Latest / The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library / The Shuttle Chapter 23 - Introducing G. Selden

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The Shuttle Chapter 23 - Introducing G. Selden · The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library

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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty three of the shuttle chapter twenty three introducing
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Speaker 1: g selden a bird was perched upon a swaying branch
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Speaker 1: of a slim young sapling near the fence supported hedge
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Speaker 1: which bounded the park and mount dunstan had stopped to
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Speaker 1: look at it and listen a soft shower had fallen
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Speaker 1: and after its passing the sun coming through the light
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Speaker 1: clouds there had broken forth again in the trees the
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Speaker 1: brief trills and calls and fluting of bird-notes. The sward
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Speaker 1: and ferns glittered fresh green under the raindrops. The young
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Speaker 1: leaves on trees and hedge seemed visibly to uncurl. The
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Speaker 1: uncovered earth looked richly dark and moist, and sent forth
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Speaker 1: the fragrance from its deeps, which, rising to a man's nostrils,
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Speaker 1: stirs and thrills him because it is the scent of
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Speaker 1: life's self. The bird upon the sapling was a robin,
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Speaker 1: the tiny round body perched upon his delicate legs, plump
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Speaker 1: and bright plumaged for mating. He touched his warm red
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Speaker 1: breast with his beak, fluffed out and shook his feathers,
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Speaker 1: and swelling his throat poured forth his small entranced song.
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Speaker 1: It was a gay, brief, jaunty thing, but pure, joyous, gallant,
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Speaker 1: liquid melody. There was dainty bravado in it, saucy demand
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Speaker 1: and allurement. It was addressed to some invisible hearer of
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Speaker 1: the tender sex, and wheresoever she might be hidden, whether
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Speaker 1: in great branch or low thicket or hedge, there was
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Speaker 1: hinted no doubt in her small wooer's note, that she
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Speaker 1: would hear it and in due time respond. Mount Dunstan, listening,
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Speaker 1: even laughed at its confident music. The tiny thing was
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Speaker 1: uttering its call of the world, jubilant in the surety
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Speaker 1: of an answer. Having flung it forth, he paused a
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Speaker 1: moment and waited, his small head turned sideways, his big, round,
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Speaker 1: dew-bright black eye roguishly attentive. Then, with more swelling of
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Speaker 1: the throat, he trilled and rippled gaily anew, undisturbed and undoubting,
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Speaker 1: but with a trifle of insistence. Then he listened, tried
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Speaker 1: again two or three times, with brave chirps and exultant
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Speaker 1: little roulades. Here am I, the bright-breasted, the liquid-eyed, the slender-legged,
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Speaker 1: the joyous and conquering. Listen to me, listen to me,
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Speaker 1: listen and answer in the call of God's world. It
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Speaker 1: was the joy and triumphant faith in the tiny note
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Speaker 1: of the tiny thing, life as he himself was, though
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Speaker 1: life whose mystery his man's hand could have crushed, which,
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Speaker 1: while he laughed, set Mount Dunstan thinking. Spring warmth and
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Speaker 1: spring scents and spring notes set a man's being in
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Speaker 1: tune with infinite things. The bright roulade began again, prolonged
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Speaker 1: itself with renewed effort, rose to its height and ended.
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Speaker 1: From the bush in the thicket further up the road
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Speaker 1: a liquid answer came, and Mount Dunstan's laugh at the
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Speaker 1: sound of it was echoed by another which came apparently
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Speaker 1: from the bank rising from the road on the other
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Speaker 1: side of the hedge, and accompanying the laugh was a
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Speaker 1: good-natured nasal voice. She's caught on, there's no mistake about that.
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Speaker 1: I guess it's time for you to hustle, Mr. Robb.
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Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan laughed again. Jem Salter had heard voices like it,
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Speaker 1: and cheerful slang phrases of the same order in his
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Speaker 1: ranch days. On the other side of his park fence
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Speaker 1: there was evidently sitting, through some odd chance, an American
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Speaker 1: of the cheery casual order, not sufficiently polished by travel
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Speaker 1: to have lost his picturesque national characteristics. Mount Dunstan put
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Speaker 1: a hand on a broken panel of fence and leapt
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Speaker 1: over it into the road. A bicycle was lying upon
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Speaker 1: the roadside grass, and on the bank, looking as though
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Speaker 1: he had been sheltering himself under the hedge from the rain,
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Speaker 1: sat a young man in a cheap bicycling suit. His
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Speaker 1: features were sharply cut and keen, his cap was pushed
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Speaker 1: back from his forehead, and he had a pair of
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Speaker 1: shrewdly careless boyish eyes. Mount Dunstan liked the look of him,
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Speaker 1: and seeing his natural start at the unheralded leap over
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Speaker 1: the gap which was quite close to him, he spoke.
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Speaker 1: Good morning, he said. I'm afraid I startled you. Good morning,
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Speaker 1: was the response. It was a bit of a jolt,
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Speaker 1: seeing you jump almost over my shoulder. Where did you
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Speaker 1: come from? You must have been just behind me. I was,
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Speaker 1: explained Mount Dunstan, standing in the park, listening to the robin.
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Speaker 1: The young fellow laughed outright. Say, he said, that was
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Speaker 1: pretty fine, wasn't it? Wasn't he getting it off his chest?
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Speaker 1: He was an English robin, I guess. American robins are
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Speaker 1: three or four times as big. I liked that little chap.
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Speaker 1: He was a winner. You are an American. Sure, nodding.
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Speaker 1: Put old stars and stripes for mine. First time I've
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Speaker 1: been here. Came part for business and part for pleasure.
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Speaker 1: Having the time of my life. Mount Dunstan sat down
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Speaker 1: beside him. He wanted to hear him talk. He had
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Speaker 1: liked to hear the ranchman talk. This was one of
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Speaker 1: the city type, but his genial conversational wanderings would be
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Speaker 1: full of quaint slang and good spirits. He was quite
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Speaker 1: ready to converse, as was made manifest by his next speech.
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Speaker 1: I'm biking through the country because I once had an
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Speaker 1: old grandmother who was English, and she was always talking
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Speaker 1: about English country, and how green things was, and how
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Speaker 1: there was hedges instead of rail fences. She thought there
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Speaker 1: was nothing like little old England. Well, as far as
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Speaker 1: roads and hedges go, I'm with her. They're all right.
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Speaker 1: I wanted a fellow I met crossing to come with me,
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Speaker 1: but he took a cook's trip to Paris. He's a
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Speaker 1: gay sort of boy, said he didn't want any green
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Speaker 1: lanes in his. He wanted boulevard. He laughed again, and
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Speaker 1: pushed his cap further back on his forehead. Said I
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Speaker 1: wasn't much of a sport. I tell you, a chap
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Speaker 1: that's got to earn his fifteen per and live on
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Speaker 1: it can't be too much of a sport. Fifteen per?
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Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan repeated doubtfully. His companion chuckled. I forgot I
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Speaker 1: was talking to an Englishman. Fifteen dollars per week, that's
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Speaker 1: what fifteen per means. That's what he told me he
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Speaker 1: gets at Lobenstein's Brewery in New York. Fifteen per, not much,
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Speaker 1: is it?'' How does he manage continental travel on fifteen per?'
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Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan inquired.' He' s a typewriter and stenographer, and he
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Speaker 1: dug up some extra jobs to do at night. He's
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Speaker 1: been working and saving two years to do this.' We
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Speaker 1: didn't come over on one of the big liners with
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Speaker 1: the 400, you can bet. Took a cheap one, inside cabin,
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Speaker 1: second class. By George, said Mount Dunstan, that was American.
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Speaker 1: The American eagle slightly flapped his wings. The young man
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Speaker 1: pushed his cap a trifle sideways this time and flushed
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Speaker 1: a little. Well, when an American wants anything, he generally
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Speaker 1: reaches out for it. Wasn't it rather rash, considering the
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Speaker 1: fifteen per, Mount Dunstan suggested? He was really beginning to
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Speaker 1: enjoy himself.' What' s the use of making a dollar and
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Speaker 1: sitting on it? I've not got fifteen per steady, and
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Speaker 1: here I am.' Mount Dunstan knew his man and looked
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Speaker 1: at him with inquiring interest. He was quite sure he
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Speaker 1: would go on. This was a thing he had seen before,
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Speaker 1: an utter freedom from the insular grudging reserve, a sort
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Speaker 1: of occult perception of the presence of friendly sympathy, and
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Speaker 1: an ingenious readiness to meet it half-way. The youngster, having
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Speaker 1: missed his fellow traveller, and probably feeling the lack of
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Speaker 1: companionship in his country rides, was in the mood for self-revelation.
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Speaker 1: I'm selling for a big concern, he said, and I've
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Speaker 1: got a first-class article to carry. Up to date, you know,
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Speaker 1: and all that. It's the top-notch of typewriting machines, the Delcoff.
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Speaker 1: Ever seen it? Here's my card. Taking a card from
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Speaker 1: an inside pocket and handing it to him. It was inscribed, J.
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Speaker 1: Burridge & Sons. dilkoff typewriter company broadway new york g
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Speaker 1: selden that's my name he said pointing to the inscription
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Speaker 1: in the corner i'm g selden the junior assistant of
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Speaker 1: mr jones at the sight of the insignia of his
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Speaker 1: trade his holiday air dropped from him and he hastily
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Speaker 1: drew from another pocket an illustrated catalogue if you use
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Speaker 1: a typewriter he broke forth i can assure you it
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Speaker 1: would be to your interest to look at this and
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Speaker 1: as Mount Dunstan took the proffered pamphlet and with amiable
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Speaker 1: gravity opened it, he rapidly poured forth his salesman's patter,
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Speaker 1: scarcely pausing to take his breath. It is the most
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Speaker 1: up-to-date machine on the market. It has all the latest
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Speaker 1: improved mechanical appliances. You will see from the cut in
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Speaker 1: the catalogue that the plate and roller is easily removed
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Speaker 1: without a long mechanical operation. All you do is slip
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Speaker 1: two pins back and off comes the roller. There is
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Speaker 1: also another point worth mentioning— THE RIBBON SWITCH By using
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Speaker 1: this ribbon switch you can write in either red or
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Speaker 1: blue ink while you are using only one ribbon. By
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Speaker 1: throwing the switch on this side you can use thirteen
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Speaker 1: yards on the upper edge of the ribbon. By reversing
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Speaker 1: it you use thirteen yards on the lower edge, thus
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Speaker 1: getting practically twenty-six yards of good serviceable ribbon out of
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Speaker 1: one that is only thirteen yards long, making a saving
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Speaker 1: of fifty percent in your ribbon expenditure alone, which you
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Speaker 1: will see is quite an item to any enterprising firm.
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Speaker 1: He was obliged to pause here for a second or so,
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Speaker 1: but as Mount Dunstan exhibited no signs of intending to
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Speaker 1: use violence, and on the contrary continued to inspect the catalogue,
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Speaker 1: he broke forth with renewed cheery volubility. Another advantage is
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Speaker 1: the new basket shift. Also the carriage on this machine
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Speaker 1: is perfectly stationary and rigid. On all other machines it
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Speaker 1: is fastened by a series of connecting bolts and links,
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Speaker 1: which you will readily understand makes perfect alignment uncertain. THEN
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Speaker 1: OUR TABULATOR IS A PART AND PARCEL OF THE INSTRUMENT,
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Speaker 1: COSTING YOU NOTHING MORE THAN THE ORIGINAL PRICE OF THE MACHINE,
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Speaker 1: WHICH IS ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS, WITHOUT DISCOUNT.'' IT SEEMS A
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Speaker 1: GOOD THING,' SAID MOUNT DUNSTON.' IF I HAD MUCH BUSINESS
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Speaker 1: TO TRANSACT, I SHOULD BUY ONE.'' IF YOU BOUGHT ONE,
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Speaker 1: YOU'D HAVE BUSINESS,' RESPONDED SELDON.' THAT' S WHAT'S THE MATTER. IT'S
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Speaker 1: THE UP-TO-DATE MACHINES THAT SET THINGS HUMMING. A SLOW, OLD-FASHIONED
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Speaker 1: typewriter uses a firm's time and time's money.'' I don't
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Speaker 1: find it so,' said Mount Dunstan.' I have more time
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Speaker 1: than I can possibly use, and no money.' Gee, Seldon
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Speaker 1: looked at him with friendly interest. His experience, which was varied,
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Speaker 1: had taught him to recognise symptoms. This nice, rough-looking chap, who,
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Speaker 1: despite his rather shabby clothes, looked like a gentleman—' wore
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Speaker 1: an expression Jones's junior assistant had seen many a time before.
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Speaker 1: He had seen it frequently on the countenances of other
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Speaker 1: junior assistants, who had tramped the streets and met more
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Speaker 1: or less savage rebuffs through a day's length without disposing
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Speaker 1: of a single delcoff, and thereby adding five dollars to
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Speaker 1: the ten per. It was the kind of thing which
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Speaker 1: wiped the youth out of a man's face and gave
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Speaker 1: him a hard-worn look about the eyes. He had looked
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Speaker 1: like that himself many an unfeeling day before he'd learned
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Speaker 1: to know the ropes and not mind a bit of
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Speaker 1: hot air. His buoyant, slangy soul was a friendly thing.
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Speaker 1: He was a gregarious creature and liked his fellow-man. He felt, indeed,
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Speaker 1: more at ease with him when he needed jollying along.
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Speaker 1: Reticence was not even etiquette in a case as usual
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Speaker 1: as this.' Say,' he broke out, 'maybe I oughtn't to
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Speaker 1: have worried you. Are you up against it? Down on
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Speaker 1: your luck, I mean?' in hasty translation. Mount Dunstan grinned
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Speaker 1: a little. That's a very good way of putting it,
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Speaker 1: he answered. I never heard up against it before. It's good. Yes,
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Speaker 1: I'm up against it. Out of a job, with genial sympathy. Well,
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Speaker 1: the job I had was too big for me. It
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Speaker 1: needed capital, he grinned slightly again, recalling a phrase of
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Speaker 1: his western past. I'm afraid I'm down and out. No,
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Speaker 1: you're not, with cheerful scorn. You're not dead, are you?
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Speaker 1: As long as a man's not been dead a month,
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Speaker 1: there's always a chance that there's luck around the corner.
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Speaker 1: How did you happen here? Are you piking it? Momentarily,
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Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan was baffled. Gee, Selden, recognizing the fact, enlightened him.
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Speaker 1: That's New York again, he said with a boyish touch
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Speaker 1: of apology. It means on the tramp, traveling along the turnpike.
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Speaker 1: You don't look as if you'd come to that, though
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Speaker 1: it's queer the sort of fellas you do meet piking sometimes.
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Speaker 1: Theatrical companies that have gone to pieces on the road,
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Speaker 1: you know. Perhaps, with sudden thought, perhaps you're an actor,
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Speaker 1: are you? Mount Dunstan admitted to himself that he liked
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Speaker 1: the junior assistant of Jones immensely. A more ingeniously common
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Speaker 1: young man, a more innocent outsider, it had never been
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Speaker 1: his blessed privilege to enter into close converse with. But
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Speaker 1: his very commonness was a healthy, normal thing. It made
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Speaker 1: no effort to wreathe itself with chaplets of elegance. It
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Speaker 1: was beautifully unaware that such adornment was necessary. It enjoyed
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Speaker 1: itself youthfully, attacked the yearning of its bread with genial pluck,
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Speaker 1: and its good-natured humanness had touched him. He had enjoyed
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Speaker 1: his talk, he wanted to hear more of it. He
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Speaker 1: was not in the mood to let him go his way.
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Speaker 1: To Penzance, who was to lunch with him to-day, he
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Speaker 1: would present a study of absorbing interest.' No,' he answered,'
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Speaker 1: I' m not an actor. My name is Mount Dunstan, and
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Speaker 1: this place,' with a nod over his shoulder,' is mine,
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Speaker 1: but I'm up against it nevertheless.' Selden looked a trifle disgusted.
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Speaker 1: He began to pick up his bicycle. He had given
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Speaker 1: a degree of natural sympathy, and this was an English
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Speaker 1: chap's idea of a joke.' I' m the Prince of Wales myself,'
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Speaker 1: he remarked,' and my mother is expecting me to lunch
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Speaker 1: at Windsor. So long, my lord,' and he set his
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Speaker 1: foot on the treadle. Mount Dunstan rose, feeling rather awkward.
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Speaker 1: The point seemed somewhat difficult to contend.' It' s not a joke,'
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Speaker 1: he said, conscious that he spoke rather stiffly.' Little Willie's
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Speaker 1: not quite as easy as he looks,' was the cryptic
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Speaker 1: remark of Mr. Seldon. Mount Dunstan lost his rather easily
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Speaker 1: lost temper, which happened to be the best thing he
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Speaker 1: could have done under the circumstances.' Damn it!' he burst out.'
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Speaker 1: I' m not such a fool as I evidently look. A
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Speaker 1: nice ass I should be to play an idiot joke
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Speaker 1: like that. I'm speaking the truth. Go, if you like,
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Speaker 1: and be hanged.' Selden's attention was arrested. The fellow was
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Speaker 1: in earnest. The place was his. He must be the
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Speaker 1: old chap he'd heard spoken of at the wayside public-house
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Speaker 1: he'd stopped at for a pot of beer. He dismounted
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Speaker 1: from his bicycle and came back, pushing it before him,
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Speaker 1: good-natured relenting and awkwardness combining in his look. All right,
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Speaker 1: he said. I apologise if it's cold fact. I'm not
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Speaker 1: calling you a liar. Thank you. Still a little stiffly
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Speaker 1: from Mount Dunstan. The unabashed good cheer of G. Selden
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Speaker 1: carried him lightly over a slightly difficult moment. He laughed,
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Speaker 1: pushing his cap back, of course, and looking over the
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Speaker 1: hedge at the sweep of park. with a group of
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Speaker 1: deer cropping softly in the foreground.' I guess I should
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Speaker 1: get a bit hot myself,' he volunteered handsomely.' If I
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Speaker 1: was an earl and owned a place like this, and
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Speaker 1: a fool fellow came along and took me for a tramp.
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Speaker 1: That was a pretty bad break, wasn't it? But I
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Speaker 1: did say you didn't look like it. Anyway, you needn't
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Speaker 1: mind me. I shouldn't get on to Pierpoint Morgan or W.K.
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Speaker 1: Vanderbilt if I met them in the street.' He spoke
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Speaker 1: the two names as an Englishman of his class would
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Speaker 1: have spoken of the Dukes of Westminster or Marlborough. These
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Speaker 1: were his nobles, the heads of the great American houses,
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Speaker 1: and entirely parallel in his mind with the heads of
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Speaker 1: any great house in England. They wielded the power of
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Speaker 1: the world, and could wield it for evil or good
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Speaker 1: as any prince or duke might. Mount Dunstan saw the parallel.'
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Speaker 1: I apologise all right,' G. Selden ended genially.' I' m not offended,'
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Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan answered.' There was no reason why you should
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Speaker 1: know me from another man.' I was taken for a
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Speaker 1: gamekeeper a few weeks since.' I was savage a moment
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Speaker 1: because you refused to believe me.' And why should you
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Speaker 1: believe me after all?'' G. Selden hesitated. He liked the
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Speaker 1: fellow anyhow.' You said you were up against it. That
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Speaker 1: was it.' And I've seen chaps down on their luck
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Speaker 1: often enough.' Good Lord! The hard luck stories I hear
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Speaker 1: every day of my life!'' and they get a sort
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Speaker 1: of look about the eyes and mouth.' I hate to
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Speaker 1: see it on any fellow.' It makes me sort of
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Speaker 1: sick to come across it,' even in a chap that's
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Speaker 1: only got his full self to blame.' I may be
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Speaker 1: making another break telling you,' but you looked sort of
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Speaker 1: that way.'' Perhaps, stolidly, I did.'' Then his voice warming,'
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Speaker 1: It was jolly good-natured of you to think about it
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Speaker 1: at all, thank you.'' That' s all right,' in polite acknowledgement.'
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Speaker 1: Then with another look over the hedge.'' Say, what ought
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Speaker 1: I to call you, Earl or my Lord?'' It' s not
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Speaker 1: necessary for you to call me anything in particular as
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Speaker 1: a rule. If you were speaking of me, you might
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Speaker 1: say Lord Mount Dunstan.' Gee, Selden looked relieved.' I don't
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Speaker 1: want to be too much off,' he said,' and I'd
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Speaker 1: like to ask you a favour. I've only three weeks here,
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Speaker 1: and I don't want to miss any chances.'' What chance
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Speaker 1: would you like?' One of the things I'm biking around
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Speaker 1: the country for is to get a look at some
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Speaker 1: such a place as this. We haven't got them in America.
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Speaker 1: My old grandmother was always talking about them. Before her
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Speaker 1: mother brought her to New York, she'd lived in a
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Speaker 1: village near some park gates, and she chinned about it
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Speaker 1: until she died. When I was a little chap, I
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Speaker 1: liked to hear her. She wasn't much of an American,
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Speaker 1: wore a black net cap with purple ribbons in it,
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Speaker 1: and hadn't outlived her respect for aristocracy. Gee, chuckling. If
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Speaker 1: she'd heard what I said to you just now, I
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Speaker 1: reckon she'd have thrown a fit. Anyhow, she made me
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Speaker 1: feel I'd like to see the kind of places she
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Speaker 1: talked about, and I shall think myself in luck if
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Speaker 1: you'll let me have a look at yours. Just a
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Speaker 1: bike around the park, if you don't object, or I'll
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Speaker 1: leave the bike outside, if you'd rather.'' I don't object
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Speaker 1: at all,' said Mount Dunstan.' The fact is, I happen
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Speaker 1: to be on the point of asking you to come
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Speaker 1: in and have some lunch, when you've got on your bicycle.'
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Speaker 1: Selden pushed his cap and cleared his throat. I wasn't
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Speaker 1: expecting that, he said. I'm pretty dusty, with a glance
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Speaker 1: at his clothes. I need a wash and brush up,
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Speaker 1: particularly if there are ladies. There were no ladies, and
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Speaker 1: he could be made comfortable. This being explained to him,
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Speaker 1: he was obviously rejoiced. With unembarrassed frankness he expressed exultation.
18:13
Speaker 1: Such luck had not at any time presented himself as
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Speaker 1: a possibility in his holiday schemes.' By gee!' he ejaculated
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Speaker 1: as they walked under the broad oaks of the avenue
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Speaker 1: leading to the house.' Speaking of luck, this is the limit!
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Speaker 1: I can't help thinking of what my grandmother would say
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Speaker 1: if she saw me!' He was a new order of companion,
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Speaker 1: but before they had reached the house Mount Dunstan had
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Speaker 1: begun to find him inspiring to the spirits. His jovial,
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Speaker 1: if crude, youth, his unaffected acknowledgement of unaccustomedness to grandeur,
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Speaker 1: even when in dilapidation, his delight in the novelty of
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Speaker 1: the particular forms of everything about him trees and sward
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Speaker 1: ferns and moss his open self-congratulation were without doubt cheerful
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Speaker 1: things his exclamation when they came within sight of the
19:00
Speaker 1: house itself was for a moment disturbing to mount dunstan's
19:03
Speaker 1: composure holy gee he said the old lady was right
19:10
Speaker 1: all i've thought about em was way off it's bigger
19:12
Speaker 1: than a museum his approval was immense During the absence
19:18
Speaker 1: in which he was supplied with the wash and brush-up,
19:20
Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan found Mr. Penzance in the library. He explained
19:24
Speaker 1: to him what he had encountered and how it had
19:26
Speaker 1: attracted him.' You have liked to hear me describe my
19:29
Speaker 1: Western neighbours,' he said.' This youngster is a New York
19:33
Speaker 1: development and of a different type. But there is a likeness.
19:37
Speaker 1: I have invited to lunch with us a young man
19:39
Speaker 1: whom Tenham, for instance, if he were here, would call
19:42
Speaker 1: a bounder. He is nothing of the sort.' in his
19:45
Speaker 1: junior assistant salesman way, he is rather a fine thing.
19:50
Speaker 1: I never saw anything more decently human than his way
19:52
Speaker 1: of asking me, man to man, making friends by the roadside,
19:56
Speaker 1: if I was up against it. No other fellow I
19:59
Speaker 1: have known has ever exhibited the same healthy sympathy.' The
20:03
Speaker 1: Reverend Lewis was entranced. Already he was really quite flushed
20:07
Speaker 1: with interest.' as the Syrian character engraved upon sarcophagi would
20:11
Speaker 1: have allured and thrilled him, so was he allured by
20:14
Speaker 1: the cryptic nature of the two or three American slang
20:17
Speaker 1: phrases Mount Dunstan had repeated to him. His was the
20:20
Speaker 1: student's simple ardour.' Up against it!' he echoed.' Really! Dear, dear!
20:26
Speaker 1: And that signifies, you say—'' Apparently it means that a
20:30
Speaker 1: man has come face to face with an obstacle difficult
20:32
Speaker 1: or impossible to overcome.'' But upon my word, that's not bad!'
20:38
Speaker 1: It's a strong figure of speech. It brings up a picture.
20:41
Speaker 1: A man hurrying to an end, much desired, comes unexpectedly
20:46
Speaker 1: upon a stone wall. One can almost hear the impact.
20:49
Speaker 1: He's up against it. Most vivid. Excellent, excellent. The nature
20:55
Speaker 1: of Selden's calling was such that he was not accustomed
20:58
Speaker 1: to being received with a hint of enthusiastic welcome. There
21:01
Speaker 1: was something almost akin to this in the vicar's courteously
21:04
Speaker 1: amiable aquiline countenance, when he rose to shake hands with
21:08
Speaker 1: the young man on his entrance. Mr. Penzance was indeed
21:12
Speaker 1: slightly disappointed that his greeting was not responded to by
21:15
Speaker 1: some characteristic phrasing. His American was that of Sam Slick
21:20
Speaker 1: and Artemus Ward, punch and various English witticisms in anecdote.
21:24
Speaker 1: Life at the Vicarage of Dunstan had not revealed to
21:27
Speaker 1: him that the model had become archaic. The revelation dawned
21:31
Speaker 1: upon him during his intercourse with G. Selden. The young man,
21:34
Speaker 1: in his cheap bicycling suit, was a new development. He
21:38
Speaker 1: was markedly unlike an English youth of his class, as
21:41
Speaker 1: he was neither shy nor laboriously at his ease. That
21:44
Speaker 1: he was at his ease, to quite an amazing degree,
21:47
Speaker 1: might perhaps have been remotely resented by the insular mind,
21:50
Speaker 1: accustomed to another order of bearing in its social inferiors,
21:54
Speaker 1: had it not been so obviously founded on entire unconsciousness
21:57
Speaker 1: of self, and so mingled with open appreciation of the
22:00
Speaker 1: unanticipated pleasures of the occasion. Nothing could have been further
22:04
Speaker 1: from G. Selden than any desire to attempt to convey
22:07
Speaker 1: the impression that he had enjoyed the hospitality of persons
22:10
Speaker 1: of rank on previous occasions. He found, indeed, a gleeful
22:15
Speaker 1: point in the joke of the incongruousness of his own
22:17
Speaker 1: presence amid such surroundings. What little Willie was expecting, he
22:22
Speaker 1: remarked once, to the keen joy of Mr. Penzance, was
22:25
Speaker 1: a hunk of bread and cheese at a village saloon somewhere.
22:29
Speaker 1: I ought to have said pub, oughtn't I? You don't
22:31
Speaker 1: call them saloons here. He was encouraged to talk, and
22:34
Speaker 1: in his carefree fluency he opened up many vistas to
22:37
Speaker 1: the interested Mr. Penzance, who found himself, so to speak,
22:41
Speaker 1: whirled along Broadway, rushed up the steps of the elevated railroad,
22:45
Speaker 1: and struggling to obtain a seat or a strap to
22:47
Speaker 1: hang on to in a Sixth Avenue train. The man
22:50
Speaker 1: was saturated with the atmosphere of the hot battle he
22:53
Speaker 1: lived in. From his childhood he'd known nothing but the
22:56
Speaker 1: fever heat of his little old New York, as he
22:58
Speaker 1: called it, with affectionate slanginess. and any temperature lower than
23:02
Speaker 1: that he was accustomed to would have struck him as
23:04
Speaker 1: being below normal. Penzance was impressed by his feelings of
23:08
Speaker 1: affection for the amazing city of his birth. He admired,
23:12
Speaker 1: he adored it, he boasted joyously of its perfervid charm.'
23:15
Speaker 1: Something doing,' he said,' that' s what my sort of fella likes,
23:20
Speaker 1: something doing. You feel it right there when you walk
23:23
Speaker 1: along the streets. Little old New York for mine. It's
23:26
Speaker 1: good enough for little Willie, and it never stops. Why,
23:29
Speaker 1: Broadway at night!' he forgot his chop and leaned forward
23:33
Speaker 1: on the table to pour forth his description. The man-servant,
23:37
Speaker 1: standing behind Mount Dunstan's chair, forgot himself also, though he
23:41
Speaker 1: was a trained domestic whose duty it was to present
23:44
Speaker 1: dishes to the attention without any apparent mental processes. Certainly
23:48
Speaker 1: it was not his business to listen and gaze fascinated.
23:52
Speaker 1: This he did, however, actually for the time unconscious of
23:55
Speaker 1: his breach of manners. the very crudity of the language used,
23:59
Speaker 1: the oddly sounding, sometimes not easily translatable slang phrases, used
24:04
Speaker 1: as if they were a necessary part of any conversation,
24:07
Speaker 1: the blunt, uneducated bareness of figure, seemed to Penzance to
24:11
Speaker 1: make more roughly vivid the picture dashed off. The broad thoroughfare,
24:15
Speaker 1: almost as thronged by night as by day, crowds going
24:18
Speaker 1: to theatres, loaded electric cars whizzing and clanging bells, the
24:22
Speaker 1: elevated railroad rushing and roaring past within hearing, theatre fronts
24:27
Speaker 1: flaming with electric light, announcements of names of theatrical stars
24:31
Speaker 1: and the plays they appeared in, electric light advertisements of
24:34
Speaker 1: brands of cigars, whiskies, breakfast foods, all blazing high in
24:38
Speaker 1: the night air in such number and with such strength
24:41
Speaker 1: of brilliancy that the whole thoroughfare was as bright with
24:44
Speaker 1: light as a ballroom or a theatre. The vicar felt
24:47
Speaker 1: himself standing in the midst of it all, blinded by
24:50
Speaker 1: the glare. Sit down on the sidewalk and read your newspaper,
24:54
Speaker 1: a book, a magazine, any old thing you like. with
24:56
Speaker 1: an exultant laugh. The names of the dramatic stars blazing
25:01
Speaker 1: over entrances to the theatres were often English names, their
25:04
Speaker 1: plays English plays, their companies made up of English men
25:07
Speaker 1: and women. G. Seldon was as familiar with them and
25:10
Speaker 1: commented upon their gifts as easily as if he had
25:13
Speaker 1: drawn his drama from the Strand instead of from Broadway.
25:17
Speaker 1: The novels piled up in the stations of what he
25:19
Speaker 1: called the L, which revealed itself as being a New
25:22
Speaker 1: York haste abbreviation of Elevated Railroad, were in large proportion
25:26
Speaker 1: English novels, and he had his ingenious estimate of English
25:30
Speaker 1: novelists as well as of all else. Ruddy now, he said,
25:34
Speaker 1: I like him, he's all right, even though we haven't
25:36
Speaker 1: quite caught into India yet. The dazzle and brilliancy of
25:40
Speaker 1: Broadway so surrounded Penzance that he found it necessary to
25:44
Speaker 1: withdraw himself and return to his immediate surroundings that he
25:47
Speaker 1: might recover from his sense of interest and bewilderment. His
25:51
Speaker 1: eyes fell upon the stern lineaments of a Mount Dunstan
25:54
Speaker 1: in a costume of the time of Henry VIII. He
25:56
Speaker 1: was a burly gentleman, whose rough-shortened thick neck and haughty
26:00
Speaker 1: fixedness of stare from the background of his portrait were
26:03
Speaker 1: such as seemed to eliminate him from the scheme of things,
26:06
Speaker 1: the clanging of electric cars, and the prevailing roar of
26:08
Speaker 1: the L. Confronted by his gaze, electric light advertisements of whisky, cigars,
26:14
Speaker 1: and corsets seemed impossible.' He' s all right,' continued G. Selden.
26:18
Speaker 1: I'm ready to separate myself from 150 any time I
26:22
Speaker 1: see a new book of his. He's got the goods
26:24
Speaker 1: with him. The richness of colloquialism moved the vicar of
26:28
Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan to deep enjoyment.' Would you mind— I trust you won't,'
26:33
Speaker 1: he apologised courteously, telling me exactly the significance of those
26:37
Speaker 1: last two sentences. I think I see their meaning, but—' G.
26:42
Speaker 1: Selden looked good-naturedly apologetic himself.' Well, it's slang, you see,'
26:47
Speaker 1: he explained. I guess I can't help it. You, flushing
26:51
Speaker 1: a trifle, but without any touch of resentment in the
26:54
Speaker 1: boyish colour, you know what sort of a chap I am.
26:57
Speaker 1: I'm not passing myself off as anything but an ordinary
27:00
Speaker 1: business hustler, am I? Just under-salesman to a typewriter concern?
27:05
Speaker 1: I shouldn't like to think I'd got in here on
27:07
Speaker 1: any bluff. I guess I sling in slang every half-dozen words.
27:12
Speaker 1: My dear boy, Penzance was absolutely moved, and he spoke
27:16
Speaker 1: with warmth quite paternal. Lord Mount Dunstan and I are
27:19
Speaker 1: genuinely interested, genuinely. He, because he knows New York a little,
27:24
Speaker 1: and I, because I don't. I am an elderly man,
27:27
Speaker 1: and I have spent my life buried in my books
27:30
Speaker 1: in drowsy villages. Pray go on. Your American slang has
27:34
Speaker 1: frequently a delightful meaning, a fantastic hilarity or common sense
27:38
Speaker 1: or philosophy hidden in its origin.'' in that it generally
27:42
Speaker 1: differs from English slang,' which I regret to say is
27:45
Speaker 1: usually founded on some silly catch-word.' Pray go on.' When
27:50
Speaker 1: you see a new book by Mr. Kipling,' you are
27:52
Speaker 1: ready to separate yourself from one fifty' because he has
27:56
Speaker 1: the goods with him.'' G. Selden suppressed an involuntary young laugh.'
28:01
Speaker 1: One dollar and fifty cents is usually the price of
28:05
Speaker 1: a book,' he said.' You separate yourself from it when
28:08
Speaker 1: you take it out of your clothes,' I mean out
28:10
Speaker 1: of your pocket.' and pay it over the counter. There's
28:14
Speaker 1: a careless humour in it, said Mount Dunstan grimly. The
28:18
Speaker 1: suggestion of parting is not half bad. On the whole
28:21
Speaker 1: it's subtle. A great deal of it is subtle, said Penzance,
28:26
Speaker 1: though it all professes to be obvious. The other sentence
28:29
Speaker 1: has a commercial sound. When a man goes about selling
28:33
Speaker 1: for a concern, said the junior assistant of Jones, he
28:37
Speaker 1: can prove what he says if he has the goods
28:39
Speaker 1: with him. I guess it came from that. I don't know.
28:43
Speaker 1: I only know that when a man is a straight
28:45
Speaker 1: sort of fellow and can show up, we say he's
28:48
Speaker 1: got the goods with him. They sat after lunch in
28:51
Speaker 1: the library before an open window, looking into a lovely
28:54
Speaker 1: sunken garden. Blossoms were breaking out on every side, and robins, thrushes,
28:59
Speaker 1: and blackbirds chirped and trilled and whistled as Mount Dunstan
29:02
Speaker 1: and Penzance led G. Selden on to paint further pictures
29:05
Speaker 1: for them. Some of them were rather painful, Penzance thought.
29:09
Speaker 1: As connected with youth, they held a touch of pathos
29:12
Speaker 1: Selden was all unconscious of. He had had a hard life,
29:16
Speaker 1: made up since his tenth year of struggles to earn
29:18
Speaker 1: his living. He had sold newspapers, he had run errands,
29:22
Speaker 1: he had swept out a candy store. He had had
29:25
Speaker 1: a few years at the public school and a few
29:27
Speaker 1: months at a business college, to which he went at
29:29
Speaker 1: night after work hours. He had been up against it
29:32
Speaker 1: good and plenty, he told them. He seemed, however, to
29:35
Speaker 1: have had a knack of making friends and of giving
29:37
Speaker 1: them a boost along when such a chance was possible.
29:41
Speaker 1: Both of his listeners realized that a good many people
29:43
Speaker 1: had liked him, and the reason was apparent enough to them.'
29:46
Speaker 1: When a chap gets sorry for himself,' he remarked once,'
29:50
Speaker 1: he' s down and out. That's a stone-cold fact. There's lots
29:54
Speaker 1: of hard luck stories that you've got to hear anyhow.'
29:57
Speaker 1: The fellow that can keep his to himself is the
29:59
Speaker 1: fellow that's likely to get there.' Get there,' the vicar
30:03
Speaker 1: murmured reflectively, and Selden chuckled again.' Get where he started
30:07
Speaker 1: out to go to— the White House, if you like. The
30:10
Speaker 1: fellows that have got there kept their hard-luck stories quiet,
30:13
Speaker 1: I bet. Guess most of them had plenty during election
30:16
Speaker 1: if they were the kind to lie awake sobbing on
30:18
Speaker 1: their pillows because their feelings were hurt. He had never
30:22
Speaker 1: been sorry for himself, it was evident. though it must
30:24
Speaker 1: be admitted that there were moments when the elderly English clergyman,
30:28
Speaker 1: whose most serious encounters had been annoying interviews with cottagers
30:31
Speaker 1: of disrespectful manner, rather shuddered as he heard his simple
30:35
Speaker 1: recital of days when he had tramped street after street
30:38
Speaker 1: carrying his catalogue with him, and trying to tell his
30:41
Speaker 1: story of the Delcoff to frantically busy men who were
30:44
Speaker 1: driven mad by the importunate sight of him, to worried
30:47
Speaker 1: ill-tempered ones who broke into fury when they heard his voice.
30:51
Speaker 1: and to savage brutes who are only restrained by law
30:53
Speaker 1: from kicking him into the street. You've got to take
30:56
Speaker 1: it if you don't want to lose your job. Some
30:59
Speaker 1: of them's as tired as you are. Sometimes if you
31:02
Speaker 1: can give them a jolly and make them laugh, they'll
31:04
Speaker 1: listen and you may unload a machine. But it's no
31:07
Speaker 1: merry jest just at first, particularly in bad weather. The
31:11
Speaker 1: first five weeks I was with the Delkoff I never
31:13
Speaker 1: made a sale, had to live on my ten per,
31:16
Speaker 1: and that's pretty hard in New York. three and a
31:19
Speaker 1: half for your hall bedroom and the rest for your
31:21
Speaker 1: hash and shoes but i held on and gradually luck
31:24
Speaker 1: began to turn and i began not to care so
31:27
Speaker 1: much when a man gave it to me hot the
31:30
Speaker 1: vicar of mount dunstan had never heard of the hall
31:32
Speaker 1: bedroom as an institution a dozen unconscious sentences placed it
31:36
Speaker 1: before his mental vision he thought it horribly touching a
31:41
Speaker 1: narrow room at the back of a cheap lodging-house a
31:43
Speaker 1: bed a strip of carpet a washstand this the sole
31:47
Speaker 1: refuge of a male human creature in the flood-tide of
31:49
Speaker 1: youth no more than this to come back to nightly
31:52
Speaker 1: footsore and resentful of soul after a day's tramp spent
31:56
Speaker 1: in forcing himself and his wares on people who did
31:59
Speaker 1: not want him or them and who found infinite variety
32:02
Speaker 1: in the forcefulness of their method of saying so what
32:05
Speaker 1: you know when you go into a place is that
32:07
Speaker 1: nobody wants to see you and no one will let
32:09
Speaker 1: you talk if they can help it the only thing
32:12
Speaker 1: is to get in and rattle off your stump before
32:14
Speaker 1: you can be fired out Sometimes at first he had
32:17
Speaker 1: gone back at night to the hall bedroom, and sat
32:20
Speaker 1: on the edge of the narrow bed, swinging his feet,
32:23
Speaker 1: and asking himself how long he could hold out. But
32:26
Speaker 1: he had held out, and evidently developed into a good salesman,
32:30
Speaker 1: being bold and of imperturbable good spirits and temper, and
32:33
Speaker 1: not troubled by hypersensitiveness. Hearing of the hall bedroom, the
32:37
Speaker 1: coldness of it in winter, and the breathless heat in summer,
32:41
Speaker 1: the utter loneliness of it at all times and seasons—
32:44
Speaker 1: One could not have felt surprised if the grown-up lad,
32:46
Speaker 1: doomed to its narrowness as home, had been drawn into
32:49
Speaker 1: the electric light at gaiety of Broadway, and being caught
32:53
Speaker 1: in its maelstrom, had been sucked under to its lowest depths.
32:57
Speaker 1: But it was to be observed that G. Selden had
32:59
Speaker 1: a clear eye and a healthy skin, and a healthy
33:02
Speaker 1: young laugh yet, which were all wonderfully to his credit,
33:05
Speaker 1: and added enormously to one's liking for him.' Do you
33:09
Speaker 1: use a typewriter?' he said at last to Mr. Penzance.
33:12
Speaker 1: It would cut out half your work with your sermons.
33:15
Speaker 1: If you do use one, I'd just like to call
33:17
Speaker 1: your attention to the Delcoff. It's the most up-to-date machine
33:20
Speaker 1: on the market to-day. Drawing out the catalogue.' I do
33:25
Speaker 1: not use one, and I'm extremely sorry to say that
33:27
Speaker 1: I could not afford to buy one,' said Mr. Penzance,
33:30
Speaker 1: with considerate courtesy.' But do tell me about it. I'm
33:33
Speaker 1: afraid I never saw a typewriter.' It was the most
33:37
Speaker 1: hospitable thing he could have done, and was of the
33:39
Speaker 1: tact of courts. He arranged his pince-nez, and taking the catalogue,
33:44
Speaker 1: applied himself to it. G. Selden's soul warmed within him.
33:48
Speaker 1: To be listened to like this, to be treated as
33:51
Speaker 1: a gentleman by a gentleman, by a fine old swell
33:54
Speaker 1: like this, holly gee!' This isn't what I'm used to,'
33:59
Speaker 1: he said with genuine enjoyment.' It doesn't matter you're not
34:02
Speaker 1: being ready to buy now.' You may be some time,
34:05
Speaker 1: or you may run up against someone who is.' Little
34:08
Speaker 1: Willie's always ready to say his piece.' He poured it
34:11
Speaker 1: forth with glee, the improved mechanical appliances, the cuts in
34:15
Speaker 1: the catalogue, the platen roller, the ribbon switch, the twenty-six
34:18
Speaker 1: yards of red or blue typing, the fifty per cent
34:21
Speaker 1: saving in ribbon expenditure alone, the new basket-shift, the stationary carriage,
34:26
Speaker 1: the tabulator, the superiority to all other typewriting machines, the
34:31
Speaker 1: price one hundred dollars without discount. And both Mount Dunstan
34:35
Speaker 1: and Mr. Penzance listened entranced, examined cuts in the catalogue,
34:39
Speaker 1: asked questions, and and in fact ended by finding that
34:42
Speaker 1: they must repress an actual desire to possess the luxury.
34:46
Speaker 1: The joy their attitude bestowed upon Selden was the thing
34:49
Speaker 1: he would feel gave the finishing touch to the hours
34:52
Speaker 1: which he would recall to the end of his days
34:54
Speaker 1: as the time of his life. Yes, by gee, he
34:57
Speaker 1: was having the time of his life! Later he found
35:02
Speaker 1: himself feeling, as Miss Vanderpool had felt, rather as if
35:05
Speaker 1: the whole thing was a dream. This came upon him when,
35:09
Speaker 1: with Mount Dunstan and Penzance, he walked through the park
35:12
Speaker 1: and the curiously beautiful old gardens. The lovely, soundless quiet,
35:16
Speaker 1: broken into only by bird-notes or his companions' voices, had
35:20
Speaker 1: an extraordinary effect on him.' It' s so still you can
35:24
Speaker 1: hear it,' he said once, stopping on a velvet-moss-covered path.'
35:27
Speaker 1: Seems like you've got quiet shut up here, and you've
35:31
Speaker 1: turned it on until the air's thick with it. Good Lord,
35:34
Speaker 1: think of little old Broadway keeping it up and the
35:37
Speaker 1: owl whizzing and thundering along every three minutes just the
35:40
Speaker 1: same while we're standing here. You can't believe it!' It
35:43
Speaker 1: would have gone hard with him to describe to them
35:46
Speaker 1: the value of his enjoyment. Again and again there came
35:49
Speaker 1: back to him the memory of his grandmother, who wore
35:52
Speaker 1: the black net cap trimmed with purple ribbons. Apparently she
35:55
Speaker 1: had remained to the last almost contumaciously British. She had
35:59
Speaker 1: kept photographs of Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort on
36:03
Speaker 1: her bedroom mantelpiece, and had made caustic international comparisons. But
36:08
Speaker 1: she had seen places like this, and her stories became
36:11
Speaker 1: realities to him now. But she had never thought of
36:14
Speaker 1: the possibility of any chance of his being shown about
36:17
Speaker 1: by the lord of the manor himself, lunching by Gee,
36:20
Speaker 1: and talking to them about typewriters. He vaguely knew that
36:25
Speaker 1: if the grandmother had not emigrated, and he had been
36:27
Speaker 1: born in Dunstan village, he would naturally have touched his
36:30
Speaker 1: forehead to Mount Dunstan and the vicar when they passed
36:33
Speaker 1: him in the road, and conversation between them would have
36:36
Speaker 1: been an unlikely thing. Somehow things had been changed by destiny,
36:40
Speaker 1: perhaps for the whole of them as years had passed.
36:44
Speaker 1: What he felt when he stood in the picture gallery
36:46
Speaker 1: neither of his companions could at first guess. He ceased
36:49
Speaker 1: to talk and wandered silently about. Secretly he found himself
36:54
Speaker 1: a trifle awed by being looked down upon by the
36:56
Speaker 1: unchanging eyes of men in strange rich garments, in corslet,
37:01
Speaker 1: ruff and doublet, velvet powder, curled love-locks, brocade and lace.
37:06
Speaker 1: The face of long-dead loveliness smiled out from its canvas,
37:09
Speaker 1: or withheld itself haughtily from his salesman's gaze. Wonderful bare
37:14
Speaker 1: white shoulders and bosoms clasped with gems or flowers and
37:17
Speaker 1: lace defied him to recall any treasures of Broadway to
37:20
Speaker 1: compare with them. Elderly dames, garbed in stiff splendour, held
37:24
Speaker 1: stiff unsympathetic inquiry in their eyes as they looked back
37:27
Speaker 1: upon him. What exactly was a thirty-shilling bicycle suit doing there?
37:33
Speaker 1: In the Delcoff, plainly none were interested. A pretty masquerading
37:37
Speaker 1: shepherdess with a lamb and a crook seemed to laugh
37:40
Speaker 1: at him from under her broad beribboned straw hat. After
37:43
Speaker 1: looking at her for a minute or so, he gave
37:45
Speaker 1: a half-laugh himself, but it was an awkward one.' She' s
37:49
Speaker 1: a looker,' he remarked.' There' s a lot of them lookers,
37:53
Speaker 1: not all, but a fair show.' A looker, translated Mount
37:57
Speaker 1: Dunstan in a low voice to Penzance, means, I believe,
38:00
Speaker 1: a young woman with good looks, a beauty. Yes, she
38:04
Speaker 1: is a looker by G, said G. Selden, but— but— The
38:08
Speaker 1: awkward half-laugh, taking on a depressed touch of sheepishness. She
38:12
Speaker 1: makes me feel way off, they all do. That was it.
38:17
Speaker 1: Surrounded by them, he was fascinated, but not cheered. They
38:20
Speaker 1: were all so smilingly or disdainfully or indifferently unconscious of
38:24
Speaker 1: the existence of the human thing of his class. His aspect,
38:28
Speaker 1: his life and his desires were as remote as those
38:31
Speaker 1: of prehistoric man. His Broadway, his El Railroad, his Delcoff— what
38:37
Speaker 1: were they? Where did they come into the scheme of
38:39
Speaker 1: the universe? They silently gazed and lightly smiled or frowned
38:43
Speaker 1: through him as he stood. He was probably not in
38:46
Speaker 1: the least aware that he rather loudly sighed.' Yes,' he said,'
38:51
Speaker 1: they make me feel way off.' I' m not in it,
38:53
Speaker 1: but she is a looker.' Get under the dimple in
38:56
Speaker 1: her cheek.'' Mount Dunstan and Penzance spent the afternoon in
39:01
Speaker 1: doing their best for him.' He was well worth it.' Mr.
39:04
Speaker 1: Penzance was filled with delight and saturated with the atmosphere
39:08
Speaker 1: of New York.' I feel,' he said, softly polishing his
39:11
Speaker 1: eyeglasses and almost affectionately smiling,' I really feel as if
39:16
Speaker 1: I had been walking down Broadway or Fifth Avenue.' I
39:19
Speaker 1: believe that I might find my way to, well, suppose
39:22
Speaker 1: we say, Weber and Fields. And G. Selden shouted with glee.
39:27
Speaker 1: Never before, in fact, had he felt his heart so warm.
39:30
Speaker 1: by spontaneous affection as it was by this elderly, somewhat
39:33
Speaker 1: bald and thin-faced clergyman of the Church of England. This
39:37
Speaker 1: he had never seen before. Without the trained subtlety to
39:41
Speaker 1: have explained to himself the finely sweet and simply gracious
39:44
Speaker 1: deeps of it, he was moved and uplifted. He was
39:48
Speaker 1: glad he had come across it. He felt a vague
39:50
Speaker 1: regret at passing on his way and leaving it behind.
39:54
Speaker 1: He would have liked to feel that perhaps he might
39:56
Speaker 1: come back. He would have liked to present him with
39:59
Speaker 1: a Delcoff and teach him how to run it. He
40:02
Speaker 1: had delighted in Mount Dunstan and rejoiced in him, but
40:05
Speaker 1: he had rather fallen in love with Benzance. Certain American
40:09
Speaker 1: doubts he had had of the solidity and permanency of
40:12
Speaker 1: England's position and power were somewhat modified. When fellows like
40:16
Speaker 1: these two stood at the first rank, Little old England
40:19
Speaker 1: was a pretty safe proposition. After they had given him
40:23
Speaker 1: tea among the scents and songs of the sunken garden
40:26
Speaker 1: outside the library window, they sent him on his way.
40:30
Speaker 1: The shadows were lengthening, and the sunlight falling and deepening
40:33
Speaker 1: gold when they walked up the avenue and shook hands
40:35
Speaker 1: with him at the big entrance gates. Well, gentlemen, he said,
40:39
Speaker 1: you've treated me grand, as fine as silk, and it
40:42
Speaker 1: won't be like little Willie to forget it. WHEN I
40:45
Speaker 1: GO BACK TO NEW YORK IT'LL BE ALL I CAN
40:47
Speaker 1: DO TO KEEP FROM GETTING THE SWELL HEAD AND BRAGGING
40:50
Speaker 1: ABOUT IT. I'VE ENJOYED MYSELF DOWN TO THE GROUND EVERY MINUTE.
40:55
Speaker 1: I'M NOT THE KIND OF FELLA TO BE LIKELY TO
40:56
Speaker 1: BE ABLE TO PAY YOU BACK YOUR KINDNESS. BUT HOLLY GEE,
41:00
Speaker 1: IF I COULD I'D DO IT TO BEAT THE BAND. GOOD-BYE, GENTLEMEN,
41:04
Speaker 1: AND THANK YOU, THANK YOU. Across which one of their
41:08
Speaker 1: minds passed the thought that the sound of the hollow
41:10
Speaker 1: impact of a trotting horse's hooves on the road which
41:14
Speaker 1: each that moment became conscious of hearing was the sound
41:17
Speaker 1: of the advancing foot of fate it crossed no mind
41:20
Speaker 1: among the three there was no reason why it should
41:23
Speaker 1: and yet at that moment the meaning of the regular
41:26
Speaker 1: stirring sound was a fateful thing some one on horseback
41:30
Speaker 1: said penzance he had scarcely spoken before round the curve
41:34
Speaker 1: of the road she came a finely slender and spiritedly
41:38
Speaker 1: erect girl's figure upon a satin-skinned bright chestnut with a
41:42
Speaker 1: thoroughbred gait a smart groom riding behind her. She came
41:46
Speaker 1: towards them, was abreast them, looked at Mount Dunstan, a
41:49
Speaker 1: smiling dimple near her lip as she returned his quick salute.'
41:52
Speaker 1: Miss Vanderpool,' he said low to the vicar, Lady Amstruther's sister. Mr. Penzance,
41:59
Speaker 1: replacing his own hat, looked after her with surprised pleasure.' Really!'
42:04
Speaker 1: he exclaimed.' Miss Vanderpool! What a fine girl! How unusually handsome!'
42:10
Speaker 1: Seldon turned with a gasp of delighted, amazed recognition.' Miss Vanderpool,'
42:16
Speaker 1: he burst forth,' Rubin Vanderpool's daughter,' the one that's over
42:20
Speaker 1: here visiting her sister.' Is it that one, sure?'' Yes,
42:25
Speaker 1: from Mount Dunstan, without fervour.' Lady Anstruthers lives at Stornham,
42:29
Speaker 1: about six miles from here.'' Gee!' with feverish regret.' If
42:34
Speaker 1: her father were there, then I could get next to him.'
42:37
Speaker 1: My fortune would be made.'' Should you,' ventured Penzance politely,'
42:42
Speaker 1: endeavour to sell him a typewriter?'' A typewriter?' Holy smoke,
42:47
Speaker 1: I'd try to sell him ten thousand.' A fellow like
42:50
Speaker 1: that syndicates the world.' If I could get next to
42:53
Speaker 1: him—' And he mounted his bicycle with a laugh.' Get next?'
42:59
Speaker 1: murmured Penzance.' Get on the good side of him,' Mount
43:03
Speaker 1: Dunstan murmured in reply.' So long, gentlemen.' Good- bye, and thank
43:08
Speaker 1: you again.' called G. Selden as he wheeled off, and
43:11
Speaker 1: was carried soundlessly down the golden road. End of chapter
43:16
Speaker 1: 23