Anna of the Five Towns

rived at Ephraim Tellwright's back-door with a note. The Tellwrights were

d to hold his frame together. Agnes, much impressed, took the note. She had never before seen that resplendent automaton apart from the equipage whi

wer, and he's waiting,' she c

her father. 'He

, isn't it? Oh! Scent!' She put the g

give us the pleasure of your company? I do not think you have been to any of the S.S.S. meetings yet, but we should all be glad to see you and have your assistance. Everyone is working very hard

,' she exclaimed timidly to her father, pushing the n

or? Please thysen.

t want

o> go,' Agn

sgivings of diffidence. 'I haven't a rag to wear.

there coachman's waiti

u'll go?' Agnes suggested. '

lly, dear. I

t and hovered over Anna while the answer to the invitation was being written. Anna made her reply

halant, but in fact he

date in,' was all his comment

ut Wedn

not th

eatrice Sutton onl

was to walk o

iously. There had been a whole

n's house. Most of the women she recognised; others she knew but vaguely by sight. Then the stream ceased, and suddenly she heard the kitchen clock strike four. She ran downstairs-Agnes, swollen by importance, was carrying her father's tea into the parlour-and hastened out the back way. In another moment she was at the Suttons' front-door. A servant in black alpaca, with white wristbands, cap, streams, and embroidered apron (each article a dernier cri from Bostock's great shop at Hanbridge), asked her in a subdued and respectful tone to step within. Externally there had been no sign of the unusual

re, except the men, of course. Come along upstairs and ta

t?' said Anna, as they ascended

But you're such

his gay and flitting butterfly in a pale green tea-gown. Beatrice led the way to a large bedroom, crammed with furniture and knick-knacks. There were three

t your things on the bed?' The bed was already

hing fancy to do,' Anna said. 'I'm no

plain sewing.' She drew a cardboard box from her pocket, and o

'Aren't they very expensive? I've

dote on them. I love to eat them in bed, if I can't sleep.' Beatrice made th

hem.' She only adored her sister, and perhaps God;

atrice. 'Your hair is lovely. I never s

Anna r

you put anyt

nev

l you come and have just a peep at my studio-where I pai

on the second floor, with a slo

use it's the only one in the house with a north light, and

at she liked

and a few fans were hung high in apparently precarious suspense. Lower down on the walls were pictures and sketches, chiefly unframed, of flowers, f

hose rules of caution which are observe

y old master at the school won't let me draw from life yet-he keeps me to the antique-so I said to myself I would study th

he studies on the walls pleased her much better. Their realism amazed her. One could make out not only that here for instance, was a fish-there was no doubt that it was a hallibut; the so

l-life studies,' Beatrice said contemptuously

. Sutton,' Anna said, poin

e I'm boring you. Let's go down now, or

entre of the room, with her back to the fire-place, Mrs. Sutton was seated at a square table, cutting out. Although the afternoon was warm she had a white woollen wrap over her shoulders; for the rest she was

ome. Her wrinkled face broke into a warm, life-giving smile. 'Beatrice, find Miss Anna a chair.' There were two chairs in the bay of the

hing to do, I suppo

eas

something to get on with at once.

in, smiled across at Anna. 'Let m

as stitching at a boy's nightgown. 'Here's one half-finished,' and she picked up an

o my best at i

work. She stitched her best and her hardest, with head bent, and all her wits concentrated on the task. Most of the others seemed to be doing likewise, though not to

s drawing-room was a little dazzling to most of the guests, and Mrs. Sutton herself seemed scarcely of a piece with it. The fact was that the luxury of the abode was mainly due to Alderman Sutton's inability to refuse anything to his daughter, whose tastes lay in the direction of rich draperies, large or quaint chairs, occasional tables, dwarf screens, hand-painted mirrors, and an opulence of bric-à-brac. The hand of Beatrice might be perceived everywhere, even in the position of the piano, whose back, adorned with

Dickinson, who offered a remark about the weather. Miss Dickinson was head-assistant at a draper's in St. Luke's Square, and a pillar of the Sunday-school, which Sunday by Sunday and year by year had watched her develop from a rosy-cheeked girl into a confirmed spinster with sallow and warted face. Miss Dickinson supported

to voice to a confidential tone, 'that you are goin

ar circumstances, she would not have hesitated to do so. But for more than a week Anna had been 'leading a new life,' which chiefly meant a meticulous avoidance of the sins of speech. Neve

sn't it?' Miss Dicki

ent; father arranged it. Really I have nothing to do with

hasis. 'I make a practice of never talking about other people's affairs. I alwa

things get abroad,

nors hasn't been to our sewing meetings for quit

Is this a sort of sp

that he would be sure to come,' Miss Dickinson's features, skilled in innu

m at your house, don't you

r on business,' Anna replied sha

ly. She was thirty-five years of age. Twenty of those years she had passed in a desolating routine; she had exi

dining-room. Mrs. Clayton Vernon had heroic proportions, a nose which everyone admitted to be aristocratic, exquisite tact, and the calm consciousness of social superiority. In Bursley she was a great lady: h

,' she began, 'you

l answered with involuntary de

ation from the other room t

. I shall never get this ma

n Vernon urged. 'Your voice is a precious gift, and should

the footstool and dr

Vernon. 'If both doors are le

you like?' B

" and I shall never forget it. Si

t down to the piano and removed her bracelets. 'The accompaniment is simply fright

y dear,' she whispered maternally. When Beatrice had sung the song and somehow executed that accompaniment which has terrorised whole multitudes of drawing-room pianists, there was a great deal of applause from both rooms. Mrs. Sutton bent down and whispered in Anna

Beatrice exclaimed, opening to them. Everyone in the vicinity, animated suddenly by this appearance of the male sex, turned with welcoming smiles. 'A greeting to you all,' the minister ejaculated with formal suavity as he removed his low hat. The Alderman beamed a rather absent-minded goodwill on the entire c

At a school-treat once, held at a popular rural resort, he had taken some of the teachers to a cave, and pointing out the wave-like formation of its roof had told them that this peculiar phenomenon had actually been caused by waves of the sea. The discovery, valid enough and perfectly substantiated by an inquiry into the levels, was extremely creditable to the amateur geologist, but it seriously impaired his reputation among

ard. Consequently the tea-urns were exiled to the sideboard, and the tea dispensed by a couple of maids. Thus, as Beatrice had explained to her mother, the hostess was left free to devote herself to the social arts. The board was richly spread with fancy breads and cakes, jams of Mrs. Sutton's own celebrated preserving, diverse sandwiches compiled by Beatrice, and one or two large examples of the famous Bursley pork-pie. Numerous as the company was, several chairs remained em

are there, but I can only se

on his right, exchanged badinage on the merits and demerits of pork-pies, and their neighbours formed

?' Miss Dickinson

' aske

come to-day-Mr.

s. Sutton's voice was

Henry, mother,' B

ook hands with Mr. and Mrs. Sutton, sent a greeting down the table to Mr.

ir between Mrs. Banks and herself. 'Mrs. Banks has a word t

er, and the voices sank so that A

tton is wearing to-day,' Miss Di

new,' An

ou li

Don'

to go there now,' said Miss Dickinson, and added, almost inaudibly, 'Sh

ade no

ere engaged once?' M

said

e. It was all over the town-oh

t heard,'

of manner, their smooth and sparkling flow of conversation. She had the sensation of feeling vulgar, clumsy, tongue-tied; Mynors and Beatrice possessed something which she would never possess. So they had been engaged! But had they? Or was it an idle rumour, manufactured by one who spent her life in such creations? Anna was conscio

r with a pompous air, looking at his watch, 'I must go. I have an import

he had shaken hands with her, he caught the admired violet eyes of his slim wife, a lady of independent fortune whom the wives of circuit stewards found it difficult to please in the matter of furniture, and who de

asked in the tone of a young wife loungi

fixity of a histrionic martyr, 'did y

ompanied his pas

ty was effaced by a single word, a single glance. Uplifted by a delicious reassurance, she passed into the drawing-room, expecting him to follow: strange to say, he did not do so. Work was resumed, but with less ardour than before. It was in fact impossible to be strenuously diligent after one of Mrs. Sutton's teas, and in every heart, save those which beat ove

ar?' Mrs. S

eded at home,'

come upstairs with you, m

with you, dear Anna?' she said, gazing anxiously into the girl's eyes. Anna kne

nna, averting her e

e a word with you. You must "lean hard," as Miss Havergal says. "Lean hard" on Him. Do not be afraid.' And then, changing her tone: 'You are

owever, that he would not. Nevertheles

ater,' said Mrs. Sutton,

rman and Henry Mynors were looking together at a large photogravure of Sant's 'The Soul's Awakening,' which Mr. Sutton had recently bo

as saying, seriously, and the Alderman, feeling as the artist m

. Mynors, hearing the words, turned round. 'Well, I must go

ased to find that Mynors could tear himself aw

es

Mr. Mynors,

down with you,' Mynors

eclaration. Mynors stood there calm, confident with masculine superiority, and his glance seemed to say to those swiftly alert women, whose faces could not disguise a thrilling excitation: 'Yes. Let all know that I, Henry Mynors, th

meeting?' Mynors asked Anna w

tton is simply a splendid wom

e been new. All its corners and edges had long lost the asperities of manufacture, and its smooth surfaces were marked by slight hollows similar in spirit to those worn by the naked feet of pilgrims into the marble steps of a shrine. The flat portion over the drawers was scarred with hundreds of scratches, and yet even all these seemed to be incredibly ancient, and in some distant past to have partaken of the mellowness of the whole. The dark woodwork formed an admirable background for the crockery on the shelves, and a few of the old plates, hand-painted according to some vanished secret in pigments which time could only improve, had the look of relationship by birth to the dresser. There must still be thousands of exactly similar dressers in the kitchens of the people, but they are gradually being transferred to the dining rooms of curiosity-hunters. To Anna this piece of furniture, which would have made the most taciturn collector vocal with joy, was merely 'the dresser.' She had always lamented that it contained no cupboard. In front of the fireless range was an old steel kitchen fender with heavy fire-irons. It had in the middle of its flat top a circular lodgment for saucepans, but on this polished disc no saucepan was ever placed. The fender was perhaps as old as the dresser, and the profound depths of its polish served to mitigate somewhat the newness of the patent coal-economising range which Tellwright had had put in when he took the house. On the high mantelpiece were four tall brass candlesticks which, like the dresser, were silently awaiting their apotheosis

room, I know,' sai

miled, incapable of course of

be. It wants only the mistress in a white apron to make it complete. Do you know, when I came in he

d but well satisfied. 'But won

upstairs at sight of Mynors. When Anna opened the door of the parlour she saw Agnes s

e matter, Agnes

d the child crossl

he matter? Yo

urst into tears just as Mynors entered. His presence was a complete surp

claimed. 'Has Agnes got as far as practice?' She gave him an instant's glance and murmured 'Yes.' Before she could shelter her face he had kissed her. Anna was enchan

st go,' s

l stay and see fa

ment he was gone out of the room and the house. It was as if, in

ing in parenthesis, 'I never dreamt he was here,

ast, he cam

call here

Anna said. The c

ll about the sewing meeting. Did they have cakes or was it