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02 - Thin Ghost And Others by M. R. James · Thin Ghost And Others

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  Speaker 1: Story two of a Thin Ghost and Others by Montague
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  Speaker 1: Rhodes James. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Story two, the Diary of Mister Pointer. The sale room
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  Speaker 1: of an old and famous firm of book auctioneers in
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  Speaker 1: London is of course a great meeting place for collectors, librarians, dealers,
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  Speaker 1: not only when an auction is in progress, but perhaps
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  Speaker 1: even more notably when books that are coming on for
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  Speaker 1: sale are upon view. It was in such a sale
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  Speaker 1: room that the remarkable series of events began, which were
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  Speaker 1: detailed to me not many months ago by the person
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  Speaker 1: whom they principally effected, namely mister James Denton, M. A. F.
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  Speaker 1: S A, et cetera, et cetera. Some time of Trinity
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  Speaker 1: Hall now or lately of Rendcombe, Manor in the County
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  Speaker 1: of Warwick. He on a certain spring day, not many
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  Speaker 1: years since, he was in London for a few days
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  Speaker 1: upon business connected principally with the furnishing of the house
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  Speaker 1: which he had just finished building at Rentcombe. It may
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  Speaker 1: be a disappointment to you to learn that rencom manner
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  Speaker 1: was new that I cannot help. There had no doubt
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  Speaker 1: been an old house, but it was not remarkable for
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  Speaker 1: beauty or interest. Even had it been, neither beauty nor
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  Speaker 1: interest would have enabled it to resist the disastrous fire, which,
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  Speaker 1: about a couple of years before the date of my story,
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  Speaker 1: had raised it to the ground. I am glad to
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  Speaker 1: say that all that was most valuable in it had
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  Speaker 1: been saved, and that it was fully insured, so that
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  Speaker 1: it was with a comparatively light heart that mister Denton
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  Speaker 1: was able to face the task of building a new
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  Speaker 1: and considerably more convenient dwelling for himself and his aunt,
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  Speaker 1: who constituted his whole manage. Being in London, with time
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  Speaker 1: on his hands, and not far from the sale room
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  Speaker 1: at which I have obscurely hinted, mister Denton thought that
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  Speaker 1: he would spend an hour there upon the chance of finding,
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  Speaker 1: among that portion of the famous Thomas collection of manuscripts
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  Speaker 1: which he knew to be on view, something bearing upon
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  Speaker 1: the history or topography of his part of Warwickshire. He
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  Speaker 1: turned in accordingly, purchased a catalog, and ascended to the
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  Speaker 1: sale room, where as usual the books were disposed in cases,
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  Speaker 1: and some laid out upon the long tables at the shelves,
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  Speaker 1: or sitting about at the tables were figures, many of
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  Speaker 1: whom were familiar to him. He exchanged nods and greetings
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  Speaker 1: with several, and then settled down to examine his catalog
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  Speaker 1: and note likely items. He had made good progress through
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  Speaker 1: about two hundred of the five hundred lots, every now
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  Speaker 1: and then rising to take a volume from the shelf
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  Speaker 1: and give it a cursory glance. When a hand was
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  Speaker 1: laid on his shoulder and he looked up, his interrupter
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  Speaker 1: was one of those intelligent men with a pointed beard
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  Speaker 1: and a flannel shirt, of whom the last quarter of
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  Speaker 1: the nineteenth century was, It seems to me very prolific.
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  Speaker 1: It is no part of my plan to repeat the
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  Speaker 1: whole conversation which ensued between the two. I must content
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  Speaker 1: myself with stating that it largely referred to common acquaintances,
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  Speaker 1: e g. To the nephew of mister Denton's friend, who
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  Speaker 1: had recently married and settled in Chelsea, to the sister
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  Speaker 1: in law of mister Denton's friend, who had been seriously
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  Speaker 1: indisposed but was now better. And to a piece of
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  Speaker 1: china which mister Denton's friend had purchased some months before
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  Speaker 1: at a price much below its true value, from which
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  Speaker 1: you will rightly infer that the conversation was rather in
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  Speaker 1: the nature of a monolog. In due time, however, the
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  Speaker 1: friend bethought himself that mister Denton was therefore a purpose,
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  Speaker 1: and said he what are you looking for? In particular?
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  Speaker 1: I don't think there's much in this lot? Why I
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  Speaker 1: thought there might be some Warwickshire collections, but I don't
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  Speaker 1: see anything under Warwick in the catalog. No, apparently not,
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  Speaker 1: said the friend. All the same, I believe I noticed
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  Speaker 1: something like a Warwickshire diary. What was the name again,
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  Speaker 1: Drayton Potter, Painter either a P or a D. I
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  Speaker 1: feel sure. He turned over the leaves quickly. Yes, here
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  Speaker 1: it is pointer lot for eighty six that might interest you.
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  Speaker 1: There are the books, I think out on the table.
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  Speaker 1: Some one has been looking at them. Well, I must
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  Speaker 1: be getting on good bye. You'll look us up, won't you.
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  Speaker 1: Couldn't you come this afternoon? We've got a little music
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  Speaker 1: about four. Well, then when you're next in town He
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  Speaker 1: went off. Mister Denton looked at his watch and found,
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  Speaker 1: to his confusion that he could spare no more than
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  Speaker 1: a moment before retrieving his luggage and going for the train.
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  Speaker 1: The moment was just enough to show him that there
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  Speaker 1: were four largest volumes of the diary, that it concerned
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  Speaker 1: the years about seventeen ten, and that there seemed to
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  Speaker 1: be a good many insertions in it of various kinds.
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  Speaker 1: It seemed quite worth while to leave a commission of
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  Speaker 1: five and twenty pounds for it, and this he was
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  Speaker 1: able to do, for his usual agent entered the room
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  Speaker 1: as he was on the point of leaving it. That evening,
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  Speaker 1: he rejoined his aunt at their temporary abode, which was
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  Speaker 1: a small dower house not many hundred yards from the manor.
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  Speaker 1: On the following morning, the two resumed a discussion that
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  Speaker 1: had now lasted for some weeks as to the equipment
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  Speaker 1: of the new house. Mister Denton laid before his relative
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  Speaker 1: a statement of the results of his visit to town,
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  Speaker 1: particulars of carpets, of chairs, of wardrobes, and of bedroom china. Yes, dear,
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  Speaker 1: said his aunt, But I don't see any chintzes here
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  Speaker 1: did you go to? Mister Denton stamped on the floor.
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  Speaker 1: Where else indeed could he have stamped? Oh dear, Oh dear,
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  Speaker 1: He said that one thing I missed. I am sorry.
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  Speaker 1: The fact is I was on my way there, and
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  Speaker 1: I happened to be passing Robins's. His aunt threw up
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  Speaker 1: her hands. Robinson's, then the next thing will be another
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  Speaker 1: parcel of horrible old books at some outrageous price. I
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  Speaker 1: do think, James, when I am taking all this trouble
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  Speaker 1: for you, you might contrive to remember the one or two
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  Speaker 1: things which I specially begged you to see. After It's
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  Speaker 1: not as if I was asking it for myself. I
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  Speaker 1: don't know whether you think I get any pleasure out
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  Speaker 1: of it, but if so, I can assure you it's
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  Speaker 1: very much the reverse. The thought and worry and trouble
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  Speaker 1: I have over it you have no idea of, and
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  Speaker 1: you have simply to go to the shops and order
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  Speaker 1: the things. Mister Denton interposed a moan of penitence. Oh Aunt, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: that's all very well, dear, and I don't want to
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  Speaker 1: speak sharply, but you must know how very annoying it is,
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  Speaker 1: particularly as it delays the whole of our business. For
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  Speaker 1: I can't tell how long. Here is Wednesday. The Simpsons
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  Speaker 1: come tomorrow and you can't leave them. Then on Saturday
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  Speaker 1: we have friends, as you know, coming for tennis. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: indeed you spoke of asking them yourself, But of course
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  Speaker 1: I had to write the notes. And it is ridiculous, James,
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  Speaker 1: to look like that we must occasionally be civil to
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  Speaker 1: our neighbors. You wouldn't like to have it said we
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  Speaker 1: were perfect pairs. What was I saying? Well, anyhow, it
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  Speaker 1: comes to this that it must be Thursday in next
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  Speaker 1: week at least before you can go to town again.
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  Speaker 1: And until we have decided upon the Chintzes, it is
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  Speaker 1: impossible to settle upon one single other thing. Mister Denton
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  Speaker 1: ventured to suggest that as the paint and wallpapers had
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  Speaker 1: been dealt with, this was too severe a view, But
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  Speaker 1: this his aunt was not prepared to admit at the moment,
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  Speaker 1: nor indeed was there any proposition he could have advanced
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  Speaker 1: which she would have found herself able to accept. However,
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  Speaker 1: as the day went on, she receded a little from
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  Speaker 1: this position, examined with lessening disfavor the samples and priceless
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  Speaker 1: submitted by her nephew, and even in some cases gave
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  Speaker 1: a qualified approval to his choice. As for him, he
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  Speaker 1: was naturally somewhat dashed by the consciousness of duty unfulfilled,
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  Speaker 1: but more so by the prospect of a lawn tennis party, which,
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  Speaker 1: though an inevitable evil in August, he had thought there
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  Speaker 1: was no occasion to fear in May. But he was
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  Speaker 1: to some extent cheered by the arrival on the Friday
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  Speaker 1: morning of an intimation that he had secured, at the
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  Speaker 1: price of twelve pounds ten shillings the four volumes of
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  Speaker 1: pointers manuscript diary, and still more by the arrival on
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  Speaker 1: the next morning of the diary itself. The necessity of
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  Speaker 1: taking mister Missus Simpson for a drive in the car
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  Speaker 1: on Saturday morning, and of attending to his neighbors and
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  Speaker 1: guests that afternoon, prevented him from doing more than open
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  Speaker 1: the parcel until the party had retired to bed on
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  Speaker 1: the Saturday night. It was then that he made certain
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  Speaker 1: of the fact which he had before only suspected, that
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  Speaker 1: he had indeed acquired the diary of mister William Pointer,
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  Speaker 1: squire of Accrington, about four miles from his own parish.
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  Speaker 1: That same Pointer, who was for a time a member
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  Speaker 1: of the circle of Oxford antiquaries, the center of which
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  Speaker 1: was Thomas hearn and with whom Hearne seems ultimately to
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  Speaker 1: have quarreled a not uncommon episode in the career of
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  Speaker 1: that excellent man. As is the case with Hearne's own collections,
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  Speaker 1: the Diary of Pointer contained a good many notes from
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  Speaker 1: printed books, descriptions of coins and other antiquities that had
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  Speaker 1: been brought to his notice, and drafts of letters on
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  Speaker 1: these subjects. Besides the chronicle of everyday events. The description
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  Speaker 1: in the sale catalog had given mister Denton no idea
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  Speaker 1: of the amount of interest which seemed to lie in
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  Speaker 1: the book, and he sat up reading in the first
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  Speaker 1: of the four volumes until a reprehensibly late hour on
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  Speaker 1: the Sunday morning after church. His aunt came into the
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  Speaker 1: study and was diverted from what she had been going
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  Speaker 1: to say to him by the sight of the four
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  Speaker 1: brown leather quartos on the table. What are these? She said?
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  Speaker 1: Suspiciously new, aren't they? Oh? Are these the things that
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  Speaker 1: made you forget my chances? I thought so disgusting? What
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  Speaker 1: did you give for them? I should like to know?
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  Speaker 1: Over ten pounds, James, It is really sinful. Well, if
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  Speaker 1: you have money to throw away on this kind of thing,
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  Speaker 1: there can be no reason why you should not subscribe,
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  Speaker 1: and subscribe handsomely to my anti vivisection league. There is not, indeed, James,
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  Speaker 1: and I shall be very seriously annoyed if who did
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  Speaker 1: you say wrote them, old mister Pointer of Acrington. Well,
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  Speaker 1: of course there is some interest in getting together old
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  Speaker 1: papers about this neighborhood. But ten pounds. She picked up
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  Speaker 1: one of the volumes, not that which her nephew had
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  Speaker 1: been reading, and opened it at random, dashing it to
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  Speaker 1: the floor the next instant with a cry of disgust
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  Speaker 1: as an ear wig fell from between the pages. Mister
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  Speaker 1: Denton picked it up with a smothered explative and said,
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  Speaker 1: poor book. I think you're rather hard on mister Pointer,
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  Speaker 1: was I dear? I beg his pardon, but you know
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  Speaker 1: I cannot abide those horrid creatures. Let me see if
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  Speaker 1: I've done any mischief. No, I think all's well. But
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  Speaker 1: look here what you've opened him on? Dear me, yes,
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  Speaker 1: to be sure? How very interesting? Do unpin at, James,
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  Speaker 1: and let me look at it. It was a piece
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  Speaker 1: of pattern stuff about the size of the quarto page,
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  Speaker 1: to which it was fastened by an old fashioned pin.
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  Speaker 1: James detached it and handed it to his aunt, carefully
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  Speaker 1: replacing the pin in the paper. Now I do not
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  Speaker 1: know exactly what the fabric was, but it had a
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  Speaker 1: design printed upon it which completely fascinated Miss Denton. She
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  Speaker 1: went into raptures over it, held it against the wall,
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  Speaker 1: made James do the same, that she might retire to
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  Speaker 1: contemplate it from a distance, then poured over it at
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  Speaker 1: close quarters, and ended her examination by expressing in the
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  Speaker 1: warmest terms her appreciation of the taste of the ancient
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  Speaker 1: mister Poynter, who had had the happy idea of preserving
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  Speaker 1: this sample and his diary. It is a most charming pattern,
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  Speaker 1: she said, and remarkable too. Look, James, how delightfully the
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  Speaker 1: lines ripple. It reminds one of hair, very much, doesn't it.
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  Speaker 1: And then these knots of ribbon at intervals they give
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  Speaker 1: just the relief of color that is wanted. I wonder,
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  Speaker 1: I was going to say, said James, with deference. I
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  Speaker 1: wonder if it would cost much to have it copied
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  Speaker 1: for our curtains copied. How could you have it copied, James, Well,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know the details, but I suppose that is
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  Speaker 1: a printed pattern, and that you could have a block
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  Speaker 1: cut from it in wood or metal. Now, really that
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  Speaker 1: is a capital idea, James, I am almost inclined to
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  Speaker 1: be glad that you were so that you've forgot the
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  Speaker 1: Genzes on Monday. At any rate, I'll promise to forgive
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  Speaker 1: and forget if you get this lovely old thing copied.
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  Speaker 1: No one will have anything in the least like it,
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  Speaker 1: and mine, James, we won't allow it to be sold.
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  Speaker 1: Now I must go, and I've totally forgotten what it
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  Speaker 1: was I came in to say, never mind, it'll keep.
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  Speaker 1: After his aunt had gone, James Denton devoted a few
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  Speaker 1: minutes to examining the pattern more closely than he had
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  Speaker 1: yet had a chance of doing. He was puzzled to
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  Speaker 1: think why it should have struck Miss s Benton so forcibly.
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  Speaker 1: It seemed to him not specially remarkable or pretty. No
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  Speaker 1: doubt it was suitable enough for a curtain pattern. It
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  Speaker 1: ran in vertical bands, and there was some indication that
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  Speaker 1: these were intended to converge at the top. She was
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  Speaker 1: right too in thinking that these main bands resembled rippling,
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  Speaker 1: almost curling tresses of hair. Well, the main thing was
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  Speaker 1: to find out, by means of trade directories or otherwise,
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  Speaker 1: what firm would undertake the reproduction of an old pattern
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  Speaker 1: of this kind. Not to delay the reader over this
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  Speaker 1: portion of the story. A list of likely names was
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  Speaker 1: made out, and mister Denton fixed a day for calling
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  Speaker 1: on them or some of them with his sample. The
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  Speaker 1: first two visits, which he paid, were unsuccessful, but there
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  Speaker 1: is luck in odd numbers. The firm Embermindsey, which was
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  Speaker 1: third on his list, was accustomed to handling this line.
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  Speaker 1: The evidence they were able to produce justified their being
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  Speaker 1: entrusted with the job. Our mister Cattell took a fervent
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  Speaker 1: personal interest in it. It's on't rending, isn't it, sir?
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  Speaker 1: He said, to picture the quantity of really lovely medieval
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  Speaker 1: stuff of this kind that lays well. And I unnoticed him.
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  Speaker 1: Many of our residential countri houses much of it in peril.
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  Speaker 1: I take it of being cast aside as so much rubbish.
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  Speaker 1: What is that? Shakespeare says unconsidered trifles? I often say
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  Speaker 1: as a word for us, all sir, I say Shakespeare.
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  Speaker 1: But I'm well aware all though old with him there.
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  Speaker 1: I had something of an upset the other day when
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  Speaker 1: a gentleman came in a title man too. He was,
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  Speaker 1: and I think he told me he'd wrote on the topic,
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  Speaker 1: and I happened to cite out some thing about Hercules
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  Speaker 1: and the painted claw. Dear me, you never see such
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  Speaker 1: a pother. But as to this what you've kindly confided
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  Speaker 1: to us, it's a piece of work. We shall take
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  Speaker 1: a real enthusiasm in achieving it out to the very
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  Speaker 1: best of our ability. What man as done, as I
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  Speaker 1: was observing only a few weeks back to another esteemed client,
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  Speaker 1: man can do, and in three to four weeks time,
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  Speaker 1: all being well, we shall hope to lay before you
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  Speaker 1: the evidence to that effect. Sir, take the address, mister Higgins,
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  Speaker 1: if you please. Such was the general drift of mister
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: Cattell's observations on the occasion of his first interview with
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  Speaker 1: mister Denton. About a month later, being advised that some
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  Speaker 1: samples were ready for his inspection, mister Denton met him
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  Speaker 1: again and had it seems reason to be satisfied with
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: the faithfulness of the reproduction of the design. It had
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  Speaker 1: been finished off at the top in accordance with the
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: indication I mentioned the vertical bands joined, but something still
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  Speaker 1: needed to be done in the way of matching the
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  Speaker 1: color of the original. Mister Cattle had suggestions of a
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  Speaker 1: technical sort to offer, with which I need not trouble you.
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  Speaker 1: He had also views as to the general desirability of
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  Speaker 1: the pattern, which were vaguely adverse. You say you don't
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  Speaker 1: wish this to be supplied excepting to personal friends, equipped
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  Speaker 1: with an authorization from yourself, sir, it shall be done.
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  Speaker 1: I quite understand your wish to keep it exclusive. Lindse
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  Speaker 1: it a catch? It? Does it not to the suite?
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  Speaker 1: What's every man's, it has been said, is no man?
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  Speaker 1: Do you think it would be popular if it were
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: generally obtainable, asked mister Denton. I hardly think it, sir,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: said Cattle, pensively, clasping his beard. I hardly think it
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  Speaker 1: not popular. Wasn't popular with the man that cut the block,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: was it, mister Higgins? Did he find it a difficult job?
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  Speaker 1: He'd no call to do so, sir. But the fact
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  Speaker 1: is that the artistic temperament and our men are artists, sir,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: every man of them true artists, as much as many
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: that the world styles by that term. It's apt to
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: take some strange, hardly accountable likes or dislikes. And here
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: was an example. The twice or thrice that I went
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  Speaker 1: to inspect his progress. Language I could understand for that's
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  Speaker 1: habitual to him. But real distaste for what I should
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  Speaker 1: call a dainty enough thing. I did not, nor am
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  Speaker 1: I now able to fathom, it seemed, said mister Cattle,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: looking narrowly upon mister Denton, as if the man scented
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  Speaker 1: something almost heavil in the design. Indeed, did he tell you? So?
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  Speaker 1: I can't say I see anything sinister and it myself?
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  Speaker 1: Neither can I, sir. In fact, I said as much, Come, Gatwick,
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  Speaker 1: I said, what's to do here? What's the reason for
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  Speaker 1: your prejudice? For I can call it no more than that?
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  Speaker 1: But no, no explanation was forthcoming, and I was merely reduced,
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  Speaker 1: as I am now to a shrug of the shoulders
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  Speaker 1: and a qui bono. However, here it is, And with
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  Speaker 1: that the technical side of the question came to the
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  Speaker 1: front again. The matching of the colors for the background,
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  Speaker 1: the hem and the knots of ribbon was by far
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  Speaker 1: the longest part of the business, and necessitated many sendings
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  Speaker 1: to and fro of the original pattern and of new samples.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: During part of August and September two, the Dentans were
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  Speaker 1: away from the manor, so that it was not until
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: October was well in that a sufficient quantity of the
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: stuff had been manufactured to furnish curtains for the three
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  Speaker 1: or four bedrooms which were to be fitted up with it.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: On the feast of Simon and Jude, the aunt and
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: nephew returned from a short visit to find all completed,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: and their satisfaction at the general effect was great. The
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: new the curtains, in particular, agreed to admiration with their surroundings.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: When mister Denton was dressing for dinner and took stock
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: of his rooms, in which there was a large amount
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: of the chintz displayed, he congratulated himself over and over
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: again on the luck which at first made him forget
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: his aunt's commission, and had then put into his hands
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: this extremely effective means of remedying his mistake. The pattern was,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: as he sat at dinner, so RESTful and yet so
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: far from being dull, and Miss Denton, who by the way,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: had none of the stuff in her own room, was
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: much disposed to agree with him. At breakfast next morning
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: he was induced to qualify his satisfaction to some extent,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: but very slightly. There is one thing I rather regret,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: He said, that we allowed them to join up the
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: vertical bands of the pattern at the top. I think
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: it would have been better to leave that alone, oh,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: said his aunt interrogatively. Yes, as I was reading in
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: bed last night, they kept catching my eye. Rather, that is,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: I found myself looking across at them every now and then.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: There was an effect as if some one kept peeping
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: out between the curtains in one place or another where
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: there was no edge, And I think that was due
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: to the joining up of the bands at the top.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: The only other thing that troubled me was the wind.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Why I thought it was a perfectly still night. Perhaps
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: it was only on my side of the house, but
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: there was enough to sway my curtains and rustle them
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: more than I wanted. That night, a bachelor friend of
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: James Denton's came to stay and was lodged in a
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: room on the same floor as his host, but at
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: the end of a long passage half way down, which
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: was a red baized door put there to cut off
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: the draft and intercept noise. The party of three had
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: separated Miss Denton a good first. The two men, at
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: about eleven. James Denton, not yet inclined for bed, sat
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: him down in an arm chair and read for a time.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Then he dozed, and then he woke, and bethought himself
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: that his brown spaniel, which ordinarily slept in his room,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: had not come upstairs with him. Then he thought he
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: was mistaken for happening to move his hand, which hung
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: down over the arm of the chair within a few
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: inches of the floor. He felt on the back of
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: it just the slightest touch of a surface of hair,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: and stretching it out in that direction he stroked and padded,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: arounded something. But the feel of it, and still more,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: the fact that, instead of a responsive movement, absolute stillness
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: greeted his touch made him look over the arm. What
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: he had been touching rose to meet him. It was
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: in the attitude of one that had crept along the
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: floor on its belly, and it was, so far as
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: could be collected, a human figure. But of the face,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: which was now rising to within a few inches of
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: his own, no feature was discernible, only hair, shapeless as
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: it was, there was about it so horrible an air
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: of menace that, as he bounded from his chair and
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: rushed from the room, he heard himself moaning with fear,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: and doubtless he did right to fly as he dashed
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: into the baige door that cut the passage in two, and,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: forgetting that it opened towards him, beat against it with
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: all the force in him. He felt a soft, ineffectual
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: tearing at his back, which all the same seemed to
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: be growing in power, as if the hand, or whatever
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: worse than a hand was there, were becoming more material
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: as the pursuer's rage was more concentrated. Then he remembered
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: the trick of the door. He got it open, he
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: shut it behind him, He gained his friend's room, and
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: that is all we need know. It seems cures that
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: during all the time that had elapsed since the purchase
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: of Pointer's diary, James Denton should not have sought an
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: explanation of the presence of the pattern that had been
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: pinned into it. Well, he had read the diary through
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: without finding it mentioned, and had concluded that there was
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: nothing to be said. But on leaving rencom manner, he
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: did not know whether for good as he naturally insisted
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: upon doing. On the day after experiencing the horror I
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: have tried to put into words, he took the diary
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: with him, and at his seaside lodgings. He examined more
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: narrowly the porson whence the pattern had been taken. What
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: he remembered, having suspected about it turned out to be correct.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Two or three leaves were pasted together, but written upon
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: as was patent. When they were held up to the light,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: they yielded easily to steaming, for the paste had lost
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: much of its strength, and they contained something relevant to
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: the pattern. The entry was made in seventeen o seven.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Old mister Casburry of Acrington told me this day much
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: of young Sir Everard Charlotte, whom he remembered commoner of
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: University College, and thought was of the same family as
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: doctor Arthur Charlotte, now Master of the College. This Charlotte
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: was a personable young gent, but a loose atheistical companion
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: and a great lifter, as they then called the hard drinkers.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: And for what I know do so now. He was
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: noted and subject to several censors at different times for
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: his extravagancies, And if the full history of his debaucheries
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: had been known, no doubt would have been expelled the college,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: supposing that no interest had been employed on his behalf
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: of which mister Casbury had some suspicion he was a
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: very beautiful person, and constantly wore his own hair, which
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: was very abundant, from which and his loose way of living.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: The cant name for him was Absalom, and he was
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: accustomed to say that indeed, he believed he had shortened
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Old David's days, meaning his father, Sir job Charlotte, an
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: old worthy cavalier. Note that mister Casberry said that he
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: remembers not the year of Sir Everett Charlotte's death, but
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: it was sixteen ninety two or three. He died suddenly
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: in October. Several lines describing his unpleasant habits and rebuted
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: delinquencies are omitted. Having seen him in such topping spirits
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: the night before, mister Casbury was amazed when he learned
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: the death. He was found in the town ditch. The
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: hare as was plucked clean off his head. Most bells
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: in Oxford rung out for him being a nobleman, and
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: he was buried next night in Saint Peter's in the East.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: But two years after being to be moved to his
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: country estate by his successor. It was said the coffin
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: breaking by Mischance proved quite full of hair, which sounds fabulous,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: But yet I believe precedents are upon record, as in
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Doctor Plott's History of Staffordshire. His chambers being afterwards stripped,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: mister Casbury came by part of the hangings of it,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: which twas said this Charlotte had designed expressly for a
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: memorial of his hair, giving the fellow that drew it
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: a lock to work by. And the piece which I
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: have fastened in here was parcel of the same which
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: mister Casburry gave to me. He said he believed there
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: was a subtlety in the drawing, but had never discovered
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: it himself, nor much liked to pour over it. The
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: money spent upon the curtains might as well have been
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: thrown into the fire, as they were. Mister Cattle's comment
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: upon what he heard of the story took the form
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: of a quotation from Shakespeare. You may guess it without difficulty.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: It began with the words their arms more things. End
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: of Story two.