THE MATADOR OF THE FIVE TOWNS AND OTHER STORIES by ARNOLD BENNETT 1912 BY THE SAME AUTHOR NOVELS A MAN FROM THE NORTH ANNA OF THE FIVE TOWNS LEONORA A GREAT MAN SACRED AND PROFANE LOVE WHOM GOD HATH JOINED BURIED ALIVE THE OLD WIVES' TALE THE GLIMPSE HELEN WITH THE HIGH HAND CLAYHANGER HILDA LESSWAYS THE CARD FANTASIAS THE GRAND BABYLON HOTEL THE GATES OF WRATH TERESA OF WATLING STREET THE LOOT OF CITIES HUGO THE GHOST THE CITY OF PLEASURE SHORT STORIES TALES OF THE FIVE TOWNS THE GRIM SMILE OF THE FIVE TOWNS BELLES-LETTRES JOURNALISM FOR WOMEN FAME AND FICTION HOW TO BECOME AN AUTHOR THE TRUTH ABOUT AN AUTHOR THE REASONABLE LIFE HOW TO LIVE ON TWENTY-FOUR HOURS A DAY THE HUMAN MACHINE LITERARY TASTE THE FEAST OF ST FRIEND DRAMA POLITE FARCES CUPID AND COMMON SENSE WHAT THE PUBLIC WANTS THE HONEYMOON (In Collaboration with EDEN PHILLPOTTS) THE SINEWS OF WAR: A ROMANCE THE STATUE: A ROMANCE CONTENTS TRAGIC THE MATADOR OF THE FIVE TOWNS MIMI THE SUPREME ILLUSION THE LETTER AND THE LIE THE GLIMPSE FROLIC JOCK-AT-A-VENTURE THE HEROISM OF THOMAS CHADWICK UNDER THE CLOCK THREE EPISODES IN THE LIFE OF MR COWLISHAW, DENTIST CATCHING THE TRAIN THE WIDOW OF THE BALCONY THE CAT AND CUPID THE FORTUNE-TELLER THE LONG-LOST UNCLE THE TIGHT HAND WHY THE CLOCK STOPPED HOT POTATOES HALF-A-SOVEREIGN THE BLUE SUIT THE TIGER AND THE BABY THE REVOLVER AN UNFAIR ADVANTAGE THE MATADOR OF THE FIVE TOWNS I Mrs Brindeley looked across the lunch-table at her husband with glinting, eager eyes, which showed that there was something unusual in the brain behind them. "Bob," she said, factitiously calm. "You don't know what I've just remembered!" "Well?" said he. "It's only grandma's birthday to-day!" My friend Robert Brindley, the architect, struck the table with a violent fist, making his little boys blink, and then he said quietly: "_The_ deuce!" I gathered that grandmamma's birthday had been forgotten and that it was not a festival that could be neglected with impunity. Both Mr and Mrs Brindley had evidently a humorous appreciation of crises, contretemps, and those collisions of circumstances which are usually called "junctures" for short. I could have imagined either of them saying to the other: "Here's a funny thing! The house is on fire!" And then yielding to laughter as they ran for buckets. Mrs Brindley, in particular, laughed now; she gazed at the table-cloth and laughed almost silently to herself; though it appeared that their joint forgetfulness might result in temporary estrangement from a venerable ancestor who was also, birthdays being duly observed, a continual fount of rich presents in specie. Robert Brindley drew a time-table from his breast-pocket with the rapid gesture of habit. All men of business in the Five Towns seem to carry that time-table in their breast-pockets. Then he examined his watch carefully.