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052 - 'pack Clouds Away' · North and South

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  Speaker 1: Chapter fifty two, 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 all to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. This
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  Speaker 1: reading by Lucy Burgowyne. North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter fifty two, Pack clouds away for joy or grief,
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  Speaker 1: for hope or fear for all hereafter, as for here
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  Speaker 1: in peace or strife, in storm or shine Anon. Edith
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  Speaker 1: went about on tiptoe and checked Sholto in all loud
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  Speaker 1: speaking that next morning, as if any sudden noise would
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  Speaker 1: interrupt the conference that was taking place in the drawing room.
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  Speaker 1: Two o'clock came and they still sat there with closed doors.
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  Speaker 1: Then there was a man's footstep running downstairs, and Edith
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  Speaker 1: peeped out of the drawing room. Well, Henry, said she,
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  Speaker 1: with a look of interrogation. Well said he rather shortly
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  Speaker 1: come in to lunch. No, thank you, I can't. I've
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  Speaker 1: lost too much time here already. Then it's not all settled,
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  Speaker 1: said Edith, despondingly. No, not at all. It never will
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  Speaker 1: be settled. If the it is what I conjecture you mean,
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  Speaker 1: that will never be Edith, so give up thinking about it,
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  Speaker 1: but it would be so nice for us, all pleaded Edith,
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  Speaker 1: I should always feel comfortable about the children. If I
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  Speaker 1: had Margaret settled down near me. As it is, I
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  Speaker 1: am always afraid of her going off to Cadez. I
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  Speaker 1: will try when I marry to look out for a
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  Speaker 1: young lady who has a knowledge of the management of children.
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  Speaker 1: That is all I can do. Miss Hale would not
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  Speaker 1: have me, and I shall not ask her. Then, what
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  Speaker 1: have you been talking about? A thousand things you would
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  Speaker 1: not understand, investments and leases and value of land. I
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  Speaker 1: go away if that's all you, and she will be
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  Speaker 1: unbearably stupid if you've been talking all this time about
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  Speaker 1: such weary things. Very well, I'm coming again to morrow
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  Speaker 1: and bringing mister Thornton with me to have some more
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  Speaker 1: talk with miss Hale. Mister Thornton, what has he to
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  Speaker 1: do with it? He is Miss Hale's tenant, said mister Lennox,
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  Speaker 1: turning away, and he wishes to give up his lease.
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  Speaker 1: Oh very well. I can't understand details, so don't give
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  Speaker 1: them me. The only detail I want you to understand
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  Speaker 1: is to let us have the back drawing room undisturbed
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  Speaker 1: as it was to day. In general, the children and
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  Speaker 1: servants are so in and out, and I can never
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  Speaker 1: get any business satisfactorily exclaimed, and the arrangements we have
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  Speaker 1: to make tomorrow are of importance. No one ever knew
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  Speaker 1: why mister Lennox did not keep to his appointment. On
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  Speaker 1: the following day, mister Thornton came true to his time,
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  Speaker 1: and after keeping him waiting for nearly an hour, Margaret
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  Speaker 1: came in, looking very white and anxious. She began hurriedly,
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  Speaker 1: I am so sorry mister Lennox is not here. He
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  Speaker 1: could have done it so much better than I can.
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  Speaker 1: He is my adviser in this. I am sorry that
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  Speaker 1: I came. If it troubles you, shall I go to
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  Speaker 1: mister Lennox's chambers and try and find him. No thank you.
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  Speaker 1: I want to tell you how grieved I was to
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  Speaker 1: find that I am to lose you as the tenant.
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  Speaker 1: But mister Lennox says things assured to Brighton. Mister Lennox
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  Speaker 1: knows little about it, said mister Thornton, quietly, happy and
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  Speaker 1: fortunate in all a man cares for. He does not
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  Speaker 1: understand what it is to find oneself no longer young
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  Speaker 1: yet thrown back to the starting point, which requires the
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  Speaker 1: hopeful energy of youth to feel one half of life
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  Speaker 1: gone and nothing done, nothing remaining of wasted opportunity, but
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  Speaker 1: the bitter recollection that it has been, Miss Hale, I
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  Speaker 1: would rather not hear mister Lennox's opinion of my affairs.
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  Speaker 1: Those who are happy and successful themselves are too apt
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  Speaker 1: to make light of the misfortunes of others. You are unjust,
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  Speaker 1: said Margaret gently. Mister Lennox has only spoken of the
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  Speaker 1: great probability which he believes there to be, of your
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  Speaker 1: redeeming your more than redeeming what you have lost. Don't
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  Speaker 1: speak till I have ended. Pray, don't And collecting herself
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  Speaker 1: once more, she went on rapidly turning over some low
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  Speaker 1: papers and statements of accounts in a trembling, hurried manner. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: here it is, and he drew me out a proposal.
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  Speaker 1: I wish he was here to explain it, showing that
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  Speaker 1: if you would take some money of mine eighteen thousand
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  Speaker 1: and fifty seven pounds lying just at this moment unused
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  Speaker 1: in the bank, and bringing me in only two and
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  Speaker 1: a half percent, you could pay me much better interest,
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  Speaker 1: and might go on working Mulborough Mills. Her voice had
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  Speaker 1: cleared itself and become more steady. Mister Thornton did not speak,
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  Speaker 1: and she went on looking for some paper on which
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  Speaker 1: were written down the proposals for security, for she was
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  Speaker 1: most anxious to have it all looked upon in the
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  Speaker 1: light of a mad business arrangement in which the principal
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  Speaker 1: advantage would be on her side. While she sought for
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  Speaker 1: this paper, her very heart pulse was arrested by the
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  Speaker 1: tone in which mister Thornton spoke. His voice was hoarse
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  Speaker 1: and trembling with tender passion as he said Margaret. For
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  Speaker 1: an instant she looked up, and then sought to veil
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  Speaker 1: her luminous eyes by dropping her forehead on her hands. Again,
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  Speaker 1: stepping nearer, he besought her with another tremulous, eager call
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  Speaker 1: upon her name, Margaret. Still lower went the head more
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  Speaker 1: closely hidden was the face almost resting on the table
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  Speaker 1: before her. He came close to her. He knelt by
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  Speaker 1: her side to bring his face to a level with
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  Speaker 1: her ear, and whispered panted out the words take care.
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  Speaker 1: If you do not speak, I shall claim you as
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  Speaker 1: my own. In some strange, presumptuous way, send me away
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  Speaker 1: at once, if I must go Margaret. At that third call,
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  Speaker 1: she turned her face, still covered with her small white hands,
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  Speaker 1: towards him and laid it on his shoulder, hiding it
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  Speaker 1: even there. And it was too delicious to feel her
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  Speaker 1: soft cheek against tears for him to wish to see
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  Speaker 1: either deep blushes or loving eyes. He clasped her close,
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  Speaker 1: but they both kept silence. At length, she murmured in
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  Speaker 1: a broken voice, Oh, mister Thornton, I am not good enough,
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  Speaker 1: not good enough. Don't mock my own deep feeling of unworthiness.
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  Speaker 1: After a minute or two, he gently disengaged her hands
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  Speaker 1: from her face and laid her arms as they had
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  Speaker 1: once before been placed to protect him from the rioters.
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  Speaker 1: Do you remember, love, he murmured, And how I requitted
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  Speaker 1: you with my insolence The next day? I remember how
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  Speaker 1: wrongly I spoke to you. That is all. Look here,
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  Speaker 1: lift up your head. I have something to show you.
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  Speaker 1: She slowly faced him, glowing with beautiful shame. Do you
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  Speaker 1: know these roses, he said, drawing out his pocket book,
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  Speaker 1: in which were treasured up some dead flowers. No, she replied,
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  Speaker 1: with innocent curiosity. Did I give them to you? No? Vanity,
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  Speaker 1: you did not. You may have worn sister roses, very probably.
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  Speaker 1: She looked at them, wondering for a minute. Then she
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  Speaker 1: smiled a little, as she said, they are from Helpstone,
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  Speaker 1: are they not? I know the deep indentations round the leaves?
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  Speaker 1: Oh have you been there? When were you there? I
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  Speaker 1: wanted to see the place where Margaret grew to what
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  Speaker 1: she is, even at the worst time of all, when
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  Speaker 1: I had no hope of ever calling her mind, I
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  Speaker 1: went there on my return from Harvey. You must give
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  Speaker 1: them to me, she said, trying to take them out
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  Speaker 1: of his hand with gentle violence. Very well, only you
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  Speaker 1: must pay me for them. How shall I ever tell
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  Speaker 1: Aunt Shaw, she whispered, after some time of delicious silence,
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  Speaker 1: Let me speak to her. Oh, no, I owe to her.
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  Speaker 1: But what will she say? I can guess her first
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  Speaker 1: exclamation will be that man, hush, said Margaret. Or I
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  Speaker 1: shall try and show you your mother's indignant tones as
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  Speaker 1: she says, that woman. End of North and South by
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  Speaker 1: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell