e gave a curt, scornful
whistle, and lo! the luncheon-car was gliding away from Leonora, Ethel,
and Milly! Lo! the station was empty!

'I wonder what he will talk to her about,' thought Leonora.

They had to cross the station by the under-ground passage and wait
twenty minutes for a squalid, shambling local train which took them to
Shawport, at the foot of the rise to Hillport.

CHAPTER VIII

THE DANCE

About three months after its rendering of _Patience_, the Bursley
Amateur Operatic Society arranged to give a commemorative dance in the
very scene of that histrionic triumph. The fete was to surpass in
splendour all previous entertainments of the kind recorded in the annals
of the town. It was talked about for weeks in advance; several
dressmakers nearly died of it; and as the day approached the difficulty
of getting one's self invited became extreme.

'You know, Mrs. Stanway,' said Harry Burgess when he met Leonora one
afternoon in the street, 'we are relying on you to be the best-dressed
woman in the place.'

She smiled with a calmness which had in it a touch of gentle cynicism.
'You shouldn't,' she answered.

'But you're coming, aren't you?' he inquired with eager concern. Of
late, owing to the capricious frigidity of Millicent's attitude towards
him, he had been much less a frequenter of Leonora's house, and he was
no longer privy to all its doings.

'Oh, yes,' she said, 'I suppose I shall come.'

'That's all right,' he exclaimed. 'If you come you conquer.' They passed
on their ways.

Leonora's existence had slipped back into its old groove since the
departure of Twemlow, and the groove had deepened. She lived by the
force of habit, hoping nothing from the future, but fearing more than a
little. She seemed to be encompassed by vague and sinister portents.
After another brief interlude of apparent security, John's situation was
again disquieting. Trade was good in the Five Towns; at least the
manufacturers had temporarily forgotten to complain that it was very
bad, and the Monday afternoon football-matches were magnificently
attended. Moreover, John had attracted favourable attention to himself
by his shrewd proposals to the Manufacturers' Association for reform in
the method of paying firemen and placers; his ability was everywhere
recognised. At the same time, however, the Five Towns looked askance at
him. Rumour revived, and said that he could not keep up his juggling
performance for ever. H