Part 32 (1/2)

The document was a contract made between Blanche Lady Woldo of the one part and Edward Henry Machin of the other part, whereby Blanche Lady Woldo undertook to appear in musical comedy at any West End Theatre to be named by Edward Henry, at a salary of two hundred pounds a week for a period of six ot a theatre,” said Mr Slosson

”I can get half a dozen in an hour--with that contract in my hand,”

said Edward Henry

And he knew from Mr Slosson's face that he had won

VIII

That evening, feeling that he had earned a little recreation, he went to the Ee, but in Leicester Square, London The lease, with a prodigious speed hitherto unknown at Slossons', had been drawn up, engrossed and executed The Piccadilly Circus land was his for sixty-four years

”And I've got the old Chapel pulled down for nothing,” he said to himself

He was rather happy as he wandered about amid the brilliance of the Empire Promenade But after half an hour of such exercise and of vain efforts to see or hear as afoot on the stage, he began to feel rather lonely Then it was that he caught sight of Mr Alloyd, the architect, also lonely

”Well,” said Mr Alloyd, curtly, with a sardonic smile ”They've telephoned me all about it I've seen Mr Wrissell Just my luck! So you're the n for that church would have knocked the West End! Of course Mr Wrissell will payI wanted the advertise Just my luck! Have a drink, will you?”

Edward Henry ultimately ith the plaintive Mr Alloyd to his roo after two o'clock in the iven Mr Alloyd a definite coent Theatre Already he was practically the proprietor of a first-class theatre in the West End of London!

”I wonder whether Master Seven Sachs could have bettered ot into a taxi-cab He had dis ”I doubt if even Master Seven Sachs himself wouldn't be proud of my little scheme in Eaton Square!” said he ”Wilkins's Hotel, please, driver”

PART II

CHAPTER VII

CORNER-STONE

I

On a ot out of an express at Euston which had co on the previous day been called to Birham on local and profitable business, he had found it convenient to spend the night there and telegraph home that London had summoned him It was in this unostentatious, this half-furtive fashi+on, that his visits to London now usually occurred Not that he was afraid of his wife! Not that he was afraid even of his mother! Oh, no! He wasthe metropolitan, non-local, speculative and perhaps unprofitable business to which he was committed The fact was that he could scarcely look his wouely of ”real estate”

enterprise, and left it at that The women made no inquiries; they too left it at that Nevertheless !

The episode of Wilkins's was buried, but it was imperfectly buried

The Five Towns definitely knew that he had stayed at Wilkins's for a bet, and that Brindley had discharged the bet And ruha in the streets of the Five Towns like a strange vapour Wisps of the strange vapour had conceivably entered the precincts of his home, but nobody ever referred to them; nobody ever sniffed apprehensively nor asked anybody else whether there was not a smell of fire The discreetness of the silence was disconcerting

Happily his relations with that angel his ere excellent She had carried angelicism so far as not to insist on the destruction of Carlo; and she had actually applauded, while sticking to her white apron, the sudden and startling extravagances of his toilette

On the whole, though little short of thirty-five thousand pounds would ultimately be involved--not to speak of a liability of nearly three thousand a year for sixty-four years for ground-rent--Edward Henry was not entirely glooirth; novel proble in conorance of his job, had re, either!) But on the other hand his chin exhibited one proof that life orth living, and that he had discovered new faith in life and a new conviction of youthfulness

He had shaved off his beard