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Bennett, Arnold, 1867-1931

"The Card, a Story of Adventure in the Five Towns"


So quickly do great events loom up and happen that at six o'clock they
had had tea and were on their way afoot to the station. The odd man of
No. 26 St Asaph's Road had preceded them with the luggage. All the rest
of Llandudno was joyously strolling home to its half-past six high tea--
grand people to whom weekly bills were as dust and who were in a
position to stop in Llandudno for ever and ever, if they chose! And Ruth
and Nellie were conscious of the shame which always afflicts those whom
necessity forces to the railway station of a pleasure resort in the
middle of the season. They saw omnibuses loaded with luggage and jolly
souls were actually _coming_, whose holiday had not yet properly
commenced. And this spectacle added to their humiliation and their
disgust. They genuinely felt that they belonged to the lower orders.
Ruth, for the sake of effect, joked on the most solemn subjects. She
even referred with giggling laughter to the fact that she had borrowed
from Nellie in order to discharge her liabilities for the final
twenty-four hours at the boarding-house. Giggling laughter being
contagious, as they were walking side by side close together, they all
laughed.


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