Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
Messrs. Burridge and Co’s pantechnicons bumpedmajestically along the streets of Millport early in themorning. Mud seemed to be unaccountably fallingfrom the sky through a close filter of smoke drapedhigh above the town; for although there was no fog,the great stucco offices on either side of the streetwere slimy with coffee-coloured moisture, and thepeople who hurried along looked cold and slippery,like panic-stricken snails compelled to leave theirshelters. The same mysterious mud oozed alsofrom below the paving stones, and would continue toooze long after the sun had penetrated the smokefilter and made the houses and the pedestrianscomparatively dry.
Millport is one of the largest cities of the empire,and one of the richest. I have never heard of anyoneliving there for choice, or for any reason but analleged opportunity for making money. Those whosettle there are in the habit of transplanting themselvesat regular intervals; removing to a housefurther away from the premises to which the breadwinnercarries a neat bag or attaché case everyweekday morning, between eight and ten. Theremovals mark a rise in the social scale, and arecelebrated by new responsibilities, in the addition8of servants, greenhouses, garages and acres ofground requiring “upkeep.” The heights of Elysiumare, in the end, reached by train. Between themain railway station and the outskirts of wealth,lie nearly two miles of shops, and a professionalquarter where the inner darkness of blocks andterraces shades into the dim glory of semi-detachedhouses. The next stage of grandeur is seen in theincrease of laurel bushes and gravel paths roundeach semi-detached pair. When the flower bedsin front, and the tennis lawns at the back, reach acertain standard of importance they flow into eachother by connecting paths between the buildings,and each house then stands alone, detached, in thefull radiance of encircling “grounds.”
It was nearly ten o’clock before Messrs. Burridge’sstately pantechnicons reached their destination, alarge, square, cinnamon-coloured house, standing inabout two acres of ground on the borders of Millport’slargest and most satisfactory park. GeneralFulton, who had taken a five years’ lease of it,wondered many times what had induced him toleave his comfortable little house in Westminster.He had meant to retire from the army at the end ofthe war, and had been turning over in his mindmany agreeable plans for the future, when he wasoffered the command of a military district of whichMillport was the centre. In a rash moment heconfided the offer to his wife, hoping for some entertainmentfrom her habit of commenti