The Grim Smile of the Five Towns

Name: The Grim Smile of the Five Towns
Author: Bennett, Arnold

Bennett, Arnold

City and town life -- Fiction; Domestic fiction; Middle class -- Fiction; Pottery industry -- Fiction; Staffordshire (England) -- Fiction; Stoke-on-Trent (England) -- Fiction

'Why, of course! It was the annual outing of the teachers of St Luke's
Sunday School and their friends, you see. So we had a special train.'

At this point the duettists came to the end of a movement, and Mr
Brindley leaned over to us from his stool, glass in hand.

'The railway company practically owns Ilam,' he explained, 'and so they
run it for all they're worth. They made the lake, to feed the canals,
when they bought the canals from the canal company. It's an artificial
lake, and the railway runs alongside it. A very good scheme of the
company's. They started out to make Ilam a popular resort, and they've
made it a popular resort, what with special trains and things. But try
to get a special train to any other place on their rotten system, and
you'll soon see!'

'How big is the lake?' I asked.

'How long is it, Ol?' he demanded of Colclough. 'A couple of miles?'

'Not it! About a mile. Adagio!'

They proceeded with Brahms.

'He ran with you all the way to the station, didn't he?' Mrs Brindley
suggested to Mrs Colclough.

'I should just say he did!' Mrs Colclough concurred. 'He wanted to get
warm, and then he was awfully afraid lest we should miss it.'

'I thought you were on the lake practically all night!' I exclaimed.

'All night! Well, I don't know what you call all night. But I was back
in Bursley before eleven o'clock, I'm sure.'

I then contrived to discover the Gazette in an unsearched pocket, and I
gave it to Mrs Colclough to read. Mrs Brindley looked over her shoulder.

There was no slightest movement of depreciation on Mrs Colclough's
part. She amiably smiled as she perused the GAZETTE'S version of Fuge's
version of the lake episode. Here was the attitude of the woman whose
soul is like crystal. It seems to me that most women would have
blushed, or dissented, or simulated anger, or failed to conceal vanity.
But Mrs Coclough might have been reading a fairy tale, for any emotion
she displayed.

'Yes,' she said blandly; 'from the things Annie used to tell me about
him sometimes, I should say that was just how he WOULD talk. They seem
to have thought quite a lot of him in London, then?'

'Oh, rather!' I said. 'I suppose your sister knew him pretty well?'

'Annie? I don't know. She knew him.'

I distinctly observed a certain self-consciousness in Mrs Colclough as
she made this reply. Mrs Brindley had risen and with wifely
attentiveness was turning over the music page for her husband.




VIII

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

The Grim Smile of the Five TownsBennett, Arnold

General

The Grim Smile of the Five Towns

Bennett, Arnold

City and town life -- Fiction; Domestic fiction; Middle class -- Fiction; Pottery industry -- Fiction; Staffordshire (England) -- Fiction; Stoke-on-Trent (England) -- Fiction

'Why, of course! It was the annual outing of the teachers of St Luke's
Sunday School and their friends, you see. So we had a special train.'

At this point the duettists came to the end of a movement, and Mr
Brindley leaned over to us from his stool, glass in hand.

'The railway company practically owns Ilam,' he explained, 'and so they
run it for all they're worth. They made the lake, to feed the canals,
when they bought the canals from the canal company. It's an artificial
lake, and the railway runs alongside it. A very good scheme of the
company's. They started out to make Ilam a popular resort, and they've
made it a popular resort, what with special trains and things. But try
to get a special train to any other place on their rotten system, and
you'll soon see!'

'How big is the lake?' I asked.

'How long is it, Ol?' he demanded of Colclough. 'A couple of miles?'

'Not it! About a mile. Adagio!'

They proceeded with Brahms.

'He ran with you all the way to the station, didn't he?' Mrs Brindley
suggested to Mrs Colclough.

'I should just say he did!' Mrs Colclough concurred. 'He wanted to get
warm, and then he was awfully afraid lest we should miss it.'

'I thought you were on the lake practically all night!' I exclaimed.

'All night! Well, I don't know what you call all night. But I was back
in Bursley before eleven o'clock, I'm sure.'

I then contrived to discover the Gazette in an unsearched pocket, and I
gave it to Mrs Colclough to read. Mrs Brindley looked over her shoulder.

There was no slightest movement of depreciation on Mrs Colclough's
part. She amiably smiled as she perused the GAZETTE'S version of Fuge's
version of the lake episode. Here was the attitude of the woman whose
soul is like crystal. It seems to me that most women would have
blushed, or dissented, or simulated anger, or failed to conceal vanity.
But Mrs Coclough might have been reading a fairy tale, for any emotion
she displayed.

'Yes,' she said blandly; 'from the things Annie used to tell me about
him sometimes, I should say that was just how he WOULD talk. They seem
to have thought quite a lot of him in London, then?'

'Oh, rather!' I said. 'I suppose your sister knew him pretty well?'

'Annie? I don't know. She knew him.'

I distinctly observed a certain self-consciousness in Mrs Colclough as
she made this reply. Mrs Brindley had risen and with wifely
attentiveness was turning over the music page for her husband.




VIII

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Grim Smile of the Five Towns — John Shaqi

The Grim Smile of the Five Towns

The Grim Smile of the Five Towns

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