The car drove northward, speedily passing from the region of main streets and great edifices into a squalid district of factories and workshops and crowded by-ways.
At Aston Church the young man alighted, and walked rapidly for five minutes, till he reached a row of small modern houses.

Socially they represented a step or two upwards in the gradation which, at Birmingham, begins with the numbered court and culminates in the mansions of Edgbaston.
He knocked at a door, and was answered by a girl, who nodded recognition.
"Mrs.Hilliard in?
Just tell her I'm here." There was a natural abruptness in his voice, but it had a kindly note, and a pleasant smile accompanied it.

After a brief delay he received permission to go upstairs, where the door of a sitting-room stood open.
Within was a young woman, slight, pale, and pretty, who showed something of embarrassment, though her face made him welcome.
"I expected you sooner." "Business kept me back.

Well, little girl ?" The table was spread for tea, and at one end of it, on a high chair, sat a child of four years old.

Hilliard kissed her, and stroked her curly hair, and talked with playful affection.