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The Shuttle Chapter 34 - Red Godwyn · The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Stornham Court had taken its proper position in the county
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: as a place which was equal to social exchange in
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the matter of entertainment. Sir Nigel and Lady Anstruthers had
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: given a garden party, according to the decrees of the
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: law obtaining in country neighbourhoods. the curiosity to behold miss
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: vanderpoel and the change which had been worked in the
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: well-known desolation and disrepair precluded the possibility of the refusal
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: of any invitation sent the recipient being in his or
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: her right mind and sound in wind and limb that
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: astonishing things had been accomplished and that the party was
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: a successful affair could not but be accepted as truths
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: garden parties had been heard of were a trifle repetitional
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: and even dull but at this one there was real
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: music and real dancing and clever entertainments were given at
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: intervals in a green and bowed little theatre erected for
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: the occasion. These were agreeable additions to mere food and
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: conversation which were capable of palling. To the garden party
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the Anstruthers did not confine themselves. There were dinner parties
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: at Stornham, and they also were successful functions. The guests
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: were of those who make for the success of such entertainments.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I called upon Mount Dunstan this afternoon, and Sir Nigel
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: said one evening, before the first of these dinners, he
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: might expect it, as one is asking him to dine.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: I wish him to be asked. The Dunhams have taken
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: him up so tremendously that no festivity seems complete without him.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: He had been invited to the garden party and had appeared,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: but Betty had seen little of him. It is easy
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: to see little of a guest at an out-of-door festivity.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: In assisting Rosalie to attend to her visitors she had
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: been much occupied, but she had known that she might
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: have seen more of him if he had intended that
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: it should be so. He did not, for reasons of
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: his own, intend that it should be so, and this
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: she became aware of. So she walked, played in the bowling-green,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: danced and talked with Westall, Tommy Allenby and others.' He
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: does not want to talk to me. He will not,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: if he can avoid it,' was what she said to herself.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: She saw that he rather sought out Mary Lithcom, who
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: was not accustomed to receiving special attention. The two walked together,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: danced together, and in adjoining chairs watched the performance in
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: the embowered theatre. Lady Mary enjoyed her companion very much,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: but she wondered why he had attached himself to her.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Betty Vanderpool asked herself what they talked to each other about,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: and did not suspect the truth, which was that they
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: talked a good deal of herself.' Have you seen much
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: of Miss Vanderpool?' Lady Mary had begun by asking.' I
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: have seen her a good deal, as no doubt you have.'
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Lady Mary's plain face expressed a somewhat touched reflectiveness.' Do
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: you know,' she said,' that the garden parties have been
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: a different thing this whole summer, just because one always
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: knew one would see her at them?' A short laugh
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: from Mount Dunstan.' Jane and I have gone to every
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: garden party within twenty miles ever since we left the schoolroom,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: and we're very tired of them. But this year we've
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: quite cheered up. When we're dressing to go to something
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: dull we say to each other,' Well, at any rate,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Miss Vanderpool will be there,' and we shall see what
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: she has on and how her things are made.' And
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: that's something, besides the fun of watching people make up
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: to her' and hearing them talk about the men who
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: want to marry her' and wonder which one she will take.'
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: She will not take anyone in this place,'' the nice
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: turned-up nose slightly suggesting a derisive sniff.' Who is there
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: who is suitable?'' Mount Dunstan laughed shortly again.' How do
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: you know I'm not an aspirant myself?' he said. He
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: had a mirthless sense of enjoyment in his own brazenness.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Only he himself knew how brazen the speech was. Lady
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Mary looked at him with entire composure.' I' m quite sure
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: you're not an aspirant for anybody, and I happen to
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: know that you dislike moneyed international marriages. You're so obviously
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: British that even if I had not been told that,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: I should know it was true. Miss Vanderpool herself knows
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: it's true.'' Does she?' Lady Allenby spoke of it to
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Sir Nigel, and I heard Sir Nigel tell her.'' Exactly
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: the kind of unnecessary thing he would be likely to repeat.'
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: He cast the subject aside as if it were a
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: worthless superfluity, and went on,' When you say there is
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: no one suitable, you surely forget Lord Westholt.'' Yes, it's
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: true I forgot him for the moment, but,' with a laugh,'
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: one rather feels as if she would require a royal
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: duke or something of that sort.'' You think she expects
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: that kind of thing?' rather indifferently.' She? She doesn't think
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: of the subject. She simply thinks of other things, of
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Lady Anstruthers and Uhtred, of the work at Stornham and
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: the village life which gives her new emotions and interest.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: She also thinks about being nice to people. She's nicer
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: than any girl I know.'' You feel, however, she has
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: a right to expect it?' Still without more than a
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: casual air of interest.' Well, what do you feel yourself?'
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: said Lady Mary.' Women who look like that, even when
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: they're not millionaireses, usually marry whom they choose. I do
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: not believe that the two beautiful Miss Gunnings rolled into
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: one would have made anything as undeniable as she is.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: One has seen portraits of them. Look at her as
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: she stands there talking to Tommy and Lord Dunham. Internally,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan was saying, I am looking at her, thank you,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: and setting his teeth a little. But Lady Mary was
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: launched upon a subject which swept her along with it.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: and she, so to speak, ground the thing in.' Look
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: at the turn of her head, look at her mouth
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: and chin and her eyes with the lashes sweeping over
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: them when she looks down. You must have noticed the
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: effect when she lifts them suddenly to look at you.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: It's so odd and lovely that it— it almost—'' Almost makes
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: you jump,' ended Mount Dunstan dryly. She didn't laugh, and
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: in fact her expression became rather sympathetically serious.' Ah,' she said,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: I believe you feel a sort of rebellion against the
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: unfairness of the way things are dealt out. It does
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: seem unfair, of course. It would be perfectly disgraceful if
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: she were different. I had moments of almost hating her,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: until one day, not long ago, she did something so
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: bewitchingly kind and understanding of other people's feelings that I
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: gave up. It was clever, too, with a laugh, clever
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: and daring. If she were a young man, she would
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: make a dashing soldier. She did not give him the
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: details of the story, but went on to say in
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: effect what she had said to Betty herself of the
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: inevitable incidentalness of her stay in the country. If she
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: had not evidently come to Stornham this year with a purpose,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: she would have spent the season in London and done
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: the usual thing. Americans were generally presented promptly if they
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: had any position, sometimes when they had not. Lady Allenby
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: had heard that the fact that she was with her
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: sister had awakened curiosity, and people were talking about her.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Lady Allenby said in that dry way of hers that
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: the arrival of an unmarried American fortune in England was
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: becoming rather like the visit of an unmarried royalty. People
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: ask each other what it means and begin to arrange
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: for it. So far only the women have come, but
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Lady Allenby says that is because the men have had
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: no time to do anything but stay at home and
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: make the fortunes. She believes that in another generation there
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: will be a male leisure class, and then it will
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: swoop down too and marry people. She was very sharp
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: and amusing about it. She said it would help them
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: to rid themselves of a plethora of wealth and keep
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: them from bursting. She was an amiable, if unsentimental, person,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Mary Lithcombe, and was quite without ill-nature, expressing the consensus
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: of public opinion. These young women came to the country
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: with something practical to exchange in these days, and as
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: there were men who had certain equivalents to offer, so
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: also there were men who had none, and whom decency
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: should cause to stand aside. Mount Dunstan knew that when
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: she had said,' Who is there who is suitable?' any
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: shadow of a thought of himself as being in the
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: running hadn't crossed her mind, and this was not only
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: for the reason she had had the ready composure to name,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: but for one less conquerable. Later, having left Mary Lithcombe,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: he decided to take a turn by himself. He had
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: done his duty as a masculine guest, he had conversed
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: with young women and old ones, had danced, visited gardens
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: and greenhouses, and taken his part in all things. Also,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: he had in fact reached a point when a few
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: minutes of solitude seemed a good thing. He found himself
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: turning into the clipped laurel walk where Tommy Allenby had
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: stood with Jane Lithcombe, and he went to the end
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: of it and stood looking out on the view.' Look
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: at the turn of her head,' Lady Mary had said.'
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Look at her mouth and chin.' And he had been
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: looking at them the whole afternoon, not because he had
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: intended to do so, but because it was not possible
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: to prevent himself from doing it. This was one of
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: the ironies of fate. Orthodox doctrine might suggest that it
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: was to teach him that his past rebellion had been undue.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Orthodox doctrine was ever ready with these soothing little explanations.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: He had raged and sulked at destiny, and now he'd
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: been given something to rage for. No one knows anything
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: about it until it takes him by the throat, he
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: was thinking. and until it happens to a man he
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: has no right to complain. I was not starving before,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: I was not hungering and thirsting in sight of food
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: and water. I suppose one of the most awful things
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: in the world is to feel this and know it's
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: no use.' He was not in the condition to reason
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: calmly enough to see that there might be one chance
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: in a thousand that it was of use. At such
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: times the most intelligent of men and women lose balance
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: and mental perspicacity.' A certain degree of unreasoning madness possesses them.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: They see too much and too little. There were, it
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: was true, a thousand chances against him, but there was
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: one for him, the chance that selection might be on
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: his side. He had not that balance of thought left
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: him which might have suggested to him that he was
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: a man young and powerful, and filled with an immense
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: passion which might count for something. All he saw was
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: that he was notably in the position of the men
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: whom he had privately disdained when they helped themselves by marriage.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Such marriages, he had held, were insults to the manhood
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: of any man and the womanhood of any woman. In
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: such unions neither party could respect himself or his companion.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: They must always in secret doubt each other, fret themselves,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: and feel distaste for the whole thing. Even if a
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: man loved such a woman, and the feeling was mutual,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: to whom would it occur to believe it? to see
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: that they were not gross and contemptible. To no one.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Would it have occurred to himself that such an extenuating
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: circumstance was possible? Certainly it would not. Pig-headed pride and
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: obstinacy it might be, but he could not yet face
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: even the mere thought of it, even if his whole
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: position had not been grotesque. Because, after all, it was
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: grotesque that he should even argue with himself. She, before
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: his eyes and the eyes of all others, the most
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: desirable of women— people dinning it in one's ears, that
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: she was surrounded by besiegers who waited for her to
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: hold out her sceptre. And he, well, what was he?
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Not that his mental attitude was that of a meek
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: and humble lover who felt himself unworthy, and prostrated himself
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: before her shrine with prayers. He was, on the contrary,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: a stout and obstinate Briton, finding his stubbornly held beliefs
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: made as naught by a certain obsession, an intolerable longing
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: which wakened with him in the morning— which sank into
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: troubled sleep with him at night, the longing to see her,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: to speak to her, to stand near her, to breathe
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: the air of her. And possessed by this, full of
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: the overpowering strength of it, was a man likely to
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: go to a woman and say,' Give your life and
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: desirableness to me, and incidentally support me, feed me, clothe me,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: keep the roof over my head, as if I were
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: an impotent beggar.'' No, by God,' he said,' if she
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: thinks of me at all, it shall be as a man.'' No,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: by God, I will not sink to that!' A moving
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: touch of colour caught his eye. It was the rose
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: of a parasol seen above the laurel hedge as someone
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: turned into the walk. He knew the colour of it
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: and expected to see other parasols and hear voices, but
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: there was no sound, and unaccompanied the wonderful rose-thing moved
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: towards him.' The usual things are happening to me,' was
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: his thought as it advanced.' I am hot and cold,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: and just now my heart leapt like a rabbit.' It
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: would be wise to walk off, but I shall not
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: do it. I shall stay here, because I am no
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: longer a reasoning being. I suppose that a horse who
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: refuses to back out of his store when his stable
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: is on fire feels something of the same thing.' When
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: she saw him she made an involuntary looking pause, and
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: then recovering herself, came forward.' I seem to have come
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: in search of you,' she said.' You ought to be
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: showing someone the view, really, and so ought I.'' Shall
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: we show it to each other?' was his reply.' Yes,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: and she sat down on the stone seat which had
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: been placed for the comfort of view-lovers. I am a
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: little tired, just enough to feel that to slink away
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: for a moment alone would be agreeable. It is slinking
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: to leave Rosalie to battle with half the county, but
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: I shall only stay a few minutes.' She sat still
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: and gazed at the beautiful land spread before her, but
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: there was no stillness in her mind, neither was there
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: stillness in his.' He did not look at the view,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: but at her, and he was asking himself what he
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: should be saying to her if he were such a
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: man as Westholt. Though he had boldness enough, he knew
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: that no man, even though he is free to speak
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: the best and most passionate thoughts of his soul, could
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: be sure that he would gain what he desired. The
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: good fortune of Westholt, or of any other, could but
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: give him one man's fair chance. But having that chance,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: he knew he should not relinquish it soon. There swept
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: back into his mind the story of the marriage of
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: his ancestor, Red Godwin, and he laughed low in spite
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: of himself. Miss Vanderpool looked up at him quickly.' Please
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: tell me about it, if it's very amusing,' she said.'
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: I wonder if it will amuse you,' was his answer.'
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Do you like savage romance?'' Very much.'' It might seem
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: a propos de rien, but he did not care in
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: the least. He wanted to hear what she would say.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: An ancestor of mine, a certain Red Godwin—' was a
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: barbarian immensely to my taste. He became enamoured of rumours
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: of the beauty of the daughter and heiress of his
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: bitterest enemy. In his day, when one wanted a thing,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: one rode forth with axe and spear to fight for it.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: A simple and alluring method, commented Betty. What was her name?
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: She leaned in light ease against the stone back of
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: her seat. The rose light cast by her parasol faintly
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: flushed her. The silence of their retreat seemed accentuated by
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: its background of music from the gardens. They smiled a
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: second bravely into each other's eyes, then their glances became entangled,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: as they had done for a moment when they had
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: stood together in Mount Dunstan Park. For one moment each
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: had been held prisoner then, now it was for longer.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Alice of the Sea blew eyes. Betty tried to release herself,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: but could not.' Sometimes the sea is grey,' she said.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: His own eyes were still in hers. Hers were the
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: colour of the sea on a day when the sun
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: shines on it, and there are large fleece-white clouds floating
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: in the blue above. They sparkled and were often like
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: bluebells under water. Bluebells under water sounds entrancing, said Betty.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: He caught his breath slightly. They were entrancing, he said.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: That was evidently the devil of it, saving your presence.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: I have never objected to the devil, said Betty. He
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: is an energetic, hard-working creature and paints himself an honest black.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Please tell me the rest.' Red Godwin went forth, and
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: after a bloody fight took his enemy's castle.' If we
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: still lived in like simple honest times, I should take
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Dunham Castle in the same way.' He also took Alice
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: of the Eyes and bore her away captive.' From such
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: incidents developed the germs of the desire for female suffrage,'
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Miss Vanderpool observed gently. The interest of the story lies
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: in the fact that apparently the savage was either epicure
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: or sentimentalist, or both. He did not treat the lady ill.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: He shut her in a tower chamber overlooking his courtyard,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: and after allowing her three days to weep, he began
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: his barbarian wooing. Arraying himself in splendour, he ordered her
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: to appear before him. He sat down upon the dais
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: in his banquet hall, his retainers gathered about him, a
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: great feast spread. In archaic English we are told that
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: the board groaned beneath the weight of golden trenches and flagons.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Minstrels played and sang while he displayed all his splendour.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: They do it yet, said Miss Vanderpool, in London and
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: New York and other places. The next day, attended by
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: his followers, he took her with him to ride over
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: his lands. When she returned to her tower-chamber she had
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: learned how powerful and great a chieftain he was. She
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: lay softly and was attended by many maidens, but she
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: had no entertainment but to look out upon the great
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: green court. There he arranged games and trials of strength
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: and skill, and she saw him bigger, stronger, and more
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: splendid than any other man. He did not even lift
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: his eyes to her window. He also sent her daily
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: a rich gift. How long did this go on? Three months.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: At the end of that time he commanded her presence
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: again in his banquet hall. He told her the gates
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: were opened, the drawbridge downed, and an escort waiting to
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: take her back to her father's lands, if she would.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: What did she do? She looked at him, long and long.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: She turned proudly away. In the sea-blue eyes were heavy
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: and stormy tears, which seeing— Ah, he saw them, from
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Miss Vanderpool. Yes, and seizing her in his arms, caught
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: her to his breast, calling for a priest to make
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: them one within the hour. I am quoting the Chronicle.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: I was fifteen when I read it first.' It is spirited,'
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: said Betty, and Red Godwin was almost modern in his methods.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: While professing composure and lightness of mood, the spell which
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: works between two creatures of opposite sex, when in such case,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: wrought in them, and made them feel awkward and stiff.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: When each is held apart from the other by fate,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: or will, or circumstance, the spell is a stupefying thing,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: deadening even the clearness of sight and wit.' I must
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: slink back now,' Betty said, rising.' Will you slink back
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: with me to give me countenance? I have greatly liked
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Red Godwin.' So it occurred that when Nigel and Struthers
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: saw them again, it was as they crossed the lawn together,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: and people looked up from ices and cups of tea
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: to follow their slow progress with questioning or approving eyes.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: End of chapter thirty-four