Leonora

mself able to exercise it now; Twemlow was a friend of hers, and so disarmed. She wished to say proudly to John: 'I neither know nor wish to know the nature of the situation between you

othed back into a feeling of security about John. Leonora ignored, perhaps deliberately, that Stanway had still before him the peril of financial embarrassment, that he was mortgaging the house, and that his colloquies with David Dain continued to

of the future, had learnt her part perfectly in five days. She sang and acted with magnificent assurance, and with a vivid theatrical charm which awoke enthusiasm in the excitable breasts of

hat man of few illusions to

ger deserved the confidence of the society. At least three suspected that the conductor had a private spite against themselves. And one, aged thirty-five, felt convinced that she was the victim of an elaborate and scandalous plot. To this maid had bee

s, Miss Gardner?' said Milly aft

emphasised answer; 'I dare say I shall be

e provoked this exhibition, and she be

hould like to know!' and she proceeded with her irrelevant inquiries: 'who's your father? Doesn't every

d still, and w

Gard

Stan

s, and then Milly turned, laughing, to Harry Burgess, who, co

t once,' she said lightly, 'at once, or

certitude of victory in little Millicent's demeanour. Harry Burgess spoke apart with the conductor upon this astonishing contretemps, and while he d

withdraw the expression,' sa

Miss Gardner.

nd not without pathos, for the ageing woman sobbed as she lef

t at the bottom of Church Street Ethel silently fell behind and joined a fourth figure which had approached. The two couples walked separ

the trees by the gate. It was Rose, t

Harry. 'Shall you give m

the house with

she's sure to split to mother,' Milly whispered as she and Ethel

erated by three days of futility at the off

r was over, and Harry had buckishly departed, and Rose and Milly were already gon

el answered in a to

ng John, who was out at a meeting; Ethel stoo

Fred Ryley lately?' Leonora bega

ry day at the

the works; you

has been telli

ly that she happened to see

ed with cold irony. 'I

n with her. 'Why will you talk like th

upted her sharply. 'Milly did; I

mutinous desperation in Ethel'

tell your father,

hel managed her voice careful

ke a girl. 'A week last night I heard Fred Ryley tal

hotly at thi

ow?' she murmured, half

o have told him before. But I hav

d, mother?' Ethel demanded,

e she could not bring herself to say the words; and then continued: 'If he had the slightest suspicion tha

ted to go to the works! I simply hate the place-fat

be obeyed,' Leon

he won't be poor always. And perhaps we shan't be rich always. Th

you mea

and then gave a brief acco

say anything when she is in a temper. She is the worst gossip in Bursley. I only hope

ay I'm a woman, and I am, I am, though you don't think so, truly. Just imagine-- No, you can't! You've forgotten al

out of

id to herself, smiling faintly, as she

excused, the sudden outbreak of violence and disrespect on the part of her languid, soft-eyed daughter. She thought with confidence that all would come right in the end, and vaguely she determined that in some undefined way she would help Ethel, would yet demonstrate to this child of hers that she understood an

g, Jack,' she began, when he

?' was Stanway's only reply

me. I dare say he had some.

gloomily, 'he's young en

ain, if you like,' said Leonora. 'Bu

ng a piece of cheese into small sq

omise not to say

h thing,' he said with

upon him. 'Oh yes, Jac

res by her sudden smile. 'V

she pointed out to him that, if he had reflected at all upon the relations between Harry Burgess and M

Milly and young Burgess?

know as much as I do. Why do

so often. What's Milly? S

'As for Ethel,' she said softly, 'she's at

ted, 'I'll turn Fred Ryley

won't that make difficulties with Uncle Meshach? And people might s

swore, unable to rep

l his secret, profound resentment agains

take Ethel away from the

an't I have my own daughter in my own office bec

dmitting also that what puzzled his sa

ell right if Uncle Meshach died to-morrow, and Aunt Hannah the day after. I should be safe then. It would serve them d--n well right, all of 'em-Ryley and Uncle Meshach; yes, and Aunt Hannah too! She hasn't a

claimed, 'what

he said. 'That's what

to pretend that he was not quite seri

vited him to relieve his mind, and

ve sent the deed in last Tuesday night for you to sign, but he sent in a letter instead. That's why I

' It was the phrase o

es, destroy the true perspective of a business affair. 'The title's all right, at least it will be put right. B

to suggest economy in the house. Something came to her mysteriously out of

k and get a temporary advance?' She wa

head: 'No, th

long been pressing him to depos

birth to another one in his mind. 'Uncle Meshach might lend some mone

s scared at

sk him to let you have five hundred on the house for a short wh

an't do it

ever did. Ask him for five hundred. No, ask him for a thousand. May as well make it a

ation became q

le-the flaw?' she

y positively. 'He knows the title is goo

agreed, 'I'll do

good,'

ss, her widespreading benevolence. The result of this talk with John aroused in her an innocent vanity

ubject, put it with care away in a c

l in the district?'

ohn, and ther

ness together, aren't y

ly wanted to see me about old Twemlow

s that that was wrong. And John is worrying over i

exul

ze of more or less equivocal stratagems. But she was so used to the character of her husband that this aspect of the situatio

I won't.' He was once more judicial and pompous. 'But, of course, you will look a

' she

the idea, the absurd indefensible idea, of its similarity to begging was precisely what troubled her as the moment approached for setting forth. She pondered, too, upon the intolerable fact that such a request as she was about to prefer to Uncle Meshach was a tacit admission that John, with all his ostentations, had at last come to the end of the tether. She

, she wo

e had a suspicion that her feet might of their own accord turn into a by-road and lead her away from Uncle Meshach's. 'I shall never get there!' she exclaimed. She called at the fishmonger's in Oldcastle Street, and was delighted because the shop was full of customers and she had to wait. At last she was crossing St. Luke's Square and could distinguish Uncle Meshach's doorway with its antiq

h himself op

he prettiest thing I've seen since I saw ye last. Your aunt's out, with the serv

nt Hannah was out: that

en't seen you since you came ba

rt of cult for each other, a secret sympathy, none the less sincere because it seldom found expression. His pale blue eyes, warmed by her presence, said: 'I'm an old man, and I've seen the world, and I keep a few of my ideas to myself. But you know that no one understands

all requests in advance, after they had

he knew she wished to take an unfair advantage of the gifts

o smile mysteriously,

dmitted fran

d indulgently fo

at him. The contrast of his wizened

Hillport,' she began with

' and 'I want you to lend me.' The thing was well done, and she knew it was well done, and felt satisfied accordingly. As for Meshach, he was decidedly caught unawares. He might, perhaps, have suspected from the beginnin

ir?' he questio

own,' she

me

carcely believe her good luck, but she knew beyond any doubt that she was not mistaken in the signs of Meshach's de

here which Meshach and Leonora had evolved in solitude from their respective individualities was dissipated instantly. The parlour became nothing but the par

by a sudden stab of doubt, a

re's your nephew been speculating in stocks

imed horrified, 'I nev

n awful whisper, as sh

ora here to mortgage her house to get him out of his difficulties. Haven't I

putation to keep up with Hannah, a great and terrible reputation, and in several ways a loan by him through Leonora to John would have damaged it. A few minutes later, and he would have been committed both to

ed. 'That's very wrong of

id as convincingly as she could.

that all

my lass, it isn't,' he said, pausing. 'John'll get out of this mess as he's gotten out of many another. Trust

ohn's always been a good

John raising money on your property. It's not right, lass

o,' Leonora murmured

she could leave the house, she who for a quarter of an hour had bee

ar?' Hannah asked at the

ejaculated, fastening the butt

nora, with such dignit

gnorantly and indifferently and uneasily, that John was in the habit of tampering with dangerous things called stocks and shares. But never before had the vital import of the

rcoat, though the hour of one had not struck. Was this a coincidence,

ed plaintively at h

mean?' he a

it,' she said. 'Un

tart. 'Oh! That!' he exclaimed. 'T

morn

, this m

howed a certain ca

e works any more to-d

Millicent decided that they would try to collect a

me,' said Millicent. 'You

ed, 'it will do

guess, and never care, what I h

orks John helped the gir

build up a good fire. Next he looked into the safe. Then

is colleagues liked him, perhaps because he was unobtrusive and good-natured. At the beginning of each year he laid down a programme for himself, and he was incapable of swerving from it. Already he had acquired a thorough knowledge of both the manufacturing and the business sides of earthenware manufacture, and also he was one of the few men, at that period, who had systematically studied the chemistry of potting. He could not fail to 'get on,' and to win universal respect. His chance

ledger for me out of the

in your safe, at the front, and g

it there,' St

quietly, approaching the safe, o

want to be bothered now. Later on in the afternoon, before Mr. T

ting without a sign on h

employer, and the fact that his plebeian cousin's son was probably the most reliable underling to be

s Ryley had shut the door he jumped up, unlatched the safe, removed the book, and afte

' he thought, when the

of what rich dreams!), and a lot of letters. All these he burnt with much neatness and care, putting more coal on the fire so as to h

ool,' he flat

, a gold pencil case, a razor for every day in the week, and a cigar-holder with a bit of good amber to it. He had owned that revolver for years, with no thought of utilising the weapon. But in jus

the various shops hot and murmurous with toil, money tinkling in the petty cash-box, the very engine beneath his floor beating its customary monotonous stroke; and his comfortable home was proceeding exactly as usual, the man hissing about the stable yard, the servants discreetly moving in the immaculate kitchens, Leonora elegant with sovereigns in her purse, the girls chattering and restless; not a single outward sign of disaster; and yet he was at the end, absolutely at the end at last. There was going to be a magnificent and unparalleled sensation in the town of Bursley ... He seemed for an instant dimly to perceive ways, or incomplete portions of w

ll be here,' he thought, looking at

clerks' room as he passed: 'Just going on to

the kiln but to put it there and touch the trigger. The idea of this simple action preoccupied him. 'Yes,' he reflected, taking the revolver from his pocket, 'that is where I must put it, and then just touch the trigger.' He thought neither of his family, nor of his sins, nor of the grand fiasco, but solely of this physical action. Then, as he raised the revolver, the fear troubled him that he had not bur

ran: 'My Dear Stanway,-I am called away to London and may have to sail for New York at once. Sorry to have to break the appointment. We must leave that affair over. In any case it could

lotting-pad. 'Ryley!' he thought. This other letter was marked private, and as the envelope said 'John Stanway, Esq.,' without an address, it must have been brought by special messenger. It was from David Dain, a

ushing his hat back from

to get over the disappearance of the old private ledger in case Twemlo

thought ran round a

nder Shawport Bridge and furtively dropped the revo

o be so well designed and so effective, were after all ridiculous. No amount of com

ey match, which had been a great success. Leonora had kept goal

th a hint of involuntary surprise, wh

ftily. There is always a despicable joy in resuscit

wemlow's had to go to London to-day, and may return straight from there to New York.

he said, delicately fingering her