THE CROWDED STREET
ANDERBY WOLD
THE
CROWDED STREET
BY WINIFRED HOLTBY
LONDON
JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD LTD.
First Published in 1924
MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY JARROLD AND SONS LTD. NORWICH
TO
JEAN FINLAY McWILLIAM
AN UNWORTHY RETURN
FOR THE DELIGHT OF
HER LETTERS
Vera Brittain
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| Prologue—December, 1900 | 1 |
| BOOK I | |
| Clare—June, 1903-April, 1907 | 15 |
| BOOK II | |
| Mrs. Hammond—January, 1914-September, 1915 | 97 |
| BOOK III | |
| Connie—September, 1915-February, 1916 | 171 |
| BOOK IV | |
| Delia—March, 1919-January, 1920 | 235 |
| BOOK V | |
| Muriel—August, 1920 | 289 |
PROLOGUE
December, 1900
THE CROWDED STREET
PROLOGUE
From the crowded doorway to the piano at the other end of the room thesurface of the floor stretched, golden, empty, alluring. Ladies inwhite trailing gowns, the mothers and aunts of other little girls atthe party, drifted across it like swans on a lake. Their reflectionsfloated after them, silver-white along the gold. When Muriel rubbedher foot against the floor she could feel with joy its polishedslipperiness, broken only at rare intervals by velvet-brown knots inthe wood.
Mrs. Marshall Gurney was talking to Mrs. Hammond, so Muriel could waitin the s