Moreover,
Denry had other reasons for going up to the Cotterills. There existed a
sympathetic bond between him and Mrs Cotterill, despite her prim
taciturnity and her exasperating habit of sitting with her hands pressed
tight against her body and one over the other. Occasionally he teased
her--and she liked being teased. He had glimpses now and then of her
secret soul; he was perhaps the only person in Bursley thus privileged.
Then there was Nellie. Denry and Nellie were great friends. For the rest
of the world she had grown up, but not for Denry, who treated her as the
chocolate child; while she, if she called him anything, called him
respectfully "Mr."
The Cotterills had a fairly large old house with a good garden "up
Bycars Lane," above the new park and above all those red streets which
Mr Cotterill had helped to bring into being. Mr Cotterill built new
houses with terra-cotta facings for others, but preferred an old one in
stucco for himself. His abode had been saved from the parcelling out of
several Georgian estates. It was dignified. It had a double entrance
gate, and from this portal the drive started off for the house door, but
deliberately avoided reaching the house door until it had wandered in
curves over the entire garden.
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