The Wheels of Chance
Cite this book
Citation
H. G. Wells. The Wheels of Chance. 1913. cyclearchive.com, https://cyclearchive.com/books/the-wheels-of-chance-h-g-wells-1913/
Page numbers are pages of the PDF, which can differ from the numbers printed on the page.
Contents
- Introduces Mr. Hoopdriver, a draper's assistant at Antrobus & Co.'s Emporium in Putney in August 1895, his bruises from learning to ride, and his dream of a cycling holiday. At supper he announces his plan to tour by bicycle, and his fellow assistants chaff him.
- On the first morning of his holiday Hoopdriver sets off from Putney on his hired bicycle, quarrels with a heath-keeper over a loose pedal, and wobbles through Kingston.
- Near Surbiton Hoopdriver falls off in front of a young lady in grey on a bicycle, who offers him sticking-plaster. He is too shy to speak, and rides on in pursuit of her.
- At the Marquis of Granby at Esher a talkative philosophic stranger rails at Hoopdriver over a misunderstanding. Hoopdriver rides on towards Ripley, practising riding without hands, and passes the other man in brown near Cobham.
- Between Cobham and Ripley Hoopdriver again meets the Young Lady in Grey and the other man in brown, now learned to be her brother 'George', and reaches the Golden Dragon at Ripley. At Guildford he overhears them calling each other 'Miss Beaumont' and 'brother George'.
- Describes Hoopdriver's habit of inventing romantic adventures about himself, and how at Guildford he imagines himself buying a house and sketching the Earl of Kent inn.
- Passes over the rest of Hoopdriver's first day in Guildford, quoting the entry in his cyclist's handbook diary.
- Hoopdriver's night in the Yellow Hammer Coffee Tavern at Guildford, with dreams that mix the heath-keeper, the man in brown, the Young Lady in Grey and the draper's counter.
- He leaves Guildford and rides by Godalming and Milford, where he meets the other man in brown and the Young Lady in Grey by a railway bridge and is drawn into a puzzling exchange over a fly in her eye.
- Brooding on the girl, Hoopdriver rides through the Sussex lanes to Midhurst, where he takes tea and lodging at a little tea, toy and tobacco shop in North Street.
- Returning to the pair at the Milford railway bridge: the girl, Jessie Milton, quarrels bitterly with Bechamel, who has deceived her about an invented sister at Midhurst and confesses he wished to compromise her.
- A digression on artificial limbs and organs and on the artificial in modern manners and taste, as Bechamel and Jessie ride on uneasily towards Midhurst.
- Bechamel meets Hoopdriver by Mrs. Wardor's shop and takes him for a detective, offering him a half sovereign. Hoopdriver plays along, and is told by the barmaid at the Angel that the pair are 'Mr. and Miss Beaumont'.
- Hoopdriver, now playing private inquiry agent, shadows Bechamel and Jessie out of Midhurst on the Chichester road, loses their tracks after falling asleep by the roadside, and searches Chichester for them.
- Bechamel brings Jessie to the Vicuna Hotel at Bognor, registered as Mrs. Beaumont, and presses her to stay; after a bitter scene he leaves her in her room. Hoopdriver, who has followed them, decides to rescue her.
- Hoopdriver and Jessie escape from the Vicuna Hotel with their bicycles and ride through the moonlit night, Jessie telling him of her stepmother. He gives his name as Carrington.
- Jessie's stepmother, the literary Mrs. Milton, is distressed at the flight and consults friends in London. Her admirers Widgery, Dangle and Phipps set out to find the girl.
- At Chichester Hoopdriver wakes, thinks over his stolen bicycle and his false name, and resolves to go on helping Jessie.
- Hoopdriver and Jessie ride from Chichester towards Havant, he passing as her brother. She tells him she cannot go home to Surbiton and wants to be independent.
- After lunch at Cosham the pair rest on Portsdown Hill and Hoopdriver, pressed by Jessie, tells tall stories of ostrich farming in South Africa and of shooting a lion.
- Widgery, Dangle and Phipps with Mrs. Milton trace the pair to Chichester and Havant. Dangle drives off alone in a hired dog-cart and has a smash, and the party ends the day stranded at Botley talking of women's lives and literature.
- Between Botley and Winchester Dangle flashes past without seeing them. At a Hampshire village inn Hoopdriver overhears rude remarks about Jessie and is drawn into a fight with Charlie in Buller's yard, which he wins.
- Breakfasting at the Golden Pheasant in Blandford, Hoopdriver confesses to Jessie that he is a draper's assistant and that his South African tales were lies, and she forgives him. Among the pines between Wimborne and Ringwood he asks whether it is too late to better himself.
- At Ringwood a clergyman cyclist chatters at the inn and an accident on the road is seen. Dangle and Phipps on a tandem, followed by a dog-cart, catch sight of the fugitives and chase them through the Forest.
- Dangle, Phipps, Widgery, Mrs. Milton and Miss Mergle confront Hoopdriver at the Rufus Stone Hotel. Jessie extracts a promise of an independent life from her stepmother, then walks with Hoopdriver and says goodbye.
- Hoopdriver is left lying in the bracken, and the narrator sketches his return to London on his bicycle, riding through Basingstoke and Bagshot to Putney High Street and the drapery counter.