And they owned the motor-car, and Bleakridge House with its ten
bedrooms, and another house at Llandudno, and a controlling
interest in Etches, Limited, that brought them in seven or eight
thousand a year. They were a pretty tidy example of what the Five
Towns can do when it tries to be wealthy.
At that moment, when Harold was climbing into the car, a shabby
old man who was walking down the road, followed by a boy carrying
a carpet-bag, stopped suddenly and touched Harold on the shoulder.
'Bless us!' exclaimed the old man. And the boy and the carpet-bag
halted behind him.
'What? Uncle Dan?' said Harold.
'Uncle Dan!' cried Maud, springing up with an enchanting smile.
'Why, it's ages since--'
'And what d'ye reckon ye'n gotten here?' demanded the old man.
'It's my new car,' Harold explained.
'And ca'st drive it, lad?' asked the old man.
'I should think I could!' said Harold confidently.
'H'm!' commented the old man, and then he shook hands, and
thoroughly scrutinized Maud.
Now, this is the sort of thing that can only be seen and
appreciated in a district like the Five Towns, where families
spring into splendour out of nothing in the course of a couple of
generations, and as often as not sink back again into nothing in
the course of two generations more.
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