 Chapter 8 of Ana of the Five Towns. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are on the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Hilara. Ana of the Five Towns by Arnal Bennett. Chapter 8 on the Bank. Ana began to receive her July interest and dividends. During her fortnight, remittances varying from a few pounds to a few hundred pounds arrived by post almost daily. They were all addressed to her since the security is now stood in her own name. And upon her, under the miser's superintendence, fell the new task of entering them in a book and paying them into the bank. This mysterious begetting of money by money, a strange process continually going forward for her benefit in various parts of the world, far and near, by means of activities of which she was completely ignorant and would always be completely ignorant bewildered her and gave her a feeling of its unreality. The elaborate mechanism by which capital yields interest without suffering the munition from its original bulk is one of the commonest phenomena of modern life and one of the least understood. Many capitalists never grasp it nor experience the slightest curiosity about it until the mechanism, through some defect, seizes to revolve. Tell Wright was of these. For him, the interval between the outlay of capital and the receipt of interest was nothing but an efflux of time. He planted capital as a gardener plants rubab, tolerably certain of a particular result but not dwelling even in thought on that which is hidden. The productivity of capital was to him the greatest achievement of social progress. Indeed, the social organism justified its existence by that achievement. Nothing could be more equitable than this productivity, nothing more natural. This soon had inquired into it as Agnes would have inquired into the ticking of the grandfather's clock. But to Anna, who had some imagination and whose imagination had been stirred by recent events, the arrival of monies out of space, unearned, unasked, was a disturbing experience. Affecting her as a conjuring trick affects a child whose sensations hesitate between pleasure and apprehension. Practically, Anna could not believe that she was rich and, in fact, she was not rich. She was merely a fixed point through which monies that she was unable to arrest passed with the rapidity of trains. If money is a token, Anna was denied the satisfaction of fingering even the token. Drafts and checks were all that she touched. Touched only to abandon the doubly tantalizing and insubstantial tokens of a token. She wanted to test the actuality of this apparent dream by handling coin and causing it to vanish over counters and into the palms of the necessitous. And, moreover, quite apart from this curiosity, she really needed money for pressing requirements of Agnes and herself. They had yet had no new summer clothes and, with some tide, the time prescribed by custom for the refurnishing of wardrobes was long since passed. The intercourse with Henry Minos, the visit of the Sutons, had revealed to her more plainly than ever the intolerable shortcomings of her wardrobe and similar imperfections. She was more painfully awake to these and yet, by an unhappy paradox, she was even less in a position to remedy them than in previous years. For now, she possessed her own fortune. To ask her father's bounty was, therefore, she devined, a sure way of inviting a ribba. But, even if she had dead, she might not use the income that was privately hers, for it was not every penny of it already allocated to the partnership with Minos. So it happened that she never once mentioned the matter to her father. She lacked the courage since, by whatever avenue she approached it, circumstances would add an illogical and adventitious force to the brutal snubs which he invariably dealt out when petitioned for money. To demand his money, having fifty thousand of her own, to spend her own in the face of that agreement with Minos, she could too easily guess his bitter and humiliating retorts to either proposition and she kept silence, comforting herself with timid visions of a far distant future. The balance of the bank crept up to sixteen hundred pounds. The deed of partnership was drawn, her father poured over the blue draught and several times Minos called and the two men discussed it together. Then, one morning, her father summoned her into the front paler and handed to her a piece of parchment on which she dimly deciphered her own name coupled with that of Henry Minos in large letters. Human sign, seal and deliver this, he said, putting a pen in her hand. She sat down obediently to write, but he stopped her with a scornful gesture. The outside blind then, and just like a woman. I left it to you, she said. Left it to me, read it. She read through the deed and after she had accomplished the feat, one fact only stood clear in her mind that the partnership was for seven years, a period extensible by consent of both parties to fourteen or twenty-one years. Then she affixed her signature, the pen moving awkwardly over the draught surface of the parchment. I put thy finger on that bit of wax and say, I deliver this as my act indeed. I deliver this as my act indeed. The old man signed as witness. Soon as I give this to the lawyer then, he remarked, doubts bound, willy-nilly, law's law and doubt bound. On the following day, she had to sign a check which reduced her bank balance to about three pounds. Perhaps it was the knowledge of this reduction that led Ephraim Tell Wright to resume at once and with fresh rigor his new policy of squeezing the last penny out of Titus Price, despite the fact that the latter had already achieved the incredible by paying thirty pounds in little more than a month, thus causing the catastrophe which soon afterwards befell. What methods her father was adopting? Anna did not know, since he said no word to her about the matter. She only knew that Agnes had twice been dispatched with notes to Edward Street. One day, about noon, a clay-soiled urchin brought a letter addressed to herself. She guessed that it was some appeal for mercy from the prices and wished that her father had been at home. The old man was away for the whole day attending a sale of property at Axe, the agricultural town in the north of the county, locally siled the metropolis of the Moorlands. Anna read, My dear Miss Tell Wright, now that our partnership is an accomplished fact, will you not come and look over the works? I should much like you to do so. I should be passing your house this afternoon, about two, and will call on the chance of being able to take you down with me to the works. If you are unable to come, no harm will be done and some other day can be arranged, but of course I should be disappointed. Believe me, yours most sincerely, Henry Minors. She was charmed with the idea to her so audacious and relieved that the note was not, after all, from Titus or Wille Price. But again, she had to regret that her father was not at home. He would be capable of thinking and saying that the projected expedition was a truancy, could thrive to occur in his absence. He might crumble at the house being left without a keeper. Moreover, according to a tacit law, she never departed from the fixed routine of her existence without first obtaining a frames approval or at least being sure that such a departure would not make him violently angry. She wondered whether Minors knew that her father was away and if so, whether he had chosen that afternoon purposely. She did not care that Minors should call for her. It made the visit seem so formal and as in order to reach the works down a shop put by the canal side, they would necessarily go through the middle of the town. She foresaw infinite gossip and rumour as one result. Already, she knew, the names of herself and Minors were everywhere coupled and she could not even enter a shop without being made aware more or less delicately that she was an object of pecant curiosity. A woman is profoundly interesting to women at two periods only before she is betrothed and before she becomes the mother of her first born. Anna was in the first period. Her life did not comprise the second. When Agnes came home to dinner from school Anna said nothing of Minors' note until they had begun to wash up the dinner things when she suggested that Agnes should finish this operation alone. Yes, said Agnes, ever compliant. But why? I'm going out and I must get ready. Going out? And since you leave the house all empty what will father say? Where are you going to? Agnes' tendency to anticipate the worst and never to blink their father's tyranny always annoyed Anna and she answered rather curtly I'm going to the works. Mr. Minors works. He sent word he wants me to. She despised herself for wishing to hide anything and added he will call here for me about two o'clock. Mr. Minors has splendid and then Agnes' face fell somewhat. I suppose he won't call before two if he doesn't I should be gone to school. Do you want to see him? Oh no, I don't want to see him but I suppose you'll be out a long time and he'll bring you back. Of course he won't you silly girl and I shan't be out long I should be back for tea. Anna ran upstairs to dress. At ten minutes to two she was ready. Agnes usually left at a quarter to two but the child had not yet gone. At five minutes to two Anna called downstairs to her to ask her when she meant it apart. I'm just going now. Agnes shouted back. She opened the front door and then returned to the foot of the stairs. Anna, if I meet him down the road shall I tell him you're ready waiting for him? Certainly not. Whatever are you dreaming of? the elder sister report. Besides, he isn't coming from the town. Oh, alright, goodbye. And the child at last went. It was something after two. Every siren and hooter had long since finished the summons to work when miners rang the bell. Anna was still upstairs. She examined herself in the glass and then descended slowly. Good afternoon, he said. I see you are ready to come. I'm very glad. I hope I haven't inconvenienced you but just this afternoon seemed to be a good opportunity for you to see the works and, you know, you ought to see it. Father in? No, she said. I should leave the house to take care of itself. Do you want to see him? Not especially, he replied. I think we have settled everything. She banged the door behind her and they started. As he held open the gate for her exit she could not ignore the look of passionate admiration on his face. It was a look disconcerting by its mere intensity. The man could control his tongue but not his eyes. His demeanor, as she viewed it, aggravated her self-consciousness as they braved the streets. But she was happy in her perturbation. When they reached Duck Bank, miners asked her whether they should go through the marketplace or along King Street by the bottom of St. Luke's Square. By the marketplace, she said, the shop where Ms. Dickinson was employed was at the bottom of St. Luke's Square and all the eyes of the marketplace was preferable to the chance of those eyes. Probably no one in the five towns takes a conscious pride in the antiquity of the Potter's craft given its unique and intimate relation to human life alike civilized and uncivilized. Man hardened clay into a bowl before he spun flax and made a garment and the last lone man will want an earthen vessel after he has abandoned his ruined house for a cave and his woven rags for an animal's skin. This supremacy of the most ancient of crafts is in the secret nature of things and cannot be explained. History begins long after the period when Bursley was first the central seat of that honored manufacture. It is a central seat still, the mother of the five towns in our local phrase and though the townsmen absorbed in a strenuous daily struggle may forget their airship to an unbroken tradition of countless centuries the seal of their venerable calling is upon their foreheads. If no other relic of an immemorial past is to be seen in these modernized sordid streets there is at least the living legacy of that extraordinary kinship between workman and work that instinctive mastery of clay which the past has bestowed upon the present. The horse is less to the Arab than clay is to the Bursley man. He exists in it and by it it fills his lungs and blanches his cheek. It keeps him alive and it kills him. His fingers throw round it as round the hand of a friend. He knows all its tricks and aptitudes when to coax and when to force it when to rely on it and when to distrust it. The weavers of Lancashire have dubbed him with an obscene epithet on account of it an epithet whose hasty use has led to many a fight but nothing could be more illuminatively descriptive than that epithet which names his vocation in terms of another vocation. A dozen decades of applied science have of course resulted in the interposition of elaborate machinery between the clay and the man but no great vulgar handicraft has lost less of the human than potting. Clay is always clay and the steam-driven contrivance that will mold a basin while a man sits and watches has yet to be invented. Moreover, if in some coarser process the hands are superseded the number of processes has been multiplied tenfold the wear in which six men formerly collaborated is now produced by sixty and thus in one sense the touch of finger on clay is more pervasive than ever before. Mino's works visit knowledge to be one of the best of its size in the district a model three oven bank and it must be remembered that of the hundreds of banks in the five towns the vast majority are small like this the large manufacturing with its corpse of Jacketman one of whom is detached to show visitors round so much of the works as is deemed advisable for them to see is the exception. Mino's paid 300 pounds a year in rent and produced nearly 300 pounds worth of work a week he was his own manager and there was only one Jacketman on the place a clock at 18 chillings he employed about a hundred hands and devoted all his ingenuity to prevent that wastage which is at once the easiest to overlook and the most difficult to check the wastage of labour no pains was paid to keep all departments in full and regular activity and owing to his judicious firmness the feast of sin Monday that canker eternally eating at the root of the prosperity of the five towns was less religiously observed on his bank than perhaps anywhere else in Bursley he had realized that when a workshop stands empty the employer has not only seized to make money but has begun to lose it the architect of Providence works Providence stands godfather to many commercial enterprises in the five towns knew his business and the business of the potter he had designed the works with a view to the strictest economy of labour the various shops were so arranged that in the course of its metamorphosis the clay travelled naturally in a circle from the slip house by the canal to the packing house by the canal there was no carrying to and fro the steam installation was complete steam once generated had no respite after it had exhausted itself by the rising 50 machines it was killed by inches in order to dry the unfired wear and warm the dinners of the work table Henry took Anna to the canal entrance because the buildings looked best from that side now how much is a crate worth she asked pointing to a crate which was being swung on a crane direct from the packing house into a boat that might not answer a crate full of wear may be worth anything at Minton's I have seen a crate worth 300 pounds but that one there is only worth 8 or 9 pounds you see you and I make cheap stuff but don't you make any really good pots are they all cheap or cheap he said I suppose that's business he detected a note of regret in her voice I don't know with the slightest impatient warmth we make the stuff as good as we can for the money we supply what everyone wants don't you think it's better to please a thousand folks than to please ten I like to feel that my wear is used all over the country and the colony I would sooner do as I do than make swagger wear for a handful of rich people oh yes she exclaimed eagerly accepting the point of view agree with you she had never heard him in that vein before and was struck by his enthusiasm and my nose was in fact always very enthusiastic concerning the virtues of the general markets he had no sympathy with specialities artistic or otherwise he found his satisfaction in honestly meeting the public taste he was born to be a manufacturer of cheap goods on a colossal scale he could dream of 50 ovens and his ambition blinded him to the present absurdity of talking about a three oven bank spreading its productions all over the country and the colonies it did not occur to him that there were yet scarcely enough plates to go around I suppose we had better start at the start he said leading the way to the slip house he did not need to be told that Anna was perfectly ignorant of the craft of pottery and that every detail of it so stale to him would acquire freshness under her naive and inquiring gaze in the slip house begins the long manipulation which transforms raw porous friable clay into the moulded, decorated and glazed vessel the large white washed place was occupied by ungainly machines and receptacles through which the four sorts of clay used in the common body boil-flay, china clay flint clay and stone clay were compelled to pass before they became a white party-like mixture mean for shaping by human hands the blunger crushed the clay the sifter extracted the iron from it by means of a magnet the press expelled the water and the pug mill expelled the air from the last reluctant mouth slowly emerged a solid stream nearly a foot in diameter like a huge white snake already the clay had acquired the uniformity characteristic of manufactured product Anna moved to touch the bolts of the enormous 24 chambered press don't stand there said Minos the pressure is tremendous and if the thing were to burst she fled hastily but isn't it dangerous for the workmen she asked Erie Macken, the engineman a moneyed man and the pattern of reliability a lot of vague smile to flit across his face at this remark he had ascended from the engine house below in order to exhibit the tricks of the various machines and that done he disappeared Anna was awed by the sensation of being surrounded by terrific forces always training for release and held in check by the power of a single wall come and see a plate made that is one of the simplest things and the batting machine is worth looking at said Minos and he went into the nearest shop a hot interior in the shape of four corridors round a solid square middle here men and women were working side by side the women subordinate to the men all were preoccupied wrapped up in their respective operations and there was the sound of irregular bordering movements from every part of the big room the air was laden with whitish dust and clay was omnipresent on the floor the walls the benches the windows on clothes hands and faces it was in this shop where both hollow-ware pressers and flat pressers were busy as only craftsmen on piecework can be busy but more than anywhere else clay was to be seen in the hand of the potter near the door a stout man with a good humoured face flung some clay onto a revolving disc and even as Anna passed a jaw sprang into existence one instant the clay was in a moth's mass the next it was a vessel perfectly circular of a prescribed width and a prescribed depth the flat and apparently clumsy fingers of the craftsmen had seemed to lose themselves in the clay for a fraction of time and the miracle was accomplished the man threw these vessels with the rapidity of a Roman candle drawing off coloured stars and a woman was kept busy in supplying him with material and relieved his bench of the finished articles Mayanos drew Anna along to the batting machines for plate makers at that period rather a novelty and the latest invention of the dead genius whose brain has reconstituted a whole industry on new lines confronted with a piece of clay the batting machine descended upon it with a ferocity the vessel worried it, stretched it smoothed it into the width and thickness of a plate and then desisted of itself and waited inactive for the flat presser to remove its victim to his more exact shaping machine several men were producing plates but their rapid labours seemed less astonishing than the preliminary feet of the batting machine all aware as it was moulded disappeared into the vast cupboards occupying the centre of the shop where Mayanos showed Anna innumerable rows of shelves full of pots in process of steam drying neither time nor space nor material was wasted in this ant heap of industry in order to move to and fro the women were compelled to insinuate themselves past the stationary bodies of the men Anna marvelled at the careless accuracy with which they fed the batting machines with lumps precisely calculated to form a plate of a given diameter everyone exerted himself as though the salvation of the world hung on the production of so much stuff by a certain ah dust, heat and the presence of a stranger were alike unheeded in a mad creative passion now said Mayanos opening another door which gave into the yard when all that stuff is dried and fettled it goes into the biscuit oven that's the first firing that's the biscuit oven but we can't inspect it because it's just being drawn he pointed to the oven nearby in whose dark interior the forms of men naked to the waist could dimly be seen struggling with a weight of saggers full of wear it seemed like some release of martyrs this unpacking of the immense oven after being flooded with a sea of flame for 54 hours had cooled for 2 days and was yet hotter than the equator the inertness and pallor of the saggers seemed to be the physical result of their fiery trial and one wondered that they should have survived the trial Mayanos went into the place adjoining the oven and brought back a plate out of an open saga it was still quite warm it had the matte surface of a biscuit and adhered slightly to the fingers it was now a crook it had exchanged malleability for brittleness and nothing mortal could undo what the fire had done Mayanos took the plate with him to the biscuit warehouse a long room where one was forced to keep narrow alleys amid parters of pots a solitary biscuit warehouse man was examining the wear to determine the remuneration of the presses they climbed a flight of steps to the printing shop where by means of copper plates printing presses mineral colours and transfer papers most of the decoration was done the room was filled by a little crowd of people oldish men women and girls divided into printers, cutters transferers and apprentices each interminably repeated some trifling process and every article passed through a succession of hands until at length it was washed in a tank and rose dripping there from with its ornament of flowers and scrolls fully revealed the room smelled of oil and flannel and humanity the atmosphere was more languid more like that of a family party than in the presser shop the old women looked stern and shrewish the pretty young women but and defiant the younger girls meek the few men seemed out of place by what trick had they trapped into the very centre of that mass of feminity it seemed wrong scandalous that they should remain contiguous with the printing shop was the painting shop in which the labours of the former were taken to a finish by the brush of the painter who filled in outlines with flat colour this converted mechanical printing into handiwork the faintresses formed the noblesse of the banks their task is a light one demanding deafness first of all they have delicate fingers and enjoy a general reputation for beauty the wages they earn may be estimated from their finery on Sundays they came to business in cloth jackets carried in little satchels in the shop they wear white aprons and look startlingly neat and tidy across the benches over which they bend their cockatish heads gossip flies and returns like a shuttle they are the source of a thousand intrigues and one or other of them is continually getting married or omitting to get married on the bank they constitute the sex an infinitesimal proportion of them from among the branch known as ground layers die of lead poisoning a fact which adds pathos to their frivolous charm in a subsidiary room of the printing shop a single girl was seated at a revolving table actuated by a treadle she was doing the band and line on the rims of saucers my nose and Anna washed her as with her left hand she flicked saucer after saucer into the exact centre of the table moved the treadle building a brush firmly against the rim of the piece produced with infallible exactitude the band and the line she was a brunette about 28 she had a calm, vacuously contemplative face but God alone knew whether she thought her work represented the summit of monotony the regularity of it hypnotised the observer and Minos himself was impressed by this stupendous phenomenon of absolute sameness voluntarily assuming towards it the attitude of a showman she aint as much as 18 shillings a week sometimes he whispered may I try Anna timidly asked of a sudden curious to experience what the trick was like certainly said Minos in eager ascent Priscilla let this lady have your seat a moment please the girl caught up smiling politely her place here try on this said Minos putting on the table the plate which he still carried take a full brush the painter suggested not attempting to hide her amusement at Anna's unaccustomed efforts now push the treadle there it isn't in the middle yet now Anna produced a most creditable band and a trembling but passable line and rose flushed with the small triumph you have the gift said Minos and the painter respectfully applauded I felt I could do it Anna responded my mother's mother was a painter and it must be in the flood Minos smiled indulgently they descended again to the ground floor and following the course of manufacture came to the hardening on thin a minor oven where for 12 hours the oil is burnt out of the colour in decorated bed a huge jolly man in shirt and trousers with an enormous apron was in the act of drawing the kin assisted by two thin boys he nodded a greeting to Minos and exclaimed warm the kin was nearly emptied as Anna stepped out the door the man addressed her step inside miss and try it no thanks she laughed from now he insist as if despising this hesitation an ounce of experience the two boys grinned and wiped at their foreheads with their bare skeleton like arms Anna challenged by the man's look walked quickly into the kin a blasting he seemed to assault her on every side driving her back it was incredible that any human being could support such a temperature said the jovial man apparently summing her up with his bright quizzical eyes you know Summit as you didn't know her form is come along lads he added with brisk heartiness to the boys and the drawing of the kin proceeded next came the tipping house where a middle aged woman enveloped in a protective garment from head to foot was dipping jugs into a vat of lead glaze a boy assisting her the woman's hands were covered with a gray slimy glaze she alone of all the employees appeared to be cool that is the last stage but one said my nose there is only the gloss firing and they passed out into the yard once more one of the glossed ovens was empty they entered it and peered into the lofty inner chamber which seems like the cold crater of an exhausted volcano or like a vault like the ruined seat of some forgotten activity the other oven was firing and Anna could only look at its exterior catching glimpses of the red glow at its twelve mouths and guests at the top of it within where the lead was being fused into glass now for the glossed warehouse and you will have seen all said my nose except the mould shop and that doesn't matter the warehouse was the largest place on the works a room sixty feet long and twenty broad low, white washed bare and clean piles of wear occupied the whole of the walls and of the immense floor space but there was no trace here of the soil gear and untidiness incident to manufacture all processes were at an end clay had vanished into crock and the calmness and the whiteness atoned for the disorder, noise and squalor which had preceded here was a sample of the total and final achievement towards which the thousands of small disjointed efforts that Anna had witnessed were directed and it seemed a miraculous almost impossible result so definite precise and regular after a series of acts apparently variable inexact and casual so inhuman after all that intensely inhuman labour so vast in comparison with the minuteness of the separate endeavours as Anna looked for instance at a pile of tea sets she found it difficult even to conceive that a fortnight or so before there had been nothing but lumps of dirty clay no stage of the manufacture was incredible by itself but the result was incredible it was the result that appealed to the imagination, authenticating the adage that fools and children could see anything till it is done Anna pondered over the organising power, the forethought the wide vision and the sheer ingenuity and cleverness which were implied by the contents of this warehouse what brains she thought of minors what quantities of all sorts of things he must know it was a humble and deeply felt admiration her spoken words gave no clue to her thoughts to find lot of tea sets she remarked oh no he said carelessly these few that you see here are a special order I don't go in much for tea sets they don't pay, we lose 15% of the pieces in making it's toilet wear that pays and that is our leading line he waved an arm vaguely towards rows and rows of ewers and basins in the distance they walked to the end of the warehouse glancing at everything the minors isn't that pretty he pointed through the last window to a view of the canal which could be seen then in perspective finishing in a curve on one side close to the water's edge was a ruined and fragmentary building it's rich browns reflected in the smooth surface of the canal on the other side were a few grim grey trees bordering the towpath down the vista moved a boat steered by a woman in a large mob cap isn't that picturesque he said very an hour centred willingly it's really quite strange such a scene right in the middle of Bursley oh there are others he said but I always take a peep at that whenever I come into the warehouse I wonder you find time to notice it with all this place to see after she said it's a splendid works it will do to be going on with he answered satisfied I'm very glad you've been down you must come again I can see you would be interested in it and there are plenty of things you haven't looked at yet you know he smiled at her they were alone in the warehouse yes she said I expect so well I must go at once I'm afraid it's very late now thank you for showing me around and explaining and I'm frightfully stupid and ignorant goodbye vapour and fright phrases but unimaginable messages they hear a hurt in you Anna held out her hand and he seized it almost convulsively his incendiary eyes fastened on her face I must see you out he said dropping that ungloved hand it was 10 o'clock that night before a frame tell right returned home from acts he appeared to be in a bad temper Agnes had gone to bed his supper of bread and cheese and water was waiting for him and Anna sat at the table while he consumed it he ate in silence somewhat hungrily and she did not deem the moment propitious for telling him about her visit to Mino's works as Titus Price sent up he asked at length gulping down the last of the water sent up yes at fond last I told him as he once sent up some more of the rent today 25 pun he's not sent I don't know she said timidly I was out this afternoon out worst Mr. Mino sent word to ask me to go down and look over the works so I went I thought it would be alright well it wasn't alright and I like to know what business thou hast guarding out as soon as my back's turned how can I tell whether Price sent up or not and what's more thou knowest the house had not to be left I'm sorry she said pleasantly with a determination to be meek and dutiful he grunted happened he did not send and if he did and found the house locked up he should have sent it again bring me the ink pot and I'll write a note this Agnes mistake and her ghost school tomorrow morning Anna obeyed they'll never be able to pay 25 pounds father she ventured they've paid 30 pounds already you know let's gab he said shortly taking up the pen here write it thy son he threw the pen towards her tell Titus if he doesn't pay 5 and 20 this week I'll still put bailiffs in won't it come better from you father she pleaded whose property is it the laconic question was final she knew she must obey and began to write but realizing that she would perforce meet both Titus Price and Willy on Sunday she merely demanded the money omitting the threat her hand trembled as she passed the note to him to read will that do his reply was to tear the paper across put down what I tell you he ordered and don't let's have any more paper wasted then he dictated a letter which was an ultimatum in three lines sign it he said she signed it weeping she could see the wistful reproach in Willy Price's eyes I suppose her father said when she bade him good night I suppose if I hadn't asked I should have heard not of this gathering about with my nose I was going to tell you I had been to the works father she said going to that was his final blow and having delivered it he lose the victim go to bed he said resolutely read her Bible and resolutely prayed end of chapter 8 recording by Hilara recording by Michelle Montano this surly and terrorizing ferocity of tellerites was as instinctive as the growl and spring of a beast of prey he never considered his attitude towards the women of his household as an unusual phenomenon which needed justification or as being in the least abnormal the women of a household were the natural victims of their master in his experience it had always been so in his experience the master had always by universal consent possessed certain rights over the self-respect the happiness and the peace of the defenseless soul set under him rights as unquestioned as those exercised by Ivan the Terrible such rights were rooted in the secret nature of things it was futile to discuss them because their necessity and their propriety were equally obvious tellerite would not have been angry with any man who impugned them he would merely have regarded the fellow as a crank and a born fool on whom logic or indignation would be entirely wasted he did as his father and uncles had done he still thought of his father as a grim customer infinitely more redoubtable than himself he really believed that parents spoiled their children nowadays to be knocked down by a single blow of admiration he could recall the fearful timidity of his mother's eyes without a trace of compassion his treatment of his daughters was no part of a system nor obedient to any defined principles nor the expression of a brutal disposition nor the result of a gradually acquired habit it came to him like eating and like parsimony he belonged to the great and powerful class of house tyrants the backbone of the British nation tax caused ministries to tremble if you had talked to him of the domestic graces of life your words would have conveyed to him no meaning if you had indicted him for simple unprovoked rudeness he would have grinned well knowing that as the king can do no wrong so a man cannot be rude in his own house if you had told him that he inflicted purposeless misery not only on others but himself he would have grinned again vaguely aware that he had not tried to be happy and rather despising happiness as a sort of childish gugaw he had in fact never been happy at home he had never known that expansion of the spirit which is called joy he existed continually under a grievance the atmosphere of manor terrorists afflicted him too with a melancholy gloom him who had created it had he been capable of self-analysis he would have discovered that his heart lightened whenever he returned to his house and grew dark whenever he returned but he was incapable of the feat his case like every similar case was irremediable the next morning his preposterous displeasure lay like a curse on the house Anna was silent and Agnes moved on timid feet in the afternoon Willy Price called in answer to the note the miser was in the garden and Agnes at school Willy's craven and fawning humility touching and shameful to Anna she longed to say to him as he stood hesitant and confused in the parlor go in peace forget this despicable rent it sickens me to see you so she foresaw as the effect of her father's vindictive pursuit of her tenants an interminable succession of these mortifying interviews you'll rather haunt on us Willy Price began using the old phrases but in a tone of forced and propitiatory cheerfulness as though he feared to bring down a storm of anger which should ruin all you'll not deny that we've been doing our best the rent is due, you know, Mr. William she replied, blushing oh yes, he said quickly I don't deny that, I admit that I... did you happen to see Mr. Tell Wright's postscript to your letter? no, she answered without thinking he threw the letter soiled and creased from his pocket and displayed it to her on the foot of the page she read in Ephraim's thick and clumsy characters P.S. this is final my father, said Willy was a little put about he said he'd never received such a letter before in the whole of his business career it isn't as if... I needn't tell you, she interrupted with a sudden determination to get to the worst without more suspense that, of course, I am in my father's hands oh, of course, Mr. Wright I quite understand that, quite it's just a matter of business we owe a debt and we must pay it all we want is time he smiled piteously at her his blue eyes full of appeal she was obliged to gaze at the floor yes she said tapping her foot on the rug but father means what he says she looked up at him again trying to soften her words by means of something more subtle than a smile he means what he says really agreed and I admire him for it the obsequious, trickling lie was odious to her perhaps I could see him he ventured I wish you would, Anna said sincerely father, you're wanted she called curtly through the window I've got a proposal to make to him price continued while they awaited the presence of the miser and I can't hardly think he'll refuse it well, young sir tell Wright said blandly with an air almost insinuating as he entered Willie Price, the simpleton, was deceived by it and taking courage adopted another line of defence he thought the miser was a little ashamed of his postscript about your note, Mr. Tell Wright I was just telling Miss Tell Wright that my father said he had never received such a letter in the whole of his business career the youth assumed a discreet indignation thy father said dozens of such letters lad the miser said with cold emphasis or my name's not Tell Wright don't tell me as tight as price never heard of a bumbela for four Willie was crushed at a blow and obliged to retreat he smiled painfully come, Mr. Tell Wright, don't talk like that all we want is time time is money, said Tell Wright and if us give you time, us give you money instead of that, it's you who has given us money that's right reason Willie laughed with difficulty see here, Mr. Tell Wright to cut a long story short, it's like this you ask for twenty-five pounds I've got in my pocket a bit of exchange drawn by us on Mr. Sutton and endorsed by him for thirty pounds payable in three months will you take that remember it's for thirty and you only ask for twenty-five so Mr. Sutton has dealings with ye Tell Wright remarked oh yes, Willie answered proudly he buys off us regularly we've done business for years and pays a bit of three months, eh? the miser grinned sometimes, said Willie let's see it, said the miser what, the bill? aye oh, the bill's all right Willie took it from his pocket and opening out the blue paper gave it to old Tell Wright Anna perceived the anxiety on the youth's face he flushed and his hand trembled she dared not speak but she wished to tell him to be at ease she knew from infallible signs that her father would take the bill he fromgazed at the stamped paper as had something strange and unprecedented in his experience father would want you not to negotiate that bill said Willie the fact is we promised Mr. Sutton that that particular bill should not leave our hands unless it was absolutely necessary so father would like you not to discount it and he will redeem it before it matures you quite understand we don't care to offend an old customer like Mr. Sutton then this bit of paper is worth an hour for Willie three months the old man said with an affectation of bewildered simplicity happily inspired for once Willie made no answer but put the question will you take it aye, I shall take it, said Tell Wright though it is but a promise he was well pleased that his father's face showed his relief it was now evident that he had been passing through an ordeal Anna guessed that perhaps everything had depended on the acceptance by Tell Wright of that bill had he refused it, prices she thought might have come to sudden disaster she felt glad and disburdened for the moment but immediately it occurred to her that her father would not rest satisfied for long a few weeks and he would give another turn to the screw we were destined to have other visitors that afternoon Agnes, coming from school was accompanied by a lady Anna, who was setting the tea table saw a double shadow pass the window and heard voices she ran into the kitchen and found Mrs. Sutton seated on a chair breathing quickly you'll excuse me coming in so unceremoniously Anna, she said after having kissed her heartily but Agnes said that she always came in by the back way so I came that way too now I'm resting a minute today our horse has gone lame this kind heart radiated a heavenly goodwill even in the most ordinary phrases Anna began to expand at once now do come into the parlour, she said and let me make you comfortable just a minute, my dear Mrs. Sutton begged fanning herself with her handkerchief Agnes' legs are so long oh Mrs. Sutton Agnes protested laughing how can you scarcely keep up with you well my dear I never could walk slowly I'm one of them that go till they drop it's very silly she smiled and the two girls smiled happily in return Agnes, said the housewife set another cup and saucer in plate Agnes threw down her hat and satchel of books eager to show hospitality it still keeps very warm Anna remarked as Mrs. Sutton was silent it's beautifully cool here said Mrs. Sutton I see you've got your kitchen like a new pin Anna if you'll excuse me saying so Henry was very enthusiastic about this kitchen the other night at our house what Mr. Miners Anna read into the eyes yes my dear and he's a very particular young man you know the kettle conveniently boiled at that moment and Anna went to the range to make the tea tea is already Mrs. Sutton she said at length I'm sure you could do with a cup that I could said Mrs. Sutton it's what I've come for we have tea at four father will be glad to see you the clock struck and they went into the parlor Anna carrying the teapot in the hot water jug Agnes had preceded them the old man was sitting expecting in his chair well Mr. Tehrite said the visitor you see I've called to see you and to beg a cup of tea I overtook Agnes coming home from school overtook her mind me at my age Ephraim rose slowly in shook hands you're welcome he said curtly but with a kindness that amazed Anna she was unaware that in past days he had known Mrs. Sutton as a young and charming girl a vision that had stirred poetic ideas in hundreds of prosaic breasts Tehrite's included there was scarcely a middle-aged male Wesleyan in Bursley and Hanbridge who had not a peculiar regard for Mrs. Sutton and who did not think that he alone truly appreciated her what have you been tiring yourself with this afternoon he asked when they had begun tea and Mrs. Sutton had refused a second piece of bread and butter what have I been doing I've been seen to some inside repairs to the superintendent's house be thankful you aren't a circuit steward's wife Anna why does she have to see to the repairs of the minister's house Anna asked surprised I should just think she does she has to stand between the minister's wife and the funds of the society and Mrs. Reginald Banks has been used to the very best of everything she's just a bit exacting though I must say she's willing enough to spend her own money too she wants a new boiler in the scullery now and I'm sure her boiler is a great year better than ours but we must try to please her she isn't used to us rough folks in our ways Mr. Banks said to me this afternoon that he tried always to shield her from the worries of this world she smiled almost imperceptibly there was a ring at the bell an agnes much perturbed by the Augusta rival let in Mr. Banks himself shall I enter my little there said Mr. Banks your father, your sister in it nearer ends but it pours said Telleride who had caught the minister's voice peak of angels said Mrs. Sutton laughing quietly the minister came grandly into the parlor ah how do you do brother Telleride and you miss Telleride Mrs. Sutton we too seem happily fated to meet this afternoon don't let me disturb you I beg I cannot stay my time is very limited I wish I could call off on a brother Telleride but really the new regime leaves no time for pastoral visits I was saying to my wife only this morning that I haven't had a free afternoon for a month he accepted a cup of tea I mustn't have a tea party this afternoon said Telleride quasi privately to Mrs. Sutton and no the minister resumed I've come to beg the special fund you know Mr. Telleride to clear off the debt on the new school buildings I referred to it from the pulpit last sabbath it's not in my province to go around begging but someone must do it well for me I'm beforehand with you Mr. Banks said Mrs. Sutton for it's on that very air and I've called to see Mr. Telleride this afternoon his name is on my list ah then I leave our brother to your superior persuasions come Mr. Telleride said Mrs. Sutton you're between two fires and you'll get no mercy what will you give the miser foresaw a probable discomforture and sought for some means of escape what are others given he asked my husband is given fifty pounds and you could buy him up lock stock and barrel nay nay he tried to gast at this sum he had underrated the importance of the building fund and I said the person solemnly I have but fifty pounds in the world but I'm giving twenty to this fund then you're given too much said Telleride with quick brusqueness you cannot afford it the lord will provide said the person happen you will happen not it's as where you've gotten a rich wife Mr. Banks the person's dignity was obviously wounded and Anna wondered timidly what would occur next Mrs. Sutton interposed come now Mr. Telleride she said again to the point what would you give I'll think it over and let you hear said he from oh no that won't do at all will it Mr. Banks I at any rate am not going away without a definite promise as an old and good Wesleyan of course you have filled your duty to be generous with us you used to be a pillar of the Hanbridge circuit was it not so said Mr. Banks to the miser recovering himself so they used to say Telleride replied grimly that was because I cleared him of debt in ten years but they slipped into the ditch against sin I left him but if I'm right you do not meet with us the minister pursued imperturbably no my own class is at three on Saturdays said the minister I should be glad to see you tell you what I'll do said the miser to Mrs. Sutton Titus Price is a big man at the Sunday school I'll give as much as he gives to the school building that's fair do you know what Mr. Price is giving Mrs. Sutton asked the minister I saw Mr. Price yesterday he's giving twenty five pounds very well that's a bargain said Mrs. Sutton who had succeeded beyond her expectations Ephraim was the dupe of his own scheming he had made sure that Price's contribution would be a small one this ostentatious munificence on the part of the beggared Titus filled him with secret anger he determined to demand more rent at a very early date I'll put you down for twenty five pounds as a first subscription said the minister taking out a pocketbook perhaps he would give Mrs. Sutton or myself the check today has Mr. Price paid? the miser asked warily not yet the minister perceived the way of escape when the minister was gone as Mrs. Sutton seemed in no hurry to depart Anna and Agnes cleared the table I've just been telling your father Anna said Mrs. Sutton when Anna returned to the room that Mr. Sutton and myself and Beatrice are going to the Isle of Man soon for a fortnight or so and we should very much like you to come with us Anna's heart began to beat violently though she knew there was no hope for her this then doubtless was the main object of Mrs. Sutton's visit oh, but I couldn't really said Anna scarcely aware what she did say why not asked Mrs. Sutton well, the house the house Agnes could see to what little housekeeping your father would want the schools will break up next week what do these young folks want holidays for? tell Wright inquired with philosophic gruffness I never had one and what's more I wouldn't thank you for one I'll pig on it burstly when you've gotten a roof of your own where's the sense of going elsewhere and pigging but we really want Anna to go Mrs. Sutton went on Beatrice is very anxious about it Beatrice is very short of suitable friends I should not have thought it said tell Wright her seems to know everyone but she is, Mrs. Sutton insisted I think as you'd better leave Anna out this year said the miser stubbornly Anna wished profoundly Anna wished profoundly that Mrs. Sutton would abandon the futile attempt then she perceived that the visitor was signalling to her to leave the room Anna obeyed going into the kitchen to give an eye to Agnes who was washing up it's all right said Mrs. Sutton contentedly when Anna returned to the parlor your father has consented to your going with us it is very kind of him for I'm sure he'll miss you Anna sat down limp, speechless she could not believe the news you are awfully good she said to Mrs. Sutton in the lobby as the latter was leaving the house I'm ever so grateful you can't think and she threw her arms around Mrs. Sutton's neck Agnes ran up to say goodbye Mrs. Sutton kissed the child Agnes will be the little housekeeper eh? the little housekeeper was almost as pleased at the prospect of housekeeping as if she too had been going to the Isle of Man you'll both be at the school treat I suppose Mrs. Sutton said holding Agnes by the band Agnes glanced at her sister in inquiry I don't know Anna replied we should see the truth was that not caring to ask her father for the money for the tickets she had given no thought to the school treat did I tell you that Henry Minas were most likely becoming with us to the Isle of Man said Mrs. Sutton from the gate Anna retired to her bedroom with an astounding happiness and quietude at supper the miser was in a mood not unbenevolent she expected a reaction the next morning but Ephraim, strange to say remained innocuous she ventured to ask him for the money for the treat tickets two shillings he made no immediate reply half an hour afterwards he ejaculated what in the name of fortune does he want with school treats it's Agnes she answered Miss Agnes can't go alone in the end he threw down a form he became perilous for the rest of the day but the form was an indisputable fact in Anna's pocket the school treat was held in a twelve-acre field near Snade the seat of a marquee and a Saturday afternoon resort very popular in the five towns the children were formed at noon on Duck Bank into a procession which marched to the railway station to the singing of shall we gather at the river then a special train carried them in seating compartments excited and strident to Snade where there had been two sharp showers in the morning the procession was reformed along a country road and the vacillating sky threatened more rain but because the sun had shown dazzlingly at eleven o'clock all the women and girls too easily tempted by the glory of the moment blossomed forth in pale blouses in parasols the young crowd, bright and defenseless as flowers made at Snade a picture at once gay and pathetic it had rained there at half-past twelve the roads were wet and among the two hundred and fifty children and thirty teachers there were less than a score umbrellas the excursion was theoretically in charge of Titus Price, the senior superintendent but this dignitary had failed to arrive on Duck Bank and miners had taken his place in the train Anna heard someone had seen Mr. Price wearing a large gray wide-awake leap into the guards van at the very instant of departure he had not been at school on the previous Sunday and Anna was somewhat perturbed at the prospect of meeting the man who had defined her letter to him as unique in the whole of his business career she caught a glimpse of the gray wide-awake on the platform at Snade and steered her own scholars so as to avoid its vicinity but on the march to the field he interviewed the procession and she was obliged to meet his eyes and return his salutation the look of the man was a shock to her he seemed thinner, nervous restless, preoccupied and terribly care-worn except the new brilliant hat all his summer clothes were soiled and shabby it was as though he had forced himself out of regard for appearances to attend the fate but he had left his thoughts in Edward Street and his tearfulness was painful to watch Anna realized the intensity of the crisis through which Mr. Price was passing she perceived in a single glance more clearly than she could have done after a hundred interviews with the young and unresponsible William however distressing these might be the Titus must for weeks have been engaged in a truly frightful struggle his father was a proof of the tragic sincerity of William's appeals to her and to her father Price should have contrived to pay 70 pounds of rent in a little more than a month seemed to her imperfectly acquainted alike with Ephraim's ruthless compulsions and with the financial jugglery often practiced by hard-pressed debtors to be an almost miraculous effort after honesty her conscience smote her for conniving at which she now saw to be a persecution she felt as sorry for Titus as she had felt for his son the obese man with his reputation in rags about him was acutely wistful in her eyes as a child might have been a carriage rolled by raising the dust in places where the strong sun had already dried the road it was Mr. Sutton's landow driven by Barrett Beatrice in white sat solitary amid cushions while two large hampers occupied most of the coachman's box the carriage seemed to move with lordly ease and rapidity and the teachers already weary and fretted by the endless pranks of the children bitterly envied the enthroned maid who nodded and smiled to them with such charming condescension it was a social triumph for Beatrice she disappeared ahead like a goddess in a cloud and scarcely a woman who saw her from the humble level of the roadway but would have married a sadder to be able to do as Beatrice did later when the field was reached and the children bursting through the gate had spread like a flood over the daisied grass being drawn up near the refreshment tent Barrett was unpacking the hampers which contained delicate creamy confectionery for the teacher's tea Beatrice explained that these were her mother's gift and that she had driven down in order to preserve the fragile pasties from the risks of a railway journey gratitude became vocal and Beatrice's success was perfected then the more conscientious teachers set themselves seriously to the task of amusing the smaller children and the smaller children consented to be amused according to the recipes appointed by long custom for school treats many round games which invariably comprised singing or kissing being thus annually resuscitated by elderly people from the deeps of memory were preserved for a posterity which otherwise would never have known them among these was Bobby Bingo for twenty five years Titus Price had played at Bobby Bingo with the infant classes at the school treat and this year he was bound by the expectations of all to continue the practice another diversion which he always took care to organize was the three-legged race for boys also he usually joined in the Tuttball a quaint game which owes its surprising longevity to the fact that it is equally proper for both sexes within half an hour the treat was in full career football, cricket, rounders, tick, leapfrog prison bars and round games transformed the field into a vast arena of complicated struggles and emulations all were occupied except a few of the women and older girls who strolled languidly about in the role of spectators the sun shone generously on scores of vivid and frail toilettes and parasols made slowly moving hemispheres of glowing color against the rich green of the grass all around were yellow cornfields and the meadows were cows of a burnished brown who meditated upon the phenomena of a school treat every hedge and ditch and gate and style was in that ideal condition of plenary correctness which denotes that a great landowner is exhibiting the beauties of scientific farming for the behoof of his villagers the sky of an intense blue was a sea in which large white clouds sailed gently but capriciously on the northern horizon a low range of smoke marked the southern region of the five towns will you come and help with the bags and cups Henry Miners asked Anna she was standing by herself watching Agnes at play with some other girls Miners had evidently walked across to her from the refreshment tent which was at the opposite extremity of the field in her eyes he was once more the exemplar of style his suit of gray flannel his white straw hat became him to admiration he stood at ease with his hands in his coat pockets and smiled contentedly after all he said the tea is the principal thing and though it wants two hours to tea time yet it's as well to be beforehand I should like something to do Anna replied how are you? he said familiarly after this abrupt opening and then shook hands they traversed the field together with many deviations to avoid trespassing upon areas of play the flapping refreshment tent seemed to be full of piles of baskets and piles of bags and piles of cups which the contractor had brought in a wagon some teachers were already beginning to put the paper bags into the baskets each bag contained bread and butter current cake and Eccles cake and a bath bun at the far end of the tent Beatrice Sutton was arranging her dainties on a small trestle table come along quick Anna she exclaimed and taste my talks and tell me what you think of them I do hope the good people will enjoy them and then turning to Miners hello are you seeing after the bags and things I thought that was always Willy Price's favourite job so it is said Miners but unfortunately he isn't here today how's that play I never knew him to miss a school treat before Mr Price told me they couldn't both be away from the works just now very busy I suppose where William would have been more used to all their anyhow Miners murmured with a subdued laugh Beatrice was in one of her downright moods as she herself called them Miners arrangements for the prompt distribution of tea at the appointed hour were very minute and involved a considerable amount of back bending and manual labour but though they were enlivened by frequent intervals of gossip and by excursions into the field to observe this and that amusing sight all was finished half an hour before time I'll go and warn Mr Price said Miners he is quite capable of forgetting the clock Miners left the tent and proceeded to the scene of an athletic meeting at which Titus Price in shirt sleeves was distributing prizes of six pence and pennies the famous three-legged race had just been run Anna followed at a centre and shortly afterwards Beatrice overtook her the great Titus looks better than he did when he came on the field Beatrice remarked and indeed the superintendent had put on quite a merry appearance flushed, excited and jocular in his elephantine way it seemed as if he had not a care in the world the boys crowded appreciatively round him but this was his last hour of joy what? will he price his here? Anna exclaimed, perceiving William in the fringe of the crowd the lanky fellow stood hesitatingly his left hand busy with his moustache his left hand busy with his mustache so he is! said Beatrice I wonder what that means Titus had not observed the newcomer but Henry Miners saw William and exchanged a few words with him then Mr. Miners advanced into the crowd and spoke to Mr. Price who glanced quickly round at his son the girls, at a distance of forty yards could discern the swift change in the man's demeanour in a second he had reverted to the deplorable Titus of three hours ago he elbowed his way roughly to William getting into his coat as he went the pair talked William glanced at his watch and in another moment they were leaving the field Henry Miners had to finish the price distribution so much Anna and Beatrice plainly saw others too had not been blind to this sudden and dramatic departure it aroused universal comment among the teachers something must be wrong at Price's works Beatrice said she really has had to fetch his papa this was the conclusion of all the gossips Beatrice added dad has mentioned Price's several times lately now I think of it Anna grew extremely self-conscious and uncomfortable she felt as though all were saying of her there goes the oppressor of the poor she was fairly sure however that her father was not responsible for this particular incident there must then be other implacable creditors she had been thoroughly enjoying the afternoon but now her pleasure ceased the treat ended disastrously in the middle of the children's meal while yet the enormous double-handled teacans were being carried up and down the thirsty rose and the boys were causing their bags to explode with appalling detonations it began to rain sharply the fickle son withdrew his splendor from the toilets and was seen no more for a week afterwards it's calm at last the children had been evacuated minors who had watched the sky with anxiety for an hour previously he mobilized the children and ranked them under a row of elms the teachers running to the tent for their own tea said to one another that the shower could only be a brief one the wish was father to the thought for they were a little ashamed to be under cover while their charges precariously sheltered beneath dripping trees yet there was nothing else to be done the men took turns in the rain the sky was completely overcast it's set in for a wet evening so we may as well make the best of it Beatrice said grimly and she sent the landow home empty she was right a forlorn and disgusted snake of a procession crawled through the puddles to the station the platform resounded with sneezes none but a dressmaker could have discovered a silver lining to the black and all-pervading cloud which had ruined so many dozens of fair costumes Anna, melancholy and taciturn exerted herself to minimize the discomfort of her scholars a word from miners would have been balmed to her but miners, the general of a routed army was parlaying by telephone with the traffic manager of the railway for the expediting of the special train End of chapter Recording by Michelle Montano