THE ROLL-CALL

BY

ARNOLD BENNETT

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

NOVELS

• A Man from the North
• Anna of the Five Towns
• Leonora
• A Great Man
• Sacred and Profane Love
• Whom God hath Joined
• Buried Alive
• The Old Wives' Tale
• The Glimpse
• Helen with the High Hand
• Clayhanger
• Hilda Lessways
• These Twain
• The Card
• The Regent
• The Price of Love
• The Lion's Share
• The Pretty Lady

FANTASIAS

• The Ghost
• The Grand Babylon Hotel
• The Gates of Wrath
• Teresa of Watling Street
• The Loot of Cities
• The City of Pleasure

SHORT STORIES

• Tales of the Five Towns
• The Grim Smile of the Five Towns
• The Matador of the Five Towns

BELLES-LETTRES

• Journalism for Women
• Fame and Fiction
• How to become an Author
• The Truth about an Author
• How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day
• Mental Efficiency
• The Human Machine
• Literary Taste
• Those United States
• Paris Nights
• Friendship and Happiness
• Married Life
• Liberty
• Over There
• The Author's Craft
• Books and Persons
• Self and Self-Management

DRAMA

• Polite Farces
• Cupid and Common Sense
• What the Public Wants
• The Honeymoon
• The Great Adventure
• The Title
• Judith
• Milestones (in collaboration with EDWARD KNOBLOCK)

(In collaboration with EDEN PHILLPOTTS)

• The Sinews of War: A Romance
• The Statue: A Romance

THE ROLL-CALL

BY

ARNOLD BENNETT

THIRD EDITION

NOTE

CONTENTS

THE ROLL-CALL

PART I

CHAPTER I

THE NEW LODGING

I

In the pupils' room of the offices of Lucas & Enwright, architects, Russell Square, Bloomsbury, George Edwin Cannon, an articled pupil, leaned over a large drawing-board and looked up at Mr. Enwright, the head of the firm, who with cigarette and stick was on his way out after what he called a good day's work. It was past six o'clock on an evening in early July 1901. To George's right was an open door leading to the principals' room, and to his left another open door leading to more rooms and to the staircase. The lofty chambers were full of lassitude; but round about George, who was working late, there floated the tonic vapour of conscious virtue. Haim, the factotum, could be seen and heard moving in his cubicle which guarded the offices from the stairs. In the rooms shortly to be deserted and locked up, and in the decline of the day, the three men were drawn together like survivors.

"I gather you're going to change your abode," said Mr. Enwright, having stopped.

"Did Mr. Orgreave tell you, then?" George asked.

"Well, he didn't exactly tell me...."

John Orgreave was Mr. Enwright's junior partner; and for nearly two years, since his advent in London from the Five Towns, George had lived with Mr. and Mrs. Orgreave at Bedford Park. The Orgreaves, too, sprang from the Five Towns. John's people and George's people were closely entwined in the local annals.

Pupil and principal glanced discreetly at one another, ex

changing in silence vague, malicious, unutterable critical verdicts upon both John Orgreave and his wife.

"Well, I am!" said George at length.

"Where are you going to?"

"Haven't settled a bit," said George. "I wish I could live in Paris."

"Paris wouldn't be much good to you yet," Mr. Enwright laughed benevolently.

"I suppose it wouldn't. Besides, of course——"

George spoke in a tone of candid deferential acceptance, which flattered Mr. Enwright very much, for it was the final proof of the prestige which the grizzled and wrinkled and peculiar Fellow and Member of the Council