Time passed, like a ship across a distant horizon, which moves but which
does not seem to move. One Monday evening Edwin said that he was going
round to Lane End House. He had been saying so for weeks, and
hesitating. He thoroughly enjoyed going to Lane End House; there was no
reason why he should not go frequently and regularly, and there were
several reasons why he should. Yet his visitings were capricious
because his nature was irresolute. That night he went, sticking a hat
carelessly on his head, and his hands deep into his pockets. Down the
slope of Trafalgar Road, in the biting November mist, between the two
rows of gas-lamps that flickered feebly into the pale gloom, came a long
straggling band of men who also, to compensate for the absence of
overcoats, stuck hands deep into pockets, and strode quickly. With
reluctance they divided for the passage of the steam-car, and closed
growling together again on its rear. The potters were on strike, and a
Bursley contingent was returning in embittered silence from a mass
meeting at Hanbridge. When the sound of the steam-car subsided, as the
car dipped over the hill-top on its descent towards Hanbridge, nothing
could be heard but the tramp-tramp of the procession on the road.
Edwin hurried down the side street, and in a moment rang at the front
door of the Orgreaves'. He nodded familiarly to the servant who opened,
stepped on to the mat, and began contorting his legs in order to wipe
the edge of his boot-soles.
"Quite a stranger, sir!" said Martha, bridling, and respectfully aware
of her attractiveness for this friend of the house.
"Yes," he laughed. "Anybody in?"
"Well, sir, I'm afraid Miss Janet and Miss Alicia are out."
"And Mr Tom?"
"Mr Tom's out, sir. He pretty nearly always is now, sir." The fact
was that Tom was engaged to be married, and the servant indicated, by a
scarcely perceptible motion of the chin, that fiances were and ever
would be all the same. "And Mr John and Mr James are out too, sir."
They also were usually out. They were both assisting their father in
business, and sought relief from his gigantic conception of a day's work
by evening diversions at Hanbridge. These two former noisy Liberals had
joined the Hanbridge Conservative Club because it was a club, and had a
billiard-table that could only be equalled at the Five Towns Hotel at
Knype.
"And Mr Orgreave?"
"He's working upstairs, sir. Mrs Orgreave's got her asthma, and so
he's working upstairs."
"Well, tell them I've called." Edwin turned to depart.
"I'm sure Mr Orgreave would like to know you're here, sir," said the
maid firmly. "If you'll just step into the breakfast-room." That maid
did as she chose with visitors for whom she had a fancy.
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