Leonora

out me going to the works to-m

d Leonora, and she added: 'You

t delicate modulations in her mother's voice, i

a! what do

neutral calm. 'You must do all you can t

ught passionately as she went ups

at her father was sagacious and benevolent, for not admitting that he was merely a trial to be endured. She was disgusted with Fred Ryley because he was not as other young men were-Harry Burgess for instance. The startling hint from Leonora that perhaps all was not well at the works exasperated her. She held the works in abhorrence. With her sisters, she had always regarded the works as a vague something whi

than usual, she was surprised to find her m

rful. Sleep, and her fundamental good-nature, had modified her mood, and for

rain,' said Leonora. 'He'll be away all day. So yo

xclaimed with inten

hn Stanway's young women began to reflect apprehensively upon the sudden irregularities of his recent movements, his conferences with his lawyer, his bluffing air; a hundred tr

rls in the drawing-room. They allowed him to imagine that his jaunty air deceived them; they were jaunty too

to Hillport for dinner, and escort Ethel to the works immediately afterwards. None asked a question, but everyone knew that he could only be goin

revail. Every detail repelled her-the absence of fire-irons in the hearth, the business almanacs on the discoloured walls, the great flat table-desk, the dusty samples of tea-pots in the window, the vast green safe in the corner, the glimpses of industrial squalor in the yard, the sound of uncouth voices from t

right, hitherto enjoyed without let, to have the golden fruits

ager appeared, a tall, thin, sandy-haired man of midd

yer! Th

. Good after

and she had it in her to have slain both m

Ryley. Whe

ank,[3] sir-speaking to

used in a limited sense, meaning the industrial, as dist

er from Paris that came on Saturd

to you about,' said Mr. Mayer,

to Ethel: 'Now, young lady, I want this letter translating.' He

er,' she s

Oldcastle; but she knew that, even if the destiny of nations turned on it, she could not tr

dictionary,' she plaintively

oducing one from a drawer, much to her chagrin;

out to Mr. Mayer; Mr. Mayer came in to him; they called to each other from room to room. The machinery stopped beneath

and certainty. At intervals he poked the fire with an old walking-stick, Ethel never glanced up. In a dream sh

he inquir

she stammered. 'Is that a 5 or a

sing her own skill, though it was notorious that he knew no French whatever. She had a sudden perception of his clev

demanded. She sighed in despair

announced a clerk, and Arthur

you. My new confidential clerk. Eh?' He pointed to Ethel, who flushed t

arked that he himself emp

I mean to do. I mean to buy a type-writer, an

ring forth such an idea. She felt quite sure that until that moment her

attractive to Twemlow, who said nothing, but smiled at her sympathetically, protectively

aid her father, pointing to the little empty room, and she meekly d

ss, Twemlow? By the

the door which, in her nervousness, she had forgotten to close. She felt that the door ought

Twemlow. 'Business i

men seemed splendidly masculine, important, self-sufficient. The triviality of feminine atoms like he

this trip?' a

said Twemlow. 'The truth is, I'

re's no American business done t

tion of coming in for a share of your colonial shipping trade. And let me tell you there's a lot of

ceded. 'And so you think you're going t

depe

wh

s made up her mind yet to si

r father's neck that the susceptibiliti

an?' Stanway as

one knows that. You're getting left. Look how you're being cut out in cheap toilet stuff. In te

mlow,' said Stan

in the Five Towns stick to old-fashione

t it fine enough?' Sta

with real mirth.

ance-one instance

pay your firemen by the oven, and your placers by t

ke to hear about that. It's been mentioned onc

tion

Arthur Twemlow's absolute conviction that the Five Towns was losing ground frightened her, made her feel that life was earnest, and stirred faint longings for the serious way. It seemed

speak to you about

udden careful politeness in Arthur Twemlow

've forgotten all the details.

n't been over before. Besides, it wasn't till she

course I was the sole ex

y sister-we-my sister was surprised at the smallness of the estate. We want to know what he did with his money, that is, how much he really re

half-turned to look at the

nway in his grandiose ma

a great deal to have had the door shut, and equally t

ight,' he rep

derstand my sister's feelings.' Then a long pause. 'Natu

ffly, 'I shall be delighted to s

want t

te justifiable and proper.

ime wi

Say a week to-day-if you

'll suit me,'

touch of cynica

nd substance, only to be immediately dispelled in that inconstant mind by the sudden refreshing

tter and scent, and Milly had run impulsivel

with a fatigued gesture o

a, glancing into the inner room, a

thrall! It was like a century to her. She

in, Nora?' asked S

r-wheeled do

ave tea with us. Come along an

Milly, nearly drowning Leo

r hes

y insisted genially.

feeble answer. 'But I shall

e Mr. Twemlow and the girls, Nora, and I'll follow

e, and their bright voices echoed diminuendo down the stair. Stanway rang his bell fiercely. Th

he sat between Leonora and Ethel at Leonora's splendidly laden table. He fought doggedly against this sensation. He tried to assume the attitude of a philosopher observing humanity, of a spider watching flies; he tried to be critical, cold, aloof. He listened as one set apart, and answered in monosyllables. But despite his own volition the monosyllables were accompanied by a smile that destroyed the effect of their curtness. The intimate charm of the domesticity subdued his logical antipathies. He knew

asant to his ears that he felt it a sort of privilege to have been admitted to them. And yet he clearly perceived the shortcomings of each person in this little world of which the totality was so delightful. He knew that Ethel was languidly futile, Rose cantankerous, Milly inane, Stanway himself crafty and meretricious, and Leonora often supine when she should not be. He dwelt

edgwood Institution, Ethel and Millicent to the rehearsal of the Amateur Operatic Society. Again, in this

ght,' said Stanway s

r's mouth; Stanway submitted. The picture of the two in this delicious momentary contact rema

chair in the drawing-room, when the girls were gone. Leonora removed her bangles and be

rom Mr. D

y as if nothing had happened, but Arthur was conscious of a ch

said Stanway carelessly when Leonora had struck the fi

n, after Stanway had gone, leaving the door open, he turned

y, and took the chair which Stanway had left. She sm

women,' she said: 'I'v

he great chair the most ench

in her home and surrounded by her daughters, began the process of enmeshing him in the web of influences which she spun ceaselessly from the bright threads of her own individuality. Her mind had food for sombre preoccupation-the lost battle with Milly during the day about Milly's comic-opera housekeeping; the tale told by John's nervous, effusive, guilty manner; and especially the episode of the letter

llenge. And then: 'Would you mind shutting the door after Jack?' S

dropping all his previous reserve like

I want to know what ma

in her voice flattered him

er noticed they were so specially charming. Some of them are pretty nice, I expec

how do you explain that? I did think you'd b

t enough of just the

ough his case was a peculiarly interesting

ver forty and unmarried, Mrs. St

nodded. 'But you are too critical,' she went on.

they did,' he mu

ect too much

he said, 'how

him feel like a boy again: 'If you didn't expect too much from them, you

ve never seen anything half so cha

te hours, for they had slipped, as into a socket, into the supreme topic, and into intimacy. They were happy and they knew it.

k her he

you who stay quietly at h

lor, say that! Why, I

Can do what I like. Go where I like. And yet I would sell my soul for a home like this. Something ... yo

nk they can-still, I have a notion of what

u?' he q

she thought of her husband, stolid with a

how can I get married? I can't get married by taking thought. They make me tired. I ask them sometimes whether they i

is fact as with a jewel,

ty!' she s

ere. That's the worst of me. When I get talk

reathed the old, effective, sincere answ

, doesn't it?' he said in a different

my husband isn't back,' and even these ordinary words struck him as a beautiful phrase. Alone in the drawing-room, she sighed happily and examined herself in the large glass over the mantelpiece. The shaded lights left her loveliness uni

e of Ethel at ten o'clock. 'Lucy Turner's sister died to-day, and so she can't

' Leonora asked, a

w! Patience, of cours

. Twemlow? Ethel inquire