Helen with the High Hand

with the High Hand (2nd ed.), by
Arnold Bennett

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Title: Helen with the High Hand (2nd ed.)
Author: Arnold Bennett
Release Date: June 29, 2004 [EBook #12779]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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WITH THE HIGH HAND (2ND ED.) ***

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BY THE SAME AUTHOR
NOVELS

A MAN FROM THE NORTH ANNA OF THE FIVE TOWNS
LEONORA A GREAT MAN SACRED AND PROFANE LOVE
WHOM GOD HATH JOINED BURIED ALIVE THE OLD WIVES'
TALE THE GLIMPSE HELEN WITH THE HIGH HAND
CLAYHANGER THE CARD HILDA LESSWAYS THE REGENT
THE PRICE OF LOVE
FANTASIAS
THE GRAND BABYLON HOTEL THE GATES OF WRATH
TERESA OF WATLING STREET THE LOOT OF CITIES HUGO
THE GHOST THE CITY OF PLEASURE
SHORT STORIES
TALES OF THE FIVE TOWNS THE GRIM SMILE OF THE FIVE
TOWNS THE MATADOR OF THE FIVE TOWNS
BELLES-LETTRES
JOURNALISM FOR WOMEN FAME AND FICTION HOW TO
BECOME AN AUTHOR THE TRUTH ABOUT AN AUTHOR THE
REASONABLE LIFE HOW TO LIVE ON 24 HOURS A DAY THE
HUMAN MACHINE LITERARY TASTE THE FEAST OF ST.
FRIEND THOSE UNITED STATES THE PLAIN MAN AND HIS
WIFE PARIS NIGHTS THE AUTHOR'S CRAFT LIBERTY
DRAMA
POLITE FARCES CUPID AND COMMON SENSE WHAT THE
PUBLIC WANTS THE HONEYMOON THE GREAT ADVENTURE
(In collaboration with Eden Phillpotts)
THE SINEWS OF WAR: A Romance THE STATUE: A Romance
(In collaboration with Edward Knoblauch)
MILESTONES

HELEN WITH THE HIGH HAND
IDYLLIC DIVERSION
BY ARNOLD BENNETT
AUTHOR OF "THE OLD WIVES TALE," ETC.
A NEW EDITION
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO
1915

CONTENTS
CHAP.
I BEGINNING OF THE IDYLL
II AN AFFAIR OF THE SEVENTIES
III MARRYING OFF A MOTHER
IV INVITATION TO TEA
V A SALUTATION
VI MRS. BUTT'S DEPARTURE
VII THE NEW COOK
VIII OMELETTE
IX A GREAT CHANGE

X A CALL
XI ANOTHER CALL
XII BREAKFAST
XIII THE WORLD
XIV SONG, SCENE AND DANCE
XV THE GIFT
XVI THE HALL AND ITS RESULT
XVII DESCENDANTS OF MACHIAVELLI
XVIII CHICANE
XIX THE TOSSING
XX THE FLITTING
XXI SHIP AND OCEAN
XXII CONFESSIONAL
XXIII NOCTURNAL
XXIV SEEING A LADY HOME
XXV GIRLISH CONFIDENCES
XXVI THE CONCERT
XXVII UNKNOTTING AND KNOTTING
CHAPTER I
BEGINNING OF THE IDYLL

In the Five Towns human nature is reported to be so hard that you can
break stones on it. Yet sometimes it softens, and then we have one of
our rare idylls of which we are very proud, while pretending not to be.
The soft and delicate South would possibly not esteem highly our idylls,
as such. Nevertheless they are our idylls, idyllic for us, and reminding
us, by certain symptoms, that though we never cry there is concealed
somewhere within our bodies a fount of happy tears.
The town park is an idyll in the otherwise prosaic municipal history of
the Borough of Bursley, which previously had never got nearer to
romance than a Turkish bath. It was once waste ground covered with
horrible rubbish-heaps, and made dangerous by the
imperfectly-protected shafts of disused coal-pits. Now you enter it by
emblazoned gates; it is surrounded by elegant railings; fountains and
cascades babble in it; wild-fowl from far countries roost in it, on trees
with long names; tea is served in it; brass bands make music on its
terraces, and on its highest terrace town councillors play bowls on
billiard-table greens while casting proud glances on the houses of thirty
thousand people spread out under the sweet influence of the gold angel
that tops the Town Hall spire. The other four towns are apt to ridicule
that gold angel, which for exactly fifty years has guarded the borough
and only been regilded twice. But ask the plumber who last had the
fearsome job of regilding it whether it is a gold angel to be despised,
and--you will see!
The other four towns are also apt to point to their own parks when
Bursley mentions its park (especially Turnhill, smallest and most
conceited of the Five); but let them show a park whose natural situation
equals that of Bursley's park. You may tell me that the terra-cotta
constructions within it carry ugliness beyond a joke; you may tell me
that in spite of the park's vaunted situation nothing can be seen from it
save the chimneys and kilns of earthenware manufactories, the
scaffoldings of pitheads, the ample dome of the rate-collector's offices,
the railway, minarets of non-conformity, sundry undulating