Immediately afterwards he left the residence, with a bright filial smile. And then, in two minutes, he popped his cheerful head in at the door again.

"Look here, mother," he said, "I 'll lend you half a crown if you like."

Charity beamed on his face, and genuinely warmed his heart.

"But you must pay me something for the accommodation," he added. "I can't do it for nothing. You must pay me back next week and give me threepence. That's fair. I could n't bear to see you turned out of your house. Now, get your rent-book."

And he marked half a crown as paid in her greasy, dirty rent-book, and the same in his large book.

"Eh, you 're a queer 'un, Mester Machin!" murmured the old woman, as he left. He never knew precisely what she meant. Fifteen-twenty years later in his career, her intonation of that phrase would recur to him and puzzle him.

On the following Monday everybody in Chapel Alley and Carpenter's Square seemed to know that the inconvenience of bailiffs and eviction could be avoided by arrangement with Denry the philanthropist. He did quite a business. And having regard to the fantastic nature of the security, he could not well charge less than threepence a week for half a crown.

That was about forty per cent. a month and five hundred per cent. per annum. The security was merely fantastic, but nevertheless, he had his remedy against evil-doers. He would take what they paid him for rent and refuse to mark it as rent, appropriating it to his loans; so that the fear of bailiffs was upon them again. Thus, as the good genius of Chapel Alley and Carpenter's Square, saving the distressed from the rigours of the open street, rescuing the needy from their tightest corners, keeping many a home together when but for him it would have fallen to pieces, always smiling, jolly, sympathetic, and picturesque, Denry at length employed the five-pound note won from Harold Etches. A five-pound note-especially a new and crisp one, as this was-is a miraculous fragment of matter, wonderful in the pleasure which the sight of it gives even to millionaires; but perhaps no five-pound note was ever so miraculous as Denry's. Ten per cent. per week, compound interest, mounts up; it ascends; and it lifts. Denry never talked precisely. But the town soon began to comprehend that he was a rising man, a man to watch. The town admitted that, so far, he had lived up to his reputation as a dancer with countesses. The town felt that there was something indefinable about Denry.

Denry himself felt this. He did not consider himself clever, nor brilliant. But he considered himself peculiarly gifted. He considered himself different from other men. His thoughts would run:

"Anybody but me would have knuckled down to Duncalf and remained a shorthand clerk for evermore."

"Who but me would have had the idea of going to the ball and asking the Countess to dance? ... And then that business with the fan!"

"Who but me would have had the idea of taking his rent-collecting off Duncalf?"

"Who but me would have had the idea of combining these loans with the rent-collecting. It's simple enough! It's just what they want! And yet n.o.body ever thought of it till I thought of it!"

And he knew of a surety that he was that most admired type in the bustling, industrial provinces-a card.

IV

The desire to become a member of the Sports Club revived in his breast.

And yet, celebrity though he was, rising though he was, he secretly regarded the Sports Club at Hillport as being really a bit above him.

The Sports Club was the latest and greatest phenomenon of social life in Bursley, and it was emphatically the club to which it behoved the golden youth of the town to belong. To Denry's generation the Conservative Club and the Liberal Club did not seem like real clubs; they were machinery for politics, and membership carried nearly no distinction with it. But the Sports Club had been founded by the most dashing young men of Hillport, which is the most aristocratic suburb of Bursley and set on a lofty eminence. The sons of the wealthiest earthenware manufacturers made a point of belonging to it, and, after a period of disdain, their fathers also made a point of belonging to it. It was housed in an old mansion with extensive grounds and a pond and tennis courts; it had a working agreement with the Golf Club and with the Hillport Cricket Club. But chiefly it was a social affair. The correctest thing was to be seen there at nights, rather late than early; and an exact knowledge of card games and billiards was worth more in it than prowess on the field.

It was a club in the Pall Mall sense of the word.

And Denry still lived in insignificant Brougham Street, and his mother was still a sempstress! These were apparently insurmountable truths.

All the men whom he knew to be members were somehow more dashing than Denry-and it was a question of dash; few things are more mysterious than dash. Denry was unique, knew himself to be unique; he had danced with a Countess; and yet ... those other fellows! ... Yes there are puzzles, baffling puzzles, in the social career.

In going over on Tuesdays to Hanbridge, where he had a few trifling rents to collect, Denry often encountered Harold Etches in the tram-car.

At that time Etches lived at Hillport, and the princ.i.p.al Etches manufactory was at Hanbridge. Etches partook of the riches of his family and, though a bachelor, was reputed to have the spending of at least a thousand a year. He was famous, on summer Sundays, on the pier at Llandudno, in white flannels. He had been one of the originators of the Sports Club. He spent far more on clothes alone than Denry spent in the entire enterprise of keeping his soul in his body. At their first meetings little was said. They were not equals and nothing but dress-suits could make them equals. However, even a king could not refuse speech with a scullion whom he had allowed to win money from him.

And Etches and Denry chatted feebly. Bit by bit they chatted less feebly. And once, when they were almost alone in the car, they chatted with vehemence during the complete journey of twenty minutes.

"He is n't so bad," said Denry to himself, of the dashing Harold Etches.

And he took a private oath that at his very next encounter with Etches he would mention the Sports Club-"just to see." This oath disturbed his sleep for several nights. But with Denry an oath was sacred. Having sworn that he would mention the Club to Etches, he was bound to mention it. When Tuesday came he hoped that Etches would not be on the tram, and the coward in him would have walked to Hanbridge instead of taking the tram. But he was brave. And he boarded the tram. And Etches was already in it. Now that he looked at it close, the enterprise of suggesting to Harold Etches that he, Denry, would be a suitable member of the Sports Club at Hillport seemed in the highest degree preposterous. Why! He could not play at any games at all! He was a figure only in the streets! Nevertheless-the oath!

He sat awkwardly silent for a few moments, wondering how to begin, and determined to get it over. And then Harold Etches leaned across the tram to him and said:

"I say, Machin. I 've several times meant to ask you. Why don't you put up for the Sports Club? It's really very good, you know."

Denry blushed. Quite probably for the last time in his life. And he saw with fresh clearness how great he was, and how large he must loom in the life of the town. He perceived that he had been too modest.

V

You could not be elected to the Sports Club all in a minute. There were formalities; and that these formalities were complicated and took time is simply a proof that the Club was correctly exclusive, and worth belonging to. When at length Denry received notice from the "Secretary and Steward" that he was elected to the most sparkling fellowship in the Five Towns, he was, positively, afraid to go and visit the Club. He wanted some old and experienced member to lead him gently into the Club and explain its usages and introduce him to the chief habitues. Or else he wanted to slip in un.o.bserved while the heads of clubmen were turned.

And then he had a distressing shock. Mrs. Codleyn took it into her head that she must sell her cottage property. Now Mrs. Codleyn's cottage property was the backbone of Denry's livelihood; and he could by no means be sure that a new owner would employ him as rent-collector. A new owner might have the absurd notion of collecting rents in person.

Vainly did Denry exhibit to Mrs. Codleyn rows of figures showing that her income from the property had increased under his control. Vainly did he a.s.sert that from no other form of investment would she derive such a handsome interest. She went so far as to consult an auctioneer.

The auctioneer's idea of what would const.i.tute a fair reserve price shook, but did not quite overthrow, her. At this crisis it was that Denry happened to say to her, in his new large manner: "Why! if I could afford, I 'd buy the property off you myself, just to show you...!" (He did not explain, to show her, and he did not perhaps know himself, what had to be shown.) She answered that she wished to goodness he would!

Then he said wildly that he _would_, in instalments! And he actually did buy the Widow Hullins's half-a-crown-a-week cottage for 45, of which he paid 30 in cash and arranged that the balance should be deducted gradually from his weekly commission. He chose the Widow Hullins's because it stood by itself-an old piece, as it were, chipped off from the block of Mrs. Codleyn's realty. The transaction quieted Mrs. Codleyn. And Denry felt secure because she could not now dispense with his services without losing her security for 15. (He still thought in these small sums instead of thinking in thousands.)

He was now a property owner.

Encouraged by this great and solemn fact, he went up one afternoon to the Club at Hillport. His entry was magnificent, superficially. No one suspected that he was nervous under the ordeal. The truth is that no one suspected because the place was empty. The emptiness of the hall gave him pause. He saw a large framed copy of the "Rules" hanging under a deer's head, and he read them as carefully as though he had not got a copy in his pocket. Then he read the Notices, as though they had been latest telegrams from some dire seat of war. Then, perceiving a ma.s.sive open door of oak (the club-house had once been a pretty stately mansion), he pa.s.sed through it, and saw a bar (with bottles) and a number of small tables and wicker chairs, and on one of the tables an example of the _Staffordshire *Signal*_ displaying in vast letters the fearful question: "Is your skin troublesome?" Denry's skin was troublesome; it crept. He crossed the hall and went into another room which was placarded "Silence." And silence was. And on a table, with copies of _The Potter's World, The British Australasian, The Iron Trades Review_, and the _Golfer's Annual_, was a second copy of the _Signal_ again demanding of Denry in vast letters whether his skin was troublesome. Evidently the reading-room.

He ascended the stairs and discovered a deserted billiard-room with two tables. Though he had never played at billiards he seized a cue, but when he touched them the b.a.l.l.s gave such a resounding click in the hush of the chamber that he put the cue away instantly. He noticed another door, curiously opened it, and started back at the sight of a small room and eight middle-aged men, mostly hatted, playing cards in two groups.

They had the air of conspirators, but they were merely some of the finest solo-whist players in Bursley. (This was before Bridge had quitted Pall Mall.) Among them was Mr. Duncalf. Denry shut the door quickly. He felt like a wanderer in an enchanted castle who had suddenly come across something that ought not to be come across. He returned to earth, and in the hall met a man in shirt-sleeves-the Secretary and Steward, a nice homely man who said, in the accents of ancient friendship, though he had never spoken to Denry before: "Is it Mr.

Machin? Glad to see you Mr. Machin! Come and have a drink with me, will you? Give it a name." Saying which, the Secretary and Steward went behind the bar, and Denry imbibed a little whiskey and much information concerning the Club.

"Anyhow, I 've _been_!" he said to himself going home.

VI

The next night he made another visit to the Club, about ten o'clock.

The reading-room, that haunt of learning, was as empty as ever; but the bar was full of men, smoke, and gla.s.ses. It was so full that Denry's arrival was scarcely observed. However, the Secretary and Steward observed him, and soon he was chatting with a group at the bar, presided over by the Secretary and Steward's shirt-sleeves. He glanced around, and was satisfied. It was a scene of dashing gaiety and worldliness that did not belie the Club's reputation. Some of the most important men in Bursley were there. Charles Fearns, the solicitor who practised at Hanbridge, was arguing vivaciously in a corner. Fearns lived at Bleakridge and belonged to the Bleakridge Club, and his presence at Hillport (two miles from Bleakridge) was a dramatic tribute to the prestige of Hillport's Club.

Fearns was apparently in one of his anarchistic moods. Though a successful business man, who voted right, he was pleased occasionally to uproot the fabric of society and rebuild it on a new plan of his own.

To-night he was inveighing against landlords-he who by "conveyancing"

kept a wife and family, and a French governess for the family, in rather more than comfort. The Fearnses' French governess was one of the seven wonders of the Five Towns. Men enjoyed him in these moods; and as he raised his voice, so he enlarged the circle of his audience.

"If the bye-laws of this town were worth a bilberry," he was saying, "about a thousand so-called houses would have to come down to-morrow.

Now there's that old woman I was talking about just now-Hullins. She 's a Catholic-and my governess is always slumming about among Catholics-that's how I know. She 's paid half a crown a week for pretty near half a century for a hovel that isn't worth eighteen pence, and now she's going to be pitched into the street because she can't pay any more. And she 's seventy if she 's a day! And that's the basis of society. Nice, refined society, eh?"

"Who's the grasping owner?" some one asked.

"Old Mrs. Codleyn," said Fearns.

"Here, Mr. Machin, they 're talking about you," said the Secretary and Steward genially. He knew that Denry collected Mrs. Codleyn's rents.

"Mrs. Codleyn is n't the owner," Denry called out across the room, almost before he was aware what he was doing. There was a smile on his face and a gla.s.s in his hand.