had failed of
an effect!

He slipped out on to the pavement and saw, under the gas-lamp, on the
new hoarding of the football ground, a poster intimating that during
that particular week there was a gigantic attraction at the Empire
Music Hall at Hanbridge. According to the posters there was a gigantic
attraction every week at the Empire, but Edward Henry happened to know
that this week the attraction was indeed somewhat out of the common.
And to-night was Friday, the fashionable night for the bloods and the
modishness of the Five Towns. He looked at the church clock and
then at his watch. He would be in time for the "second house," which
started at nine o'clock. At the same moment an electric tram-car came
thundering up out of Bursley. He boarded it and was saluted by the
conductor. Remaining on the platform he lit a cigarette and tried to
feel cheerful. But he could not conquer his depression.

"Yes," he thought, "what I want is change--and a lot of it, too!"

CHAPTER II

THE BANK-NOTE

I

Alderman Machin had to stand at the back, and somewhat towards the
side, of that part of the auditorium known as the Grand Circle at the
Empire Music Hall, Hanbridge. The attendants at the entrance, and in
the lounge, where the salutation "Welcome" shone in electricity over a
large cupid-surrounded mirror, had compassionately and yet exultingly
told him that there was not a seat left in the house. He had shared
their exultation. He had said to himself, full of honest pride in the
Five Towns: "This music-hall, admitted by the press to be one of the
finest in the provinces, holds over two thousand five hundred people.
And yet we can fill it to overflowing twice every night! And only
a few years ago there wasn't a decent music-hall in the entire
district!"

The word "Progress" flitted through his head.

It was not strictly true that the Empire was or could be filled to
overflowing twice every night, but it was true that at that particular
moment not a seat was unsold; and the aspect of a crowded auditorium
is apt to give an optimistic quality to broad generalizations.
Alderman Machin began instinctively to calculate the amount of money
in the house, and to wonder whether there would be a chance for
a second music-hall in the dissipated town of Hanbridge. He also
wondered why the idea of a second music-hall in Hanbridge had never
occurred to him before.

The Grand Circle was so called because it was grand. Its p