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050 - Changes At Milton · North and South

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Speaker 1: Chapter fifty of North and South. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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Speaker 1: by le Anne Howlett. North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell.
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Speaker 1: Chapter fifty changes at Milton, here we go up, up, up,
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Speaker 1: and here we go down down, downy nursery song. Meanwhile,
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Speaker 1: at Milton, the chimneys smoked the ceaseless roar, and mighty
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Speaker 1: beat and dizzying whirl of machinery, struggled and strove perpetually.
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Speaker 1: Senseless and purposeless were wood and iron and steam in
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Speaker 1: their endless labors. But the persistence of their monotonous work
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Speaker 1: was rivaled in tireless endurance by the strong crowds, who,
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Speaker 1: with sense and with purpose, were busy and restless and
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Speaker 1: seeking after what. In the streets, there were few loiterers,
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Speaker 1: none walking for mere pleasure. Every man's face was set
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Speaker 1: in lines of eagerness or anxiety. News was sought for
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Speaker 1: with fierce avidity, and men jostled each other aside in
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Speaker 1: the martin in the exchange, as they did in life,
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Speaker 1: and the deep selfishness of competition, there was gloom over
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Speaker 1: the town. Few came to buy, and those who did
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Speaker 1: were looked at suspiciously by the sellers, for credit was insecure,
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Speaker 1: and the most stable might have their fortunes affected by
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Speaker 1: the sweep in the great neighboring port among the shipping houses.
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Speaker 1: Hitherto there had been no failures in Milton, but from
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Speaker 1: the immense speculations that had come to light in making
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Speaker 1: a bad end in America, and yet nearer home, it
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Speaker 1: was known that some Milton houses of business must suffer
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Speaker 1: so severely that every day men's faces asked, if their
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Speaker 1: tongues did not what news, Who is gone? How will
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Speaker 1: it affect me? And if two or three spoke together,
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Speaker 1: they dwelt rather on the names of those who were safe,
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Speaker 1: than dare to hint at those likely, in their opinion,
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Speaker 1: to go for idle breath may at such times cause
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Speaker 1: the downfall of some who might otherwise weather the storm,
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Speaker 1: And one going down drags many after Thornton is safe,
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Speaker 1: say they. His business is large, extending every year. But
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Speaker 1: such a head as he has, and so prudent with
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Speaker 1: all his daring, then one man draws another aside and
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Speaker 1: walks a little apart, and with head inclined into his
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Speaker 1: neighbor's ear. He says Thornton's business is large, but he
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Speaker 1: has spent his profits in extending it. He has no
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Speaker 1: capital laid by his machinery is new within these two years,
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Speaker 1: and has cost him. We won't say what a word
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Speaker 1: to the wise, but that mister Harrison was a croaker,
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Speaker 1: a man who had succeeded to his fond trade made
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Speaker 1: fortune which he had feared to lose by altering his
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Speaker 1: mode of business to any having a larger scope. Yet
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Speaker 1: he grudged every penny made by others more daring and
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Speaker 1: far sighted. But the truth was mister Thornton was hard pressed.
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Speaker 1: He felt it acutely in his vulnerable point, his pride
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Speaker 1: in the commercial character which he had established for himself
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Speaker 1: architect of his own fortunes. He attributed this to no
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Speaker 1: special marriature qualities of his own, but to the power
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Speaker 1: which he believed that commerce gave to every brave, honest
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Speaker 1: and persevering man to raise himself to a level from
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Speaker 1: which he might see and read the great game of
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Speaker 1: worldly success, and, honestly, by such far sightedness, command more
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Speaker 1: power and influence than in any other mode of life
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Speaker 1: far away in the east and in the west, where
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Speaker 1: his person would never be known. His name was to
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Speaker 1: be regarded, and his wishes to be fulfilled, and his
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Speaker 1: word passed like gold. That was the idea of merchant
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Speaker 1: life with which mister Thornton had started her Merchants be
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Speaker 1: like princes, said his mother, reading the text aloud, as
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Speaker 1: if it were a trumpet call to invite her boy
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Speaker 1: to the struggle. He was. But like many others, men,
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Speaker 1: women and children, alive to distant and dead to near things,
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Speaker 1: he sought to possess the influence of a name in
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Speaker 1: foreign countries and far away seas, to become the head
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Speaker 1: of a firm that should be known for generations. And
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Speaker 1: it had taken him long, silent years to come even
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Speaker 1: to a glimmering of what he might be now to day.
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Speaker 1: Here in his own town, his own factory, among his
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Speaker 1: own people, he and they had led parallel lives, very
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Speaker 1: close but never touching till the accident, or so it seemed,
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Speaker 1: of his acquaintance with Higgins. Once brought face to face
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Speaker 1: man to man with an individual of the masses around him,
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Speaker 1: and take notice out of the character of master and
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Speaker 1: workmen in the first instance, they had each begun to
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Speaker 1: recognized that we have all of us one human heart.
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Speaker 1: It was the fine point of the wedge. And until now,
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Speaker 1: when the apprehension of losing his connection with two or
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Speaker 1: three of the workmen whom he had so lately begun
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Speaker 1: to know as men, of having a plan or two
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Speaker 1: which were experiments lying very close to his heart, roughly
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Speaker 1: nipped off without trial, gave a new poignancy to the
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Speaker 1: subtle fear that came over him from time to time.
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Speaker 1: Until now he had never recognized how much and how
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Speaker 1: deep was the interest he had grown of late to
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Speaker 1: feel in his position as manufacturer, simply because it led
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Speaker 1: him into such close contact and gave him the opportunity
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Speaker 1: of so much power among a race of people strange, shrewd, ignorant,
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Speaker 1: but above all full of character and strong human feeling.
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Speaker 1: He reviewed his position as a Milton manufacturer. The strike
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Speaker 1: a year and a half ago or more, for it
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Speaker 1: was now untimely wintry weather in a late spring. That strike,
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Speaker 1: when he was young, and he now was old, had
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Speaker 1: prevented his completing some of the large orders he had
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Speaker 1: then on hand. He had locked up a good deal
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Speaker 1: of his capital and new and expensive machinery, and he
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Speaker 1: had also bought cotton largely for the fulfillment of these
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Speaker 1: orders taken under contract. That he had not been able
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Speaker 1: to complete them was owing in some degree to the
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Speaker 1: utter want of skill on the part of the Irish
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Speaker 1: hands whom he had imported. Much of their work was
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Speaker 1: damaged and unfit to be sent forth by a house
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Speaker 1: which prided itself on churning out nothing but first rate articles.
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Speaker 1: For many months, the embarrassment caused by the strike had
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Speaker 1: been an obstacle in mister Thornton's way, and often when
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Speaker 1: his eye fell on Higgins, he could have spoken angrily
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Speaker 1: to him without any present cause, just from feeling how
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Speaker 1: serious was the injury that had arisen from this affair
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Speaker 1: in which he was implicated. But when he became conscious
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Speaker 1: of this sudden, quick resentment, he resolved to curb it.
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Speaker 1: It would not satisfy him to avoid Higgins. He must
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Speaker 1: convince himself that he was master over his own anger
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Speaker 1: by being particularly careful to allow Higgins's access to him
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Speaker 1: whenever the strict rules of business or mister Thornton's leisure permitted,
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Speaker 1: and by and by he lost all sense of resentment,
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Speaker 1: and wonder how it was, or could be, that two
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Speaker 1: men like himself and Higgins, living by the same trade,
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Speaker 1: working in their different ways, at the same object, could
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Speaker 1: look upon each other's position and duties in so strangely
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Speaker 1: different a way, and thence arose that intercourse, which, though
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Speaker 1: it might not have the effect of preventing all future
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Speaker 1: clash of opinion and action, when the occasion arose, would
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Speaker 1: at any rate enable both master and man to look
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Speaker 1: upon each other with far more charity and sympathy, and
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Speaker 1: bear with each other more patiently and kindly. Besides this
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Speaker 1: improvement of feeling, both mister Thornton and his workmen found
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Speaker 1: out their ignorance as to positive matters of fact known
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Speaker 1: hereto fore to one side, but not to the other.
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Speaker 1: But now had come one of those periods of bad trade,
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Speaker 1: when the market falling brought down the value of all
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Speaker 1: large stocks. Mister Thornton's felt to nearly half. No orders
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Speaker 1: were coming in, so he lost the interests of the
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Speaker 1: capital he had locked up in machinery. Indeed, it was
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Speaker 1: difficult to get payment for the orders completed. Yet there
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Speaker 1: was the constant drain of expenses for working the business.
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Speaker 1: Then the bills became due for the cotton he had purchased,
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Speaker 1: and money being scarce, he could only borrow at exorbitant interest,
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Speaker 1: And yet he could not realize any of his property.
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Speaker 1: But he did not despair. He exerted himself day and
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Speaker 1: night to foresee and to provide for all emergencies. He
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Speaker 1: was as calm and gentle to the women in his
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Speaker 1: home as ever to the workmen and his mill. He
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Speaker 1: spoke not many words, but they knew him by this time,
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Speaker 1: and many a curt decided answer was received by them,
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Speaker 1: rather with sympathy for the care they saw pressing upon him,
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Speaker 1: than with a suppressed antagonism which had formerly been smoldering
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Speaker 1: and ready for hard words and hard judgments on all occasions.
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Speaker 1: The master's a deal to potter him, said Higgins one day,
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Speaker 1: as he heard mister Thornton's short, sharp inquiry why such
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Speaker 1: a command had not been obeyed, and caught the sound
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Speaker 1: of the suppressed sigh which he heaved in going past
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Speaker 1: the room where some of the men were working. Higgins
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Speaker 1: and another man stopped over hours that night, unknown to
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Speaker 1: any one, to get the neglected piece of work done,
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Speaker 1: and mister Thornton never knew, but that the overlooker to
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Speaker 1: whom he had given the command in the first instance,
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Speaker 1: had done it himself. Eh, I reckon, I know who
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Speaker 1: had been sorry for to see our master sitting so
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Speaker 1: like a piece of gray calico. The owed parson would
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Speaker 1: have fetted his woman's heart out if he'd seen the
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Speaker 1: woeful looks I have seen on our master's face, thought
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Speaker 1: Higgins one day, as he was approaching mister Thornton in
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Speaker 1: Marlborough Street, Master said he stopping his employer in his quick,
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Speaker 1: resolved walk, and causing that gentleman to look up with
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Speaker 1: a sudden, annoyed start, as if his thoughts had been
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Speaker 1: far away. Have you heard aught of miss Margaret lately?
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Speaker 1: Miss who, replied mister Thornton, Miss Margaret, Miss Hale, the
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Speaker 1: old Parson's daughter. You known who I mean well enough,
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Speaker 1: if you'll only think a bit. There was nothing disrespectful
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Speaker 1: in the tone in which this was said. Oh yes,
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Speaker 1: And suddenly the wintry, frost bound look of care had
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Speaker 1: left mister Thornton's face, as if some soft summer gale
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Speaker 1: had blown all anxiety away from his mind. And though
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Speaker 1: his mouth was as much compressed as before, his eyes
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Speaker 1: smiled out benignly on his questioner, she's my landlord, now
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Speaker 1: you know, Higgins. I hear of her through her agent
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Speaker 1: here every now and then. She's well and among friends.
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Speaker 1: Thank you, Higgins. That thank you that lingered after the
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Speaker 1: other words, and yet came with so much warmth of feeling,
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Speaker 1: led in a new light to the acute Higgins. It
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Speaker 1: might be but a will of the wisp, but he
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Speaker 1: thought he would follow it and ascertain whether it would
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Speaker 1: lead him and she. He's not gotten married, master, not yet.
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Speaker 1: The face was cloudy once more. There is some talk
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Speaker 1: of it, as I understand, with the connection of the family,
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Speaker 1: then she'll not be for coming to Milton again. I reckon,
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Speaker 1: no stop a minute, Master, Then, going up confidentially close,
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Speaker 1: he said, is the young gentleman cleared? He enforced the
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Speaker 1: depth of his intelligence by a wink of the eye,
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Speaker 1: which only made things more mysterious to mister Thornton, the
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Speaker 1: young gentleman, I mean, Master Frederick. They called him her
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Speaker 1: brother as was over here, yoh known over here. Ay,
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Speaker 1: to be sure at the missus death, ye need not
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Speaker 1: be feared of my telling. For Mary and me we
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Speaker 1: knowed it all along. Only we held our peace, for
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Speaker 1: we got it through Mary working in the house, and
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Speaker 1: he was over. It was her brother, sure enough, and
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Speaker 1: I reckon, can you note it? Or I have never
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Speaker 1: let on? You know she had a brother, Yes, I
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Speaker 1: know all about him, and he was over at missus
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Speaker 1: Hale's death. Nay, I'm not going for to tell more.
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Speaker 1: I've may be getting them into mischief already, for they
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Speaker 1: kept it very close, I k know, but wanted to
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Speaker 1: know if they'd getten him cleared, not that I know of.
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Speaker 1: I know nothing. I only hear of miss Hale now
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Speaker 1: as my landlord, and through her lawyer. He broke off
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Speaker 1: from Higgins to follow the business on which he had
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Speaker 1: been bent when the latter first accosted him, leaving Higgins
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Speaker 1: baffled in his endeavor. It was her brother, said mister
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Speaker 1: Thornton to himself. I am glad I may never see
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Speaker 1: her again, but it is a comfort, a relief to
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Speaker 1: know that much I knew she could not be unmaidenly,
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Speaker 1: and yet I yearned for conviction. Now I am glad.
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Speaker 1: It was a little golden thread running through the dark
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Speaker 1: web of his present fortunes, which were growing ever gloom
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Speaker 1: and more gloomy. His agent had largely trusted a house
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Speaker 1: in the American trade, which went down, along with several
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Speaker 1: others just at this time, like a pack of cards,
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Speaker 1: the fall of one compelling other failures. What were mister
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Speaker 1: Thornton's engagements? Could he stand? Night after night he took
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Speaker 1: books and papers into his own private room and sat
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Speaker 1: up there long after the family were gone to bed.
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Speaker 1: He thought that no one knew of this occupation, of
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Speaker 1: the hours he should have spent in sleep. One morning,
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Speaker 1: when daylight was stealing in through the crevices of his shutters,
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Speaker 1: and he had never been in bed, and in hopeless
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Speaker 1: indifference of mind, was thinking that he could do without
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Speaker 1: the hour or two of rest, which was all that
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Speaker 1: he should be able to take before the stir of
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Speaker 1: daily labor began again. The door of his room opened,
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Speaker 1: and his mother stood there, dressed as she had been
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Speaker 1: the day before. She had never laid herself down to
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Speaker 1: slumber any more than he. Their eyes met. Their faces
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Speaker 1: were cold and rigid, and wan from long watching Mother,
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Speaker 1: Why are you not in bed? Son, John said she.
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Speaker 1: Do you think I can sleep with an easy mind
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Speaker 1: while you keep awake full of care? You have not
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Speaker 1: told me what your trouble is but sore trouble you
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Speaker 1: have had these many days past. Trade is bad, and
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Speaker 1: you dread. I dread nothing, replied he, drawing up his
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Speaker 1: head and holding it erect. I know now that no
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Speaker 1: man will suffer by me. That was my anxiety. But
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Speaker 1: how do you stand? Shall you? Will it be a failure,
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Speaker 1: her steady voice trembling in an unwonted manner. Not a failure.
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Speaker 1: I must give up business, but I pay all men
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Speaker 1: I might redeem myself. I am sorely tempted. How, oh, John,
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Speaker 1: keep up your name, Try all risks for that? How
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Speaker 1: redeem it by a speculation offered to me, full of risk.
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Speaker 1: But if six cessful, placing me high above water mark,
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Speaker 1: so that no one need ever know the strait I
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Speaker 1: am in still if it fails. And if it fails,
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Speaker 1: said she, advancing and laying her hand on his arm,
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Speaker 1: Her eyes full of eager light. She held her breath
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Speaker 1: to hear the end of his speech. Honest men are
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Speaker 1: ruined by a rogue, said he gloomily. As I stand now,
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Speaker 1: my creditors money is safe, every farthing of it. But
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Speaker 1: I don't know where to find my own. It may
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Speaker 1: be all gone and I penniless at this moment. Therefore
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Speaker 1: it is my creditor's money that I should risk. But
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Speaker 1: if it succeeded, they need never know. Is it so
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Speaker 1: desperate a speculation? I am sure it is not, or
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Speaker 1: you would never have thought of it. If it succeeded,
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Speaker 1: I should be a rich man. In my piece of
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Speaker 1: conscience would be gone. Why you would have injured no one? No,
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Speaker 1: but I should have run the risk of ruining many
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Speaker 1: for my own paltry aggrandizement. Mother, I have decided. You
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Speaker 1: won't much grieve over our leaving this house, shall you,
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Speaker 1: dear mother? No? But to have you other than what
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Speaker 1: you are will break my heart. What can you do?
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Speaker 1: Be always the same John Thornton, in whatever circumstances, endeavoring
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Speaker 1: to do right and making great blunders, and then trying
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Speaker 1: to be brave in setting to afresh. But it is hard, mother,
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Speaker 1: I have so worked and planned, I have discovered new
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Speaker 1: powers in my situation too late, and now all is over.
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Speaker 1: I am too old to begin again with the same heart.
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Speaker 1: It is hard, mother. He turned away from her and
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Speaker 1: covered his face with his hands. I can't think, said she,
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Speaker 1: with gloomy defiance in her tone, how it comes about.
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Speaker 1: Here is my boy, good son, just man, tender heart,
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Speaker 1: and he fails in all. He sets his mind upon
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Speaker 1: minds a woman to love, and she cares no more
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Speaker 1: for his affection than if he had been any common man.
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Speaker 1: He labors, and his labor comes to nought. Other people
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Speaker 1: prosper and grow rich, and hold their paltry names high
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Speaker 1: and dry above shame. Shame never touched me, said he
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Speaker 1: in a low tone. But she went on, I sometimes
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Speaker 1: have wondered where justice was gone to, and now I
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Speaker 1: don't believe there is such a thing in the world.
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Speaker 1: Now you are come to this, you, my own John Thornton,
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Speaker 1: though you and I may be beggars together, my own
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Speaker 1: dear son. She fell upon his neck and kissed him
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Speaker 1: through her tears. Mother said, he, holding her gently in
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Speaker 1: his arms. Who has sent me my lot in life?
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Speaker 1: Both of good and of evil? She shook her head.
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Speaker 1: She would have nothing to do with religion. Just then, mother,
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Speaker 1: He went on, seeing that she would not speak, I
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Speaker 1: too have been rebellious, but I am striving to be
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Speaker 1: so no longer help me as you helped me when
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Speaker 1: I was a child. Then you said many good words
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Speaker 1: when my father died, and we were sometimes sorely short
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Speaker 1: of comforts, which we shall never be. Now you said, brave, noble,
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Speaker 1: trustful words, then, Mother, which I have never forgotten, though
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Speaker 1: they may have lain dormant. Speak to me again in
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Speaker 1: the old way, Mother, Do not let us have to
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Speaker 1: think that the world has too much hardened our hearts.
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Speaker 1: If you would say the old good words, it would
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Speaker 1: make me feel something of the pious simplicity of my childhood.
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Speaker 1: I say them to myself, but they would come differently
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Speaker 1: from you, remembering all the cares and trials you have
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Speaker 1: had to bear. I have had a many, said she, sobbing,
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Speaker 1: but none so sore as this to see you cast
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Speaker 1: down from your rightful place. I could say it for myself, John,
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Speaker 1: but not for you. Not for you. God has seen
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Speaker 1: fit to be very hard on you, very She shook
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Speaker 1: with the sobs that came so convulsively when an old
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Speaker 1: person weeps. The silence around her struck her at last,
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Speaker 1: and she quieted herself to listen no sound. She looked.
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Speaker 1: Her son sat by the table, his arms thrown half
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Speaker 1: across it, his head bent face downwards. Oh, John, she said,
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Speaker 1: and she lifted his face up such a strange, pallid
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Speaker 1: look of gloom was on it that for a moment
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Speaker 1: it struck her that this look was the forerunner of death.
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Speaker 1: But as the rigidity melted out of the countenance and
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Speaker 1: the natural color returned, and she saw that he was
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Speaker 1: himself once again, all worldly mortification sank to nothing before
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Speaker 1: the consciousness of the great blessing that he himself, by
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Speaker 1: his simple existence, was to her. She thanked God for this,
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Speaker 1: and this alone, with a fervor that swept away all
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Speaker 1: rebellious feelings from her mind. He did not speak readily,
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Speaker 1: but he went and opened the shutters and let the
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Speaker 1: ruddy light of dawn flood the room. But the wind
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Speaker 1: was in the east. The weather was piercing cold, as
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Speaker 1: it had been for whek. There would be no demand
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Speaker 1: for light summer goods this year. That hope for the
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Speaker 1: revival of trade must utterly be given up. It was
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Speaker 1: a great comfort to have had this conversation with his mother,
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Speaker 1: and to feel sure that, however, they might henceforward keep
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Speaker 1: silence on all these anxieties. They yet understood each other's feelings,
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Speaker 1: and were, if not in harmony, at least not in
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Speaker 1: discord with each other. In their way of viewing them.
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Speaker 1: Fanny's husband was vexed at Thornton's refusal to take any
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Speaker 1: share in the speculation which he had offered to him,
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Speaker 1: and withdrew from any possibility of being supposed able to
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Speaker 1: assist him with the ready money which, indeed the speculator
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Speaker 1: needed for his own venture. There was nothing forward at
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Speaker 1: last but that which mister Thornton had dreaded for many weeks.
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Speaker 1: He had to give up the business in which he
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Speaker 1: had been so long engaged, with so much honor and success,
20:49
Speaker 1: and look out for a subordinate situation. Marlborough Mills and
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Speaker 1: the adjacent dwelling were held under a long lease. They must,
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Speaker 1: if possible, be relet. There was an immediate choice of
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Speaker 1: situations offered in mister Thornton. Mister Hamper would have been
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Speaker 1: only too glad to have secured him as a steady
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Speaker 1: and experienced partner for his son, whom he was setting
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Speaker 1: up with a large capital in a neighboring town. But
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Speaker 1: the young man was half educated as regarded information, and
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Speaker 1: wholly uneducated as regarded any other responsibility than that of
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Speaker 1: getting money, and brutalized both as to his pleasures and
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Speaker 1: his pains. Mister Thornton declined having any share in a
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Speaker 1: partnership which would frustrate what few plans he had that
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Speaker 1: survived the wreck of his fortunes. He would sooner consent
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Speaker 1: to be only a manager where he could have a
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Speaker 1: certain degree of power beyond the mere money getting part,
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Speaker 1: than have to fall in with the tyrannical humors of
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Speaker 1: a moneyed partner with whom he felt sure that he
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Speaker 1: should quarrel in a few months. So he waited and
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Speaker 1: stood on one side with profound humility, as the news
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Speaker 1: swept through the exchange of the enormous fortune which his
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Speaker 1: brother in law had made by his daring speculation. It
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Speaker 1: was a nine days wonder css brought with it its
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Speaker 1: worldly consequence of extreme admiration. No one was considered so
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Speaker 1: wise and far seeing as mister Watson. End of Chapter fifty,
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Speaker 1: recording by Leanne Howlett