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.

The Etches family is among the best known and the widest spread in the Five Towns.  It originated in three brothers, of whom Daniel was the youngest.  Daniel never married; the other two did.  Daniel was not very fond of money; the other two were, and they founded the glorious firm of Etches.  Harold was the grandson of one brother, and Maud was the Granddaughter of the other.  Consequently, they both stood in the same relation to Dan, who was their great-uncle—­addressed as uncle ‘for short’.

There is a good deal of snobbery in the Five Towns, but it does not exist between relatives.  The relatives in danger of suffering by it would never stand it.  Besides, although Dan’s income did not exceed two hundred a year, he was really richer than his grandnephew, since Dan lived on half his income, whereas Harold, aided by Maud, lived on all of his.

Consequently, despite the vast difference in their stations, clothes, and manners, Daniel and his young relatives met as equals.  It would have been amusing to see anyone—­even the Countess of Chell, who patronized the entire district—­attempt to patronize Dan.

In his time he had been the greatest pigeon-fancier in the country.

‘So you’re paying a visit to Bursley, uncle?’ said Maud.

‘Aye!’ Dan replied.  ‘I’m back i’ owd Bosley.  Sarah—­my housekeeper, thou know’st—­’

‘Not dead?’

‘No.  Her inna’ dead; but her sister’s dead, and I’ve give her a week’s play [holiday], and come away.  Rat Edge’ll see nowt o’ me this side Easter.’

Rat Edge was the name of the village, five miles off, which Dan had honoured in his declining years.

‘And where are you going to now?’ asked Harold.

‘I’m going to owd Sam Shawn’s, by th’ owd church, to beg a bed.’

‘But you’ll stop with us, of course?’ said Harold.

‘Nay, lad,’ said Dan.

‘Oh yes, uncle,’ Maud insisted.

‘Nay, lass,’ said Dan.

‘Indeed, you will, uncle,’ said Maud positively.  ’If you don’t,
I’ll never speak to you again.’

She had a charming fire in her eyes, had Maud.

Daniel, the old bachelor, yielded at once, but in his own style.

‘I’ll try it for a night, lass,’ said he.

Thus it occurred that the carpet-bag was carried into Bleakridge House, and that after some delay Harold and Maud carried off Uncle Dan with them in the car.  He sat in the luxurious tonneau behind, and Maud had quitted her husband in order to join him.  Possibly she liked the humorous wrinkles round his grey eyes.  Or it may have been the eyes themselves.  And yet Dan was nearer seventy than sixty.