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The Country of the Blind and Other Stories - The Story of the late Mr. Elvesham · The H. G. Wells Library

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Speaker 1: Section eleven of the Country of the Blind and other
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Speaker 1: stories by H. G. Wells. This LibriVox recording is in
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Speaker 1: the public domain. Read by Peter Yearsley, the story of
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Speaker 1: the late mister Elvisham. I set this story down not
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Speaker 1: expecting it will be believed, but if possible, to prepare
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Speaker 1: a way of escape for the next victim he perhaps
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Speaker 1: may profit by my misfortune. My own case, I know,
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Speaker 1: is hopeless, and I am now in some measure prepared
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Speaker 1: to meet my fate. My name is Edward George Eden.
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Speaker 1: I was born at Trentam in Staffordshire, my father being
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Speaker 1: employed in the gardens there. I lost my mother when
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Speaker 1: I was three years old, and my father when I
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Speaker 1: was five. My uncle, George Eden, then adopting me as
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Speaker 1: his own son. He was a single man, self educated
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Speaker 1: and well known in Birmingham as an enterprising journalist. He
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Speaker 1: educated me generously, fired my ambition to succeed in the world,
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Speaker 1: and at his death, which happened four years ago, left
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Speaker 1: me his entire fortune, a matter of about five hundred
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Speaker 1: pounds after all outgoing charges were paid. I was then eighteen.
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Speaker 1: He advised me in his will to expend the money
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Speaker 1: in completing my education. I had already chosen the profession
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Speaker 1: of medicine, and through his posthumous generosity and my good
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Speaker 1: fortune in a scholarship competition, I became a medical student
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Speaker 1: at University College London. At the time of the beginning
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Speaker 1: of my story, I lodged at eleven a University Street,
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Speaker 1: in a little upper room, very shabbily furnished and drafty,
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Speaker 1: overlooking the back of Shulbrid's premises. I used this little
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Speaker 1: room both to live in and sleep in, because I
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Speaker 1: was anxious to eke out my means to the very
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Speaker 1: last shillingsworth. I was taking a pair of shoes to
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Speaker 1: be mended at a shop in the Tottenham Court Road
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Speaker 1: when I first encountered the little old man with the
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Speaker 1: yellow face with whom my life has now become so
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Speaker 1: inextricably entangled. He was standing on the curb and staring
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Speaker 1: at the number on the door in a doubtful way.
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Speaker 1: As I opened it, his eyes, they were dull, gray
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Speaker 1: eyes and reddish under the rims, fell to my face,
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Speaker 1: and his countenance immediately assumed an expression of corrugated amiability.
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Speaker 1: You come, he said, apt to the moment I had
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Speaker 1: forgotten the number of your house. How do you do,
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Speaker 1: mister Eden. I was a little astonished at his familiar address,
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Speaker 1: for I had never set eyes on the man before.
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Speaker 1: I was a little annoyed, too, at his catching me
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Speaker 1: with my boots under my arm. He noticed my lack
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Speaker 1: of cordiality. Wonder who the deuce I am? Eh, a friend.
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Speaker 1: Let me assure you I have seen you before, though
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Speaker 1: you have seen me. Is there anywhere where I can
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Speaker 1: talk to you? I hesitated? The shabbiness of my room
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Speaker 1: upstairs was not a matter for every stranger. Perhaps, said I.
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Speaker 1: We might walk down the street. I'm unfortunately prevented my gesture,
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Speaker 1: explained the sentence before I had spoken it. The very
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Speaker 1: thing he said, and faced this way, and then that
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Speaker 1: the street. Which way shall we go? I slipped my
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Speaker 1: boots down in the passage. Look here, he said abruptly.
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Speaker 1: This business of mine is a rigmarole. Come and lunch
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Speaker 1: with me, mister Eden. I'm an old man, a very
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Speaker 1: old man, and not good at explanations. And what with
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Speaker 1: my piping voice and the clatter of the traffic, he
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Speaker 1: laid a persuasive, skinny hand that trembled a little upon
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Speaker 1: my arm. I was not so old that an old
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Speaker 1: man might not treat me to a lunch. Yet at
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Speaker 1: the same time I was not altogether pleased by this
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Speaker 1: abrupt invitation. I had rather, I began, But I had rather,
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Speaker 1: he said, catching me up, and as certain civilities surely
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Speaker 1: due to my gray hairs, And so I consented and
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Speaker 1: went with him. He took me to Blavitiski's. I had
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Speaker 1: to walk slowly to accommodate myself to his pace, and
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Speaker 1: over such a lunch as I had never tasted before,
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Speaker 1: he fended off my leading question, and I took a
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Speaker 1: better note of his appearance. His clean shaven face was
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Speaker 1: lean and wrinkled, his shriveled lips fell over a set
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Speaker 1: of false teeth, and his white hair was thin and
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Speaker 1: rather long. He seemed small to me, though indeed most
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Speaker 1: people seemed small to me, and his shoulders were rounded
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Speaker 1: and bent. And watching him, I could not help but
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Speaker 1: observe that he too was taking note of me, running
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Speaker 1: his eyes with a curious touch of greed in them,
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Speaker 1: over me, from my broad shoulders, to my sons hand hands,
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Speaker 1: and up to my freckled face again. And now said he,
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Speaker 1: as we lit our cigarettes, I must tell you of
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Speaker 1: the business in hand. I must tell you then that
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Speaker 1: I am an old man, a very old man, he
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Speaker 1: paused momentarily. And it happens that I have money that
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Speaker 1: I must presently be leaving, and never a child have
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Speaker 1: I to leave it to. I thought of the confidence trick,
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Speaker 1: and resolved I would be on the alert for the
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Speaker 1: vestiges of my five hundred pounds. He proceeded to enlarge
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Speaker 1: on his loneliness and the trouble he had to find
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Speaker 1: a proper disposition of his money. I have weighed this
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Speaker 1: plan and that plan, charities, institutions, and scholarships and libraries,
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Speaker 1: and I have come to this conclusion at last, he
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Speaker 1: fixed his eyes on my face, that I will find
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Speaker 1: some young fellow, ambitious, pure minded, and poor, healthy in
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Speaker 1: body and healthy in mind, and in short make him
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Speaker 1: my heir. Give him all that I have, he repeated,
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Speaker 1: Give him all that I have, so that he will
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Speaker 1: suddenly be lifted out of all the trouble and struggle
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Speaker 1: in which his sympathies have been educated to freedom and influence.
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Speaker 1: I tried to seem disinterested, with a transparent hypocrisy, I said,
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Speaker 1: and you want my help, My professional services may be
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Speaker 1: to find that person. He smiled and looked at me
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Speaker 1: over his cigarette, and I laughed at his quiet exposure
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Speaker 1: of my modest pretense. What a career such a man
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Speaker 1: might have said he It fills me with envy to
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Speaker 1: think how I have accumulated that another man may spend.
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Speaker 1: But there are conditions, of course, burdens to be imposed.
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Speaker 1: He must, for instance, take my name. You cannot expect
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Speaker 1: everything without some return. And I must go into all
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Speaker 1: the circumstances of his life before I can accept him.
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Speaker 1: He must be sound, I must know his heredity, how
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Speaker 1: his parents and grandparents died, have the strictest inquiries made
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Speaker 1: into his private morals. This modified my secret congratulations a little.
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Speaker 1: And do I understand? Said I that I yes? He said,
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Speaker 1: almost fiercely. You you? I answered, never a word. My
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Speaker 1: imagination was dancing wildly. My innate skepticism was useless to
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Speaker 1: modify its transports. There was not a particle of gratitude
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Speaker 1: in my mind. I did not know what to say,
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Speaker 1: nor how to say it. But why me in particular?
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Speaker 1: I said, at last, he had chanced to hear of
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Speaker 1: me from Professor Haslah. He said, as a typically sound
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Speaker 1: and sane young man, And he wished as far as
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Speaker 1: possible to leave his money where health and integrity were assured.
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Speaker 1: That was my first meeting with the little old man.
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Speaker 1: He was mysterious about himself. He would not give his
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Speaker 1: name yet, he said, and after I had answered some
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Speaker 1: questions of his, he left me at the Blavitiski portal.
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Speaker 1: I noticed that he drew a handful of gold coins
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Speaker 1: from his pocket when it came to paying for the lunch.
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Speaker 1: His insistence upon bodily health was curious. In accordance with
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Speaker 1: an arrangement we had made, I applied that day for
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Speaker 1: a life policy in the Loyal Insurance Company for a
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Speaker 1: large sum, and I was exhaustively overhauled by the medical
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Speaker 1: advisers of that company in the subsequent week. Even that
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Speaker 1: did not satisfy him, and he insisted I must be
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Speaker 1: re examined by the great doctor Henderson. It was Friday
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Speaker 1: in whits and week before he came to a decision.
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Speaker 1: He called me down quite late in the evening, nearly nine.
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Speaker 1: It was from cramming chemical equations for my preliminary scientific examination.
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Speaker 1: He was standing in the passage under the feeble gas lamp,
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Speaker 1: and his face was a grotesque interplay of shadows. He
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Speaker 1: seemed more bowed than when I had first seen him,
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Speaker 1: and his cheeks had sunk in a little. His voice
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Speaker 1: shook with emotion. Everything is satisfactory, mister Eden, he said,
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Speaker 1: Everything is quite quite satisfactory, And this night, of all nights,
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Speaker 1: you must dine with me and celebrate your accession. He
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Speaker 1: was interrupted by a cough. You won't have long to wait, either,
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Speaker 1: he said, wiping his handkerchief across his lips and gripping
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Speaker 1: my hand with his long bony claw that was disengaged. Certainly,
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Speaker 1: not very long to wait. We went into the street
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Speaker 1: and called a cab. I remember every incident of that
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Speaker 1: drive vividly, the swift, easy motion, the vivid contrast of
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Speaker 1: gas and oil and electric light, the crowds of people
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Speaker 1: in the streets, the place in Regent Street to which
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Speaker 1: we went, and the sumptuous dinner we were served with there.
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Speaker 1: I was disconcerted at first by the well dressed waiter's
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Speaker 1: glances at my rough clothes, bothered by the stones of
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Speaker 1: the olives. But as the champagne warmed my blood, my
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Speaker 1: confidence revived. At first, the old man talked of himself.
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Speaker 1: He had already told me his name in the cab.
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Speaker 1: He was Egbert Elvesham, the great philosopher, whose name I
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Speaker 1: had known since I was a lad at school. It
10:50
Speaker 1: seemed incredible to me that this man, whose intelligence had
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Speaker 1: so early dominated mine, this great abstraction, should suddenly realize
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Speaker 1: itself as this decrepit familiar figure. I dare say, every
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Speaker 1: young fellow who has suddenly fallen among celebrities has felt
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Speaker 1: something of my disappointment. He told me now of the future,
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Speaker 1: that the feeble streams of his life would presently leave
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Speaker 1: dry for me houses, copyrights, investments. I had never suspected
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Speaker 1: that philosophers were so rich. He watched me drink and
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Speaker 1: eat with a touch of envy. What a capacity for
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Speaker 1: living you have, he said, and then with a sigh,
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Speaker 1: a sigh of relief. I could have thought it. It
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Speaker 1: will not be long, aye, said I, my head swimming
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Speaker 1: now with Champagne. I have a future, perhaps of a passing,
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Speaker 1: agreeable sort. Thanks to you, I shall now have the
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Speaker 1: honor of your name. But you have a past, such
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Speaker 1: a past as is worth all my future. He shook
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Speaker 1: his head and smiled, as I thought, with half sad
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Speaker 1: appreciation of my flattering admiration. That future he said, would you,
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Speaker 1: in truth change it? The waiter came with liqueurs. You
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Speaker 1: will not perhaps mind taking my name, taking my position,
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Speaker 1: But would you, indeed willingly take my years with your achievements,
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Speaker 1: said I gallantly. He smiled again. Commel both, he said
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Speaker 1: to the waiter, and turned his attention to a little
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Speaker 1: paper packet he had taken from his pocket. This hour,
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Speaker 1: said he, This after dinner hour is the hour of
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Speaker 1: small things. Here is a scrap of my unpublished wisdom.
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Speaker 1: He opened the packet with his shaking yellow fingers, and
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Speaker 1: showed a little pinkish powder on the paper. This said he, Well,
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Speaker 1: you must guess what it is. But Kummel put but
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Speaker 1: a dash of this powder in it is Himmel. His
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Speaker 1: large grayish eyes watched mine with an inscrutable expression. It
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Speaker 1: was a bit of a shock to me to find
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Speaker 1: this great teacher gave his mind to the flavor of liqueurs. However,
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Speaker 1: I feigned an interest in his weakness, for I was
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Speaker 1: drunk enough for such small sicko fancy. He parted the
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Speaker 1: powder between the little glasses, and, rising suddenly with a strange,
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Speaker 1: unexpected dignity, held out his hand towards me. I imitated
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Speaker 1: his action, and the glasses rang to a quick succession,
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Speaker 1: said he, and raised his glass towards his lips. Not that,
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Speaker 1: I said hastily, Not that he paused, with the liqueur
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Speaker 1: at the level of his chin, and his eyes blazing
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Speaker 1: into mine. To a long life, said I. He hesitated
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Speaker 1: to a long life, said he, with a sudden bark
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Speaker 1: of laughter, and with eyes fixed on one another, we
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Speaker 1: tilted the little glasses. His eyes looked straight into mine,
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Speaker 1: And as I drained the stuff off, I felt a
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Speaker 1: curiously intense sensation. The first touch of it set my
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Speaker 1: brain in a furious tumult. I seemed to feel an
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Speaker 1: actual physical stirring in my skull, and a seething humming
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Speaker 1: filled my ears. I did not notice the flavor in
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Speaker 1: my mouth, the aroma that filled my throat. I saw
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Speaker 1: only the gray intensity of his gaze that burst into mine.
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Speaker 1: The draft, the mental confusion, the noise and stirring in
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Speaker 1: my head seemed to last an interminable time. Curious, vague
14:58
Speaker 1: impressions of half forgott and things danced and vanished on
15:02
Speaker 1: the edge of my consciousness. At last, he broke the
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Speaker 1: spell with a sudden, explosive sigh. He put down his glass. Well,
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Speaker 1: he said, it's glorious, said I. Though I had not
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Speaker 1: tasted the stuff. My head was spinning. I sat down.
15:20
Speaker 1: My brain was chaos. Then my perception grew clear and minute,
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Speaker 1: as though I saw things in a concave mirror. His
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Speaker 1: manner seemed to have changed into something nervous and hasty.
15:34
Speaker 1: He pulled out his watch and grimaced at it. Eleven
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Speaker 1: seven and to night. I must seven twenty five more touloo,
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Speaker 1: I must go at once. He called for the bill
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Speaker 1: and struggled with his coat. Officious waiters came to our assistance.
15:51
Speaker 1: In another moment, I was wishing him good bye over
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Speaker 1: the apron of a cab, and still with an absurd
15:57
Speaker 1: feeling of minute distinct ness, as though how can I
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Speaker 1: express it? I not only saw, but felt through an
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Speaker 1: inverted opera glass that stuff, he said. He put his
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Speaker 1: hand to his forehead. I ought not to have given
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Speaker 1: it to you. It will make your head split to morrow.
16:18
Speaker 1: Wait a minute. Here he handed me out a little
16:21
Speaker 1: flat thing like a side lit's powder. Take that in
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Speaker 1: water as you are going to bed. The other thing
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Speaker 1: was a drug. Not till you're ready to go to bed. Mind,
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Speaker 1: it will clear your head. That's all. One more shake, futurus,
16:38
Speaker 1: I gripped his shriveled claw. Good Bye, he said, and
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Speaker 1: by the droop of his eyelids I judged he too,
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Speaker 1: was a little under the influence of that brain twisting cordial.
16:50
Speaker 1: He recollected something else with a start felt in his
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Speaker 1: breast pocket, and produced another packet, this time a cylinder
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Speaker 1: of the size and shape of a shaving stick. Here,
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Speaker 1: said he, I'd almost forgotten. Don't open this until I
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Speaker 1: come to morrow, but take it now. It was so
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Speaker 1: heavy that I well nigh dropped it, all right, said I,
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Speaker 1: and he grinned at me through the cab window as
17:15
Speaker 1: the cabman flicked his horse into wakefulness. It was a
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Speaker 1: white packet he had given me, with red seals at
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Speaker 1: either end along its edge. If this isn't money, said I,
17:27
Speaker 1: it's platinum or lead. I stuck it with elaborate care
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Speaker 1: into my pocket, and with a whirling brain, walked home
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Speaker 1: through the Regent Street loiterers and the dark back streets
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Speaker 1: beyond Portland Road. I remember the sensations of that walk,
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Speaker 1: very vividly, strange as they were. I was still so
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Speaker 1: far myself that I could notice my strange mental state,
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Speaker 1: and wonder whether this stuff I had had was opium,
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Speaker 1: a drug beyond my experience. It is hard now to
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Speaker 1: describe the peculiarity of my mental strangeness. Mental Doubling vaguely
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Speaker 1: expresses it. As I was walking up Regent Street, I
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Speaker 1: found in my mind a queer persuasion that it was
18:12
Speaker 1: Waterloo Station, and had an odd impulse to get into
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Speaker 1: the Polytechnic, as a man might get into a train.
18:20
Speaker 1: I put a knuckle in my eye, and it was
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Speaker 1: Regent Street. How can I express it? You see a
18:26
Speaker 1: skillful actor looking quietly act you. He pulls a grimace
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Speaker 1: and lo another person. Is it too extravagant if I
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Speaker 1: tell you that? It seemed to me as if Regent
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Speaker 1: Street had, for the moment done that. Then, being persuaded
18:41
Speaker 1: it was Regent Street again, I was oddly muddled about
18:45
Speaker 1: some fantastic reminiscences that cropped up thirty years ago, thought
18:50
Speaker 1: I it was here that I quarreled with my brother.
18:54
Speaker 1: Then I burst out laughing, to the astonishment and encouragement
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Speaker 1: of a group of night prowlers. Thirty years ago. I
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Speaker 1: did not exist, and never in my life had I
19:05
Speaker 1: boasted a brother The stuff was surely liquid folly for
19:08
Speaker 1: the poignant regret for that lost brother still clung to me.
19:14
Speaker 1: Along Portland Road, the madness took another turn. I began
19:18
Speaker 1: to recall vanished shops and to compare the street with
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Speaker 1: what it used to be. Confused, troubled thinking is comprehensible
19:27
Speaker 1: enough after the drink I had taken. But what puzzled
19:31
Speaker 1: me were these curiously vivid phantasm memories that had crept
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Speaker 1: into my mind. And not only the memories that had
19:39
Speaker 1: crept in, but also the memories that had slipped out.
19:43
Speaker 1: I stopped outside Stephens's, the Natural History Dealers, and cuddled
19:48
Speaker 1: my brains to think what he had to do with me.
19:51
Speaker 1: A bus went by and sounded exactly like the rumbling
19:55
Speaker 1: of a train. I seemed to be dipping into some dark,
19:59
Speaker 1: remote pier for the recollection, of course, said I. At last,
20:04
Speaker 1: he has promised me three frogs to morrow. Odd that
20:07
Speaker 1: I should have forgotten. Do they still show children dissolving views?
20:14
Speaker 1: In those I remember, one view would begin like a
20:17
Speaker 1: faint ghost and grow and oust another. In just that way,
20:23
Speaker 1: it seemed to me that a ghostly set of new
20:26
Speaker 1: sensations was struggling with those of my ordinary self. I
20:31
Speaker 1: went on through Euston Road to Tottenham Court Road, puzzled
20:35
Speaker 1: and a little frightened, and scarcely noticed the unusual way
20:39
Speaker 1: I was taking. For commonly I used to cut through
20:44
Speaker 1: the intervening network of back streets. I turned into University
20:48
Speaker 1: Street to discover that I had forgotten my number. Only
20:52
Speaker 1: by a strong effort did I recall eleven A, And
20:56
Speaker 1: even then it seemed to me that it was a
20:58
Speaker 1: thing some forgots and person had told me. I tried
21:02
Speaker 1: to steady my mind by recalling the incidents of the dinner,
21:06
Speaker 1: and for the life of me, I could conjure up
21:09
Speaker 1: no picture of my host's face. I saw him only
21:12
Speaker 1: as a shadowy outline, as one might see one's self
21:16
Speaker 1: reflected in a window through which one was looking in
21:19
Speaker 1: his place. However, I had a curious exterior vision of
21:23
Speaker 1: myself sitting at a table, flushed, bright eyed, and talkative.
21:28
Speaker 1: I must take this other, powder, said I. This is
21:32
Speaker 1: getting impossible. I tried the wrong side of the hall
21:37
Speaker 1: for my candle and the matches, and had a doubt
21:40
Speaker 1: of which landing my room might be on. I'm drunk,
21:44
Speaker 1: I said, that's certain, and blundered needlessly on the staircase
21:49
Speaker 1: to sustain the proposition. At the first glance, my room
21:54
Speaker 1: seemed unfamiliar. What rot I said and stared about me.
21:59
Speaker 1: I seemed to bring myself back by the effort, and
22:02
Speaker 1: the odd phantasmal quality passed into the concrete familiar. There
22:08
Speaker 1: was the old glass still with my notes on the
22:11
Speaker 1: albumens stuck in the corner of the frame, my old
22:15
Speaker 1: every day suit of clothes pitched about the floor. And
22:18
Speaker 1: yet it was not so real. After all. I felt
22:22
Speaker 1: an idiotic persuasion trying to creep into my mind, as
22:26
Speaker 1: it were that I was in a railway carriage in
22:30
Speaker 1: a train just stopping. That I was peering out of
22:34
Speaker 1: the window at some unknown station. I gripped the bed
22:37
Speaker 1: rail firmly to reassure myself its clearvoyance. Perhaps, I said,
22:43
Speaker 1: I must write to the Psychical Research Society. I put
22:48
Speaker 1: the ruleau on my dressing table, sat on my bed,
22:51
Speaker 1: and began to take off my boots. It was as
22:55
Speaker 1: if the picture of my present sensations was painted over
22:59
Speaker 1: some other picks that was trying to show through curse.
23:03
Speaker 1: It said, I my wits are going, or am I
23:07
Speaker 1: in two places at Once half undressed, I tossed the
23:11
Speaker 1: powder into a glass and drank it off. It ever
23:15
Speaker 1: vest and became a fluorescent amber color. Before I was
23:20
Speaker 1: in bed, my mind was already tranquilized. I felt the
23:24
Speaker 1: pillow at my cheek, and thereupon I must have fallen asleep.
23:29
Speaker 1: I awoke abruptly out of a dream of strange beasts,
23:33
Speaker 1: and found myself lying on my back. Probably every one
23:37
Speaker 1: knows that dismal emotional dream from which one escapes awake, indeed,
23:43
Speaker 1: but strangely cowed. There was a curious taste in my mouth,
23:47
Speaker 1: a tired feeling in my limbs, a sense of cutaneous discomfort.
23:52
Speaker 1: I lay with my head motionless on my pillow, expecting
23:56
Speaker 1: that my feeling of strangeness and terror would pass away,
24:00
Speaker 1: and that I should then doze off again to sleep.
24:03
Speaker 1: But instead of that, my uncanny sensations increased. At first,
24:08
Speaker 1: I could perceive nothing wrong about me. There was a
24:12
Speaker 1: faint light in the room, so faint that it was
24:15
Speaker 1: the very next thing to darkness, and the furniture stood
24:18
Speaker 1: out in it as vague blocks of absolute darkness. I
24:22
Speaker 1: stared with my eyes just over the bedclothes. It came
24:27
Speaker 1: into my mind that some one had entered the room
24:30
Speaker 1: to rob me of my ruleeau of money. But after
24:34
Speaker 1: lying for some moments, breathing regularly to simulate sleep, I
24:39
Speaker 1: realized this was mere fancy. Nevertheless, the uneasy assurance of
24:45
Speaker 1: something wrong kept fast hold of me. With an effort,
24:49
Speaker 1: I raised my head from the pillow and peered about
24:52
Speaker 1: me at the dark. What it was I could not conceive.
24:57
Speaker 1: I looked at the dim shapes around me, the great
25:00
Speaker 1: and lesser darknesses that indicated curtains, table, fireplace, book shelves,
25:05
Speaker 1: and so forth. Then I began to perceive something unfamiliar
25:09
Speaker 1: in the forms of the darkness. Had the bed turned round,
25:13
Speaker 1: yonder should be the book shelves, and something shrouded and
25:18
Speaker 1: pallid rose there something that would not answer to the
25:22
Speaker 1: book shelves. However I looked at it. It was far
25:25
Speaker 1: too big to be my shirt thrown on a chair.
25:29
Speaker 1: Overcoming a childish terror, I threw back the bedclothes and
25:32
Speaker 1: thrust my leg out of bed. Instead of coming out
25:35
Speaker 1: of my truckle bed. Upon the floor, I found my
25:38
Speaker 1: foot scarcely reached the edge of the mattress. I made
25:42
Speaker 1: another step, as it were, and sat up on the
25:45
Speaker 1: edge of the bed. By the side of my bed
25:48
Speaker 1: should be the candle and the matches upon the broken chair.
25:51
Speaker 1: I put out my hand and touched nothing. I waved
25:56
Speaker 1: my hand in the darkness, and it came against some
25:59
Speaker 1: heavy hanging, soft and thick in texture, which gave a
26:02
Speaker 1: rustling noise at my touch. I grasped this and pulled it.
26:06
Speaker 1: It appeared to be a curtain suspended over the head
26:09
Speaker 1: of my bed. I was now thoroughly awake and beginning
26:13
Speaker 1: to realize that I was in a strange room. I
26:16
Speaker 1: was puzzled. I tried to recall the overnight circumstances, and
26:21
Speaker 1: I found them now curiously enough vivid in my memory.
26:26
Speaker 1: The supper, my reception of the little packages, my wonder
26:30
Speaker 1: whether I was intoxicated, my slow undressing, the coolness to
26:35
Speaker 1: my flushed face of my pillow. I felt a sudden distrust.
26:40
Speaker 1: Was that last night or the night before? At any rate?
26:45
Speaker 1: This room was strange to me, and I could not
26:47
Speaker 1: imagine how I had got into it. The dim, pallid
26:52
Speaker 1: outline was growing paler, and I perceived it was a
26:55
Speaker 1: window with the dark shape of an oval toilet glass.
26:59
Speaker 1: Against the weak intimation of the dawn that filtered through
27:03
Speaker 1: the blind. I stood up and was surprised by a
27:07
Speaker 1: curious feeling of weakness and unsteadiness. With trembling hands outstretched,
27:13
Speaker 1: I walked slowly towards the window, getting nevertheless a bruise
27:17
Speaker 1: on the knee from a chair by the way. I
27:20
Speaker 1: fumbled round the glass, which was large with handsome brass
27:24
Speaker 1: sconces to find the blind cord. I could not find any.
27:29
Speaker 1: By chance, I took hold of the tassel, and with
27:31
Speaker 1: the click of a spring, the blind ran up. I
27:35
Speaker 1: found myself looking out upon a scene that was altogether
27:39
Speaker 1: strange to me. The night was overcast, and through the
27:43
Speaker 1: floculent gray of the heaped clouds, there filtered a faint
27:48
Speaker 1: half light of dawn. Just at the edge of the sky.
27:51
Speaker 1: The cloud canopy had a blood red rim. Below, everything
27:56
Speaker 1: was dark and indistinct, dim hills in the distance, a
28:00
Speaker 1: vague mass of buildings running up into pinnacles, trees like
28:05
Speaker 1: spilt ink, and below the window a tracery of black
28:08
Speaker 1: bushes and pale gray paths. It was so unfamiliar that
28:13
Speaker 1: for the moment I thought myself still dreaming. I felt
28:16
Speaker 1: the toilet table. It appeared to be made of some
28:19
Speaker 1: polished wood, and was rather elaborately furnished. There were little
28:24
Speaker 1: cut glass bottles and a brush upon it. There was
28:27
Speaker 1: also a queer little object, horseshoe shape. It felt with smooth,
28:31
Speaker 1: hard projections. Lying in a saucer, I could find no
28:36
Speaker 1: matches nor candlestick. I turned my eyes to the room again.
28:40
Speaker 1: Now the blind was up. Faint specters of its furnishing
28:44
Speaker 1: came out of the darkness. There was a huge curtained bed,
28:48
Speaker 1: and the fireplace at its foot had a large white
28:50
Speaker 1: mantle with something of the shimmer of marble. I leant
28:54
Speaker 1: against the toilet table, shut my eyes and opened them again,
28:59
Speaker 1: and tried to think. The whole thing was far too
29:03
Speaker 1: real for dreaming. I was inclined to imagine. There was
29:06
Speaker 1: still some hiatus in my memory, as a consequence of
29:10
Speaker 1: my draft of that strange liqueur, that I had come
29:13
Speaker 1: into my inheritance, perhaps and suddenly lost my recollection of everything,
29:18
Speaker 1: since my good fortune had been announced. Perhaps if I
29:22
Speaker 1: waited a little, things would be clearer to me again.
29:25
Speaker 1: Yet my dinner with old Elvesham was now singularly vivid
29:30
Speaker 1: and recent. The Champagne, the observant waiters, the powder, and
29:35
Speaker 1: the liqueurs. I could have staked my soul. It all
29:38
Speaker 1: happened a few hours ago, and then occurred a thing
29:42
Speaker 1: so trivial and yet so terrible to me that I
29:45
Speaker 1: shiver now to think of that moment. I spoke aloud,
29:49
Speaker 1: I said, how the devil did I get here? And
29:53
Speaker 1: the voice was not my own? It was not my own,
29:58
Speaker 1: It was thin, The art ciculation was slurred, the resonance
30:02
Speaker 1: of my facial bones was different. Then, to reassure myself,
30:06
Speaker 1: I ran one hand over the other, and felt loose
30:09
Speaker 1: folds of skin, the bony laxity of age. Surely, I said,
30:15
Speaker 1: in that horrible voice that had somehow established itself in
30:18
Speaker 1: my throat. Surely this thing is a dream. Almost as
30:24
Speaker 1: quickly as if I did it voluntarily, I thrust my
30:27
Speaker 1: fingers into my mouth. My teeth had gone. My finger
30:30
Speaker 1: tips ran on the flaccid surface of an even row
30:33
Speaker 1: of shriveled gums. I was sick with dismay and disgust.
30:38
Speaker 1: I felt then a passionate desire to see myself, to
30:42
Speaker 1: realize at once, in its full horror, the ghastly change
30:46
Speaker 1: that had come upon me. I tottered to the mantle
30:49
Speaker 1: and felt along it for matches. As I did so,
30:52
Speaker 1: a barking cough sprang up in my throat, and I
30:55
Speaker 1: clutched the thick flannel night dress I found about me.
30:59
Speaker 1: There were no men there, and I suddenly realized that
31:02
Speaker 1: my extremities were cold. Sniffing and coughing, whimpering a little perhaps,
31:08
Speaker 1: I fumbled back to the bed. It is surely a dream,
31:13
Speaker 1: I whispered to myself as I clambered back. Surely a dream.
31:19
Speaker 1: It was a senile repetition. I pulled the bedclothes over
31:23
Speaker 1: my shoulders, over my ears. I thrust my withered hand
31:27
Speaker 1: under the pillow, and determined to compose myself to sleep.
31:31
Speaker 1: Of course it was a dream. In the morning, the
31:34
Speaker 1: dream would be over, and I should wake up, strong
31:37
Speaker 1: and vigorous again to my youth and studies. I shut
31:41
Speaker 1: my eyes, breathed regularly, and, finding myself wakeful, began to
31:46
Speaker 1: count slowly through the powers of three. But the thing
31:49
Speaker 1: I desired would not come. I could not get to sleep,
31:53
Speaker 1: and the persuasion of the inexorable reality of the change
31:58
Speaker 1: that had happened to me grew steadily. Presently, I found
32:02
Speaker 1: myself with my eyes wide open, the powers of three forgotten,
32:06
Speaker 1: and my skinny fingers upon my shriveled gums. I was, indeed,
32:11
Speaker 1: suddenly and abruptly an old man. I had, in some
32:15
Speaker 1: unaccountable manner, fallen through my life and come to old age.
32:20
Speaker 1: In some way, I had been cheated of all the
32:22
Speaker 1: best of my life, of love, of struggle, of strength
32:27
Speaker 1: and hope. I groveled into the pillow and tried to
32:30
Speaker 1: persuade myself that such hallucination was possible. Imperceptibly, Steadily the
32:36
Speaker 1: dawn grew clearer. At last, despairing of further sleep, I
32:42
Speaker 1: sat up in bed and looked about me. A chill
32:45
Speaker 1: twilight rendered the whole chamber visible. It was spacious and
32:49
Speaker 1: well furnished, better furnished than any room I had ever
32:52
Speaker 1: slept in before. A candle and matches became dimly visible
32:57
Speaker 1: upon a little pedestal. In a recess, I threw back
33:00
Speaker 1: the bedclothes, and, shivering with the rawness of the early morning,
33:04
Speaker 1: albeit it was summer time, I got out and lit
33:08
Speaker 1: the candle. Then, trembling horribly so that the extinguisher rattled
33:13
Speaker 1: on its spike, I tottered to the glass and saw
33:17
Speaker 1: Elveshum's face. It was none the less horrible, because I
33:22
Speaker 1: had already dimly feared as much. He had already seemed
33:26
Speaker 1: physically weak and pitiful to me. But seen now dressed
33:31
Speaker 1: only in a short flannel night dress that fell apart
33:34
Speaker 1: and showed the stringy neck, seen now as my own body,
33:39
Speaker 1: I cannot describe its desolate decrepitude, the hollow cheeks, the
33:45
Speaker 1: straggling tail of dirty gray hair, the roomy, bleared eyes,
33:50
Speaker 1: the quivering, shriveled lips, the lower displaying a gleam of
33:54
Speaker 1: the pink interior lining, and those horrible dark gums showing you,
34:00
Speaker 1: who are mind and body together at your natural years.
34:05
Speaker 1: Cannot imagine what this fiendish imprisonment meant to me, to
34:09
Speaker 1: be young and full of the desire and energy of youth,
34:13
Speaker 1: and to be caught and presently to be crushed in
34:16
Speaker 1: this tottering ruin of a body. But I wander from
34:21
Speaker 1: the course of my story. For some time I must
34:24
Speaker 1: have been stunned at this change that had come upon me.
34:27
Speaker 1: It was daylight when I did so far gather myself
34:31
Speaker 1: together as to think in some inexplicable way I had
34:36
Speaker 1: been changed, though how short of magic the thing had
34:40
Speaker 1: been done, I could not say, And as I thought,
34:44
Speaker 1: the diabolical ingenuity of Elvesham came home to me. It
34:49
Speaker 1: seemed plain to me that as I found myself in his,
34:53
Speaker 1: so he must be in possession of my body, of
34:57
Speaker 1: my strength, that is, and my few But how to
35:01
Speaker 1: prove it? Then? As I thought, the thing became so
35:05
Speaker 1: incredible even to me that my mind reeled, and I
35:09
Speaker 1: had to pinch myself, to feel my toothless gums, to
35:13
Speaker 1: see myself in the glass and touch the things about me.
35:17
Speaker 1: Before I could steady myself to face the facts again?
35:22
Speaker 1: Was all life hallucination? Was I indeed Elvesham? And he me?
35:28
Speaker 1: Had I been dreaming of Eden? Over night? Was there
35:33
Speaker 1: any Eden? But if I was Elvesham, I should remember
35:37
Speaker 1: where I was on the previous morning, the name of
35:40
Speaker 1: the town in which I lived, what happened before the
35:43
Speaker 1: dream began? I struggled with my thoughts. I recalled the
35:47
Speaker 1: queer doubleness of my memories over night, But now my
35:52
Speaker 1: mind was clear, not the ghost of any memories, but
35:56
Speaker 1: those proper to Eden. Could I raise this way lies insanity?
36:02
Speaker 1: I cried in my piping voice. I staggered to my feet,
36:06
Speaker 1: dragged my feeble heavy limbs to the wash hand stand,
36:11
Speaker 1: and plunged my gray head into a basin of cold water. Then,
36:15
Speaker 1: toweling myself, I tried again. It was no good. I
36:19
Speaker 1: felt beyond all question that I was indeed Eden, not Elvesham,
36:26
Speaker 1: but Eden in Elvesham's body. Had I been a man
36:31
Speaker 1: of any other age, I might have given myself up
36:34
Speaker 1: to my fate as one enchanted. But in these skeptical
36:39
Speaker 1: days miracles do not pass current. Here was some trick
36:44
Speaker 1: of psychology. What a drug and a steady stare could do.
36:50
Speaker 1: A drug and a steady stare or some similar treatment
36:54
Speaker 1: could surely undo men have lost their memories before. But
36:58
Speaker 1: to exchange me as one does umbrellas, I laughed alas
37:04
Speaker 1: not a healthy laugh, but a wheezing, senile titter. I
37:09
Speaker 1: could have fancied Old Elvesham laughing at my plight, and
37:13
Speaker 1: a gust of petulant anger, unusual to me, swept across
37:17
Speaker 1: my feelings. I began dressing eagerly in the clothes I
37:21
Speaker 1: found lying about on the floor, and only realized when
37:24
Speaker 1: I was dressed that it was an evening suit I
37:26
Speaker 1: had assumed. I opened the wardrobe, and found some more
37:30
Speaker 1: ordinary clothes, a pair of plaid trousers and an old
37:34
Speaker 1: fashioned dressing gown. I put a venerable smoking cap on
37:39
Speaker 1: my venerable head, and, coughing a little from my exertions,
37:43
Speaker 1: tottered out upon the landing. It was then perhaps a
37:47
Speaker 1: quarter to six, and the blinds were closely drawn, and
37:51
Speaker 1: the house quite silent. The landing was a spacious one.
37:55
Speaker 1: A broad, richly carpeted staircase went down into the darkness
37:59
Speaker 1: of the hall below, and before me a door. Ajar
38:03
Speaker 1: showed me a writing desk, a revolving bookcase, the back
38:07
Speaker 1: of a study chair, and a fine array of bound
38:10
Speaker 1: books shelf upon shelf my study. I mumbled and walked
38:15
Speaker 1: across the landing. Then, at the sound of my voice,
38:20
Speaker 1: a thought struck me, and I went back to the
38:22
Speaker 1: bedroom and put in a set of false teeth. They
38:26
Speaker 1: slipped in with the ease of old habit. That's better,
38:30
Speaker 1: said I, gnashing them, and so returned to the study.
38:35
Speaker 1: The drawers of the writing desk were locked. Its revolving
38:38
Speaker 1: top was also locked. I could see no indications of
38:42
Speaker 1: the keys, and there were none in the pockets of
38:45
Speaker 1: my trousers. I shuffled back at once to the bedroom
38:49
Speaker 1: and went through the dress, suit and afterwards the pockets
38:52
Speaker 1: of all the garments I could find. I was very eager,
38:55
Speaker 1: and one might have imagined that burglars had been at
38:58
Speaker 1: work to see my room. When I I had done.
39:01
Speaker 1: Not only were there no keys to be found, but
39:04
Speaker 1: not a coin nor a scrap of paper, save only
39:08
Speaker 1: the receipted bill of the overnight dinner. A curious weariness
39:13
Speaker 1: asserted itself. I sat down and stared at the garments
39:17
Speaker 1: flung here and there, their pockets turned inside out. My
39:21
Speaker 1: first frenzy had already flickered out. Every moment I was
39:25
Speaker 1: beginning to realize the immense intelligence of the plans of
39:29
Speaker 1: my enemy, to see more and more clearly the hopelessness
39:33
Speaker 1: of my position. With an effort, I rose and hurried,
39:37
Speaker 1: hobbling into the study again. On the staircase was a
39:41
Speaker 1: housemaid pulling up the blinds. She stared, I think at
39:45
Speaker 1: the expression of my face. I shut the door of
39:48
Speaker 1: the study behind me, and, seizing a poker, began an
39:52
Speaker 1: attack on the desk. That is how they found me.
39:57
Speaker 1: The cover of the desk was split, the locks, the
40:00
Speaker 1: letters torn out of the pigeon holes and tossed about
40:03
Speaker 1: the room. In my senile rage, I had flung about
40:07
Speaker 1: the pens and other such light stationery, and overturned the ink. Moreover,
40:12
Speaker 1: a large vase upon the mantle had got broken. I
40:15
Speaker 1: do not know how I could find no check book,
40:18
Speaker 1: no money, no indications of the slightest use for the
40:22
Speaker 1: recovery of my body. I was battering madly at the
40:26
Speaker 1: drawers when the butler, backed by two women servants, intruded
40:30
Speaker 1: upon me. That simply is the story of my change.
40:36
Speaker 1: No one will believe my frantic assertions. I am treated
40:41
Speaker 1: as one demented, and even at this moment I am
40:44
Speaker 1: under restraint. But I am sane, absolutely sane, And to
40:49
Speaker 1: prove it, I have sat down to write this story
40:52
Speaker 1: minutely as the things happened to me. I appeal to
40:56
Speaker 1: the reader whether there is any trace of insanity in
41:00
Speaker 1: the style or method of the story he has been reading.
41:03
Speaker 1: I am a young man locked away in an old
41:08
Speaker 1: man's body, but the clear fact is incredible to everyone. Naturally,
41:13
Speaker 1: I appear demented to those who will not believe this. Naturally,
41:18
Speaker 1: I do not know the names of my secretaries of
41:21
Speaker 1: the doctors who come to see me, of my servants
41:24
Speaker 1: and neighbors of this town, wherever it is where I
41:28
Speaker 1: find myself. Naturally I lose myself in my own house
41:34
Speaker 1: and suffer inconveniences of every sort. Naturally I ask the
41:39
Speaker 1: oddest questions. Naturally I weep and cry out, and have
41:44
Speaker 1: paroxysms of despair. I have no money and no check book.
41:49
Speaker 1: The bank will not recognize my signature, for I suppose that,
41:53
Speaker 1: allowing for the feeble muscles I now have, my handwriting
41:58
Speaker 1: is still Eden's. These people about me will not let
42:02
Speaker 1: me go to the bank personally. It seems, indeed, that
42:05
Speaker 1: there is no bank in this town, and that I
42:09
Speaker 1: have an account in some part of London. It seems
42:12
Speaker 1: that Elfsham kept the name of his solicitor secret from
42:16
Speaker 1: all his household. I can ascertain nothing. Elfsham was, of course,
42:21
Speaker 1: a profound student of mental science, and all my declarations
42:27
Speaker 1: of the facts of the case merely confirmed the theory
42:31
Speaker 1: that my insanity is the outcome of overmuch brooding upon psychology,
42:37
Speaker 1: dreams of the personal identity. Indeed, two days ago I
42:42
Speaker 1: was a healthy youngster, with all life before me. Now
42:47
Speaker 1: I am a furious old man, unkempt and desperate and miserable,
42:53
Speaker 1: prowling about a great, luxurious, strange house, watched and avoided
43:01
Speaker 1: as a lunatic by every one about me, And in
43:04
Speaker 1: London is Elvesham, beginning life again in a vigorous body,
43:09
Speaker 1: and with all the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of three
43:14
Speaker 1: score and ten he has stolen my life. What has
43:20
Speaker 1: happened I do not clearly know. In the study our
43:23
Speaker 1: volumes of manuscript notes referring chiefly to the psychology of memory,
43:28
Speaker 1: and parts of what may be either calculations or ciphers
43:33
Speaker 1: in symbols absolutely strange to me. In some passages there
43:37
Speaker 1: are indications that he was also occupied with the philosophy
43:40
Speaker 1: of mathematics. I take it he has transferred the whole
43:44
Speaker 1: of his memories, the accumulation that makes up his personality,
43:49
Speaker 1: from this old, withered brain of his to mine, and
43:54
Speaker 1: similarly that he has transferred mine to his discarded tenement. Practically,
44:00
Speaker 1: that is, he has changed bodies. But how such a
44:04
Speaker 1: change may be possible is without the range of my philosophy.
44:09
Speaker 1: I have been a materialist for all my thinking life.
44:12
Speaker 1: But here suddenly is a clear case of man's detachability
44:18
Speaker 1: from matter. One desperate experiment I am about to try.
44:24
Speaker 1: I sit writing here before putting the matter to issue.
44:28
Speaker 1: This morning, with the help of a table knife that
44:31
Speaker 1: I had secreted at breakfast, I succeeded in breaking open
44:34
Speaker 1: a fairly obvious secret drawer. In this wrecked writing desk,
44:39
Speaker 1: I discovered nothing save a little green glass file containing
44:44
Speaker 1: a white powder. Round the neck of the file was
44:47
Speaker 1: a label, and thereon was written this one word release,
44:52
Speaker 1: this may be is most probably poison. I can understand
44:57
Speaker 1: Elvesham placing poison in my way, and I should be
45:01
Speaker 1: sure that it was his intention so to get rid
45:05
Speaker 1: of the only living witness against him. Were it not
45:09
Speaker 1: for this careful concealment, the man has practically solved the
45:14
Speaker 1: problem of immortality, save for the spite of chance. He
45:19
Speaker 1: will live in my body until it has aged, and
45:22
Speaker 1: then again, throwing that aside, he will assume some other
45:27
Speaker 1: victims youth and strength. When one remembers his heartlessness, it
45:33
Speaker 1: is terrible to think of the ever growing experience that
45:37
Speaker 1: how long has he been leaping from body to body?
45:40
Speaker 1: But I tire of writing. The powder appears to be
45:44
Speaker 1: soluble in water. The taste is not unpleasant. There the
45:50
Speaker 1: narrative found upon mister Elvesham's desk ends. His dead body
45:55
Speaker 1: lay between the desk and the chair, the latter had
45:58
Speaker 1: been pushed back, probably by his last convulsions. The story
46:02
Speaker 1: was written in pencil and in a crazy hand, quite
46:06
Speaker 1: unlike his usual minute characters. There remain only two curious
46:11
Speaker 1: facts to record. Indisputably, there was some connection between Eden
46:16
Speaker 1: and Elvesham, since the whole of Elfsham's property was bequeathed
46:21
Speaker 1: to the young man, but he never inherited. When Elvesham
46:26
Speaker 1: committed suicide, Eden was strangely enough, already dead twenty four
46:33
Speaker 1: hours before. He had been knocked down by a cab
46:36
Speaker 1: and killed instantly at the crowded crossing at the intersection
46:40
Speaker 1: of Gower Street and Euston Road, so that the only
46:43
Speaker 1: human being who could have thrown light upon this fantastic
46:47
Speaker 1: narrative is beyond the reach of questions. Without further comment,
46:54
Speaker 1: I leave this extraordinary matter to the reader's individual judgment.
47:00
Speaker 1: End of Section eleven.