The Regent

Turk's Head-a room with which he had no previous acquaintance, though, like most industrious me

ent mantles (on the ground floor), it had not yet conquered a natural distaste for electricity-and Edward Henry saw a smart

his room before,"

bucket. "It's my private sitting-room. Whenever I am on my travels I always take a private sitting-room. It pays,

nry agree

ppose

ometimes felt the desire, but he had not had the "face"-as they say down there-to do it. To take a private sitting-ro

private sitting-rooms in thi

fronted him, shovel in hand, with a remar

ou want, if you insist on hav

d, but they do not extend the privilege to strangers. And in justice to the Turk's Head it is to be clearly stated that it did no more to cow and dis

Mr. B

the place f

expect

to Chi

I hav

s overcoat, could be seen politel

ou've been t

o New York. But by some inexplicable negligence he had hitherto omitted to go to New York, a

I hav

discovery that there existed in England a man of the world who had contrived to s

any-in what coin he knew not yet-for the aspersions which at the music-hall he had cast upon England in general and upon the Five Towns in particular, and also to get revenge for having been tricked into believing, even for a moment, that there was reall

that Nellie's suggestion of blood-poisoning might not be as entirely foolish as [47] feminine suggestions in such circumstances too often are. But now he put these thoughts away, reassur

n a new tone,

hat about this litt

ds something towards the man in possession of what he needs. And studying the fellow's countenance, he

n opposite Edward Henry at the centre table, and reac

W.C.B.," first a cut-glass flask of whisky with a p

lden liquid up to the light. "It's safer and it saves any trouble

s, there being a siphon and glasses, and th

!" he said, wit

n conformity with the changel

loo

hey s

rew from the dispatch-box a

this plan of Piccadilly Ci

Pall Mall and a Chancery Lane. The adjective

when we were chatting over there." With his elbow he ind

" said M

rd Henry

ng with London for? What u

Bryany proceeded. "Well, that's the

d Henry inquired, examining the plan. Lines ra

ines of vision,"

Bryany's finger approached Edward Henry's on the plan, and the clouds from their cigarettes fraternally mingled. "Now you see by those lines that the electric sign of the proposed the

enry ask

ou boug

gize. "I haven't exactly bought

n Edward Henry. And the mere act of looking at the plan endo

ion to

End of London," said Mr. Bryany,

se!" Edward He

gs to Lord Woldo, n

murmured E

ith sixty-four years to run, on the condition I put up a the

frowned and

re the

rected himself, smiling courteou

got the o

d's got the

the most renowned star-actresses in E

-?" he e

d proudly, blowi

dentially, leaning forward, "where d

"Her father kept a tobacconist's shop in Cheapside. The sign w

hrilled by these [50] extraordinary revelations

ryany

nd I let her have the money." He threw away his cigarette half-smoked, with a free gestur

utting into the query all the innuendo of a man accust

ith the late Lord Woldo, you know." Edward Henry nodded. "Why, she and the Countess of C

was the wife of the

answered ca

th, when he had driven the Countess to a public meetin

remember that he was the founder, chairman and proprietor of the Five Towns Unive

Bryany, passing across t

rents are always going up ... When I tell you that a theatre costing ￡25,000 to build can be let for ￡11,000 a year, and often ￡300 a week on a short term ...!" And he could hear the gas singing over his head ... And also, unhappily, he could

tell y

n the Five Towns is regarded as mere directness, "I wonder why the devil you want

Bryany, as if up to that moment he

hy

pparently he had quickly abandoned the strictness of veracity.) "All depends on

Henry l

cou

, laughing too. Then, with extreme and convincing seriousness,

not displeased

w m

I paid. I made no concealment of that, did I

of the opt

oduced a copy

ents. "It's right off my line, right bang off it ...! But what a lark!" But even to his soul he did not utter the remainder of t

apped within him and

m o

rds and

any exclaimed, mis

Henry

" said Mr. Bryany, taking a fr

ard Henry, quite inaccurately; for it was not

, with a rather

en can

day or two." And Edward Henry i

utely must have the money to-morrow morning in London. I c

ust ha

us

at Mr. Bryany, with his private sitting-room and his investments in Seattle and Calgary, was at his wits' end for a bag of English sovereigns, and had t

shouted. "Don't light your

ing the document which he had creased into a s

nd you a

in his pockets. Having discovered therein a piece o

meet me at the station in the morning

n't," said E

then,

othed his host and, blowing out the spill which he had

ha

s, m

y of the spill, seized it and unroll

tamm

n to say it

nry. He was [54] growing fond of this reply, and of t

ut

Henry. "But we're apt to be careless about hundred-pound not

it's

ank in England refuses it, return it to me and I'll

nd then subsided back into his chair. "I am simply

ry felt all the sweetness of a

comman

me a transfer.

e jump

e in a

me a match." Edward Henry waved the unlit cigarette