Dying Fires

CONTENTS PART I i. THE TETHER i PAGE ii. MIDNIGHT CONFIDENCES - - - 12 in. AN ATTEMPTED DIVERSION iv. THE NEEDLE TO THE POLE - - v. MARRIAGE - - - - vi. THE FRIEND - - 61 vn. THE CHILD vm. JIM ix. AN ONLY CHILD - - - - 24 35 42 70 - 81 x. JIM DIES - - in xi. TIMES FELL HAND PART II xii. A STANDSTILL - - xin. THE HOME SURFACE - - 99 125 138 146 xiv. A TENTATIVE DEFENCE - - 162 xv. A STEP IN THE DARK - - 177 xvi. THE REBUFF . - 190 xvn. REPETITIONS AND EXPERIMENTS - - 208 xvni. LATITUDE - - 220 xix. THE PARENTS - xx. TEARING DOWN THE VEIL xxi. ELATION - - 242 254 264 xxn. SHE STAYS - 281 xxin. THE STATUE AND THE BUST .- 296 PART I DYING FIRES CHAPTER I THE TETHER THEY looked down together from the gallery of the Manchester Exchange upon swarming humanity. He had met her in St. Anns Square, had yielded to the im- pulse he hardly recognised it as part of a perpetual craving to speak to her, and about his work had eventually an inquiry led to his proposal that she should see one scene of it. She saw the place with an amazed curiosity, and it had the effect familiar to those who have followed a friend into his strange environment of raising some shadow of a barrier between them. Yet in her perturbation, in the confused attempt to adjust him to this vast sum of unsounded life, she was stirred to sharp sympathies. The turmoil, the heat, and the reek of it were disturbing, but her niceties of revolt were curbed by the knowledge that he belonged to this, even while they were stimulated by the thought that he must endure it. When her glance roamed over the whole vast assembly her heart lifted, but the concentration upon groups of little shabby men and their obscure chafferings depressed her. Hegave some simple explanations to which she hardly listened. She said Youre one of them Every day You godown there, of course It looks uncomfortable horrid. Interesting, too. I suppose you are interested One has to do it. You sell buy Both. I buy yarn and sell cloth. We weave the yarn into cloth and you get your calico. And all these people are contesting competing Its terribly severe and engross- ing, I suppose. She craned down to study the bearing and gestures of a group, and failed to find the tension. He laughed. Its not so strenuous for most of them. Its a dull place, full of mere repetitions But fortunes are made and lost. Dont I hear about speculations that in a few hours Ah this is a humdrum, commercial community. There are men here who have been short of a five-pound note any time these ten years, and they never break. Of course, theres some speculation. Anyone may speculate. You do not Not more than is necessary. You see, we are solid, commercial people. And this place what it represents is my hold on sanity. He pointed out one or two notable figures he was a little supercilious and aloof. What a mass he said. What a life Shall I tear myself away before its too late And how should I get on without it I cant make out, he said, as she was silent, whether this is the essential thing in my life or only a background. A tremen- dous lot of my energies go here, and