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030 - Ch 30 - Home at Last · North and South (version 2)

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Speaker 1: Chapter thirty of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. This
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Marianne,
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Speaker 1: chapter thirty. Home at last the saddest birds a season
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Speaker 1: find to sing southwell, never to fold the robe o'er
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Speaker 1: secret pain, never weighed down by memory's clouds again to
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Speaker 1: bow thy head, thou art gone home, Missus Hemans. Missus
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Speaker 1: Thornton came to see missus Hale the next morning. She
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Speaker 1: was much worse. One of those sudden changes, those great
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Speaker 1: visible strides towards death, had been taken in the night,
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Speaker 1: and her own family were startled by the gray, sunken
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Speaker 1: look her features had assumed in that one twelve hours
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Speaker 1: of suffering. Missus Thornton, who had not seen her for weeks,
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Speaker 1: was softened all at once. She had come because her
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Speaker 1: son asked it from her as a personal favor. But
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Speaker 1: with all the proud, bitter feelings of her nature in
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Speaker 1: arms against that family of which Margaret formed one, she
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Speaker 1: doubted the reality of missus Hale's illness. She doubted any
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Speaker 1: want beyond a momentary fancy on that lady's part, which
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Speaker 1: should take her out of her previously settled course of employment.
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Speaker 1: For the day. She told her son that she wished
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Speaker 1: they had never come near the place, that he had
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Speaker 1: never got acquainted with them, that there had been no
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Speaker 1: such useless languages as Latin and Greek ever invented. He
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Speaker 1: bore all this pretty silently, But when she had ended
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Speaker 1: her invective against the dead languages, he quietly returned to
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Speaker 1: the short, curt decided expression of his wish that she
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Speaker 1: should go and see Missus Hale at the appointed time
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Speaker 1: as most likely to be convenient to the invalid. Missus
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Speaker 1: Thornton submitted, with as bad a grace as she could
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Speaker 1: to all her son's desire, all the time liking him
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Speaker 1: the better for having it, and exaggerating in her own
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Speaker 1: mind the same notion that he had of extraordinary goodness
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Speaker 1: on his part in so perseveringly keeping up with the Hales.
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Speaker 1: His goodness was verging on weakness, as all the softer
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Speaker 1: virtues did in her mind, and her own contempt for
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Speaker 1: mister and Missus Hale and positive dislike to Margaret were
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Speaker 1: the ideas which occupied Missus Thornton till she was struck
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Speaker 1: into nothingness before the dark shadow of the wings of
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Speaker 1: the Angel of Death. There lay missus Hale, a mother
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Speaker 1: like herself, a much younger woman than she was, on
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Speaker 1: the bed, from which there was no sign of hope
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Speaker 1: that she might ever rise again. No more variety of
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Speaker 1: light and shade for her in that darkened room, no
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Speaker 1: power of action, scarcely change of movement, faint alternations of
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Speaker 1: whispered sound and studious silence. And yet that monotonous life
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Speaker 1: seemed almost too much when Missus Thornton, strong and prosperous
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Speaker 1: with life, came in. Missus Hale lay still, although from
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Speaker 1: the look on her face she was evidently conscious of
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Speaker 1: who it was. But she did not even open her
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Speaker 1: eyes for a minute or two. The heavy moisture of
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Speaker 1: tears stood on the eyelashes before she looked up. Then,
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Speaker 1: with her hand groping feebly over the bedclothes for the
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Speaker 1: touch of Missus Thornton's large, firm fingers, she said scarcely
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Speaker 1: above her breath. Missus Thornton had to stoop from her
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Speaker 1: erectness to listen. Margaret, you have a daughter. My sister
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Speaker 1: is in Italy. My child will be without a mother
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Speaker 1: in a strange place if I die, will you and
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Speaker 1: her filmy wandering eyes fixed themselves with an intensity of
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Speaker 1: wistfulness on Missus Thornton's face. For a minute, there was
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Speaker 1: no change in its rigidness. It was stern and unmoved. Nay,
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Speaker 1: but that the eyes of the sick woman were growing
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Speaker 1: dim with slow gathering tears. She might have seen a
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Speaker 1: dark cloud cross the cold features. And it was no
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Speaker 1: thought of her son or of her living daughter Fanny
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Speaker 1: that stirred her heart at last, but a sudden remembrance,
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Speaker 1: suggested by something in the arrangement of the room of
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Speaker 1: a little daughter died in infancy long years ago, that
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Speaker 1: like a sudden sunbeam, melted the icy crust behind which
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Speaker 1: there was a real tender woman. You wish me to
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Speaker 1: be a friend to miss Hale, said Missus Thornton, in
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Speaker 1: her measured voice that would not soften with her heart,
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Speaker 1: but came out distinct and clear. Missus Hale, her eyes
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Speaker 1: still fixed on Missus Thornton's face, pressed the hand that
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Speaker 1: lay below hers on the coverlet she could not speak.
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Speaker 1: Missus Thornton sighed, I will be a true friend if
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Speaker 1: circumstances require it, not a tender friend that I cannot
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Speaker 1: be to her. She was on the point of adding,
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Speaker 1: but she relented at the sight of that poor, anxious face.
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Speaker 1: It is not my nature to show affection even where
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Speaker 1: I feel it, nor do I volunteer advice in general. Still,
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Speaker 1: at your request, if it will be any comfort to you,
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Speaker 1: I will promise you. Then came a pause. Missus Thornton
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Speaker 1: was too conscientious to promise what she did not mean
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Speaker 1: to perform, and to perform anything in the way of
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Speaker 1: kindness on behalf of Margaret, more disliked at this moment
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Speaker 1: than ever, was difficult, almost impossible, I promise, said she
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Speaker 1: with grave severity, which after all inspired the dying woman
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Speaker 1: with faith as in something more stable than life itself, flickering, flitting,
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Speaker 1: wavering life. I promised that in any difficulty in which
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Speaker 1: miss Hale call her Margaret gasped missus Hale, in which
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Speaker 1: she comes to me for help, I will help her
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Speaker 1: with every power I have, as if she were my
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Speaker 1: own daughter. I also promise that if ever I see
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Speaker 1: her doing what I think is wrong. But Margaret never
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Speaker 1: does wrong, not wilfully wrong, pleaded missus Hale. Missus Thornton
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Speaker 1: went on as before, as if she had not heard.
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Speaker 1: If I ever see her doing what I believe to
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Speaker 1: be wrong, such wrong not touching me or mine, in
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Speaker 1: which case I might be supposed to have an interested motive.
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Speaker 1: I will tell her of it, faithfully and plainly, as
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Speaker 1: I should wish my own daughter to be told. There
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Speaker 1: was a long pause. Missus Hale felt that this promise
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Speaker 1: did not include all, and yet it was much. It
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Speaker 1: had reservations in it which she did not understand. But
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Speaker 1: then she was weak, dizzy, and tired. Missus Thornton was
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Speaker 1: reviewing all the probable cases in which she had pledged
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Speaker 1: herself to act. She had a fierce pleasure in the
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Speaker 1: idea of telling Margaret unwelcome truths in the shape of
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Speaker 1: performance of duty. Missus Hale began to speak, I think you.
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Speaker 1: I pray God to bless you. I shall never see
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Speaker 1: you again in this world. But my last words are
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Speaker 1: I thank you for your promise of kindness to my child,
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Speaker 1: not kindness testified. Missus Thornton ungraciously truthful at the last,
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Speaker 1: But having eased her conscience by saying these words, she
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Speaker 1: was not sorry that they were not heard. She pressed
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Speaker 1: missus Hale's soft, languid hand and rose up and went
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Speaker 1: her way out of the house without seeing a creature
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Speaker 1: During the time that missus Thornton was having this interview
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Speaker 1: with missus Hale, Mark GrITT and Dixon were laying their
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Speaker 1: heads together and consulting how they should keep Frederick's coming
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Speaker 1: a profound secret to all out of the house. A
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Speaker 1: letter from him might now be expected any day, and
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Speaker 1: he would assuredly follow quickly on its heels. Martha must
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Speaker 1: be sent away on her holiday. Dixon must keep a
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Speaker 1: stern guard on the front door, only admitting the few
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Speaker 1: visitors that ever came to the house into mister Hale's
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Speaker 1: room downstairs, Missus Hale's extreme illness giving her a good
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Speaker 1: excuse for this. If Mary Higgins was required as a
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Speaker 1: help to Dixon in the kitchen, she was to hear
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Speaker 1: and see as little of Frederick as possible, and he was,
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Speaker 1: if necessary, to be spoken of to her under the
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Speaker 1: name of mister Dickinson. But her sluggish and incurious nature
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Speaker 1: was the greatest safeguard of all. They resolved that Martha
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Speaker 1: should leave them that very afternoon for the visit to
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Speaker 1: her mother. Margaret wished that she had been sent away
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Speaker 1: on the previous day, as she fancied it might be
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Speaker 1: thought strange to give a servant a holiday when her
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Speaker 1: mistress's state required so much attendier. Poor Margaret all that
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Speaker 1: afternoon she had to act the part of a Roman
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Speaker 1: daughter and give strength out of her own scanty stock
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Speaker 1: to her father. Mister Hale would, hope, would not despair
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Speaker 1: between the attacks of his wife's malady. He buoyed himself
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Speaker 1: up in every respite from her pain, and believed that
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Speaker 1: it was the beginning of ultimate recovery. And so when
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Speaker 1: the paroxysms came on, each more severe than the last,
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Speaker 1: they were fresh agonies and greater disappointments to him. This
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Speaker 1: afternoon he sat in the drawing room, unable to bear
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Speaker 1: the solitude of the study, or to employ himself in
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Speaker 1: any way. He buried his head in his arms, which
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Speaker 1: lay folded on the table. Margaret's heart ached to see him,
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Speaker 1: yet as he did not speak, she did not like
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Speaker 1: to volunteer any attempt at comfort. Martha was gone. Dixon
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Speaker 1: sat with missus Hale while she slept. The house was
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Speaker 1: very still and quiet, and darkness came on without any
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Speaker 1: movement to procure candles. Margaret sat at the window, looking
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Speaker 1: out at the lamps and the street, but seeing nothing,
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Speaker 1: only alive to her father's heavy sighs. She did not
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Speaker 1: like to go down for lights, lest the tacit restraint
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Speaker 1: of her presence being withdrawn, he might give way to
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Speaker 1: more violent emotion without her being at hand to comfort him. Yet,
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Speaker 1: she was just thinking that she ought to go and
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Speaker 1: see after the well doing of the kitchen fire, which
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Speaker 1: there was nobody but herself to attend to. When she
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Speaker 1: heard the muffled door ring with so violent a pull
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Speaker 1: that the wires jingled all through the house, though the
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Speaker 1: positive sound was not great, she started up, passed her father,
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Speaker 1: who had never moved at the veiled, dull sound, returned
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Speaker 1: and kissed him tenderly, and still he never moved nor
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Speaker 1: took any notice of her fond embrace. Then she went
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Speaker 1: down softly through the dark to the door. Dixon would
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Speaker 1: have put the chain on before she opened it, but
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Speaker 1: Margaret had no thought of fear in her preoccupied mind.
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Speaker 1: A man's tall figure stood between her and the luminous street.
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Speaker 1: He was looking away, but at the sound of the
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Speaker 1: latch he turned quickly round. Is this mister Hale's, said
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Speaker 1: he in a clear, full delicate voice. Margaret trembled all over.
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Speaker 1: At first, she did not answer. In a moment, she
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Speaker 1: sighed out Frederick and stretched out both her hands to
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Speaker 1: catch his and draw him in. Oh, Margaret, said he,
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Speaker 1: holding her off by her shoulders after they had kissed
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Speaker 1: each other, as if even in that darkness he could
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Speaker 1: see her face and read in its expression a quicker
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Speaker 1: answer to his question than words could give. My mother.
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Speaker 1: Is she alive? Yes, she is alive, dear dear brother,
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Speaker 1: She as ill as she can be. She is but alive.
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Speaker 1: She is alive, thank God, said he. Papa is utterly
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Speaker 1: prostrate with this great grief. You expect me, don't you. No,
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Speaker 1: we've had no letter. Then I have come before it.
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Speaker 1: But my mother knows I am coming. Oh, we all
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Speaker 1: knew you would come. But wait a little step in here,
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Speaker 1: give me your hand. What is this? Oh? Your carpet bag.
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Speaker 1: Dixon has shut the shutters. But this is Papa's study,
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Speaker 1: and I can give you a chair to rest yourself
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Speaker 1: for a few minutes while I go and tell him.
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Speaker 1: She groped her way to the taper and the Lucifer matches.
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Speaker 1: She suddenly felt shy when the little feeble light made
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Speaker 1: them visible. All she could see was that her brother's
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Speaker 1: face was unusually dark in complexion, and she caught the
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Speaker 1: stealthy look of a pair of remarkably long cut blue
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Speaker 1: eyes that suddenly twinkled up with the droll consciousness of
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Speaker 1: their mutual purpose of inspecting each other. But though the
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Speaker 1: brother and sister had an instant of sympathy and their
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Speaker 1: recip glances, they did not exchange a word. Only Margaret
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Speaker 1: felt sure that she should like her brother as a
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Speaker 1: companion as much as she already loved him as a
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Speaker 1: near relation. Her heart was wonderfully lighter as she went upstairs.
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Speaker 1: The sorrow was no less in reality, but it became
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Speaker 1: less oppressive from having some one in precisely the same
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Speaker 1: relation to it as that in which she stood. Not
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Speaker 1: her father's desponding attitude had power to damp her. Now
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Speaker 1: he lay across the table, helpless as ever, but she
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Speaker 1: had the spell by which to rouse him. She used it,
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Speaker 1: perhaps too violently in her own great grief, Papa said,
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Speaker 1: She throwing her arms fondly round his neck, pulling his
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Speaker 1: weary head up in fact with her gentle violence, till
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Speaker 1: it rested in her arms, and she could look into
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Speaker 1: his eyes and let them gain strength and assurance from
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Speaker 1: hers Papa, guess who is here? He looked at her.
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Speaker 1: She saw the idea of the truth glimmer into their
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Speaker 1: filmy sadness, and to be dismissed thence as a wild imagination.
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Speaker 1: He threw himself forward and hid his face once more
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Speaker 1: in his stretched out arms, resting upon the table. As
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Speaker 1: heretofore she heard him whisper. She bent tenderly down to listen.
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Speaker 1: I don't know. Don't tell me. It's Frederick, not Frederick.
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Speaker 1: I cannot bear it. I am too weak, and his
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Speaker 1: mother is dying. He began to cry and wail like
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Speaker 1: a child. It was so different to all which Margaret
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Speaker 1: had hoped and expected that she turned sick with disappointment
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Speaker 1: and was silent for an instant. Then she spoke again,
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Speaker 1: very differently, not so exultingly, far more tenderly and carefully. Papa,
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Speaker 1: it is Frederick. Think of mamma, how glad she will be,
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Speaker 1: And oh, for her sake, how glad we we ought
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Speaker 1: to be for his sake too, our poor poor boy.
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Speaker 1: Her father did not change his attitude, but he seemed
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Speaker 1: to be trying to understand the fact. Where is he
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Speaker 1: asked He at last, his face still hidden in his
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Speaker 1: prostrate arms in your study quite alone. I lighted the
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Speaker 1: taper and ran up to tell you he is quite
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Speaker 1: alone and will be wondering why I will go to him.
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Speaker 1: Broke in her father, and he lifted himself up and
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Speaker 1: leant on her arm as that of a guide. Margaret
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Speaker 1: led him to the study door, but her spirits were
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Speaker 1: so agitated that she felt she could not bear to
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Speaker 1: see the meeting. She turned away and ran upstairs and
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Speaker 1: cried most heartily. It was the first time she had
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Speaker 1: dared to allow herself this relief for days. The strain
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Speaker 1: had been terrible, as she now felt. But Frederick was come. He,
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Speaker 1: the one precious brother, was there safe amongst them again.
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Speaker 1: She could hardly believe it. She stopped her crying and
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Speaker 1: opened her bedroom door. She heard no sound of voices,
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Speaker 1: and almost feared she might have dreamt. She went downstairs
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Speaker 1: and listened at the study door. She heard the buzz
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Speaker 1: of voices, and that was enough. She went into the
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Speaker 1: kitchen and stirred up the fire and lighted the house,
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Speaker 1: and prepared for the wanderer's refreshment. How fortunate it was
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Speaker 1: that her mother slept. She knew that she did from
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Speaker 1: the candle lighter thrust through the keyhole of her bedroom door,
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Speaker 1: the traveler could be refreshed and bright, and the first
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Speaker 1: excitement of the meeting with his father all be over
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Speaker 1: before her mother became aware of anything unusual. When all
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Speaker 1: was ready, Margaret opened the study door and went in
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Speaker 1: like a serving maiden, with a heavy tray held in
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Speaker 1: her extended arms. She was proud of serving Frederick, but he,
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Speaker 1: when he saw her, sprang up in a minute and
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Speaker 1: relieved her of her burden. It was a type a
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Speaker 1: sign of all the coming relief which his presence would bring.
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Speaker 1: The brother and sister arranged the table together, saying little,
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Speaker 1: but their hands touching, and their eyes speaking the natural
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Speaker 1: language of expression so intelligible to those of the same blood.
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Speaker 1: The fire had gone out, and Margaret applied herself to
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Speaker 1: light it, for the evenings had begun to be chilly,
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Speaker 1: and yet it was desirable to make all noises as
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Speaker 1: distant as possible from missus Hale's room. Dixon says, it
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Speaker 1: is a gift to light a fire, not an art
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Speaker 1: to be acquired. Poeta Nascutour non fit murmured mister Hale,
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Speaker 1: and Margaret was glad to hear a quotation once more, however,
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Speaker 1: languidly given. Dear old Dixon, how we shall kiss each other?
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Speaker 1: Said Frederick. She used to kiss me and then look
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Speaker 1: in my face to be sure I was the right person,
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Speaker 1: and then set to again. But Margaret, what a bungler
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Speaker 1: you are. I never saw such a little, awkward, good
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Speaker 1: for nothing pair of hands. Run away and wash them,
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Speaker 1: ready to cut bread and butter for me, and leave
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Speaker 1: the fire. I'll manage it. Lighting fires is one of
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Speaker 1: my natural accomplishments. So Margaret went away and returned, and
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Speaker 1: passed in and out of the room in a glad
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Speaker 1: restlessness that could not be satisfied with sitting still. The
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Speaker 1: more wants Frederick had, the better she was pleased, and
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Speaker 1: he understood all this by instinct. It was a joy
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Speaker 1: snatched in the house of mourning, and the zest of
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Speaker 1: it was all the more pungent because they knew, in
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Speaker 1: the depths of their hearts what irremediable sorrow awaited them.
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Speaker 1: In the middle. They heard Dixon's foot on the stairs.
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Speaker 1: Mister Hale started from his languid posture in his great
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Speaker 1: arm chair, from which he had been watching his children
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Speaker 1: in a dreamy way, as if they were acting in
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Speaker 1: some drama of happiness which was pretty to look at,
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Speaker 1: but which was distinct from reality, and in which he
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Speaker 1: had no part. He stood up and faced to the door,
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Speaker 1: showing such a strange sudden anxiety to conceal Frederick from
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Speaker 1: the sight of any person entering. Even though it were
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Speaker 1: the faithful Dixon, that a shiver came over Margaret's heart.
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Speaker 1: It reminded her of the new fear in their lives.
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Speaker 1: She caught at Frederick's arm and clutched it tight, while
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Speaker 1: a stern thought compressed her brows and caused her to
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Speaker 1: set her teeth. And yet they knew it was only
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Speaker 1: Dixon's measured tread. They heard her walk the length of
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Speaker 1: the passage into the kitchen. Margaret rose up. I will
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Speaker 1: go to her and tell her, and I shall hear
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Speaker 1: how Mamma is. Missus Hale was awake. She rambled at first,
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Speaker 1: but after they had given her some tea, she was refreshed,
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Speaker 1: though not disposed to talk. It was better that the
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Speaker 1: knight should pass over before she was told of her
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Speaker 1: son's arrival. Doctor Donaldson's appointed visit would bring nervous excitement
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Speaker 1: enough for the evening, and he might tell them how
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Speaker 1: to prepare her for seeing Frederick. He was there in
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Speaker 1: the house, could be summoned at any moment. Margaret could
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Speaker 1: not sit still. It was a relief to her to
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Speaker 1: aid Dixon in all her preparations for Master Frederick. It
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Speaker 1: seemed as though she could never be tired again. Each
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Speaker 1: glimpse into the room where he sat by his father,
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Speaker 1: conversing with him about she knew not what nor cared
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Speaker 1: to know was increase of strength to her. Her own
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Speaker 1: time for talking and hearing would come at last, and
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Speaker 1: she was too certain of this to feel in a
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Speaker 1: hurry to grasp it now. She took in his appearance
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Speaker 1: and liked it. He had delicate features, redeemed from effeminacy
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Speaker 1: by the swarthiness of his complexion and his quick intensity
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Speaker 1: of expression. His eyes were generally merry looking, but at
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Speaker 1: times they and his mouth so suddenly changed and gave
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Speaker 1: her such an idea of latent passion that it almost
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Speaker 1: made her afraid. But this look was only for an
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Speaker 1: instant and had in it no doggedness. It was rather
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Speaker 1: the instantaneous ferocity of expression that comes over the countenances
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Speaker 1: of all natives of wild southern countries. A ferocity, which
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Speaker 1: enhances the charm of the childlike softness into which such
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Speaker 1: a look may melt away. Margaret might fear the violence
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Speaker 1: of the impulsive nature, thus occasionally betrayed, but there was
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Speaker 1: nothing in it to make her distrust or recoil in
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Speaker 1: the least from the new found brother. On the contrary,
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Speaker 1: their intercourse was peculiarly charming to her from the very first.
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Speaker 1: She knew then how much responsibility she had had to
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Speaker 1: bear from the exquisite sensation of relief which she felt
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Speaker 1: in Frederick's presence. He understood his father and mother, their
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Speaker 1: characters and their weaknesses, and went along with a careless
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Speaker 1: freedom which was yet most delicately careful not to hurt
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Speaker 1: or wound any of their feelings. He seemed to know
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Speaker 1: instinctively when a little of the natural brilliancy of his
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Speaker 1: manner and conversation would not jar on the deep depression
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Speaker 1: of his father, or might relieve his mother's pain whenever
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Speaker 1: it would have been out of tune and out of time.
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Speaker 1: His patient devotion and watchfulness came into play and made
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Speaker 1: him an admirable nurse. Then Margaret was almost touched tears
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Speaker 1: by the allusions which he often made to their childish
22:11
Speaker 1: days in the new forest. He had never forgotten her
22:15
Speaker 1: or Helstone either, all the time he had been roaming
22:18
Speaker 1: among distant countries and foreign people. She might talk to
22:22
Speaker 1: him of the old spot, and never fear tiring him.
22:26
Speaker 1: She had been afraid of him before he came, even
22:29
Speaker 1: while she longed for his coming. Seven or eight years
22:32
Speaker 1: had she felt produced such great changes in herself that,
22:36
Speaker 1: forgetting how much of the original Margaret was left, she
22:39
Speaker 1: had reasoned that if her tastes and feelings had so
22:42
Speaker 1: materially altered even in her stay at home life, his
22:46
Speaker 1: wild career, with which she was but imperfectly acquainted, must
22:50
Speaker 1: have almost substituted another Frederick for the tall stripling in
22:54
Speaker 1: his middy's uniform, whom she remembered looking up to with
22:57
Speaker 1: such admiring awe. But in their absence they had grown
23:01
Speaker 1: nearer to each other in age as well as in
23:03
Speaker 1: many other things. And so it was that the weight
23:07
Speaker 1: this sorrowful time was lightened to Margaret. Other light than
23:12
Speaker 1: that of Frederick's presence. She had none. For a few hours,
23:17
Speaker 1: the mother rallied on seeing her son, she sat with
23:20
Speaker 1: his hand in hers. She would not part with it
23:23
Speaker 1: even while she slept, and Margaret had to feed him
23:26
Speaker 1: like a baby, rather than that he should disturb her
23:28
Speaker 1: mother by removing a finger. Missus Hale wakened while they
23:32
Speaker 1: were thus engaged. She slowly moved her head round on
23:36
Speaker 1: the pillow and smiled at her children as she understood
23:39
Speaker 1: what they were doing and why it was done. I
23:42
Speaker 1: am very selfish, said she, But it will not be
23:46
Speaker 1: for long. Frederick bent down and kissed the feeble hand
23:50
Speaker 1: that imprisoned his This state of tranquility could not endure
23:54
Speaker 1: for many days, nor perhaps for many hours, so doctor
23:58
Speaker 1: Donaldson assured Margaret. After the kind doctor had gone away,
24:03
Speaker 1: she stole down to Frederick, who during the visit had
24:06
Speaker 1: been adjured to remain quietly concealed in the back parlor,
24:09
Speaker 1: usually Dixon's bedroom, but now given up to him. Margaret
24:14
Speaker 1: told him what doctor Donaldson said. I don't believe it,
24:18
Speaker 1: he exclaimed. She is very ill. She may be dangerously ill,
24:22
Speaker 1: and in immediate danger too, but I can't imagine that
24:26
Speaker 1: she could be as she is if she were on
24:28
Speaker 1: the point of death. Margaret, she should have some other advice,
24:33
Speaker 1: some London doctor. Have you never thought of that, yes,
24:38
Speaker 1: said Margaret more than once. But I don't believe it
24:41
Speaker 1: would do any good. And you know we have not
24:45
Speaker 1: the money to bring any great London surgeon down. And
24:48
Speaker 1: I'm sure doctor Donaldson is only second in skill to
24:51
Speaker 1: the very best, if indeed he is to them. Frederick
24:56
Speaker 1: began to walk up and down the room impatiently. I
24:59
Speaker 1: have credit in Cadiz, he said, but none here owing
25:03
Speaker 1: to this wretched change of name. Why did my father
25:06
Speaker 1: leave Helstone? That was the blunder. It was no blunder,
25:11
Speaker 1: said Margaret gloomily. And above all possible chances, avoid letting
25:16
Speaker 1: Papa hear anything like what you've just been saying. I
25:19
Speaker 1: can see that he is tormenting himself already with the
25:21
Speaker 1: idea that Mamma would never have been ill if we
25:24
Speaker 1: had stayed at Helstone. And you don't know Papa's agonizing
25:27
Speaker 1: power of self reproach. Frederick walked away as if he
25:32
Speaker 1: were on the quarter deck. At last, he stopped right
25:35
Speaker 1: opposite to Margaret and looked at her drooping and desponding attitude.
25:38
Speaker 1: For an instant, my little Margaret, said, he caressing her.
25:44
Speaker 1: Let us hope as long as we can, poor little woman,
25:49
Speaker 1: what is this face? All wet with tears. I will hope,
25:55
Speaker 1: I will, in spite of a thousand doctors, bear up
25:59
Speaker 1: Margaret and be brave enough to hope. Margaret choked and
26:04
Speaker 1: trying to speak, and when she did it was very low.
26:08
Speaker 1: I must be meek enough to trust, Oh, Frederick, Mamma
26:14
Speaker 1: was getting to love me so and I was getting
26:17
Speaker 1: to understand her. And now comes death to snap us asunder. Come, Come, come,
26:28
Speaker 1: let us go upstairs and do something rather than waste
26:32
Speaker 1: time that may be so precious. Thinking has many a
26:36
Speaker 1: time made me sad darling, but doing never did in
26:40
Speaker 1: all my life. My theory is a sort of parody
26:43
Speaker 1: on the maxim. Get money, my son. Honestly, if you can,
26:47
Speaker 1: but get money. My precept is do something, my sister,
26:52
Speaker 1: do good if you can, But at any rate, do something,
26:57
Speaker 1: not excluding mischief, said Margaret, smiling faintly through her tears.
27:02
Speaker 1: By no means what I do exclude is the remorse afterwards.
27:07
Speaker 1: Blot your misdeeds out, if you are particularly conscientious, by
27:11
Speaker 1: a good deed as soon as you can. Just as
27:14
Speaker 1: we did a correct sum at school on the slate,
27:17
Speaker 1: where an incorrect one was only half rubbed out. It
27:20
Speaker 1: was better than wetting our sponge with our tears, both
27:23
Speaker 1: less loss of time where tears had to be waited
27:25
Speaker 1: for and a better effect at last. If Margaret thought
27:31
Speaker 1: Frederick's theory rather a rough one at first, she saw
27:34
Speaker 1: how he worked it out into continual production of kindness.
27:37
Speaker 1: In fact, after a bad night with his mother, for
27:41
Speaker 1: he insisted on taking his turn as a sitter up.
27:44
Speaker 1: He was busy next morning before breakfast, contriving a leg
27:47
Speaker 1: rest for Dixon, who was beginning to feel the fatigues
27:50
Speaker 1: of watching. At breakfast time, he interested mister Hale with
27:54
Speaker 1: a vivid, graphic, rattling account of the wild life he
27:57
Speaker 1: had led in Mexico, South America and elsewhere. Margaret would
28:02
Speaker 1: have given up the effort in despair to rouse mister
28:05
Speaker 1: Hale out of his dejection, and it would even have
28:08
Speaker 1: effected herself and rendered her incapable of talking at all.
28:12
Speaker 1: But fred true to his theory, did something perpetually, and
28:16
Speaker 1: talking was the only thing to be done besides eating
28:19
Speaker 1: at breakfast. Before the night of that day, doctor Donaldson's
28:24
Speaker 1: opinion was proved to be too well founded. Convulsions came on,
28:28
Speaker 1: and when they ceased, missus Hale was unconscious. Her husband
28:33
Speaker 1: might lie by her, shaking the bed with his sobs.
28:36
Speaker 1: Her son's strong arms might lift her tenderly up into
28:38
Speaker 1: a comfortable position. Her daughter's hands might bathe her face.
28:43
Speaker 1: But she knew them not, she would never recognize them
28:47
Speaker 1: again till they met in heaven. Before the morning came,
28:52
Speaker 1: all was over. Then Margaret rose from her trembling and
28:57
Speaker 1: despondency and became as a strong angel of comfort to
29:00
Speaker 1: her father and brother. For Frederick had broken down now,
29:04
Speaker 1: and all his theories were of no use to him.
29:07
Speaker 1: He cried so violently when shut up alone in his
29:10
Speaker 1: little room at night, that Margaret and Dixon came down
29:13
Speaker 1: in affright to warn him to be quiet, for the
29:16
Speaker 1: house partitions were but thin, and the next door neighbors
29:19
Speaker 1: might easily hear his youthful, passionate sobs, so different from
29:23
Speaker 1: the slower, trembling agony of after life. When we become
29:27
Speaker 1: inured to grief, and dare not be rebellious against the
29:30
Speaker 1: inexorable doom. Knowing who it is that decrees, Margaret sat
29:36
Speaker 1: with her father in the room with the dead. If
29:38
Speaker 1: he had cried, she would have been thankful. But he
29:42
Speaker 1: sat by the bed quite quietly. Only from time to
29:46
Speaker 1: time he uncovered the face and stroked it gently, making
29:50
Speaker 1: a kind of soft, inarticulate noise like that of some
29:54
Speaker 1: mother animal caressing her young. He took no notice of
29:58
Speaker 1: Margaret's presence. Once or twice she came up to kiss him,
30:02
Speaker 1: and he submitted to it, giving her a little push
30:05
Speaker 1: away when she had done, as if her affection disturbed
30:08
Speaker 1: him from his absorption in the dead. He started when
30:12
Speaker 1: he heard Frederick's cries and shook his head. Poor boy,
30:17
Speaker 1: poor boy, he said, and took no more notice. Margaret's
30:22
Speaker 1: heart ached within her. She could not think of her
30:25
Speaker 1: own loss in thinking of her father's case. The night
30:29
Speaker 1: was wearing away, and the day was at hand, when,
30:32
Speaker 1: without a word of preparation, Margaret's voice broke upon the
30:36
Speaker 1: stillness of the room with a clearness of sound that
30:38
Speaker 1: startled even herself. Let not your heart be troubled, it said,
30:44
Speaker 1: and she went steadily on through all that chapter of
30:47
Speaker 1: unspeakable consolation. End of chapter thirty