The Card, a Story of Adventure in the Five Towns

n reply to a question from Shillitoe. It was the least he could do. And

laughing at?"

udiciously, "wouldn

a five-pound note. He was one of those men who never venture out of sight of a ba

m upon occasion. He left the group; he had need of motion, and also of that mental privacy which one may enjoy while strolling about on a crowded floor in the midst of a considerable noise. He noticed that the Countess was now dancing with an alderman, and that the alderman, by an oversight inexcusable in an alderman, was not wearing gloves. It was he, Denry, who had broken the ice, so that the alderman might plunge into the water. He first had

t her name was Nellie, and that this was her first ball: a childish little thing with a wistful face. He could not decide wh

" said Ruth Earp. She pretended to be vexed and stern, but he

ike to," he

ordinary people, now you've danced with the Countes

t his tone had l

ke that," he s

, "you can have

programme to

e down here for the supper dan

relessly, "that's no

ossed He

ellie here for a dan

ble honour of dancing with the supremely great

the next o

ellie timidl

at polking, you know," Ruth warned him

ery manifest joy and pride in being seen with the unique Mr Machin, in being the next after the Countess

part declined to believe that aldermen and councillors had utterly absorbed the Countess's programme. Ruth hinted that the Countess was keeping a second dance open for him, Denry. When she asked him squarely if he meant to request another from the Countess, he said no, positively. He knew when to let well alone, a

id he would not tell. And one girl who had danced with Mr Stanway, who had danced with the Countess, said that Mr

maintained a culpable silence. But when all was over, and the Countess was departing, he rushed down after her, and, in a d

he said, pushing through

And then the Countess, leaning from the carriage, said, with archnes

hed without restraint, and the pilla

s the horses pawed awa

could earn from Duncalf in a month. The faces of the Countess, of Ruth Earp, and of the timid Nellie mingled