The Project Gutenberg eBook, Leonora, by Arnold Bennett

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Title: Leonora

Author: Arnold Bennett

Release Date: October 12, 2004 [eBook #13723]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LEONORA***

E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Michael Wymann-Boni, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

LEONORA

A Novel

by

ARNOLD BENNETT

Author of _The Grand Babylon Hotel_, _The Gates of Wrath_,
_Anna of the Five Towns_, etc.

1903

CONTENTS

I. THE HOUSEHOLD AT HILLPORT
II. MESHACH AND HANNAH
III. THE CALL
IV. AN INTIMACY
V. THE CHANCE
VI. COMIC OPERA
VII. THE DEPARTURE
VIII. THE DANCE
IX. A DEATH IN THE FAMILY
X. IN THE GARDEN
XI. THE REFUSAL
XII. IN LONDON

CHAPTER I

THE HOUSEHOLD AT HILLPORT

She was walking, with her customary air of haughty and rapt leisure,
across the market-place of Bursley, when she observed in front of her,
at the top of Oldcastle Street, two men conversing and gesticulating
vehemently, each seated alone in a dog-cart. These persons, who had met
from opposite directions, were her husband, John Stanway, the
earthenware manufacturer, and David Dain, the solicitor who practised at
Hanbridge. Stanway's cob, always quicker to start than to stop, had been
pulled up with difficulty, drawing his cart just clear of the other one,
so that the two portly and middle-aged talkers were most uncomfortably
obliged to twist their necks in order to see one another; the attitude
did nothing to ease the obvious asperity of the discussion. She thought
the spectacle undignified and silly; and she marvelled, as all women
marvel, that men who conduct themselves so magisterially should
sometimes appear so infantile. She felt glad that it was Thursday
afternoon, and the shops closed and the streets empty.

Immediately John Stanway caught sight of her he said a few words to the
lawyer in a somewhat different key, and descended from his vehicle. As
she came up to them Mr. Dain saluted her with bashful abruptness, and
her proud face broke as if by the loosing of a spell into a generous and
captiv