According to the posters there was a gigantic
attraction every week at the Empire, but Edward Henry happened to know
that this week the attraction was indeed somewhat out of the common.
And to-night was Friday, the fashionable night for the bloods and the
modishness of the Five Towns. He looked at the church clock and
then at his watch. He would be in time for the "second house," which
started at nine o'clock. At the same moment an electric tram-car came
thundering up out of Bursley. He boarded it and was saluted by the
conductor. Remaining on the platform he lit a cigarette and tried to
feel cheerful. But he could not conquer his depression.
"Yes," he thought, "what I want is change--and a lot of it, too!"
CHAPTER II
THE BANK-NOTE
I
Alderman Machin had to stand at the back, and somewhat towards the
side, of that part of the auditorium known as the Grand Circle at the
Empire Music Hall, Hanbridge. The attendants at the entrance, and in
the lounge, where the salutation "Welcome" shone in electricity over a
large cupid-surrounded mirror, had compassionately and yet exultingly
told him that there was not a seat left in the house. He had shared
their exultation. He had said to himself, full of honest pride in the
Five Towns: "This music-hall, admitted by the press to be one of the
finest in the provinces, holds over two thousand five hundred people.
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