It was a club in the Pall Mall sense of the word.

And Denry still lived in insignificant Brougham Street, and his mother was still a sempstress!  These were apparently insurmountable truths.  All the men whom he knew to be members were somehow more dashing than Denry —­and it was a question of dash; few things are more mysterious than dash.  Denry was unique, knew himself to be unique; he had danced with a countess, and yet... these other fellows!...  Yes, there are puzzles, baffling puzzles, in the social career.

In going over on Tuesdays to Hanbridge, where he had a few trifling rents to collect, Denry often encountered Harold Etches in the tramcar.  At that time Etches lived at Hillport, and the principal Etches manufactory was at Hanbridge.  Etches partook of the riches of his family, and, though a bachelor, was reputed to have the spending of at least a thousand a year.  He was famous, on summer Sundays, on the pier at Llandudno, in white flannels.  He had been one of the originators of the Sports Club.  He spent far more on clothes alone than Denry spent in the entire enterprise of keeping his soul in his body.  At their first meeting little was said.  They were not equals, and nothing but dress-suits could make them equals.  However, even a king could not refuse speech with a scullion whom he had allowed to win money from him.

And Etches and Denry chatted feebly.  Bit by bit they chatted less feebly.  And once, when they were almost alone on the car, they chatted with vehemence during the complete journey of twenty minutes.

“He isn’t so bad,” said Denry to himself, of the dashing Harold Etches.

And he took a private oath that at his very next encounter with Etches he would mention the Sports Club—­“just to see.”  This oath disturbed his sleep for several night.  But with Denry an oath was sacred.  Having sworn that he would mention the club to Etches, he was bound to mention it.  When Tuesday came, he hoped that Etches would not be on the tram, and the coward in him would have walked to Hanbridge instead of taking the tram.  But he was brave.  And he boarded the tram, and Etches was already in it.  Now that he looked at it close, the enterprise of suggesting to Harold Etches that he, Denry, would be a suitable member of the Sports Club at Hillport, seemed in the highest degree preposterous.  Why!  He could not play any games at all!  He was a figure only in the streets!  Nevertheless—­the oath!

He sat awkwardly silent for a few moments, wondering how to begin.  And then Harold Etches leaned across the tram to him and said: 

“I say, Machin, I’ve several times meant to ask you.  Why don’t you put up for the Sports Club?  It’s really very good, you know.”

Denry blushed, quite probably for the last time in his life.  And he saw with fresh clearness how great he was, and how large he must loom in the life of the town.  He perceived that he had been too modest.