Latest / The H. G. Wells Library / The Passionate Friends Chapter 6 - Lady Mary Justin Parts 11-14

Transcript

The Passionate Friends Chapter 6 - Lady Mary Justin Parts 11-14 · The H. G. Wells Library

0:00
Speaker 1: Chapter six, parts eleven to fourteen of The Passionate Friends
0:05
Speaker 1: by H. G. Wells. This LibriVox recording is in the
0:09
Speaker 1: public domain recording by Peter Eastman, Chapter the sixth, Lady
0:17
Speaker 1: Mary Justin eleven. I forget now absolutely what I may
0:25
Speaker 1: have expected to happen next. I cannot remember my return
0:30
Speaker 1: to my father's house that day, but I know that
0:33
Speaker 1: what did happen was the most unanticipated and incredible experience
0:38
Speaker 1: of my life. It was as if the whole world
0:42
Speaker 1: of mankind were suddenly to turn upside down, and people
0:46
Speaker 1: go about calmly in positions of complete inversion. I had
0:52
Speaker 1: a note from Mary on the morning after this discovery
0:55
Speaker 1: that indeed dealt with that, but was otherwise not very
0:59
Speaker 1: different from endless notes I had received before our crisis.
1:03
Speaker 1: It was destroyed so that I do not know its
1:06
Speaker 1: exact text now, but it did not add anything material
1:10
Speaker 1: to the situation or give me the faintest shadow to
1:14
Speaker 1: intimate what crept close upon us. Both. She repeated her
1:19
Speaker 1: strangely thwarting refusal to come away and live with me.
1:23
Speaker 1: She seemed indignant that we had been discovered, as though
1:27
Speaker 1: Justin had indulged in an excess of existence by discovering us.
1:32
Speaker 1: I completed and despatched to her a long letter I
1:35
Speaker 1: had already been writing over night, in which I made
1:38
Speaker 1: clear the hopeless impossibility of her attitude, vowed all my
1:43
Speaker 1: life and strength to her, tried to make some picture
1:46
Speaker 1: of the happiness that was possible for us together, sketched
1:50
Speaker 1: as definitely as I could, when and where we might meet,
1:53
Speaker 1: and whither we might go. It must have made an
1:57
Speaker 1: extraordinary jumble of protest, persuasion and practicality. It never reached her.
2:05
Speaker 1: It was intercepted by Justin. I have gathered since that
2:10
Speaker 1: after I left Martin's, he sent telegrams to Guy and
2:14
Speaker 1: Philip and her cousin, Lord Tarville. He was, I think,
2:19
Speaker 1: amazed beyond measure at this revelation of the possibilities of
2:24
Speaker 1: his cold and distant wife, with a vast passion of
2:27
Speaker 1: jealousy awaking in him, and absolutely incapable of forming any
2:33
Speaker 1: plan to meet the demands of his extraordinary situation. Guy
2:38
Speaker 1: and Philip got to him that night. Tarville came down
2:42
Speaker 1: next morning, and Martin's became a debate. Justin did not
2:47
Speaker 1: so much express views and intentions as have them extracted
2:52
Speaker 1: from him. It was manifest he was prepared for the
2:56
Speaker 1: amplest forgiveness of his wife, if only I could be
3:00
Speaker 1: obliterated from their world. Confronted with her brothers, the two
3:05
Speaker 1: men in the world who could be frankly brutal to her,
3:09
Speaker 1: Mary's dignity suffered. She persisted, she meant to go on
3:14
Speaker 1: seeing me, but she was reduced to passionate tears into
3:20
Speaker 1: some such state of affairs. I came that morning on
3:23
Speaker 1: the heels of my letter, demanding Lady Mary of a
3:27
Speaker 1: scared evasive butler. Maxton and Tarvvill appeared Hullo Stratton, said Tarfrill,
3:36
Speaker 1: with a fine flavor of an agreeable chance meeting. Philip
3:40
Speaker 1: had doubts about his greeting me, and then extended his
3:44
Speaker 1: reluctant hand with a nervous grin to excuse the delay.
3:49
Speaker 1: I want to see Lady Mary, said I stiffly. She's
3:54
Speaker 1: not up yet, said Tarvirill, with a hand on my shoulder.
3:58
Speaker 1: Come and have a talk in the garden. We went out,
4:02
Speaker 1: with Tarfril expanding the topic of the seasons. It's a
4:06
Speaker 1: damned good month November. Say what you like about it.
4:11
Speaker 1: Philip walked grimly, silent on my other hand, And it's
4:15
Speaker 1: a damned awkward situation you've got us into, Stratton, said Tarfril.
4:20
Speaker 1: Say what you like about it. It isn't as though
4:24
Speaker 1: old Justin was any sort of beast, he reflected, or
4:27
Speaker 1: anything like that. You know, he's a most astonishing, decent chap,
4:32
Speaker 1: clean as they make them. This isn't a beastly intrigue,
4:37
Speaker 1: I said, It never is, said Tarfrill genially. We've loved
4:43
Speaker 1: each other a long time. It's just flared out here,
4:48
Speaker 1: no doubt of that, said Tarfril. It's been like a
4:51
Speaker 1: beacon to all Surrey. It's one of those cases where
4:56
Speaker 1: things have to be readjusted. The best thing to do
4:59
Speaker 1: is for me and me to go abroad. Yes, but
5:03
Speaker 1: does Mary think so? Look here, said Philip, in a
5:08
Speaker 1: voice thick with rage. I won't have Mary divorced. I
5:12
Speaker 1: won't see, I won't. What the devil's it got to
5:16
Speaker 1: do with you? I asked, with an answering flash of fury.
5:22
Speaker 1: Tarville's arm ran through mine. Nobody's going to divorce Mary,
5:28
Speaker 1: he said, reassuringly, not even justed. He doesn't want to,
5:32
Speaker 1: and nobody else can. And there you are. But we two,
5:38
Speaker 1: You too have had a tremendously good time. You've got
5:42
Speaker 1: found out and there you are. This thing has got
5:47
Speaker 1: to stop, absolutely now, said Philip, and echoed with a
5:53
Speaker 1: note of satisfaction in his own phrasing, absolutely now, you see, Stratton,
6:01
Speaker 1: said Tarvirill, as if he were expanding Philip's assertion. There's
6:06
Speaker 1: been too many divorces in society. It's demoralizing people, it's
6:12
Speaker 1: discrediting us, it's setting class against class. Everybody is saying,
6:18
Speaker 1: why don't these big people either set about respecting the
6:22
Speaker 1: law or altering it? Common people are getting too infernally
6:26
Speaker 1: clear headed hitherto It's mattered so little, But we can't
6:31
Speaker 1: stand any more of it, Stratton. Now it's something more
6:35
Speaker 1: than a private issue. It's a question of public policy.
6:39
Speaker 1: We can't stand any more divorces, he reflected. We have
6:46
Speaker 1: to consider something more than our own personal inclinations. We've
6:51
Speaker 1: got no business to be here at all. If we're
6:53
Speaker 1: not a responsible class, we owe something to ourselves. It
7:01
Speaker 1: was as if Tarvrill was as concerned as I was
7:04
Speaker 1: for this particular divorce, as if he struggled with a
7:07
Speaker 1: lively desire to see me and Mary happily married after
7:11
Speaker 1: the shortest possible interval, And indeed he manifestly wasn't unsympathetic.
7:18
Speaker 1: He had the strongest proclivity for the romantic and picturesque,
7:23
Speaker 1: and it was largely the romantic picturesqueness of renunciation that
7:27
Speaker 1: he urged upon me. Philip, for the most part, maintained
7:32
Speaker 1: a resentful silence. He was a clenched anger against me,
7:37
Speaker 1: against Mary, against the flaming possibilities that threatened the sister
7:42
Speaker 1: of Lord Maxton, that most promising and distinguished young man.
7:49
Speaker 1: Of course, their plans must have been definitely made before
7:53
Speaker 1: this talk. Probably they had made them overnight, and probably
7:58
Speaker 1: it was Tarvrill had given in them a practicable shape.
8:02
Speaker 1: But he threw over the whole of our talk, so
8:05
Speaker 1: satisfying a suggestion of a rest and prolonged discussion, that
8:10
Speaker 1: it never occurred to me that I should not be
8:12
Speaker 1: able to come again on the morrow and renew my
8:15
Speaker 1: demand to see Mary. Even when next day I turned
8:20
Speaker 1: my face to Martin's and saw the flag had vanished
8:23
Speaker 1: from the flagstaff, It seemed merely a token of that
8:27
Speaker 1: household's perturbation. I thought the house looked oddly blank, and
8:31
Speaker 1: sleepy as I drew near, But I did not perceive
8:35
Speaker 1: that this was because all the blinds were drawn. The
8:39
Speaker 1: door upon the lawn was closed, and presently the butler
8:43
Speaker 1: came to open it. He was in an old white
8:47
Speaker 1: jacket and collarless. Lady Mary, He said, Lady Mary has gone, Sir.
8:54
Speaker 1: She and mister Justin went yesterday after you called gone,
8:59
Speaker 1: said I. But where I think abroad, Sir, abroad? I
9:06
Speaker 1: think abroad. But they've left an address only to mister
9:12
Speaker 1: Justin's office, said the man. Any letters will be forwarded
9:16
Speaker 1: from there. I paused upon the step. He remained stiffly deferential,
9:24
Speaker 1: but with an air of having disposed of me. He
9:28
Speaker 1: reproved me tacitly for forgetting that I ought to conceal
9:32
Speaker 1: my astonishment at this disappearance. He was indeed an admirable
9:38
Speaker 1: man servant. Thank you, said I, and dropped away, defeated
9:44
Speaker 1: from the door. I went down the broad steps, walked
9:50
Speaker 1: out up the lawn, and surveyed house and trees and
9:54
Speaker 1: garden and sky, to the heights and the depths and
9:59
Speaker 1: the utter. I knew now what it was to be amazed.
10:07
Speaker 1: Twelve I had felt myself an actor in a drama.
10:13
Speaker 1: And now I had very much the feeling an actor
10:15
Speaker 1: would have who answers to a cue and finds himself
10:19
Speaker 1: in mid stage, with the scenery and the rest of
10:22
Speaker 1: the cast suddenly vanished behind him. By that mixture of
10:27
Speaker 1: force and persuasion which avails itself of a woman's instinctive
10:31
Speaker 1: and cultivated dread, of disputes and raised voices, and the
10:35
Speaker 1: betrayal of contention to strangers, by the sheer tiring down
10:39
Speaker 1: of nerves and of sleepless body, and by threats of
10:42
Speaker 1: an immediate divorce and a campaign of ruin against me.
10:46
Speaker 1: These three men had obliged Mary to leave Martins and
10:50
Speaker 1: go with them to Southampton, and thence they took her
10:53
Speaker 1: in Justin's yacht, the Water, which to Waterford, and thence
10:57
Speaker 1: by train to a hired house apted Oldcastle at Murk,
11:01
Speaker 1: near Crowham in Mayo. There for all practical purposes she
11:07
Speaker 1: was a prisoner. They took away her purse, and she
11:11
Speaker 1: was four miles from a pillar box and ten from
11:14
Speaker 1: a telegraph office. This house they had taken furnished without
11:18
Speaker 1: seeing it, on the recommendation of a London agent, and
11:22
Speaker 1: in the name of Justin's solicitor thither presently when Lady
11:27
Speaker 1: ladyslaw and an announcement appeared in the Times that Justin
11:31
Speaker 1: and Lady Mary had gone abroad for a time, and
11:34
Speaker 1: that no letters would be forwarded. I have never learnt
11:39
Speaker 1: the particulars of that abduction, but I imagine Mary astonished,
11:44
Speaker 1: her pride, outraged, humiliated, helpless, perplexed, and maintaining a certain
11:49
Speaker 1: outward dignity. Moreover, as I was presently to be told
11:55
Speaker 1: she was ill, Guy and Philip were, I believe the
12:00
Speaker 1: moving spirits in the affair. Tarvrille was their apologetic accomplice.
12:05
Speaker 1: Justin took the responsibility for what they did and bore
12:08
Speaker 1: the cost. He was bitterly ashamed to have these compulsions
12:13
Speaker 1: applied to his wife, but full now of a gusty
12:16
Speaker 1: fury against myself. He loved Mary still, with a love
12:22
Speaker 1: that was shamed and torn and bleeding. But his ruling
12:26
Speaker 1: passion was that infinitely stronger passion than love in our
12:29
Speaker 1: poor human hearts jealousy. He was prepared to fight for
12:35
Speaker 1: her now as men fight for a flag, tearing it
12:38
Speaker 1: to pieces in the struggle. He meant now to keep
12:43
Speaker 1: Mary that settled. He was prepared to consider whether he
12:48
Speaker 1: still loved her or she him. Now Here it may
12:53
Speaker 1: seem to you that we are on the very verge
12:56
Speaker 1: of romance. Here is a beautiful lady, carried off and
13:00
Speaker 1: held prisoner in a wild old place, standing out, half
13:04
Speaker 1: cut off from the mainland, among the wintry breakers of
13:08
Speaker 1: the west coast of Ireland. Here is the lover, baffled
13:12
Speaker 1: but insistent. Here are the fierce brothers and the stern
13:16
Speaker 1: dragon husband. And you have but to make out that
13:20
Speaker 1: the marriage was compulsory, irregular, and on the ground of
13:24
Speaker 1: that irregularity finally dissoluble. To furnish forth a theme for
13:29
Speaker 1: Marriott Watson in his most admirable and adventurous vein. You
13:34
Speaker 1: can imagine the happy chances that would have guided me
13:37
Speaker 1: to the hiding place, the trusty friend who would have
13:40
Speaker 1: come with me and told the story, the grim siege
13:43
Speaker 1: of the place, all as it were, soda vouce for
13:47
Speaker 1: fear of scandal, the fight with guy in the little cave,
13:52
Speaker 1: my attempted assassination, the secret passage would to heaven life
13:58
Speaker 1: had those rich simplists cities, and one could meet one's
14:02
Speaker 1: man at the end of a sword. My siege of
14:06
Speaker 1: Murk makes a very different story from that. In the
14:11
Speaker 1: first place, I had no trusted friend of so extravagant
14:15
Speaker 1: a friendship as such aid would demand. I had no
14:19
Speaker 1: one whom it seemed permissible to tell of our relations.
14:24
Speaker 1: I was not one man against three or four men
14:26
Speaker 1: in a romantic struggle for a woman. I was one
14:30
Speaker 1: man against something infinitely greater than that. I was one
14:34
Speaker 1: man against nearly all men, one man against laws, traditions, instincts, institutions,
14:42
Speaker 1: social order. Whatever my position had been before, my continuing
14:48
Speaker 1: pursuit of Mary was open social rebellion, and I was
14:53
Speaker 1: in a state of extreme uncertainty. How far Mary was
14:56
Speaker 1: a willing agent in this abrupt disappearance. I was disposed
15:01
Speaker 1: to think she had consented far more than she had
15:04
Speaker 1: done to this astonishing step. Carrying off an unwilling woman
15:09
Speaker 1: was outside my imaginative range. It was luminously clear in
15:14
Speaker 1: my mind that so far she had never countenanced the
15:17
Speaker 1: idea of flight with me, and until she did, I
15:21
Speaker 1: was absolutely bound to silence about her. I felt that
15:26
Speaker 1: until I saw her face to face again and was
15:29
Speaker 1: sure she wanted me to release her, that prohibition held. Yet,
15:34
Speaker 1: how was I to get at her and hear what
15:36
Speaker 1: she had to say. Clearly, it was possible that she
15:40
Speaker 1: was under restraint, but I did not know. I was
15:43
Speaker 1: not certain. I could not prove it. At Guildford's station,
15:48
Speaker 1: I gathered, after ignominious enquiries that the Justice had booked
15:52
Speaker 1: to London. I had two days of nearly frantic inactivity
15:56
Speaker 1: at home, and then pretended business that took me to
16:00
Speaker 1: London for fear that I should break out to my father.
16:04
Speaker 1: I came up revolving a dozen impossible projects of action
16:08
Speaker 1: in my mind. I had to get into touch with Mary,
16:12
Speaker 1: and at that my mind hung and stopped. All through
16:17
Speaker 1: the twenty four hours. My nerves jumped at every knock
16:20
Speaker 1: upon my door. This might be the letter, This might
16:24
Speaker 1: be the telegram, This might be herself escaped and come
16:28
Speaker 1: to me. The days passed like days upon a painful
16:32
Speaker 1: sick bed, gray or foggy London, days of an appalling
16:36
Speaker 1: length and emptiness. If I sat at home, my imagination
16:41
Speaker 1: tortured me. If I went out, I wanted to be
16:45
Speaker 1: back and see if any communication had come. I tried
16:49
Speaker 1: repeatedly to see Tarville. I had an idea of obtaining
16:54
Speaker 1: a complete outfit for an elopement. But I was restrained
16:58
Speaker 1: by my entire ignorance of what a woman may need.
17:02
Speaker 1: I tried to equip myself for a sudden crisis by
17:05
Speaker 1: the completest preparation of every possible aspect. I did some
17:10
Speaker 1: absurd and ill advised things. I astonished a respectable solicitor
17:16
Speaker 1: in a grimy little office behind a queer little court
17:19
Speaker 1: with trees near Cornhill by asking him to give advice
17:23
Speaker 1: to an anonymous client, and then putting my anonymous case
17:27
Speaker 1: before him. Suppose, said I it was for the plot
17:31
Speaker 1: of a play. He nodded gravely. My case, as I
17:38
Speaker 1: stated it struck me as an unattractive one application for
17:43
Speaker 1: a writ of habeas corpus. He considered with eyes that
17:48
Speaker 1: tried to remain severely impartial. By a wife's lover who
17:53
Speaker 1: wants to find out where she is, it's unusual you
17:57
Speaker 1: will be requiring the husband to produce her corpus. I
18:02
Speaker 1: don't think, speaking in the same general terms as those
18:06
Speaker 1: in which you put the circumstances, it would be likely
18:09
Speaker 1: to succeed. No. Then I overcame a profound repugnance and
18:17
Speaker 1: went to a firm of private detectives. It had occurred
18:21
Speaker 1: to me that if I could have Justin Tarvrille, Guy
18:24
Speaker 1: or Philip traced, I might get a clue to Mary's
18:27
Speaker 1: hiding place. I remember a queer little office, a blusterous,
18:32
Speaker 1: frock coated creature with a pock marked face, iron gray hair,
18:37
Speaker 1: an eyeglass, and a strained tenor voice, who told me
18:40
Speaker 1: twice that he was a gentleman, and several times that
18:44
Speaker 1: he would prefer not to do business than to do
18:47
Speaker 1: it in an ungentlemanly manner, and who was quite obviously
18:51
Speaker 1: ready and eager to blackmail either side in any scandal
18:56
Speaker 1: into which spite or weakness admitted his gesticulating fingers. He
19:01
Speaker 1: alluded vaguely to his staff, to his woman helpers, some
19:05
Speaker 1: personally attached to me, to his remarkable underground knowledge of
19:10
Speaker 1: social life. The illicit side, What could he do for me?
19:15
Speaker 1: There was nothing I said illicit about me. His interest
19:20
Speaker 1: waned a little. I told him that I was interested
19:23
Speaker 1: in certain financial matters, no matter what they were, and
19:27
Speaker 1: that I wanted to have a report of the movements
19:30
Speaker 1: of Justin and his brothers in law for the past
19:32
Speaker 1: few weeks and for a little time to come. You
19:36
Speaker 1: want them watched, said my private enquiry agent, leaning over
19:40
Speaker 1: the desk towards me and betraying a slight squint, exactly
19:45
Speaker 1: said I, I want to know what sort of things
19:48
Speaker 1: they are looking at just at present? Have you any inkling? None?
19:55
Speaker 1: If our agents have to travel, I expressed a reasonable
19:59
Speaker 1: generalerocity in the matter of expenses, and left him at
20:03
Speaker 1: last with a vague discomfort in my mind. How far
20:08
Speaker 1: mightn't this undesirable unearthed the whole business in the course
20:12
Speaker 1: of his investigations, And then what could he do? Suppose
20:17
Speaker 1: I went back forthwith and stopped his enquiries before they began.
20:22
Speaker 1: I had a disagreeable feeling of meanness that I couldn't
20:26
Speaker 1: shake off. I felt I was taking up a weapon
20:29
Speaker 1: that justin didn't deserve. Yet I argued with myself that
20:34
Speaker 1: the abduction of Mary justified any such course. As I
20:40
Speaker 1: was still debating this, I saw Philip. He was perhaps
20:44
Speaker 1: twenty yards ahead of me. He was paying off a
20:47
Speaker 1: hansom which had just put him down outside Blake's Philip
20:52
Speaker 1: I cried, following him up the steps and overtaking him
20:56
Speaker 1: and seizing his arm as the Commissionaire opened the door
20:59
Speaker 1: for him. Philip, What have you people done with Mary?
21:03
Speaker 1: Where is Mary? He turned a white face to me.
21:08
Speaker 1: How dare you? He said, with a catch of the breath,
21:11
Speaker 1: mention my sister. I spoke in an undertone, and stepped
21:17
Speaker 1: a little between him and the man at the door,
21:20
Speaker 1: in order that the latter might not hear what I said.
21:24
Speaker 1: I want to see her, I expostulated. I must see her.
21:29
Speaker 1: What you are doing is not playing the game. I've
21:32
Speaker 1: got to see her. Let go of my arm, Sir,
21:36
Speaker 1: cried he and suddenly I felt a whirlwind of rage.
21:41
Speaker 1: Answering the rage in his eyes, the pent up exasperation
21:46
Speaker 1: of three weeks rushed to its violent release. He struck
21:51
Speaker 1: me in the face with a hand that was gripped
21:54
Speaker 1: about his umbrella. He meant to strike me in the
21:57
Speaker 1: face and then escape into his club. But before he
22:01
Speaker 1: could get away from me after his blow, I had
22:04
Speaker 1: flung out at him and had hit him under the jawbone.
22:09
Speaker 1: My blow followed his before guard or counter was possible.
22:14
Speaker 1: I hit with all my being. It was an amazing
22:17
Speaker 1: flare up of animal passion. From the moment that I
22:22
Speaker 1: perceived he was striking at me to the moment when
22:25
Speaker 1: both of us came staggering across the door mat into
22:28
Speaker 1: the dignified and spacious hallway of Blakes. We were back
22:32
Speaker 1: at the ancestral Ape, and we did exactly what the
22:36
Speaker 1: ancestral ape would have done. The arms of the Commissionaire
22:41
Speaker 1: about my waist, the rush of the astonished porter from
22:44
Speaker 1: his little glass box two incredibly startled and delighted Pages,
22:50
Speaker 1: and an intervening member bawling out Sir. Sir converged to
22:55
Speaker 1: remind us that we were a million years or so
22:58
Speaker 1: beyond those purely arboreal days. We seemed for a time
23:04
Speaker 1: to be confronted before an audience that hesitated to interfere.
23:09
Speaker 1: How dare you name my sister to me? He shouted
23:12
Speaker 1: at me, and brought to my mind the amazing folly
23:17
Speaker 1: of which he was capable. I perceived Mary's name flung
23:22
Speaker 1: to the four winds of heaven, You idiot, Philip, I cried,
23:27
Speaker 1: I don't know your sister. I've not seen her, scarcely
23:31
Speaker 1: seen her for years. I ask you, I ask you
23:34
Speaker 1: for a match box or something, and you hit me
23:37
Speaker 1: if you dare to speak to her, you fool, I cried,
23:42
Speaker 1: going nearer to him and trying to make him understand,
23:47
Speaker 1: but he winced and recoiled defensively. I'm sorry, I said
23:53
Speaker 1: to the commissionaire, who was intervening. Lord Maxton has made
23:57
Speaker 1: a mistake. Is he a member? Said some one in
24:01
Speaker 1: the background, And somebody else suggested calling a policeman. I
24:07
Speaker 1: perceived that only a prompt retreat would save the whole
24:10
Speaker 1: story of our quarrel from the newspapers. So far as
24:15
Speaker 1: I could see, nobody knew me there except Philip. I
24:19
Speaker 1: had to take the risks of his behavior manifestly. I
24:23
Speaker 1: couldn't control it. I made no further attempt to explain
24:27
Speaker 1: anything to anybody. Every One was a little too perplexed
24:32
Speaker 1: for prompt action, and so the advantage in that matter
24:35
Speaker 1: lay with me. I walked through the door and with
24:39
Speaker 1: what I imagined to be in appearance of the utmost serenity,
24:43
Speaker 1: down the steps. I noted an acending member glance at
24:47
Speaker 1: me with an expression of exceptional interest. But it was
24:51
Speaker 1: only after I had traversed the length of pall mall
24:55
Speaker 1: that I realized that my lip in the corner of
24:57
Speaker 1: my nostril were both bleeding profusely. I called a cab
25:02
Speaker 1: when I discovered my handkerchief scarlet and retreated to my
25:05
Speaker 1: flat and cold ablutions. Then I sat down to write
25:11
Speaker 1: a letter to Tarvrell with a clamorous urgent please forward
25:15
Speaker 1: if Away above the address and tell him at least
25:19
Speaker 1: to suppress Philip. But within the club, that blockhead, thinking
25:24
Speaker 1: of nothing but the appearances of our fight and his
25:27
Speaker 1: own credit, was varying his assertion that he had thrashed
25:31
Speaker 1: me with denunciations of me as a blagguard, and giving
25:36
Speaker 1: half a dozen men a highly colored, improvised and altogether
25:40
Speaker 1: improbable account of my relentless pursuit and persecution of Lady
25:44
Speaker 1: Mary Justin, and how she had left London to avoid me.
25:50
Speaker 1: They listened, no doubt with extreme avidity. The matrimonial relations
25:55
Speaker 1: of the Justine had long been a matter for speculative minds,
26:01
Speaker 1: And while Philip was doing this guy away in Mayo,
26:05
Speaker 1: still was writing a tender, trusting and all too explicit
26:10
Speaker 1: letter to a well known and extremely impatient lady in
26:14
Speaker 1: London to account for his continued absence from her house.
26:19
Speaker 1: So that is it, said the lady reading, and was
26:23
Speaker 1: at least in the enviable position of one who had
26:26
Speaker 1: confirmatory facts to impart, and so quite Suddenly the masks
26:33
Speaker 1: were off our situation, and we were open to an
26:37
Speaker 1: impertinent world. For some days I did not realize what
26:42
Speaker 1: had happened, and lived in hope that Philip had been
26:45
Speaker 1: willing and able to cover his laps. I went about
26:49
Speaker 1: with my preoccupation still as I imagined, concealed, and with
26:54
Speaker 1: an increasing number of typed letters from my private enquiry
26:58
Speaker 1: agent in my pocket, contained inaccurate and worthless information about
27:03
Speaker 1: the movements of Justin, which appeared to have been called,
27:06
Speaker 1: for the most part from a communicative young policeman stationed
27:10
Speaker 1: at the corner nearest to the Justin's house, or expanded
27:13
Speaker 1: from whose who and other kindred works of reference. The
27:18
Speaker 1: second letter I remember, gave some particulars about the financial
27:22
Speaker 1: position of the younger men, and added that Justin's credit
27:26
Speaker 1: with the West End Tradesman was limitless, points upon which
27:31
Speaker 1: I had no sort of curiosity whatever. I suppose. A
27:37
Speaker 1: couple of hundred people in London knew before I did
27:40
Speaker 1: that Lady Mary Justin had been carried off to Ireland
27:44
Speaker 1: and practically imprisoned there by her husband because I was
27:48
Speaker 1: her lover. The thing reached me at last through little
27:52
Speaker 1: Fred Ridling, who came to my rooms in the morning
27:56
Speaker 1: while I was sitting over my breakfast. Stratton said, he
28:00
Speaker 1: what is all this story? If you're shaking Justin by
28:03
Speaker 1: the collar and threatening to kill him if he didn't
28:06
Speaker 1: give up his wife to you? And why do you
28:08
Speaker 1: want to fight a duel with Maxton? What's it all about?
28:12
Speaker 1: Fire eater? You must be. I stood up for you
28:16
Speaker 1: as well as I could, But I heard you abused
28:18
Speaker 1: for a solid hour last night, and there was a
28:21
Speaker 1: chap there simply squirting out facts and dates and names.
28:25
Speaker 1: God at all, what have you been up to? He
28:30
Speaker 1: stood on my hearth rug with an air of having
28:33
Speaker 1: called for an explanation to which he wasn't titled, And
28:36
Speaker 1: he very nearly got one. But I just had some
28:40
Speaker 1: scraps of reserve left, and they saved me. Tell me first,
28:45
Speaker 1: I said, delaying myself with the lighting of a cigarette.
28:49
Speaker 1: The particulars as you heard them. Riddling embarked upon a
28:54
Speaker 1: descriptive sketch, and I got a minute or so to think.
28:59
Speaker 1: Go On, I said, with a note of irony. When
29:02
Speaker 1: he paused, go on, tell me some more. Where do
29:05
Speaker 1: you say they have taken her? Let us have it
29:07
Speaker 1: right by the time his little store had run out.
29:12
Speaker 1: I knew exactly what to do with him, Riddling, said I,
29:17
Speaker 1: and stood up beside him suddenly, and dropped my hand
29:21
Speaker 1: with a little added weight upon his shoulder. Riddling. Do
29:24
Speaker 1: you know the only right and proper thing to do
29:27
Speaker 1: when you hear scandal about a friend, Come straight to him,
29:32
Speaker 1: said Riddling, virtuously, as I have done. No, say you
29:37
Speaker 1: don't believe it. Ask the scandalmonger how he knows, and
29:41
Speaker 1: insist on his telling you. Insist, and if you won't,
29:45
Speaker 1: be very very rude to him. Insist up to the
29:49
Speaker 1: quarreling point. Now, who were those people? Well, that's a
29:54
Speaker 1: bit stiff, one, chap. I didn't know at all. You
29:59
Speaker 1: should have him up and insisted upon knowing who he
30:02
Speaker 1: was and what right he had to lie about me,
30:05
Speaker 1: for it's lying, Riddling. Listen, it isn't true that I'm
30:10
Speaker 1: besieging lady Mary Justin. So far from besieging her. I
30:15
Speaker 1: didn't even know where she was until you told me.
30:18
Speaker 1: Justin is a neighbor of my father's and a friend
30:21
Speaker 1: of mine. I had tea with him and his wife
30:24
Speaker 1: not a month ago. I had tea with them together.
30:27
Speaker 1: I knew they were going away, but it was a
30:30
Speaker 1: matter of such slight importance to me, such slight importance.
30:35
Speaker 1: I impressed this on his collar bone, that I was
30:38
Speaker 1: left with the idea that they were going to the
30:40
Speaker 1: south of France. I believe they are in the south
30:44
Speaker 1: of France, and there you are. I'm sorry to spoil sport,
30:49
Speaker 1: but that's the bleak, unromantic truth of the matter. You
30:54
Speaker 1: mean to say that there is nothing in it, at
30:56
Speaker 1: all nothing. He was atrociously disappointed. But everybody, he said,
31:05
Speaker 1: everybody has got something. Somebody will get a slander case
31:10
Speaker 1: if this goes on. I don't care what they've got.
31:15
Speaker 1: Good lord, he said, and stared at the rug. You'll
31:20
Speaker 1: take your oath. He glanced up and met my eye. Oh,
31:26
Speaker 1: of course, it's all right, what you say. He was
31:29
Speaker 1: profoundly perplexed, he reflected. But then I say, Stratton, why
31:36
Speaker 1: did you go for Maxton at Blakes that I had
31:39
Speaker 1: from an eye witness. You can't deny a scrap like
31:42
Speaker 1: that in broad daylight. Why did you do that? Oh
31:47
Speaker 1: that's it, said I. I begin to have glimmerings. There's
31:52
Speaker 1: a little matter between myself and Maxton. I found it
31:57
Speaker 1: a little difficult to improvise applauseble story, but he said
32:02
Speaker 1: it was his sister persisted Riddling. He said so afterwards
32:07
Speaker 1: in the club, Maxton said, I losing my temper is
32:12
Speaker 1: a fool and a knave and a liar his sister. Indeed,
32:16
Speaker 1: Lady Mary, if he can't leave his sister out of
32:19
Speaker 1: this business, I'll break every bone of his body. I
32:24
Speaker 1: perceived my temper was undoing me. I invented rapidly, but thinly.
32:30
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, Riddling, it's quite another sort
32:33
Speaker 1: of lady has set us by the ears. Riddling stuck
32:38
Speaker 1: his chin out, tucked in the corners of his mouth,
32:42
Speaker 1: made round eyes at the breakfast things, and hands in pockets,
32:46
Speaker 1: rocked from heels to toes and from toes to heels.
32:51
Speaker 1: I see Stratton, Yes, I see, yes, all this makes
32:55
Speaker 1: it very plain, of course, very plain, stupid thing scandalous. Thanks, No,
33:01
Speaker 1: I won't have a cigarette. And he left me presently
33:06
Speaker 1: with an uncomfortable sense that he did see and didn't,
33:10
Speaker 1: for one moment intend to restrain his considerable histrionic skill
33:14
Speaker 1: in handing on his fish into others. For some moments
33:19
Speaker 1: I stood savoring this all too manifest possibility, and then
33:23
Speaker 1: my thoughts went swirling into another channel. At last, the
33:28
Speaker 1: curtain was pierced. I was no longer helplessly in the dark.
33:34
Speaker 1: I got out my bradshaw and sat with the map
33:37
Speaker 1: spread out over the breakfast things, studying the roots to Mayo.
33:42
Speaker 1: Then I rang for Williams, the man I shared with
33:45
Speaker 1: the two adjacent flat holders, and told him to pack
33:49
Speaker 1: my kit bag because I was suddenly called away. Thirteen.
33:58
Speaker 1: Many of the particulars of my journey to Ireland have
34:01
Speaker 1: faded out of my mind altogether. I remember most distinctly
34:06
Speaker 1: my mood of grim elation that at last I had
34:09
Speaker 1: to deal with accessible persons again. The weather was windy
34:14
Speaker 1: and violent, and I was seasick for most of the crossing,
34:18
Speaker 1: and very tired and exhausted. When I landed, Williams had
34:23
Speaker 1: thought of my thick overcoat and loaded me with wraps
34:26
Speaker 1: and rugs. And I sat in the corner of a
34:29
Speaker 1: compartment in that state of mental and bodily fatigue that
34:32
Speaker 1: presses on the brows like a painless headache. I got
34:36
Speaker 1: to some little junction at last, where I had to
34:39
Speaker 1: wait an hour for a branch line train. I tasted
34:43
Speaker 1: all the bitterness of Irish hospitality, and such coffee as
34:47
Speaker 1: Ireland alone can produce. Then I went on to a
34:52
Speaker 1: station called Clumber or Clumboy, or some such name, and thence,
34:57
Speaker 1: after some difficulty, I got a car for my des destination.
35:01
Speaker 1: It was a wretched car in which hens had been roosting,
35:05
Speaker 1: and it was drawn by a steaming horse that had
35:08
Speaker 1: soars under its mended harness. An immense wet wind was
35:14
Speaker 1: blowing as we came over the big hill that lies
35:17
Speaker 1: to the south of Murk. Everything was wet. The hill
35:21
Speaker 1: side above me was either intensely green sodden turf or
35:25
Speaker 1: great streaming slabs of limestone. Seaward was a rocky headland,
35:31
Speaker 1: a ruin of a beehive shape, and beyond a vast
35:35
Speaker 1: waste of tumbling waters, unlit by any sun. Not a
35:40
Speaker 1: tree broke that melancholy wilderness, nor any living thing but ourselves.
35:47
Speaker 1: The horse went stumblingly under the incessant stimulation of the
35:51
Speaker 1: driver's lash and tongue. Yonder, it is, said my man,
35:57
Speaker 1: pointing with his whip, and I twisted round to see
36:01
Speaker 1: over his shoulder. Not the rhine like castle I had expected,
36:05
Speaker 1: but a long, low house of stone, upon a headland
36:09
Speaker 1: backed by a distant mountain that vanished in a wild
36:13
Speaker 1: driven storm of rain. As I looked, but at the
36:17
Speaker 1: sight of murk, my lassitude passed, My nerves tightened, and
36:21
Speaker 1: my will began to march again. Now, thought I we
36:26
Speaker 1: bring things to an issue. Now we come to something
36:30
Speaker 1: personal and definite. The vagueness is at an end. I
36:35
Speaker 1: kept my eyes upon the place and thought it more
36:39
Speaker 1: and more like a prison as we drew nearer. Perhaps
36:43
Speaker 1: from that window Mary was looking for me. Now had
36:47
Speaker 1: she wondered why I did not come to her before? Now,
36:52
Speaker 1: at any rate I had found her. I sprang off
36:56
Speaker 1: the car, found a bell handle, and set the house.
37:02
Speaker 1: The door opened, and a little old man appeared, with
37:05
Speaker 1: his fingers thrust inside his collar, as though he were
37:09
Speaker 1: struggling against strangulation. He regarded me for a second and
37:14
Speaker 1: spoke before I could speak. What might you be wanting?
37:19
Speaker 1: Said he, as if he had an answer ready. I
37:23
Speaker 1: want to see lady Mary justin. I said, you can't.
37:28
Speaker 1: He said, she's gone gone. The day before, yesterday, she
37:33
Speaker 1: went to London. You'll have to be getting back there.
37:37
Speaker 1: She's gone to London. No less Willingly, the little old
37:45
Speaker 1: man struggled with his collar. Any one would go willingly,
37:49
Speaker 1: he said, and seemed to await my further commands. He
37:54
Speaker 1: eyed me obliquely, with a shadow of malice in his eyes.
38:01
Speaker 1: It was then my heart failed, and I knew that
38:04
Speaker 1: we lovers were beaten. I turned from the door without
38:09
Speaker 1: another word to the janitor back, said I to my driver,
38:14
Speaker 1: and got up behind him. But it is one thing
38:19
Speaker 1: to decide to go back, and another to do it.
38:23
Speaker 1: At the little station, I studied time tables, and I
38:27
Speaker 1: could not get to England again without a delay of
38:30
Speaker 1: half a day. Somewhere I must wait. I did not
38:35
Speaker 1: want to wait where there was any concourse of people.
38:39
Speaker 1: I decided to stay in the inn by the station
38:42
Speaker 1: for the intervening six hours and get some sleep before
38:45
Speaker 1: I started upon my return. But when I saw the bedroom,
38:49
Speaker 1: I changed my plan and went down out of the
38:52
Speaker 1: village by a steep road towards the shore. I wandered
38:57
Speaker 1: down through the rain and spin drift to the very
39:00
Speaker 1: edge of the sea, and there found a corner among
39:03
Speaker 1: the rocks, a little sheltered from the wind, and sat
39:07
Speaker 1: inert and wretched my lips salt, my hair stiff with salt,
39:14
Speaker 1: and my body wet and cold, a miserable, defeated man.
39:20
Speaker 1: For I had now an irrational and entirely overwhelming conviction
39:25
Speaker 1: of defeat. I saw, as if I ought always to
39:29
Speaker 1: have seen, that I had been pursuing a phantom of
39:33
Speaker 1: hopeless happiness, that my dream of ever possessing Mary again
39:38
Speaker 1: was fantastic and foolish, and that I had expended all
39:42
Speaker 1: my strength in vain over me triumphed a law and
39:47
Speaker 1: tradition more towering than those cliffs and stronger than those waves.
39:53
Speaker 1: I was overwhelmed by a sense of human weakness, of
39:57
Speaker 1: the infinite feebleness of the individual man against wind and wave,
40:02
Speaker 1: and the stress of tradition and the ancient usages of mankind.
40:08
Speaker 1: We must submit, I whispered, crouching close. We must submit,
40:16
Speaker 1: far as the eye could reach. The waves followed one
40:19
Speaker 1: another in long, unhurrying lines, an inexhaustible succession, rolling, hissing, breaking,
40:27
Speaker 1: and tossing white manes of foam to gather at last
40:31
Speaker 1: for a crowning effort, and break thunderously, squirting foam two
40:36
Speaker 1: hundred feet up the streaming faces of the cliffs. The
40:40
Speaker 1: wind tore and tugged at me, and wind and water
40:43
Speaker 1: made to gather a clamor, as though all the evil
40:46
Speaker 1: voices in the world, all the violent passions, and all
40:50
Speaker 1: the hasty judgments, were seeking a hearing above the more
40:54
Speaker 1: elemental uproar. And while I was in this phase of
41:04
Speaker 1: fatigue and despair in Mayo, the scene was laid, and
41:08
Speaker 1: all the other actors were waiting for the last act
41:11
Speaker 1: of my defeat. In London. I came back to find
41:15
Speaker 1: two letters from Mary, and a little accumulation of telegrams
41:19
Speaker 1: and notes, one written in my flat from Tarvrill. Mary's
41:25
Speaker 1: letters were neither of them, very long and full of
41:29
Speaker 1: a new born despair. She had not realized how great
41:34
Speaker 1: were the forces against her and against us both. She
41:38
Speaker 1: let fall a phrase that suggested she was ill. She
41:43
Speaker 1: had given in, she said, to save herself and myself
41:47
Speaker 1: and others from the shame and ruin of a divorce.
41:50
Speaker 1: And I must give in too. We had to agree
41:55
Speaker 1: not to meet or communicate for three years, and I
41:59
Speaker 1: was to go out of England. She prayed me to
42:02
Speaker 1: accept this. She knew, she said, she seemed to desert me.
42:07
Speaker 1: But I did not know everything. I did not know everything.
42:11
Speaker 1: I must agree, She could not come with me. It
42:14
Speaker 1: was impossible. Now, certainly it was impossible. She had been weak,
42:20
Speaker 1: but I did not know all. If I knew all,
42:24
Speaker 1: I should be the readier to understand and forgive her.
42:27
Speaker 1: But it was part of the conditions that I could
42:30
Speaker 1: not know all. Justin had been generous in his way.
42:36
Speaker 1: Justin had everything in his hands. The whole world was
42:39
Speaker 1: behind him against us, and I must give in. Those
42:45
Speaker 1: letters had a quality I had never before met in her.
42:49
Speaker 1: They were broken, spirited. I could not understand them fully,
42:54
Speaker 1: and they left me perplexed with a strong desire to
42:57
Speaker 1: see her, to question her, to learn more fully what
43:01
Speaker 1: this change in her might mean. Tarville's notes recorded his
43:06
Speaker 1: repeated attempts to see me. I felt that Tea alone
43:10
Speaker 1: was capable of clearing up things for me, and I
43:12
Speaker 1: went out again at once and telegraphed to him for
43:15
Speaker 1: an appointment. He wired to me from that same house
43:19
Speaker 1: in Mayfair in which I had first met Mary. After
43:22
Speaker 1: my return, he asked me to come to him in
43:26
Speaker 1: the afternoon, and thither I went through a November fog
43:30
Speaker 1: and found him in the drawing room that had the
43:32
Speaker 1: plate glass above the fireplace. But now he was vacating
43:37
Speaker 1: the house, and everything was already covered up. The pictures
43:41
Speaker 1: and their frames were under holland the fine furniture all
43:44
Speaker 1: in covers of faded stuff, the chandeliers and statues wrapped up,
43:49
Speaker 1: the carpets rolled out of the way. Even the window
43:53
Speaker 1: curtains were tucked into wrappers, and the blinds except one
43:57
Speaker 1: he had raised, drawn down. He greeted me and apologized
44:02
Speaker 1: for the cold inhospitality of the house. It was convenient here,
44:07
Speaker 1: he said. I came here to clear out my papers
44:10
Speaker 1: and boxes, and there's no chance of interruptions. He went
44:15
Speaker 1: and stood before the empty fireplace and plunged into the
44:19
Speaker 1: middle of the matter. You know, my dear Stratton, in
44:23
Speaker 1: this confounded business, my heart's with you. It has been
44:27
Speaker 1: all along. If I could have seen a clear chance
44:30
Speaker 1: before you for you and Mary to get away and
44:34
Speaker 1: make any kind of life of it, though she's my cousin,
44:38
Speaker 1: i'd have helped you, indeed I would. But there's no
44:41
Speaker 1: sort of chance, not the ghost of a chance. He
44:47
Speaker 1: began to explain, very fully, quite incontrovertibly, that entire absence
44:53
Speaker 1: of any chance for Mary and myself together, He argued
44:57
Speaker 1: to the converted you know as well as I do
45:01
Speaker 1: what that romantic flight abroad that we'da eskue casa in
45:05
Speaker 1: some secluded valley comes to in reality. All round Florence,
45:09
Speaker 1: there's no end of such scandalous people. I've been among them,
45:14
Speaker 1: the nine circles of the repenting, scandalous hall cutting one another.
45:20
Speaker 1: I agree, I said, And yet, what we could have
45:25
Speaker 1: come back? Tarvrell paused and then leant forward. No, but
45:33
Speaker 1: people have done so. It would have been a clean
45:36
Speaker 1: sort of divorce. You don't understand Justin. Justin would ruin
45:42
Speaker 1: you if you were to take Mary away. He's a
45:46
Speaker 1: queer little man. Everything is in his hands. Everything always
45:52
Speaker 1: is in the husband's hands in these affairs. If he
45:55
Speaker 1: chooses and keeps himself in the right for an injured husban,
46:00
Speaker 1: the law sanctifies revenge. And you see, you've got to
46:05
Speaker 1: take Justin's terms. He's changed. He didn't at first fully realize.
46:13
Speaker 1: He feels cheated. We've had to persuade him. There's a
46:19
Speaker 1: case for Justin. You know, he's had to stand a lot.
46:24
Speaker 1: I don't wonder at his going stiff at last, no doubt.
46:28
Speaker 1: It's hard for you to see that, but you have
46:31
Speaker 1: to see it. You've got to go away, as he
46:35
Speaker 1: requires three years out of England. You've got to promise
46:39
Speaker 1: not to correspond, not to meet afterwards. It's so extravagant
46:45
Speaker 1: a separation. The alternative is not for you to have Mary,
46:52
Speaker 1: but for you too to be flung into the ditch together.
46:56
Speaker 1: That's what it comes to. Stratton. Justin's got his case.
47:01
Speaker 1: He's set like steel. You're up against the law, up
47:06
Speaker 1: against social tradition, up against money. Any one of those
47:10
Speaker 1: a man may fight, but not all three. And she's ill, Stratton,
47:16
Speaker 1: you owe her consideration you, of all people. That's no
47:21
Speaker 1: god up story. She's truly ill and broken. She can
47:26
Speaker 1: no longer fly with you and fight with you, travel
47:29
Speaker 1: in uncomfortable trains, stay in horrible little inns. You don't understand.
47:36
Speaker 1: The edge is off her pluck, Stratton, what do you mean?
47:41
Speaker 1: I asked and questioned his face, Just exactly what I say.
47:48
Speaker 1: A gleam of understanding came to me. Why can't I
47:52
Speaker 1: see her? I broke in, with my voice full of
47:56
Speaker 1: misery and anger. Why can't I see her? As if
47:59
Speaker 1: see her once more could matter so very greatly? Now
48:04
Speaker 1: he appeared to weigh something in his mind. You can't,
48:09
Speaker 1: he said, How do I know that she's not being
48:12
Speaker 1: told some story of my abandonment of her? How do
48:16
Speaker 1: I know she isn't being led to believe I no
48:18
Speaker 1: longer want her to come to me. She isn't, said Tarfril,
48:24
Speaker 1: still with that arrested judicial note in his voice. You
48:28
Speaker 1: had her letters, he said, two. Yes, didn't they speak?
48:35
Speaker 1: I want to see her, damn it, Tarvrill, I cried,
48:39
Speaker 1: with sudden tears in my smarting eyes. Let her send
48:43
Speaker 1: me away. This isn't not treating us like human beings. Women,
48:50
Speaker 1: said Tarfril, and looked at his boot toes are different
48:54
Speaker 1: from men, you see, Stratton, he paused, You always strike me, Stratton,
49:02
Speaker 1: as not realizing that women are weak things. We've got
49:07
Speaker 1: to take care of them. You don't seem to feel
49:10
Speaker 1: that as I do. Their moods fluctuate more than ours do.
49:15
Speaker 1: If you hold them to what they say in the
49:18
Speaker 1: same way you hold a man, it isn't fair, he halted,
49:24
Speaker 1: as though he awaited my assent to that proposition. If
49:29
Speaker 1: you were to meet Mary now you see, and if
49:32
Speaker 1: you were to say to her, come, come and we'll
49:35
Speaker 1: jump down Etna together, and you said it in the
49:38
Speaker 1: proper voice, and with the proper force. She'd do it, Stratton,
49:43
Speaker 1: you know that any man knows a thing like that,
49:47
Speaker 1: and she wouldn't want to do it. You mean, that's
49:52
Speaker 1: why I can't see her. That's why you can't see her,
49:58
Speaker 1: because we'd become dramatic, because you'd become romantic and uncivilized. Well,
50:08
Speaker 1: I said, sullenly, realizing the bargain we were making. I won't.
50:14
Speaker 1: You won't make any appeal. No. He made no answer,
50:21
Speaker 1: and I looked up to discover him glancing over his
50:24
Speaker 1: shoulder through the great glass window into the other room.
50:29
Speaker 1: I stood up very quickly, and there in the further apartment,
50:33
Speaker 1: where Guy and Mary standing side by side, our eyes met,
50:39
Speaker 1: and she came forward towards the window impulsively and paused,
50:44
Speaker 1: with that unpitying pain between us. Then Guy was opening
50:49
Speaker 1: the door for her, and she stood in the doorway.
50:53
Speaker 1: She was in dark furs wrapped about her, but in
50:56
Speaker 1: the instant I could see how ill she was and
50:59
Speaker 1: how broke. She came a step or so towards me
51:04
Speaker 1: and then stopped short, and so we stood shyly and
51:08
Speaker 1: awkwardly under Guy and Harvill's eyes two yards apart, you see,
51:15
Speaker 1: she said, and stopped lamely. You and I, I said,
51:22
Speaker 1: have to part. Mary. We we are beaten. Is that so, Stephen?
51:29
Speaker 1: There is nothing for us to do. We've offended, we
51:33
Speaker 1: broke the rules. We have to pay by parting. What
51:39
Speaker 1: else is there to do? No, I said, there's nothing else.
51:46
Speaker 1: I tried. She said that you shouldn't be sent from England.
51:51
Speaker 1: That's a detail, I answered, But your politics, your work,
51:57
Speaker 1: That does not matter. The great thing is that you
52:01
Speaker 1: are ill and unhappy. That I can't help you. I
52:05
Speaker 1: can't do anything. I'd go anywhere to save you. All
52:11
Speaker 1: I can do, I suppose is to part like this
52:14
Speaker 1: and go. I shan't be altogether unhappy, and I shall
52:20
Speaker 1: think of you. She paused, and we stood facing one another,
52:26
Speaker 1: tongue tied. There was only one word more to say,
52:31
Speaker 1: and neither of us would say it for a moment.
52:35
Speaker 1: Good Bye, she whispered at last. And then, don't think
52:40
Speaker 1: I deserted you, Stephen, my dear, don't think ill of me.
52:44
Speaker 1: I couldn't come. I couldn't come to you. And suddenly
52:50
Speaker 1: her face changed slowly, and she began to weep. My
52:54
Speaker 1: fearless playmate, whom I had never seen weeping before. She
52:59
Speaker 1: began to weep as an unhappy child might weep. Oh
53:05
Speaker 1: my Mary, I cried, weeping also, and held out my arms,
53:10
Speaker 1: and we clung together and kissed with tear wet faces.
53:16
Speaker 1: No cried guy belatedly. We promised justin, but Tarvil restrained
53:23
Speaker 1: his forbidding arm, and then, after a second's interval, put
53:28
Speaker 1: a hand on my shoulder. Come, he said, And so
53:34
Speaker 1: it was Mary and I parted from one another. End
53:42
Speaker 1: of Chapter six