Anna of the Five Towns

by Arnold Bennett

END OF A SIMPLE SOUL

The next morning, at half-past seven, Anna was standing in the garden-doorway of the Priory. The sun had just risen, the air was cold; roof and pavement were damp; rain had fallen, and more was to fall. A door opened higher up the street, and Willie Price came out, carrying a small bag. He turned to speak to some person within the house, and then stepped forward. As he passed Anna she sprang forth.

'Oh!' she cried, 'I had just come up here to see if the workmen had locked up properly. We have some of our new furniture in the house, you know.' She was as red as the sun over Hillport.

He glanced at her. 'Have you heard?' he asked simply.

'About what?' she whispered.

'About my poor old father.'

'Yes. I was hoping—hoping you would never know.'

By a common impulse they went into the garden of the Priory, and he shut the door.

'Never know?' he repeated. 'Oh! they took care to tell me.'

A silence followed.

'Is that your luggage?' she inquired. He lifted up the handbag, and nodded.

'All of it?'

'Yes,' he said. 'I'm only an emigrant.'

'I've got a note here for you,' she said. 'I should have posted it to the steamer; but now you can take it yourself. I want you not to read it till you get to Melbourne.'

'Very well,' he said, and crumpled the proffered envelope into his pocket. He was not thinking of the note at all. Presently he asked: 'Why didn't you tell me about my father? If I had to hear it, I'd sooner have heard it from you.'

'You must try to forget it,' she urged him. 'You are not your father.'

'I wish I had never been born,' he said. 'I wish I'd gone to prison.'

Now was the moment when, if ever, the mother's influence should be exerted.

'Be a man,' she said softly. 'I did the best I could for you. I shall always think of you, in Australia, getting on.'

She put a hand on his shoulder. 'Yes,' she said again, passionately: 'I shall always remember you—always.'

The hand with which he touched her arm shook like an old man's hand. As their eyes met in an intense and painful gaze, to her, at least, it was revealed that they were lovers. What he had learnt in that instant can only be guessed from his next action....

Anna ran out of the garden into the street, and so home, never looking behind to see if he pursued his way to the station.

Some may argue that Anna, knowing she loved another man, ought not to have married Mynors. But she did not reason thus; such a notion never even occurred to her. She had promised to marry Mynors, and she married him. Nothing else was possible. She who had never failed in duty did not fail then. She who had always submitted and bowed the head, submitted and bowed the head then. She had sucked in with her mother's milk the profound truth that a woman's life is always a renunciation, greater or less. Hers by chance was greater. Facing the future calmly and genially, she took oath with herself to be a good wife to the man whom, with all his excellences, she had never loved. Her thoughts often dwelt lovingly on Willie Price, whom she deemed to be pursuing in Australia an honourable and successful career, quickened at the outset by her hundred pounds. This vision of him was her stay. But neither she nor anyone in the Five Towns or elsewhere ever heard of Willie Price again. And well might none hear! The abandoned pitshaft does not deliver up its secret. And so—the Bank of England is the richer by a hundred pounds unclaimed, and the world the poorer by a simple and meek soul stung to revolt only in its last hour.

Jamieson & Munro, Ltd., Printers, Stirling.

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Uniform with this Volume

36 De Profundis Oscar Wilde
37 Lord Arthur Savile's Crime Oscar Wilde
38 Selected Poems Oscar Wilde
39 An Ideal Husband Oscar Wilde
40 Intentions Oscar Wilde
41 Lady Windermere's Fan Oscar Wilde
42 Charmides and other Poems Oscar Wilde
43 Harvest Home E. V. Lucas
44 A Little of Everything E. V. Lucas
45 Vallima Letters Robert Louis Stevenson
46 Hills and the Sea Hilaire Belloc
47 The Blue Bird Maurice Maeterlinck
50 Charles Dickens G. K. Chesterton
53 Letters from Self-Made Merchant to his Son George Horace Larimer
54 The Life of John Ruskin W. G. Collingwood
57 Sevastopol and other Stories Leo Tolstoy
58 The Lore of the Honey-Bee Tickner Edwardes
60 From Midshipman to Field Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood
63 Oscar Wilde Arthur Ransome
64 The Vicar of Morwenstow S. Baring-Gould
65 Old Country Life S. Baring-Gould
76 Home Life in France M. Betham-Edwards
77 Selected Prose Oscar Wilde
78 The Best of Lamb E. V. Lucas
80 Selected Letters Robert Louis Stevenson
83 Reason and Belief Sir Oliver Lodge
85 The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde
91 Social Evils and their Remedy Leo Tolstoy
93 The Substance of Faith Sir Oliver Lodge
94 All Things Considered G. K. Chesterton
95 The Mirror of the Sea Joseph Conrad
96 A Picked Company Hilaire Belloc
116 The Survival of Man Sir Oliver Lodge
126 Science from an Easy Chair Sir Ray Lankester
141 Variety Lane E. V. Lucas
144 A Shilling for my Thoughts G. K. Chesterton
146 A Woman of No Importance Oscar Wilde
149 A Shepherd's Life W. H. Hudson
193 On Nothing Hilaire Belloc
300 Jane Austen and her Times G. E. Mitton
114 Select Essays Maurice Maeterlinck
218 R. L. S. Francis Watt
223 Two Generations Leo Tolstoy
126 On Everything Hilaire Belloc
934 Records and Reminiscences Sir Francis Burnand
253 My Childhood and Boyhood Leo Tolstoy
254 On Something Hilaire Belloc

A Selection only.

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Uniform with this Volume

1 The Mighty Atom Marie Corelli
2 Jane Marie Corelli
3 Boy Marie Corelli
4 Spanish Gold G. A. Birmingham
5 The Search Party G. A. Birmingham
6 Teresa of Watling Street Arnold Bennett
9 The Unofficial Honeymoon Dolf Wyllarde
12 The Demon C. N. and A. M. Williamson
17 Joseph Frank Danby
18 Round the Red Lamp Sir A. Conan Doyle
20 Light Freights W. W. Jacobs
22 The Long Road John Oxenham
71 The Gates of Wrath Arnold Bennett
72 Short Cruises W. W. Jacobs
81 The Card Arnold Bennett
87 Lalage's Lovers G. A. Birmingham
93 White Fang Jack London
105 The Wallet of Kai Lung Ernest Bramah
108 The Adventures of Dr. Whitty G. A. Birmingham
113 Lavender and Old Lace Myrtle Reed
115 Old Rose and Silver Myrtle Reed
122 The Double Life of Mr. Alfred Burton E. Phillips Oppenheim
125 The Regent Arnold Bennett
127 Sally Dorothea Conyers
129 The Lodger Mrs. Belloc Lowndes
135 A Spinner In the Sun Myrtle Reed
137 The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu Sax Rohmer
139 The Golden Centipede Louise Gerard
140 The Love Pirate C. N. and A. M. Williamson
143 The Way of these Women E. Phillips Oppenheim
143 Sandy Married Dorothea Conyers
145 Chance Joseph Conrad
148 Flower of the Dusk Myrtle Reed
150 The Gentleman Adventurer H. C. Bailey
154 The Hyena of Kallu Louise Gerard
190 The Happy Hunting Ground Mrs. Alice Perrin
191 My Lady of Shadows John Oxenham
211 Max Carrados Ernest Bramah
212 Under Western Eyes Joseph Conrad
213 The Kloof Bride Ernest Glanville
215 Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo E. Phillips Oppenheim
216 The Wonder of Love E. M. Albanesi
217 A Weaver of Dreams Myrtle Reed
219 The Family Elinor Mordaunt
220 A Heritage of Peril A. W. Marchmont
221 The Kinsman Mrs. Sidgwick
222 Emmanuel Burden Hilaire Belloc
224 Broken Shackles John Oxenham
225 A Knight of Spain Marjorie Bowen
227 Byeways Robert Hichens
228 Gossamer G. A. Birmingham
230 The Salving of a Derelict Maurice Drake
231 Cameos Marie Corelli
232 The Happy Valley B. M. Croker
245 The Shop Girl C. N. and A. M. Williamson
250 The Lost Regiment Ernest Glanville
261 Tarzan of the Apes Edgar Rice Burroughs

A Selection only.