house at the moment."</p> + +<p>This latter statement was a wilful untruth on +James's part. He had distinctly caught a glimpse +of Mrs. Butt's figure as he entered.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Helen, kindly, "it's quite nice, +I'm sure. You must be very comfortable—for a +man. But, of course, one can see at once that no +woman lives here."</p> + +<p>"How?" he demanded, naïvely.</p> + +<p>"Oh," she answered, "I don't know. But one +can."</p> + +<p>"Dost mean to say as it isn't clean, lass?"</p> + +<p>"The <i>brasses</i> are very clean," said Helen.</p> + +<p>Such astonishing virtuosity in the art of innuendo +is the privilege of one sex only.</p> + +<p>"Come into th' kitchen, lass," said James, +after he had smiled into a corner of the room, +"and take off them gloves and things."</p> + +<p>"But, great-stepuncle, I can't stay."</p> + +<p>"You'll stop for tea," said he, firmly, "or my +name isn't James Ollerenshaw."</p> + +<p>He preceded her into the kitchen. The door +between the kitchen and the scullery was half-closed; +in the aperture he again had a momentary, +but distinct, glimpse of the eye of Mrs. Butt.</p> + +<p>"I do like this room," said Helen, enthusiastically.</p> + +<p>"Uninterrupted view o' th' back yard," said +Ollerenshaw. "Sit ye down, lass."</p> + +<p>He indicated an article of furniture which +stood in front of the range, at a distance of perhaps +six feet from it, cutting the room in half. +This contrivance may be called a sofa, or it may +be called a couch; but it can only be properly +described by the Midland word for it—squab. +No other term is sufficiently expressive. Its +seat—five feet by two—was very broad and very +low, and it had a steep, high back and sides. +All its angles were right angles. It was everywhere +comfortably padded; it yielded everywhere +to firm pressure; and it was covered with a grey +and green striped stuff. You could not sit on +that squab and be in a draught; yet behind it, +lest the impossible should arrive, was a heavy +curtain, hung on an iron rod which crossed the +room from wall to wall. Not much imagination +was needed to realise the joy and ecstasy of +losing yourself on that squab on a winter afternoon, +with the range fire roaring in your face, and +the curtain drawn abaft.</p> + +<p>Helen assumed the mathematical centre of the +squab, and began to arrange her skirts in cascading +folds; she had posed her parasol in a corner of +it, as though the squab had been a railway +carriage, which, indeed, it did somewhat resemble.</p> + +<p>"By the way, lass, what's that as swishes?" +James demanded.</p> + +<p>"What's what?"</p> + +<p>"What's that as swishes?"</p> + +<p>She looked puzzled for an instant, then laughed—a +frank, gay laugh, light and bright as aluminium, +such as the kitchen had never before heard.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" she said. "It's my new silk petticoat, +I suppose. You mean that?" She brusquely +moved her limbs, reproducing the unique and +delicious rustle of concealed silk.</p> + +<p>"Ay!" ejaculated the old man, "I mean +that."</p> + +<p>"Yes. It's my silk petticoat. Do you like +it?"</p> + +<p>"I havena' seen it, lass."</p> + +<p>She bent down, and lifted the hem of her dress +just two inches—the discreetest, the modestest +gesture. He had a transient vision of something +fair—it was gone again.</p> + +<p>"I don't know as I dislike it," said he.</p> + +<p>He was standing facing her, his back to the +range, and his head on a level with the high +narrow mantelpiece, upon which glittered a row +of small tin canisters. Suddenly he turned to +the corner to the right of the range, where, next +to an oak cupboard, a velvet Turkish smoking +cap depended from a nail. He put on the cap, +of which the long tassel curved down to his ear. +Then he faced her again, putting his hands behind +him, and raising himself at intervals on his small, +well-polished toes. She lifted her two hands +simultaneously to her head, and began to draw +pins from her hat, which pins she placed one +after another between her lips. Then she lowered +the hat carefully from her head, and transfixed +it anew with the pins.</p> + +<p>"Will you mind hanging it on that nail?" +she requested.</p> + +<p>He took it, as though it had been of glass, and +hung it on the nail.</p> + +<p>Without her hat she looked as if she lived +there, a jewel in a pipe-case. She appeared to +be just as much at home as he was. And they +were so at home together that there was no +further necessity to strain after a continuous +conversation. With a vague smile she gazed +round and about, at the warm, cracked, smooth +red tiles of the floor; at the painted green walls, +at a Windsor chair near the cupboard—a solitary +chair that had evidently been misunderstood by +the large family of relatives in the other room +and sent into exile; at the pair of bellows that +hung on the wall above the chair, and the rich +gaudiness of the grocer's almanac above the +bellows; at the tea-table, with its coarse grey +cloth and thick crockery spread beneath the +window.</p> + +<p>"So you have all your meals here?" she +ventured.</p> + +<p>"Ay," he said. "I have what I call my +meals here."</p> + +<p>"Why," she cried, "don't you enjoy them?"</p> + +<p>"I eat 'em," he said.</p> + +<p>"What time do you have tea?" she inquired.</p> + +<p>"Four o'clock," said he. "Sharp!"</p> + +<p>"But it's a quarter to, now!" she exclaimed, +pointing to a clock with weights at the end of +brass chains and a long pendulum. "And didn't +you say your servant was out?"</p> + +<p>"Ay," he mysteriously lied. "Her's out. But +her'll come back. Happen her's gone to get a +bit o' fish or something."</p> + +<p>"Fish! Do you always have fish for tea?"</p> + +<p>"I have what I'm given," he replied. "I +fancy a snack for my tea. Something tasty, ye +know."</p> + +<p>"Why," she said, "you're just like me. I +adore tea. I'd sooner have tea than any other +meal of the day. But I never yet knew a servant +who could get something tasty every day. Of +course, it's quite easy if you know how to do it; +but servants don't—that is to say, as a rule—but +I expect you've got a very good one."</p> + +<p>"So-so!" James murmured.</p> + +<p>"The trouble with servants is that they always +think that if you like a thing one day you'll like +the same thing every day for the next three +years."</p> + +<p>"Ay," he said, drily. "I used to like a kidney, +but it's more than three years ago." He stuck +his lips out, and raised himself higher than ever +on his toes.</p> + +<p>He did not laugh. But she laughed, almost +boisterously.</p> + +<p>"I can't help telling you," she said, "you're +perfectly lovely, great-stepuncle. Are we both +going to drink out of the same cup?" In such +manner did the current of her talk gyrate and +turn corners.</p> + +<p>He approached the cupboard.</p> + +<p>"No, no!" She sprang up. "Let me. I'll +do that, as the servant is so long."</p> + +<p>And she opened the cupboard. Among a +miscellany of crocks therein was a blue-and-white +cup and saucer, and a plate to match underneath +it, that seemed out of place there. She +lifted down the pile.</p> + +<p>"Steady on!" he counselled her. "Why dun +you choose that?"</p> + +<p>"Because I like it," she replied, simply.</p> + +<p>He was silenced. "That's a bit o' real Spode," +he said, as she put it on the table and dusted the +several pieces with a corner of the tablecloth.</p> + +<p>"It won't be in any danger," she retorted, +"until it comes to be washed up. So I'll stop +afterwards and wash it up myself. There!"</p> + +<p>"Now you can't find the teaspoons, miss!" he +challenged her.</p> + +<p>"I think I can," she said.</p> + +<p>She raised the tablecloth at the end, discovered +the knob of a drawer, and opened it. And, +surely, there were teaspoons.</p> + +<p>"Can't I just take a peep into the scullery?" +she begged, with a bewitching supplication. "I +won't stop. It's nearly time your servant was +back, if she's always so dreadfully prompt as you +say. I won't touch anything. Servants are so +silly. They always think one wants to interfere +with them."</p> + +<p>Without waiting for James's permission, she +burst youthfully into the scullery.</p> + +<p>"Oh," she exclaimed, "there's some one +here!"</p> + +<p>Of course there was. There was Mrs. Butt.</p> + +<p>Although the part played by Mrs. Butt in the +drama was vehement and momentous, it was +nevertheless so brief that a description of Mrs. +Butt is hardly called for. Suffice it to say that +she had so much waist as to have no waist, and +that she possessed both a beard and a moustache. +This curt catalogue of her charms is unfair to +her; but Mrs. Butt was ever the victim of +unfairness.</p> + +<p>James Ollerenshaw looked audaciously in at +the door. "It's Mrs. Butt," said he. "Us +thought as ye were out."</p> + +<p>"Good-afternoon, Mrs. Butt," Helen began, +with candid pleasantness.</p> + +<p>A pause.</p> + +<p>"Good-afternoon, miss."</p> + +<p>"And what have you got for uncle's tea +to-day? Something tasty?"</p> + +<p>"I've got this," said Mrs. Butt, with candid +unpleasantness. And she pointed to an oblate +spheroid, the colour of brick, but smoother, +which lay on a plate near the gas-stove. It was +a kidney.</p> + +<p>"H'm!"—from James.</p> + +<p>"It's not cooked yet, I see," Helen observed. +"And—"</p> + +<p>The clock finished her remark.</p> + +<p>"No, miss, it's not cooked," said Mrs. Butt. +"To tell ye the honest truth, miss, I've been +learning, 'stead o' cooking this 'ere kidney." +She picked up the kidney in her pudding-like +hand and gazed at it. "I'm glad the brasses is +clean, miss, at any rate, though the house <i>does</i> +look as though there was no woman about the +place, and servants <i>are</i> silly. I'm thankful to +Heaven as the brasses is clean. Come into my +scullery, and welcome."</p> + +<p>She ceased, still holding up the kidney.</p> + +<p>"H'm!"—from Uncle James.</p> + +<p>This repeated remark of his seemed to rouse +the fury in her. "You may 'h'm,' Mester +Ollerenshaw," she glared at him. "You may +'h'm' as much as yo'n a mind." Then to Helen: +"Come in, miss; come in. Don't be afraid of +servants." And finally, with a striking instinct +for theatrical effect: "But I go out!"</p> + +<p>She flung the innocent and yielding kidney to +the floor, snatched up a bonnet, cast off her apron, +and departed.</p> + +<p>"There!" said James Ollerenshaw. "You've +done it!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VII"></a><h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<p>THE NEW COOK</p> +<br /> + +<p>Ten minutes later Mr. James Ollerenshaw +stood alone in his kitchen-sitting-room. And +he gazed at the door between the kitchen-sitting-room +and the scullery. This door was shut; that +is to say, it was nearly shut. He had been +turned out of the scullery; not with violence—or, +rather, with a sort of sweet violence that he +liked, and that had never before been administered +to him by any human soul. An afternoon highly +adventurous—an afternoon on which he had +permitted himself to be insulted, with worse +than impunity to the insulter, by the childish +daughter of that chit Susan—an afternoon on +which he had raised his hat to Mrs. Prockter—a +Saturday afternoon on which he had foregone, +on account of a woman, his customary match at +bowls—this afternoon was drawing to a close in +a manner which piled thrilling event on thrilling +event.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Butt had departed. For unnumbered +years Mrs. Butt had miscooked his meals. The +little house was almost inconceivable without +Mrs. Butt. And Mrs. Butt had departed. Already +he missed her as one misses an ancient and +supersensitive corn—if the simile may be permitted +to one; it is a simile not quite nice, but, +then, Mrs. Butt was not quite nice either. The +fault was not hers; she was born so.</p> + +<p>The dropping of the kidney with a <i>plop</i>, by +Mrs. Butt, on the hard, unsympathetic floor of +the scullery, had constituted an extremely +dramatic moment in three lives. Certainly Mrs. +Butt possessed a wondrous instinct for theatrical +effect. Helen, on the contrary, seemed to possess +none. She had advanced nonchalantly towards +the kidney, and delicately picked it up between +finger and thumb, and turned it over, and then +put it on a plate.</p> + +<p>"That's a veal kidney," she had observed.</p> + +<p>"Art sure it isn't a sheep's kidney, lass?" +James had asked, carefully imitating Helen's +nonchalance.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she had said. "I gather you are +not passionately fond of kidneys, great-stepuncle?" +she had asked.</p> + +<p>"I was once. What art going to do, lass?"</p> + +<p>"I'm going to get our tea," she had said.</p> + +<p>At the words, <i>our</i> tea, the antique James +Ollerenshaw, who had never thought to have +such a sensation again, was most distinctly conscious +of an agreeable, somewhat disturbing +sensation of being tickled in the small of his back.</p> + +<p>"Well," he had asked her, "what can I +do?"</p> + +<p>"You can go out," she had replied. "Wouldn't +it be a good thing for you to go out for a walk? +Tea will be ready at half-past four."</p> + +<p>"I go for no walk," he said, positively....</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's all right," she had murmured, but +not in response to his flat refusal to obey her. +She had been opening the double cupboard and +the five drawers which constituted the receptacles +of the scullery-larders; she had been spying out +the riches and the poverty of the establishment. +Then she had turned to him, and, instead of +engaging him in battle, she had just smiled at +him, and said: "Very well. As you wish. But +do go into the front room, at any rate."</p> + +<p>And there he was in the middle room, the +kitchen, listening to her movements behind the +door. He heard the running of water, and then +the mild explosion of lighting the second ring +of the gas-stove; the first had been lighted by +Mrs. Butt. Then he heard nothing whatever for +years, and when he looked at the clock it was +fourteen minutes past four. In the act of looking +at the clock, his eye had to traverse the +region of the sofa. On the sofa were one parasol +and two gloves. Astonishing, singular, disconcerting, +how those articles—which, after all, bore +no kind of resemblance to any style of furniture +or hangings—seemed, nevertheless, to refurnish +the room, to give the room an air of being thickly +inhabited which it never had before!</p> + +<p>Then she burst into the kitchen unexpectedly, +with a swish of silk that was like the retreat of +waves down the shingle of some Atlantic shore.</p> + +<p>"My dear uncle," she protested, "please do +make yourself scarce. You are in my way, and +I'm very busy."</p> + +<p>She went to the cupboard and snatched at +some plates, two of which she dropped on the +table, and three of which she took into the +kitchen.</p> + +<p>"Have ye got all as ye want?" he questioned +her politely, anxious to be of assistance.</p> + +<p>"Everything!" she answered, positively, and +with just the least hint of an intention to crush +him.</p> + +<p>"Have ye indeed!"</p> + +<p>He did not utter this exclamation aloud; but +with it he applied balm to his secret breast. For +he still remembered, being an old man, her +crushing him in the park, and the peril of another +crushing roused the male in him. And it was +with a sardonic and cruel satisfaction that he +applied such balm to his secret breast. The +truth was, he knew that she had not got all she +wanted. He knew that, despite her extraordinary +capableness (of which she was rather +vain), despite her ability to calculate mentally +the interest on eighty-nine pounds for six months +at four-and-a-half per cent., she could not possibly +prepare the tea without coming to him and confessing +to him that she had been mistaken, and +that she had <i>not</i> got everything she wanted. +She would be compelled to humble herself before +him—were it ever so little. He was a hard old +man, and the prospect of this humbling gave him +pleasure (I regret to say).</p> + +<p>You cannot have tea without tea-leaves; and +James Ollerenshaw kept the tea-leaves in a tea-caddy, +locked, in his front room. He had an +extravagant taste in tea. He fancied China tea; +and he fancied China tea that cost five shillings +a pound. He was the last person to leave China +tea at five shillings a pound to the economic +prudence of a Mrs. Butt. Every day Mrs. Butt +brought to him the teapot (warmed) and a teaspoon, +and he unlocked the tea-caddy, dispensed +the right quantity of tea, and relocked the tea-caddy.</p> + +<p>There was no other tea in the house. So with +a merry heart the callous fellow (shamefully +delighting in the imminent downfall of a fellow-creature—and +that a woman!) went into the +front room as he had been bidden. On one of +the family of chairs, in a corner, was a black +octagonal case. He opened this case, which was +not locked, and drew from it a concertina, all +inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Then he went to +the desk, and from under a pile of rent books +he extracted several pieces of music, and selected +one. This selected piece he reared up on the +mantelpiece against two brass candlesticks. It +was obvious, from the certainty and ease of his +movements, that he had the habit of lodging +pieces of music against those two brass candlesticks. +The music bore the illustrious name of +George Frederick Handel.</p> + +<p>Then he put on a pair of spectacles which +were lying on the mantelpiece, and balanced +them on the end of his nose. Finally he adjusted +his little hands to the straps of the concertina. +You might imagine that he would instantly dissolve +into melody. Not at all. He glanced at +the page of music first through his spectacles, +and then, bending forward his head, <i>over</i> his +spectacles. Then he put down the concertina, +gingerly, on a chair, and moved the music half-an-inch +(perhaps five-eighths) to the left. He +resumed the concertina, and was on the very +point of song, when he put down the concertina +for the second time, and moved the tassel of his +Turkish cap from the neighbourhood of his left +ear to the neighbourhood of his right ear. Then, +with a cough, he resumed the concertina once +more, and embarked upon the interpretation of +Handel.</p> + +<p>It was the Hallelujah Chorus.</p> + +<p>Any surprise which the musical reader may +feel on hearing that James Ollerenshaw was +equal to performing the Hallelujah Chorus on a +concertina (even one inlaid with mother-of-pearl) +argues on the part of that reader an imperfect +acquaintance with the Five Towns. In the Five +Towns there are (among piano scorners) two +musical instruments, the concertina and the +cornet. And the Five Towns would like to see +the composer clever enough to compose a piece +of music that cannot be arranged for either of +these instruments. It is conceivable that Beethoven +imagined, when he wrote the last movement +of the C Minor Symphony, that he had +produced a work which it would be impossible +to arrange for cornet solo. But if he did he +imagined a vain thing. In the Five Towns, +where the taste for classical music is highly +developed, the C Minor Symphony on a single +cornet is as common as "Robin Adair" on a +full brass band.</p> + +<p>James Ollerenshaw played the Hallelujah Chorus +with much feeling and expression. He understood +the Hallelujah Chorus to its profoundest +depths; which was not surprising in view of the +fact that he had been playing it regularly since +before Helen was born. (The unfading charm of +classical music is that you never tire of it.)</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the grandeur of his interpretation +of the Hallelujah Chorus appeared to produce +no effect whatever in the scullery; neither alarm +nor ecstasy! And presently, in the midst of a +brief pianissimo passage, James's sensitive ear +caught the distant sound of chopping, which +quite marred the soft tenderness at which he had +been aiming. He stopped abruptly. The sound +of chopping intrigued his curiosity. What could +she be chopping? He advanced cautiously to the +doorway; he had left the door open. The other +door—between the kitchen and the scullery—which +had previously been closed, was now open, +so that he could see from the front room into the +scullery. His eager, inquisitive glance noted a +plate of beautiful bread and butter on the tea-table +in the kitchen.</p> + +<p>She was chopping the kidney. Utterly absorbed +in her task, she had no suspicion that she +was being overlooked. After the chopping of +the kidney, James witnessed a series of operations +the key to whose significance he could not +find.</p> + +<p>She put a flat pan over the gas, and then took +it off again. Then she picked up an egg, broke it +into a coffee-cup, and instantly poured it out of +the coffee-cup into a basin. She did the same +to another egg, and yet another. Four eggs! +The entire household stock of eggs! It was +terrible! Four eggs and a kidney among two +people! He could not divine what she was at.</p> + +<p>Then she got some butter on the end of a knife +and dropped it into the saucepan, and put the +saucepan over the gas; and then poured the +plateful of kidney-shreds into the saucepan. +Then she began furiously to beat the four eggs +with a fork, glancing into the saucepan frequently, +and coaxing it with little touches. Then the +kidney-shreds raised a sound of frizzling, and +bang into the saucepan went the contents of the +basin. All the time she had held her hands and +her implements and utensils away from her as +much as possible, doubtless out of consideration +for her frock; not an inch of apron was she +wearing. Now she leant over the gas-stove, fork +in hand, and made baffling motions inside the +saucepan with the fork; and while doing so she +stretched forth her left hand, obtained some +salt, and sprinkled the saucepan therewith. The +business seemed to be exquisitely delicate and +breathless. Her face was sternly set, as though +the fate of continents depended on her nerve +and audacity in this tremendous crisis. But +what she was doing to the interior of the saucepan +James Ollerenshaw could not comprehend. +She stroked it with a long gesture; she tickled it, +she stroked it in a different direction; she lifted +it and folded it on itself.</p> + +<p>Anyhow, he knew it was not scrambled eggs, +because you have to stir scrambled eggs without +ceasing.</p> + +<p>Then she stopped and stood quite still, regarding +the saucepan.</p> + +<p>"You've watched me quite long enough," she +said, without moving her head. She must have +known all the time that he was there.</p> + +<p>So he shuffled away, and glanced out of the +window at the stir and traffic of Trafalgar-road.</p> + +<p>"Tea's ready," she said.</p> + +<p>He went into the kitchen, smiling, enchanted, +but disturbed. She had not come to him and +confessed that she could not make tea without +tea-leaves. Yet there was the tea-pot steaming +and puffing on the table!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VIII"></a><h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<p>OMELETTE</p> +<br /> + +<p>The mystery lay on a plate in the middle of the +table. In colour it resembled scrambled eggs, +except that it was tinted a more brownish, or +coppery, gold—rather like a first-class Yorkshire +pudding. He suspected for an instant that it +might be a Yorkshire pudding according to the +new-fangled recipe of Board Schools. But four +eggs! No! He was sure that so small a quantity +of Yorkshire pudding could not possibly have +required four eggs.</p> + +<p>He picked up the teapot, after his manner, and +was in the act of pouring, when she struck him +into immobility with a loud cry:</p> + +<p>"Milk first!"</p> + +<p>He understood that she had a caprice for pouring +the tea on the top of the milk instead of the +milk on the top of the tea.</p> + +<p>"What difference does it make?" he demanded +defiantly.</p> + +<p>"What!" she cried again. "You think yourself +a great authority on China tea, and yet you +don't know that milk ought to be poured in first! +Why, it makes quite a different taste!"</p> + +<p>How in the name of Confucius did she know that +he thought himself a great authority on China +tea?</p> + +<p>"Here!" she said. "If you don't mind, I'll +pour out the tea. Thank you. Help yourself to +this." She pointed to the mystery. "It must +be eaten while it's hot, or it's worse than +useless."</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he asked, with false calm.</p> + +<p>"It's a kidney omelette," she replied.</p> + +<p>"Omelette!" he repeated, rather at a loss. +He had never tasted an omelette; he had never +seen an omelette. Omelettes form no part of the +domestic cuisine of England. "Omelette!" he +repeated. How was he familiar with the word—the +word which conveyed nothing to his mind? +Then he remembered: "You can't make an +omelette without breaking eggs." Of course she +had broken eggs. She had broken four eggs—she +had broken the entire household stock of eggs. +And he had employed that proverb scores, +hundreds of times! It was one of half-a-dozen +favourite proverbs which he flung at the less +sagacious and prudent of his tenants. And yet +it had never occurred to him to wonder what an +omelette was! Now he knew. At any rate, he +knew what it looked like; and he was shortly to +know what it tasted like.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said. "Cut it with a knife. Don't +be frightened of it. You'll eat <i>it</i>; it won't eat +you. And please give me very little. I ate a +quarter of a pound of chocolates after dinner."</p> + +<p>He conveyed one-third of the confection to his +plate, and about a sixth to hers.</p> + +<p>And he tasted—just a morsel, with a dash of +kidney in the centre of it, on the end of his fork. +He was not aware of the fact, but that was the +decisive moment of his life—sixty though he +was!</p> + +<p>Had she really made this marvel, this dream, +this idyll, this indescribable bliss, out of four +common fresh eggs and a veal kidney that Mrs. +Butt had dropped on the floor? He had come to +loathe kidney. He had almost come to swearing +that no manifestation or incarnation of kidney +should ever again pass between his excellent teeth. +And now he was ravished, rapt away on the wings +of paradisaical ecstasy by a something that consisted +of kidney and a few eggs. This omelette +had all the finer and nobler qualities of Yorkshire +pudding and scrambled eggs combined, together +with others beyond the ken of his greedy fancy. +Yes, he was a greedy man. He knew he was +greedy. He was a greedy man whose evil passion +had providentially been kept in check for over a +quarter of a century by the gross unskilfulness, the +appalling monotony, of a Mrs. Butt. Could it be +that there existed women, light and light-handed +creatures, creatures of originality and resource, +who were capable of producing prodigies like this +kidney omelette on the spur of the moment? +Evidently! Helen existed. And the whole omelette, +from the melting of the butter to the final +steady glance into the saucepan, had not occupied +her more than six minutes—at most. She had +tossed it off as he might have tossed off a receipt +for a week's rent. And the exquisite thought in +his mind, the thought of penetrating sweetness, +was that whence this delicacy had come, other +and even rarer delicacies might have come. All +his past life seemed to him to be a miserable waste +of gloomy and joyless years.</p> + +<p>"Do you like it?" she inquired.</p> + +<p>He paused, as though reflecting whether he +liked it or not. "Ay," he said, judicially, "it's +none so bad. I could do a bit more o' that."</p> + +<p>"Well," she urged him, "do help yourself. +Take it all. I shan't eat any more."</p> + +<p>"Sure?" he said, trembling lest she might +change her mind.</p> + +<p>Then he ate the remaining half of the omelette, +making five-sixths in all. He glanced at her +surreptitiously, in her fine dress, on which was not +a single splash or stain. He might have known +that so extraordinary and exotic a female person +would not concoct anything so trite as a Yorkshire +pudding or scrambled eggs.</p> + +<p>Not till the omelette was an affair of the past +(so far as <i>his</i> plate was concerned) did he begin +to attend to his tea—his tea which sustained a +mystery as curious as, and decidedly more sinister +than, the mystery of the omelette.</p> + +<p>He stared into the cup; then, to use the Five +Towns phrase, he supped it up.</p> + +<p>There could be no doubt; it was his special +China tea. It had a peculiar flavour (owing, perhaps, +to the precedence given to milk), but it was +incontestably his guarded and locked tea. How +had she got it?</p> + +<p>"Where didst find this tea, lass?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"In the little corner cupboard in the scullery," +she said. "I'd no idea that people drank such +good China tea in Bursley."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" he observed, concealing his concern +under a mask of irony, "China tea was drunk i' +Bursley afore your time."</p> + +<p>"Mother would only drink Ceylon," said she.</p> + +<p>"That doesna' surprise me," said he, as if to +imply that no vagary on the part of Susan could +surprise him. And he proceeded, reflectively: +"In th' corner cupboard, sayst tha?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, in a large tin box."</p> + +<p>A large tin box. This news was overwhelming. +He rose abruptly and went into the scullery. +Indubitably there was a large tin box, pretty +nearly half full of his guarded tea, in the corner +cupboard.</p> + +<p>He returned, the illusion of half a lifetime +shattered. "That there woman was a thief!" he +announced.</p> + +<p>"What woman?"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Butt."</p> + +<p>And he explained to Helen all his elaborate +precautions for the preservation of his China tea. +Helen was wholly sympathetic. The utter correctness +of her attitude towards Mrs. Butt was +balm to him. Only one theory was conceivable. +The wretched woman must have had a key to his +caddy. During his absence from the house she +must have calmly helped herself to tea at five +shillings a pound—a spoonful or so at a time. +Doubtless she made tea for her private consumption +exactly when she chose. It was even possible +that she walked off from time to time with quantities +of tea to her own home. And he who +thought himself so clever, so much cleverer than a +servant!</p> + +<p>"You can't have her back, as she isn't honest, +even if she comes back," said Helen.</p> + +<p>"Oh, her won't come back," said James. +"Fact is, I've had difficulties with her for a long +time now."</p> + +<p>"Then what shall you do, my poor dear +uncle?"</p> + +<p>"Nay," said he, "I mun ask you that. It was +you as was th' cause of her going."</p> + +<p>"Oh, uncle!" she exclaimed, laughing. +"How can you say such a thing?" And she +added, seriously: "You can't be expected to cook +for yourself, can you? And as for getting a new +one—"</p> + +<p>He noticed with satisfaction that she had taken +to calling him simply uncle, instead of great-stepuncle.</p> + +<p>"A new 'un!" he muttered, grimly, and sighed +in despair.</p> + +<p>"I shall stay and look after your supper," she +said, brightly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and what about to-morrow?" He +grew gloomier.</p> + +<p>"To-morrow's Sunday. I'll come to-morrow, +for breakfast."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and what about Monday?" His gloom +was not easily to be dispersed.</p> + +<p>"I'll come on Monday," she replied, with increasing +cheerfulness.</p> + +<p>"But your school, where ye teach everything, +lass?"</p> + +<p>"Of course, I shall give up school," said she, +"at once. They must do without me. It will +mean promotion for some one. I can't bother +about giving proper notice. Supposing you had +been dangerously ill, I should have come, and +they would have managed without me. Therefore, +they <i>can</i> manage without me. Therefore, +they must."</p> + +<p>He kept up a magnificent gloom until she left +for the night. And then he danced a hornpipe of +glee—not with his legs, but in his heart. He had +deliberately schemed to get rid of Mrs. Butt by +means of Helen Rathbone. The idea had occurred +to him as he entered the house. That was why he +had encouraged her to talk freely about servants +by assuring her that Mrs. Butt was not in the +scullery, being well aware that Mrs. Butt was in +the scullery. He had made a tool of the unsuspecting, +good-natured Helen, smart though she +was! He had transitory qualms of fear about +the possible expensiveness of Helen. He had +decidedly not meant that she should give up +school and nearly thirty shillings a week. But, +still, he had managed her so far, and he reckoned +that he could continue to manage her.</p> + +<p>He regretted that she had not praised his music. +And Helen wrote the same evening to her mother. +From a very long and very exciting letter the +following excerpts may be culled:</p> + +<p>"I saw the fat old servant in the scullery at +once. But uncle thought she wasn't there. He is +a funny old man—rather silly, like most old men——but +I like him, and you can say what you please. +He isn't silly really. I instantly decided that I +would get rid of that servant. And I did do, and +poor uncle never suspected. In a few days I shall +come to live here. It's much safer. Supposing +he was taken ill and died, and left all his money to +hospitals and things, how awfully stupid that +would be! I told him I should leave the school, +and he didn't turn a hair. He's a dear, and I don't +care a fig for his money—except to spend it for +him. His tiny house is simply lovely, terrifically +clean, and in the loveliest order. But I've no +intention that we shall stay here. I think I shall +take a large house up at Hillport. Uncle is only +old in some ways; in many ways he's quite young. +So I hope he won't mind a change. By the way, +he told me about your age. My dearest mother, +how could you—" etc.</p> + +<p>In such manner came Helen Rathbone to keep +house for her great-stepuncle.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IX"></a><h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<p>A GREAT CHANGE</p> +<br /> + +<p>"Helen Rathbone," said Uncle James one +Tuesday afternoon, "have ye been meddling in +my cashbox?"</p> + +<p>They were sitting in the front room, Helen in a +light-grey costume that cascaded over her chair +and half the next chair, and James Ollerenshaw in +the deshabille of his Turkish cap. James was at +his desk. It is customary in the Five Towns, +when you feel combative, astonished, or ironic +towards another person, to address that other +person by his full name.</p> + +<p>"You left the key in your cashbox this morning, +uncle," said Helen, glancing up from a book, +"while you were fiddling with your safe in your +bedroom."</p> + +<p>He did not like the word "fiddling." It did +not suit either his dignity or the dignity of his +huge Milner safe.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, "and if I did! I wasn't upstairs +more nor five minutes, and th' new servant +had na' come! There was but you and me in th' +house."</p> + +<p>"Yes. But, you see, I was in a hurry to go out +marketing, and I couldn't wait for you to come +down."</p> + +<p>He ignored this remark. "There's a tenpun' +note missing," said he. "Don't play them tricks +on me, lass; I'm getting an oldish man. Where +hast hidden it? I mun go to th' bank." He +spoke plaintively.</p> + +<p>"My dear uncle," she replied, "I've not hidden +your ten-pound note. I wanted some money in a +hurry, so I took it. I've spent some of it."</p> + +<p>"Spent some of it!" he exclaimed. "How +much hast spent?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know. But I make up my accounts +every night."</p> + +<p>"Lass," said he, staring firmly out of the +window, "this won't do. I let ye know at once. +This wunna' do." He was determined to be +master in his own house. She also was determined +to be master in his own house. Conflict was +imminent.</p> + +<p>"May I ask what you mean, uncle?"</p> + +<p>He hesitated. He was not afraid of her. But +he was afraid of her dress—not of the material, +but of the cut of it. If she had been Susan in +Susan's dowdy and wrinkled alpaca, he would +have translated his just emotion into what critics +call "simple, nervous English"—that is to say, +Shakespearean prose. But the aristocratic, insolent +perfection of Helen's gown gave him pause.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"I merely didn't think of it," she said. "I've +been very busy."</p> + +<p>"If you wanted money, why didn't you ask me +for it?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"I've been here over a week," said she, "and +you've given me a pound and a postal order for +ten shillings, which I had to ask for. Surely +you must have guessed, uncle, that even if I'd +put the thirty shillings in the savings bank we +couldn't live on the interest of it, and that I was +bound to want more. Something like seventy +meals have been served in this house since I +entered it."</p> + +<p>"I gave Mrs. Butt a pound a wik," he observed.</p> + +<p>"But think what a good manager Mrs. Butt +was!" she said, with the sweetness of a saint.</p> + +<p>He was accustomed to distributing satire, but +not to receiving it. And, receiving this snowball +full in the mouth, he did not quite know what to +do with it; whether to pretend that he had +received nothing, or to call a policeman. He +ended by spluttering.</p> + +<p>"It's easy enough to ask for money when you +want it," he said.</p> + +<p>"I hate asking for money," she said. "All +women do."</p> + +<p>"Then am I to be inquiring every morning +whether you want money?" he questioned, +sarcastically.</p> + +<p>"Certainly, uncle," she answered. "How else +are you to know?"</p> + +<p>Difficult to credit that that girl had been an +angel of light all the week, existing in a paradise +which she had created for herself, and for him! +And now, to defend an action utterly indefensible, +she was employing a tone that might be compared +to some fiendish instrumental device of a +dentist.</p> + +<p>But James Ollerenshaw did not wish his teeth +stopped, nor yet extracted. He had excellent +teeth. And, in common with all men who have +never taken thirty consecutive repasts alone with +the same woman, he knew how to treat women, +how to handle them—the trout!</p> + +<p>He stood up. He raised all his body. Helen +raised only her eyebrows.</p> + +<p>"Helen Rathbone!" Such was the exordium. +As an exordium, it was faultless. But it was +destined to remain a fragment. It goes down to +history as a perfect fragment, like the beginning +of a pagan temple that the death of gods has +rendered superfluous.</p> + +<p>For a dog-cart stopped in front of the house at +that precise second, deposited a lady of commanding +mien, and dashed off again. The lady opened +James's gate and knocked at James's front door. +She could not be a relative of a tenant. James +was closely acquainted with all his tenants, and +he had none of that calibre. Moreover, Helen had +caused a small board to be affixed to the gate: +"Tenants will please go round to the back."</p> + +<p>"Bless us!" he murmured, angrily. And, by +force of habit, he went and opened the door. +Then he recognised the lady. It was Sarah +Swetnam, eldest child of the large and tumultuously +intellectual Swetnam family that lived in +a largish house in a largish way higher up +the road, and as to whose financial stability +rumour always had something interesting to +say.</p> + +<p>"Is Miss Rathbone here?"</p> + +<p>Before he could reply, there was an ecstatic +cry behind him: "Sally!" And another in +front of him: "Nell!"</p> + +<p>In the very nick of time he slipped aside, and +thus avoided the inconvenience of being crushed +to pulp between two locomotives under full +steam. It appeared that they had not met for +some years, Sally having been in London. The +reunion was an affecting sight, and such a sight +as had never before been witnessed in James's +house. The little room seemed to be full of +fashionable women, to be all gloves, frills, hat, +parasol, veil, and whirling flowers; also scent. +They kissed, through Sally's veil first, and then +she lifted the veil, and four vermilion lips clung +together. Sally was even taller than Helen, with +a solid waist; and older, more brazen. They +both sat down. Fashionable women have a +manner of sitting down quite different from that of +ordinary women, such as the wives of James's +tenants. They only touch the back of the chair +at the top. They don't loll, but they only escape +lolling by dint of gracefulness. It is an affair of +curves, slants, descents, nicely calculated. They +elaborately lead your eye downwards over gradually +increasing expanses, and naturally you expect +to see their feet—and you don't see their feet. +The thing is apt to be disturbing to unhabituated +beholders.</p> + +<p>Then fashionable women always begin their +conversation right off. There are no modest or +shy or decently awkward silences at the start. +They slip into a conversation as a duck into water. +In three minutes Helen had told Sarah Swetnam +everything about her leaving the school, and about +her establishment with her great-stepuncle. And +Sarah seemed delighted, and tapped the tiles of +the floor with the tip of her sunshade, and gazed +splendidly over the room.</p> + +<p>"And there are your books there, I see!" she +said, in her positive, calm voice, pointing to a few +hundred books that were stacked in a corner. +"How lovely! You remember you promised to +lend me that book of Thoreau's—what did you +call it?—and you never did!"</p> + +<p>"Next time you come I'll find it for you," said +Helen.</p> + +<p>Next time she came! This kind of visit would +occur frequently, then! They were talking just +as if James Ollerenshaw had been in Timbuctoo, +instead of by the mantelpiece, when Sally suddenly +turned on him.</p> + +<p>"It must be very nice for you to have Nell like +this!" She addressed him with a glowing +smile.</p> + +<p>They had never been introduced! A week ago +they had passed each other in St. Luke's-square +without a sign. Of the Swetnam family, James +"knew" the father alone, and him slightly. +What chiefly impressed him in Sarah was her +nerve. He said nothing; he was tongue-tied.</p> + +<p>"It's a great change for you," proceeded +Sarah.</p> + +<p>"Ay," he agreed; "it's that."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_X"></a><h2>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<p>A CALL</p> +<br /> + +<p>The next moment the two fluffy women had +decided, without in the least consulting James, +that they would ascend to Helen's bedroom to +look at a hat which, James was surprised to learn, +Helen had seen in Brunt's window that morning +and had bought on the spot. No wonder she had +been in a hurry to go marketing; no wonder she +had spent "some" of his ten-pound note! He +had seen hats in Brunt's marked as high as two +guineas; but he had not dreamt that such hats +would ever enter his house. While he had been +labouring, collecting his rents and arranging for +repairs, throughout the length and the breadth of +Bursley and Turnhill, she, under pretence of +marketing, had been flinging away ten-pound +notes at Brunt's. The whole business was fantastic, +simply and madly fantastic; so fantastic +that he had not yet quite grasped the reality +of it! The whole business was unheard of. +He saw, with all the clearness of his masculine +intellect, that it must cease. The force with +which he decided within himself that it must +cease—and instanter!—bordered upon the hysterical. +As he had said, plaintively, he was an +oldish man. His habits, his manners, and his +notions, especially his notions about money, were +fixed and set like plaster of Paris in a mould. +Helen's conduct was nothing less than dangerous. +It might bring him to a sudden death from heart +disease. Happily, he had had a very good week +indeed with his rents. He trotted about all day +on Mondays and on Tuesday mornings, gathering +his rents, and on Tuesday afternoons he usually +experienced the assuaged content of an alligator +after the weekly meal. Otherwise there was no +knowing what might not have been the disastrous +consequences of Helen's barefaced robbery and of +her unscrupulous, unrepentant defence of that +robbery. For days and days he had imagined +himself in heaven with a seraph who was also a +good cook. He had forty times congratulated +himself on catching Helen. And now ...!</p> + +<p>But it must stop.</p> + +<p>Then he thought of the cooking. His mouth +remembered its first taste of the incomparable +kidney omelette. What an ecstasy! Still, a ten-pound +note for even a kidney omelette jarred on +the fineness of his sense of values.</p> + +<p>A feminine laugh—Helen's—came down the +narrow stairs and through the kitchen.... No, +the whole house was altered, with well-bred, +distinguished women's laughter floating about the +stairs like that.</p> + +<p>He called upon his lifelong friend and comforter—the +concertina. That senseless thing of rose-wood, +ivory, ebony, mother-of-pearl, and leather +was to him what a brother, a pipe, a bull terrier, +a trusted confidant, might have been to another +James. And now, in the accents of the Hallelujah +Chorus, it yielded to his squeezings the +secret and sublime solace which men term poetry.</p> + +<p>Then there was a second, and equally imperious, +knock at the door.</p> + +<p>He loosed his fingers from his friend, and opened +the door.</p> + +<p>Mr. Emanuel Prockter stood on the doorstep. +Mr. Emanuel Prockter wore a beautiful blue suit, +with a white waistcoat and pale gold tie; yellow +gloves, boots with pointed toes, a glossy bowler +hat, a cane, and an eyeglass. He was an impeccable +young man, and the avowed delight of +his tailor, whose bills were paid by Mrs. Prockter.</p> + +<p>"Is Miss Rathbone at home?" asked Emanuel, +after a cough.</p> + +<p>"Helen?"</p> + +<p>"Ye-es."</p> + +<p>"Ay," said James, grimly. "Her's quite at +home."</p> + +<p>"Can I see her?"</p> + +<p>James opened more widely the door. "Happen +you'd better step inside," said he.</p> + +<p>"Thanks, Mr. Ollerenshaw. What—er—fine +weather we're having!"</p> + +<p>James ignored this quite courteous and truthful +remark. He shut the door, went into the kitchen, +and called up the stairs: "Helen, a young man to +see ye."</p> + +<p>In the bedroom, Helen and Sarah Swetnam had +exhausted the Brunt hat, and were spaciously at +sea in an enchanted ocean of miscellaneous gossip +such as is only possible between two highly-educated +women who scorn tittle-tattle. Helen +had the back bedroom; partly because the front +bedroom was her uncle's, but partly also because +the back bedroom was just as large as and much +quieter than the other, and because she preferred +it. There had been no difficulty about furniture. +Even so good a landlord as James Ollerenshaw is +obliged now and then to go to extremes in the +pursuit of arrears of rent, and the upper part of +the house was crowded with choice specimens of +furniture which had once belonged to the more +magnificent of his defaulting tenants. Helen's +bedroom was not "finished"; nor, since she +regarded it as a temporary lodging rather than a +permanent habitation, was she in a mind to finish +it. Still, with her frocks dotted about, the hat on +the four-post bed, and her silver-mounted brushes +and manicure tools on the dressing-table, it had a +certain stylishness. Sarah shared the bed with +the hat. Helen knelt at a trunk.</p> + +<p>"Whatever made you think of coming to +Bursley?" Sarah questioned.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think it's better than Longshaw?" +said Helen.</p> + +<p>"Yes, my darling child. But that's not why +you came. If you ask me, I believe it was your +deliberate intention to capture your great-uncle. +Anyhow, I congratulate you on your success."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" Helen murmured, smiling to herself, +"I'm not out of the wood yet."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Well, you see, uncle and I haven't quite +decided whether he is to have his way or I am to +have mine; we were both thinking about it when +you happened to call." And then, as there was +a little pause: "Are people talking about us +much?"</p> + +<p>She did not care whether people were talking +much or little, but she had an obscure desire to +shift ever so slightly the direction of the conversation.</p> + +<p>"I've only been here a day or two, so I can +scarcely judge," said Sarah. "But Lilian came +in from the art school this morning with an armful +of chatter."</p> + +<p>"Let me see, I forget," Helen said. "Is Lilian +the youngest, or the next to the youngest?"</p> + +<p>"My dearest child, Lilian is the youngest but +one, of course; but she's grown up now—naturally."</p> + +<p>"What! When I saw her last, that day when +she was with you at Knype, she had a ribbon in her +hair, and she looked ten."</p> + +<p>"She's eighteen. And haven't you heard?"</p> + +<p>"Heard what?"</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say you've been in Bursley a +week and more, and haven't heard? Surely you +know Andrew Dean?"</p> + +<p>"I know Andrew Dean," said Helen; and she +said nothing else.</p> + +<p>"When did you last see him?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, about a fortnight ago."</p> + +<p>"It was before that. He didn't tell you? +Well, it's just like him, that is; that's Andrew all +over!"</p> + +<p>"What is?"</p> + +<p>"He's engaged to Lilian. It's the first engagement +in the family, and she's the youngest but +one."</p> + +<p>Helen shut the trunk with a snap, then opened +it and shut it again. And then she rose, smoothing +her hair.</p> + +<p>"I scarcely know Lilian," she said, coldly. +"And I don't know your mother at all. But I +must call and congratulate the child. No, +Andrew Dean didn't breathe a word."</p> + +<p>"I may tell you as a dreadful secret, Nell, that +we aren't any of us in the seventh heaven about it. +Aunt Annie said yesterday: 'I don't know that +I'm so set up with it as all that, Jane' (meaning +mother). We aren't so set up with it as all that."</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, we aren't. I don't know why. I pretend +to be, lest Lilian should imagine I'm jealous."</p> + +<p>It was at this point that the voice of James +Ollerenshaw announced a young man.</p> + +<p>The remainder of that afternoon was like a +bewildering dream to James Ollerenshaw. His +front room seemed to be crowded with a multitude +of peacocks, that would have been more at home +under the sun of Mrs. Prockter's lawns up at +Hillport. Yet there were only three persons +present besides himself. But decidedly they were +not of his world; they were of the world that +referred to him as "old Jimmy Ollerenshaw," or +briefly as "Jimmy." And he had to sit and +listen to them, and even to answer coherently +when spoken to. Emanuel Prockter was brilliant. +He had put his hat on one chair and his cane +across another, and he conversed with ducal +facility. The two things about him that puzzled +the master of the house were—first, why he was +not, at such an hour, engaged in at any rate the +pretence of earning his living; and, second, why +he did not take his gloves off. No notion of work +seemed to exist in the minds of the three. They +chattered of tennis, novels, music, and particularly +of amateur operatic societies. James acquired +the information that Emanuel was famous as a +singer of songs. The topic led then naturally to +James's concertina; the talk lightly caressed +James's concertina, and then Emanuel swept it +off to the afternoon tea-room of the new Midland +Grand Hotel at Manchester, where Emanuel had +lately been. And that led to the Old Oak Tree +tea-house in Bond-street, where, not to be beaten +by Emanuel, Sarah Swetnam had lately been.</p> + +<p>"Suppose we have tea," said Helen.</p> + +<p>And she picked up a little brass bell which stood +on the central table and tinkled it. James had +not noticed the bell. It was one of the many +little changes that Helen had introduced. Each +change by itself was a nothing—what is one small +bell in a house?—yet in the mass they amounted +to much. The bell was obviously new. She must +have bought it; but she had not mentioned it to +him. And how could they all sit at the tiny table +in the kitchen? Moreover, he had no fancy for +entertaining the whole town of Bursley to meals. +However, the immediate prospect of tea produced +in James a feeling of satisfaction, even though he +remained in perfect ignorance of the methods by +which Helen meant to achieve the tea. She had +rung the bell, and gone on talking, as if the tea +would cook itself and walk in on its hind legs and +ask to be eaten.</p> + +<p>Then the new servant entered with a large tray. +James had never seen such a servant, a servant so +entirely new. She was wearing a black frock and +various parts of the frock, and the top of her head, +were covered with stiffly-starched white linen—or +was it cotton? Her apron, which had two pockets, +was more elaborate than an antimacassar. Helen +coolly instructed her to place the tray on his desk; +which she did, brushing irreverently aside a +number of rent books.</p> + +<p>On the tray there was nothing whatever to eat +but a dozen slices of the thinnest conceivable +bread and butter.</p> + +<p>Helen rose. Emanuel also rose.</p> + +<p>Helen poured out the tea. Emanuel took a cup +and saucer in one hand and the plate of bread and +butter in the other, and ceremoniously approached +Sarah Swetnam. Sarah accepted the cup and +saucer, delicately chose a piece of bread and butter +and lodged it on her saucer, and went on talking.</p> + +<p>Emanuel returned to the table, and, reladen, +approached old Jimmy, and old Jimmy had to +lodge a piece of bread and butter on his saucer. +Then Emanuel removed his gloves, and in a +moment they were all drinking tea and nibbling +bread and butter.</p> + +<p>What a fall was this from kidney omelettes! +And four had struck! Did Helen expect her +uncle to make his tea off a slice of bread and butter +that weighed about two drachms?</p> + +<p>When the alleged tea was over James got on his +feet, and silently slid into the kitchen. The fact +was that Emanuel Prockter and the manikin airs +of Emanuel Prockter made him positively sick. +He had not been in the kitchen more than a +minute before he was aware of amazing matters in +the conversation.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Helen; "it's small."</p> + +<p>"But, my child, you've always been used to a +small house, surely. I think it's just as quaint +and pretty as a little museum."</p> + +<p>"Would you like to live in a little museum?"</p> + +<p>A laugh from Emanuel, and the voice of Helen +proceeding:</p> + +<p>"I've always lived in a small house, just as I've +taught six hours a day in a school. But not because +I wanted to. I like room. I daresay that +uncle and I may find another house one of these +days."</p> + +<p>"Up at Hillport, I hope," Emanuel put in. +James could see his mincing imbecile smile through +the kitchen wall.</p> + +<p>"Who knows?" said Helen.</p> + +<p>James returned to the front room. "What's +that ye're saying?" he questioned the company.</p> + +<p>"I was just saying how quaint and pretty your +house is," said Sarah, and she rose to depart. +More kissings, flutterings, swishings! Emanuel +bowed.</p> + +<p>Emanuel followed Miss Swetnam in a few +minutes. Helen accompanied him to the gate, +where she stayed a little while talking to him. +James was in the blackest gloom.</p> + +<p>"And now, you dear old thing," said Helen, +vivaciously bustling into the house, "you shall +have your <i>tea</i>. You've behaved like a perfect +angel."</p> + +<p>And she kissed him on the cheek, very excitedly, +as he thought.</p> + +<p>She gave him another kidney omelette for his +tea. It was even more adorable than the former +one. With the taste of it in his mouth, he could +not recur to the question of the ten-pound note +all at once. When tea was over she retired upstairs, +and remained in retirement for ages. She +descended at a quarter to eight, with her hat and +gloves on. It appeared to him that her eyes were +inflamed.</p> + +<p>"I'm going out," she said, with no further +explanation.</p> + +<p>And out she went, leaving the old man, stricken +daft by too many sensations, to collect his wits.</p> + +<p>He had not even been to the bank!</p> + +<p>And the greatest sensation of all the nightmarish +days was still in reserve for him. At a +quarter-past eight some one knocked at the door. +He opened it, being handier than the new servant. +He imagined himself ready for anything; but he +was not ready for the apparition which met him +on the threshold.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Prockter, of Hillport, asked to be admitted!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XI"></a><h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<p>ANOTHER CALL</p> +<br /> + +<p>Mrs. Prockter was compelled to ask for +admission, because James, struck moveless and +speechless by the extraordinary sight of her, +offered no invitation to enter. He merely stood +in front of the half-opened door.</p> + +<p>"May I come in, Mr. Ollerenshaw?" she said, +very urbanely. "I hope you will excuse this very +informal call. I've altered my dinner hour in +order to pay it."</p> + +<p>And she smiled. The smile seemed to rouse +him from a spell.</p> + +<p>"Come in, missis, do!" he conjured her, +warmly.</p> + +<p>He was James; he was even Jimmy; but he +was also a man, very much a man, though the fact +had only recently begun to impress itself on him. +Mrs. Prockter, while a dowager—portly, possibly +fussy, perhaps slightly comic to a younger generation—was +still considerably younger than James. +With her rich figure, her excellent complexion, her +carefully-cherished hair, and her apparel, she +was a woman to captivate a man of sixty, whose +practical experience of the sex extended over +nine days.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said she, gratefully.</p> + +<p>He shut the front door, as if he were shutting +a bird in a cage; and he also shut the door leading +to the kitchen—a door which had not been shut +since the kitchen fire smoked in the celebrated +winter of 1897. She sat down at once in the +easy-chair.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" she exclaimed, in relief. And then +she began to fan herself with a fan which was +fastened to her person by a chain that might have +moored a steamer.</p> + +<p>James, searching about for something else to +do while he was collecting his forces, drew the +blind and lighted the gas. But it was not yet +dark.</p> + +<p>"I wonder what you will think of me, calling +like this?" she said, with a sardonic smile.</p> + +<p>It was apparent that, whatever he thought of +her, she would not be disturbed or abashed. She +was utterly at her ease. She could not, indeed, +have recalled the moment when she had not been +at her ease. She sat in the front room with all +the external symptoms of being at home. This +was what chiefly surprised James Ollerenshaw in +his grand guests—they all took his front room for +granted. They betrayed no emotion at its smallness +or its plainness, or its eccentricities. He +would somehow have expected them to signify, +overtly or covertly, that that kind of room was not +the kind of room to which they were accustomed.</p> + +<p>"Anyhow, I'm glad to see ye, Mrs. Prockter," +James returned.</p> + +<p>A speech which did not in the least startle +Mrs. Prockter, who was thoroughly used to people +being glad to see her. But it startled James. He +had uttered it instinctively; it was the expression +of an instinctive gladness which took hold of him +and employed his tongue on its own account, and +which rose superior even to his extreme astonishment +at the visit. He <i>was</i> glad to see her. She +was stout and magnificent, in her silk and her +ribbons. He felt that he preferred stout women +to thin; and that, without being aware of it, he +had always preferred stout women to thin. It +was a question of taste. He certainly preferred +Mrs. Prockter to Sarah Swetnam. Mrs. Prockter's +smile was the smile of a benevolently cynical +creature whose studies in human nature had +reached the advanced stage. James was reassured +by this, for it avoided the necessity +for "nonsense."....Yes, she was decidedly +better under a roof and a gas-jet than in the +street.</p> + +<p>"May I ask if your niece is in?" she said, in a +low voice.</p> + +<p>"She isn't."</p> + +<p>He had been sure that she had called about +Helen, if not to see Helen. But there was a conspiratorial +accent in her question for which he was +unprepared. So he sat down at last.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Mrs. Prockter, "I'm not sorry she +isn't. But if she had been I should have spoken +just the same—not to her, but to you. Now, +Mr. Ollerenshaw, I think you and I are rather +alike in some things. I hate beating about the +bush, and I imagine that you do."</p> + +<p>He was flattered. And he was perfectly eased +by her tone. She was a woman to whom you +could talk sense. And he perceived that, though +a casual observer might fail to find the points of +resemblance between them, they <i>were</i> rather alike.</p> + +<p>"I expect," said he, "it's pretty well known i' +this town as I'm not one that beats about the +bush."</p> + +<p>"Good!" said she. "You know my stepson, +Emanuel?"</p> + +<p>"He was here a bit since," James replied.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of him?"</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"As a man?"</p> + +<p>"Well, missis, as we are na' beating about the +bush, I think he's a foo'."</p> + +<p>"Now that's what I like!" she exclaimed, quite +ravished. "He <i>is</i> a fool, Mr. Ollerenshaw—between +ourselves. I can see that you and I +will get on together splendidly! Emanuel is a +fool. I can't help it. I took him along with my +second husband, and I do my best for him. But +I'm not responsible for his character. As far as +that goes, he isn't responsible for it, either. Not +only is he a fool, but he is a conceited fool, and an +idle fool; and he can't see a joke. At the same +time he is quite honest, and I think he's a gentleman. +But being a gentleman is no excuse for +being a fool; indeed, I think it makes it worse."</p> + +<p>"Nothing can make it worse," James put in.</p> + +<p>She drew down the corners of her lips and +stroked her fine grey hair.</p> + +<p>"You say Emanuel has been here to-day?"</p> + +<p>"Ay!" said James. "He came in an' had a +sup o' tea."</p> + +<p>"Do you know why he came?"</p> + +<p>"Maybe he felt faintlike, and slipped in here, +as there's no public nearer than the Queen +Adelaide. Or maybe he thought as I was getting +on in years, and he wanted for to make my +acquaintance afore I died. I didna' ask him."</p> + +<p>"I see you understand," said Mrs. Prockter. +"Mr. Ollerenshaw, my stepson is courting your +niece."</p> + +<p>"Great-stepniece," James corrected; and +added: "Is he now? To tell ye th' truth I didn't +know till th' other day as they were acquainted."</p> + +<p>"They haven't been acquainted long," Mrs. +Prockter informed him. "You may have heard +that Emanuel is thinking of going into partnership +with Mr. Andrew Dean—a new glaze that Mr. +Dean has invented. The matter may turn out +well, because all that Mr. Dean really wants is a +sleeping partner with money. Emanuel has the +money, and I think he can be guaranteed to sleep. +Your stepniece met Emanuel by accident through +Mr. Dean some weeks ago, over at Longshaw. +They must have taken to each other at once. +And I must tell you that not merely is my stepson +courting your niece, but your niece is courting my +stepson."</p> + +<p>"You surprise me, missis!"</p> + +<p>"I daresay I do. But it is the fact. She +isn't a Churchwoman; at least, she wasn't a +Churchwoman at Longshaw; she was Congregational, +and not very much at that. You +aren't a Churchman, either; but your niece now +goes to St. Luke's every Sunday. So does my +stepson. Your niece is out to-night. So is my +stepson. And if they are not together somewhere +I shall be very much astonished. Of course, the +new generation does as it likes."</p> + +<p>"And what next?" James inquired.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what next," cried the mature +lady, with the most charming vivacity. "I like +your niece. I've met her twice at the St. Luke's +Guild, and I like her. I should have asked her +to come and see me, only I'm determined not to +encourage her with Emanuel. Mr. Ollerenshaw, +I'm not going to have her marrying Emanuel, +and that's why I've come to see you."</p> + +<p>The horror of his complicated situation displayed +itself suddenly to James. He who had +always led a calm, unworried life, was about to +be shoved into the very midst of a hullabaloo of +women and fools.</p> + +<p>His wizened body shrank; and he was not sure +that his pride was quite unhurt. Mrs. Prockter +noticed this.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" she resumed, with undiminished +vivacity, "it's not because I think your niece isn't +good enough for Emanuel; it's because I think +she's a great deal too good! And yet it isn't +that, either. The truth is, Mr. Ollerenshaw, I'm +a purely selfish woman. I'm the last person in +the world to stand in the way of my poor stepson +getting a better wife than he deserves. And if +the woman chooses to throw herself away on him, +that's not my affair. What I scent danger in is +that your stepniece would find my stepson out. +At present she's smitten by his fancy waistcoat. +But she would soon see through the fancy waist-coat—and +then there would be a scandal. If I +have not misjudged your stepniece, there would +be a scandal, and I do not think that I have misjudged +her. She is exactly the sort of young +woman who, when she had discovered she had +made a mistake, would walk straight out of the +house."</p> + +<p>"She is!" James agreed with simple heartiness +of conviction.</p> + +<p>"And Emanuel, having no sense of humour, +would leave nothing undone to force her back +again. Imagine the scandal, Mr. Ollerenshaw! +Imagine my position; imagine yours! <i>Me</i>, in +an affair like that! I won't have it—that is to +say, I won't have it if I can stop it. Now, what +can we do?"</p> + +<p>Despite the horror of the situation, he had +sufficient loose, unemployed sentiment (left over +from pitying himself) to be rather pleased by her +manner of putting it: What can <i>we</i> do?</p> + +<p>But he kept this pleasure to himself.</p> + +<p>"Nowt!" he said, drily.</p> + +<p>He spoke to her as one sensible person speaks +to another sensible person in the Five Towns. +Assuredly she was a very sensible person. He +had in past years credited, or discredited, her +with "airs." But here she was declaring that +Helen was too good for her stepson. If his pride +had momentarily suffered, through a misconception, +it was now in the full vigour of its strength.</p> + +<p>"You think we can do nothing?" she said, +reflectively, and leant forward on her chair +towards him, as if struck by his oracular wisdom.</p> + +<p>"What can us do?"</p> + +<p>"You might praise Emanuel to her—urge her +on." She fixed him with her eye.</p> + +<p>Sensible? She was prodigious. She was the +serpent of serpents.</p> + +<p>He took her gaze twinkling. "Ay!" he said. +"I might. But if I'm to urge her on, why didna' +ye ask her to your house like, and chuck 'em at +each other?"</p> + +<p>She nodded several times, impressed by this +argument. "You are quite right, Mr. Ollerenshaw," +she admitted.</p> + +<p>"It's a dangerous game," he warned her.</p> + +<p>She put her lips together in meditation, and +stared into a corner.</p> + +<p>"I must think it over"—she emerged from +her reflections. "I feel much easier now I've +told you all about it. And I feel sure that two +common-sense, middle-aged people like you and +me can manage to do what we want. Dear +me! How annoying stepsons are! Obviously, +Emanuel ought to marry another fool. And +goodness knows there are plenty to choose from. +And yet he must needs go and fall in love with +almost the only sensible girl in the town! There's +no end to that boy's foolishness. He actually +wants me to buy Wilbraham Hall, furniture, and +everything! What do you think it's worth, +Mr. Ollerenshaw?"</p> + +<p>"Worth? It's worth what it'll fetch."</p> + +<p>"Eight thousand?"</p> + +<p>"Th' land's worth that," said James.</p> + +<p>"It's a silly idea. But he put it into my head. +Now will you drop in one day and see me?"</p> + +<p>"No," said James. "I'm not much for tea-parties, +thank ye."</p> + +<p>"I mean when I'm alone," she pleaded, delightfully; +"so that we can talk over things, and +you can tell me what is going on."</p> + +<p>He saw clearly all the perils of such a course, +but his instinct seized him again.</p> + +<p>"Happen I may look in some morning when +I'm round yonder."</p> + +<p>"That will be very nice of you," she flattered +him, and rose.</p> + +<p>Helen came home about ten o'clock, and went +direct to bed. Never before had James Ollerenshaw +felt like a criminal, but as Helen's eyes +dwelt for a moment on his in bidding him good-night, +he could scarcely restrain the blush of the +evildoer. And him sixty! Turn which way he +would he saw nothing but worry. What an +incredible day he had lived through! And how +astounding was human existence!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XII"></a><h2>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<p>BREAKFAST</p> +<br /> + +<p>He had an unsatisfactory night—that is to +say, in the matter of sleep. In respect of sagacity +he rose richer than he had lain down. He had +clearly perceived, about three a.m., that he was +moving too much in circles which were foreign +to him, and which called him "Jimmy." And +at five a.m., when the first workmen's car woke +bumpily the echoes of the morn, he had perceived +that Mrs. Prockter's plan for separating Emanuel +and Helen by bringing them together was not a +wise plan. Of course, Helen must not marry +Emanuel Prockter. The notion of such a union +was ludicrous. (In spite of all the worry she was +heaping upon him, he did not see any urgent +reason why she should marry anybody.) But the +proper method of nipping the orange-blossom in +the bud was certainly to have a plain chat with +Helen, one of those plain chats which can only +occur, successfully, between plain, common-sense +persons. He was convinced that, notwithstanding +Mrs. Prockter's fears, Helen had not for an +instant thought of Emanuel as a husband. It +was inconceivable that she, a girl so utterly +sensible, should have done so. And yet—girls! +And Mrs. Prockter was no fool, come to think of +it. A sterling creature. Not of his world, but +nevertheless—At this point he uneasily dozed.</p> + +<p>However, he determined to talk with Helen +that morning at breakfast. He descended at +half-past seven, as usual, full of a diplomatic +intention to talk to Helen. She was wholly +sensible; she was a person to whom you <i>could</i> +talk. Still, tact would be needed. Lack of +sleep had rendered his nervous system such that +he would have preferred to receive tact rather +than to give it. But, happily, he was a self-controlled +man.</p> + +<p>His post, which lay scattered on the tiles at +the foot of the front door, did not interest him. +He put it aside, in its basket. Nor could he +work, according to his custom, at his accounts. +Even the sight of the unfilled-in credit-slips for +the bank did not spur him to industry. There +can be no doubt that he was upset.</p> + +<p>He walked across the room to the piles of +Helen's books against the wall, and in sheer +absence of mind picked one up, and sat on a +chair, on which he had never before sat, and +began to read the volume.</p> + +<p>Then the hurried, pretentious striking of the +kitchen clock startled him. Half-an-hour had +passed in a moment. He peeped into the kitchen. +Not a sign of breakfast! Not a sign of the +new servant, with her starched frills! And for +thirty years he had breakfasted at eight o'clock +precisely.</p> + +<p>And no Helen! Was Helen laughing at him? +Was Helen treating him as an individual of no +importance? It was unimaginable that his +breakfast should be late. If anybody thought +that he was going to—No! he must not +give way to righteous resentment. Diplomacy! +Tact! Forbearance!</p> + +<p>But he would just go up to Helen's room and +rap, and tell her of the amazing and awful state +of things on the ground-floor. As a fact, she +herself was late. At that moment she appeared.</p> + +<p>"Good-morning, uncle."</p> + +<p>She was cold, prim, cut off like China from +human intercourse by a wall.</p> + +<p>"Th' servant has na' come," said he, straining +to be tolerant and amicable. He did his best to +keep a grieved astonishment out of his voice; +but he could not.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" she murmured, calmly. It was nothing +to her, then, that James's life should be turned +upside down! And she added, with icy detachment: +"I'm not surprised. You'll never get +servants to be prompt in the morning when they +don't sleep in the house. And there's no room +for Georgiana to sleep in the house."</p> + +<p>Georgiana! Preposterous name!</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Butt was always prompt. I'll say that +for her," he replied.</p> + +<p>This, as he immediately recognised, was a +failure in tact on his part. So when she said +quickly: "I'm sure Mrs. Butt would be delighted +to come back if you asked her," he said nothing.</p> + +<p>What staggered his intellect and his knowledge +of human nature was that she remained absolutely +unmoved by this appalling, unprecedented, and +complete absence of any sign of breakfast at +after eight o'clock.</p> + +<p>Just then Georgiana came. She had a key to +the back door, and entered the house by way of +the scullery.</p> + +<p>"Good-morning, Georgiana," Helen greeted +her, going into the scullery—much more kindly +than she had greeted her uncle. Instead of falling +on Georgiana and slaying her, she practically +embraced her.</p> + +<p>A gas cooking-stove is a wondrous gift of +Heaven. You do not have to light it with +yesterday's paper, damp wood, and the remains +of last night's fire. In twelve minutes not merely +was the breakfast ready, but the kitchen was +dusted, and there was a rose in a glass next to +the bacon. James had calmed himself by reading +the book, and the period of waiting had really +been very short. As he fronted the bacon and +the flower, Helen carefully shut the scullery door. +The <i>Manchester Guardian</i> lay to the left of his +plate. Thoughtful! Altogether it was not so +bad.</p> + +<p>Further, she smiled in handing him his tea. +She, too, he observed, must have slept ill. Her +agreeable face was drawn. But her blue-and-white-striped +dress was impeccably put on. It +was severe, and yet very smooth. It suited her +mood. It also suited his. They faced each +other, as self-controlled people do face each other +at breakfast after white nights, disillusioned, +tremendously sensible, wise, gently cynical, seeing +the world with steady and just orbs.</p> + +<p>"I've been reading one o' your books, lass," +he began, with superb amiability. "It's pretty +near as good as a newspaper. There's summat +about a law case as goes on for ever. It isna' +true, I suppose, but it might be. The man as +wrote that knew what he was talking about for +once in a way. It's rare and good."</p> + +<p>"You mean Jarndyce <i>v</i>. Jarndyce?" she said, +with a smile—not one of her condescending smiles.</p> + +<p>"Ay," he said, "I believe that <i>is</i> the name. +How didst know, lass?"</p> + +<p>"I just guessed," she answered. "I suppose +you don't have much time for reading, uncle?"</p> + +<p>"Not me!" said he. "I'm one o' th' busiest +men in Bosley. And if ye don't know it now, you +will afore long."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" she cried, "I've noticed that. But +what can you expect? With all those rents to +collect yourself! Of course, I think you're +quite right to collect them yourself. Rent-collectors +can soon ruin a property." Her tone +was exceedingly sympathetic and comprehending. +He was both surprised and pleased by it. He had +misjudged her mood. It was certainly comfortable +to have a young woman in the house who +understood things as she did.</p> + +<p>"Ye're right, lass," he said. "It's small +houses as mean trouble. You're never done—wi' +cottage property. Always summat!"</p> + +<p>"It's all small, isn't it?" she went on. +"About how much do the rents average? +Three-and-six a week?"</p> + +<p>"About that," he said. She was a shrewd +guesser.</p> + +<p>"I can't imagine how you carry the money +about," she exclaimed. "It must be very heavy +for you."</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you," he explained. "I've got my +own system o' collecting. If I hadn't, I couldna' +get through. In each street I've one tenant as +I trust. And the other tenants can leave their +rent and their rent books there. When they do +that regular for a month, I give 'em twopence +apiece for their children. If they do it regular +for a year, I mak' 'em a present of a wik's rent +at Christmas. It's cheaper nor rent-collectors."</p> + +<p>"What a good idea!" she said, impressed. +"But how <i>do</i> you carry the money about?"</p> + +<p>"I bank i' Bosley, and I bank i' Turnhill, too. +And I bank once i' Bosley and twice i' Turnhill +o' Mondays, and twice i' Bosley o' Tuesdays. +Only yesterday I was behind. I reckon as I can +do all my collecting between nine o'clock Monday +and noon Tuesday. I go to th' worst tenants +first—be sure o' that. There's some o' 'em, if +you don't catch 'em early o' Monday, you don't +catch 'em at all."</p> + +<p>"It's incredible to me how you can do it all in +a day and a half," she pursued. "Why, how +many houses are there?"</p> + +<p>"Near two hundred and forty i' Bosley," he +responded. "Hast forgotten th' sugar this time, +lass?"</p> + +<p>"And in Turnhill?" she said, passing the +sugar. "I think I'll have that piece of bacon if +you don't want it."</p> + +<p>"Over a hundred," said he. "A hundred and +twenty."</p> + +<p>"So that, first and last, you have to handle +about sixty pounds each week, and all in silver +and copper. Fancy! What a weight it must be!"</p> + +<p>"Ay!" he said, but with less enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>"That's three thousand a-year," she continued.</p> + +<p>Her tone was still innocuously sympathetic. +She seemed to be talking of money as she might +have talked of counters. Nevertheless, he felt +that he had been entrapped.</p> + +<p>"I expect you must have saved at the very +least thirty thousand pounds by this time," she +reflected, judicially, disinterestedly—speaking as +a lawyer might have spoken.</p> + +<p>He offered no remark.</p> + +<p>"That means another thirty pounds a week," +she resumed. Decidedly she was marvellous at +sums of interest.</p> + +<p>He persisted in offering no remark.</p> + +<p>"By the way," she said, "I must look into +my household accounts. How much did you tell +me you allowed Mrs. Butt a week for expenses?"</p> + +<p>"A pound," he replied, shortly.</p> + +<p>She made no comment. "You don't own the +house, do you?" she inquired.</p> + +<p>"No," he said.</p> + +<p>"What's the rent?"</p> + +<p>"Eighteen pounds," he said. Reluctant is a +word that inadequately describes his attitude.</p> + +<p>"The worst of this house is that it has no +bathroom," she remarked. "Still, eighteen +pounds a year is eighteen pounds a year."</p> + +<p>Her tone was faultless, in its innocent, sympathetic +common sense. The truth was, it was +too faultless; it rendered James furious with a +fury that was dangerous, because it had to be +suppressed.</p> + +<p>Then suddenly she left the table.</p> + +<p>"The Kiel butter at a shilling a pound is quite +good enough, Georgiana," he heard her exhorting +the servant in the scullery.</p> + +<p>Ten minutes later, she put ten sovereigns in +front of him.</p> + +<p>"There's that ten-pound note," she said, +politely (but not quite accurately). "I've got +enough of my own to get on with."</p> + +<p>She fled ere he could reply.</p> + +<p>And not a word had he contrived to say to her +concerning Emanuel.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIII"></a><h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<p>THE WORLD</p> +<br /> + +<p>A few days later James Ollerenshaw was alone +in the front room, checking various accounts for +repairs of property in Turnhill, when twin letters +fell into the quietude of the apartment. The +postman—the famous old postman of Bursley, +who on fine summer days surmounted the acute +difficulty of tender feet by delivering mails in +worsted slippers—had swiftly pushed the letters, +as usual, through the slit in the door; but, nevertheless, +their advent had somehow the air of +magic, as, indeed, the advent of letters always +had. Mr. Ollerenshaw glanced curiously from +his chair, over his spectacles, at the letters as they +lay dead on the floor. Their singular appearance +caused him to rise at once and pick them up. +They were sealed with a green seal, and addressed +in a large and haughty hand—one to Helen and +the other to himself. Obviously they came from +the world which referred to him as "Jimmy." +He was not used to being thrilled by mere envelopes, +but now he became conscious of a slight +quickening of pulsation. He opened his own +envelope—the paper was more like a blanket +than paper, and might have been made from the +material of a child's untearable picture-book. +He had to use a stout paper-knife, and when he +did get into the envelope he felt like a burglar.</p> + +<p>The discerning and shrewd ancient had guessed +the contents. He had feared, and he had also +hoped, that the contents would comprise an +invitation to Mrs. Prockter's house at Hillport. +They did; and more than that. The signature +was Mrs. Prockter's, and she had written him a +four-page letter. "My dear Mr. Ollerenshaw." +"Believe me, yours most cordially and sincerely, +Flora Prockter."</p> + +<p>Flora!</p> + +<p>The strangest thing, perhaps, in all this strange +history is that he thought the name suited +her.</p> + +<p>He had no intention of accepting the invitation. +Not exactly! But he enjoyed receiving it. It +constituted a unique event in his career. And the +wording of it was very agreeable. Mrs. Prockter +proceeded thus: "In pursuance of our plan"—our +plan!—"I am also inviting your niece. +Indeed, I have gathered from Emanuel that he +considers her as the prime justification of the +party. We will throw them together. She will +hear him sing. She has never heard him sing. +If this does not cure her, nothing will, though he +has a nice voice. I hope it will be a fine night, so +that we may take the garden. I did not thank +you half enough for the exceedingly kind way in +which you received my really unpardonable visit +the other evening," etc.</p> + +<p>James had once heard Emanuel Prockter sing, +at a concert given in aid of something which +deserved every discouragement, and he agreed +with Mrs. Prockter; not that he pretended to +know anything about singing.</p> + +<p>He sat down again, to compose a refusal to +the invitation; but before he had written more +than a few words it had transformed itself into +an acceptance. He was aware of the entire +ridiculousness of his going to an evening party at +Mrs. Prockter's; still an instinct, powerful but +obscure (it was the will-to-live and naught else), +persuaded him by force to say that he would go.</p> + +<p>"Have you had an invitation from Mrs. +Prockter?" Helen asked him at tea.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said he. "Have you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said she. "Shall you go?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, lass, I shall go."</p> + +<p>She seemed greatly surprised.</p> + +<p>"Us'll go together," he said.</p> + +<p>"I don't think that I shall go," said she, +hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>"Have ye written to refuse?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Then I should advise ye to go, my lass."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Unless ye want to have trouble with me," +said he, grimly.</p> + +<p>"But, uncle——"</p> + +<p>"It's no good butting uncle," he replied. "If +ye didna' mean to go, why did ye give young +Prockter to understand as ye would go? I'll +tell ye why ye changed your mind, lass. It's +because you're ashamed o' being seen there with +yer old uncle, and I'm sorry for it."</p> + +<p>"Uncle!" she protested. "How can you say +such a thing? You ought to know that no such +idea ever entered my head."</p> + +<p>He did know that no such idea had ever +entered her head, and he was secretly puzzling +for the real reason of her projected refusal. But, +being determined that she should go, he had +employed the surest and the least scrupulous +means of achieving his end.</p> + +<p>He tapped nervously on the table, and maintained +the silence of the wounded and the proud.</p> + +<p>"Of course, if you take it in that way," she +said, after a pause, "I will go."</p> + +<p>And he went through the comedy of gradually +recovering from a wound.</p> + +<p>His boldness in accepting the invitation and +in compelling Helen to accompany him was the +audacity of sheer ignorance. He had not surmised +the experiences which lay before him. +She told him to order a cab. She did not suggest +the advisability of a cab. She stated, as a +platitude, the absolute indispensability of a cab. +He had meant to ride to Hillport in the tramcar, +which ran past Mrs. Prockter's gates. However, +he reluctantly agreed to order a cab, being fearful +lest she might, after all, refuse to go. It was +remarkable that, after having been opposed to +the policy of throwing Helen and Emanuel +together, he was now in favour of it.</p> + +<p>On the evening, when at five minutes past +nine she came into the front room clad for Mrs. +Prockter's party, he perceived that the tramcar +would have been unsuitable. A cab might hold +her. A hansom would certainly not have held +her. She was all in white, and very complicated. +No hat; simply a white, silver-spangled bandage +round her head, neck, and shoulders!</p> + +<p>She glanced at him. He wore his best black +clothes. "You look very well," said she, surprisingly. +"That old-fashioned black necktie is +splendid."</p> + +<p>So they went. James had the peculiar illusion +that he was going to a belated funeral, for except +at funerals he had never in his life ridden in a +cab.</p> + +<p>When he descended with his fragile charge in +Mrs. Prockter's illuminated porch, another cab +was just ploughing up the gravel of the drive +in departure, and nearly the whole tribe of Swetnams +was on the doorstep; some had walked, +and were boasting of speed. There were Sarah +Swetnam, her brother Ted, the lawyer, her +brother Ronald, the borough surveyor, her brother +Adams, the bank cashier, and her sister Enid, +aged seventeen. This child was always called +"Jos" by the family, because they hated the +name "Enid," which they considered to be +"silly." Lilian, the newly-affianced one, was +not in the crowd.</p> + +<p>"Where's Lilian?" Helen asked, abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, she came earlier with the powerful +Andrew," replied the youthful and rather jealous +Jos. "She isn't an ordinary girl now."</p> + +<p>Sarah rapidly introduced her brothers and +sisters to James. They were all very respectful +and agreeable; and Adams Swetnam pressed his +hand quite sympathetically, and Jos's frank smile +was delicious. What surprised him was that +nobody seemed surprised at his being there. +None of the girls wore hats, he noticed, and he +also noticed that the three men (all about thirty +in years) wore silk hats, white mufflers, and blue +overcoats.</p> + +<p>A servant—a sort of special edition of James's +Georgiana—appeared, and robbed everybody of +every garment that would yield easily to pulling. +And then those lovely creatures stood revealed. +Yes, Sarah herself was lovely under the rosy +shades. The young men were elegantly slim, and +looked very much alike, except that Adams had +a beard—a feeble beard, but a beard. It is true +that in their exact correctness they might have +been mistaken for toast-masters, or, with the +slight addition of silver neck-chains, for high +officials in a costly restaurant. But great-stepuncle +James could never have been mistaken for +anything but a chip of the early nineteenth century +flicked by the hammer of Fate into the twentieth. +His wide black necktie was the secret envy of +the Swetnam boys.</p> + +<p>The Swetnam boys had the air of doing now +what they did every night of their lives. With +facile ease, they led the way through the long +hall to the drawing-room. James followed, and +<i>en route</i> he observed at the extremity of a side-hall +two young people sitting with their hands +together in a dusky corner. "Male and female +created He them!" reflected James, with all the +tolerant, disdainful wisdom of his years and +situation.</p> + +<p>A piano was then heard, and as Ronald Swetnam +pushed open the drawing-room door for the +women to enter, there came the sound of a +shocked "S-sh!"</p> + +<p>Whereupon the invaders took to the tips of +their toes and crept in as sinners. At the farther +end a girl was sitting at a grand piano, and in +front of the piano, glorious, effulgent, monarchical, +stood Emanuel Prockter, holding a piece of music +horizontally at the level of his waist. He had a +white flower in his buttonhole, and, adhering to a +quaint old custom which still lingers in the Five +Towns, and possibly elsewhere, he showed a +crimson silk handkerchief tucked in between his +shirt-front and his white waistcoat. He had +broad bands down the sides of his trousers. Not +a hair of his head had been touched by the +accidental winds of circumstance. He surveyed +the couple of dozen people in the large, glowing +room with a fixed smile and gesture of benevolent +congratulation.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Prockter was close to the door. "Emanuel +is just going to sing," she whispered, and shook +hands silently with James Ollerenshaw first.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIV"></a><h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<p>SONG, SCENE AND DANCE</p> +<br /> + +<p>Every head was turned. Emanuel coughed, +frowned, and put his left hand between his collar +and his neck, as though he had concealed something +there. The new arrivals slipped cautiously +into chairs. James was between Helen and Jos. +And he distinctly saw Jos wink at Helen, and +Helen wink back. The winks were without +doubt an expression of sentiments aroused by the +solemnity of Emanuel's frown.</p> + +<p>The piano tinkled on, and then Emanuel's +face was observed to change. The frown vanished +and a smile of heavenly rapture took its place. +His mouth gradually opened till its resemblance +to the penultimate vowel was quite realistic, and +simultaneously, by a curious muscular co-ordination, +he rose on his toes to a considerable height +in the air.</p> + +<p>The strain was terrible—like waiting for a gun +to go off. James was conscious of a strange +vibration by his side, and saw that Jos Swetnam +had got the whole of a lace handkerchief into her +mouth.</p> + +<p>The gun went off—not with a loud report, but +with a gentle and lofty tenor piping, somewhere +in the neighbourhood of F, or it might have been +only E (though, indeed, a photograph would have +suggested that Emanuel was singing at lowest +the upper C), and the performer slowly resumed +his normal stature.</p> + +<p>"O Love!" he had exclaimed, adagio and +sostenuto.</p> + +<p>Then the piano, in its fashion, also said: "O +Love!"</p> + +<p>"O Love!" Emanuel exclaimed again, with +slight traces of excitement, and rising to heights +of stature hitherto undreamt of.</p> + +<p>And the piano once more, in turn, called +plaintively on love.</p> + +<p>It would be too easy to mock Emanuel's gift +of song. I leave that to people named Swetnam. +There can be no doubt Emanuel had a very +taking voice, if thin, and that his singing gave +pleasure to the majority of his hearers. More +than any one else, it pleased himself. When he +sang he seemed to be inspired by the fact, to +him patent, that he was conferring on mankind +a boon inconceivably precious. If he looked a +fool, his looks seriously misinterpreted his feelings. +He did not spare himself on that evening. He +told his stepmother's guests all about love and +all about his own yearnings. He hid nothing +from them. He made no secret of the fact that +he lived for love alone, that he had known innumerable +loves, but none like one particular +variety, which he described in full detail. As a +confession, and especially as a confession uttered +before many maidens, it did not err on the side +of reticence. Presently, having described a kind +of amorous circle, he came again to: "O Love!" +But this time his voice cracked: which made +him angry, with a stern and controlled anger. +Still singing, he turned slowly to the pianist, and +fiercely glared at the pianist's unconscious back. +The obvious inference was that if his voice had +cracked the fault was the pianist's. The pianist, +poor thing, utterly unaware of the castigation +she was receiving, stuck to her business. Less +than a minute later, Emanuel's voice cracked +again. This time he turned even more deliberately +to the pianist. He was pained. He stared during +five complete bars at the back of the pianist, +still continuing his confession. He wished the +audience to understand clearly where the blame +lay. Finally, when he thought the pianist's back +was sufficiently cooked, he faced the audience.</p> + +<p>"I hope the pianist will not be so atrociously +clumsy as to let my voice crack again," he seemed +to be saying.</p> + +<p>Evidently his reproof to the pianist's back was +effectual, for his voice did not crack again.</p> + +<p>And at length, when Jos had communicated +her vibration to all her family, and every one +had ceased to believe that the confession would +ever end, the confession did end. It ended as it +had begun, in an even, agreeable tenor piping. +Emanuel was much too great an artist to allow +himself to be carried away by his emotion. The +concluding words were, "Oh, rapture!" and +Emanuel sang them just as if he had been singing +"One-and-eleven-pence three-farthings."</p> + +<p>"Oh, rats!" said Jos, under cover of the +impassioned applause.</p> + +<p>"It was nearly as long as Jarndyce <i>v</i>. Jarndyce," +observed Adams, under the same cover.</p> + +<p>"What!" cried James, enchanted. "Have +you been reading that too?"</p> + +<p>Adams Swetnam and great-stepuncle James +had quite a little chat on the subject of Jarndyce +<i>v</i>. Jarndyce. Several other people, including the +hostess, joined in the conversation, and James +was surprised at the renown which Jarndyce <i>v. +</i> Jarndyce seemed to enjoy; he was glad to find +his view shared on every hand. He was also +glad, and startled, to discover himself a personality +in the regions of Hillport. He went through +more formal introductions in ten minutes than +he had been through during the whole of his +previous life. It was a hot evening; he wiped +his brow. Then iced champagne was served to +him. Having fluttered round him, in her ample +way, and charmingly flattered him, Mrs. Prockter +left him, encircled chiefly by young women, in +order to convey to later arrivals that they, and +they alone, were the authentic objects of her +solicitude. Emanuel Prockter, clad in triumph, +approached, and questioned James, as one shrewd +man of business may question another, concerning +the value in the market of Wilbraham Hall.</p> + +<p>Shortly afterwards a remarkable occurrence +added zest to the party. Helen had wandered +away with Sarah and Jos Swetnam. She reentered +the drawing-room while James and +Emanuel were in discussion, and her attitude +towards Emanuel was decidedly not sympathetic. +Then Sarah Swetnam came in alone. And then +Andrew Dean came in alone.</p> + +<p>"Oh, here's Andrew, Helen!" Sarah exclaimed.</p> + +<p>Andrew Dean had the air of a formidable +personage. He was a tall, heavy, dark young +man, with immense sloping shoulders, a black +moustache, and incandescent eyes, which he used +as though he were somewhat suspicious of the +world in general. If his dress had been less +untidy, he would have made a perfect villain of +melodrama. He smiled the unsure smile of a +villain as he awkwardly advanced, with out-stretched +hand, to Helen.</p> + +<p>Helen put her lips together, kept her hands +well out of view, and offered him a bow that +could only have been properly appreciated under +a microscope.</p> + +<p>The episode was quite negative; but it amounted +to a scene—a scene at one of Mrs. Prockter's +parties! A scene, moreover, that mystified +everybody; a scene that implied war and the +wounded!</p> + +<p>Some discreetly withdrew. Of these was +Emanuel, who had the sensitiveness of an artist.</p> + +<p>Andrew Dean presently perceived, after standing +for some seconds like an imbecile stork on +one leg, that the discretion of the others was +worthy to be imitated. At the door he met +Lilian, and they disappeared together arm in +arm, as betrothed lovers should. Three people +remained in that quarter of the drawing-room—Helen, +her uncle, and Sarah Swetnam.</p> + +<p>"Why, Nell," said Sarah, aghast, "what's the +matter?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing," said Helen, calmly.</p> + +<p>"But surely you shake hands with Andrew +when you meet him, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"That depends how I feel, my dear," said +Helen.</p> + +<p>"Then something <i>is</i> the matter?"</p> + +<p>"If you want to know," said Helen, with +haughtiness, "in the hall, just now—that is—I—I +overheard Mr. Dean say something about +Emanuel Prockter's singing which I consider very +improper."</p> + +<p>"But we all——"</p> + +<p>"I'm going out into the garden," said Helen.</p> + +<p>"A pretty how-d'ye-do!" James muttered +inaudibly to himself as he meandered to and fro +in the hall, observing the manners and customs +of Hillport society. Another couple were now +occupying the privacy of the seat at the end of +the side-hall, and James noticed that the heads +of this couple had precisely the same relative +positions as the heads of the previous couple. +"Bless us!" he murmured, apropos of the +couple, who, seeing in him a spy, rose and fled. +Then he resumed his silent soliloquy. "A pretty +how-d'ye-do! The chit's as fixed on that there +Emanuel Prockter as ever a chit could be!" +And yet James had caught the winking with Jos +Swetnam during the song! As an enigma, Helen +grew darker and darker to him. He was almost +ready to forswear his former belief, and to assert +positively that Helen had no sense whatever.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Prockter loomed up, disengaged. "Ah, +Mr. Ollerenshaw," she said, "everybody seems +to be choosing the garden. Shall we go there? +This way."</p> + +<p>She led him down the side-hall. "By the +bye," she murmured, with a smile, "I think our +plan is succeeding."</p> + +<p>And, without warning him, she sat down in +the seat, and of course he joined her, and she +put her head close to his, evidently in a confidential +mood.</p> + +<p>"Bless us!" he said to himself, apropos of +himself and Mrs. Prockter, glancing about for +spies.</p> + +<p>"It's horrid of me to make fun of poor dear +Emanuel's singing," pursued Mrs. Prockter. +"But how did she take it? If I am not mistaken, +she winked."</p> + +<p>"Her winked," said James; "yes, her winked."</p> + +<p>"Then everything's all right."</p> + +<p>"Missis," said he, "if you don't mind what +ye're about, you'll have a daughter-in-law afore +you can say 'knife'!"</p> + +<p>"Not Helen?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, Helen."</p> + +<p>"But, Mr. Ollerenshaw——"</p> + +<p>Here happened an interruption—a servant with +a tray of sustenance, comprising more champagne. +James, prudent, would have refused, but +under the hospitable urgency of Mrs. Prockter +he compromised—and yielded.</p> + +<p>"I'll join ye."</p> + +<p>So she joined him. Then a string of young +people passed the end of the side-hall, and among +them was Jos Swetnam, who capered up to the +old couple on her long legs.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mrs. Prockter," she cried, "what a pity +we can't dance on the lawn!"</p> + +<p>"I wish you could, my dear," said Mrs. Prockter.</p> + +<p>"And why can't ye?" demanded James.</p> + +<p>"No music!" said Jos.</p> + +<p>"You see," Mrs. Prockter explained, "the +lawn is at the far end of the garden, and it is +impossible to hear the piano so far off. If it +were only a little piano we could move it about, +but it's a grand piano."</p> + +<p>In James's next speech was to be felt the +influence of champagne. "Look here," he said, +"it's nobbut a step from here to the Green Man, +is it?"</p> + +<p>"The Green Man!" echoed Mrs. Prockter, not +comprehending.</p> + +<p>"Ay, the pub!"</p> + +<p>"I believe there is an inn at the bend," said +Mrs. Prockter; "but I don't think I've ever +noticed the sign."</p> + +<p>"It's the Green Man," said James. "If you'll +send some one round there, and the respex of +Mr. Ollerenshaw to Mr. Benskin—that's the land-lord—and +will he lend me the concertina as I +sold him last Martinmas?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Ollerenshaw!" shrieked Jos. "Can +you play for dancing? How perfectly lovely it +would be!"</p> + +<p>"I fancy as I can keep <i>your</i> trotters moving, +child," said he, gaily.</p> + +<p>Upon this, two spinsters, the Misses Webber, +wearing duplicates of one anxious visage, supervened, +and, with strange magic gestures, beckoned +Mrs. Prockter away. News of the episode between +Andrew Dean and Helen had at length reached +them, and they had deemed it a sacred duty to +inform the hostess of the sad event. They were +of the species of woman that spares neither herself +nor others. Their fault was, that they were too +compassionate for this world. Promising to send +the message to Mr. Benskin, Mrs. Prockter +vanished to her doom.</p> + +<p>Within a quarter of an hour a fête unique in +the annals of Hillport had organised itself on the +lawn in the dim, verdurous retreats behind Mrs. +Prockter's house. The lawn was large enough to +be just too small for a tennis-court. It was also +of a pretty mid-Victorian irregularity as regards +shape, and guarded from the grim horizons of +the Five Towns by a ring of superb elms. A +dozen couples, mainly youngish, promenaded upon +its impeccable surface in obvious expectation; +while on the borders, in rustic chairs, odd remnants +of humanity, mainly oldish, gazed in +ecstasy at the picturesque ensemble. In the +midst of the lawn was Mrs. Prockter's famous +weeping willow, on whose branches Chinese +lanterns had been hung by a reluctant gardener, +who held to the proper gardener's axiom that +lawns are made to be seen and not hurt. The +moon aided these lanterns to the best of her +power. Under the tree was a cane chair, and on +the cane chair sat an ageing man with a concertina +between his hands. He put his head on +one side and played a few bars, and the couples +posed themselves expectantly.</p> + +<p>"Hold on a bit!" the virtuoso called out. +"It's a tidy bit draughty here."</p> + +<p>He put the concertina on his knees, fumbled +in his tail-pocket, and drew forth a tasselled +Turkish cap, which majestically he assumed; the +tassel fell over his forehead. He owned several +Turkish caps, and never went abroad without +one.</p> + +<p>Then he struck up definitely, and Mrs. Prockter's +party had resolved itself, as parties often do, into +a dance. In the blissful excitation caused by +the ancient and jiggy tunes which "Jimmy" +played, the sad episode of Helen Rathbone and +Andrew Dean appeared to be forgotten. Helen +danced with every man except Andrew, and +Andrew danced with every woman except Helen. +But Mrs. Prockter had not forgotten the episode; +nor had the Misses Webber. The reputation of +Mrs. Prockter's entertainments for utter correctness, +and her own enormous reputation for fine +tact, were impaired, and Mrs. Prockter was +determined that that which ought to happen +should happen.</p> + +<p>She had a brief and exceedingly banal interview +with Helen, and another with Andrew. +And an interval having elapsed, Andrew was +observed to approach Helen and ask her for a +polka. Helen punctiliously accepted. And he +led her out. The outraged gods of social decorum +were appeased, and the reputations of Mrs. +Prockter and her parties stood as high as ever. +It was well and diplomatically done.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the unforeseen came to pass. +For at the end of the polka Helen fainted on +the grass; and not Andrew but Emanuel was +first to succour her. It was a highly disconcerting +climax. Of course, Helen, being Helen, +recovered with singular rapidity. But that did +not lighten the mystery.</p> + +<p>In the cab, going home, she wept. James +could scarcely have believed it of her.</p> + +<p>"Oh, uncle," she half whispered, in a voice of +grief, "you fiddled while Rome was burning!"</p> + +<p>This obscure saying baffled him, the more so +that he had been playing a concertina and not +a fiddle at all. His feelings were vague, and in +some respects contradictory; but he was convinced +that Mrs. Prockter's scheme for separating +Helen and the Apollo Emanuel was not precisely +succeeding.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XV"></a><h2>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<p>THE GIFT</p> +<br /> + +<p>After that night great-stepuncle James became +more than a celebrity—he became a notoriety +in Bursley. Had it not been for the personal +influence of Mrs. Prockter with the editor of the +<i>Signal</i>, James's exploits upon the concertina +under weeping willows at midnight would have +received facetious comment in the weekly column +of gossip that appears in the great daily organ +of the Five Towns on Saturdays. James, aided +by nothing but a glass or two of champagne, had +suddenly stepped into the forefront of the town's +life. He was a card. He rather liked being a +card.</p> + +<p>But within his own heart the triumph and +glory of James Ollerenshaw were less splendid +than outside it. Helen, apparently ashamed of +having wept into his waistcoat, kept him off with +a kind of a rod of stiff politeness. He could not +get near her, and for at least two reasons he was +anxious to get near her. He wanted to have +that frank, confidential talk with her about the +general imbecility of her adorer, Emanuel Prockter—that +talk which he had failed to begin on the +morning when she had been so sympathetic concerning +his difficulties in collecting a large income. +Her movements from day to day were mysterious. +Facts pointed to the probability that she and +Emanuel were seeing each other with no undue +publicity. And yet, despite facts, despite her +behaviour at the party, he could scarcely believe +that shrewd Helen had not pierced the skin of +Emanuel and perceived the emptiness therein. +At any rate, Emanuel had not repeated his visit +to the house. The only visitors had been Sarah +Swetnam and her sister Lilian, the fiancée of +Andrew Dean. The chatter of the three girls +had struck James as being almost hysterically +gay. But in the evening Helen was very gloomy, +and he fancied a certain redness in her eyes. +Though Helen was assuredly the last woman in +the world to cry, she had, beyond doubt, cried +once, and he now suspected her of another +weeping.</p> + +<p>Even more detrimental to his triumph in his +own heart was the affair of the ten-pound note, +which she had stolen (or abstracted if you will) +and then restored to him with such dramatic +haughtiness. That ten pounds was an awful trial +to him. It rankled, not only with him, but (he +felt sure) with her. Still, if she had her pride, +he also had his. He reckoned that she had not +rightly behaved in taking the note without his +permission, and that in returning the full sum, +and pretending that he had made it necessary +for her to run the house on her own money, she +had treated him meanly. The truth was, she had +wounded him—again. Instincts of astounding +generosity were budding in him, but he was +determined to await an advance from her. He +gave her money for housekeeping, within moderation, +and nothing more.</p> + +<p>Then one evening she announced that the +morrow would be her birthday. James felt +uneasy. He had never given birthday presents, +but he well knew that presents were the correct +things on birthdays. He went to bed in a state +of the most absurd and causeless mental disturbance. +He did not know what to do. Whereas +it was enormously obvious what to do.</p> + +<p>He woke up about one o'clock, and reflected, +with an air of discovery: "Her tone was extremely +friendly when she told me it was her +birthday to-morrow. She meant it as an advance. +I shall take it as an advance."</p> + +<p>About half-past one he said to himself: "I'll +give her a guinea to spend as she likes." It did +genuinely seem to him a vast sum. A guinea +to fritter away!</p> + +<p>However, towards three o'clock its vastness +had shrunk.</p> + +<p>"Dashed if I don't give the wench a fiver!" +he exclaimed. It was madness, but he had an +obscure feeling that he might have had more +amusement if he had begun being mad rather +earlier in life.</p> + +<p>Upon this he slept soundly till six o'clock.</p> + +<p>His mind then unfortunately got entangled in +the painful episode of the ten-pound note. He +and Helen had the same blood in their veins. +They were alike in some essential traits. He +knew that neither of them could ever persuade +himself, or herself, to mention that miserable +ten-pound note again.</p> + +<p>"If I gave her a tenner," he said, "that would +make her see as I'd settled to forget that business, +and let bygones <i>be</i> bygones. I'll give her a tenner."</p> + +<p>It was preposterous. She could not, of course, +spend it. She would put it away. So it would +not be wasted.</p> + +<p>Upon this he rose.</p> + +<p>Poor simpleton! Ever since the commencement +of his relations with Helen, surprise had +followed surprise for him. And the series was +not ended.</p> + +<p>The idea of giving a gift made him quite +nervous. He fumbled in his cashbox for quite +a long time, and then he called, nervously:</p> + +<p>"Helen!"</p> + +<p>She came out of the kitchen into the front +room. (Dress: White muslin—unspeakable extravagance +in a town of smuts.)</p> + +<p>"It's thy birthday, lass?"</p> + +<p>She nodded, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Well, tak' this."</p> + +<p>He handed her a ten-pound note.</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank you, uncle!" she cried, just on +the calm side of effusiveness.</p> + +<p>At this point the surprise occurred.</p> + +<p>There was another ten-pound note in the +cashbox. His fingers went for a stroll on their +own account and returned with that note.</p> + +<p>"Hold on!" he admonished her for jumping +to conclusions. "And this!" And he gave her +a second note. He was much more startled than +she was.</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>thank</i> you, uncle!" And then, laughing: +"Why, it's nearly a sovereign for every +year of my life!"</p> + +<p>"How old art?"</p> + +<p>"Twenty-six."</p> + +<p>"I'm gone dotty!" he said to his soul. "I'm +gone dotty!" And his eyes watched his fingers +take six sovereigns out of the box, and count +them into her small white hand. And his cheek +felt her kiss.</p> + +<p>She went off with twenty-six pounds—twenty-six +pounds! The episode was entirely incredible.</p> + +<p>Breakfast was a most pleasing meal. Though +acknowledging himself an imbecile, he was +obliged to acknowledge also that a certain +pleasure springs from a certain sort of imbecility. +Helen was adorable.</p> + +<p>Now that same morning he had received from +Mrs. Prockter a flattering note, asking him, if +he could spare the time, to go up to Hillport and +examine Wilbraham Hall with her, and give her +his expert advice as to its value, etc. He informed +Helen of the plan.</p> + +<p>"I'll go with you," she said at once.</p> + +<p>"What's in the wind?" he asked himself. +He saw in the suggestion a device for seeing +Emanuel.</p> + +<p>"The fact is," she added, "I want to show +you a house up at Hillport that might do for +us."</p> + +<p>He winced. She had said nothing about a +removal for quite some time. He hated the +notion of removal. ("Flitting," he called it.) +It would mean extra expense, too. As for Hillport, +he was sure that nothing, except cottages, +could be got in Hillport for less than fifty pounds +a year. If she thought he was going to increase +his rent by thirty-two pounds a year, besides +rates, she was in error. The breakfast finished +in a slight mist. He hardened. The idea of her +indicating houses to him! The idea of her +assuming that—— Well, no use in meeting +trouble half-way!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVI"></a><h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<p>THE HALL AND ITS RESULT</p> +<br /> + +<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Prockter, gazing about her, +to James Ollerenshaw, "it certainly is rather +spacious."</p> + +<p>"Rather spacious!" James repeated in the +secret hollows of his mind. It was not spacious; +it was simply fantastic. They stood, those two—Mrs. +Prockter in her usual flowered silk, and +James in his usual hard, rent-collecting clothes—at +the foot of the double staircase, which sprang +with the light of elegance of wings from the floor +of the entrance-hall of Wilbraham Hall. In front +of them, over the great door, was a musicians' +gallery, and over that a huge window. On either +side of the great door were narrow windows +which looked over stretches of green country far +away from the Five Towns. For Wilbraham Hall +was on the supreme ridge of Hillport, and presented +only its back yard, so to speak, to the +Five Towns. And though the carpets were rolled +up and tied with strings, and though there were +dark rectangular spaces on the walls showing +where pictures had been, the effect of the hall +was quite a furnished effect. Polished oak and +tasselled hangings, and monstrous vases and +couches and chairs preserved in it the appearance +of a home, if a home of giants.</p> + +<p>Decidedly it was worthy of the mighty reputations +of the extinct Wilbrahams. The +Wilbrahams had gradually risen in North Staffordshire +for two centuries. About the Sunday of +the Battle of Waterloo they were at their apogee. +Then for a century they had gradually fallen. +And at last they had extinguished themselves in +the person of a young-old fool who was in prison +for having cheated a pawnbroker. This young-old +fool had nothing but the name of Wilbraham +to his back. The wealth of the Wilbrahams, or +what remained of it after eight decades of declension, +had, during the course of a famous +twenty years' law-suit between the father of the +said young-old fool and a farming cousin in +California, slowly settled like golden dust in the +offices of lawyers in Carey-street, London. And +the house, grounds, lake, and furniture (save +certain portraits) were now on sale by order of +the distant winner of the law-suit. And both +Mrs. Prockter and James could remember the +time when the twin-horsed equipage of the Wilbrahams +used to dash about the Five Towns like +the chariot of the sun. The recollection made +Mrs. Prockter sad, but in James it produced no +such feeling. To Mrs. Prockter, Wilbraham +Hall was the last of the stylish port-wine estates +that in old days dotted the heights around the +Five Towns. To her it was the symbol of the +death of tone and the triumph of industrialism. +Whereas James merely saw it as so much building +land upon which streets of profitable and inexpensive +semi-detached villas would one day rise +at the wand's touch of the man who had sufficient +audacity for a prodigious speculation.</p> + +<p>"It 'ud be like living in th' covered market, +living here," James observed.</p> + +<p>The St. Luke's Market is the largest roof in +Bursley. And old inhabitants, incapable of recovering +from the surprise of marketing under +cover instead of in an open square, still, after +thirty years, refer to it as the covered market.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Prockter smiled.</p> + +<p>"By the way," said James, "where's them +childer?"</p> + +<p>The old people looked around. Emanuel and +Helen, who had entered the proud precincts with +them, had vanished.</p> + +<p>"I believe they're upstairs, ma'am," said the +fat caretaker, pleating her respectable white +apron.</p> + +<p>"You can go," said Mrs. Prockter, curtly, to +this vestige of grandeur. "I will see you before +I leave."</p> + +<p>The apron resented the dismissal, and perhaps +would have taken it from none but Mrs. Prockter. +But Mrs. Prockter had a mien, and a flowered +silk, before which even an apron of the Wilbrahams +must quail.</p> + +<p>"I may tell you, Mr. Ollerenshaw," she remarked, +confidentially, when they were alone, +"that I have not the slightest intention of buying +this place. Emanuel takes advantage of my +good nature. You've no idea how persistent he +is. So all you have to do is to advise me firmly +not to buy it. That's why I've asked you to +come up. He acknowledges that you're an +authority, and he'll be forced to accept your +judgment."</p> + +<p>"Why didn't ye say that afore, missis?" +asked James bluntly.</p> + +<p>"Before when?"</p> + +<p>"Before that kick-up (party) o' yours. He got +out of me then as I thought it were dirt cheap at +eight thousand."</p> + +<p>"But I don't want to move," pleaded Mrs. +Prockter.</p> + +<p>"I'm asking ye why ye didn't tell me afore?" +James repeated.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Prockter looked at him. "Men are +trying creatures!" she said. "So it seems you +can't tell a tarradiddle for me?" And she sighed.</p> + +<p>"I don't know as I object to that. What I +object to is contradicting mysen."</p> + +<p>"Why did you bring Helen?" Mrs. Prockter +demanded.</p> + +<p>"I didna'. She come hersen."</p> + +<p>They exchanged glances.</p> + +<p>"And now she and Emanuel have run off."</p> + +<p>"It looks to me," said James, "as if your plan +for knocking their two heads together wasna' +turning out as you meant it, missis."</p> + +<p>"And what's more," said she, "I do believe +that Emanuel wants me to buy this place so that +when I'm gone he can make a big splash here +with your niece and your money, Mr. Ollerenshaw! +What do you think of that?"</p> + +<p>"He may make as much splash as he's a mind +to, wi' my niece," James answered. "But he +won't make much of a splash with my money, I +can promise ye." His orbs twinkled. "I can +promise ye," he repeated.</p> + +<p>"To whom do you mean to leave it, then?"</p> + +<p>"Not to <i>his</i> wife."</p> + +<p>"H'm! Well, as we're here, I suppose we +may as well see what there is to be seen. And +those two dreadful young people must be found."</p> + +<p>They mounted the stairs.</p> + +<p>"Will you give me your arm, Mr. Ollerenshaw?"</p> + +<p>To such gifts he was not used. Already he had +given twenty-six pounds that day. The spectacle +of Jimmy ascending the state staircase of Wilbraham +Hall with all the abounding figure of +Mrs. Prockter on his arm would have drawn +crowds had it been offered to the public at sixpence +a head.</p> + +<p>They inspected the great drawing-room, the +great dining-room, the great bedroom, and all +the lesser rooms; the galleries, the balconies, +the panellings, the embrasures, the suites and +suites and suites of Georgian and Victorian decaying +furniture; the ceilings and the cornices; +the pictures and engravings (of which some +hundreds remained); the ornaments, the clocks, +the screens, and the microscopic knick-knacks. +Both of them lost count of everything, except +that before they reached the attics they had +passed through forty-five separate apartments, +not including linen closets. It was in one of the +attics, as empty as Emanuel's head, that they +discovered Emanuel and Helen, gazing at a +magnificent prospect over the moorlands, with +the gardens, the paddock, and Wilbraham Water +immediately beneath.</p> + +<p>"We've been looking for you everywhere," +Helen burst out. "Oh, Mrs. Prockter, do come +with me to the end of the corridor, and look at +three old distaffs that I've found in a cupboard!"</p> + +<p>During the absence of the women, James +Ollerenshaw contradicted himself to Emanuel for +the sweet sake of Emanuel's stepmother. Little +by little they descended to the earth, with continual +detours and halts by Helen, who was +several times lost and found.</p> + +<p>"I've told him," said James, quietly and +proudly. "I've told him it's no use to you +unless you want to turn it into a building +estate."</p> + +<p>They separated into two couples at the gate, +with elaborate formalities on the part of Emanuel, +which Uncle James more or less tried to imitate.</p> + +<p>"Well?" murmured James, sighing relief, as +they waited for the electric tram in that umbrageous +and aristocratic portion of the Oldcastle-road +which lies nearest to the portals of Wilbraham +Hall. He was very pleased with himself, +because, at the cost of his own respect, he had +pleased Mrs. Prockter.</p> + +<p>"Well?" murmured Helen, in response, tapping +on the edge of the pavement the very same +sunshade in whose company James had first made +her acquaintance. She seemed nervous, hesitating, +apprehensive.</p> + +<p>"What about that house as ye've so kindly +chosen for me?" he asked, genially. He wanted +to humour her.</p> + +<p>She looked him straight in the eyes. "You've +seen it," said she.</p> + +<p>"What!" he snorted. "When han I seen +it?"</p> + +<p>"Just now," she replied. "It's Wilbraham +Hall. I knew that Mrs. Prockter wouldn't have +it. And, besides, I've made Emanuel give up all +idea of it."</p> + +<p>He laughed, but with a strange and awful +sensation in his stomach.</p> + +<p>"A poor joke, lass!" he observed, with the +laugh dead in his throat.</p> + +<p>"It isn't a poor joke," said she. "It isn't a +joke at all."</p> + +<p>"Didst thou seriously think as I should buy +that there barracks to please thee?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly," she said, courageously. "Just +that—to please me."</p> + +<p>"I'm right enough where I am," he asserted, +grimly. "What for should I buy Wilbraham +Hall? What should I do in it?"</p> + +<p>"Live in it."</p> + +<p>"Trafalgar-road's good enough for me."</p> + +<p>"But it isn't good enough for me," said she.</p> + +<p>"I wouldna' ha' minded," he said, savagely—"I +wouldna' ha' minded going into a house a bit +bigger, but—"</p> + +<p>"Nothing is big enough for me except Wilbraham +Hall," she said.</p> + +<p>He said nothing. He was furious. It was her +birthday, and he had given her six-and-twenty +pounds—ten shillings a week for a year—and she +had barely kissed him. And now, instantly after +that amazing and mad generosity, she had the +face to look cross because he would not buy +Wilbraham Hall! It was inconceivable; it was +unutterable. So he said nothing.</p> + +<p>"Why shouldn't you, after all?" she resumed. +"You've got an income of nearly five thousand a +year." (Now he hated her for the mean manner +in which she had wormed out of him secrets that +previously he had shared with no one.) "You +don't spend the twentieth part of it. What are +you going to do with it? <i>What are you going to +do with it</i>? You're getting an old man." (Cold +horrors!) "You can't take it with you when +you leave the Five Towns, you know. Whom +shall you leave your money to? You'll probably +die worth a hundred thousand pounds, at this +rate. You'll leave it to me, of course. Because +there's nobody else for you to leave it to. Why +can't you use it now, instead of wasting it in old +stockings?"</p> + +<p>"I bank my money, wench," he hissingly put +in.</p> + +<p>"Old stockings!" she repeated, loudly. "We +could live splendidly at Wilbraham Hall on two +thousand a year, and you would still be saving +nearly three thousand a year."</p> + +<p>He said nothing.</p> + +<p>"Do you suppose I gave up my position at +school in order to live in a poky little hole at +eighteen pounds a year? What do you think I +can do with myself all day in Trafalgar-road? +Why, nothing. There's no room even for a +piano, and so my fingers are stiffening every day. +It's not life at all. Naturally, it's a great privilege," +she pursued, with a vicious inflection that +reminded him perfectly of Susan, "for a girl like +me to live with an old man like you, all alone, +with one servant and no sitting-room. But +some privileges cost too dear. The fact is, you +never think of me at all." (And he had but +just given her six-and-twenty pounds.) "You +think you've got a cheap housekeeper in me—but +you haven't. I'm a very good housekeeper—especially +in a very large house—but I'm not +cheap."</p> + +<p>She spoke as if she had all her life been accustomed +to living in vast mansions. But James +knew that, despite her fine friends, she had never +lived in anything appreciably larger than his +own dwelling. He knew there was not a house +in Sneyd-road, Longshaw, worth more than +twenty-five pounds a year. The whole outbreak +was shocking and disgraceful. He scarcely +recognised her.</p> + +<p>He said nothing. And then suddenly he said: +"I shall buy no Wilbraham Hall, lass." His +voice was final.</p> + +<p>"You could sell it again at a profit," said she. +"You could turn it into a building estate" +(parrot-cry caught from himself or from Emanuel), +"and later on we could go and live somewhere +else."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said he; "Buckingham Palace, likely!"</p> + +<p>"I don't—" she began.</p> + +<p>"I shall buy no Wilbraham Hall," he reiterated. +Greek had met Greek.</p> + +<p>The tram surged along and swallowed up the +two Greeks. They were alone in the tram, and +they sat down opposite each other. The conductor +came and took James's money, and the +conductor had hardly turned his back when Helen +snapped, with nostrils twitching:</p> + +<p>"You're a miser, that's what you are! A +regular old miser! Every one knows that. +Every one calls you a miser. If you aren't a +miser, I should like you to tell me why you live +on about three pounds a week when your income +is ninety pounds a week. I thought I might do +you some good. I thought I might get you out +of it. But it seems I can't."</p> + +<p>"All!" he snorted. It was a painful sight. +Other persons boarded the car.</p> + +<p>At tea she behaved precisely like an angel. +Not the least hint of her demeanour of the ineffable +affray of the afternoon. She was so +sweet that he might have given her twenty-six +Wilbraham Halls instead of twenty-six pounds. +He spoke not. He was, in a very deep sense, +upset.</p> + +<p>She spent the evening in her room.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye," she said the next morning, most +amiably. It was after breakfast. She was +hatted, gloved and sunshaded.</p> + +<p>"What?" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Au revoir," she said. "All my things are +packed up. I shall send for them. I think I can +go back to the school. If I can't, I shall go to +mother in Canada. Thank you very much for +all your kindness. If I go to Canada, of course I +shall come and see you before I leave." +He let her shake his hand.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>For two days he was haunted by memories of +kidney omelettes and by the word "miser." +Miser, eh? Him a miser! Him! Ephraim +Tellwright was a miser—but <i>him</i>!</p> + +<p>Then the natty servant gave notice, and Mrs. +Butt called and suggested that she should resume +her sway over him. But she did not employ +exactly that phrase.</p> + +<p>He longed for one of Helen's meals as a drunkard +longs for alcohol.</p> + +<p>Then Helen called, with the casual information +that she was off to Canada. She was particularly +sweet. She had the tact to make the interview +short. The one blot on her conduct of the interview +was that she congratulated him on the +possible return of Mrs. Butt, of which she had +heard from the natty servant.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, uncle," she said.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye."</p> + +<p>She had got as far as the door, when he whispered, +brokenly: "Lass—"</p> + +<p>Helen turned quickly towards him.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVII"></a><h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<p>DESCENDANTS OF MACHIAVELLI</p> +<br /> + +<p>Yes, she turned towards him with a rapid, +impulsive movement, which expressed partly her +sympathy for her old uncle, and partly a feeling +of joy caused by the sudden hope that he had +decided to give way and buy Wilbraham Hall +after all.</p> + +<p>And the fact was that, in his secret soul, he had +decided to give way; he had decided that Helen, +together with Helen's cooking, was worth to him +the price of Wilbraham Hall. But when he saw +her brusque, eager gesture, he began to reflect. +His was a wily and profound nature; he reckoned +that he could read the human soul, and he said +to himself:</p> + +<p>"The wench isn't so set on leaving me as I +thought she was."</p> + +<p>And instead of saying to her: "Helen, lass, +if you'll stop you shall have your Wilbraham +Hall," in tones of affecting, sad surrender, he said:</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry to lose thee, my girl; but what +must be must."</p> + +<p>And when he caught the look in her eyes, he +was more than ever convinced that he would +be able to keep Helen without satisfying her +extremely expensive whim.</p> + +<p>Helen, for her part, began to suspect that if +she played the fish with sufficient skill, she would +capture it. Thus they both, in a manner of +speaking, got out their landing-nets.</p> + +<p>"I don't say," James Ollerenshaw proceeded, +in accents calculated to prove to her that he had +just as great a horror of sentimentality as she +had—"I don't say as you wouldn't make a rare +good mistress o' Wilbraham Hall. I don't say +as I wouldn't like to see you in it. But when a +man reaches my age, he's fixed in his habits like. +And, what's more, supposing I <i>am</i> saving a bit o' +money, who am I saving it for, if it isn't for you +and your mother? You said as much yourself. +I might pop off any minute—"</p> + +<p>"Uncle!" Helen protested.</p> + +<p>"Ay, any minute!" he repeated, firmly. +"I've known stronger men nor me pop off as +quick as a bottle o' ginger-beer near the fire." +Here he gazed at her, and his gaze said: "If I +popped off here and now, wouldn't you feel +ashamed o' yerself for being so hard on your old +uncle?"</p> + +<p>"You'll live many and many a year yet," +Helen smiled.</p> + +<p>He shook his head pessimistically. "I've set +my heart," he continued, "on leaving a certain +sum for you and yer mother. I've had it in mind +since I don't know when. It's a fancy o' mine. +And I canna' do it if I'm to go all around th' Five +Towns buying barracks."</p> + +<p>Helen laughed. "What a man you are for +exaggerating!" she flattered him. Then she sat +down.</p> + +<p>He considered that he was gradually winding +in his line with immense skill. "Ay," he ejaculated, +with an absent air, "it's a fancy o' mine."</p> + +<p>"How much do you want to leave?" Helen +questioned, faintly smiling.</p> + +<p>"Don't you bother your head about that," said +he. "You may take it from me as it's a tidy +sum. And when I'm dead and gone, and you've +got it all, then ye can do as ye feel inclined."</p> + +<p>"I shall beat her, as sure as eggs!" he told +himself.</p> + +<p>"All this means that he'll give in when it comes +to the point," she told herself.</p> + +<p>And aloud she said: "Have you had supper, +uncle?"</p> + +<p>"No," he replied.</p> + +<p>The next development was that, without +another word, she removed her gloves, lifted her +pale hands to her head, and slowly drew hatpins +from her hat. Then she removed her hat, and +plunged the pins into it again. He could scarcely +refrain from snatching off his own tasselled +Turkish cap and pitching it in the air. He felt +as if he had won the Battle of Hastings, or +defeated the captain of the bowling club in a +single-handed match.</p> + +<p>"And to think," he reflected, "that I should +ha' given in to her by this time if I hadn't got +more sense in my little finger than—" etc.</p> + +<p>"I think I'll stay and cook you a bit of supper," +said Helen. "I suppose Georgiana is in the +kitchen?"</p> + +<p>"If her isn't, her's in the back entry," said +Jimmy.</p> + +<p>"What's she doing in the back entry?"</p> + +<p>"Counting the stars," said Jimmy; "and +that young man as comes with the bread helping +her, most like."</p> + +<p>"I must talk to that girl." Helen rose.</p> + +<p>"Ye may," said Jimmy; "but th' baker's +man'll have th' last word, or times is changed."</p> + +<p>He was gay. He could not conceal his gaiety. +He saw himself freed from the menace of the +thraldom of Mrs. Butt. He saw himself gourmandising +over the meals that Helen alone +could cook. He saw himself trotting up and +down the streets of Bursley with the finest, +smartest lass in the Five Towns by his side. And +scarcely a penny of extra expenditure! And all +this happy issue due to his diplomatic and histrionic +skill! The fact was, Helen really liked him. +There could be no doubt about that. She liked +him, and she would not leave him. Also, she +was a young woman of exceptional common +sense, and, being such, she would not risk the +loss of a large fortune merely for the sake of indulging +pique engendered by his refusal to gratify +a ridiculous caprice.</p> + +<p>Before she had well quitted the room he saw +with clearness that he was quite the astutest man +in the world, and that Helen was clay in his hands.</p> + +<p>The sound of crockery in the scullery, and the +cheerful little explosion when the gas-ring was +ignited, and the low mutter of conversation that +ensued between Helen and Georgiana—these +phenomena were music to the artist in him. He +extracted the concertina from its case and began +to play "The Dead March in Saul." Not because +his sentiments had a foundation in the +slightest degree funereal, but because he could +perform "The Dead March in Saul" with more +virtuosity than any other piece except "The +Hallelujah Chorus." And he did not desire to +insist too much on his victory by filling Trafalgar-road +with "The Hallelujah Chorus." He was +discretion itself.</p> + +<p>When she came back to the parlour (astoundingly +natty in a muslin apron of Georgiana's) to +announce supper, she made no reference to the +concert which she was interrupting. He abandoned +the concertina gently, caressing it into its +leather shell. He was full to the brim with +kindliness. It seemed to him that his life with +Helen was commencing all over again. Then he +followed the indications of his nose, which +already for some minutes had been prophesying +to him that in the concoction of the supper Helen +had surpassed herself.</p> + +<p>And she had. There was kidney ... No, +not in an omelette, but impaled on a skewer. A +novel species of kidney, a particularity in kidneys!</p> + +<p>"Where didst pick this up, lass?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"It's the kidneys of that rabbit that you've +bought for to-morrow," said she.</p> + +<p>Now, he had no affection for rabbit as an +article of diet, and he had only bought the rabbit +because the rabbit happened to be going past his +door (in the hands of a hawker) that morning. +His perfunctory purchase of it showed how he +had lost interest in life and meals since Helen's +departure. And lo! she had transformed a +minor part of it into something wondrous, +luscious, and unforgettable. Ah, she was Helen! +And she was his!</p> + +<p>"I've asked Georgiana to make up my bed," +Helen said, after the divine repast.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell ye what I'll do," he said, in an ecstasy +of generosity, "I'll buy thee a piano, lass, and +we'll put it in th' parlour against the wall where +them books are now."</p> + +<p>She kept silence—a silence which vaguely disturbed +him.</p> + +<p>So that he added: "And if ye're bent on a +bigger house, there's one up at Park-road, above +th' Park, semi-detached—at least, it's the end +of a terrace—as I can get for thirty pounds a +year."</p> + +<p>"My dearest uncle," she said, in a firm, even +voice, "what <i>are</i> you talking about? Didn't I +tell you when I came in that I had settled to go +to Canada? I thought it was all decided. +Surely you don't think I'm going to live in a poky +house in Park-road—the very street where my +school was, too! I perfectly understand that +you won't buy Wilbraham Hall. That's all +right. I shan't pout. I hate women who pout. +We can't agree, but we're friends. You do what +you like with your money, and I do what I like +with myself. I had a sort of idea I would try to +make you beautifully comfortable just for the +last time before I left England, and that's why I'm +staying. I do hope you didn't imagine anything +else, uncle. There!"</p> + +<p>She kissed him, not as a niece, but as a wise, +experienced nurse might have kissed a little boy. +For she too, in her way, reckoned herself somewhat +of a diplomatist and a descendant of +Machiavelli. She had thought: "It's a funny +thing if I can't bring him to his knees with a +tasty supper—just to make it clear to him what +he'll lose if he loses me."</p> + +<p>James Ollerenshaw had no sleep that night. +And Helen had but little.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a><h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<p>CHICANE</p> +<br /> + +<p>He came downstairs early, as he had done after +a previous sleepless night—also caused by Helen.</p> + +<p>That it would be foolish, fatuous, and inexcusable +to persevere further in his obstinacy +against Helen, this he knew. He saw clearly +that all his arguments to her about money and +the saving of money were ridiculous; they would +not have carried conviction even to the most passive +intelligence, and Helen's intelligence was far +from passive. They were not even true in fact, +for he had never intended to leave any money to +Helen's mother; he had never intended to leave +any money to anybody, simply because he had +not cared to think of his own decease; he had +made no plans about the valuable fortune which, +as Helen had too forcibly told him, he would not +be able to bear away with him when he left +Bursley for ever; this subject was not pleasant +to him. All his rambling sentences to Helen +(which he had thought so clever when he uttered +them) were merely an excuse for not parting +with money—money that was useless to him.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, what Helen had said was +both true and convincing; at any rate, it convinced +him.</p> + +<p>He was a miser; he admitted it. Being a +miser, he saw, was one way of enjoying yourself, +but not the best way. Again, if he really desired +to enrich Helen, how much better to enrich her +at once than at an uncertain date when he would +be dead. Dead people can't be thanked. Dead +people can't be kissed. Dead people can't have +curious dainties offered to them for their supper. +He wished to keep Helen; but Helen would only +stay on one condition. That condition was a +perfectly easy condition for him to fulfil. After +paying eight thousand pounds (or a bit less) for +Wilbraham Hall, he would still have about ten +times as much money as he could possibly require. +Of course, eight thousand pounds was a lot of +coin. But, then, you can't measure women +(especially when they are good cooks) in terms +of coin. For instance, it happened that he had +exactly £8,000 in shares of the London and North +Western Railway Company. The share-certificates +were in his safe; he could hold them in his +hand; he could sell them and buy Wilbraham +Hall with the proceeds. That is to say, he could +exchange them for Helen. Now, it would be +preposterous to argue that he would not derive +more satisfaction from Helen than from those +crackling share-certificates.</p> + +<p>Wilbraham Hall, once he became its owner, +would be a worry—an awful worry. Well, +would it? Would not Helen be entirely capable +of looking after it, of superintending it in every +way? He knew that she would! As for the +upkeep of existence in Wilbraham Hall, had not +Helen proved to him that its cost was insignificant +when compared to his income? She had.</p> + +<p>And as to his own daily manner of living, could +he not live precisely as he chose at Wilbraham +Hall? He could. It was vast; but nothing +would compel him to live in all of it at once. He +could choose a nice little room, and put a notice +on the door that it was not to be disturbed. And +Helen could run the rest of the mansion as her +caprice dictated.</p> + +<p>The process of argument was over when Helen +descended to put the finishing touches to a breakfast +which she had evidently concocted with +Georgiana the night before.</p> + +<p>"Breakfast is ready, uncle," she called to +him.</p> + +<p>He obeyed. Flowers on the table once more! +The first since her departure! A clean cloth! +A general, inexplicable tuning-up of the meal's +frame.</p> + +<p>You would now, perhaps, have expected him +to yield, as gracefully as an old man can. He +wanted to yield. He hungered to yield. He +knew that it was utterly for his own good to yield. +But if you seriously expected him to yield, your +knowledge of human nature lacks depth. Something +far stronger than argument, something far +stronger than desire for his own happiness, prevented +him from yielding. Pride, a silly self-conceit, +the greatest enemy of the human race, +forbade him to yield. For, on the previous +night, Helen had snubbed him—and not for the +first time. He could not accept the snub with +meekness, though it would have paid him handsomely +to do so, though as a Christian and a +philosopher he ought to have done so. He could +not.</p> + +<p>So he put on a brave face, pretended to accept +the situation with contented calm, and talked as +if Canada was the next street, and as if her going +was entirely indifferent to him. Helen imitated +him.</p> + +<p>It was a lovely morning; not a cloud in the +sky—only in their hearts.</p> + +<p>"Uncle!" she said after breakfast was done +and cleared away.</p> + +<p>He was counting rents in his cashbox in the +front parlour, and she had come to him, and was +leaning over his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Well, lass?"</p> + +<p>"Have you got twenty-five pounds in that +box?"</p> + +<p>It was obvious that he had.</p> + +<p>"I shouldna' be surprised," said he.</p> + +<p>"I wish you'd lend it me."</p> + +<p>"What for?"</p> + +<p>"I want to go over to Hanbridge and book my +berth, definitely, and I've no loose cash."</p> + +<p>Now here was a chance to yield. But no.</p> + +<p>"Dost mean to say," he exclaimed, "as ye +havena' booked your berth? When does th' +steamer sail?"</p> + +<p>"There's one from Glasgow next Saturday," +said she—"the <i>Saskatchewan</i>. I secured the +berth, but I didn't pay for it."</p> + +<p>"It's a rare lot of money," he observed.</p> + +<p>"Oh," she said, "I didn't want all that for +the fare. I've other things to pay for—railway to +Glasgow, etc. You will lend it me, won't you?"</p> + +<p>Her fingers were already in the cashbox. She +was behaving just like a little girl, like a spoilt +child. It was remarkable, he considered, how +old and mature Helen could be when she chose, +and how kittenish when she chose.</p> + +<p>She went off with four five-pound notes and +five sovereigns. "Will you ask me to come back +and cook the dinner?" she smiled, ironically, +enchantingly.</p> + +<p>"Ay!" he said. He was bound to smile +also.</p> + +<p>She returned in something over two hours.</p> + +<p>"There you are!" she said, putting a blue-green +paper into his hand. "Ever seen one of these +before?"</p> + +<p>It was the ticket for the steamer.</p> + +<p>This staggered him. A sensible, determined +woman, who disappears to buy a steamer-ticket, +may be expected to reappear with a steamer-ticket. +And yet it staggered him. He could +scarcely believe it. She was going, then! She +was going! It was inevitable now.</p> + +<p>"The boat leaves the Clyde at ten in the +morning," she said, resuming possession of the +paper, "so we must go to Glasgow on Friday, +and stop the night at an hotel."</p> + +<p>"We?" he murmured, aghast.</p> + +<p>"Well," she said, "you surely won't let me +travel to Glasgow all alone, will you?"</p> + +<p>"Her's a caution, her is!" he privately reflected.</p> + +<p>"You can come back on Saturday," she said; +"so that you'll be in time to collect your rents. +There's an express to Glasgow from Crewe at +1.15, and to catch that we must take the 12.20 at +Shawport."</p> + +<p>She had settled every detail.</p> + +<p>"And what about my dinner?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to set about it instantly," laughed +she.</p> + +<p>"I mean my dinner on Friday?" he said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>that</i>!" she replied. "There's a restaurant-car +from Crewe. So we can lunch on the +train."</p> + +<p>This idea of accompanying her to Glasgow +pleased him intensely. "Glasgow isna' much +i' my line," he said. "But you wenches do as ye +like, seemingly."</p> + +<p>Thus, on the Friday morning, he met her down +at Shawport Station. He was in his best clothes, +but he had walked. She arrived in a cab, that +carried a pagoda of trunks on its fragile roof; she +had come straight from her lodgings. There was +a quarter of an hour before train-time. He paid +for the cab. He also bought one second-class +single and one second-class return to Glasgow, +while she followed the porter who trundled her +luggage. When he came out of the booking-office +(minus several gold pieces), she was purchasing +papers at the bookstall, and farther up the +platform the porter had seized a paste-brush, and +was opening a cupboard of labels. An extraordinary +scheme presented itself to James Ollerenshaw's +mind, and he trotted up to the porter.</p> + +<p>"I've seen to the baggage myself," said Helen, +without looking at him.</p> + +<p>"All right," he said.</p> + +<p>The porter touched his cap.</p> + +<p>"Label that luggage for Crewe," he whispered +to the porter, and passed straight on, as if taking +exercise on the platform.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," said the porter.</p> + +<p>When he got back to Helen of course he had +to make conversation with a nonchalant air, in +order to hide his guilty feelings.</p> + +<p>"So none of 'em has come to see you off!" he +observed.</p> + +<p>"None of whom?"</p> + +<p>"None o' yer friends."</p> + +<p>"No fear!" she said. "I wouldn't have it for +anything. I do hate and loathe good-byes at a +railway station. Don't you?"</p> + +<p>"Never had any," he said.</p> + +<p>The train was prompt, but between Shawport +and Crewe it suffered delays, so that there was +not an inordinate amount of time to spare at the +majestic junction.</p> + +<p>Heedless, fly-away creature that she was, +Helen scurried from the North Stafford platform +to the main-line platform without a thought as +to her luggage. She was apparently so preoccupied +with her handbag, which contained her +purse, that she had no anxiety left over for her +heavy belongings.</p> + +<p>As they hastened forward, he saw the luggage +being tumbled out on to the platform.</p> + +<p>The Glasgow train rolled grandiosely in, and +the restaurant-car came to a standstill almost +exactly opposite the end of the North Stafford +platform. They obtained two seats with difficulty. +Then, as there was five minutes to wait, +Jimmy descended from the car to the asphalte +and peeped down the North Stafford platform. +Yes, her luggage was lying there, deserted, in a +pile. He regained the carriage.</p> + +<p>"I suppose the luggage will be all right?" +Helen said, calmly, just as the guard whistled.</p> + +<p>"Ay!" said he, with the mien of a traveller of +vast experience. "I saw 'em bringing all th' +N.S. luggage over. It were th' fust thing I +thought of."</p> + +<p>As a liar he reckoned he was pretty good.</p> + +<p>He glanced from the window as the train slid +away from Crewe, and out of the tail of his eye, +in the distance, over the heads of people, he had +a momentary glimpse of the topmost of Helen's +trunks safely at rest on the North Stafford +platform.</p> + +<p>He felt safe. He felt strangely joyous. He +ate largely, and made very dry, humorous remarks +about the novelty of a restaurant on wheels.</p> + +<p>"Bless us!" he said, as the express flashed +through Preston without stopping. "It's fust +time as I've begun a bottle o' Bass in one town +and finished it in another."</p> + +<p>He grew positively jolly, and the journey +seemed to be accomplished with the rapidity of +a dream.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIX"></a><h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<p>THE TOSSING</p> +<br /> + +<p>"You said you'd seen it into the van," pouted +Helen—she who never pouted!</p> + +<p>"Nay, lass," he corrected her, "I said I'd seen +'em bringing all th' luggage over."</p> + +<p>The inevitable moment of reckoning had +arrived. They stood together on the platform +of St. Enoch's, Glasgow. The last pieces of +luggage were being removed from the guard's +van under the direction of passengers, and there +was no sign whatever of Helen's trunks. This +absence of Helen's trunks did not in the least +surprise James Ollerenshaw; he was perfectly +aware that Helen's trunks reposed, at that self-same +instant, in the lost luggage office at Crewe; +but, of course, he had to act surprise. In case of +necessity he could act very well. It was more +difficult for him to act sorrow than to act surprise; +but he did both to his own satisfaction. He +climbed into the van and scanned its corners—in +vain. Then, side by side, they visited the other +van at the head of the train, with an equal result.</p> + +<p>The two guards, being Scotch, responded to +inquiries with extreme caution. All that they +would answer for was that the trunks were not +in the train. Then the train was drawn out of +the station by a toy-engine, and the express +engine followed it with grave dignity, and Helen +and Jimmy were left staring at the empty rails.</p> + +<p>"Something must be done," said Helen, crossly.</p> + +<p>"Ay!" Jimmy agreed. "It's long past my +tea-time. We must find out if there's anything +to eat i' Scotland."</p> + +<p>But Helen insisted on visiting the stationmaster. +Now, the stationmaster at St. Enoch's +is one of the most important personages north of +the Tweed, and not easily to be seen. However, +Helen saw him. He pointed out that the train +came from London in two portions, which were +divided in Scotland, one going to Edinburgh, and +his suggestion was that conceivably the luggage +had been put into the Edinburgh van in mistake +for the Glasgow van. Such errors did occur +sometimes, he said, implying that the North +Western was an English railway, and that surprising +things happened in England. He said, +also, that Helen might telephone to Edinburgh +and inquire.</p> + +<p>She endeavoured to act on this counsel, but +came out of the telephone cabin saying that she +could not get into communication with Edinburgh.</p> + +<p>"Better go over to Edinburgh and see for +yourself," said Jimmy, tranquilly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and what about my steamer?" Helen +turned on him.</p> + +<p>"Scotland canna' be so big as all that," said +Jimmy. "Not according to th' maps. Us could +run over to Edinburgh to-night, and get back to +Glasgow early to-morrow."</p> + +<p>She consented.</p> + +<p>Just as he was taking two second returns to +Edinburgh (they had snatched railway eggs and +railway tea while waiting for a fast train) he +stopped and said:</p> + +<p>"Unless ye prefer to sail without your trunks, +and I could send 'em on by th' next steamer?"</p> + +<p>"Uncle," she protested, "I do wish you +wouldn't be so silly. The idea of me sailing +without my trunks! Why don't you ask me to +sail without my head?"</p> + +<p>"All right—all right!" he responded. "But +don't snap mine off. Two second returns to +Edinburgh, young man, and I'll thank ye to look +slippy over it."</p> + +<p>In the Edinburgh train he could scarcely refrain +from laughing. And Helen, too, seemed more +in a humour to accept the disappearance of five +invaluable trunks, full of preciosities, as a facetious +sally on the part of destiny.</p> + +<p>He drew out a note-book which he always +carried, and did mathematical calculations.</p> + +<p>"That makes twenty-seven pounds eighteen +and ninepence as ye owe me," he remarked.</p> + +<p>"What? For railway tickets?"</p> + +<p>"Railway tickets, tips, and that twenty-five +pounds I lent ye. I'm making ye a present o' <i>my</i> +fares, and dinner, and tea and so forth."</p> + +<p>"Twenty-five pounds that you lent me!" she +murmured.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said. "Tuesday morning, while I +was at my cashbox."</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>that</i>!" she ejaculated. "I thought you +were giving me that. I never thought you'd ask +me for it again, uncle. I'd completely forgotten +all about it."</p> + +<p>She seemed quite sincere in this amazing assertion.</p> + +<p>His acquaintance with the ways of women was +thus enlarged, suddenly, and at the merely +nominal expense of twenty-five pounds. It was +a wondrous proof of his high spirits and his +general contentedness with himself that he +should have submitted to the robbery without a +groan.</p> + +<p>"What's twenty-five pun'?" he reflected. +"There'll be no luggage for her at Edinburgh; +that steamer'll go without her; and then I shall +give in. I shall talk to her about the ways o' +Providence, and tell her it's borne in upon me +as she must have Wilbraham Hall if she's in a +mind to stay. I shall save my face, anyhow."</p> + +<p>And he further decided that, in case of necessity, +in case of Helen at a later stage pushing her +inquiries as to the luggage inconveniently far he +would have to bribe the porter at Shawport to +admit to her that he, the porter, had made a +mistake in the labelling.</p> + +<p>When they had satisfied themselves that +Edinburgh did not contain Helen's trunks—no +mean labour, for the lost luggage office was closed, +and they had to move mountains in order to get +it opened on the plea of extremest urgency—Jimmy +Ollerenshaw turned to Susan's daughter, +saying to himself that she must be soothed +regardless of cost. Miracles would not enable +her to catch the steamer now, and the hour was +fast approaching when he would benevolently +offer her the gift of Wilbraham Hall.</p> + +<p>"Well, lass," he began, "I'm right sorry. +What's to be done?"</p> + +<p>"There's nothing at all to be done," she replied, +smiling sadly. She might have upbraided +him for carelessness in the matter of the luggage. +She might have burst into tears and declared +passionately that it was all <i>his</i> fault. But she +did not. "Except, of course, that I must cable +to mother. She's coming to Quebec to meet me."</p> + +<p>"That'll do to-morrow," he said. "What's +to be done to-night? In th' way o' supper, as +ye might say?"</p> + +<p>"We must go to an hotel. I believe the station +hotel is the best." She pointed to a sign and a +directing black hand which said: "To the hotel."</p> + +<p>In a minute James Ollerenshaw found himself +in the largest and most gorgeous hotel in Scotland.</p> + +<p>"Look here, wench," he said. "I don't know +as this is much in my line. Summat a thought +less gaudy'll do for my old bones."</p> + +<p>"I won't move a step farther this night!" +Helen declared. "I'm ready to drop."</p> + +<p>He remembered that she must be soothed.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, "here goes!"</p> + +<p>And he strode across the tessellated pavement +under the cold, scrutinizing eye of menials to a +large window marked in gold letters: "Bureau."</p> + +<p>"Have ye gotten a couple of bedrooms like?" +he asked the clerk.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," said the clerk (who was a perfect +lady). "What do you want?"</p> + +<p>"Don't I tell ye as we want a couple o' bedrooms, +miss?"</p> + +<p>After negotiations she pushed across the counter +to him—two discs of cardboard numbered 324 +and 326, each marked 6s. 6d. He regarded the +price as fantastic, but no cheaper rooms were to +be had, and Helen's glance was dangerous.</p> + +<p>"Why," he muttered, "I've got a four-roomed +cottage empty at Turnhill as I'd let for a +month for thirteen shillings, <i>and</i> paper it!"</p> + +<p>"Where is your luggage, sir?" asked a +muscular demon with shiny sleeves.</p> + +<p>"That's just what we want to know, young +feller," said Jimmy. "For the present, that's +all as we can lay our hands on." And he indicated +Helen's satchel.</p> + +<p>His experiences in the lift were exciting, and +he suggested the laying of a tramway along the +corridor of the fourth floor. The beautiful +starched creature who brought in his hot water +(without being asked) found him in the dark +struggling with the electric light, which he had +extinguished from curiosity and had not been +able to rekindle, having lost the location of the +switch.</p> + +<p>At 10.30 the travellers were seated at a table +in the immense dining-room, which was populated +by fifteen waiters of various European nationalities, +and six belated guests including themselves. +The one item on the menu which did +not exceed his comprehension was Welsh rarebit, +and he ordered it.</p> + +<p>It was while they were waiting in anticipation +of this dish that he decided to commence operations +upon Helen. The fact was, he was becoming +very anxious to put affairs on a definite footing. +"Well, my girl," he said, "cheer up. If ye +tak' my advice ye'll make up yer mind to stop i' +owd England with yer owd uncle."</p> + +<p>"Of course I will," she answered, softly; and +added: "If you'll do as I want."</p> + +<p>"Buy that barracks?"</p> + +<p>She nodded.</p> + +<p>He was on the very point of yielding; he was +on the very point of saying, with grandfatherly, +god-like tone of utter beneficence: "Lass, ye +shall have it. I wouldn't ha' given it ye, but it's +like as if what must be—this luggage being lost. +It's like as if Providence was in it." He was on +the very point of this decisive pronouncement, +when a novel and dazzling idea flashed into his +head.</p> + +<p>"Listen here," he said, bending across the +table towards her, "I'll toss thee."</p> + +<p>"Toss me?" she exclaimed, startled.</p> + +<p>"Ay! I'll toss thee, if thou'lt stay. Heads I +buy the barracks; tails I don't, and you live with +me in a <i>house</i>."</p> + +<p>"Very well," she agreed, lightly.</p> + +<p>He had not really expected her to agree to such +a scheme. But, then, young women named Helen +can be trusted absolutely to falsify expectation.</p> + +<p>He took a sixpence from his pocket.</p> + +<p>"Heads I win, eh?" he said.</p> + +<p>She acquiesced, and up went the sixpence.</p> + +<p>It rolled off the table on to the Turkey carpet +(Jimmy was not so adroit as he had been in his +tossing days), and seven Austrians, Germans, and +Swiss sprang towards it with a simultaneous +impulse to restore it to its owner.</p> + +<p>Jimmy jumped to his feet.</p> + +<p>"Don't touch it!" he cried, and bent over it.</p> + +<p>"Nay, nay!" he muttered, "I've lost. Th' +old man's lost, after all!"</p> + +<p>And he returned to the table, having made a +sensation in the room.</p> + +<p>Helen was in paradise. "I'm surprised you +were ready to toss, uncle," said she. "However, +it's all right; we can get the luggage to-morrow. +It's at Crewe."</p> + +<p>"How dost know it's at Crewe?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"Because I had it labelled for Crewe. You +<i>were</i> silly to imagine that I was going to leave +you. But I thought I'd just leave nothing undone +to make you give way. I made sure I was beaten. +I made sure I should have to knuckle under. And +now you are goose enough to toss, and you've +lost, you've lost! Hurrah!" She clapped her +hands softly.</p> + +<p>"Do ye mean to tell me," Jimmy thundered, "as +ye've been playing a game wi' me all this time?"</p> + +<p>"Of course." She had no shame.</p> + +<p>"And bought th' steamer-ticket without meaning +to go?"</p> + +<p>"Well," she said, "it's no good half-playing +when you're playing for high stakes. Besides, +what's fifteen pounds?"</p> + +<p>He did not let her into the secret that he also +had ordered the luggage to be labelled for Crewe. +They returned to the Five Towns the following +morning. And by mutual tacit agreement they +never spoke of that excursion to Scotland.</p> + +<p>In such manner came Helen Rathbone to be +the mistress of Wilbraham Hall.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XX"></a><h2>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<p>THE FLITTING</p> +<br /> + +<p>Before the spacious crimson façade of Wilbraham +Hall upon an autumn day stood Mr. Crump's +pantechnicon. That is to say, it was a pantechnicon +only by courtesy—Mr. Crump's courtesy. +In strict adherence to truth it was just a common +furniture-removing van, dragged over the earth's +surface by two horses. On the outer walls of it +were an announcement that Mr. Crump removed +goods by road, rail or steamer, and vast coloured +pictures of Mr. Crump removing goods by road, +rail and steamer. One saw the van in situations +of grave danger—travelling on an express train +over a lofty viaduct at sixty miles an hour, or +rolling on the deck of a steamer in a stormy sea. +One saw it also in situations of impressive natural +beauty—as, for instance, passing by road through +terrific mountain defiles, where cataracts rushed +and foamed. The historic fact was that the van +had never been beyond the Five Towns. Nevertheless, +Mr. Crump bound himself in painted +letters six inches high to furnish estimates for +any removal whatsoever; and, what is more, as +a special boon to the Five Towns, to furnish +estimates free of charge. In this detail Mr. +Crump had determined not to lag behind his +fellow-furniture-removers, who, one and all, +persist in refusing to accept even a small fee for +telling you how much they demand for their +services.</p> + +<p>In the van were the entire worldly possessions +of James Ollerenshaw (except his houses, his +investments, a set of bowls up at the bowling +club, and the clothes he wore), and the entire +worldly possessions of Helen Rathbone (except the +clothes she wore). If it be asked where was the +twenty-six pounds so generously given to her by +a loving uncle, the reply is that the whole sum, +together with much else, was in the coffers of +Ezra Brunt, the draper and costumier at Hanbridge; +and the reply further is that Helen was +in debt. I have hitherto concealed Helen's +tendency to debts, but it was bound sooner or +later to come out. And here it is.</p> + +<p>After an adventurous journey by bridge over +the North Staffordshire Railway, and by bridge +over the Shropshire Union Canal, and by bridge +over the foaming cataract of the Shaws Brook, +and down the fearful slants of Oldcastle-street, +and through the arduous terrific denies of Oldcastle-road, +the van had arrived at the portals of +Wilbraham Hall. It would have been easy, by +opening wide the portals, to have introduced the +van and the horses too into the hall of Wilbraham +Hall. But this course was not adopted.</p> + +<p>Helen and Georgiana had preceded the van, +and they both stood at the door to receive the +goods. Georgiana was in one of Georgiana's +aprons, and Helen also was in one of Georgiana's +aprons. Uncle James had followed the van. He +had not let it out of his sight. The old man's +attachment to even the least of his goods was +touching, and his attachment to the greatest of +his goods carried pathos into farce. The greatest +of his goods was, apparently, the full-rigged ship +and tempestuous ocean in a glass box which had +stood on the table in the front room of the other +house for many years. No one had suspected his +esteem for that glass box and its contents. He +had not suspected it himself until the moment for +packing it had come. But he seemed to love it +more than his bits of Spode china or his concertina; +and, taking it with him, he had quitted +with a softened regret the quantity of over-blown +blue roses which, in their eternal bloom, had enlivened +his existence during a longer period even +than the ship and ocean.</p> + +<p>The ship and ocean was the last thing put into +the van and the first thing taken out, and James +Ollerenshaw introduced the affair, hugged against +his own breast, into the house of his descendants. +The remainder of the work of transference was +relatively unimportant. Two men accomplished +it easily while the horses ate a late dinner. And +then the horses and the van and the men went +off, and there was nothing left but a few wisps of +straw and so forth, on the magnificent sweep of +gravel, to indicate that they had ever been there. +And Uncle James, and Helen, and Georgiana felt +rather forlorn and abandoned. They stood in the +hall and looked at each other a little blankly, like +gipsies camping out in an abandoned cathedral. +An immense fire was burning in the immense +fireplace of the hall, and similar fires were burning +in the state bedroom, in a little drawing-room beyond +the main drawing-room, in another bedroom, +in the giant's kitchen, and in one of the +attics. These fires and a certain amount of +cleaning were the only preparations which Helen +had permitted herself to make. Even the expense +of the coal had startled James, and she +proposed to get him safely in the cage before +commencing the serious business which would +shatter all his nerves. By a miracle of charm and +audacity she had obtained from him the control of a +sum of seven hundred and fifty pounds. This sum, +now lying nominally to her credit at one of James's +various banks, represented the difference between +eight thousand pounds (at which James had said +Wilbraham Hall would be cheap) and seven +thousand two hundred and fifty pounds (at which +James had succeeded in buying Wilbraham Hall).</p> + +<p>To the left of the hall, near the entrance, was +quite a small room (originally, perhaps, a butler's +lair), and James was obstinate in selecting this +room as his office. He had his desk carried there, +and everything that personally affected him except +his safe and the simple necessaries of his bedroom. +These were taken, not to the state bedroom, which +he had declined, after insincere pressure from +Helen to accept it, but to a much smaller sleeping-chamber. +The numerous family of Windsor +chairs, together with other ancient honesties, were +sent up to attics—too old at forty! Georgiana +was established in a glorious attic; the state bedroom +was strewn with Helen's gear; and scarcely +anything remained unniched in the Hall save the +ship and ocean. They all rested from their +labours, and Helen was moved by one of her +happiest inspirations.</p> + +<p>"Georgiana," she said, "go and make some +tea. Bring a cup for yourself."</p> + +<p>"Yes, miss. Thank you, miss."</p> + +<p>On removal days miserable distinctions of +class are invariably lost in the large-heartedness +of mutual endeavour.</p> + +<p>It was while the trio were thus drinking tea +together, standing, and, as it were, with loins +still girt after the pilgrimage, that the first visitor +to the new owners of Wilbraham Hall rang its +great bell and involved Georgiana in her first +ceremonial duty. Georgiana was quite nervous +as she went to the door.</p> + +<p>The caller was Emanuel Prockter.</p> + +<p>"Mother thought I might perhaps be able to +help you," said he, in the slightly simpering tone +which he adopted in delicate situations, and which +he thought suited him. What made the situation +delicate, to him, was Helen's apron—quite agreeable +though the apron was. He felt, with his +unerring perceptiveness, that young ladies do not +care to receive young gentlemen in the apron of a +Georgiana. His own attire was, as usual, fabulously +correct; the salient features of it being a +pair of light yellow chamois gloves, loose-fitting +and unbuttoned, with the gauntlets negligently +turned back. These gloves were his method of +expressing the fact that the visit was a visit of +usefulness and not a kid-glove visit. But Helen +seemed quite composed behind Georgiana's apron.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he repeated, with smiling inanity, after +he had shaken hands. "Mother thought I might +help you."</p> + +<p>("What a fool that woman is!" reflected +James. "And what a fool <i>he</i> is to put it on to +his mother instead of keeping it to himself!")</p> + +<p>"And what did <i>you</i> think, Mr. Prockter?" +Helen demanded. "Another cup and saucer, +Georgiana."</p> + +<p>Helen's question was one of her insolent +questions.</p> + +<p>("Perhaps his mother ain't such a fool!" +reflected James. And he perceived, or imagined +he perceived, that their fears of Helen marrying +Emanuel were absurd.)</p> + +<p>Emanuel sniffed humour in the air. He never +understood humour; but he was, at any rate, +sufficiently gifted with the wisdom of the simple +to smile vaguely and amiably when he sniffed +humour.</p> + +<p>And then Helen said, with cordial kindliness: +"It's awfully good of you—awfully good of you. +Here we are, you see!"</p> + +<p>And the degree of cordiality was such that the +fear of her marrying Emanuel suddenly seemed +less absurd to James. The truth was that James +never had a moment's peace of mind with Helen. +She was continually proving that as a student in +the University of Human Nature he had not even +matriculated.</p> + +<p>Georgiana appeared with an odd cup and +saucer, and a giggling statement that she had not +been able to discover any more teaspoons.</p> + +<p>"Never mind," said Helen. "Mr. Prockter +shall have mine."</p> + +<p>("Well, I'm hanged!" reflected James.)</p> + +<p>Whereupon Georgiana departed, bearing her +own tea, into the giant's kitchen. The miserable +distinctions of class had been mysteriously +established.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXI"></a><h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<p>SHIP AND OCEAN</p> +<br /> + +<p>The host, the hostess, and the guest all remained +on their feet in the noble hall of the +Wilbrahams, it not being good etiquette to sit at +removals, even when company calls. Emanuel, +fortunately for him, was adept at perambulation +with a full cup of tea in one hand and a hat or so +in the other. There were two things which he +really could do—one was to sing a sentimental +song without laughing, and the other was to +balance a cup of tea. And it was only when he +was doing the one or the other that he genuinely +lived. During the remainder of his existence he +was merely a vegetable inside a waistcoat. He +held his cup without a tremor while Helen charmingly +introduced into it her teaspoon and stirred +up the sugar. Then, after he had sipped and +pronounced the result excellent, he began to +admire the Hall and the contents of the Hall. A +proof of his real Christian charity was that, +whereas he had meant to have that Hall for himself, +he breathed no word of envy nor discontent. +He praised everything; and presently he arrived +at the ship and ocean, and praised that. He +particularly praised the waves.</p> + +<p>The heart of James instantly and instinctively +softened towards him. For the realism of those +foaming waves had always struck James as the +final miracle of art. And, moreover, this was the +first time that any of Helen's haughty "set" had +ever deigned to recognise the merits of the ship +and ocean.</p> + +<p>"Where shouldst hang it, Master Prockter?" +James genially asked.</p> + +<p>"Hang it, uncle?" exclaimed Helen. "Are +you going to hang it? Aren't you going to keep +it on the table in your own room?"</p> + +<p>She was hoping that it might occupy a position +not too prominent. She did not intend it to be +the central decorative attraction of the palace.</p> + +<p>"It ought to be hung," said Emanuel. "See, +here are the little iron things for the nails."</p> + +<p>This gift of observation pleased James. +Emanuel was indeed beginning to show quite an +intelligent interest in the ship and ocean.</p> + +<p>"Of course it must be hung," said he.</p> + +<p>He was very human, was Jimmy Ollerenshaw. +For at least twenty-five years he had possessed +the ship and ocean, and cherished it, always meaning +one day to hang it against the wall as it +deserved. And yet he had never arrived at doing +so, though the firm resolution to do so had not a +whit weakened in his mind. And now he was +absolutely decided, with the whole force of his +will behind him, to hang the ship and ocean at +once.</p> + +<p>"There! under the musicians' gallery wouldn't +be a bad place, would it, Mr. Ollerenshaw?" +Emanuel suggested, respectfully.</p> + +<p>James trained his eye on the spot. "The very +thing, lad!" said he, with enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>"Lad!" Helen had not recovered from a +private but extreme astonishment at this singular +mark of paternal familiarity to Emanuel when +there was another and a far louder ring at the +door.</p> + +<p>Georgiana minced and tripped out of her +retreat, and opened the majestic portal to a still +greater surprise for Helen. The ringer was Mr. +Andrew Dean—Mr. Andrew Dean with his dark, +quasi-hostile eyes, and his heavy shoulders, and +his defiant, suspicious bearing—Mr. Andrew Dean +in workaday clothes and with hands that could +not be called clean. Andrew stared about him +like a scout, and then advanced rapidly to Helen +and seized her hand, hurting it.</p> + +<p>"I was just passing," said he, in a hoarse voice. +"I expected you'd be in a bit of a mess, so I +thought I might be useful. How d'ye do, Mr. +Ollerenshaw?" And he hurt James's hand also.</p> + +<p>"It's very kind of you," Helen remarked, +flushing.</p> + +<p>"How do, Prockter?" Andrew jerked out at +Emanuel, not taking his hand.</p> + +<p>This abstention on Andrew's part from +physical violence was capable of two interpretations. +The natural interpretation was that +Andrew's social methods were notoriously casual +and capricious. The interesting interpretation +was that a failure of the negotiations between +Emanuel and Andrew for a partnership—a failure +which had puzzled Bursley—had left rancour +behind it.</p> + +<p>Emanuel, however, displayed no symptom of +being disturbed. His blandness remained intact. +Nevertheless, the atmosphere was mysteriously +electric. Helen felt it to be so, and an atmosphere +which is deemed to be electric by even one person +only, <i>ipso facto</i>, is electric. As for James Ollerenshaw, +he was certainly astonished by the visit +of Andrew Dean; but, being absorbed in the +welfare of his ship and ocean, he permitted his +astonishment to dissolve in a vague satisfaction +that, anyhow, Helen's unexplained quarrel with +Andrew Dean was really at an end. This call +was assuredly Andrew's way of expiatory repentance.</p> + +<p>"The very thing!" he repeated, glancing at +Emanuel as if in expectation.</p> + +<p>Emanuel did not seem to comprehend that +aught was expected of him. He amiably stood, +with hands still appropriately gloved, and his +kindly glance wandered between the ship and +ocean and the spot which he had hit on for the +ship and ocean's last resting-place.</p> + +<p>"Where's the steps, Helen?" James inquired, +and, after a brief silence: "Georgiana!" he +yelled.</p> + +<p>The girl flew in.</p> + +<p>"Bring us a pair o' steps," said he.</p> + +<p>Followed an unsuccessful search for the pair +of steps, which Andrew Dean ultimately discovered +in a corner of the hall itself, lying flat +behind a vast roll of carpet which was included +in the goods purchased for seven thousand two +hundred and fifty pounds. The steps being found, +Georgiana explained at length how she distinctly +remembered seeing one of the men put them behind +the roll of carpet.</p> + +<p>"Now, what is it?" Andrew vigorously questioned. +He was prepared, evidently, to do anything +that a man may do with a pair of steps. +When the operation was indicated to him, his +first act was to take off his coat, which he threw +on the floor.</p> + +<p>"Hammer! Nails!" he ejaculated. And +Georgiana, intimidated by his tone, contrived +to find both hammer and nails. It is true that +the hammer was a coal hammer.</p> + +<p>And in a remarkably short space of time he +was balanced on the summit of the steps with +a nail in one hand, a hammer in the other, a +pencil behind his ear, and another nail in his +mouth. The other three encircled him from +below, with upturned faces and open mouths, +like young birds expecting food. (Not that +young birds expecting food wear gloves so appropriate +to the occasion as were Emanuel's.) James +Ollerenshaw was impressed by the workmanlike +manner in which Andrew measured the width of +the glass box and marked it off on the wall before +beginning to knock nails. The presence of one +nail in Andrew's mouth while he was knocking +in the other with a coal hammer, prevented him +from outraging the social code when the coal +hammer embraced his fingers as well as the nail +in the field of its activity. Unhappily, when it +came to the second nail, no such hindrance +operated.</p> + +<p>The nails, having been knocked in, were duly +and satisfactorily tested.</p> + +<p>Then solemnly James seized the glass box containing +the ship and ocean, and bore it with all +possible precautions to the pair of steps in front +of the great doors. Andrew descended two +storeys, and, bending his body, received the box +from James as a parson receives a baby at the +font. He then remounted. The steps rocked.</p> + +<p>"I'd happen better hold 'em," said James.</p> + +<p>"It'll be all right," said Andrew.</p> + +<p>"I'll hold them," said Emanuel, hastening +forward.</p> + +<p>The precise cause of the accident will probably +never be known, but no sooner did Emanuel lay +his gloved hand on the steps than the whole +edifice, consisting of steps, Andrew, and ship and +ocean tottered and fell.</p> + +<p>"Clumsy fool!" Andrew was distinctly heard +to exclaim during his swift passage to the floor.</p> + +<p>The ship and ocean were incurably disintegrated +into a mess of coloured cardboard, linen, and +sticks.</p> + +<p>And catastrophes even more dreadful might +have occurred had it not been for the calm and +wise tact of Helen. Where a person is pleased +by an event, that person can usually, without too +much difficulty, exercise a calm and wise tact +upon other persons whom the event has not +pleased. And Helen was delighted by the +catastrophe to the ship and ocean. The ship +and ocean had formed no part in her scheme for +the decoration of the hall; her one poor solace +had been that the relative proportions of the hall +and of the ship and ocean were such that even a +careful observer might have spent hours in the +former without discovering the latter; on the +other hand, some blundering ninny might have +lighted instantly on the ship and ocean, and +awkwardly inquired what it was doing there. +So Helen was really enchanted by the ruin. She +handled her men with notable finesse: Uncle +James savage and vindictive, but uncertain upon +whom to pour out his anger; Emanuel nursing +his injured innocence; and Andrew Dean nursing +his elbow, his head, and vengeance. She also +found a moment in which to calm Georgiana, who +had run flying and hysterical into the hall at the +sound of the smash.</p> + +<p>Even the steps were broken.</p> + +<p>After a time harmony was established, both +Uncle James and Emanuel being, at bottom, +men of peace. But it was undeniable that Uncle +James had lost more than gold, and that Emanuel +had been touched in a perilous place—his conceit +of himself.</p> + +<p>Then Georgiana swept up the ship and ocean, +and James retired to his own little room, where +he assumed his Turkish cap, and began to arrange +his personal effects in a manner definite and final, +which would be a law for ever to the servants +of Wilbraham Hall.</p> + +<p>Left with the two young men, Helen went +from triumph to triumph. In quite a few minutes +she had them actually talking to each other. +And she ended by speeding them away together. +And by the time they departed each was convinced +that Georgiana's apron, on Helen, was +one of the most bewitching manifestations of the +inexpressibly feminine that he had ever been +privileged to see.</p> + +<p>They took themselves off by a door at the +farther end of the hall behind the stairs, whence +there was a short cut through the undulating +grounds to the main road.</p> + +<p>Helen ascended to the state bedroom, where +there was simply everything to be done; Georgiana +followed her, after having made up the fires, and, +while helping to unpack boxes, offered gossamer +hints—fluffy, scarcely palpable, elusive things—to +her mistress that her real ambition had always +been to be a lady's-maid, and to be served at +meals by the third, or possibly the fourth, house-maid. +And the hall of Wilbraham Hall was +abandoned for a space to silence and solitude.</p> + +<p>Now, the window of Uncle James's little room +was a little window that lived modestly between +the double pillars of the portico and the first +window of the great dining-room. Resting from +his labours of sorting and placing, he gazed forth +at his domain, and mechanically calculated what +profit would accrue to him if he cut off a slip +a hundred and fifty feet deep along by the Oldcastle-road, +and sold it in lots for villas, or built +villas and sold them on ninety-nine-year leases. +He was engaged in his happy exercise of mental +arithmetic when he heard footsteps crunching +the gravel, and then a figure, which had evidently +come round by the north side from the back of +the Hall, passed across the field of James's vision. +This figure was a walking baptism to the ground +it trod. It dripped water plenteously. It was, +in a word, soaked, and its garments clung to it. +Its yellow chamois gloves clung to its hands. It +had no hat. It hesitated in front of the entrance.</p> + +<p>Uncle James pushed up his window. "What's +amiss, lad?" he inquired, with a certain blandness +of satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"I fell into the Water," said Emanuel, feebly, +meaning the sheet known as Wilbraham Water, +which diversified the park-like splendours of +Wilbraham Hall.</p> + +<p>"How didst manage that?"</p> + +<p>"The path is very muddy and slippery just +there," said Emanuel.</p> + +<p>"Hadn't you better run home as quick as +may be?" James suggested.</p> + +<p>"I can't," said Emanuel.</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"I've got no hat, and I'm all wet. And everybody +in Oldcastle-road will see me. Can you +lend me a hat and coat?"</p> + +<p>And all the while he was steadily baptising +the gravel.</p> + +<p>Uncle James's head disappeared for a moment, +and then he threw out of the window a stiff +yellow mackintosh of great age. It was his +rent-collecting mackintosh. It had the excellent +quality of matching the chamois gloves.</p> + +<p>Emanuel thankfully took it. "And what about +a cap or something?" he plaintively asked.</p> + +<p>"Tak' this," said Uncle James, with remarkable +generosity whipping the Turkish cap from his +own head, and handing it to Emanuel.</p> + +<p>Emanuel hesitated, then accepted; and, thus +uniquely attired, sped away, still baptising.</p> + +<p>At tea (tea proper) James recounted this episode +to a somewhat taciturn and preoccupied Helen.</p> + +<p>"He didn't fall into the Water," said Helen, +curtly. "Andrew Dean pushed him in."</p> + +<p>"How dost know that?"</p> + +<p>"Georgiana and I saw it from my bedroom +window. It was she who first saw them fighting, or +at any rate arguing. Then Andrew Dean 'charged' +him in, as if they were playing football, and walked +on; and Emanuel Prockter scrambled out."</p> + +<p>"H'm!" reflected James. "Well, if ye ask +me, lass, Emanuel brought that on himsen. I +never seed a man look a bigger foo' than Emanuel +looked when he went off in my mackintosh and +Turkish cap."</p> + +<p>"Your Turkish cap?"</p> + +<p>"One of 'em."</p> + +<p>"With the tassel?"</p> + +<p>"Ay!"</p> + +<p>"It's a great shame! That's what it is! +I'm sure he didn't look a fool! He's been very +badly treated, and I'll—"</p> + +<p>She rose from the table, in sudden and speechless +indignation.</p> + +<p>"You should ha' seen him, lass!" said James, +and added: "I wish ye had!" He tried to be +calm. But she had sprung on him another of her +disconcerting surprises. Was it, after all, possible, +conceivable, that she was in love with Emanuel?</p> + +<p>She sat down again. "I know why you say that, +uncle"—she looked him in the face, and put her +elbows on the table. "Now, just listen to me!"</p> + +<p>Highly perturbed, he wondered what was +coming next.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXII"></a><h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<p>CONFESSIONAL</p> +<br /> + +<p>"What's the matter with Emanuel Prockter?" +Helen asked; meaning, what were the implied +faults of Emanuel Prockter.</p> + +<p>There was defiance in her tone. She had risen +from the table, and she had sat down again, and +she seemed by her pose to indicate that she had +sat down again with a definite purpose, a purpose +to do grievous harm to the soul's peace of anybody +who differed from the statements which she was +about to enunciate, or who gave the wrong sort +of answers to her catechism. She was wearing +her black mousseline dress (theoretically "done +with"), which in its younger days always had +the effect of rousing the <i>grande dame</i> in her. +She laid her ringless hands, lightly clasped, on +a small, heavy, round mahogany table which +stood in the middle of the little drawing-room, and +she looked over James's shoulder into the vistas +of the great drawing-room. The sombre, fading +magnificence of the Wilbrahams—a magnificence +of dark woods, tasselled curtains, reps, and gilt—was +her theatre, and the theatre suited her mood.</p> + +<p>Still, Jimmy Ollerenshaw, somewhat embittered +by the catastrophe of the afternoon, conceived +that he was not going to be brow-beaten.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with Emanuel Prockter," +said he, "is as he's probably gotten a cold by +this."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and you're glad!" Helen retorted. +"You think he looked a fool after he'd been in +the water. And you were glad."</p> + +<p>"I dunna think," said James, "I'm sure."</p> + +<p>"But why should you be glad? That's what +I want to know."</p> + +<p>James could not sagaciously reply to this +query. He merely scratched his head, tilting one +of his Turkish caps to that end.</p> + +<p>"The fact is," she cried, with a grammatical +carelessness which was shocking in a woman who +had professed to teach everything, "every one +has got their knives into Emanuel Prockter. +And it's simply because he's good-looking and +well-dressed and sings beautifully."</p> + +<p>"Good-looking!" murmured James.</p> + +<p>"Well, isn't he?"</p> + +<p>"He's pretty," said James.</p> + +<p>"No one ever said he had a lot of brains—"</p> + +<p>"I never did," James put in.</p> + +<p>"But what does that matter? He <i>is</i> polite. +He does know how to behave himself in polite +society. If Andrew Dean pushed him into the +water, that wasn't his fault. Andrew is stronger +than he is, but that's no credit to Andrew Dean. +It's to his discredit. Andrew Dean is nothing +but a bully—we all know that. He might have +pushed you into the water, or me."</p> + +<p>"He might," James admitted, "if I'd been +silly enough to get between the water and him."</p> + +<p>"And I should like to know who looked a +fool when Andrew Dean fell off those steps. +And just listen to the language the man used. +I will say this for Emanuel Prockter—I never +heard him swear."</p> + +<p>"No," said James. "He wears gloves. He +even wears 'em when he takes his bath of a +November afternoon."</p> + +<p>"I don't care who knows it," Helen observed, +hotly, "I like Emanuel Prockter."</p> + +<p>"There's nobody as dunna' know it," said +James. "It's the talk of Bosley as you've set +your cap at him."</p> + +<p>"I don't wear caps," said Helen. "I'm not a +servant."</p> + +<p>"Hat, then," James corrected himself. "Ye'll +not deny as you wear hats, I reckon. I've seen +ye in forty."</p> + +<p>"I know who started that tale," Helen exploded. +"Andrew Dean started that tale."</p> + +<p>"No," said James. "It was Mrs. Prockter, +I'm thinking."</p> + +<p>"Has Mrs. Prockter spoken to you about me +and—and Emanuel?"</p> + +<p>James hesitated. But the devil-may-care, +agreeably vicious Ollerenshaw impulses were +afoot in him, and he did not hesitate long.</p> + +<p>"Her has," said he.</p> + +<p>"What a ridiculous, fat old woman she is, with +her fancies!"</p> + +<p>Frankly, James did not like this. He was in +a mind to resent it, and then a certain instinct +of self-preservation prompted him to seek cover +in silence. But in any battle of the sexes silence +is no cover to the male, as he ought to have +known.</p> + +<p>Helen pursued him behind his cover. "I +wonder who <i>she's</i> setting her cap at! I suppose +you'll not deny that <i>she</i> wears a cap?"</p> + +<p>It was quite a long time since James Ollerenshaw +had blushed; but he blushed at these +words. Nothing could have been more foolish, +inept, on his part. Why should he blush because +Helen expressed a vague, hostile curiosity as to +the direction of Mrs. Prockter's cap? What had +the direction of Mrs. Prockter's cap to do with +him? Yet blush he did. He grew angry, not—curiously +enough—with Helen, but with himself +and with Mrs. Prockter. His anger had the +strange effect of making him an arrant coward. +He got up from his chair, having pushed away +his cup towards the centre of the table. As tea +was over he was within his rights in doing so.</p> + +<p>"I mun be getting to work again," he muttered.</p> + +<p>"Please do wait a minute, uncle," she said, +imperiously. "Can't you see I want to talk to +you? Can't you see I've got something on my +mind?"</p> + +<p>Deliberately challenged in this way, the formidable +James was no more than a sheep to the +shearer. Until he met Helen, he had perhaps +never received deliberate, audacious challenges, +and even now he was far from being accustomed +to them. So he just stood foolishly near his chair.</p> + +<p>"I can't talk to you while you're standing up," +she said.</p> + +<p>So he sat down. How simple it ought to have +been for him to exert authority over Helen, to +tell her fiercely that he had no intention of being +talked to like that, and that if she persisted in +such tactics the front door was at her entire +disposal! She had no claim on him. Yet he +ate his humble pie and sat down.</p> + +<p>"So they are saying that there is something +between Emanuel Prockter and me, are they?" +she recommenced, in a new, mollified voice, a +voice that waved the white flag over her head.</p> + +<p>"It wouldna' surprise me to hear as they +were," said James.</p> + +<p>"And supposing there <i>was</i> something between +us, uncle, should you mind?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know as I should mind," said he. +"And I don't know as it 'ud matter a brass +button if I did mind."</p> + +<p>"What should you do, uncle?"</p> + +<p>"I should do as I've always done," said he; +"eat and sleep and take my walks abroad. +Them as wants to marry will marry, and they +will marry what suits 'em. But I shall tak' +my meat and drink as usual."</p> + +<p>"Would you come to the wedding?"</p> + +<p>"I've only got a funeral suit," said he. "But +I'd buy me some togs if Emanuel 'ud tak' this +place off my hands at what I gave."</p> + +<p>"Would you give me a wedding-present?"</p> + +<p>"I'd give thee some advice. It's what thou'rt +most in need of."</p> + +<p>His tone was gloomy and resigned.</p> + +<p>She slipped round the table and sat on the +arm of his chair.</p> + +<p>"You are a horrid old thing," she told him—not +for the first time. "I <i>am</i> in need of advice. +And there's no one can give it me but you."</p> + +<p>"Nay, nay!" he recoiled. "There's Sarah +Swetnam. You're as thick as thieves."</p> + +<p>"She's the very last person I can go to," said +Helen.</p> + +<p>"And why?"</p> + +<p>"Why! Because Andrew is engaged to her +sister, of course. That's the awful part of it."</p> + +<p>"Ay?" he questioned.</p> + +<p>"Yes. Because, you see, it's Andrew Dean +that I'm in love with."</p> + +<p>She said it in very pert and airy accents. +And then the next moment she put James into +terrible consternation by crying, and clutching +his arm. He saw that she was serious. Light +beat down upon him. He had to blink and +collect himself.</p> + +<p>"I' thy place, lass," he said, "I should keep +that to mysen."</p> + +<p>"But I can't, uncle. That is, I haven't done. +Andrew knows. You don't understand how much +I'm in love with him. I've—he's—"</p> + +<p>"Thou'st not kissed him?"</p> + +<p>"Not exactly—but—"</p> + +<p>"He's been kissing you in mistake for his other +young woman?"</p> + +<p>Helen nodded.</p> + +<p>"Helen, what 'ud thy mother say?"</p> + +<p>"It was because of Andrew Dean that I came +to live in Bursley," said she. "I knew I shouldn't +see him often enough if I stayed in Longshaw. +So I came here. You know we had always liked +each other, I <i>think</i>, ever since he spent two years +at Longshaw at Spitz Brothers'. Then I didn't +see him for some time. You know how rude and +awkward he is. Well, there was a coolness. And +then we didn't see each other for another long +time. And then when I next saw him I knew I +really <i>was</i> in love with him. (Of course, I never +said anything to mother. One doesn't, you +know. And she was so taken up with her own +affairs, poor dear!) And I thought he was really +fond of me. I thought so because he was so +cross and queer. He's like that, you know. +And, after all, it was not that that made him +cross and queer. It was just because he was as +good as engaged to Lilian, and he didn't like to +tell me. And I never knew. How could I +guess? I'd never heard there was anything +between him and Lilian. And besides, although +he was cross and queer, he said things to me that +he oughtn't to have said, considering how he +was carrying on with Lilian. It was then that +I settled on coming to Bursley. There was no +<i>reason</i> why I should stay in Longshaw. I saw +him again in Longshaw, <i>after</i> he was engaged to +Lilian, and yet he never told me! And then, +when I come here, the first thing I hear is that +he's engaged to Lilian. It was that afternoon +when Sarah called; do you remember, uncle?"</p> + +<p>He remembered.</p> + +<p>"I saw Mr. Dean that night, and somehow I +told him what I thought of him. I don't know +how it began; but I did. He said he couldn't +help being engaged to Lilian. He said it was +one of those engagements that go on by themselves, +and you can't stop them. He wanted to +stop it. But he was engaged before he knew +where he was—so he says. He said he preferred +me, and if he'd known—So of course I was +obliged to be very angry with him. That was +why I didn't speak to him at first at Mrs. Prockter's; +at least, that was partly why. The other +reason was that he had accused me of running +after Emanuel—of all people! I had been, you +know. But what had that got to do with Andrew, +seeing that he was engaged to Lilian? Besides, +I'd been doing it on purpose. And he was so +<i>insolent</i>. And then, to crown all, Mrs. Prockter +makes me dance with him. No wonder I fainted! +He is the rudest, <i>rudest</i>, crudest man I ever +knew."</p> + +<p>She wiped her eyes.</p> + +<p>"H'm!" mused James.</p> + +<p>"He'll simply kill poor little Lilian!" She +sobbed.</p> + +<p>"What's that got to do with you, if you and +Emanuel has got nothing to do with him? It +isn't you as'll be hung when Lilian's murdered."</p> + +<p>"Can't you see he mustn't marry Lilian?" +Helen burst out. "Silly little thing! How can +she understand him? She's miles beneath him."</p> + +<p>"Is there anybody as does understand him?" +James asked.</p> + +<p>"I do," said she. "And that's flat. And +I've got to marry him, and you must help me. +I wanted to tell you, and now I've told you. +Don't you think I've done right in being quite +open with you? Most girls are so foolish in these +things. But I'm not. Aren't you glad, uncle?"</p> + +<p>"Glad inna' the word," said he.</p> + +<p>"<i>You must help me</i>," she repeated.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a><h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<p>NOCTURNAL</p> +<br /> + +<p>Many things which previously had not been +plain to James Ollerenshaw were plain to him +that night, as, in the solitude of his chosen room, +he reflected upon the astonishing menu that +Helen had offered him by way of supplement to +his tea. But the chief matter in his mind was +the great, central, burning, blinding fact of the +endless worry caused to him by his connection +with the chit. He had bought Wilbraham Hall +under her threat to leave him if he did not buy +it. Even at Trafalgar-road she had filled the +little house with worry. And now, within a +dozen hours of arriving in it, she had filled +Wilbraham Hall with worry—filled it to its +farthest attic. If she had selected it as a residence, +she would have filled the Vatican with +worry. All that James demanded was a quiet +life; and she would not let him have it. He +wished he was back again in Trafalgar-road. He +wished he had never met Helen and her sunshade +in the park.</p> + +<p>That is to say, he asserted to himself positively +that he wished he had never met Helen. But +he did not mean it.</p> + +<p>And so he was to help her to wrest Andrew +Dean from Lilian Swetnam! He was to take +part in a shameful conspiracy! He was to assist +in ruining an innocent child's happiness! And +he was deliberately to foster the raw material of +a scandal in which he himself would be involved! +He, the strong, obstinate, self-centred old man +who had never, till Helen's advent, done anything +except to suit his own convenience!</p> + +<p>The one bright spot was that Helen had no +genuine designs on Emanuel Prockter. As a +son-in-law, Andrew Dean would be unbearable; +but Emanuel Prockter would have been—well, +impossible. Andrew Dean (he mused) was at +any rate a man whom you could talk to and look +at without feeling sick.</p> + +<p>When he had gazed at the affair from all points +of view, and repeated to himself the same deep +moral truths (such as "There's no doing nowt +wi' a young woman afore she's forty") about +thirty-nine times, and pitied himself from every +quarter of the compass, he rose to go to bed; +he did not expect to sleep. But the gas was not +yet in order, and he had only one candle, which +was nearly at its latter end. The ladies—Helen +and Georgiana—had retired long since.</p> + +<p>He left his little room, and was just setting +forth on the adventure of discovering his bedchamber, +when a bell rang in the bowels of the +house. His flesh crept. It was as if—</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>The clock struck twelve, and shook the silent tower.</p></div> + +<p>Then he collected his powers of memory and +of induction, and recognised in the sound of the +bell the sound of the front door bell. Some one +must be at the front door. The singular and +highly-disturbing phenomena of distant clanging, +of thrills, and of flesh-creepings were all resolved +into the simple fact that some one was at the +front door.</p> + +<p>He went back into his little room; instead of +opening the front door like a man, he opened +the window of the little room, and stuck out the +tassel of his cap.</p> + +<p>"Who's there?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"It's I, Mr. Ollerenshaw," said a voice, queenly +and nervous.</p> + +<p>"Not Mrs. Prockter?" he suggested.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"I reckon ye'd like to come in," he said.</p> + +<p>She admitted the desire with a laugh which +struck him as excessively free. He did not +know whether to be glad or sorry that Helen +had departed to bed. He did not even know +whether to be glad or sorry that Mrs. Prockter +had called. But he vividly remembered what +Helen had said about caps.</p> + +<p>Naturally, he had to let her in. He held the +candle in his left hand, as he opened the door +with his right, and the tassel of his cap was over +his eye.</p> + +<p>"You'll think I'm in the habit of calling on +you at night," said Mrs. Prockter, as she slid +through the narrow space which James allotted +to her, and she laughed again. "Where is dear +Helen?"</p> + +<p>"She's gone to bed, missis," said James, holding +high the candle and gazing at the generous +vision in front of him. It wore a bonnet, and a +rich Paisley shawl over its flowered silk.</p> + +<p>"But it's only ten o'clock!" Mrs. Prockter +protested.</p> + +<p>"Yes. But her's gone to bed."</p> + +<p>"Why," Mrs. Prockter exclaimed, changing the +subject wilfully, "you are all straight here!" +(For the carpets had been unrolled and laid.)</p> + +<p>And she sat down on a massive Early Victorian +mahogany chair about fifteen feet from the dying +fire, and began to fan herself with her hands. She +was one of your women who are never cold.</p> + +<p>James, having nothing to say, said nothing, +following his custom.</p> + +<p>"I'm not ill-pleased," said Mrs. Prockter, +"that Helen is out of the way. The fact is—it +was you that I wanted to have a word with. +You'll guess what about?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Emanuel?" James hazarded.</p> + +<p>"Precisely. I had to put him to bed. He +is certainly in for a very serious cold, and I trust—I +fervently trust—it may not be bronchitis. +That would mean nurses, and nothing upsets a +house more than nurses. What happened, Mr. +Ollerenshaw?"</p> + +<p>James set the candle down on another Early +Victorian chair, there being no occasional table +at hand, and very slowly lowered himself to a +sitting posture on a third.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what happened, missis," he said, +putting his hands on his knees.</p> + +<p>And he told her, beginning with the loss of +the ship and ocean, and ending with Helen's ever +memorable words: "You must help me."</p> + +<p>"That's what happened, missis," he said, +grimly.</p> + +<p>She had punctuated his recital by several +exclamations, and when he had finished she +gave rein to her sentiments.</p> + +<p>"My <i>dear</i> Mr. Ollerenshaw," she said, in the +kindest manner conceivable, "how I sympathise +with you! How I wish I could help you!"</p> + +<p>Her sympathy was a genuine comfort to him. +He did not, in that instant, care a fig for Helen's +notion about the direction of caps. He was simply +and humanly eased by the sweet tones of this +ample and comely dame. Besides, the idea of a +woman such as Mrs. Prockter marrying a man +such as him was (he knew) preposterous. She +belonged to a little world which called him +"Jimmy," whereas he belonged to a little world +of his own. True, he was wealthy; but she was +not poor—and no amount of money (he thought) +could make a bridge to join those two worlds. +Nevertheless, here she was, talking to him alone +at ten o'clock at night—and not for the first +time, either! Obviously, then, there was no +nonsense about <i>her</i>, whatever nonsensical world +she belonged to.</p> + +<p>She ran over with sympathy. Having no +further fear of Helen making trouble in her own +family, she had all her feelings at liberty to +condone with James.</p> + +<p>The candle, throwing a small hemisphere of +feeble radiance in the vastness of the dim hall, +sat on its chair between them.</p> + +<p>"I <i>can</i> help you," she said, suddenly, after +grunts from James. "I'm calling on the Swetnams +the day after to-morrow. I'll tell them +about—about to-day, and when Mrs. Swetnam +asks me for an explanation of it, I will be mysterious. +If Lilian is there, Mrs. Swetnam will +certainly get her out of the room. Then I will +just give the faintest hint that the explanation +is merely jealousy between Emanuel and Mr. +Dean concerning—a certain young lady. I shall +treat it all as a joke; you can rely on me. Immediately +I am gone Lilian will hear about it. +She will quarrel with Andrew the next time she +sees him; and if he <i>wishes</i> to be free, he may be."</p> + +<p>She smiled the arch, naughty, pleasantly-malign +smile of a terribly experienced dowager. +And she seemed positively anxious that James +should have Andrew Dean for a son-in-law.</p> + +<p>James, in his simplicity, was delighted. It +appeared to him a Mephistophelian ingenuity. +He thought how clever women were, on their +own ground, and what an advantage they had +in their immense lack of scruple.</p> + +<p>"Of course," said she, "I have always said +that a marriage between Andrew Dean and +Lilian would be a mistake—a very serious mistake. +They are quite unsuited to each other. +She isn't in love with him—she's only been +flattered by his attentions into drawing him on. +I feel sorry for the little thing."</p> + +<p>At a stroke, she had converted a shameful conspiracy +into an act of the highest virtue. And her +smile changed, too—became a <i>good</i> smile, a smile +on which a man might depend. His heart went +out to her, and he contemplated the smile in a +pleased, beatific silence.</p> + +<p>Just then the candle—a treacherous thing—flamed +up and went out.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" cried Mrs. Prockter.</p> + +<p>And James had not a match. He never +smoked. And without an atlas of the Hall, showing +the location of match-boxes, he saw no hope +of finding a match.</p> + +<p>The fire was as good as gone. A few cinders +burnt red under the ash, showing the form of the +chimney-piece, but no more.</p> + +<p>"An ye got a match?" he asked her.</p> + +<p>"No," she said, drily, "I don't carry matches. +But I can tell you I don't like being in the dark +at all." Her voice came to him out of nothing, +and had a most curious effect on his spine. +"Where are you, Mr. Ollerenshaw?"</p> + +<p>"I'm a-sitting here," he replied.</p> + +<p>"Well," said she, "if <i>you</i> can't find a match, I +think you had better lead me to the door. I +certainly can't find my way there myself. Where +is your hand?"</p> + +<p>Then a hand touched his shoulder and burnt +him. "Is that you?" asked the voice.</p> + +<p>"Ay!" he said.</p> + +<p>And he took the hand, and the hand squeezed +his hand—squeezed it violently. It may have +been due to fear, it may have been due to mere +inadvertence on the part of the hand; but the +hand did, with unmistakable, charming violence, +squeeze his hand.</p> + +<p>And he rose.</p> + +<p>"What's that light there?" questioned the +voice, in a whisper.</p> + +<p>"Where?" he whispered also.</p> + +<p>"There—behind."</p> + +<p>He turned. A luminance seemed to come from +above, from the unseen heights of the magnificent +double staircase. As his eyes grew accustomed to +the conditions, he gradually made out the details +of the staircase.</p> + +<p>"You'd better go and see," the whispering voice +commanded.</p> + +<p>He dropped the hand and obeyed, creeping up +the left wing of the staircase. As he faced about +at the half-landing, he saw Helen, in an orange-tinted +peignoir, and her hair all down her back, +holding a candle. She beckoned to him. He +ascended to her.</p> + +<p>"Who's there?" she inquired, coldly.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Prockter," he murmured.</p> + +<p>"And are you sitting together in the dark?" +she inquired, coldly.</p> + +<p>The story that the candle had expired seemed +feeble in the extreme. And for him the word +"cap" was written in letters of fire on the darkness +below.</p> + +<p>He made no attempt to answer her question.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a><h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + +<p>SEEING A LADY HOME</p> +<br /> + +<p>Those words of Helen's began a fresh chapter +in the life of her great-stepuncle, James Ollerenshaw. +They set up in him a feeling, or rather a +whole range of feelings, which he had never before +experienced. At tea, Helen had hinted at the +direction of Mrs. Prockter's cap. That was +nothing. He could not be held responsible for +the direction of Mrs. Prockter's cap. He could +laugh at that, even though he faintly blushed. +But to be caught sitting in the dark with Mrs. +Prockter, after ten o'clock at night, in his own +house; to have the fact pointed out to him in +such a peculiar, meaningful tone as Helen employed—here +was something that connected him +and Mrs. Prockter in a manner just a shade too +serious for mere smiling. Here was something +that had not before happened to him in his career +as rent-collector and sage.</p> + +<p>Not that he minded! No, he did not mind. +Although he had no intention whatever of disputing +the possession of Mrs. Prockter with her +stepson, he did not object to all the implication in +Helen's remarkable tone. On the contrary, he +was rather pleased. Why should not he sit with a +lady in the dark? Was he not as capable as any +man of sitting with a lady in the dark? He was +even willing that Helen should credit him, or +pretend to credit him, with having prearranged +the dark.</p> + +<p>Ah! People might say what they chose! +But what a dog he might have been had he cared +to be a dog! Here he was, without the slightest +preliminary practice, successfully sitting with a +lady in the dark, at the first attempt! And what +lady? Not the first-comer! Not Mrs. Butt! +Not the Mayoress! But the acknowledged Queen +of Bursley, the undisputed leader of all that was +most distinguished in Bursley society! And no +difficulty about it either! And she had squeezed +his hand. She had continued to squeeze it. She, +in her rich raiment, with her fine ways, and her +correct accent, had squeezed the hand of Jimmy +Ollerenshaw, with his hard old clothes and his +Turkish cap, his simple barbarisms, his lack of +style, and his uncompromising dialect! Why? +Because he was rich? No. Because he was a +man, because he was the best man in Bursley, +when you came down to essentials.</p> + +<p>So his thoughts ran.</p> + +<p>His interest in Helen's heart had become quite +a secondary interest, but she recalled him to a +sense of his responsibilities as great-stepuncle of a +capricious creature like her.</p> + +<p>"What are you and Mrs. Prockter talking +about?" she questioned him in a whisper, holding +the candle towards his face and scrutinising it, as +seemed to him, inimically.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, "if you must know, about you +and that there Andrew Dean."</p> + +<p>She made a brusque movement. And then she +beckoned him to follow her along the corridor, out +of possible earshot of Mrs. Prockter.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say, uncle," she demanded, +putting the candle down on a small table that +stood under a large oil-painting of Joshua and the +Sun in the corridor, "that you've been discussing +my affairs with Mrs. Prockter?"</p> + +<p>He saw instantly that he had not been the sage +he imagined himself to be. But he was not going +to be bullied by Helen, or any other woman +younger than Mrs. Prockter. So he stiffly +brazened it out.</p> + +<p>"Ay!" he said.</p> + +<p>"I never heard of such a thing!" she exploded, +but still whispering.</p> + +<p>"You said as I must help ye, and I'm helping +ye," said he.</p> + +<p>"But I didn't mean that you were to go +chattering about me all over Bursley, uncle," she +protested, adopting now the pained, haughty, and +over-polite attitude.</p> + +<p>"I don't know as I've been chattering all over +Bursley," he rebutted her. "I don't know as +I'm much of a chatterer. I might name them +as could give me a start and a beating when it +comes to talking the nose off a brass monkey. +Mrs. Prockter came in to inquire about what had +happened here this afternoon, as well she might, +seeing as Emanuel went home with a couple o' +gallons o' my water in his pockets. So I told her +all about it. Her's a very friendly woman. And +her's promised to do what her can for ye."</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"Why, to get Andrew Dean for ye, seeing as +ye're so fixed on him, wi' as little gossip as maybe."</p> + +<p>"Oh! So Mrs. Prockter has kindly consented +to get Andrew Dean for me! And how does she +mean to do it?"</p> + +<p>James had no alternative; he was obliged to +relate how Mrs. Prockter meant to do it.</p> + +<p>"Now, uncle," said Helen, "just listen to me. +If Mrs. Prockter says a single word about me to +any one, I will never speak either to her or you +again. Mind! A single word! A nice thing +that she should go up to Swetnam's, and hint that +Andrew and Emanuel have been fighting because +of me! What about my reputation? And do +you suppose that I want the leavings of Lilian +Swetnam? Me! The idea is preposterous!"</p> + +<p>"You wanted 'em badly enough this afternoon," +said he.</p> + +<p>"No, I didn't," she contradicted him passionately. +"You are quite mistaken. You misunderstood +me, though I'm surprised that you +should have done. Perhaps I was a little excited +this afternoon. Certainly you were thinking +about other things. I expect you were expecting +Mrs. Prockter this evening. It would have +been nicer of you to have told me she was +coming."</p> + +<p>"Now, please let it be clearly understood," she +swept on. "You must go down and tell Mrs. +Prockter at once that you were entirely in error, +and that she is on no account to breathe a word +about me to any one. Whatever you were both +thinking of I cannot imagine! But I can assure +you I'm extremely annoyed. Mrs. Prockter +putting her finger in the pie!.... Let her take care +that I don't put my finger into <i>her</i> pie! I always +knew she was a gossiping old thing, but, +really—"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Ollerenshaw!" A prettily plaintive +voice rose from the black depths below.</p> + +<p>"There! she's getting impatient for you!" +Helen snapped. "Run off to her at once. To +think that if I hadn't happened to hear the bell +ring, and come out to see what was the matter, I +should have been the talk of Bursley before I was +a day older!"</p> + +<p>She picked up the candle.</p> + +<p>"I must have a light!" said James, somewhat +lamely.</p> + +<p>"Why?" Helen asked, calmly. "If you could +begin in the dark, why can't you finish in the dark? +You and she seem to like being in the dark."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Ollerenshaw!" The voice was a little +nearer.</p> + +<p>"Her's coming!" James ejaculated.</p> + +<p>Helen seemed to lose her courage before that +threat.</p> + +<p>"Here! Take this one, then!" said she, giving +James her candle, and fleeing down the corridor.</p> + +<p>James had the sensation of transacting a part +in a play at a theatre where the scenery was +absolutely realistic and at the same time of a +romantic quality. Moonlight streaming in through +the windows of the interminable corridor was +alone wanting to render the illusion perfect. It +was certainly astonishing—what you could buy +with seven thousand two hundred and fifty +pounds! Perhaps the most striking portion of +the scenery was Helen's peignoir. He had not +before witnessed her in a peignoir. The effect of +it was agreeable; but, indeed, the modern taste +for luxury was incredible! He wondered if Mrs. +Prockter practised similar extravagances.</p> + +<p>While such notions ran through his head he +was hurrying to the stairs, and dropping a hail +of candle-grease on the floor. He found Mrs. +Prockter slowly and cautiously ascending the +stairway. If he was at the summit of Mont +Blanc she had already reached Les Grands Mulets.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" she asked, pausing, and looking +up at him with an appealing gesture.</p> + +<p>"What's what?"</p> + +<p>"Why have you been so long?" It was as if +she implied that these minutes without him were +an eternity of ennui. He grew more and more +conceited. He was already despising Don Juan +as a puling boy.</p> + +<p>"Helen heard summat, and so she had come +out of her bedroom. Her's nervous i' this big +house."</p> + +<p>"Did you tell her I was here, Mr. Ollerenshaw?"</p> + +<p>By this time he had rejoined her at Les Grands +Mulets.</p> + +<p>"No," he said, without sufficiently reflecting.</p> + +<p>"She didn't hear me call out, then?"</p> + +<p>"Did ye call out?" If he was in a theatre, he +also could act.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it's just as well," said Mrs. Prockter, +after a momentary meditation. "Under the +circumstances she cannot possibly suspect our +little plot."</p> + +<p>Their little plot! In yielding to the impulse to +tell her that Helen was unaware of her presence +in the house he had forgotten that he had made it +excessively difficult for him to demolish the said +plot. He could not one moment agree with +enthusiasm to the plot, and the next moment say +that the plot had better be abandoned. Some +men, doubtless, could. But he could not. He +was scarcely that kind of man. His proper course +would have been to relate to Mrs. Prockter exactly +what had passed between himself and Helen, +and trust to her common sense. Unhappily, with +the intention of pleasing her, or reassuring her, +or something equally silly, he had lied to her and +rendered the truth impracticable. However, he +did not seem to care much. He had already +pushed Helen's affairs back again to quite a +secondary position.</p> + +<p>"I suppose ye think it'll be all right, missis," +he said, carelessly—"ye going up to Mrs. Swetnam's +o' that 'n, and—"</p> + +<p>"Rely on me," said she, silencing him. +Thus, without a pang, he left Helen to her fate. +They had touched the ground-floor. +"Thank you very much, Mr. Ollerenshaw," +said Mrs. Prockter. "Good-night. I'll make the +best of my way home."</p> + +<p>Curious, how sorry he felt at this announcement! +He had become quite accustomed to being +a conspirator with her in the vast house lighted by +a single candle, and he did not relish the end of the +performance.</p> + +<p>"I'll step along wi' ye," said he.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" she said. "I really can't +allow—"</p> + +<p>"Allow what?"</p> + +<p>"Allow you to inconvenience yourself like that +for me."</p> + +<p>"Pooh!" said he.</p> + +<p>And he, who had never in his life seen a lady to +her door, set out on the business as though he had +done nothing else every night of his life, as though +it was an enterprise that did not require practice.</p> + +<p>He opened the door, and put the candle on the +floor behind it, where he could easily find it on +returning. "I'll get a box o' matches from +somewhere while I'm out," said he.</p> + +<p>He was about to extinguish the candle when +she stopped him. "Mr. Ollerenshaw," she said, +firmly, "you haven't got your boots on. Those +slippers are not thick enough for this weather."</p> + +<p>He gazed at her. Should he yield to her? The +idea of yielding to her, for the mere sake of yielding +to her, presented itself to him as a charming idea. +So he disappeared with the candle, and reappeared +in his boots.</p> + +<p>"You won't need a muffler?" she suggested.</p> + +<p>Now was the moment to play the hardy Norseman. +"Oh, no!" he laughed.</p> + +<p>This concern for his welfare, coming from such +a royal creature, was, however, immensely +agreeable.</p> + +<p>She stood out on the steps; he extinguished the +candle, and then joined her and banged the door. +They started. Several hundred yards of winding +pitch-dark drive had to be traversed.</p> + +<p>"Will you kindly give me your arm?" she +said.</p> + +<p>She said it so primly, so correctly, and with +such detachment, that they might have been in +church, and she saying: "Will you kindly let me +look over your Prayer Book?"</p> + +<p>When they arrived at the gas-lit Oldcastle-road +he wanted to withdraw his arm, but he did not +know how to begin withdrawing it. Hence he was +obliged to leave it where it was.</p> + +<p>And as they were approaching the front gate of +the residence of Mr. Buchanan, the Scotch editor +of the <i>Signal</i>, a perfect string of people emerged +from that front gate. Mrs. Buchanan had been +giving a whist drive. There were sundry Swetnams +among the string. And the whole string +was merry and talkative. It was a fine night. +The leading pearls of the string bore down on the +middle-aged pair, and peered, and passed.</p> + +<p>"Good-night, Mrs. Prockter. Good-night, Mr. +Ollerenshaw."</p> + +<p>Then another couple did the same. "Good-night, +Mrs. Prockter. Good-night, Mr. Ollerenshaw."</p> + +<p>And so it went on. And the string, laughing +and talking, gradually disappeared diminuendo in +the distance towards Bursley.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you know you've done it this time?" +observed Mrs. Prockter.</p> + +<p>It was a dark saying, but James fully understood +it. He felt as though he had drunk champagne. +"As well be hung for a sheep as a +lamb!" he said to himself. And deliberately +squeezed the royal arm.</p> + +<p>Nothing violent happened. He had rather +expected the heavens to fall, or that at least +Mrs. Prockter would exclaim: "Unhand me, +monster!" But nothing violent happened.</p> + +<p>"And this is me, James Ollerenshaw!" he said +to himself, still squeezing.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXV"></a><h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2> + +<p>GIRLISH CONFIDENCES</p> +<br /> + +<p>One afternoon Sarah Swetnam called, and +Helen in person opened the great door to the +visitor.</p> + +<p>"I saw that frock in Brunt's three days ago," +Helen began, kissing the tall, tightbound, large-boned +woman.</p> + +<p>"I know you did, Nell," Sarah admitted. +"But you needn't tell me so. Don't you like +it?"</p> + +<p>"I think it's a dream," Helen replied, quickly. +"Turn round." But there was a certain lack of +conviction in her voice, and in Sarah's manner +there was something strained. Accordingly, they +both became extravagantly effusive—or, at any +rate, more effusive than usual, though each was +well aware that the artifice was entirely futile.</p> + +<p>"All alone?" Sarah asked, when she had +recovered from the first shock of the hall's +magnificence.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Helen. "It's Georgiana's afternoon +out, and uncle's away, and I haven't got any +new servants yet."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Ollerenshaw away! No one ever heard +of such a thing! If you knew him as well as we +do, you'd have fainted with surprise. It ought to +be in the paper. Where's he gone to?"</p> + +<p>"He's gone to Derby, to try to buy some +property that he says is going very cheap there. +He's been gone three days now. He got a letter at +breakfast, and said he must go to Derby at once. +However, he had to finish his rents. The trouble is +that his rents never are finished, and I'm bothered +all the time by people coming with three and +sixpence, or four shillings, and a dirty rent-book! +Oh! and the dirt on the coins! My dear, you +can't imagine! There's one good thing. He will +have to come back for next week's rents. Not +that I'm sorry he's gone. It gives me a chance, +you see. By the time he returns I shall have my +servants in."</p> + +<p>"Do tell me what servants you're going to +have?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I went to that agency at Oldcastle. +I've got a German butler. He speaks four +languages, and has beautiful eyes."</p> + +<p>"A German butler!"</p> + +<p>If it had been a German prince Sarah could not +have been more startled nor more delighted.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and a cook, and two other maids; and a +gardener and a boy. I shall keep Georgiana as +my own maid."</p> + +<p>"My child, you're going it!"</p> + +<p>"My child, I came here to go it."</p> + +<p>"And—and Mr. Ollerenshaw is really pleased?"</p> + +<p>Helen laughed. "Uncle never goes into raptures, +you know. But I hope he will be pleased. +The fact is, he doesn't know anything about these +new servants yet. He'll find them installed when +he returns. It will be a little treat for him. My +piano came this morning. Care to try it?"</p> + +<p>"Rather!" said Sarah. "Well, I never saw +anything like it!" This was in reference to her +first glimpse of the great drawing-room. "How +you've improved it, you dear thing!"</p> + +<p>"You see, I have my own cheque-book; it +saves worry."</p> + +<p>"I see!" said Sarah, meaningly, putting her +purse on the piano, her umbrella on a chair, and +herself on the music-stool.</p> + +<p>"Shall we have tea?" Helen suggested, after +Sarah had performed on the Bechstein.</p> + +<p>"Yes. Let me help you, do, dearest."</p> + +<p>They wandered off to the kitchens, and while +they were seated at the kitchen-table, sipping tea, +side by side, Sarah said:</p> + +<p>"Now if you want an idea, I've got a really +good one for you."</p> + +<p>"For me? What sort of an idea?"</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you. You know Mrs. Wiltshire is +dead."</p> + +<p>"I don't. I didn't even know there was a Mrs. +Wiltshire."</p> + +<p>"Well, there was, and there isn't any longer. +Mrs. Wiltshire was the main social prop of the old +rector. And the annual concert of the St. Luke's +Guild has always been held at her house, down at +Shawport, you know. Awfully poky! But it +was the custom since the Flood, and no one ever +dared to hint at a change. Now the concert was +to have been next week but one, and she's just +gone and died, and the rector is wondering where +he can hold it. I met him this morning. Why +don't you let him hold it here? That would be +a splendid way of opening your house—Hall, +I beg its pardon. And you could introduce +the beautiful eyes of your German butler to the +entire neighbourhood. Of course, I don't know +whether Mr. Ollerenshaw would like it."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said Helen, without blenching, "uncle +would do as I wish."</p> + +<p>She mused, in silence, during a number of +seconds.</p> + +<p>"The idea doesn't appeal to you?" Sarah +queried, disappointment in her tones.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it does," said Helen. "But I must think +it over. Now, would you care to see the rest of +the house?"</p> + +<p>"I should love to. Oh dear, I've left my +handkerchief with my purse in the drawing-room."</p> + +<p>"Have mine!" said Helen, promptly.</p> + +<p>But even after this final proof of intimate +friendship, there still remained an obstinate trifle +of insincerity in their relations that afternoon. +Helen was sure that Sarah Swetnam had paid the +call specially to say something, and that the something +had not yet been said. And the apprehension +of an impending scene gradually took +possession of her nerves and disarranged them. +When they reached the attics, and were enjoying +the glorious views of the moorland in the distance +and of Wilbraham Water in the immediate foreground, +Helen said, very suddenly:</p> + +<p>"Will the rector be in this afternoon?"</p> + +<p>"I should say so. Why?"</p> + +<p>"I was thinking we might walk down there +together, and I could suggest to him at once about +having the concert here."</p> + +<p>Sarah clapped her hands. "Then you've +decided?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly."</p> + +<p>"How funny you are, Nell, with your decisions!"</p> + +<p>In Helen's bedroom, amid her wardrobe, there +was no chance of dangerous topics, the attention +being monopolised by one subject, and that a safe +one.</p> + +<p>At last they went out together, two models of +style and deportment, and Helen pulled to the +great front door with a loud echoing clang.</p> + +<p>"Fancy that place being all empty. Aren't you +afraid of sleeping there while your uncle is away?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Helen. "But I <i>should</i> be afraid if +Georgiana wasn't afraid."</p> + +<p>After this example of courageous introspection, +a silence fell upon the pair; the silence held firm +while they got out of the grounds and crossed +Oldcastle-road, and took to the Alls field-path, +from which a unique panorama of Bursley—chimneys, +kilns, canals, railways, and smoke-pall—is +to be obtained. Helen was determined not to +break the silence. And then came the moment +when Sarah Swetnam could no longer suffer the +silence; and she began, very cautiously:</p> + +<p>"I suppose you've heard all about Andrew and +Emanuel Prockter?"</p> + +<p>Helen perceived that she had not been mistaken, +and that the scene was at hand. "No," said she. +"What about them?"</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to say you've not heard?"</p> + +<p>"No. What about?"</p> + +<p>"The quarrel between those two?"</p> + +<p>"Emanuel and Mr. Dean?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. But you must have heard?"</p> + +<p>"I assure you, Sally, no one has told me a word +about it." (Which was just as true as it was +untrue.)</p> + +<p>"But they quarrelled up here. I <i>did</i> hear that +Andrew threw Emanuel into your lake."</p> + +<p>"Who told you that?"</p> + +<p>"It was Mrs. Prockter. She was calling on the +mater yesterday, and she seemed to be full of it—according +to the mater's account. Mrs. Prockters' +idea was that they had quarrelled about a woman."</p> + +<p>("Mrs. Prockter shall be repaid for this," said +Helen to herself.)</p> + +<p>"Surely Emanuel hasn't been falling in love +with Lilian, has he?" said Helen, aloud. She considered +this rather clever on her part. And it was.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" replied Sally, positively. "It's +not Lilian." And there was that in her tone which +could not be expressed in ten volumes. "You +know perfectly well who the woman is," Helen +seemed to hear her say.</p> + +<p>Then Helen said: "I think I can explain it. +They were both at our house the day we removed."</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>were</i> they?" murmured Sarah, in well-acted +surprise.</p> + +<p>"And Mr. Dean fell off some steps that Emanuel +was supposed to be holding. I <i>thought</i> he was +furious—but not to that point. That's probably +the secret of the whole thing. As for Mr. Dean +having pushed Emanuel into the lake, I don't +believe a word of it."</p> + +<p>"Then how was it that Emanuel had a cold and +had to stay in bed?"</p> + +<p>"My dear, to have a cold it isn't necessary to +have been thrown into Wilbraham Water!"</p> + +<p>"That's true," Sarah admitted.</p> + +<p>"However," Helen calmly proceeded, "I'll +find out all about it and let you know."</p> + +<p>"How shall you find out?"</p> + +<p>"I shall make Emanuel tell me. He will tell +me anything. And he's a dear boy."</p> + +<p>"Do you see him often up here?" Sarah inquired.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes!" This was not true. "We get on +together excellently. And I'm pretty sure that +Emanuel is not—well—interested in any other +woman. That's why I should say that they +have not been quarrelling about a woman. Unless, +of course, the woman is myself." She +laughed, and added: "But I'm not jealous. I +can trust Emanuel."</p> + +<p>And with marvellous intrepidity she looked +Sarah Swetnam in the face.</p> + +<p>"Then," Sarah stammered, "you and Emanuel +—you don't mean——"</p> + +<p>"My dear Sally, don't you think Emanuel is a +perfectly delightful boy?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>yes</i>!" said Sarah.</p> + +<p>"So do I," said Helen.</p> + +<p>"But are you——"</p> + +<p>"Between ourselves," Helen murmured. +"Mind you, between <i>ourselves</i>—I could imagine +stranger things happening."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Sarah, "this <i>is</i> news."</p> + +<p>"Mind, not a syllable!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, of course not."</p> + +<p>"By the way," Helen asked, "when are +Andrew and Lilian going to get married?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. No one knows. One confidence +for another, my dear; they don't always +hit it off."</p> + +<p>"What a pity!" Helen remarked. "Because +if ever two people were suited to each other in +this world, they are. But I hope they'll shake +down."</p> + +<p>They arrived at the rector's.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a><h2>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> + +<p>THE CONCERT</p> +<br /> + +<p>On another afternoon a middle-aged man and a +young-hearted woman emerged together from +Bursley Railway Station. They had a little +luggage, and a cab from the Tiger met them by +appointment. Impossible to deny that the young-hearted +one was wearing a flowered silk under +a travelling mantle. The man, before getting +into the cab, inquired as to the cost of the cab. +The gold angel of the Town Hall rose majestically +in front of him, and immediately behind him the +Park, with the bowling-green at the top, climbed +the Moorthorne slope. The bowling season was of +course over, but even during the season he had +scarcely played. He was a changed person. And +the greatest change of all had occurred that very +morning. Throughout a long and active career +he had worn paper collars. Paper collars had +sufficed him, and they had not shocked his friends. +But now he wore a linen collar, and eleven other +linen collars were in his carpet-bag. Yet it has +been said, by some individual who obviously +lacked experience of human nature, that a man +never changes the style of his collar after forty.</p> + +<p>The cab drove up to Hillport, and deposited +flowered silk and one bag at the residence of Mrs. +Prockter. It then ascended higher, passing into +the grounds of Wilbraham Hall, and ultimately +stopping at the grandiose portals thereof, which +were wide open.</p> + +<p>The occupant of the cab was surprised to see +two other cabs just departing. The next moment +he was more than surprised—he was startled. A +gentleman in evening dress stood at the welcoming +doors, and on perceiving him this gentleman ran +down the steps, and, with a sort of hurried grace, +took his carpet-bag from him, addressing him in +broken English, and indicating by incomprehensible +words and comprehensible signs that he +regarded him, the new arrival, as the light of his +eyes and the protector of the poor and of the +oppressed. And no sooner had he got the new +arrival safe into the hall than he stripped him of +hat, coat, and muffler, and might have proceeded +to extremes had not his attention been distracted +by another vehicle.</p> + +<p>This vehicle contained the aged rector of +Bursley.</p> + +<p>"Ha! Mr. Ollerenshaw!" cried the divine. +"Your niece told me only yesterday that you were +still in Derby buying property, and would not be +back."</p> + +<p>"I've bought it, parson," said James.</p> + +<p>"Ha! ha!" said the divine, rubbing his hands. +He stooped habitually, which gave him the air of +always trying to glimpse at his toes over the +promontory of his waist. And as James made no +reply to the remark, he repeated: "Ha! ha! So +you decided to come to my concert, eh?"</p> + +<p>"I only heard of it yesterday," said James.</p> + +<p>"Well," said the divine, "I'm afraid they'll be +waiting for me. Ha! ha! This way, isn't it? +Fine place you've got here. Very fine! Noble!"</p> + +<p>And he disappeared through the double doors +that led to the drawing-room, which doors were +parted for him by a manikin whose clothes seemed +to be held together by new sixpences. During the +brief instant of opening, a vivacious murmur of +conversation escaped like gas from the drawing-room +into the hall.</p> + +<p>James glanced about for his bag—it was gone. +The gentleman in evening dress was out on the +steps. Disheartened by the mysterious annihilation +of his old friend the bag, James, weary +with too much and too various emotion, went +slowly up the grand staircase. In his bedroom +the first thing he saw was his bag, which had been +opened and its contents suitably bestowed. +Thus his hair-brushes were on the dressing-table. +This miracle completed his undoing. He sat +down on an easy-chair, drew the eider-down off +the bed, and put it on his knees, for the temperature +was low. He did not intend to go to sleep. +But he did go to sleep. It was simply a case of +nature recovering from emotions.</p> + +<p>He slept about an hour, and then, having +brushed his wispish hair, he descended the +stairs, determined to do or die. Perhaps he +would not have plumped himself straight into +the drawing-room had not the manikin clad in +sixpences assumed that the drawing-room was +his Mecca and thrown open the doors.</p> + +<p>A loud "Hush!" greeted him. The splendid +chamber was full of women's hats and men's +heads; but hats predominated. And the majority +of the audience were seated on gilt chairs which +James had never before seen. Probably there +were four or five score gilt chairs. At the other +end of the room the aged rector sat in an easy-chair. +Helen herself was perched at the piano, +and in front of the piano stood Emanuel Prockter. +Except that the room was much larger, and that, +instead of a faultless evening dress, Emanuel +wore a faultless frock-coat (with the rest of a +suit), the scene reminded James of a similar one +on the great concertina night at Mrs. Prockter's.</p> + +<p>Many things had happened since then. Still, +history repeats itself.</p> + +<p>"O Love!" exclaimed Emanuel Prockter, +adagio and sostenuto, thus diverting from James +a hundred glances which James certainly was +delighted to lose.</p> + +<p>And Helen made the piano say "O Love!" +in its fashion.</p> + +<p>And presently Emanuel was launched upon +the sea of his yearnings, and voyaging behind +the hurricane of passion. And, as usual, he hid +nothing from his hearers. Then he hove to, and, +as it were, climbed to the main-topgallant-sail +in order to announce:</p> + +<p>"O Love!"</p> + +<p>It was not surprising that his voice cracked. +Emanuel ought to have been the last person to +be surprised at such a phenomenon. But he was +surprised. To him the phenomenon of that +cracking was sempiternally novel and astounding. +It pained and shocked him. He wondered +whose the fault could be? And then, according +to his habit, he thought of the pianist. Of +course, it was the fault of the pianist. And, +while continuing to sing, he slowly turned and +gazed with sternness at the pianist. The audience +must not be allowed to be under any misapprehension +as to the identity of the culprit. +Unfortunately, Emanuel, wrapped up, like the +artist he was, in his performance, had himself +forgotten the identity of the culprit. Helen had +ceased to be Helen; she was merely his pianist. +The thing that he least expected to encounter +when gazing sternly at the pianist was the +pianist's gaze. He was accustomed to flash his +anger on the pianist's back. But Helen, who had +seen other pianists at work for Emanuel, turned +as he turned, and their eyes met. The collision +disorganised Emanuel. He continued to glare +with sternness, and he ceased to sing. A contretemps +had happened. For the fifth of a +second everybody felt exceedingly awkward. +Then Helen said, with a faint, cold smile, in a +voice very low and very clear:</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with you, Mr. Prockter? +It wasn't my voice that cracked."</p> + +<p>The minx!</p> + +<p>There was a half-hearted attempt at the maintenance +of the proprieties, and then Wilbraham +Hall rang with the laughter of a joke which the +next day had become the common precious +property of all the Five Towns. When the +aged rector had restored his flock to a sense +of decency Mr. Emanuel Prockter had vanished. +In that laughter his career as a singer reached +an abrupt and final conclusion. The concert +also came to an end. And the collection, by +which the divine always terminated these proceedings, +was the largest in the history of the +Guild.</p> + +<p>A quarter of an hour or twenty minutes later +all the guests, members, and patrons of the St. +Luke's Guild had left, most of them full of kind +inquiries after Mr. Ollerenshaw, the genial host +of that so remarkably successful entertainment. +The appearances and disappearances of Mr. +Ollerenshaw had been a little disturbing. First +it had been announced that he was detained in +Derby, buying property. Indeed, few persons +were unaware that, except for a flying visit in +the middle, of two days, to collect his rents, +James had spent a fortnight in Derby purchasing +sundry portions of Derby. Certainly Helen had +not expected him. Nor had she expected Mrs. +Prockter, who two days previously had been +called away by telegram to the bedside of a sick +cousin in Nottingham. Nor had she expected +Lilian Swetnam, who was indisposed. The unexpected +ladies had not arrived; but James had +arrived, as disconcerting as a ghost, and then +had faded away with equal strangeness. None +of the departing audience had seen even the tassel +of his cap.</p> + +<p>Helen discovered him in his little room at the +end of the hall. She was resplendent in black +and silver.</p> + +<p>"So here you are, uncle!" said she, and kissed +him. "I'm so glad you got back in time. Can +you lend me sixpence?"</p> + +<p>"What for, lass?"</p> + +<p>"I want to give it to the man who's taking away +the chairs I had to hire."</p> + +<p>"What's become of that seven hundred and +seventy pound odd as ye had?"</p> + +<p>"Oh," she said, lightly, "I've spent that." +She thought she might as well have done with it, +and added: "And I'm in debt—lots. But we'll +talk about that later. Sixpence, please."</p> + +<p>He blenched. But he, too, had been expensive +in the pursuit of delight. He, too, had tiresome +trifles on his mind. So he produced the sixpence, +and accepted the dissipation of nearly eight +hundred pounds in less than a month with superb +silence.</p> + +<p>Helen rang the bell. "You see, I've had all +the bells put in order," she said.</p> + +<p>The gentleman in evening dress entered.</p> + +<p>"Fritz," said she, "give this sixpence to the +man with the chairs."</p> + +<p>"Yes, miss," Fritz dolefully replied. "A note +for you, miss."</p> + +<p>And he stretched forth a charger on which was +a white envelope.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me, uncle," said she, tearing the +envelope.</p> + +<p>"Dinna' mind me, lass," said he.</p> + +<p>The note ran:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"I must see you by the Water to-night at nine +o'clock. Don't fail, or there will be a row.—</p> + +<p>A.D."</p></div> + +<p>She crushed it.</p> + +<p>"No answer, Fritz," said she. "Tell cook, +dinner for two."</p> + +<p>"Who's he?" demanded James when Fritz +had bowed himself out.</p> + +<p>"That's our butler," said Helen, kindly. +"Don't you like his eyes?"</p> + +<p>"I wouldna' swop him eyes," said James. He +could not trust himself to discuss the butler's +eyes at length.</p> + +<p>"Don't be late for dinner, will you, uncle?" +she entreated him.</p> + +<p>"Dinner!" he cried. "I had my dinner at +Derby. What about my tea?"</p> + +<p>"I mean tea," she said.</p> + +<p>He went upstairs again to his room, but did +not stay there a moment. In the corridor he met +Helen, swishing along.</p> + +<p>"Look here, lass," he stopped her. "A +straight question deserves a straight answer. I'm +not given to curiosity as a rule, but what is +Emanuel Prockter doing on my bed?"</p> + +<p>"Emanuel Prockter on your bed!" Helen +repeated, blankly. He saw that she was suffering +from genuine surprise.</p> + +<p>"On my bed!" he insisted.</p> + +<p>The butler appeared, having heard the inquiry +from below. He explained that Mr. Prockter, +after the song, had come to him and asked where +he could lie down, as he was conscious of a tendency +to faint. The butler had indicated Mr. +Ollerenshaw's room as the only masculine room +available.</p> + +<p>"Go and ask him how he feels," Helen commanded.</p> + +<p>Fritz obeyed, and returned with the message +that Mr. Prockter had "one of his attacks," and +desired his mother.</p> + +<p>"But he can't have his mother," said Helen. +"She's at Nottingham. He told me so himself. +He must be delirious." And she laughed.</p> + +<p>"No, her isn't," James put in. "Her's at +wum" (home).</p> + +<p>"How do you know, uncle?"</p> + +<p>"I know," said James. "Her'd better be +sent for."</p> + +<p>And she was sent for.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a><h2>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> + +<p>UNKNOTTING AND KNOTTING</p> +<br /> + +<p>When Mrs. Prockter arrived it was obvious to +Helen, in spite of her wonderful calm upon discovering +James Ollerenshaw's butler and page, +that the lady was extremely ill-at-ease. And +Helen, though preoccupied herself by matters of +the highest personal importance, did what she +could to remedy a state of affairs so unusual. +Probably nobody, within the memory of that +generation, had ever seen Mrs. Prockter ill-at-ease. +Helen inquired as to the health of the sick +relative at Nottingham, and received a reply in +which vagueness was mingled with hesitancy and +a blush. It then became further obvious to the +perspicuous Helen that Mrs. Prockter must have +heard of her stepson's singular adventure, and +either resented Helen's share in it, or was ashamed +of Emanuel's share in it.</p> + +<p>"You know that Emanuel is here?" said Helen, +with her most diplomatic and captivating smile.</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Prockter did not know. "I thought +Mr. Ollerenshaw wanted me," Mrs. Prockter +explained, "so I came as quickly as I could."</p> + +<p>"It was I who wanted to speak to you," said +Helen. "The truth is that Emanuel is lying on +uncle's bed, unwell or something, and he expressed +a wish to see you. He was singing at +the concert——"</p> + +<p>"So sorry I wasn't able to be here," Mrs. +Prockter inserted, with effusive anxiety.</p> + +<p>"We missed you awfully," Helen properly +responded. "The rector was inconsolable. So +was everybody," she added, feeling that as a +compliment the rector's grief might be deemed +insufficient. "And he had a breakdown."</p> + +<p>"Who? Emanuel?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I was accompanying him, and I am +afraid it was my fault. Anyhow, he didn't +finish his song. And then we missed him. He +had asked the butler to let him lie down somewhere, +and uncle found him in his bedroom. I +hope it's nothing serious."</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear girl," said Mrs. Prockter, regaining +somewhat her natural demeanour in a +laugh, "if it's only one of Emanuel's singing +breakdowns, we needn't worry. Can I go up +and talk sense to him? He's just like a child, +you know."</p> + +<p>"Let me take you up," cried Helen.</p> + +<p>And the two women ascended the grand staircase. +It was the first time the grand staircase +had been used with becoming dignity since Mrs. +Prockter had used it on her visit of inspection. +That staircase and Mrs. Prockter were made for +each other.</p> + +<p>No sooner had they disappeared than James +popped out of his lair, where he had been hiding, +and gazed up the staircase like a hunter stalking +his prey. The arrival of the page in sixpences +put him out of countenance for a moment, +especially when the page began to feed the hall-fire +in a manner contrary to all James's lifelong +notions of feeding fires. However, he passed the +time by giving the page a lesson.</p> + +<p>Helen tapped at the bedroom door, left Mrs. +Prockter to enter, and descended the stairs again.</p> + +<p>"Is her up there with him?" James asked, in +a whisper.</p> + +<p>Helen nodded.</p> + +<p>"Ye'd better ask her stop and have something +to eat wi' us," said James.</p> + +<p>Helen had to reconcile James Ollerenshaw to +the new scale of existence at Wilbraham Hall. +She had to make him swallow the butler, and the +page, and the other servants, and the grand piano—in +themselves a heavy repast—without counting +the evening dinner. Up to the present he had +said nothing, because there had been no fair +opportunity to say anything. But he might +start at any moment. And Helen had no reason +to believe that he had even begun the process of +swallowing. She argued, with a sure feminine +instinct and a large experience of mankind, that +if he could only be dodged into tacitly accepting +the new scale for even a single meal, her task +would be very much simplified. And what an +ally Mrs. Prockter would be!</p> + +<p>"Tell cook there will be three to dinner," she +said to the page, who fled gleefully.</p> + +<p>After a protracted interval Mrs. Prockter reappeared.</p> + +<p>She began by sighing. "The foolish boy is +seriously damaged," said she.</p> + +<p>"Not hurt?" Helen asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes. But only in his dignity. He pretends +it's his throat, but it isn't. It's only his dignity. +I suppose all singers are children, like that. I'm +really ashamed to have to ask you to let him lie +there a little, dear Miss Rathbone; but he is +positively sure that he can't get up. I've been +through these crises with him before, but never +one quite so bad."</p> + +<p>She laughed. They all laughed.</p> + +<p>"I'll let him lie there on one condition," Helen +sweetly replied. "And that is that you stay to +dinner. I am relying on you. And I won't take +a refusal."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Prockter looked sharply at James, and +James blushed.</p> + +<p>"James," she exclaimed, "you've told her. +And you promised you wouldn't till to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Nay!" said James. "I've said nowt! It's +you as has let it out, <i>now</i>, missis!"</p> + +<p>"Told me what, Mrs. Prockter?" Helen asked, +utterly unexpectant of the answer she was to +get.</p> + +<p>"My dear girl," said the elder dame, "do not +call me Mrs. Prockter. I am Mrs. Ollerenshaw. +I am the property that your uncle has been +buying at Derby. And he is my sick relative at +Nottingham. We preferred to do it like that. +We could not have survived engagements and +felicitations."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you wicked sinners! You—you terrible +darlings!" Helen burst out as soon as she could +control her voice.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ollerenshaw wept discreetly.</p> + +<p>"Bless us! Bless us!" murmured James, +not to beseech a benediction, but simply to give +the impression (quite false) that, in his opinion, +much fuss was being made about nothing.</p> + +<p>The new scale of existence was definitely +accepted. And in private Mrs. Ollerenshaw +entirely agreed with Helen as to the merits of the +butler.</p> + +<p>After dinner James hurried to his lair to search +for a book. The book was not where he had left +it, on his original entry into Wilbraham Hall. +Within two minutes, the majority of the household +staff was engaged in finding that book. Ultimately +the butler discovered it; the butler had +been reading it.</p> + +<p>"Ay!" said James, opening the volume as he +stood in front of the rich, expensive fire in the +hall. "Dickens—Charles Dickens—that's the +chap's name. I couldn't think of it when I was +telling you about th' book th' other day. I mun' +go on wi" that."</p> + +<p>"Couldn't you play us something?" responded +his wife.</p> + +<p>In the triumph of concertinas over grand pianos, +poor Emanuel, lying wounded upstairs, was +forgotten. At five minutes to nine Helen stole, +unperceived, away from the domestic tableau. +She had by no means recovered from her amazement; +but she had screened it off by main force +in her mind, and she was now occupied with something +far more important than the blameless +amours of the richest old man in Hillport.</p> + +<p>By Wilbraham Water a young man was walking +to and fro in the deep autumn night. He wore a +cap and a muffler, but no overcoat, and his hands +were pushed far down into the pockets of his +trousers. He regarded the ground fixedly, and +stamped his feet at every step. Then a pale +grey figure, with head enveloped in a shawl, and +skirts carefully withdrawn from the ground, +approached him.</p> + +<p>He did not salute the figure, he did not even +take his hands out of his pockets. He put his +face close to hers, and each could see that the +other's features were white and anxious.</p> + +<p>"So you've come," said he, glumly.</p> + +<p>"What do you want?" Helen coldly asked.</p> + +<p>"I want to speak to you. That's what I want. +If you care for Emanuel Prockter, why did you +play that trick on him this afternoon?"</p> + +<p>"What trick?"</p> + +<p>"You know perfectly well what I mean. So I'll +thank you not to beat about the bush. The plain +fact is that you don't care a pin for Prockter."</p> + +<p>"I never said I did."</p> + +<p>"You've made every one believe you did, anyhow. +You've even made me think so, though +all the time I knew it was impossible. An ass +like that!"</p> + +<p>"What do you want?" Helen repeated.</p> + +<p>They were both using a tone intended to indicate +that they were enemies from everlasting to +everlasting, and that mere words could not express +the intensity of their mutual hatred and +scorn. The casual distant observer might have +conceived the encounter to be a love idyll.</p> + +<p>There was a short silence.</p> + +<p>"I broke off my engagement last night," +Andrew Dean muttered, ferociously.</p> + +<p>"Really!" Helen commented.</p> + +<p>"You don't seem to care."</p> + +<p>"I don't see what it has to do with me. But +if you talked to Lilian Swetnam in the same nice +agreeable manner that you talk to me, I can't +say I'm surprised to hear that she broke with you."</p> + +<p>"Who told you <i>she</i> broke?" Andrew demanded.</p> + +<p>"I guessed," said Helen. "You'd never have +had the courage to break it off yourself."</p> + +<p>Andrew made a vicious movement.</p> + +<p>"If you mean to serve me as you served +Emanuel," she remarked, with bitter calm, +"please do it as gently as you can. And don't +throw me far. I can only swim a little."</p> + +<p>Andrew walked away.</p> + +<p>"Good-night," she called.</p> + +<p>"Look here!" he snarled coming back to her +"What's the matter with you? I know I +oughtn't to have asked Lilian to marry me. +Everybody knows that. It's universally agreed. +But are you going to make that an excuse for +spoiling the whole show? What's up with you +is pride."</p> + +<p>"And what is up with you?" she inquired.</p> + +<p>"Pride," said he. "How could I know you +were in love with me all the time? How +could——"</p> + +<p>"You couldn't," said Helen. "I wasn't. No +more than you were with me."</p> + +<p>"If you weren't in love with me, why did you +try to make me jealous?"</p> + +<p>"Me try to make you jealous!" she exclaimed, +disdainfully. "You flatter yourself, Mr. Dean!"</p> + +<p>"I can stand a good deal, but I can't stand lies, +and I won't!" he exploded. "I say you did try +to make me jealous."</p> + +<p>He then noticed that she was crying.</p> + +<p>The duologue might have extended itself indefinitely +if her tears had not excited him to +uncontrollable fury, to that instinctive cruelty +that every male is capable of under certain conditions. +Without asking her permission, without +uttering a word of warning, he rushed at her and +seized her in his arms. He crushed her with the +whole of his very considerable strength. And he +added insult to injury by kissing her about forty +seven times. Women are such strange, incalculable +creatures. Helen did not protest. She +did not invoke the protection of Heaven. She +existed, passively and silently, the unremonstrating +victim of his disgraceful violence.</p> + +<p>Then he held her at arm's length. "Will you +marry me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said.</p> + +<p>"Did you try to make me jealous?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>Later, as they walked by the lake, he ejaculated: +"I'm an awful brute!"</p> + +<p>"I like you as you are," she replied.</p> + +<p>But the answer was lacking in precision, for +at that moment he was being as tender as only an +awful brute can be.</p> + +<p>"Of course," she said, "we mustn't say anything +about it yet."</p> + +<p>"No," he agreed. "To let it out at once might +make unpleasantness between you and the +Swetnams."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" she said, "I wasn't thinking of that. +But there's another love-affair in the house, +and no house will hold two at once. It would be +nauseating."</p> + +<p>That is how they talk in the Five Towns. As +if one could have too much love, even in a cottage—to +say nothing of a Wilbraham Hall! Mrs. +Ollerenshaw placidly decided that she and James +would live at the Hall, though James would have +preferred something a size smaller. As I have +already noticed, the staircase suited her; James +suited her, too. No one could guess why, except +possibly James. They got on together, as the +Five Towns said, "like a house afire."</p> + +<p>Helen and Andrew Dean were satisfied with a +semi-detached villa in Park-road, with a fine +view of the gold angel. Women vary, capricious +beings! Helen is perfectly satisfied with one +servant. But she dresses rather better than +ever.</p> + +<br /> + +<p>THE END</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, +BRUNSWICK ST., STAMFORD ST., S.E., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Helen with the High Hand (2nd ed.) +by Arnold Bennett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HELEN WITH THE HIGH HAND (2ND ED.) *** + +***** This file should be named 12779-h.htm or 12779-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/7/7/12779/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Martin Pettit and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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