Leonora

the top of Oldcastle Street, two men conversing and gesticulating vehemently, each seated alone in a dog-cart. These persons, who had met fro

tably obliged to twist their necks in order to see one another; the attitude did nothing to ease the obvious asperity of the discussion. She thought the spectacle undignified and silly; and she marvel

proud face broke as if by the loosing of a spell into a generous and captivating smile; Mr. Dain blushed, the vision was too much for his composure; he moved his horse forward a yard or two, and then jerked it back ag

of a man with a new-born grievance, 'run this home

g calmness, and taking the reins she

r tea-half-past six. Tell Milly she must be in. The others too.' He gave these instructions in a lower tone, and emphasised them by a stormy and omino

de a glittering cynosure for envy. All around was grime, squalor, servitude, ugliness; the inglorious travail of two hundred thousand people, above ground and below it, filled the day and the night. But here, as it were suddenly, out of that earthy and laborious bed, rose the blossom of luxury, grace, and leisure, the final elegance of the industrial district of the Five Tow

g it, came a white muslin bow, soft, frail, feminate, an enchanting disclaimer of that facial sternness and the masculinity of that tailor-made dress, a signal at once provocative and wistful of the woman. She had brains; they appeared in her keen dark eyes. Her judgment was experienced and mature. She knew her world and its men and women. She was not too soon shocked, not too severe in her verdicts, not the victim of too many illusions. And yet, though everything about her witnessed to a serene

f forty as imagined by herself at the age of twenty. And she was that woman now! But she did not feel like forty; at thirty she had not felt thirty; she could only accept the almanac and the rules of arithmetic. The interminable years of her marriage rolled back, and she was eighteen again, ingenuous and trustful, convinced that her versatile husband was unique among his sex. The fading of a short-lived and factitious passion, the descent of the un

She drew up. From the height of the dog-cart she looked at her child; and the girlishness of Ethel's form, the self-consciousness of new

ring at her, struck with a foolish wonder to see h

er twice over!' thought Leonora; but she said aloud: '

se, and the straw hat, in a single glance that missed no detail. Leonora was not quite dissatisfied; Ethel carried hersel

aid Leonora, when she had recounted the meeting

he went out for a walk.' The gi

ushed. 'If I were you, Ethel, I should let that belt out one hole ... no

lived with her brother, the equally venerable Uncle Meshach, in a little house near the parish church of St. Lu

t of parkin, and of course I had to taste

say "st

Ethel dismally protested; and Leonora secretl

s. Uncle Meshach came back from the Isle of Man l

ow, my dear. Give

ach's a horrid old

ar gir

's uncle and not ours. I do hate tha

e's fault, anyho

cause he flatters you, and says you look younger than a

imple, unripe. For a brief moment, vainly coveting the ineffable charm of Ethel's immaturity, she had a sharp perception of the obscure mutual antipathy which separates one generation from the next. As the cob rattled into Hillport, that aristocratic and plutocratic suburb of the town, that haunt of exclusiveness, that retreat of high life and good tone, she thought how commonplace, vulgar, and petty was the opulent existence within those tree-sh

f the lawn, when Ethel ran into the garden from the drawing-ro

letter from U

tic of Uncle Meshach that he should write her a letter on her fortieth birthday; she could imagine the uncouth mixture of wit, rude candour, and wisdom with which he would greet her; his was a strange and sinister personality, but she knew that he admired her. The note was writ

partner William Twemlow, and a quarter of a century since William's wild son, Arthur, had run away to America. Yet Uncle Meshach's letter seemed to invest these far-off things with a mysterious and

every room to the most minute details. She, the housemistress, knew her home by heart. She had thought it into existence; and there was not a cabinet against a wall, not a rug on a floor, not a cushion on a chair, not a knicknack on a mantelpiece, not a plate in a rack, but had come there by the design of her brain. Without possessing much artistic taste, Leonora had an extraordinary talent for domestic equipment, organisation, and management. She was so interested in her home, so exacting in her ideals, that she could never reach finality; the place went through a constant succession of improvements; its comfort and its attractiveness were always on the increase. And the result was so striking that her supremacy in the woman's craft could not be challenged. All Hillport, including her husband, bowed to it. Mrs. Stanway's principles, schemes, methods, even her trifling dodges, were mentioned

d the days when she went to school and wore her hair in a long plait were still quite fre

needn't wait, need I? It gets dark so soon.' As Millicent stood there, ardently persuasive

de and pretty as a doll in her white dress. She recognised all Millicent's

nous Leonora, a wistful, wayward atom in the universe, laid her command upon

t,

ea. You know you have far too much freedom.

een doing an

t, but she said nothing, and Milly retired full of an

ehind the door were waiting for him. He went straight to his carver's chair, and instantly the women were alert, galvanised into vigilant life. Leonora, opposite to her husband, began to pour out the tea; the impassive

-dozen women in the house, he the exhausted breadwinner should have been obliged to attend to such a trifle. Bessie sprang to pull the chain of the

ct was given by the coarseness of the hairs, not by their number; the moustache was long and exiguous. His blue eyes were never still, and they always avoided any prolonged encounter with other eyes. He was a personable specimen of the clever and successful manufacturer. His clothes we

ged him into public life-to the Borough Council and the Committee of the Wedgwood Institution. He often affected to be buried in cogitation upon municipal and private business affairs, when in fact his attention was disengaged and watchful. Leonora knew that this was so to-night. The idea of his duplicity took possession of her mind. Deeps yawned befo

essing silence of the tea-table, as if he had ju

g in her room all

n why she should

ownwards, and her spine seemed flaccid. Ethel was beautiful, or about to be beautiful; Millicent was pretty; Rose plain. Rose was deficient in style. She despised style, and r

r father. 'I shall st

hing, but loo

was dismissed, and Leonora waited for the burstin

s, after all, mamma. It's quite ligh

er looke

doing this af

ut for a

o w

on

on the canal-side

to the works after dinner, and h

el exchanged

I was driving past, over the canal bri

ldn't help him overt

ou had your hand on his shoul

nt was

with your hand on his shoulder in full sight of

ustom to give her a kiss and a ten-pound note before breakfast on her birth

s-on with Fred Ryley. Understand that. And I'll have no more idling about. You girls-at least you two-are bone-idle. Ethel shall

usekeeping, Milly was instinctively averse to everything merely

' said John to h

, pa

on with Fred Ryley

, p

o worry me without being

iously innocent both of sl

o now, Rose?' He could n

chemistry

do no su

Christmas,' she said firmly

'I'm not going to let you kill yourself.

le, my dear,' said Leonora sof

exasperation became fidgetty. 'Don't be

ll locked, they threw oft all restraints, conventions, pretences, and discussed the world, and their own world, with terrible candour. This sacred and untidy apartment, where many of the habits of

a donkey!'

says a word!

when he brought in mother's bir

coul

nking it's you

n't mind,'

. And I didn't think yo

are, Eth!' Milly protes

my note all right

ly. 'I suppose he's

ked h

ay. I'm sure there will,' Milly

l assented, and she added: 'Mot

thel drew a box of bo

on. Nevertheless, driven by the universal longing, and abetted by parental apathy and parental lack of imagination, they did lead a double life. They chafed bitterly under the code to which they were obliged ostensibly to submit. In their moods of revolt, they honestly believed their parents to be dull and obstinate creatures who had lost the appetite for romance and ecstasy and w

ether at the window, and Milly pointed her finger at Rose, who was walk

, and the three sisters

a hundred,' said Ethel. 'And can you imagine father maki

ith Fred at nights,' said M

hel exclaimed. 'What a trea

id Milly with confidence. 'I can't hous

e comfort,' Ethel concluded the matter. 'Are you going down to Bur

e'd come for me if I was late. You

er. Don't you be long. Let's try that

seated, and a single gas jet illuminated the region of the hearth, where John, lounging almost at full length in a vast chair, read the newspaper; otherwise the room was in shadow. John dropped the 'Signal,' which slid to the hearthrug with a rustle, and turned his head so that he could just see the left side of his wife

' he said in a c

pathy. She continued to play for a moment, but even more softly; and then,

mininity, forgiving him, excusing him, thinking and making him th

this Ryley business,

ot. Even the placing of Milly's hand on Fred Ryley's shoulder in full sight of the street, even thi

hing in it. You must keep an

ws on her knees, put her chin in her long

she. 'He's a relation; and you've sa

gh clerk. But he's

ly money--'

enough. Look here, Nora, I've not told you before, but I'll tell

! J

artyrised virtue which said: 'There! what do you think of

g herself: 'Why did Uncle Meshach alter his will? Why did he do that? He must have had

atrimony on their respective wedding-days. They were both dead. Shadrach, amiable but incompetent, had died poor, leaving a daughter, Susan, who had repeated, even more reprehensibly, her father's sin of marrying beneath her. She had married a working potter, and thus reduced her branch of the family to the status from which old Ebenezer had originally raised himself. Fred Ryley, now an orphan, was Susan's only child. As an act of charity John Stanwa

to the survivor of them. By this arrangement, which suited them excellently since they had always lived together, though neither could touch the principal of their

avour of young Ryley. David Dain told me the

ed it?' Leonora a

spoke with sarcastic irritation. 'I suppose he's taken a sudde

Hannah altered

right in th

'll still come in for everything, just as if

f she dies first?' He went on in a different tone. 'Of course one of 'em's bound to die s

t, though John never stinted her. Once more the solid house an

I've been so occupied to-day I forgot to wish you many happy ret

and gave her a

ing at the note with a factitious c

nough yet!' he exclaim

he position of an applicant, distressed her. She grieved for him. She saw all his good qualities-his energy, vitality, cleverness, facile kindliness, his large masculinity. It seemed to her, as she gazed up

up, Jack--' She made a

at you can do,' he went on quickly and lightly. 'I was thinking of raising a b

n aunt. John's suggestion came as a shock to her

quiesced quietly. 'But I thought-I thoug

a hint of annoyance. 'I'm shor

not seeing. 'Well

st!' He extinguished the

ost' was one of these phrases. In a flash he fell from a creature engag

he demanded, half vindictively, as he was preparing

Arthur

of course,' she sa

you say? I wonder what he

ut for yourself when Arthur Twemlow came. I don't know what

seen him turn pale at what Uncle Meshach had said. Or was that pallor merely the effect on his

um, I think,' John's voice came majestically o

comes, if he is coming,' said John after they had gone

rk corridor to satisfy herself, and found the window wide open. The night was cloudy and warm, and a breeze moved among the foliage of the garden. In the myst

night,

night,

g a tear to her eye. As the mother comprehended the whole staggering situation, the woman envied Ethel for her youth, her naughty innocence, her romance, her incredibly foolish audacity in thus risking the disaster of parental wrath. Le

inately at her chemistry. As Leonora thought of Rose's ambition, and Ethel's clandestine romance, and little Millicent's complicity in that romance, and John's sinister secrets, and her own i