"Yes! Longshaw," Mr. Bryany admitted, half proud and half apologetic. "Which I left at the age of two." "Oh, Longshaw!" murmured Edward Henry with a peculiar inflection. Longshaw is at the opposite end of the Five Towns from Bursley, and the majority of the inhabitants of Bursley have never been to Longshaw in their lives, have only heard of it, as they hear of Chicago or Bangkok. Edward Henry had often been to Longshaw, but, like every visitor from Bursley, he instinctively regarded it as a foolish and unnecessary place. "As I was saying," resumed Mr. Bryany, quite unintimidated, "I'm an Englishman. But I've lived eighteen years in America, and it seems to me the bottom will soon be knocked out of pretty nearly all the markets in England. Look at the Five Towns!" "No, don't, Mr. Bryany!" said Brindley. "Don't go to extremes!" "Personally, I don't mind looking at the Five Towns," said Edward Henry. "What of it?" "Well, did you ever see such people for looking twice at a five-pound note?" Edward Henry most certainly did not like this aspersion on his native district. He gazed in silence at Mr. Bryany's brassy and yet simple face, and did not like the face either. And Mr. Bryany, beautifully unaware that he had failed in tact, continued: "The Five Towns is the most English place I've ever seen, believe me! Of course it has its good points, and England has her good points; but there's no money stirring. There's no field for speculation on the spot, and as for outside investment, no Englishman will touch anything that really--is--good." He emphasized the last three words. "What d'ye do yeself, Mr. Bryany?" inquired Dr Stirling. "What do I do with my little bit?" cried Mr. Bryany. "Oh! I know what to do with my little bit. I can get ten per cent in Seattle and twelve to fifteen in Calgary on my little bit; and security just as good as English railway stock--_and_ better!" The theatre was darkened and the cinematograph began its restless twinkling. Mr. Bryany went on offering to Edward Henry, in a suitably lowered voice, his views on the great questions of investment and speculation, and Edward Henry made cautious replies. "And even when there _is_ a good thing going at home," Mr. Bryany said, in a wounded tone, "what Englishman'd look at it?" "I would," said Edward Henry with a blandness that was only skin-deep. For all the time he was cogitating the question whether the presence of Dr Stirling in the audience ought or ought not to be regarded as providential. "Now, I've got the option on a little affair in London," said Mr. Bryany, while Edward Henry glanced quickly at him in the darkness. "And can I get anybody to go into it? I can't." "What sort of a little affair?" "Building a theatre in the West End."