IX. A DEATH IN THE FAMILY
X. IN THE GARDEN
XI. THE REFUSAL
XII. IN LONDON





CHAPTER I

THE HOUSEHOLD AT HILLPORT


She was walking, with her customary air of haughty and rapt leisure,
across the market-place of Bursley, when she observed in front of her,
at the top of Oldcastle Street, two men conversing and gesticulating
vehemently, each seated alone in a dog-cart. These persons, who had met
from opposite directions, were her husband, John Stanway, the
earthenware manufacturer, and David Dain, the solicitor who practised at
Hanbridge. Stanway's cob, always quicker to start than to stop, had been
pulled up with difficulty, drawing his cart just clear of the other one,
so that the two portly and middle-aged talkers were most uncomfortably
obliged to twist their necks in order to see one another; the attitude
did nothing to ease the obvious asperity of the discussion. She thought
the spectacle undignified and silly; and she marvelled, as all women
marvel, that men who conduct themselves so magisterially should
sometimes appear so infantile. She felt glad that it was Thursday
afternoon, and the shops closed and the streets empty.