Saturday before the first Monday in August, and therefore the formal
opening of Knype Wakes, the most carnivalesque of all the carnivals
which enliven the four seasons in the Five Towns. It is still called
Knype Wakes, because once Knype overshadowed Hanbridge in importance;
but its headquarters are now quite properly at Hanbridge, the hub, the
centre, the Paris of the Five Towns--Hanbridge, the county borough of
sixty odd thousand inhabitants. It is the festival of the masses that
old Jack sprang from, and every genteel person who can leaves the Five
Towns for the seaside at the end of July. Nevertheless, the district is
never more crammed than at Knype Wakes. And, of course, genteel persons,
whom circumstances have forced to remain in the Five Towns, sally out in
the evening to 'do' the Wakes in a spirit of tolerant condescension.
Ellis was in this case. His parents and sisters were at Llandudno, and
he had been left in charge of the works and of the new house. He was
always free; he could always pity the bondage of his sisters; but now he
was more free than ever--he was absolutely free. Imagine the delicious
feeling that surged in his heart as he prepared to plunge himself
doggishly into the wild ocean of the Wakes. By the way, in that heart
was the image of a girl.

II

He stepped off the car on the outskirts of Hanbridge, and strolled
gently and spectacularly into the joyous town. The streets became more
and more crowded and noisy as he approached the market-place, and in
Crown Square tramcars from the four quarters of the earth discharged
tramloads of humanity at the rate of two a minute, and then glided off
again empty in search of more humanity. The lower portion of Crown
Square was devoted to tramlines; in the upper portion the Wakes began,
and spread into the market-place, and thence by many tentacles into all
manner of streets.

No Wakes is better than Knype Wakes; that is to say, no Wakes is more
ear-splitting, more terrific, more dizzying, or more impassable. When
you go to Knype Wakes you get stuck in the midst of an enormous crowd,
and you see roundabouts, swings, switchbacks, myrioramas, atrocity
booths, quack dentists, shooting-galleries, cocoanut-shies, and bazaars,
all around you. Every establishment is jewelled, gilded, and
electrically lighted; every establishment has an orchestra, most often
played by steam and conducted by a stoker; every establishment has a
steam--whistle, which shrieks a