stands. And though he did pour his tea
into his saucer, he was sufficiently at home there to address the
younger Miss Callear as 'young woman', and to inform her that her
beverage was lacking in Orange Pekoe. And the Misses Callear, who
conferred a favour on their customers in serving them, didn't like it.

He became reminiscent.

'Aye!' he said, 'when I left th' Five Towns fifty-two years sin' to go
weaving i' Derbyshire wi' my mother's brother, tay were ten shilling a
pun'. Us had it when us were sick--which wasna' often. We worked too
hard for be sick. Hafe past five i' th' morning till eight of a night,
and then Saturday afternoon walk ten mile to Glossop with a week's work
on ye' back, and home again wi' th' brass.

'They've lost th' habit of work now-a-days, seemingly,' he went on, as
the car moved off once more, but slowly, because of the vast crowds
emerging from the Knype football ground. 'It's football, Saturday;
bands of a Sunday; football, Monday; ill i' bed and getting round,
Tuesday; do a bit o' work Wednesday; football, Thursday; draw wages
Friday night; and football, Saturday. And wages higher than ever. It's
that as beats me--wages higher than ever--

'Ye canna' smoke with any comfort i' these cars,' he added, when Harold
had got clear of the crowds and was letting out. He regretfully put his
pipe in his pocket.

Harold skirted the whole length of the Five Towns from south to north,
at an average rate of perhaps thirty miles an hour; and quite soon the
party found itself on the outer side of Turnhill, and descending the
terrible Clough Bank, three miles long, and of a steepness resembling
the steepness of the side of a house.

The car had warmed to its business, and Harold took them down that
declivity in a manner which startled even Maud, who long ago had
resigned herself to the fact that she was tied for life to a young man
for whom the word 'danger' had no meaning.

At the bottom they had a swerve skid; but as there was plenty of room
for eccentricities, nothing happened except that the car tried to climb
the hill again.

'Well, if I'd known,' observed Uncle Dan, 'if I'd guessed as you were
reservin' this treat for th' owd uncle, I'd ha' walked.'

The Etches blood in him was pretty cool, but his nerve had had a
shaking.

Then Harold could not restart the car. The engine had stopped of its
own accord, and, though Harold lavished much physical force on the
magic handle in front, nothing wo