Latest / The H. G. Wells Library / The Sea Lady Chapter 1

Transcript

The Sea Lady Chapter 1 · The H. G. Wells Library

0:00
Speaker 1: Chapter one of the Sea Lady by H. G. Wells.
0:03
Speaker 2: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
0:06
Speaker 2: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit
0:10
Speaker 2: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Thomas Copeland, chapter the first,
0:16
Speaker 2: The Coming of the Sea Lady One. Such previous landings
0:22
Speaker 2: of mermaids as have left a record have all the
0:25
Speaker 2: flavor of doubt. Even the very circumstantial account of that
0:30
Speaker 2: Bruges sea Lady, who was so clever at fancy work,
0:34
Speaker 2: gives occasion to the skeptic. I must confess that I
0:38
Speaker 2: was absolutely incredulous of such things until a year ago.
0:42
Speaker 2: But now face to face with indisputable facts in my
0:46
Speaker 2: own immediate neighborhood, and with my own second cousin, Melville
0:51
Speaker 2: of Seaton Carrie, as the chief witness to the story,
0:54
Speaker 2: I see these old legends in a very different light.
0:58
Speaker 2: Yet so many people concerned themselves with the hushing up
1:01
Speaker 2: of this affair, that but for my sedulous inquiries, I
1:06
Speaker 2: am certain it would have become as doubtful as those
1:09
Speaker 2: older legends in a couple of score of years. Even now,
1:14
Speaker 2: to many minds, the difficulties in the way of the
1:18
Speaker 2: hushing up process were no doubt exceptionally great in this case,
1:23
Speaker 2: and that they did contrive to do so much seems
1:26
Speaker 2: to show just how strong are the motives for secrecy
1:29
Speaker 2: in all such cases. There is certainly no remoteness nor
1:34
Speaker 2: obscurity about the scene of these events. They began upon
1:38
Speaker 2: the beach just east of Sanguk Castle, towards Folkestone, and
1:42
Speaker 2: they ended on the beach near Folkeston Pier, not two
1:46
Speaker 2: miles away. The beginning was in broad daylight on a
1:50
Speaker 2: bright blue day in August, and in full sight of
1:53
Speaker 2: the windows of half a dozen houses at first sight.
1:57
Speaker 2: This alone is sufficient to make the popular want information
2:01
Speaker 2: almost incredible. But of that you may think differently later.
2:06
Speaker 2: Missus Randolph Bunting's two charming daughters were bathing at the time,
2:11
Speaker 2: in company with their guest, Miss Mabel Glendower. It is
2:15
Speaker 2: from the latter lady, chiefly, and from Missus Bunting, that
2:18
Speaker 2: I have pieced together the precise circumstances of the sea
2:21
Speaker 2: ladies arrival. From Miss Glendower, the elder of the two
2:25
Speaker 2: Glendower girls. For all that she is a principal in
2:28
Speaker 2: almost all that follows, I have obtained and have sought
2:31
Speaker 2: to obtain no information whatever. There is the question of
2:35
Speaker 2: the lady's feelings, and in this case I gather they
2:39
Speaker 2: are of a peculiarly complex sort. Quite naturally they would
2:43
Speaker 2: be at any rate. The natural ruthlessness of the literary
2:47
Speaker 2: calling has failed me. I have not ventured to touch them.
2:51
Speaker 2: The villa residences to the east of Sange Castle, you
2:55
Speaker 2: must understand, are particularly lucky in having gardens that run
2:59
Speaker 2: right down to the beach. There is no intervening esplanade
3:02
Speaker 2: or road or path such as cuts off ninety nine
3:05
Speaker 2: out of the hundred of houses that face the sea.
3:09
Speaker 2: As you look down on them from the western end
3:11
Speaker 2: of the LEAs you see them crowding the very margin,
3:15
Speaker 2: and as a great number of high drawings stand out
3:18
Speaker 2: from the shore. Along this piece of coast, the beaches
3:21
Speaker 2: practically cut off and made private, except at very low water,
3:26
Speaker 2: when people can get around the ends of the groins.
3:29
Speaker 2: These houses are consequently highly desirable during the bathing season,
3:33
Speaker 2: and it is the custom of many of their occupiers
3:36
Speaker 2: to let them furnished during the summer to persons of
3:39
Speaker 2: fashion and affluence. The Randolph Buntings were such persons indisputably.
3:46
Speaker 2: It is true, of course, that they were not aristocrats,
3:50
Speaker 2: or indeed what an unpaid herald would freely call gentle.
3:55
Speaker 2: They had no right to any sort of arms, But then,
3:58
Speaker 2: as Missus Bunting would sometimes, they made no pretense of
4:01
Speaker 2: that sort. They were quite free, as indeed everybody is
4:05
Speaker 2: nowadays from snobbery. They were simple, homely Buntings.
4:09
Speaker 1: Randolph Bunting's good people, as the saying is, of a
4:13
Speaker 1: widely diffused Hampshire stock addicted to brewing, and whether a
4:18
Speaker 1: suitably remunerated Harold Colder could not have proved them gentle,
4:22
Speaker 1: there can be no doubt that Missus Bunting was quite
4:25
Speaker 1: justified in taking in the gentle woman, and that mister
4:29
Speaker 1: Bunting and Fred were sedulous gentlemen, and that all their
4:33
Speaker 1: ways and thoughts were delicate and nice, and they had
4:37
Speaker 1: staying with them the two miss Glendowers, to whom Missus
4:40
Speaker 1: Bunting had been something of a mother ever since Missus
4:43
Speaker 1: Glindower's death. The two miss Glendowers were half sisters and
4:48
Speaker 1: gentle beyond dispute, a country family race that had only
4:53
Speaker 1: for a generation stooped to trade and risen at once
4:56
Speaker 1: and tears like refreshed and enriched. The elder Adeline was
5:02
Speaker 1: the rich one, the heiress with the commercial blood in
5:05
Speaker 1: her veins. She was really very rich, and she had
5:09
Speaker 1: dark hair and gray eyes and serious views. And when
5:13
Speaker 1: her father died, which she did a little before her stepmother,
5:16
Speaker 1: she had only the later portion of her later youth
5:19
Speaker 1: left to her. She was nearly seven and twenty. She
5:24
Speaker 1: had sacrificed her earlier youth to her father's infirmity of
5:27
Speaker 1: temper in a way that had always reminded her of
5:30
Speaker 1: the girlhood of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. But after his departure
5:35
Speaker 1: for a sphere where his temper has no doubt, a
5:37
Speaker 1: whiter scope for what is this world for if it
5:42
Speaker 1: is not for the formation of character. She had come
5:45
Speaker 1: out strongly. It became evident she had always had a mind,
5:50
Speaker 1: and a very active and capable one, an accumulated fund
5:54
Speaker 1: of energy and much ambition. She had bloomed into a
5:59
Speaker 1: clear and critical socialism, and she had blossomed at public meetings.
6:03
Speaker 1: And now she was engaged to that really very brilliant
6:07
Speaker 1: and promising, but rather extravagant and romantic person. Harry Chatteris
6:13
Speaker 1: the nephew of an earl, and the hero of a scandal,
6:16
Speaker 1: and quite a possible Liberal candidate for the High Division
6:19
Speaker 1: of Kent. At least this last matter was under discussion,
6:25
Speaker 1: and he was about and Miss Glendower liked to feel
6:28
Speaker 1: she was supporting him by being about two, and that
6:32
Speaker 1: was chiefly why the Buntings had taken a house in
6:34
Speaker 1: Sandgip for the summer. Sometimes he would come and stay
6:38
Speaker 1: a night or two with them, Sometimes he would be
6:41
Speaker 1: off upon affairs, for he was known to be a
6:43
Speaker 1: very versatile, brilliant, first class political young man, and I
6:48
Speaker 1: very lucky to have a bid for him, all things considered,
6:52
Speaker 1: and Fred Bunting was engaged to Miss Glendowers less distinguished,
6:56
Speaker 1: much less wealthy, seventeen year old and possibly altogether more
7:00
Speaker 1: ordinary half sister Mabel Glendower, who had discerned long since
7:05
Speaker 1: when they were at school together, that it wasn't any
7:08
Speaker 1: good trying to be clear. When Adeline was about the
7:12
Speaker 1: Buntings did not Bathe mixed a thing indeed that was
7:16
Speaker 1: still only very doubtfully decent. In eighteen ninety eight, but
7:20
Speaker 1: mister Randolph Bunting and his son Fred came down to
7:23
Speaker 1: the beach with them, frankly, instead of hiding away or
7:25
Speaker 1: going for a walk according to the older fashion. This,
7:29
Speaker 1: notwithstanding that Miss Mabel Glendowerfred's fiancee to Boot, was of
7:34
Speaker 1: the bathing party. They formed a little procession down under
7:38
Speaker 1: the evergreen oaks in the garden, and down the ladder
7:41
Speaker 1: and so to the sea's margin. Missus Bunting went first,
7:45
Speaker 1: looking as it were, for peeping tom with her glasses,
7:49
Speaker 1: and Miss Glendower, who never bathed because it made her
7:52
Speaker 1: feel undignified, went with her, wearing one of those simple
7:56
Speaker 1: costly art mourning costume socialists effect Behind this protecting van
8:03
Speaker 1: came one by one the three girls in their beautiful
8:06
Speaker 1: Parisian bathing dresses and head dresses, though these were of
8:10
Speaker 1: course completely muffled up in huge hooded gowns of toweling,
8:15
Speaker 1: and wearing of course stockings and shoes. They bathed in
8:19
Speaker 1: stockings and shoes. Then came Missus Bunting's maid, and the
8:23
Speaker 1: second housemaid, and the maid the Glendower girls had brought,
8:27
Speaker 1: carrying towels, and then at a little interval the two
8:31
Speaker 1: men carrying ropes and things. Missus Bunting always put a
8:36
Speaker 1: rope around each of her daughters. Before ever, they put
8:39
Speaker 1: a foot in the water and held it until they
8:42
Speaker 1: were safely out again. But Mabel Glendower would not have
8:45
Speaker 1: a rope where the garden ends and the beach begins.
8:50
Speaker 1: Miss Glendower turned aside and sat down on the green
8:54
Speaker 1: iron seat under the evergreen oak, and, having found her
8:57
Speaker 1: place in Sir George Trescity, a book of which she
9:00
Speaker 1: was naturally enough at that time inordinately fond, sat watching
9:05
Speaker 1: the others go on down the beach. There they were
9:09
Speaker 1: a very bright and very pleasant group of prosperous, animated
9:13
Speaker 1: people upon the sunlit beach, and beyond them, in streaks
9:17
Speaker 1: of gray and purple, and altogether calm, save for a
9:20
Speaker 1: pattern of dainty little wavelets, was that ancient mother of
9:24
Speaker 1: surprises the sea. As soon as they reached the high
9:29
Speaker 1: water mark, where it is no longer indecent to be
9:33
Speaker 1: clad merely in a bathing dress, each of the young
9:36
Speaker 1: ladies handed her attendant her wrap, and after a little
9:40
Speaker 1: fun and laughter, missus Bunting looked carefully to see if
9:43
Speaker 1: there were any jelly fish, And then they went in,
9:46
Speaker 1: and after a minute or so, it seems Betty the
9:49
Speaker 1: elderness Bunting stopped splashing and looked, And then they all looked,
9:55
Speaker 1: and there, about thirty yards away was the sea lady's head,
9:59
Speaker 1: as if she were swimming back to land. Naturally, they
10:03
Speaker 1: concluded that she must be a neighbor from one of
10:05
Speaker 1: the adjacent houses. They were a little surprised not to
10:08
Speaker 1: have noticed her going down into the water, but beyond that,
10:12
Speaker 1: her apparition had no shadow of wonder for them. They
10:16
Speaker 1: made the furtive penetrating observations usual in such cases. They
10:21
Speaker 1: could see that she was swimming very gracefully, and that
10:24
Speaker 1: she had a lovely face and very beautiful arms. But
10:28
Speaker 1: they could not see her wonderful golden hair, because all
10:31
Speaker 1: that was hidden in a fashionable fridge and bathing cap,
10:34
Speaker 1: picked up as she afterwards admitted to my second cousin
10:38
Speaker 1: some nights before upon a Norman plage. Nor could they
10:42
Speaker 1: see her lovely shoulders because of the red costumes she wore.
10:46
Speaker 1: They were just on the point of feeling their inspection
10:49
Speaker 1: had reached the limit of really nice manners, and Mabel
10:52
Speaker 1: was pretending to go on splashing again and saying to Betty,
10:55
Speaker 1: she's wearing a red dress. I wish I could see
10:59
Speaker 1: when something very very terrible happened. The swimmer gave a
11:02
Speaker 1: queer sort of blop in the water, threw up her arms,
11:05
Speaker 1: and vanished. It was the sort of thing that seems
11:09
Speaker 1: for an instant to freeze everybody. Just one of those
11:13
Speaker 1: things that everyone has read of and imagined, and very
11:16
Speaker 1: few people have seen. For a space no one did anything. One, two,
11:23
Speaker 1: three seconds passed, and then for an instant a bare
11:27
Speaker 1: arm flashed in the air and vanished again. And Maple
11:31
Speaker 1: tells me she was quite paralyzed with horror, as she
11:35
Speaker 1: did nothing all the time. But the two miss Buntings,
11:38
Speaker 1: recovering a little, screamed out, oh, she is drowning, and
11:42
Speaker 1: hastened to get out of the sea at once, a
11:45
Speaker 1: proceeding accelerated by missus Bunting, who with great presence of mind,
11:49
Speaker 1: pulled at the ropes with all her weight and turned
11:52
Speaker 1: about and continued to pull long after they were many
11:55
Speaker 1: yards from the water's edge, and indeed, cowering in a
11:58
Speaker 1: heap at the foot of the sea wall, Miss Glendower
12:01
Speaker 1: became aware of a crisis and descended the steps. Sir
12:05
Speaker 1: George Trescaity in one hand, and the other, shading her eyes,
12:09
Speaker 1: crying in her clear, resolute voice, she must be saved.
12:14
Speaker 1: The maids, of course, were screaming as became them. But
12:18
Speaker 1: the two men appeared to have acted with the greatest
12:21
Speaker 1: presence of mind Fred next door's letter, said mister Randolph Bunting.
12:26
Speaker 1: For the next door neighbor, instead of having convenient stone steps,
12:30
Speaker 1: had a high wall and a long wooden ladder. And
12:33
Speaker 1: it had often been pointed out by mister Bunting that
12:36
Speaker 1: if ever an accident should happen to any one, there
12:39
Speaker 1: was that. In a moment, it seems they had both
12:43
Speaker 1: flung off jacket and vest, collar tie and shoes and
12:47
Speaker 1: were running the neighbor's ladder out into the water. Where
12:50
Speaker 1: did she go dead? Said Fred? Right out here, said
12:54
Speaker 1: mister Bunting, And to confirm his word, there flashed again
12:58
Speaker 1: an arm and something dark, something which, in the light
13:02
Speaker 1: of haltlet subsequently happened I am inclined to suppose was
13:06
Speaker 1: an unintentional exposure of the lady's tail. Neither of the
13:10
Speaker 1: two gentlemen are expert swimmers. Indeed, so far as I
13:14
Speaker 1: can gather, mister Bunting, in the excitement of the occasion,
13:17
Speaker 1: forgot almost everything he had ever known of swimming. But
13:20
Speaker 1: they waited out valiantly, one on each side of the ladder,
13:24
Speaker 1: thrust it out before them, and committed themselves to the
13:27
Speaker 1: deep in a manner casting no discredit upon our nation
13:31
Speaker 1: and race. Yet on the whole I think it is
13:34
Speaker 1: a matter for general congratulation that they were not engaged
13:38
Speaker 1: in the rescue of a genuinely drowning person. At the
13:42
Speaker 1: time of my inquiries, whatever soreness of argument that may
13:46
Speaker 1: once have obtained between them had passed, and it is
13:49
Speaker 1: fairly clear that while Fred Bunting was engaged in swimming
13:53
Speaker 1: hard against the long side of the ladder, and so
13:55
Speaker 1: causing it to rotate slowly on its axis, mister Bunting
13:59
Speaker 1: had always he swallowed a very considerable amount of sea
14:02
Speaker 1: water and was kicking Fred in the chest with aimless vigor.
14:06
Speaker 1: This he did, as he explains, to get my legs down.
14:10
Speaker 1: You know something about that ladder, you know, And they
14:12
Speaker 1: would go up, and then quite unexpectedly, the sea Lady
14:18
Speaker 1: appeared beside them. One lovely arm supported mister Bunting about
14:23
Speaker 1: the waist, and the other was over the ladder. She
14:26
Speaker 1: did not appear tall pale, or frightened or out of breath,
14:29
Speaker 1: Fred told me when I cross examined him, though at
14:32
Speaker 1: the time he was too violently excited to note a
14:35
Speaker 1: detail of that sort. Indeed, she smiled and spoke in
14:39
Speaker 1: an easy, pleasant voice. Cramp, she said, I have cramp.
14:45
Speaker 1: Both the men were convinced of that. Mister Bunting was
14:48
Speaker 1: on the point of telling her to hold dight and
14:50
Speaker 1: she would be quite safe, when a little wave went
14:53
Speaker 1: almost entirely into his mouth and reduced him to wild splutterings.
14:58
Speaker 1: We'll get you in, said Fred, or something of that sort.
15:01
Speaker 1: And so they all hung bobbing in the water to
15:04
Speaker 1: the tune of mister Bunting's trouble. They seemed to have
15:08
Speaker 1: rocked so for some time. Fred says the sea lady
15:11
Speaker 1: looked calm, but a little puzzled, and that she seemed
15:15
Speaker 1: to measure the distance shoreward. You mean to save me,
15:20
Speaker 1: she asked him. He was trying to think what could
15:23
Speaker 1: be done before his father drowned. We're saving you now,
15:27
Speaker 1: he said, you take me ashore. As she seemed so cool,
15:32
Speaker 1: he thought he would explain his plan of operations. Trying
15:35
Speaker 1: to get end of ladder kicked with my legs only
15:39
Speaker 1: a few yards out of our depth. If we could
15:40
Speaker 1: only minute get my breath mouthful sea water, said mister Buntings. Splash,
15:48
Speaker 1: And then it seemed to Fred that a little miracle happened.
15:52
Speaker 1: There was a swirl of the water like the swirl
15:54
Speaker 1: about a screw propeller, and he gripped the sea lady
15:58
Speaker 1: in the ladder just in time, as seemed to him,
16:00
Speaker 1: to prevent his being washed far out into the channel.
16:03
Speaker 1: His father vanished from his sight with an expression of
16:06
Speaker 1: astonishment just forming on his face, and reappeared beside him,
16:11
Speaker 1: so far as back and legs are concerned, holding onto
16:13
Speaker 1: the ladder with a sort of death grip. And then behold,
16:18
Speaker 1: they had shifted a dozen yards inshore, and they were
16:21
Speaker 1: in less than five feet of water, and Fred could
16:24
Speaker 1: feel the ground at its touch. His amazement and dismay
16:28
Speaker 1: immediately gave way to the purest heroism. He thrust ladder
16:32
Speaker 1: and sea lady before him, abandoned the ladder, and his
16:35
Speaker 1: now quite disordered parent caught her tightly in his arms
16:39
Speaker 1: and bore her up out of the water. The young
16:42
Speaker 1: ladies cried, saved, The maids cried saved. Distant voices echoed
16:49
Speaker 1: same hoorah. Everybody, in fact cried saved, except missus Bunting,
16:56
Speaker 1: who was, she says, under the impression that mister Bunting
16:59
Speaker 1: was in a fit, And mister Bunting, who seems to
17:02
Speaker 1: have been under an impression that all those laws of
17:05
Speaker 1: nature by which, under providence we are permitted to float
17:08
Speaker 1: and swim were in suspense, and that the best thing
17:11
Speaker 1: to do was to kick very hard and fast until
17:14
Speaker 1: the end should come. But in a dozen seconds or
17:18
Speaker 1: so his head was up again, and his feet were
17:21
Speaker 1: on the ground, and he was making wail and walrus noises,
17:25
Speaker 1: and noises like a horse, earned like an angry cat,
17:27
Speaker 1: and like sawing, and was wiping the water from his eyes.
17:32
Speaker 1: And Missus Bunting, except that now and then she really
17:35
Speaker 1: had to turn and say Randolph could give her attention
17:39
Speaker 1: to the beautiful burden that clung about her son. And
17:43
Speaker 1: it is a curious thing that the sea lady was
17:46
Speaker 1: at least a minute out of the water before any
17:48
Speaker 1: one discovered that she was in any way different from
17:53
Speaker 1: other ladies. I suppose they were all crowding close to
17:57
Speaker 1: her and looking at her beautiful face. Perhaps they imagined
18:01
Speaker 1: that she was wearing some indiscreet but novel form of
18:05
Speaker 1: dark writing habit or something of that sort. Anyhow, not
18:09
Speaker 1: one of them noticed it, although it must have been
18:11
Speaker 1: before their eyes as plain as day. Certainly it must
18:15
Speaker 1: have blended with the costume. And there they stood, imagining
18:19
Speaker 1: that Fred had rescued a lovely lady of indisputable fashion
18:23
Speaker 1: who had been bathing from some neighboring house, and wondering
18:27
Speaker 1: why on earth there was nobody on the beach to
18:29
Speaker 1: claim her. And you clung to Fred, And, as Miss
18:33
Speaker 1: Mabel Glendower subsequently remarked in the course of conversation with him,
18:38
Speaker 1: the Fred clung to her. I had cramp, said the
18:42
Speaker 1: sea Lady, with her lips against Fred's cheek in one
18:46
Speaker 1: eye on Missus Bunty, I am sure it was cramp.
18:49
Speaker 1: I've got it still, I don't see anybody, began Missus Bunting.
18:56
Speaker 1: Please carry me in, said the sea lady, closing her
18:59
Speaker 1: eyes as if she were ill, though her cheek was
19:01
Speaker 1: flushed and warm. Carry me in where, gasped Fred. Carry
19:07
Speaker 1: me into the house, She whispered to him. Which house,
19:12
Speaker 1: Missus Bunting, came nearer? Your house, said the sea lady
19:17
Speaker 1: and shut her eyes for good and became oblivious to
19:20
Speaker 1: all further remarks. She but I don't understand, said missus Bunting,
19:26
Speaker 1: addressing everybody. And then it was they saw it. Nettie,
19:32
Speaker 1: the younger Miss Bunting saw it first, she pointed, she says,
19:35
Speaker 1: before she could find words to speak. Then they all
19:39
Speaker 1: saw it. Miss Glendower, I believe, was the person who
19:42
Speaker 1: was last to see it. At any rate, it would
19:45
Speaker 1: have been like her if she had been Mother, said Nettie,
19:49
Speaker 1: giving words to the general horror. Mother, she has a tale.
19:56
Speaker 1: And then the three maids and Mabel Glendower screamed, one
19:59
Speaker 1: after the other. Look, they cried a tale of all,
20:04
Speaker 1: said missus Bunting, and words failed her. Oh, said miss Glendower,
20:11
Speaker 1: and put her hand to her heart. And then one
20:14
Speaker 1: of the maids gave it a name. It's a mermaid,
20:18
Speaker 1: screamed the maid, and then every one screamed it's a mermaid,
20:24
Speaker 1: except the mermaid herself. She remained quite passive, pretending to
20:28
Speaker 1: be insensible, partly on Fred's shoulder and altogether in his arms.
20:35
Speaker 1: Two that you know is the tableau, as far as
20:39
Speaker 1: I have been able to piece it together, again, you
20:42
Speaker 1: must imagine this little knot of people upon the beach,
20:45
Speaker 1: and mister Bunting, I figure a little apart, just wading
20:48
Speaker 1: out of the water, and very wet and incredulous and
20:51
Speaker 1: half drowned, and the neighbor's ladder was drifting quietly out
20:55
Speaker 1: to sea. Of course, it was one of those positions
21:00
Speaker 1: that have an air of being conspicuous. Indeed it was conspicuous.
21:06
Speaker 1: It was some way below high water, and the group
21:08
Speaker 1: stood out perhaps thirty yards down the beach. Nobody, as
21:13
Speaker 1: Missus Bunting told my cousin Melville, knew a bit what
21:17
Speaker 1: to do, and they all had even an exaggerated share
21:20
Speaker 1: of the national hatred of being seen in a puzzle.
21:24
Speaker 1: The mermaid seemed content to remain a beautiful problem, clinging
21:28
Speaker 1: to Fred, and by all counts she was a reasonable
21:31
Speaker 1: burgen for a man. It seems that the very large
21:35
Speaker 1: family of people who were stopping at the house called
21:38
Speaker 1: Coote Whomi had appeared in force, and they were all
21:42
Speaker 1: staring and gesticulating. They were just the sort of people
21:46
Speaker 1: the Buntings did not want to know, tradespeople. Very probably
21:50
Speaker 1: presently one of the men, the particularly vulgar man who
21:54
Speaker 1: used to shoot at the gulls, began putting down their
21:57
Speaker 1: ladder as if he intended to offer advice, and Missus
22:00
Speaker 1: Bunting also became aware of the black glare of the
22:03
Speaker 1: field glasses of a still more horrid man to the west. Moreover,
22:09
Speaker 1: the popular author who lived next door, an irascible, dark,
22:13
Speaker 1: square headed little man in spectacles, suddenly turned up and
22:17
Speaker 1: began bawling from his inaccessible wall top something foolish about
22:21
Speaker 1: his ladder. Nobody thought of his silly ladder or took
22:25
Speaker 1: any trouble about it. Naturally, he was quite stupidly excited,
22:30
Speaker 1: to judge by his tone and gestures. He was using
22:33
Speaker 1: dreadful language, and seemed disposed of every moment to jump
22:36
Speaker 1: down to the beach and come to them, and then
22:40
Speaker 1: to crown the situation. Over the westward droin appeared low excursionists.
22:47
Speaker 1: First of all, their heads came, and then their remarks.
22:51
Speaker 1: Then they began to clamber the breakwater with joyful shouts.
22:55
Speaker 1: It bit, said the low excursionists as they climbed. It
22:58
Speaker 1: was the ear of Pip Pip, and what ho she bumps,
23:01
Speaker 1: and then less generally, what's up here? And the voices
23:05
Speaker 1: of other low excursionists still invisible, answered Pip Pimp. It
23:10
Speaker 1: was evidently a large party. Anything wrong, shouted one of
23:15
Speaker 1: the low excursionists at a venture, my dear, said Missus
23:19
Speaker 1: Bunting to Mabel, what are we to do? And in
23:22
Speaker 1: her description of the affair to my cousin Melville, she
23:26
Speaker 1: used always to make that the clue of the story,
23:29
Speaker 1: My dear, what are we to do? I believe that
23:33
Speaker 1: in her desperation she even glanced at the water. But
23:38
Speaker 1: of course to have put the mermaid back then would
23:41
Speaker 1: have involved the most terrible explanations. It was evident there
23:46
Speaker 1: was only one thing to be done. Missus Bunting said
23:49
Speaker 1: as much. The only thing, said, she is to carry
23:54
Speaker 1: her indoors. And carry her indoors they did. One can
23:59
Speaker 1: figure the little procession in front, Fred wet and astonished,
24:04
Speaker 1: but still clinging and clung to, and altogether two out
24:08
Speaker 1: of breath for words, and in his arms the sea lady.
24:12
Speaker 1: She had a beautiful figure, I understand. Until that horrible
24:15
Speaker 1: tale began, and the fin of it, Missus bundingtld my
24:19
Speaker 1: cousin in a whispered confidence, went up and down, and
24:22
Speaker 1: with pointed corners for all the work like a mackerel's.
24:26
Speaker 1: It flocked and dripped along the path. I imagine she was
24:31
Speaker 1: wearing a very nice and very long skirted dress of
24:34
Speaker 1: red material trimmed with coarse white lace, and she had
24:38
Speaker 1: Mabel told me a juleet, though that would scarcely show
24:43
Speaker 1: as they went up the garden, and that phrygian cap
24:46
Speaker 1: hid all her golden hair and showed the white, low
24:49
Speaker 1: level forehead over her sea blue eyes. From all that followed,
24:54
Speaker 1: I imagine her at the moment, scanning the verandah and windows
24:58
Speaker 1: of the house with a certain an eagerness of scrutiny.
25:02
Speaker 1: Behind this staggering group of two, I believe missus Bunting
25:06
Speaker 1: came Then mister Bunting, dreadfully wet and broken down. Mister
25:10
Speaker 1: Bunting must have been by then, and from one or
25:13
Speaker 1: two things I have noticed, since I can't help imagining
25:17
Speaker 1: him as pursuing his wife with Of course, my dear,
25:20
Speaker 1: I couldn't tell you no. And then, in a dismayed
25:24
Speaker 1: yet curious bunch, the girls in their wraps of toweling,
25:28
Speaker 1: and the maids carrying the ropes and things, and as
25:31
Speaker 1: if inadvertently as became them, most of mister and Fred
25:36
Speaker 1: Bunting's clothes, and then Miss glendalre for once, at least
25:41
Speaker 1: in no sort of pose whatever, clutching Sir George trescaity
25:45
Speaker 1: and perplexed and disturbed beyond measure. And then as it
25:49
Speaker 1: were pursuing them all Pip Pip and the hat and
25:53
Speaker 1: raised eyebrows of a low excursionist, still anxious to know
25:57
Speaker 1: what's up from the garden end. So it was, or
26:02
Speaker 1: at least in some such way, and to the accompaniment
26:05
Speaker 1: of the wildest ravings about some ladder or other heard
26:09
Speaker 1: all too distinctly over the garden wall over dressed knobs.
26:13
Speaker 1: Take my rare old English adjective ladder. That they carried
26:18
Speaker 1: the sea lady, who appeared serenely insensible to everything, up
26:23
Speaker 1: through the house and laid her down upon the couch
26:26
Speaker 1: in Missus Bunting's room. And just as Missus Glendower was
26:31
Speaker 1: suggesting that the very best thing they could do would
26:34
Speaker 1: be to send for a doctor, the sea lady with
26:36
Speaker 1: a beautiful naturalness side and came two end of chapter one.
26:43
Speaker 1: Recording by Thomas Copeland