Part 24 (1/2)

”You say! You say!” Darius remarked curtly, trying to control himself.

A few years ago he would never have used such violent demeanour in her presence.

”And how much easier these shelves will be to keep clean than a bookcase! No polis.h.i.+ng. Just a rub, and a wipe with a damp cloth now and then. And no dirt underneath. They will do away with four corners, anyhow. That's what I think of--eh, poor Maggie! Keeping all this clean. There'll be work for two women night and day, early and late, and even then--But it's a great blessing to have water on every floor, that it is! And people aren't so particular nowadays as they used to be, I fancy. I fancy that more and more.” Mrs Hamps sighed, cheerfully bearing up.

Without a pause she stepped quickly across to Edwin. He wondered what she was at. She merely straightened down the collar of his coat, which, unknown to him, had treacherously allowed itself to remain turned up behind. It had probably been thus misbehaving itself since before dinner, when he had washed.

”Now, I do like my nephew to be tidy,” said Mrs Hamps affectionately.

”I'm very jealous for my nephew.” She caressed the shoulders of the coat, and Edwin had to stand still and submit. ”Let me see, it's your birthday next month, isn't it?”

”Yes, auntie.”

”Well, I know he hasn't got a lot of money. And I know his father hasn't any money to spare just now--what with all these expenses--the house--”

”Ye may well say it, sister!” Darius growled.

”I saw you the day before yesterday. My nephew didn't see me, but his auntie saw him. Oh, never mind where. And I said to myself; 'I should like my only nephew to have a suit a little better than that when he goes up and down on his father's business. What a change it would be if his old auntie gave him a new suit for a birthday present this year!'”

”Oh, auntie.”

She spoke in a lower voice. ”You come and see me tomorrow, and I shall have a little piece of paper in an envelope waiting for you. And you must choose something really good. You've got excellent taste, we all know that. And this will be a new start for you. A new year, and a new start, and we shall see how neat and spruce you'll keep yourself in future, eh?”

THREE.

It was insufferable. But it was fine. Who could deny that Auntie Clara was not an extraordinary, an original, and a generous woman? What a masterly reproof to both father and son! Perhaps not delicately administered. Yet Auntie Clara had lavished all the delicacy of her nature on the administering!

To Edwin, it seemed like an act of G.o.d in his favour. It seemed to set a divine seal on his resolutions. It was the most astonis.h.i.+ng and apposite piece of luck that had ever happened to him. When he had lamely thanked the benefactor, he slipped away as soon as he could.

Already he could feel the crinkling of the five-pound note in his hand.

Five pounds! He had never had a suit that cost more than fifty s.h.i.+llings. He slipped away. A great resolve was upon him. s.h.i.+llitoe closed at four o'clock on Sat.u.r.day afternoons. There was just time. He hurried down Trafalgar Road in a dream. And when he had climbed Duck Bank he turned to the left, and without stopping he burst into s.h.i.+llitoe's. Not from eagerness to enter s.h.i.+llitoe's, but because if he had hesitated he might never have entered at all: he might have slunk away to the old undistinguished tailor in Saint Luke's Square.

s.h.i.+llitoe was the stylish tailor. s.h.i.+llitoe made no display of goods, scorning such paltry devices. s.h.i.+llitoe had wire blinds across the lower part of his window, and on the blinds, in gold, ”Gentlemen's tailor and outfitter. Breeches-maker.” Above the blind could be seen a few green cardboard boxes. s.h.i.+llitoe made breeches for men who hunted.

s.h.i.+llitoe's lowest price for a suit was notoriously four guineas.

s.h.i.+llitoe's was the resort of the fas.h.i.+onable youth of the town and district. It was a terrific adventure for Edwin to enter s.h.i.+llitoe's.

His nervousness was painful. He seemed to have a vague idea that s.h.i.+llitoe might sneer at him. However, he went in. The shop was empty.

He closed the door, as he might have closed the door of a dentist's.

He said to himself; ”Well, I'm here!” He wondered what his father would say on hearing that he had been to s.h.i.+llitoe's. And what would Clara have said, had she been at home? Then s.h.i.+llitoe in person came forward from the cutting-out room and s.h.i.+llitoe's tone and demeanour rea.s.sured him.

VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER SIX.

JANET LOSES HER BET.

Accident--that is to say, a chance somewhat more fortuitous than the common hazards which we group together and call existence--pushed Edwin into the next stage of his career. As, on one afternoon in late June, he was turning the corner of Trafalgar Road to enter the shop, he surprisingly encountered Charlie Orgreave, whom he had not seen for several years. And when he saw this figure, at once fas.h.i.+onably and carelessly dressed, his first thought was one of deep satisfaction that he was wearing his new s.h.i.+llitoe suit of clothes. He had scarcely worn the suit at all, but that afternoon his father had sent him over to Hanbridge about a large order from Bostocks, the recently established drapers there whose extravagant advertising had shocked and pained the commerce of the Five Towns. Darius had told him to 't.i.tivate himself,'

a most startling injunction from Darius, and thus the new costly suit had been, as it were, officially blessed and henceforth could not be condemned.

”How do, Teddy?” Charlie greeted him. ”I've just been in to see you at your shop.”