Latest / The H. G. Wells Library / Bealby Chapter 3 - The Wanderers Part Two

Transcript

Bealby Chapter 3 - The Wanderers Part Two · The H. G. Wells Library

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter three, Bielby a Holiday. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: by Rita Boutros Bilby a Holiday by H. G. Wells.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Chapter three The Wanderers, Part two sub Chapter seven? Do
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: you know the wind on the heath? Have you lived
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: the gipsy life? Have you spoken wanderers yourselves with romany
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Chi and Romanichal on the wind swept moors? At home
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: or abroad? Have you tramped the broad highways and at
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: close of day pitched your tent near a running stream
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: and cooked your supper by starlight over a fire of pinewood?
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Do you know the dreamless sleep of the wanderer at
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: peace with himself and all the world. For most of us,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: the answer to these questions of the amateur camping club
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: is in the negative. Yet every year, the call of
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: the road, the Borovian glamour, draws away a certain small
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: number of the imaginative from the grosser comforts of a
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: complex civilization, takes them out into tents and caravans and
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: intimate communion with nature and incidentally with various ingenious appliances
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: designed to meet the needs of cooking in a breeze.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: It is an adventure to which high spirits and great
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: expectations must be brought. It is an experience in proximity
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: which few friendships survive, and altogether very great fun. The
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: life of breezy freedom resolves itself in practice, chiefly into
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: washing up and an anxious search for permission to camp.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: One learns how rich and fruitful our world can be
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: in bystanders, and how easy it is to forget essential groceries.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: The heart of the joy of it lies in its
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: perfect detachment. There you are, in the morning sunlight, under
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: the trees that overhang the road. Going whither you will
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: everything you need. You have. Your van creaks along at
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: your side. You are outside inns, outside houses, a home,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: a community, an imperium in imperial At any moment you
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: may draw out of the traffic, upon the wayside grass
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: and say here until the owner catches us at it
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: is home. At any time, subject to the complaisance of
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: William and your being able to find him, you may
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: in span and go onward. The world is all before
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: for you. You taste the complete yet leisurely inssossients of
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: the snail, and two of those three ladies had other
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: satisfactions to supplement their pleasures. They both adored Madeline Phillips.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: She was not only perfectly sweet and lovely, but she
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: was known to be so. She had that most potent
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: charm for women, prestige. They had got her all to themselves.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: They could show now how false is the old idea
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: that there is no friendship nor conversation among women. They
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: were full of wit and pretty things for one another,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: and snatches of song in between. And they were free
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: too from their men folk. They were doing without them.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Doctor Bulls, the husband of the lady and the dear stalker,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: was away in Ireland, and mister Geege, the lord of
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: the inconspicuous woman, was golfing at Sandwich. And Madeline Phillips,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: it was understood, was only too glad to shake herself
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: free from the crowd of admirers that hovered about her
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: like wasps about honey. Yet after three days, each one
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: had thoughts about the need of helpfulness, and more particularly
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: about washing up, that were better left unspoken, that were
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: indeed conspicuously unspoken beneath their merry. Give and take like
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: a black and silent river flowing beneath a bridge of ivory.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: And each of them had a curious feeling in the
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: midst of all this fresh free behavior, as though the
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: others were not listening sufficiently, as though something of the
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: effect of them was being wasted. Madeleine's smiles became rarer
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: at times, she was almost impassive, and Judy preserved nearly
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: all her wit and verbal fireworks for the times when
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: they passed through villages. Missus Gech was less visibly affected.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: She had thoughts of writing a book about it all,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: telling in the gayest, most provocative way, full of the quietest,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: quaintest humor, just how jolly they had been men folk
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: would read it. This kept a little thin smile upon
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: her lips. As an audience, William was tough stuff. He
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: pretended deafness. He never looked, he did not want to look.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: He seemed always to be holding his nose in front
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: of his face to prevent his observation as men prey
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: into their hats at church. But once Judy Bulls overheard
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: a phrase or so in his private soliloquy pack o' women,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: William was saying, dratted petticoats, Dangham. That's what I say
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: to him, Dangham. As a matter of fact, he just
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: fell short of saying it to them, but his manner
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: said it. You begin to see how acceptable an addition
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: was young Bilby to this company. He was not only helpful,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: immensely helpful in things material, a vigorous and at first
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: a careful washer up, an energetic boot polisher, a most
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: serviceable cleaner and tidier of things. But he was also
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: belief and support undisguisedly. He thought the caravan the loveliest
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: thing going, and its three mistresses the most wonderful of people.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: His alert eyes followed them about, full of an unstinted
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: admiration and interest. He pricked his ears when Judy opened
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: her mouth. He handed things to missus Goach. He made
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: no secret about Madeleine. When she spoke to him, he
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: lost his breath. He reddened, and was embarrassed. They went
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: across the fields, saying that he was the luckiest of fines.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: It was for his people had been so ready to
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: spare him. Judy said boys were a race very cruelly maligned.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: See how willing he was. Missus Gech said there was
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: something elfin about Bilby's little face. Madeleine smiled at the
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: thought of his quaint artlessness. She knew quite clearly that
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: he'd die for her. Sub Chapter eight. There was a
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: little pause as the ladies moved away. Then William spat
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: and spoke in a note of irrational bitterness. Brasted voolery,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: said William, and then loudly and fiercely came up, Yo'd
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: run't yu. At these words, the white horse started into
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: a convulsive, irregular redistribution of its feet. The caravans strained
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: and quivered into motion, and Bilby's wanderings as a caravanner began.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: For a time, William spoke no more, and Bilby scarcely
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: regarded him. The light of strange fortunes and deep enthusiasm
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: was in Bilby's eyes. One thing, said William. They don't
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: have the sense to lock anythink up. Whatever. Bilby's attention
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: was recalled to the existence of his companion. William's face
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: was one of those faces that give one, at first
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: the impression of a solitary and very conceited nose. The
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: other features are entirely subordinated to that salient effect. One
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: seized them later His eyes were small and uneven, his
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: mouth apparently toothless, thin lipped, and crumpled, with the upper
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: lip falling over the other, in a manner suggestive of
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: a meager firmness mixed with appetite. When he spoke, he
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: made a faint slobbering sound. Every think he said. Behind there,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: he became confidential. I've been in there. I larked about
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: with their fings. They got some chocolate, he said, lusciously.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Oh fine, all sorts of things. He did not seem
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: to expect any reply from Bilby. We going far before
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: we meet, em asked Bilby. William's deafness became apparent his
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: mind was preoccupied by other ideas. One wicked eye came
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: close to Bilby's face. We're going to have a bit
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: of chocolate, he said, in a wet, desirous voice. He
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: pointed his thumb over his shoulder at the door. You'll
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: get it, said William, with reassuring nods and the mouth
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: much pursed and very oblique. Bilby shook his head. It's
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: in a little drawer under a place where she sleeps.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Bilby's head shake became more emphatic. Yus, I tell you,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: said William, No, said Bilby. Chocolate, I tell you, said William,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: and ran the of appetite round the rim of his
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: toothless mouth. Don't want chocolate, said Bilby, thinking of a
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: large lump of it. Go on, said William. Nobody won't
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: see you go it, said William. You're afraid, said William.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Here I'll go, said William, losing self control. You just
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: owed these rains. Bilby took the reins. William got out
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: and opened the door of the caravan. Then Bilby realized
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: his moral responsibility, and, leaving the reins, clutched William firmly
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: by his baggy nether garments. They were elderly garments. Much
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: sat upon. Don't be a vuol, said William, struggling, leag
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: all my slack. Something partially gave way, and William's head
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: came round to deal with Bilby. What you mean pull
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: in my clothes off me? That he investigated. Take me
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: an hour to sow up. I ain't going to steal,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: shouted Bilby into the ear of William. Nobody asked yo
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: to steal, Nor you either, said Bilby. The caravan bumped
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: heavily against a low garden wall, skidded a little and
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: came to rest. William sat down. Suddenly the white horse,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: after a period of confusion with its legs, tried the
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: flavor of some overhanging lilac branches and was content. Give
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: me those reins, said William. You be the breastedest young
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: vool sit near, said William, presently chew on our teeth
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: when we might be eaten chocolate. I ain't got no
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: use fer you, said William, bloat if I have. Then,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: the thought of his injuries returned to him. I'd make
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: you sew 'm up yerself darned if I wan't, only
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: you go runnin' brasted needle into me. NAR's work there is,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: by the feel of it, n an hour guardob duntool
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: all I got. I'll give ye somethin new little beasts
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: before I'd done wi ye. I wouldn't steal our chocolates,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: said young Bilby, not if I was starving, A shouted William. Steal,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: shouted Bilby. I'll steal ye for I done with ye,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: said William, tearn my clothes for me. Oh, come up, yo, durrant,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: We don't want you to stop. An listen, came up,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: I tell ye. Sub Chapter eight, they found the ladies. Rather,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: it seemed by accident than design, waiting upon a sandy common,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: rich with purple heather and bordered by woods of fir
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: and spruce. They had been waiting some time, and it
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: was clear that the sight of the yellow caravan relieved
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: an accumulated anxiety. Bilby rejoiced to see them, his soul
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: glowed with the pride of chocolate. Resisted, and William overcome,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: he resolved to distinguish himself over the preparation of the
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: midday meal. It was a pleasant little island of green.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: They chose for their mid day pitch a little patch
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: of emerald turf amidst the purple, a patch already doomed
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: to removal as a bare oblong and a pile of
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: rolled up turfs witnessed this pile, and a little bank
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: of heather and bramble promised shelter from the breeze. And
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: down the hill a hundred yards away was a spring
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: and a built up pool. This spot lay perhaps fifty
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: yards away from the high road, and one reached it
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: along the rutty track which had been made by the
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: turf cutters, and overhead was the glorious sky of an
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: English summer with great clouds like sunlit white sailed ships
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: the constable sky. The white horse was hobbled and turned
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: out to pasture among the heather, and William was sent
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: off to get congenial provender at the nearest public house.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: William shouted Missus Bowles as he departed, shouting confidentially into
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: his ear. Get your clothes mended, eh, said William, mend
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: your clothes. Yah. He did that, said William, viciously, with
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: a movement of self protection, and so went. Nobody watched
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: him go almost sternly. They set to work upon the
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: luncheon preparation. As William receded William, Missus Bowles remarked as
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: she bustled with the patent cooker, putting it up wrong
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: way round so that afterwards it collapsed. William takes offense sometimes.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: I think he takes offense almost too often. Did you
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: have any difficulty with him, Dick? It wasn't anything, miss
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: said Beelby meekly. Bilby was wonderful with the fire lighting,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: and except that he cracked a plate in warming, it
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: quite admirable. As a cook. He burnt his fingers twice
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: and liked doing it. He ate his portion with instinctive
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: modesty on the other side of the caravan, and he
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: washed up as mister Merkleson had always instructed him to do.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: Missus Bowles showed him how to clean knives and forks
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: by sticking them into the turf a little to his surprise,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: these ladies lit and smoked cigarettes. They sat about and
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: talked perplexingly clever stuff. Then he had to get water
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: from the neighboring brook and boil the kettle for an
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: early tea. Madeleine produced a charmingly bound little book and
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: read in it. The other two professed themselves anxious for
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: the view from a neighboring hill. They produced their sensible
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: spiked walking sticks, such as one does Nazi in England.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: They seemed full of energy. You go, Madeline, had said,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: while I and Dick stay here and make tea. I've
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: walked enough to day, so beelby, happy to the pitch
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: of ecstasy. First explored the wonderful interior of the caravan.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: There was a dresser, a stove, let down, chairs and
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: tables and all manner of things. And then nursed the
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: kettle to the singing stage on the patent cooker while
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: the beautiful lady reclined close at hand on a rug. Dick,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: she said, he had forgotten he was Dick. Dick, he
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: remembered his personality with a start. Yes, Miss, He knelt
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: up with a handful of twigs in his hand and
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: regarded her well, Dick, she said, he remained in flush adoration.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: There was a little pause, and the lady smiled at him,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: an unaffected smile. What are you going to be, Dick
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: when you grow up? I don't know, Miss, I've wondered.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: What would you like to be? Something abroad, something so
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: that you could see things? A soldier or a sailor. Miss.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: A sailor sees nothing but the sea. I'd rather be
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: a sailor than a common soldier. Miss. You'd like to
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: be an officer? Yes, Miss, only one of my very
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: best friends is an officer, she said a little irreverently.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: It seemed to Bilby. I'd be an officer like a shot,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: said Bilby, if I had arfa chance. Miss, officers nowadays,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: she said, have to be very brave able men. I know, Miss,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: said Bilby modestly. The fire required attention for a little while.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: The lady turned over on her elbow. What do you
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: think you are likely to be Dick? She asked, He
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: didn't know. What sort of man is your stepfather? Bilby
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: looked at her. He isn't much, he said, What is he?
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Bilby hadn't the slightest intention of being the son of
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: a gardener. He's a law writer. What in that village?
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: He's as to stay there for his health? Miss, he said,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: every summer. His health is very pre precocious. Miss. He
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: fed his fire with a few judiciously administered twigs. What
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: was your own father? Dick? With that, she opened a
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: secret door in Bilby's imagination. All step children have those
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: dreams with him. They were so frequent and vivid that
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: they had long since become a kind of second truth.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: He colored a little and answered, with scarcely an interval
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: for reflection. It passed as Maltravers, he said, wasn't that
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: his name? I don't rightly know? Miss. There was always
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: so and kept for me. My mother used to say, Artie.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: She used to say, there's things that some day you
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: must know, things that concern you, things about your father.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: But poor as we are now in struggling, not yet
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: some day you shall know truly who you are that
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: was how she said it, Miss, and she died before
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: she told you. He had almost forgotten that he had
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: killed his mother that very morning. Yes, miss, he said.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: She smiled at him, and something in her smile made
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: him blush hotly. For a moment he could have believed
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: she understood, And indeed she did understand, and did amuse
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: her to find this boy doing what she herself had
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: done at times, what indeed she felt it was still
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: in her to do. She felt that most delicate of sympathies,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: the sympathy of one rather over imaginative person for another.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: But her next question dispelled his doubt of her, though
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: it left him red and hot. She asked it with
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: a convincing simplicity. Have you any idea, dick? Have you
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: any guess or suspicion? I mean, who it is you
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: really are? I wish I had, Miss, he said. I
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: suppose it doesn't matter, really, But one can't help wondering.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: How often he had wondered, in his lonely wanderings through
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: that dear city of day dreams, where all the people
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: one knows look out of windows as one passes, and
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: the roads are paved with pride? How often had he decided,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: and changed, and decided again sub Chapter nine. Now suddenly
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: a realization of intrusion shattered this conversation. A third person
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: stood over the little encampment, smiling mysteriously and waving a
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: clik in a slow, hieratic manner through the air. Delicious,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: little corn, said the newcomer, in tones of benediction. He
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: met their inquiring eyes with a luxurious smile. Malicious, he said,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: and remained swaying insecurely and failing to express some imperfectly
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: apprehended deep meaning by short peculiar movements of the clique.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: He was obviously a golfer astray from some adjacent course,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: and he had lunched. Mighty join you, he said, and then,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: very distinctly, in a full large voice, Miss Madeline Phillips,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: there are the penalties of a public and popular life.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: He's drunk, the lady whispered, Get him to go away, Dick,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: I can't endure drunken men. She stood up, and Bilby
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: stood up. He advanced in front of her slowly, with
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: his nose in the air extraordinarily, like a small terrier
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: smelling at a strange dog. I said, mighty join you.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: The Golfer repeated, his voice was richly excessive. He was
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: a big, heavy man, with a short cropped mustache, a
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: great deal of neck and dew lap, and a solemn
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: expression prop there in dreuzuzma self, he remarked. He tried
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: to indicate himself by waving his hand towards himself, but
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: finally abandoned the attempt as impossible. My good social trusition,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: he said. Bilby had a disconcerting sense of retreating footsteps
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: behind him. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Miss
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Phillips standing at the foot of the steps that led
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: up to the fastnesses of the caravan. Dick. She cried,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: with a sharp note of alarm in her voice, get
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: rid of that man. A moment after Bilby heard the
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: door shut and a sound of a key in its lock.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: He concealed his true feelings by putting his arms akimbo,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: sticking his legs wider apart, and contemplating the task before
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: him with his head a little on one side. He
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: was upheld by the thought that the yellow caravan had
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: a window looking upon him. The newcomer seemed to consider
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: the ceremony of introduction completed. I don't care our golf,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: he said, almost vaingloriously. He waved his clik to express
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: his preference. Natua, he said, with a satisfaction that bordered
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: on fatuity. He prepared to come down from the little
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: turfy crest on which he stood to the encampment. Ere said, Bilby,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: this is private. The golfer indicated by solemn movements of
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: the cleik that this was understood, but that other considerations
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: overrode it. You you got to go, cried Bilby, in
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: a breathless squeak. You get out of here. The golfer
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: waved an arm as who should say, you do not understand,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: but I forgive you, and continued to advance towards the fire,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: and then Bilby, at the end of his tact, commenced hostilities.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: He did so because he felt he had to do something,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: and he did not know what else to do. When
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: nothing but friendly conversation the sucious customary weaverpille the golfer
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: was saying, and then a large fragment of turf hit
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: him in the neck, burst all about him, and stopped
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: him abruptly. He remained for some lengthy moments, too astonished
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: for words. He was not only greatly surprised, but he
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: chose to appear even more surprised than he was. In
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: spite of the brown black mold upon his cheek and brow,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: and a slight displacement of his cap, he achieved a
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: sort of dignity. He came slowly to a focus upon Bilby,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: who stood by the turf pile grasping a second missile.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: The was extended scepter. Wise, replace the divot, you go off,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: said Bilby. I'll chuck it if you don't, I tell
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: you fair. Replace the divot, roared the golfer again, in
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: a voice of extraordinary power. You you go, said Bilby.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Am I to ask you third time? Reshpect rose replace
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: thea divot. It struck him fully in the face. He
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: seemed to emerge through the mold. He was blinking, but
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: still dignified. Tha was intentional, he said. He seemed to
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: gather himself together. Then suddenly, and with a surprising nimbleness,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: he discharged himself at Bilby. He came with astonishing swiftness.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: He got within a foot of him. Well. It was
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: for Bilby that he had learned to dodge in the
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: village playground. He went down under the golfer's arm and
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: away round the end of the stack, and the golfer,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: with his force spent in concussion, remained for a time,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: clinging to the turf pile and apparently trying to remember
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: how he got there. Then he was reminded of recent
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: occurrences by a shrill, small voice from the other side
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: of the stack. You go away, said the voice. Can't
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: you see you're annoying a lady? You go away? Nawsh
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: noy any one pleas wow, whirl. But this was such
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: refuge He meant to catch that boy. Suddenly, and rather brilliantly,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: he turned the flank of the turf pile, and only
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: a couple of loose turfs at the foot of the
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: heap upset his calculations. He found himself on all fours
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: on ground from which it was difficult to rise, But
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: he did not lose heart. Boy scow, he said, and
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: became for a second rush. A nimble quadruped again. He
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: got quite astonishingly near to Bielby, and then in an
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: instant was on his feet and running across the encampment
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: after him. He succeeded in kicking over the kettle and
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: the patent cooker without any injury to himself or loss
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: of pace, and succumbed only to the sharp turn behind
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: the end of the caravan and the steps. He hadn't
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: somehow thought of the steps, so he went down rather heavily.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: But now the spirit of a fine man was roused.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: Regardless of the scream from inside that had followed his collapse,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: he was up and in pursuit almost instantly. Bilby only
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: escaped the swiftness of his rush by jumping the shafts
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: and going away across the front of the caravan to
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: the turf pile. Again. The Golfer tried to jump the
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: shafts too, but he was not equal to that. He
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: did in a manner jump, but it was almost as
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: much diving as jumping, and there was something in it,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: almost like the curvetting of a great horse. When Bilby
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: turned at the crash, the Golfer was already on all
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: fours again and trying very busily to crawl out between
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: the shaft and the front wheel. He would have been
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: more successful in doing this if he had not begun
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: by putting his arm through the wheel. As it was,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: he was trying to do too much. He was trying
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: to crawl out at two points at once, and getting
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: very rapidly annoyed at his inability to do so. The
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: caravan was shifting slowly forward. It was manifest to Bilby
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: that getting this man to go was likely to be
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: a much more lengthy business than he had supposed. He
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: surveyed the situation for a month moment, and then, realizing
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: the entanglement of his opponent, he seized a campstool by
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: one leg, went round by the steps, and attacked the
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: prostrate enemy from the rear with effectual but inconclusive fury.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: He hammered steady on, young man, said a voice, and
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: he was seized from behind. He turned to discover himself
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: in the grip of a second golfer. Another Bilby fought
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: in a fury of fear. He bit an arm rather
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: too tweedy to feel much, and got in a couple
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: of shinners, alas that they were only slippered shinners, before
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: he was overpowered. A cuffed, crumpled, disarmed and panting, Bilby
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: found himself watching the careful extraction of the first golfer
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: from the front wheel. Two friends assisted that gentleman with
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: a reproachful gentleness, and his repeated state that he was
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: all right seemed to reassure them greatly. Altogether, there were
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: now four golfers in the field, counting the pioneer. He
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: was after this devil of a boy, said the one
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: who held Bilby. Yes, but how did he get here?
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: Asked the man who was gripping Bilby. Feel better now,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: said the third, helping the first comer to his uncertain feet.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: Let me have your cleik. Oh man, you won't want
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: your clik across the heather. Lifting their heads a little
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: came Missus Bowles and Missus Gege, returning from their walk.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: They were wondering whoever their visitors could be. And then,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: like music after a dispute, came Madeleine Phillips, a beautiful
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: blue robed thing, coming slowly with a kind of wonder
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: on her face, out of the caravan and down the steps.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: Instinctively everybody turned to her. The drunkard the gesture released
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: himself from his supporter and stood erect. His cap was
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: replaced upon him obliquely. His clique had been secured. I
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: heard a noise, said Madeleine, lifting her pretty chin and
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: speaking in her sweetest tones. She looked her inquiries. She
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: surveyed the three sober men with a practiced eye. She
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: chose the tallest, a fair, serious looking young man, standing
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: conveniently at the drunkard's elbow. Will you please take your
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: friend away, she said, indicating the offender with her beautiful
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: white hand. Simly, he said in a slightly subdued voice,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: simly quoring. Everybody tried for a moment to understand him.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Look here, old man, you've got no business here, said
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: the fair young man. You'd better come back to the clubhouse.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: The drunken man stuck to his statement, simly cooring, he
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: said a little loud, I think, said a little bright
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: eyed man with a very cheerful yellow vest. I think
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: he's apologizing. I hope. So. The drunken man nodded his
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: head that among other matters. The tall young man took
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: his arm, but he insisted on his point. Simply cooring,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: he said, with emphasis, if if done want me to
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: core no tom no tat mean't say not ta ta tom,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: not to tome ornie way saying not tome no wish
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: truth no wish tall. Well, then you see you'd better
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: come away. I ars you are you a tome miss
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: miss Pipps. He appealed to Miss Phillips, if you'd answer him,
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: said the tall young man. No, sir, she said, with
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: great dignity, and the pretty chin higher than ever. I
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: am not at home. Na. The more to say, then,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: said the drunken man, and with a sudden stoicism, he
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: turned away. Come, he said, submitting to support simly. Or
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: niarf nun kor, he said generally, and permitted himself to
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: be led off our nfriendly khor. For some time he
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: was audible as he receded, explaining in a rather condescending voice,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: the extreme social correctness of his behavior. Just for a
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: moment or so. There was a slight tussle due to
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: his desire to return and leave cards. He was afterwards
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: seen to be distributing a small handful of visiting cards
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: amidst the heather with his free arm, rather in the
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: manner of a paper chase, but much more gracefully than decently,
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: and in order he was taken out of sight. Sub
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: Chapter ten. Bielby had been unostentatiously released by his captor
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: as soon as Miss Phillips appeared, and the two remaining
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: golfers now addressed themselves to the three ladies in regret
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: and explanation. The man who had held Bilby was an aquiline,
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: gray clad person with a cascade mustache and wrinkled eyes,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: and for some obscure reason, he seemed to be amused.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: The little man in the yellow vest, however, was quite
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: earnest and serious enough to make up for him. He
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: was one of those little fresh colored men whose faces
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: stick forward openly. He had open, projecting eyes and open mouth.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: His cheeks were frank to the pitch of ostentation. His
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: cap was thrust back from his exceptionally open forehead. He
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: had a chest and a stomach. There too, he held out.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: He would have held out anything. His legs leaned forward
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: from the feet. It was evidently impossible for a man
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: of his nature to be anything but clean shaved. Our
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: fault entirely, he said, ought to have looked after him.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: Can't say how sorry and ashamed we are. Can't say
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: how sorry we are he caused you any inconvenience, of course,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: said missus Balls. Our boy's servant ought not to have
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: pelted him. He didn't exactly pelt him, dear, said Madeleine. Well, anyhow,
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: our friend ought not to have been off his chain.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: It was our affair to look after him, and we didn't.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: You see the open young man went on with the
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: air of lucid explanation. He's our worst player and he
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: got round in a hundred and twenty seven and beat somebody,
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: and it's upset him. It's not a bit of good
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: disguising that we've been letting him drink. We have to
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: begin and with. We encouraged him. We oughtn't to have
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: let him go, but he thought a walk alone might
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: do him good. And some of us were a bit
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: off him fed up. Rather, you see, he'd been singing,
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: would go on singing. He went on to propitiations. Anything
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: the club can do to show how we regret. If
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: you would like to pitch later on in our rough
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: beyond the pine woods, you'd find it safe and secluded, custodian,
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: most civil man. Get you water or anything you wanted,
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: especially after all that has happened. Bilby took no further
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: part in these concluding politenesses. He had a curious feeling
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: in his mind that perhaps he had not managed this
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: affair quite so well as he might have done. He
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: ought to have been more tactful, like more persuasive. He
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: was a fool to have started chucking. Well, well, he
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: picked up the overturned kettle and went off down the
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: hill to get water. What had she thought of him?
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: In the meantime, one can at least boil Kettle's sub
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: Chapter eleven. One consequence of this little incident of the
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: rejoicing golfer was that the three ladies were no longer
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: content to dismiss William and Bilby at nightfall and sleep
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: unprotected in the caravan. And this time their pitch was
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: a lonely one, with only the golf club house within call.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: They were inclined even to distrust the golf club. So
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: it was decided, to his great satisfaction, that Bilby should
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: have a certain sleeping sack Missus Bowles had brought with her,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: and that he should sleep therein between the wheels. This
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: sleeping sack was to have been a great feature of
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: the expedition, but when it came to the test, Judy
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: could not use it. She had not anticipated that feeling
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: of extreme publicity the open air gives one at first,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: it was like having all the world in one's bedroom
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: every night. She had relapsed into the caravan. Bilby did
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: not mind what they did with him, so long as
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: it meant sleeping. He had had a long day of it.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: He undressed sketchily and wriggled into the nice wooly bag,
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: and lay for a moment, listening to the soft bumpings
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: that were going on overhead. She was there. He had
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: the instinctive confidence of our sex and women, and here
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: were three of them. He had a vague idea of
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: getting out of his bag again and kissing the underside
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: of the van that held this dear, beautiful creature. He
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: didn't Such a lot of things had happened that day
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: and the day before. He had been going without intermission,
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: it seemed now for endless hours. He thought of trees, roads,
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: dew wet grass, frying pans, pursuing packs of gigantic butlers
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: hopelessly at fault. No doubt they were hunting now, chinks
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: and crannies, tactless missiles flying, bursting missiles. It was vain
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: to recall. He stared for a few seconds through the
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: wheel spokes at the dancing, crackling fire of pine cones
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: which it had been his last duty to replenish. Stared
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: and blinked, much as a little dog might do, and
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: then he had slipped away altogether into the world of
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: dreams sub Chapter twelve. In the morning he was extraordinarily
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: hard to wake. Is it after sleeping all day'd bee?
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: Cried Judy Boles, who was always at her most irish
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: about breakfast time. End of chapter three.