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The Dream Part II The Loves and Death of Harry Mortimer Smith Chapter the Fifth - Fanny Discovers Herself Parts 1 to 3 · The H. G. Wells Library

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Speaker 1: Section thirteen of The Dream, a Novel. This is a
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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Speaker 1: Recording by timbre Schaeffer. The Dream, a Novel by H. G. Wells,
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Speaker 1: Part two The Loves and Death of Harry Mortimer Smith,
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Speaker 1: Chapter the fifth. Fanny discovers herself parts one to three.
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Speaker 1: Part one and now, said Sarnak, I can draw near
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Speaker 1: to the essentials of life and tell you the sort
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Speaker 1: of thing love was in that crowded, dingy, fear ruled
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Speaker 1: world of the London fogs and the amber London sunshine.
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Speaker 1: It was a slender, wild eyed, scared and daring emotion
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Speaker 1: in a dark forest of cruelties and repressions. It soon
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Speaker 1: grew old and crippled, bitter, spirited and black hearted. But
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Speaker 1: as it happened, death came early for me to die
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Speaker 1: with a living love still in my heart. To live again,
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Speaker 1: said Sonray, very softly, And love again, said Sarnac, patting
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Speaker 1: her knee. Let me see. He took a steak that
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Speaker 1: had fallen from the fire and thrust it into the
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Speaker 1: bright glow at the center and watched it burst into
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Speaker 1: a sierra of flames. I think that the first person
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Speaker 1: I was in love with was my sister Fanny, when
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Speaker 1: I was a boy of eleven or twelve. I was
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Speaker 1: really in love with her, But somehow about that time
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Speaker 1: I was also in love with an undraped plaster nymph
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Speaker 1: who sat very bravely on a spouting dolphin in some
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Speaker 1: public gardens near the middle of Cliffstone. She lifted her
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Speaker 1: chin and smiled and waved one hand, and she had
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Speaker 1: the sweetest smile and the dearest little body imaginable. I
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Speaker 1: loved her back particularly, and there was a point where
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Speaker 1: you looked at her from behind and just caught the
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Speaker 1: soft curve of her smiling cheek, and her jolly little
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Speaker 1: note's tip and chin, and the soft swell of her
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Speaker 1: breast under her lifted arm. I would sneak round her
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Speaker 1: furtively towards this particular viewpoint, having been too well soaked
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Speaker 1: in shame about all such lovely things to look openly.
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Speaker 1: But I never seemed to look my fill. One day,
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Speaker 1: as I was worshiping her in this fashion, half turned
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Speaker 1: to her and half turned to a bed of flowers,
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Speaker 1: and looking at her askance, I became aware of an
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Speaker 1: Oldish man with a large white face, seated on a
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Speaker 1: garden seat and leaning forward and regarding me with an
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Speaker 1: expression of oafish cunning, as if he had found me
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Speaker 1: out and knew my secret. He looked like the spirit
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Speaker 1: of lewdness incarnate. Suddenly panic overwhelmed me, and I made
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Speaker 1: off and never went near that garden again. Angels with
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Speaker 1: flaming shames prevented me of a terror of again meeting
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Speaker 1: that horrible old man. Then, with my coming to London,
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Speaker 1: Miss Beatrice Bumpus took control of my imagination and was
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Speaker 1: Venus and all the goddesses. And this increased rather than
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Speaker 1: diminished after she had gone away, For she went away
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Speaker 1: and I gather married the young man I hated. She
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Speaker 1: went away and gave up her work for the vote,
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Speaker 1: and was no doubt welcomed back by those Warwickshire bumpasses
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Speaker 1: who hunted with the slaughter of a fatted fox and
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Speaker 1: every sort of rejoicing. But her jolly, frank and boyish
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Speaker 1: face was the heroines in a thousand dreams. I saved
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Speaker 1: her life and adventures in all parts of the world,
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Speaker 1: and sometimes she saved mine. We clung together over the
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Speaker 1: edges of terrific precipices until I went to sleep, and
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Speaker 1: when I was the conquering Mohammed after a battle, she
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Speaker 1: stood out among the captive woman and answered back when
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Speaker 1: I said I would never love her, with two jets
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Speaker 1: of cigarette smoke and the one word liar. I met
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Speaker 1: no girls of my own age at all. While I
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Speaker 1: was errand boy to Miss Humburg. My evening classes and
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Speaker 1: my reading kept me away from the facile encounters of
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Speaker 1: the streets. Sometimes, however, when I could not fix my
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Speaker 1: attention upon my books, I would slip off to Wilton
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Speaker 1: Street and Victoria Street, where there was a nocturnal promenade
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Speaker 1: under the electric lamps. There, schoolgirls and little drabs, and
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Speaker 1: errand boys and soldiers prowled and accosted one another. But
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Speaker 1: though I was attracted to some of the girlish figures
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Speaker 1: that flitted by me, I was also shy and fastidious.
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Speaker 1: I was drawn by an overpowering desire for something intense
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Speaker 1: and beautiful that vanished whenever I drew near to reality.
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Speaker 1: Part two. Before a year was over, there were several
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Speaker 1: changes in the Pimlico boarding house. The poor old muggeradges
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Speaker 1: caught influenza, a variable prevalent epidemic of the time, and
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Speaker 1: succumbed to inflammation of the lungs following the fever. They
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Speaker 1: died within three days of each other, and my mother
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Speaker 1: and Prue were the only mourners at their dingy little funeral.
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Speaker 1: Frau Buckholtz fades out of my story. I do not
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Speaker 1: remember clearly when she left the house, nor who succeeded her.
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Speaker 1: Miss Beatrice Bumpus abandoned the cause of woman's suffrage and departed,
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Speaker 1: and the second floor was taken by an extremely intermittent
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Speaker 1: couple who roused my mother's worst suspicions and led to
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Speaker 1: serious differences of opinion between her and Matilda Good. You see,
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Speaker 1: these newcomers never settled in with any grave and sober luggage.
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Speaker 1: They would come by and stay for a day or so,
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Speaker 1: and then not reappear for a week or more, and
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Speaker 1: they rarely arrived or departed together. This roused my mother's
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Speaker 1: moral observation, and she began hinting that perhaps they were
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Speaker 1: not properly married after all. She forbade Prue ever to
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Speaker 1: go to the drawing room floor, and this precipitated a
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Speaker 1: conflict with Matilda. What's this about Prue in the drawing room?
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Speaker 1: Matilda asked, you're putting ideas into the girl's head. I'm
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Speaker 1: trying to keep them from her, said my mother. She's
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Speaker 1: got eyes and fingers, said Matilda, with dark elusiveness. What's
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Speaker 1: Prubeen seeing now? Marx said my mother? What marks? Said Matilda.
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Speaker 1: Mark's enough, said my mother. Is things are marked one name,
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Speaker 1: and heir's another, and neither of them. Milton, which is
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Speaker 1: the name they've given us. And the way that woman
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Speaker 1: speaks to you, as though she felt you might notice
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Speaker 1: something friendly like and a bit afraid of you. And
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Speaker 1: that ain't all, by no means all. I'm not blind,
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Speaker 1: and Prue isn't blind. There's kissing and making love going
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Speaker 1: on at all times in the day, directly. They've got ear,
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Speaker 1: sometimes hardly waiting for one to get out of the room.
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Speaker 1: I'm not a perfect fool, Matilda. I've been married. What's
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Speaker 1: that got to do with us? We're a lodging house,
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Speaker 1: a set of nosey Parkers. If mister and missus Milton
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Speaker 1: liked to have their linen marked a hundred different names,
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Speaker 1: what's that to us? Their books always marked paid and
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Speaker 1: advanced with thanks, Matilda. Good and that's married enough for me. See,
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Speaker 1: you're an uneasy woman to have in a lodging house, Martha,
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Speaker 1: an uneasy woman. There's no give and take about you,
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Speaker 1: no savior fair. There was that trouble you made about
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Speaker 1: the boy and miss Bumpus ridiculous it was, and now
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Speaker 1: seemingly there's going to be more trouble about Prue and
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Speaker 1: missus Milton. Who's a lady, mind you say what you
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Speaker 1: like and what's more, a gentlewoman. I wish you'd mind
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Speaker 1: your own business a bit more, Martha, and let mister
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Speaker 1: and missus Milton mind theirs. If they aren't properly married,
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Speaker 1: it's they've got to answer for it in the long run,
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Speaker 1: not you. You'll get even with them, all right, in
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Speaker 1: the last great day. Meanwhile, do they do arm to anyone?
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Speaker 1: A quieter couple and less trouble to look after? I've
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Speaker 1: never had in all my life house days? My mother
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Speaker 1: made no answer, well, challenged Matilda. It's hard to be
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Speaker 1: waiting on a shameless woman, said my mother, obstinate and
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Speaker 1: white lipped. It's harder still to be called a shameless woman,
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Speaker 1: because you've still got your maiden name on some of
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Speaker 1: your things, said Matilda. Good, don't talk such rubbish, Martha.
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Speaker 1: I don't see why ye should have a maiden name
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Speaker 1: too on his pajamas, said my mother, rallying after a moment.
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Speaker 1: You don't know anything, Martha, said Matilda, fixing her with
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Speaker 1: one eye of extreme animosity, and regarding the question in
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Speaker 1: the abstract with the other. I've often thought it of you,
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Speaker 1: and now I say it to you. You don't know anything.
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Speaker 1: I'm going to keep mister and missus Milton as long
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Speaker 1: as I can, and if you're too pernicketty to wait
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Speaker 1: on them, there's those who will. I won't have my
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Speaker 1: lodgers insulted. I won't have their underclothes dragged up against them. Why,
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Speaker 1: come to think of it, of course he borrowed those
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Speaker 1: pajamas of his, or they was given him by a
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Speaker 1: gentleman friend they didn't fit. Or he's been left money
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Speaker 1: and had to change his name sudden like it often happens.
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Speaker 1: Often you see it in the papers, and things get
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Speaker 1: mixed in the wash, some laundries, they're regular exchanges. Mister Place.
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Speaker 1: He once had a collar with fortescue on it, brought
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Speaker 1: it back after his summer holiday Fortescue. There's evidence for you.
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Speaker 1: You aren't going to bring up something against mister Place
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Speaker 1: on account of that, Martha. You aren't going to say
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Speaker 1: he's been living a double life and isn't properly a bachelor.
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Speaker 1: Do think a little clearer, Martha, and don't think so
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Speaker 1: much evil. There's a hundred ways round before you think evil.
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Speaker 1: But you like to think evil, Martha. I've noticed it times,
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Speaker 1: and oft you fairly wallow in it. You haven't the
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Speaker 1: beginnings of a germ of Christian charity. One can't help
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Speaker 1: seeing things, said my mother, rather shattered. You can't, said Matilda. Good.
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Speaker 1: There's those who can't see an inch beyond their noses,
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Speaker 1: and yet they see too much. And the more I
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Speaker 1: see of you, the more I'm inclined to think you're
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Speaker 1: one of that sort. Anyhow, mister and missus Milton stay here.
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Speaker 1: Whoever else goes, whoever else goes. That's plain, I hope, Martha.
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Speaker 1: My mother was stricken, speechless, she bridled and subsided, and then,
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Speaker 1: except for necessary and unavoidable purposes, remained hurt and silent
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Speaker 1: for some days, speaking only when she was spoken to.
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Speaker 1: Matilda did not seem to mind. But I noticed that
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Speaker 1: when presently Matilda scent prew upstairs with the Milton's tea,
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Speaker 1: my mother's stiffness grew stiffer. But she made no open protest.
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Speaker 1: Part three. And then suddenly Fanny reappeared in my world.
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Speaker 1: It was a mere chance that recips Fanny to me.
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Speaker 1: All our links had been severed when we removed from
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Speaker 1: Cliffstone to London. My brother Ernest was her herald. We
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Speaker 1: were at supper in the basement room, and supper was
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Speaker 1: usually a pleasant meal. Matilda Good would make it attractive,
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Speaker 1: with potatoes roasted in their jackets, or what she called
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Speaker 1: a frying pan of potatoes and other vegetables in dripping
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Speaker 1: or such like heartening addition to cold bacon and bread
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Speaker 1: and cheese and small beer. And she would read bits
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Speaker 1: out of the newspaper to us and discuss them, having
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Speaker 1: a really very lively intelligence. Or she would draw me
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Speaker 1: out to talk of the books I'd been reading. She
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Speaker 1: took a great interest in murders and such like cases,
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Speaker 1: and we all became great judges of motive and evidence
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Speaker 1: under her stimulation. You may say it's more bid, Martha,
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Speaker 1: if you like she said, but there never was a murder.
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Speaker 1: Yet that wasn't brimful of humanity. Brimful, I doubt sometimes
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Speaker 1: if we know what anyone's capable of until they've committed
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Speaker 1: a murder or two. My mother rarely failed to rise
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Speaker 1: to her bait. I can't think how you can say
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Speaker 1: such things, Matilda, she would say, we heard the sound
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Speaker 1: of a motor car in the street above. Brother Ernest
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Speaker 1: descended by the area steps, and my sister Prue let
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Speaker 1: him in. He appeared in his chauffeur's uniform, cap in hand,
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Speaker 1: leather jacket and gaiters. Got a knight off, asked Matilda.
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Speaker 1: Court theater at eleven, said Ernest. So I thought i'd
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Speaker 1: come in for a bit of warm and a chat.
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Speaker 1: Have a snack, said Matilda. Prue. Get him a plate
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Speaker 1: and a knife and fork in a glass. One glass
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Speaker 1: of this speer won't hurt your driving. Why we haven't
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Speaker 1: seen you for ages? Thank you, miss good, said Ernest,
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Speaker 1: who was always very polite to her. I will have
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Speaker 1: a snack. I been here, there and everywhere, but it
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Speaker 1: isn't that I haven't wanted to call on you. Refreshment
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Speaker 1: was administered in conversation hung fire for a while, one
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Speaker 1: or two starts were made and came to an early end.
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Speaker 1: Ernest's manner suggested preoccupation, and Matilda regarded him keenly. And
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Speaker 1: what have you got to tell us, Ernie? She said suddenly, Well,
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Speaker 1: said Ernest, it's a curious thing. You should say that, missgood,
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Speaker 1: for I have got something to tell you. Something well,
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Speaker 1: I don't know how to put it, curious, Like Matilda
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Speaker 1: refilled his glass. I seen Fanny, said Ernest, coming to
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Speaker 1: it with violent abruptness. No, gasped my mother, and for
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Speaker 1: a moment no one else spoke, so said Matilda, putting
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Speaker 1: her arms on the table and billowing forward. You've seen Fanny,
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Speaker 1: pretty little Fanny that I used to know. And where
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Speaker 1: did you see her? Ernie? Ernest had some difficulty in
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Speaker 1: shaping out his story. It was a week last Tuesday,
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Speaker 1: he said, after a pause. She wasn't not one of
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Speaker 1: them about Victoria's station, panted my mother. Did you see
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Speaker 1: her first? Or did she see you? Asked Matilda a
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Speaker 1: week ago last Tuesday. My brother repeated, and did you
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Speaker 1: speak to her? Not at the time, I didn't. No.
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Speaker 1: Did she speak to you? No? Then, how do you
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Speaker 1: know it was our Fanny asked Prue, who had been
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Speaker 1: listening intently. I thought she'd gone to her fate in
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Speaker 1: some foreign country, being so near Boulogne, my mother said,
14:34
Speaker 1: I thought them white slave traders had the decency to
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Speaker 1: carry a girl off right away from her home, Fanny,
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Speaker 1: on the streets of London near ear. I told her
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Speaker 1: what it would come to, time and again I told her,
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Speaker 1: marry an honest man, I said. But she was greedy
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Speaker 1: and ed strong, edstrong and vain. She didn't try to
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Speaker 1: follow you, Ernie, to find out where we were, or
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Speaker 1: anything like that. My brother Ernest's face displayed his profound
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Speaker 1: p perplexity. It wasn't at all like that, mother, he said,
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Speaker 1: It wasn't that sort of thing, you see. He began
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Speaker 1: a struggle with the breast pocket of his very tightly
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Speaker 1: fitting leather jacket, and at last produced a rather soiled letter.
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Speaker 1: He held it in his hand, neither attempting to read
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Speaker 1: it nor offering it to us, but holding it in
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Speaker 1: his hand seemed to crystallize his very rudimentary narrative powers.
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Speaker 1: I better tell you right from the beginning, he said,
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Speaker 1: it isn't at all what you'd suppose. Tuesday week it
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Speaker 1: was last Tuesday week, Matilda good laid a restraining hand
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Speaker 1: on my mother's arm in the evening. I suppose she helped.
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Speaker 1: It was a dinner and fetch said my brother. Of
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Speaker 1: course you understand I hadn't set eyes on Fanny for
15:47
Speaker 1: pretty near six years. It was Ernu me. You had
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Speaker 1: to take these people to a dinner and fetch them
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Speaker 1: back again, said Matilda. Orders said Ernest was to go
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Speaker 1: to one o two Breadismore Gardens, Earl's Court, top flat,
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Speaker 1: to pick up lady and gentlemen for number to be
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Speaker 1: given in church Row, Hampstead, and call there ten thirty
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Speaker 1: and take home as directed. Accordingly, I went to Brandismore
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Speaker 1: Gardens and told the porter in the all it was
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Speaker 1: one of these ear flat places with a porter in livery,
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Speaker 1: that I was there to time waiting. He telephoned up
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Speaker 1: in the usual way. After a bit lady and gentlemen
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Speaker 1: came out of the house, and I went to the
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Speaker 1: door of the car as I usually do, and held
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Speaker 1: it open. So far nothing out of the ornery. He
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Speaker 1: was a gentleman in evening dress, like most gentlemen. She'd
16:38
Speaker 1: got a rap with fur, and her hair you know,
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Speaker 1: was done up nice for an evening party with something
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Speaker 1: that sparkled quite the lady, and it was Fanny, said Prue.
16:48
Speaker 1: Ernest struggled mutely with his subject for some moments, not
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Speaker 1: yet like he said, you mean you didn't recognize her, then,
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Speaker 1: said Matilda. No, but she just looked up at me
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Speaker 1: and seemed kind of to start and got in. I
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Speaker 1: saw her sort of leaning forward and looking at me
17:06
Speaker 1: as he got in. Fact is I didn't think much
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Speaker 1: of it. I should have forgotten all about it if
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Speaker 1: it hadn't been for afterwards. But when I took them back,
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Speaker 1: something happened. I could see she was looking at me.
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Speaker 1: We went first to one O two Brantismore Gardens again,
17:23
Speaker 1: and then he got out and says to me, just
17:25
Speaker 1: wait a bit here, and then he helped her out.
17:28
Speaker 1: It sort of seemed as though she was arf inclined
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Speaker 1: to speak to me, and then she didn't. But this
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Speaker 1: time I thinks to myself, I seen you before somewhere,
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Speaker 1: my lady. Oddly enough, I never thought of Fanny then
17:41
Speaker 1: at all. I got as near as thinking she was
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Speaker 1: a bit like airy ear, but it never entered my head.
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Speaker 1: It might be Fanny extraordinary. They went up the steps
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Speaker 1: to the door one of these open entrances it is
17:54
Speaker 1: to several flats, and seemed to have a moment's confabulation
17:58
Speaker 1: under the light, looking towards me. Then they went on
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Speaker 1: up to the flat. You didn't know her even then,
18:05
Speaker 1: said Prue. He came down the steps quarter an hour after,
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Speaker 1: perhaps looking thoughtful, white westcoat, ye ad and coat over
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Speaker 1: his arm, gave me an address near Sloane Street, got
18:18
Speaker 1: out and produced his tip rather on the large side
18:21
Speaker 1: it was, and stood still, kind of thoughtful, seemed inclined
18:25
Speaker 1: to speak, and didn't know what to say. I've an
18:28
Speaker 1: account at the garage. He says, you'll book the car,
18:31
Speaker 1: and then you're not my usual driver. He says. What's
18:35
Speaker 1: your name? Smith? I says, Ernest Smith. He says, yes, sir,
18:41
Speaker 1: I says. And it was only as I drove off
18:44
Speaker 1: that I asked myself, aw thy hell, I really beg
18:47
Speaker 1: your pardon, miss good. Don't mind me, said Matilda, go on,
18:53
Speaker 1: how the juice you know that my name was Ernest.
18:56
Speaker 1: I nearly hit a taxi at the corner of Sloane Square.
18:59
Speaker 1: I was so took up puzzling over it, and was
19:02
Speaker 1: only about three o'clock in the morning, when I was
19:04
Speaker 1: lying awake, still puzzling over it, that it came into
19:08
Speaker 1: my head. Ernest assumed the manner of a narrator who
19:11
Speaker 1: opens out his culminating surprise that the young lady I'd
19:16
Speaker 1: been taken out that evening? Was he paused before his climax,
19:22
Speaker 1: Fanny whispered Prue. Sister Fanny said, Matilda, good ah, Fanny said,
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Speaker 1: my mother. No less a person than Fanny, said my
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Speaker 1: brother Ernest triumphantly, and looked around for the amazement proper
19:36
Speaker 1: to such a surprise, I thought it was going to be, Fanny,
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Speaker 1: said Prue. Was she painted up at all? Asked Matilda.
19:46
Speaker 1: Not nearly so much painted as most of them are,
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Speaker 1: said my brother Ernest. Pretty nearly every one paints nowadays,
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Speaker 1: titled people, bishop's ladies, widows everyone. She didn't strike me
19:58
Speaker 1: well as belonging to the painted sort, particularly not in
20:02
Speaker 1: the least kind of fresh and a little pale, like
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Speaker 1: Fanny used to be. Was she dressed like a lady? Quiet?
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Speaker 1: Like prosperous, said Ernest. Really prosperous, but nothing what you
20:15
Speaker 1: might call extravagant. And the house you took him to
20:19
Speaker 1: noisy singing and dancing in the windows open. It was
20:24
Speaker 1: a perfectly respectable, quiet sort of ouse, blind's down and
20:28
Speaker 1: no row whatever, a private house. The people who came
20:32
Speaker 1: to the door to say good night might have been
20:34
Speaker 1: any gentleman and any lady. I see the butler he
20:38
Speaker 1: came down to the car. He wasn't iired for the evening.
20:42
Speaker 1: He was a real butler. The other guests had a
20:44
Speaker 1: private limousine with an oldish, careful sort of driver. What
20:49
Speaker 1: you'd speak of as nice people, hardly what you might
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Speaker 1: call being on the streets of London, said Matilda, turning
20:56
Speaker 1: to my mother. What was the gentleman like? Aye, don't
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Speaker 1: want to hear of him, said my mother. Dissipated sort
21:04
Speaker 1: of man about town and a bit screwed, asked Matilda.
21:08
Speaker 1: He was a lot soberer than most dinner fetches, said Ernest.
21:12
Speaker 1: I see that when he handled his money, lots of em.
21:15
Speaker 1: Oh quite eye class people get how shall I say it,
21:19
Speaker 1: just a bit funny. Umeris like bit naccurate with the
21:23
Speaker 1: door he wasn't. That's what I can't make out. And
21:27
Speaker 1: then there's this letter. Then there's this letter, said Matilda.
21:32
Speaker 1: You'd better read it. Martha, how did you get that letter,
21:36
Speaker 1: asked my mother, not offering to touch it. You don't
21:39
Speaker 1: mean to say she gave you a letter. It came
21:42
Speaker 1: last Thursday by post. It was addressed to me Ernest Smith,
21:47
Speaker 1: a squire at the garage. It's a curious letter, asking
21:51
Speaker 1: about us. I can't make at her tale of the
21:53
Speaker 1: whole business. I've been thinking about it and thinking about it,
21:57
Speaker 1: knowing how set mother was about Fanny. I hesitated, his
22:01
Speaker 1: voice died away. Somebody said Matilda in the pause that followed,
22:07
Speaker 1: had better read that letter. She looked at my mother,
22:11
Speaker 1: smiled queerly, with the corners of her mouth down, and
22:14
Speaker 1: then held out her hand to Ernest. End of Section thirteen.