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Bealby Chapter 1 - Young Bealby goes to Shonts · The H. G. Wells Library

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Speaker 1: Chapter one of Bielby a Holiday. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: All Librivok's recordings are in the public domain. For more
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Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Bielby
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Speaker 1: a Holiday by H. G. Wells. Chapter one, Young Bielby
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Speaker 1: goes to Schantz sub chapter one. The cat is the
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Speaker 1: offspring of a cat, and the dog of a dog.
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Speaker 1: But butlers and ladies maids do not reproduce their kind.
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Speaker 1: They have other duties, so their successes have to be
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Speaker 1: sought among the prolific, and particularly among the prolific on
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Speaker 1: great estates. Such are gardeners, but not under gardeners, gamekeepers
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Speaker 1: and coachmen, but not lodge people, because their years are
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Speaker 1: too great and their lodge is too small. And among
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Speaker 1: those to whom this opportunity of entering service came was
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Speaker 1: young Bielby, who is the stepson of mister Darlan, the
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Speaker 1: gardener of Chance. Everyone knows the glories of Shants, its facade,
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Speaker 1: its two towers, the great Marble Pond, the terraces where
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Speaker 1: the peacocks walk in the lower lake with the black
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Speaker 1: and white swans, the great Park and the avenue. The
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Speaker 1: view of the river winding away across the blue country,
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Speaker 1: and of the Shance Velasquez, but that is now in America,
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Speaker 1: and the Schanz Rubens, which is in the National Gallery,
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Speaker 1: and the Shance porcelain, and the Shance past history. It
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Speaker 1: was a refuge for the old faith. It had priests,
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Speaker 1: holes and secret passages. And how at last the marquis
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Speaker 1: had to let chance to the Laxtans, the peptonized milk
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Speaker 1: and baby soother people for a long term of years.
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Speaker 1: Who was a splendid chance for any boy to begin
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Speaker 1: his knowledge of service in so great an establishment. And
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Speaker 1: only the natural perversity of human nature can be explain
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Speaker 1: the violent objection young Bealby took to anything of the
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Speaker 1: sort he did. He said he did not want to
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Speaker 1: be a servant, and that he would not go and
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Speaker 1: be a good boy and try his very best in
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Speaker 1: that state of life to which it had pleased God
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Speaker 1: to call him at chance. On the contrary, he communicated
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Speaker 1: these views suddenly to his mother, as she was preparing
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Speaker 1: a steak and kidney pie in the bright little kitchen
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Speaker 1: of the gardener's cottage. He came in with his hair
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Speaker 1: all ruffled and his face hot, and distinctly dirty, and
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Speaker 1: his hands in his trousers pockets, and the way he
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Speaker 1: had been repeatedly told not to mother, He said, I'm
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Speaker 1: not going to be a Stuart's boy at the house anyhow,
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Speaker 1: not if you tell me to, not till you're blue
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Speaker 1: in the face. So that's all about it. This delivered.
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Speaker 1: He remained panting, having no further breath left in him.
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Speaker 1: His mother was a thin, firm woman. She paused in
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Speaker 1: a rolling of the dough until he had finished, and
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Speaker 1: then she made a strong, broadening sweep of the rolling
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Speaker 1: pin and remained facing him, leaning forward on that implement,
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Speaker 1: with her head a little on one side. You will do,
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Speaker 1: she said, whatsoever your father has said you will do.
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Speaker 1: He isn't my father, said young Bialby. His mother gave
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Speaker 1: a snapping nod of the head expressive of extreme determination. Anyhow,
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Speaker 1: I ain't going to do it, said young Bialby, and,
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Speaker 1: feeling the conversation was difficult to sustain, he moved towards
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Speaker 1: the staircase door with a view to slamming it. You'll
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Speaker 1: do it, said his mother, right enough. You see whether
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Speaker 1: I do, said young Bialby, and then got in his door,
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Speaker 1: slam rather hurriedly because of steps outside. Mister Darling came
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Speaker 1: in out of the sunshine. A few moments later. He
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Speaker 1: was a large, many pocketed, earthy whiskered man with a
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Speaker 1: clean shaven, determined mouth, and he carried a large, pale
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Speaker 1: cucumber in his hand. I to Poleham, he said, what
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Speaker 1: did he say? Asked his wife. Nothing, said mister Darling.
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Speaker 1: He says you won't, says missus Darling. Mister Darling regarded
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Speaker 1: her thoughtfully for a moment. I never see such a boy,
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Speaker 1: said mister Darling. Why he's got to sub chapter two.
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Speaker 1: But young Bialby maintained an obstinate fight against the inevitable.
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Speaker 1: He had no gift of lucid exposition. I ain't going
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Speaker 1: to be a servant, he said. I don't see what
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Speaker 1: right people have making a servant of me. You got
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Speaker 1: to be something, said mister Darling. Everybody's got to be something,
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Speaker 1: said missus Darling. Then let me be something else, said
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Speaker 1: young Bialby. I de say you'd like to be a gentleman,
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Speaker 1: said mister Darling. I wouldn't mind, said young Bialby. You've
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Speaker 1: got to be what your opportunities give you, said mister Darling.
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Speaker 1: Young Bielby became breathless. Why shouldn't I be an engine driver?
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Speaker 1: All oily, said his mother, and getting yourself killed in
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Speaker 1: an accident, got to pay fines. You'd like to be
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Speaker 1: an engine driver or a soldier, oh swatty, said mister
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Speaker 1: Darling decisively, or the sea with that weak's stomach of yours,
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Speaker 1: said missus Darling. Besides which, said mister Darling, it's been
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Speaker 1: arranged for you to go up to the ouse the
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Speaker 1: very first of next month, and your box and everything ready.
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Speaker 1: Young Bialby became very red in the face. I won't go,
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Speaker 1: he said, very faintly. You will, said missus Darling, if
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Speaker 1: I have to take you by the collar and the
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Speaker 1: slack of your breeches to get you there. Sub Chapter three.
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Speaker 1: The heart of young Bilby was a cold afire within
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Speaker 1: his breast. As unassisted he went across the dewy park
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Speaker 1: up to the Great House, whither his box was to
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Speaker 1: follow him. He thought the world a rotten show. He
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Speaker 1: also said, apparently to two dos a fawn, if you
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Speaker 1: think I'm going to stand it, you know your jolly
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Speaker 1: well mistaken. I do not attempt to justify his prejudice
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Speaker 1: against honorable usefulness in a domestic capacity he had it.
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Speaker 1: Perhaps there is something in the air of Highbury, where
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Speaker 1: he had spent the past eight years of his life,
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Speaker 1: that leads to democratic ideals. It is one of those
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Speaker 1: new places where a states seem almost forgotten. Perhaps too,
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Speaker 1: there was something in the Beilbee's strain. I think he
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Speaker 1: would have objected to any employment at all. Hitherto he
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Speaker 1: had been a remarkably free boy, with a considerable gusto
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Speaker 1: about his freedom. Why should that end? The little village
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Speaker 1: mixed school had been a soft job for his cockney wits,
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Speaker 1: and for a year and a half he had been
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Speaker 1: top boy. Why not go on being top boy? Instead
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Speaker 1: of which, under threats, he had to go across the
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Speaker 1: sunlit corner of the park, through that slanting morning sunlight
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Speaker 1: which had been so often the prelude to golden days
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Speaker 1: of leafy wanderings. He had to go past the corner
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Speaker 1: of the laundry where he had so often played cricket
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Speaker 1: with the coachman's boys. Already swallowed up into the working world.
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Speaker 1: He had to follow the laundry wall to the end
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Speaker 1: of the kitchen, and there where the steps go down
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Speaker 1: and underground, he had to say farewell to the sunlight,
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Speaker 1: farewell to childhood, boyhood freedom. He had to go down
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Speaker 1: and along the stone corridor to the pantry, and there
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Speaker 1: he had to ask for mister Merghleson. He paused on
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Speaker 1: the top step and looked up at the blue sky,
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Speaker 1: across which a hawk was slowly drifting. His eyes followed
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Speaker 1: the hawk, out of sight beyond a cypress bow. But
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Speaker 1: indeed he was not thinking about the hawk. He was
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Speaker 1: not seeing the hawk. He was struggling with the last
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Speaker 1: wild impulse of his ferrial nature. Why not sling it?
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Speaker 1: His ferrial nature was asking, why not even now do
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Speaker 1: a bunk? It would have been better for him perhaps,
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Speaker 1: and better for mister Murgleson, and better for Shuants if
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Speaker 1: he had yielded to the whisper of the tempter. But
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Speaker 1: his heart was heavy within him, and he had no lunch,
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Speaker 1: and never a penny one could do. But a very
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Speaker 1: little bunk on an empty belly must was written all
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Speaker 1: over him. He went down the steps. The passage was
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Speaker 1: long and cool, and at the end of it was
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Speaker 1: a swing door. Through that and then to the left.
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Speaker 1: He knew one had to go past the still room,
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Speaker 1: and so to the pantry. The maids were at breakfast
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Speaker 1: in the still room with the door open. The grimace
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Speaker 1: he made in passing was intended rather to entertain than
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Speaker 1: to insult, And anyhow, Chap must do something with his face.
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Speaker 1: And then he came to the pantry and into the
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Speaker 1: presence of mister Murgleson. Mister Murgleson was in his short
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Speaker 1: sleeves and generally disheveled, having an early cup of tea
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Speaker 1: and an atmosphereful of the bleak memories of overnight. Who
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Speaker 1: was an ample man with a large nose, a vast underlip,
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Speaker 1: and mutton choped side whiskers. His voice would have suited
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Speaker 1: a succulent parrot. He took out a gold watch from
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Speaker 1: his waistcoat pocket and regarded it. Ten minutes past seven,
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Speaker 1: young men, he said, isn't seven o'clock? Young Bialby made
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Speaker 1: no articulate answer. Just stand there for a minute, said
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Speaker 1: mister Murgleson. And when I'm at Liboutie, I'll run through
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Speaker 1: your duties, And almost ostentatiously, he gave himself up to
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Speaker 1: the enjoyment of his cup of tea. Three other gentlemen
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Speaker 1: in Dishabille sat at table with mister Murgleson, they regarded
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Speaker 1: young Bielby with attention, and the youngest, a red haired
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Speaker 1: bear feahed youth in shirt sleeves and a green apron,
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Speaker 1: was moved to a grimace that was clearly designed to
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Speaker 1: echo the scowl on young Bielby's features. The fury, then,
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Speaker 1: that had been subdued by a momentary awe of mister Murgleson,
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Speaker 1: revived in gathered force. Young Bilby's face became scarlet, his
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Speaker 1: eyes filled with tears, and his mind with the need
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Speaker 1: for movement. After all, he wouldn't stand it. He turned
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Speaker 1: round abruptly and made for the door. Where on earth
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Speaker 1: you go into? Cried mister Murgleson. He's shy, cried the
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Speaker 1: second footman. Steady on, cried the first footman, and had
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Speaker 1: him by the shoulder in the doorway. Let me go,
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Speaker 1: howled the new recruit, struggling. I won't be a blooming servant.
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Speaker 1: I won't here, cried mister Murgleson, gesticulating with his teaspoon.
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Speaker 1: Bring him to the end of the table. There, what's
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Speaker 1: this about a blooming servant? Bilby, suddenly, blubbering, was replaced
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Speaker 1: at the end of the table. May I ask, what's
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Speaker 1: this about a blooming servant, asked mister Murgleson, sniff in silence.
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Speaker 1: Did I understand you to say that you ain't to
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Speaker 1: be a blooming servant, young Bielby, Yes, said young Beilby.
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Speaker 1: Thomas said mister Murgleson. Just smack his head. Smack it
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Speaker 1: rather hard. Things too rapid to relate, O kriig, So
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Speaker 1: you'd bite wood, you said Thomas. Ah, said mister Murgleson,
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Speaker 1: got em that one. Just smack his head once more,
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Speaker 1: said mister Murgleson. And now you just stand there, young man,
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Speaker 1: until I'm at liberty to attend to you further, said
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Speaker 1: mister Murgleson, And finish his tea slowly and eloquently. The
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Speaker 1: second footman rubbed his chin thoughtfully. If I got to
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Speaker 1: smack his head much, he said, he'd better change into
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Speaker 1: his slippers. Take him to his room, said mister Murgleson,
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Speaker 1: getting up, see you washes the grief and grubbiness off
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Speaker 1: his face in the hand wash at the end of
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Speaker 1: the passage, and make him put on his slippers. Then
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Speaker 1: show him out to lay the table in the Stuart's room.
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Speaker 1: Sub Chapter four. The duties to which Bilby was introduced
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Speaker 1: struck him as perplexingly various, undesirably numerous, uninteresting, and difficult
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Speaker 1: to remember. And also he did not try to remember
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Speaker 1: them very well, because he wanted to do them as
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Speaker 1: badly as possible, and he thought that forgetting would be
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Speaker 1: a good way of starting. At that it was beginning
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Speaker 1: at the bottom of the ladder. To him, it fell
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Speaker 1: to wait on the upper servants, and the green baize
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Speaker 1: door at the top of the service staircase was the
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Speaker 1: limit of his range. His room was a small wedge
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Speaker 1: shaped apartment under some steps leading to the servants hall,
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Speaker 1: lit by a window that did not open, and they
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Speaker 1: gave upon the underground passage. He received its instructions in
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Speaker 1: a state of crumpled mutiness. But for a day his
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Speaker 1: desire to be remarkably impossible was more than counterbalanced by
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Speaker 1: his respect for the large able hands of the four
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Speaker 1: man servants, his seniors, and by a disclination to be
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Speaker 1: returned too promptly to the gardens. Then, in the tent
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Speaker 1: of manner, he broke two plates and got his head
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Speaker 1: smacked by mister Murgleson himself. Mister Murgleson gave a staccato
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Speaker 1: slab quite as powerful as Thomas's, but otherwise different. The
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Speaker 1: hand of mister Murgleson was large and fat, and he
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Speaker 1: got his effects by dash. Thomass was horny and lingered.
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Speaker 1: After that, Young Balby put salt in the tea pot
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Speaker 1: in which the housekeeper made tea, but that he observed
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Speaker 1: she washed out with hot water before she put in
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Speaker 1: the tea. It was clear that he had wasted his salt,
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Speaker 1: which ought to have gone into the kettle next time
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Speaker 1: the kettle. Beyond telling him his duties almost excessively, nobody
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Speaker 1: conversed with young Bialbe during the long hours of his
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Speaker 1: first day in service. At midday dinner in the servants hall,
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Speaker 1: he made one of the kitchen maids giggle by pulling faces,
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Speaker 1: and tend to be delicately suggestive of mister Murgleson. But
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Speaker 1: that was his nearest approach to disinterested human. In course,
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Speaker 1: when the hour for retirement came, get out of it,
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Speaker 1: go to bed, your dirty little kicker, said Thomas. We've
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Speaker 1: had about enough of you for one day. Young Bielby
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Speaker 1: sat for a long time on the edge of his bed,
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Speaker 1: weighing the possibilities of arson and poison. He wished he
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Speaker 1: had some poison, some sort of poison with a medieval manner,
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Speaker 1: poison that hurts before it kills. Also, he produced a
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Speaker 1: small penny pocket book with a glazed black cover in
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Speaker 1: blue edges. He had at one page of this myrglesin
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Speaker 1: and entered beneath it three black crosses. Then he opened
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Speaker 1: an account to Thomas, who was manifestedly destined to be
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Speaker 1: his principal creditor. Bielby was not a forgiving boy at
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Speaker 1: the village school. They had been too busy making him
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Speaker 1: a good churchman to attend to things like that. There
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Speaker 1: were a lot of crosses for Thomas. And while Bielby
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Speaker 1: made these sinister memoranda, downstairs Lady Laxton, for Laxton had
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Speaker 1: bought a baronetcy for twenty thousand down to the party
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Speaker 1: funds and a tip to the whip over the peptonized
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Speaker 1: milk flotation. Lady Laxton, a couple of floors above Bielby's
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Speaker 1: ruffled head, mused over her approaching week end party. It
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Speaker 1: was an important week end party. The Lord Chancellor of
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Speaker 1: England was coming. Never before had she had so much
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Speaker 1: as a member of the cabinet at Schantz. He was
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Speaker 1: coming and do what she would. She could not help
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Speaker 1: but connect it with her very strong desire to see
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Speaker 1: the Master of Schantz in the clear scarlet of a
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Speaker 1: deputy Lieutenant. Peter would look so well in that the
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Speaker 1: Lord Chancellor was coming, and to meet him and to
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Speaker 1: circle about him. There were Lord John wooden House and Slinkerbond.
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Speaker 1: There were the Countess of Barracks, and Missus Brampond Philby,
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Speaker 1: the novelist, with her husband Rampond Philby. There was Professor
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Speaker 1: Tambra the Fala. And there were four smaller, though quite
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Speaker 1: good people who would run about very satisfactorily among the others.
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Speaker 1: At least she thought they would run about very satisfactorily
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Speaker 1: amongst the others, not imagining any evil of her cousin,
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Speaker 1: Captain Douglas. All this good company and shanants filled Lady
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Speaker 1: Laxton with a pleasant realization of progressive successes. But at
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Speaker 1: the same time, one must confess that she felt a
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Speaker 1: certain diffidence in her heart of heart. She knew she
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Speaker 1: had not made this party. It had happened to her.
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Speaker 1: How it might go on happening to her, she did
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Speaker 1: not know. It was beyond her control. She hoped very
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Speaker 1: earnestly that everything would pass off well. The Lord Chancellor
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Speaker 1: was as big a guest as any she had had.
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Speaker 1: One must grow as one grows, but still being easy
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Speaker 1: and friendly with him would be she knew, a tremendous effort,
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Speaker 1: rather like being easy and friendly with an elephant. She
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Speaker 1: was not good at conversation. The task of interesting people
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Speaker 1: taxed her and puzzled her. It was slinker Bond, the
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Speaker 1: whip who had arranged the whole business. After it must
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Speaker 1: be confessed to hint from Sir Peter. Laxton had complained
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Speaker 1: that the government were neglecting this part of the country.
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Speaker 1: They ought to show up more than they do in
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Speaker 1: the county, said Sir Peter, and added, almost carelessly, I
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Speaker 1: could easily put anybody up at Shots. There were to
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Speaker 1: be two select dinner parties in a large but still
17:30
Speaker 1: select Sunday lunch to let in the countryside, to the
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Speaker 1: spectacle of the Laxtons taking their new proper place at Shots.
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Speaker 1: It was not only the sense of her deficiencies that
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Speaker 1: troubled Lady Laxton. There were also her husband's excesses. He
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Speaker 1: had it was of no use disguising it rather too much.
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Speaker 1: The manner of an employer. He had a way of
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Speaker 1: getting how could one put it confident at dinner and
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Speaker 1: Myrgle's seen to delight in filling up his glass, then
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Speaker 1: he would contradict a good deal. She felt that Lord Chancellor's, however,
18:07
Speaker 1: the sort of men one doesn't contradict. Then the Lord
18:12
Speaker 1: Chancellor was said to be interested in philosophy, a difficult subject.
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Speaker 1: She had got Tambra to talk to him about that.
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Speaker 1: Tambra was a professor of philosophy at Oxford, so that
18:24
Speaker 1: was sure to be all right. But she wished she
18:27
Speaker 1: knew one or two good, safe things to say in
18:29
Speaker 1: philosophy herself. She had long felt the need of a secretary,
18:34
Speaker 1: and now she felt it more than ever. If she
18:37
Speaker 1: had a secretary, she could just tell him what it
18:40
Speaker 1: was she wanted to talk about, and he could get
18:43
Speaker 1: her one or two of the right books and mark
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Speaker 1: the best passages, and she could learn it all up.
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Speaker 1: She feared, it was a worrying fear that Laxton would
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Speaker 1: say right out and very early in the weekend that
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Speaker 1: he didn't believe in philosophy. He had a way of
18:59
Speaker 1: saying he didn't believe in large things like that, art, philanthropy,
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Speaker 1: novels and so on. Sometimes he said, I don't believe
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Speaker 1: in all of this art or whatever it was. She
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Speaker 1: had watched people's faces when he had said it, and
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Speaker 1: she had come to the conclusion that saying you don't
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Speaker 1: believe in things isn't the sort of thing people say nowadays.
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Speaker 1: It was wrong somehow, but she did not want to
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Speaker 1: tell laxed and directly that it was wrong. He would
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Speaker 1: remember if she did. But he had a way of
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Speaker 1: taking such things rather badly at the time. She hated
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Speaker 1: him to take things badly. If one could invent some
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Speaker 1: little hint, she whispered to herself. She had often wished
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Speaker 1: she was better at hints. She was, you see, a gentlewoman, modest, kindly.
19:47
Speaker 1: Her people were quite good people poor, of course, but
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Speaker 1: she was not clever. She was anything but clever. And
19:55
Speaker 1: the wives of these captains of industry need to be
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Speaker 1: very clever. Indeed, if they are to escape a magnificent
20:01
Speaker 1: social isolation. They get the titles in the big places
20:05
Speaker 1: and all that sort of thing. People don't at all
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Speaker 1: intend to isolate them, but there is nevertheless an inadvertent avoidance.
20:15
Speaker 1: Even as she uttered these words, if one could invent
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Speaker 1: some little hint bably down there, less than forty feet away,
20:22
Speaker 1: through the solid floor below her feet, and a little
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Speaker 1: to the right, was wetting his stump of pencil as
20:27
Speaker 1: wet as he could in order to ensure a sufficiently
20:31
Speaker 1: emphatic fourteenth cross on the score sheet of the doomed Thomas.
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Speaker 1: Most of the other thirteen marks were done with such
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Speaker 1: hard breathing emphasis that the print of them went more
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Speaker 1: than halfway through that little blue edged book. Sub Chapter five.
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Speaker 1: The arrival of the week end Guess and Press Bielby
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Speaker 1: at first merely as a blessed influence that withdrew the
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Speaker 1: four menservants into that unknown world on the other side
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Speaker 1: of the Green Bay's door. But then he learned that
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Speaker 1: it also involved the appearance of five new persons, two valets,
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Speaker 1: and three maids, for whom places had to be laid
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Speaker 1: in the Stuart's room. Otherwise, Lady Laxton's social arrangements had
21:14
Speaker 1: no more influence upon the mind of Beilby than the
21:18
Speaker 1: private affairs of the Emperor of China. There was something
21:21
Speaker 1: going on up there beyond even his curiosity. All he
21:25
Speaker 1: heard of was a distant coming and going of vehicles,
21:28
Speaker 1: and some slight talk to which he was inattentive while
21:31
Speaker 1: the coachmen and grooms were having a drink in the
21:34
Speaker 1: pantry till these maids and valets appeared. They seemed to
21:38
Speaker 1: him to appear suddenly out of nothing, like slugs after rain,
21:42
Speaker 1: black and rather shiny, sitting about inactively and quietly consuming
21:47
Speaker 1: small matters. He disliked them, and they regarded him without
21:51
Speaker 1: affection or respect. Who cared. He indicated his feelings towards
21:56
Speaker 1: them as soon as he was out of the Stuart's
21:58
Speaker 1: room by a gesture of the hand and nose venerable
22:02
Speaker 1: only by reason of its antiquity. He had things more
22:06
Speaker 1: urgent to think about than strange ballads and maids. Thomas
22:10
Speaker 1: had laid hands on him, jeered at him, inflicted shameful
22:13
Speaker 1: indignities on him, and he wanted to kill Thomas in
22:16
Speaker 1: some frightful manner. But if possible, unobtrusively, if he had
22:22
Speaker 1: been a little Japanese boy, this would have been an
22:25
Speaker 1: entirely honorable desire. It would have been bushito and all
22:29
Speaker 1: that sort of thing in the gardener's stepson. However, it
22:33
Speaker 1: is undesirable. Thomas, on the other hand, having remarked the
22:39
Speaker 1: red light of revenge in Bielby's eye, and, being secretly afraid,
22:43
Speaker 1: felt that his honor was concerned in not relaxing his persecutions.
22:48
Speaker 1: He called him kicker, and when he did not answer
22:51
Speaker 1: to that name, he called him snorter, bleat her snooks,
22:54
Speaker 1: and finally tweaked his ear. Then he saw fit to
22:57
Speaker 1: assume that Bielby was deaf in that ear twiking was
23:01
Speaker 1: the only available method of address. This led on to
23:05
Speaker 1: the convention of a sign lang, which whereby ideas were
23:08
Speaker 1: communicated to Bielby by means of painful but frequently quite
23:13
Speaker 1: ingeniously symbolical freedoms with various parts of his person. Also,
23:19
Speaker 1: Thomas affected to discover uncleanliness in Bielby's head, and succeeded,
23:23
Speaker 1: after many difficulties, in putting it in a sinkful of
23:27
Speaker 1: lukewarm water. Meanwhile, young Bilby devoted such scanty time as
23:32
Speaker 1: he could give to reflection, to debating whether it is
23:36
Speaker 1: better to attack Thomas suddenly with a carving knife or
23:40
Speaker 1: throw a lighted lamp. The large pantry ink pot of
23:44
Speaker 1: pewter might be effective in its way, he thought, but
23:47
Speaker 1: he doubted whether in the event of a charge it
23:49
Speaker 1: had sufficient stopping power. It was also curiously attracted by
23:54
Speaker 1: a long, two pronged toasting fork that hung at the
23:57
Speaker 1: side of the pantry fireplace. It had reach. Over all
24:02
Speaker 1: these dark thoughts and ill conceived emotions, mister Murgleson prevailed
24:07
Speaker 1: large yet speedy, speedy yet exact, parroting orders and making
24:12
Speaker 1: plump gestures, performing duties, and seeing that duties were performed.
24:18
Speaker 1: Matters came to a climax late on Saturday night, at
24:21
Speaker 1: the end of a trying day. Just before mister Murgleson
24:24
Speaker 1: went round to lock up and turn out the lights,
24:28
Speaker 1: Thomas came into the pantry close behind Bielby, who greatly
24:32
Speaker 1: belated it through his own inefficiency, was carrying a tray
24:36
Speaker 1: of glasses from the stewart's room, applied an ungentle hand
24:40
Speaker 1: to his neck and ruffled up his back hair in
24:42
Speaker 1: a smart and painful manner. At the same time, Thomas
24:46
Speaker 1: remarked burh. Bielby stood still for a moment, and then
24:51
Speaker 1: put down his tray on the table, and making peculiar
24:54
Speaker 1: sounds as he did so, resorted very rapidly to the
24:58
Speaker 1: toasting fork. He got a prong into Thomas's chin at
25:01
Speaker 1: the first prod how swift are the changes of the
25:05
Speaker 1: human soul. At the moment of his thrust, young Bielby
25:09
Speaker 1: was a primortial savage. So soon as he saw this
25:13
Speaker 1: incredible piercing of Thomas's chin, for all the care that
25:16
Speaker 1: Bilby had taken, it might just as well have been
25:19
Speaker 1: Thomas's eye. He moved swiftly through the aegis and became
25:22
Speaker 1: a simple Christian child. He abandoned violence and fled. The
25:28
Speaker 1: Fok hung for a moment from the visage of Thomas
25:31
Speaker 1: like a twisted beard of brass, and then rattled on
25:34
Speaker 1: the ground. Thomas clapped his hand to his chin and discovered, blood,
25:39
Speaker 1: You're little. He never found the right word, which perhaps
25:42
Speaker 1: is just as well. Instead, he started in pursuit of Bielby.
25:47
Speaker 1: Bilby in his sudden horror of his own act, and
25:50
Speaker 1: Thomas fled headlong into the passage and made straight for
25:54
Speaker 1: the service stairs that went up into a higher world.
25:57
Speaker 1: He had little time to think. Thomas, with a red
26:00
Speaker 1: smeared chin, appeared in pursuit Thomas the Avenger. Thomas really roused.
26:06
Speaker 1: Bielby shot through the green Bay's door, and the pursuing
26:09
Speaker 1: footman pulled up only just in time not to follow him,
26:13
Speaker 1: only just in time. He had an instinctive, instant anxious
26:17
Speaker 1: fear of great dangers. He heard something, a sound as
26:21
Speaker 1: though the young of some very large animal had squeaked feebly.
26:26
Speaker 1: He had a glimpse of something black and white, enlarge.
26:30
Speaker 1: Then something, some glass thing smashed. He steadied the green
26:34
Speaker 1: bay's door, which was wobbling on its brass hinges, controlled
26:39
Speaker 1: his panting breath and listened. A low, rich voice was ejaculating.
26:44
Speaker 1: It was not Bielbe's voice. It was the voice of
26:47
Speaker 1: some substantial person being quietly but deeply angry. There were
26:53
Speaker 1: the ejaculations, restrained in tone, but not in quality, of
26:58
Speaker 1: a ripe and well stored mind. No boy's thin stuff. Then,
27:02
Speaker 1: very softly, Thomas pushed open the door, just wildly enough
27:07
Speaker 1: to see, and as instantly let it fall back into place,
27:11
Speaker 1: very gently and yet with an alert rapidity. He turned
27:14
Speaker 1: around and stole down the service stairs. His superior officer
27:18
Speaker 1: appeared in the passage below, mister Murgleson. He cried, I say,
27:23
Speaker 1: mister Murgleson, what's up? Said mister Murgleson. He's gone. Who
27:29
Speaker 1: he'll be home? This almost hopefully no where up there?
27:35
Speaker 1: I think he ran against somebody. Mister Murgleson scrutinized his
27:39
Speaker 1: subordinate's face for a second. Then he listened intently. Both
27:44
Speaker 1: men listened intently. Have to fetch him out of that,
27:48
Speaker 1: said mister Murgleson, suddenly preparing for brisk activity. Tomas bent
27:53
Speaker 1: lower over the banisters. Oh, Lord Chancellor. He whispered with
27:57
Speaker 1: white lips and a sideways gesture of it his head.
28:01
Speaker 1: What about him, said Murgleson, arrested by something in the
28:04
Speaker 1: manner of Thomas. Thomas's whispered became so fine that mister
28:08
Speaker 1: Murgleson drew nearer to catch it and put up a
28:11
Speaker 1: hand to his ear. Thomas repeated the last remark. He's
28:16
Speaker 1: just through there on the landing, cursing and swearing horable things,
28:22
Speaker 1: more like a mad turkey than a human being. Where's Beelby?
28:26
Speaker 1: He must have run into him, said Thomas, after consideration,
28:30
Speaker 1: But now where is he? Thomas pantomime infinite perplexity. Mister
28:37
Speaker 1: Murgleson reflected and sided upon his line. He came up
28:40
Speaker 1: the service staircase, lifted his chin, and with an air
28:44
Speaker 1: of meet officiousness, went through the green door. There was
28:48
Speaker 1: no one now on the landing. There was nothing remarkable
28:51
Speaker 1: on the landing except a broken tumbler. But half way
28:54
Speaker 1: up the grand staircase stood the Lord Chancellor. Under one arm.
28:59
Speaker 1: The great jurist carried a soda water siphon, and he
29:02
Speaker 1: grasped a decanter of whiskey in his hand. He turned
29:05
Speaker 1: sharply at the sound of the Green Bay's door and
29:08
Speaker 1: bent upon mister Murgleson the most terrible eyebrows that ever
29:12
Speaker 1: surely adorned a legal visage. He was very red in
29:16
Speaker 1: the face and savage looking. Was it you, he said,
29:20
Speaker 1: with a threatening gesture of the decanter, and his voice
29:23
Speaker 1: betrayed a noble indignation. Was it you who slapped me behind?
29:29
Speaker 1: Slap you behind me, lord? Slap me behind? Don't I
29:33
Speaker 1: speak plainly? Ay such a lipiuty me, lord idiot? I
29:40
Speaker 1: ask you a plain question. With almost inconceivable alacrity, mister
29:45
Speaker 1: Murgleson rushed up three steps, leaped forward and caught the
29:49
Speaker 1: siphon as it slipped from the Lordship's arm. He caught it,
29:53
Speaker 1: but at a price. He overset, and, clasping it in
29:57
Speaker 1: his hands, struck his lordship first with a siphon on
30:00
Speaker 1: the left shin, and then butted him with a face
30:03
Speaker 1: that was still earnestly respectful. In the knees, his Lordship's
30:07
Speaker 1: legs were driven sideways, so that they were no longer
30:10
Speaker 1: beneath the center of gravity. With a monosyllabic remark of
30:14
Speaker 1: a typographical nature, his Lordship collapsed upon mister Murgleson. The
30:20
Speaker 1: decanter flew out of his grasp and smashed presently with
30:24
Speaker 1: emphasis upon the landing below. The siphon, escaping from the
30:28
Speaker 1: wreckage of mister Murgleson, and drawn no doubt by a
30:32
Speaker 1: natural affinity, rolled noisily from step to step in pursuit
30:37
Speaker 1: of the decanter. Was a curious little procession that hurried
30:41
Speaker 1: down the great staircase of Schantz that night, First the
30:45
Speaker 1: Whiskey like a winged harbinger, with a pedestrian siphon in pursuit.
30:50
Speaker 1: Then the great Lawyer, gripping the great Butler by the
30:53
Speaker 1: tails of his coat and punching furiously. Then mister Murgleson,
30:57
Speaker 1: trying wildly to be respectful disaster. First the Lord Chancellor
31:03
Speaker 1: dived over mister Murgleson, grappling as he passed. Then mister
31:07
Speaker 1: murgleson attempting explanations, was pulled backwards over the Lord Chancellor.
31:12
Speaker 1: Then again the Lord Chancellor was, for a giddy but
31:15
Speaker 1: vindictive moment uppermost a second rotation and they reached the landing.
31:21
Speaker 1: Then there was a deafening report end of Chapter one