The Roll-Call

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The Roll-Call

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Roll-Call, by Arnold Bennett This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: The Roll-Call
Author: Arnold Bennett
Release Date: June 19, 2004 [EBook #12654]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE ROLL-CALL
BY
ARNOLD BENNETT
THIRD EDITION
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 Hilda Lessways These Twain The Card The Regent The Price of Love The Lion's Share The Pretty Lady
FANTASIAS
The Ghost The Grand Babylon Hotel The Gates of Wrath Teresa of Watling Street The Loot of Cities 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 How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day Mental Efficiency The Human Machine Literary Taste Those United States Paris Nights Friendship and Happiness Married Life Liberty Over There The Author's Craft Books and Persons Self and Self-Management
DRAMA
Polite Farces Cupid and Common Sense What the Public Wants The Honeymoon The Great Adventure The Title Judith Milestones (in collaboration with EDWARD KNOBLOCK)
(In collaboration with EDEN PHILLPOTTS) The Sinews of War: A Romance The Statue: A Romance

THE ROLL-CALL
BY
ARNOLD BENNETT
THIRD EDITION
_LONDON: HUTCHINSON & CO. PATERNOSTER ROW_
NOTE This novel was written before "The Pretty Lady", and is the first of the author's war-novels. A.B.
CONTENTS

PART I
CHAP.
I. THE NEW LODGING II. MARGUERITE III. THE CHARWOMAN IV. THE LUNCHEON V. THE TEA VI. THE DINNER VII. THE RUPTURE VIII. INSPIRATION IX. COMPETITION

PART II
I. THE TRIUMPH
II. THE ROLL-CALL III. IN THE MACHINE

THE ROLL-CALL

CHAPTER I
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PART I
CHAPTER I
THE NEW LODGING
I
In the pupils' room of the offices of Lucas & Enwright, architects, Russell Square, Bloomsbury, George Edwin Cannon, an articled pupil, leaned over a large drawing-board and looked up at Mr. Enwright, the head of the firm, who with cigarette and stick was on his way out after what he called a good day's work. It was past six o'clock on an evening in early July 1901. To George's right was an open door leading to the principals' room, and to his left another open door leading to more rooms and to the staircase. The lofty chambers were full of lassitude; but round about George, who was working late, there floated the tonic vapour of conscious virtue. Haim, the factotum, could be seen and heard moving in his cubicle which guarded the offices from the stairs. In the rooms shortly to be deserted and locked up, and in the decline of the day, the three men were drawn together like survivors.
"I gather you're going to change your abode," said Mr. Enwright, having stopped.
"Did Mr. Orgreave tell you, then?" George asked.
"Well, he didn't exactly tell me...."
John Orgreave was Mr. Enwright's junior partner; and for nearly two years, since his advent in London from the Five Towns, George had lived with Mr. and Mrs. Orgreave at Bedford Park. The Orgreaves, too, sprang from the Five Towns. John's people and George's people were closely entwined in the local annals.
Pupil and principal glanced discreetly at one another, exchanging in silence vague, malicious, unutterable critical verdicts upon both John Orgreave and his wife.
"Well, I am!" said George at length.
"Where are you going to?"
"Haven't settled a bit," said George. "I wish I could live in Paris."
"Paris wouldn't be much good to you yet," Mr. Enwright laughed benevolently.
"I suppose it wouldn't. Besides, of course----"
George spoke in a tone of candid deferential acceptance, which flattered Mr. Enwright very much, for it was the final proof of the prestige which the grizzled and wrinkled and peculiar Fellow and Member of the Council of the Royal Institute of British Architects had acquired in the estimation of that extremely independent, tossing sprig, George Edwin Cannon. Mr. Enwright had recently been paying a visit to Paris, and George had been sitting for the Intermediate Examination. "You can join me here for a few days after the exam., if you care to," Mr. Enwright had sent over. It was George's introduction to the Continent, and the circumstances of it were almost ideal. For a week the deeply experienced connoisseur of all the arts had had the fine, eager, responsive virgin mind hi his power. Day after day he had watched and guided it amid entirely new sensations. Never had Mr. Enwright enjoyed himself more purely, and at the close he