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Autobiography of a Slander - Edna Lyall · The Emerald City of Oz

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  Speaker 1: Chapter one of the Autobiography of a Slander. This is
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  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: The Autobiography of a Slander by Edna Lyall my first stage.
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  Speaker 1: At last the tea came up, and so with that
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  Speaker 1: our tongues began to go. Now in that house, you're
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  Speaker 1: sure of knowing the smallest scrap of news that's going
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  Speaker 1: we find it there the wisest way to take some
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  Speaker 1: care of what we say recreation Jane Taylor. I was
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  Speaker 1: born on the second of September eighteen eighty six in
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  Speaker 1: a small, dull country town. When I say the town
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  Speaker 1: was dull, I mean, of course that the inhabitants were unenterprising.
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  Speaker 1: For in itself Muddleton was a picturesque place, and though
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  Speaker 1: it labored under the usual disadvantage of a dearth of
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  Speaker 1: bachelor's and a super fluidity of spinster's, it might have
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  Speaker 1: been pleasant enough had it not been a favorite resort
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  Speaker 1: for my kith and kin. My father has long enjoyed
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  Speaker 1: a world wide notoriety. He is not, however, as a rule,
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  Speaker 1: named in good society, though he habitually frequents it. And
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  Speaker 1: as I am led to believe that my autobiography will
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  Speaker 1: possibly be circulated by mister Muddy and will lie about
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  Speaker 1: on drawing room tables, I will merely mention that a
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  Speaker 1: most representation of my progenitor, under his nom de theater Mephistopheles,
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  Speaker 1: may be seen now in London, and I should recommend
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  Speaker 1: all who wish to understand his character to go to
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  Speaker 1: the Lyceum, though between ourselves he strongly disapproves of the
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  Speaker 1: whole perform Mormans I was introduced into the world by
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  Speaker 1: an old lady named Missus O'Reilly. She was a very
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  Speaker 1: pleasant old lady, the wife of a general, and one
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  Speaker 1: of those sociable, friendly, talkative people who do much to
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  Speaker 1: cheer their neighbors, particularly in a deadly lively provincial place
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  Speaker 1: like Muddleton, where the standard of social intercourse is not
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  Speaker 1: very high. Missus O'Reilly had been in her day a
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  Speaker 1: celebrated beauty. She was now gray haired and stout, but
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  Speaker 1: still there was something impressive about her, and few could
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  Speaker 1: resist the charm of her manner and the pleasant, easy
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  Speaker 1: flow of her small talk. Her love of gossip amounted
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  Speaker 1: almost to a passion, and nothing came amiss to her.
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  Speaker 1: She liked to know everything about everybody, and in the
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  Speaker 1: main I think her interest was a kindly one, though
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  Speaker 1: she found that a little bit of scandal every now
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  Speaker 1: and then added a piquant flavor to the homely fare
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  Speaker 1: provided by the commonplace life of the Muddletonians. I will, now,
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  Speaker 1: without further preamble, begin the history of my life. I
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  Speaker 1: assure you, my dear Lena, mister Zuluski is nothing less
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  Speaker 1: than a nihilist. The sound waves set in motion by
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  Speaker 1: Missus O'Reilly's words were tumultuously heaving in the atmosphere. When
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  Speaker 1: I sprang into being a young but perfectly formed and
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  Speaker 1: most promising slander, A delicious odor of tea pervaded the
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  Speaker 1: drawing room. It was orange flower pico, and Missus O'Reilly
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  Speaker 1: was just handing one of the delicate Crown Derby cups
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  Speaker 1: to her visitor, Miss Lena Houghton. What a shocking thing
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  Speaker 1: do you really mean it? Exclaimed Miss Houghton. Thank you cream,
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  Speaker 1: but no sugar. Don't you know, missus O'Reilly, that it
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  Speaker 1: is only low church people who take sugar nowadays? But really,
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  Speaker 1: now about mister Zaluski, how did you find it out?
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  Speaker 1: My dear, I am an old woman, and I have
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  Speaker 1: learnt in the course of a wandering life to put
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  Speaker 1: two and two together, said missus O'Reilly. She had somehow
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  Speaker 1: managed to ignore middle age and had passed from her
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  Speaker 1: position of renowned beauty to the position which she now
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  Speaker 1: firmly and constantly claimed of many years and much experience.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, she continued, like everyone else, I was glad
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  Speaker 1: enough to be friendly and pleasant to Sigismond Zaluski. And
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  Speaker 1: as to his being a pole, why I think it
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  Speaker 1: rather pleased me than otherwise. You see, my dear, I
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  Speaker 1: have knocked about the world and mixed with all kinds
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  Speaker 1: of people. Still one must draw the line somewhere, and
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  Speaker 1: I confess it gave me a very painful shock to
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  Speaker 1: find that he had such violent antipathies to law and order.
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  Speaker 1: When he took Ivy Cottage for the summer. I made
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  Speaker 1: the general call at once, and before long we had
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  Speaker 1: become very intimate with him. But my dear, he is
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  Speaker 1: not what I thought him, not at all. Well, now
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  Speaker 1: I am delighted to hear you say that, said Lena Houghton,
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  Speaker 1: with some excitement in her manner, for it exactly fits
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  Speaker 1: in with what I always felt about him from the first.
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  Speaker 1: I disliked that man and the way he goes on
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  Speaker 1: with Gertrude Morley is simply dreadful. If they are not engaged,
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  Speaker 1: they ought to be, That is all I can say. Engaged,
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  Speaker 1: my dear, I trust not, said missus O'Reilly. I had
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  Speaker 1: always hoped for something very different for dear Gertrude. Quite
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  Speaker 1: between ourselves. You know, my nephew John Carew is overhead
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  Speaker 1: and heels in love with her, and they would make
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  Speaker 1: a very good pair, don't you think so? Well? You see,
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  Speaker 1: I like Gertrude to a certain extent, replied Lena Houghton,
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  Speaker 1: but I never raved about her, as so many people do.
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  Speaker 1: Still I hope she will not be entrapped into marrying
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  Speaker 1: missus Zaluski. She deserves a better faith than that. I
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  Speaker 1: quite agree with you, said missus O'Reilly, with a troubled look.
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  Speaker 1: And the worst of it is, poor Gertrude is a
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  Speaker 1: girl who might very likely take up foolish revolutionary notions.
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  Speaker 1: She needs a strong, wise husband to keep her in
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  Speaker 1: order and form her opinions. But is it really true
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  Speaker 1: that he flirts with her. This is the first I
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  Speaker 1: have heard of it. I can't think how it has
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  Speaker 1: escaped my notice nor I For indeed, he is up
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  Speaker 1: at the Morleys pretty nearly every day, what with tennis
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  Speaker 1: and music and writing. There is always some excuse for it.
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  Speaker 1: I can't think what Gertrude sees in him. He is
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  Speaker 1: not even good looking. There is a certain surface good
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  Speaker 1: nature about him, said Missus. O'Reilly It deceived even me
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  Speaker 1: at first, But my dear Lena, mark my words. That
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  Speaker 1: man has a fearful temper, and I pray heaven that
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  Speaker 1: poor Gertrude may have her eyes opened in time. Besides,
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  Speaker 1: to think of that little gentle, delicate thing marrying a nihilist,
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  Speaker 1: it is too dreadful, really quite too dreadful. John would
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  Speaker 1: never get over it. The thing I can't understand is
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  Speaker 1: why all the world has taken him up, So said
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  Speaker 1: Lena Houghton. One meets him everywhere, yet nobody seems to
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  Speaker 1: know anything about him. Just because he has taken Ivy
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  Speaker 1: cottage for four months, and because he seems to be
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  Speaker 1: rich and good natured, every one is ready to run
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  Speaker 1: after him. Well well, said Missus, O'Reilly. We all like
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  Speaker 1: to be neighborly, my dear, And a week ago I
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  Speaker 1: should have been ready to say nothing but good of him.
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  Speaker 1: But now my eyes have been opened, I'll tell you
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  Speaker 1: just how it was. We were sitting here, just as
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  Speaker 1: you and I are now, at afternoon tea. The talk
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  Speaker 1: had flagged a little, and for the sake of something
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  Speaker 1: to say, I made some remark about Bulgaria. Not that
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  Speaker 1: I really knew anything about it, you know, for I
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  Speaker 1: am no politician. Still I knew it was a subject
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  Speaker 1: that would make talk. Just now, my dear, I assure
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  Speaker 1: you I was positively frightened. All in a minute, his
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  Speaker 1: face changed, his eyes flashed. He broke into such a
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  Speaker 1: torrent of abuse as I never heard in my life before.
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  Speaker 1: Do you mean that he abused, you, dear me, No,
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  Speaker 1: but Russia and the bizarre, and tyranny and despotism, and
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  Speaker 1: many other things I had never heard of. I tried
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  Speaker 1: to calm him down in reason with him, but I
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  Speaker 1: might as well have reasoned with the cockatoo in the window.
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  Speaker 1: At last, he caught himself up quickly in the middle
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  Speaker 1: of a sentence, strode over to the piano and began
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  Speaker 1: to play as he generally does you know when he
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  Speaker 1: comes here? Well, would you believe it, my dear? Instead
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  Speaker 1: of improvising or playing operatic airs as usual, he began
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  Speaker 1: to play a stupid little tune which every child was
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  Speaker 1: taught years ago, of course, with variations of his own.
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  Speaker 1: Then he turned round on the music stool with the
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  Speaker 1: oddest smile I ever saw, and said, do you know
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  Speaker 1: that air? Missus O'Reilly, Yes, I said, but I forget
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  Speaker 1: now what it is. It was composed by Pastal, one
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  Speaker 1: of the victims of Russian tyranny. Said he the executioner
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  Speaker 1: did his work badly, and Pistal had to be strung
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  Speaker 1: up twice. In the interval he was heard to mutter,
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  Speaker 1: stupid country where they don't even know how to hang.
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  Speaker 1: Then he gave a little forced laugh, got up quickly,
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  Speaker 1: wished me good bye, and was gone before I could
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  Speaker 1: put in a word. What a horrible story to tell
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  Speaker 1: in a drawing room, said Lena Houghton. I envy Gertrude
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  Speaker 1: less than ever, poor girl. What a sad prospect it
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  Speaker 1: is for her, said missus O'Reilly, with a sigh. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: my dear, you'll not repeat what I have just told
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  Speaker 1: you not for the world, said Lena Houghton emphatically. It
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  Speaker 1: is perfectly safe with me. The conversation was here abruptly ended,
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  Speaker 1: for the page threw open the drawing room door and
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  Speaker 1: announced mister Zaluski. Talk of the Angel, murmured missus O'Reilly,
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  Speaker 1: with a significant smile at her companion. Then skillfully altering
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  Speaker 1: the expression of her face, she beamed graciously on the
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  Speaker 1: guest who was ushered into the room, and Lena Houghton
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  Speaker 1: also prepared to greet him most pleasantly. I looked with
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  Speaker 1: much interest at Sigismund Zaluski, and as I looked, I
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  Speaker 1: partly understood why Miss Houghton had been prejudiced against him.
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  Speaker 1: At first sight. He had lived five years in England,
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  Speaker 1: and nothing pleased him more than to be taken for
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  Speaker 1: an Englishman. He had had his silky black hair closely
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  Speaker 1: cropped in the very hideous fashion of the present day.
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  Speaker 1: He wore the ostentatiously high collar now in vogue, and
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  Speaker 1: he tried to be sedulously English in every respect. But
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  Speaker 1: in spite of his wonderfully fluent speech and almost perfect accent,
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  Speaker 1: there lying about him something which would not harmonize with
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  Speaker 1: that ideal of an English gentleman, which is latent in
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  Speaker 1: most minds. Something he lacked, something he possessed which interfered
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  Speaker 1: with the part he desired to play. The something lacking
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  Speaker 1: showed itself in his ineradicable love of jewelry and in
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  Speaker 1: a transparent habit of fibbing. The something possessed showed itself
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  Speaker 1: in his easy grace of movement, his delightful readiness to
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  Speaker 1: amuse and to be amused, and in a certain cleverness
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  Speaker 1: and rapidity of idea rarely, if ever, found in an Englishman.
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  Speaker 1: He was a little above the average height and very
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  Speaker 1: finely built, but there was nothing striking in his aquiline
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  Speaker 1: features and dark gray eyes. And I think Miss Houghton
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  Speaker 1: spoke truly when she said that he was not even
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  Speaker 1: good looking. Still, in spite of this, it was a
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  Speaker 1: face which grew upon on most people. And I felt
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  Speaker 1: the least little bit of regret as I looked at him,
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  Speaker 1: because I knew that I should persistently haunt and harass him,
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  Speaker 1: and should do all that could be done to spoil
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  Speaker 1: his life. Apparently he had forgotten all about Russia and Bulgaria,
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  Speaker 1: for he looked radiantly happy, clearly his thoughts were engrossed
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  Speaker 1: with his own affairs, which, in other words, meant with
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  Speaker 1: Gertrude Morley. And though, as I have since observed, there
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  Speaker 1: are times when a man in love is an altogether
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  Speaker 1: intolerable sort of being, there are other times when he
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  Speaker 1: is very much improved by the passion and regards the
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  Speaker 1: whole world with a genial kindliness which contrasts strangely with
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  Speaker 1: his previous cool cynicism. How delightful and homelike your room
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  Speaker 1: always looks, he exclaimed, taking the cup of tea which
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  Speaker 1: Missus O'Reilly handed to him. I am horribly lonely at
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  Speaker 1: Ivy cottage. This house is a sort of oasis in
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  Speaker 1: the desert. Why you are hardly ever at home, I thought,
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  Speaker 1: said Missus O'Reilly, smiling. You are the lion of the
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  Speaker 1: neighborhood just now, and I am sure it is very
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  Speaker 1: good of you to come in and cheer a lonely
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  Speaker 1: old woman. Are you going to play me something rather
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  Speaker 1: more lively? To day? He laughed, Ah, poor pastal, I
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  Speaker 1: had forgotten all about our last meeting. You were very
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  Speaker 1: much excited that day, said Missus O'Reilly. I had no
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  Speaker 1: idea that your political notions, he interrupted her. Ah, no
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  Speaker 1: politics to day, dear missus, O'Reilly, let us have nothing
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  Speaker 1: but enjoyment and harmony. See now I will play you
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  Speaker 1: something very much more cheerful. And sitting down to the piano,
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  Speaker 1: he played the Bridle March from Loewengrin, then wandered off
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  Speaker 1: into an improvised air and finally treated them to some
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  Speaker 1: recollections of the Mikado. Lena Houghton watched him thoughtfully as
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  Speaker 1: she put on her gloves. He was playing with great spirit,
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  Speaker 1: and the words of the opera rang in her ears,
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  Speaker 1: for he is going to marry yum yum, yum yum,
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  Speaker 1: and so you had better be dumb, dumb, dumb. I
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  Speaker 1: knew well enough that she would not follow this moral advice,
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  Speaker 1: and I laughed to myself because the whole scene was
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  Speaker 1: such a hollow mockery. The placid, benevolent looking old lady
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  Speaker 1: leaning back in her arm chair, the girl in her
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  Speaker 1: blue gingham and straw hat, preparing to go to the
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  Speaker 1: afternoon's service. The happy lover entering heart and soul into
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  Speaker 1: Sullivan's charming music. The pretty room with its chippendale furniture,
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  Speaker 1: its esthetic hangings, its bowls of roses, and the sound
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  Speaker 1: of church bells wafted through the open window on the
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  Speaker 1: summer breeze. Yet all the time I lingered there, unseen,
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  Speaker 1: carrying with me all sorts of dread possibilities I had
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  Speaker 1: been introduced into the world. And even if missus O'Reilly
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  Speaker 1: had been willing to admit to herself that she had
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  Speaker 1: broken the ninth Commandment and had earnestly desired to recall me,
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  Speaker 1: all her sighs and tears and regrets would have availed.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing so true is the saying of thy word unspoken.
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  Speaker 1: Thou art master. Thy spoken word is master of thee.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you, How I envy your power of playing.
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  Speaker 1: The two ladies seemed to vie with each other in
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  Speaker 1: making pretty speeches, and Zaluski, who loved music and loved
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  Speaker 1: giving pleasure, looked really pleased. I am sure it did
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  Speaker 1: not enter his head that his two companions were not sincere,
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  Speaker 1: or that they did not wish him well. He was
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  Speaker 1: thinking to himself how simple and kindly the Muddleton people were,
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  Speaker 1: and how great a contrast this life was to his
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  Speaker 1: life in London. And he was saying to himself that
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  Speaker 1: he had been a fool to live a lonely bachelor
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  Speaker 1: life till he was nearly thirty, and yet congratulating himself
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  Speaker 1: that he had done so, since Gertrude was but nineteen.
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  Speaker 1: Undoubtedly he was seeing blissful visions of the future all
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  Speaker 1: the time that he replied to the pretty speeches, and
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  Speaker 1: shook hands with Lena Houghton, and opened the drawing room
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  Speaker 1: door for her, and took out his watch to assure
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  Speaker 1: her that she had plenty of time and need not
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  Speaker 1: hurry to church. Poor Zaluski, he looked so kindly and pleasant.
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  Speaker 1: Though I was only a slander and might have been
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  Speaker 1: supposed to have no heart at all, I did feel
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  Speaker 1: sorry for him when I thought of the future, and
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  Speaker 1: of the grief and pain which would persistently dog his steps,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: and of my first stage recording by Ronda Fetterman, chapter
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  Speaker 1: two of the Autobiography of a Slander by Edna Layel.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recordings in the public domain. My second stage
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  Speaker 1: bear not false, witness, slander, not nor lie. Truth is
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  Speaker 1: the speech of inward purity, the light of asia. In
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  Speaker 1: my first stage, the reader will perceive that I was
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  Speaker 1: a comparatively weak and harmless little slander, with merely that
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  Speaker 1: taint of original sin, which was to be expected in
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  Speaker 1: one of such parentage. But I developed with great rapidity,
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  Speaker 1: and I believe men of science will tell you that
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: this is all was the case with low organisms, that,
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  Speaker 1: for instance, while it takes years to develop the man
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: from the baby and months to develop the dog from
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: the puppy, the baby monad will grow to maturity in
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  Speaker 1: an hour. Personally, I should have preferred to linger in
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  Speaker 1: Missus O'Reilly's pleasant drawing room, for, as I said before,
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  Speaker 1: my victim interested me, and I wanted to observe him
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  Speaker 1: more closely and hear what he talked about. But I
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: received orders to attend evensong at the parish church and
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: to haunt the mind of Lena Houghton. As we passed
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  Speaker 1: down the high street, the bells rang out loud and clear,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: and they made me feel the same slight sense of
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  Speaker 1: discomfort that I had felt when I looked at Zaluski. However,
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  Speaker 1: I went on and soon entered the church. It was
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  Speaker 1: a fine old Gothic building, and the afternoon sunshine seemed
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  Speaker 1: to flood the whole place. Even the white stones and
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  Speaker 1: the aisle were glorified here, and there with gorgeous patches
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  Speaker 1: of color from the stained glass windows. But the strange
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  Speaker 1: stillness and quiet oppressed me. I did not feel nearly
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  Speaker 1: so much at home as in Missus O'Reilly's drawing room.
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  Speaker 1: To use a terrestrial simile, I felt like a fish
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  Speaker 1: out of water. For some time too, I could find
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  Speaker 1: no entrance at all into the mind of Lena Houghton.
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  Speaker 1: Try as I would, I could not distract her attention
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  Speaker 1: or gain the slightest hold upon her. And I really
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  Speaker 1: believe I should have been altogether baffled, had not the
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  Speaker 1: Rector unconsciously come to my aid. All through the prayers
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  Speaker 1: and psalms, I had fought a desperate fight without gaining
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  Speaker 1: a single inch. Then the Rector walked over to the lectern,
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  Speaker 1: and the moment he opened his mouth, I knew that
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  Speaker 1: my time had come, and that there was a very
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  Speaker 1: fair chance of victory before me. Whether this clergyman had
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  Speaker 1: a toothache or a headache, or a heavy load on
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  Speaker 1: his mind, I cannot say. But his reading was more
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  Speaker 1: lugubrious than the wind in an equinoctial gale. I have
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  Speaker 1: since observed that he was only a degree worse than
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  Speaker 1: many other clerical readers, and that a strange and delightfully
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: mistaken notion seems prevalent that the Bible must be read
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  Speaker 1: in a dreary and unnatural tone of voice, or with
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  Speaker 1: a sort of mournful monotony. It is intended as a
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  Speaker 1: sort of reverence. But I suspect that it often plays
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  Speaker 1: into the hands of my progenitor, as it most assuredly
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  Speaker 1: did in the present instance. Hardly had the rector announced
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: here beginneth the forty fourth verse of the sixteenth chapter
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  Speaker 1: of the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, than a sort
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  Speaker 1: of relaxation took place in the mind I was attacking.
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  Speaker 1: Lena Houghton's attention could only have been given to the
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: drearily read lesson by a very great effort. She was
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: a little lazy and did not make the effort. She
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: thought how nice it was to sit down again, and
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: then the melancholy voice lulled her into a vague interval
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: of thoughtless inactivity. I promptly seized my opportunity, and in
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: a moment her whole mind was full of me. She
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: was an excitable, impressionable sort of girl. And when once
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: I had obtained an entrance into her mind. I found
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: it the easiest thing in the world to dominate her thoughts.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Though she stood and sat and knelt and curtsied and
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: articulated words, her thoughts were entirely absorbed in me. I
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: crowded out the magnificat with a picture of Zeluski and
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Gertrude Morley. I led her through more terrible future possibilities
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: In the second lesson than would be required for a
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: three volume novel. I entirely eclipsed the collects with reflections
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: on unhappy marriages, took her off via Russia and nihilism
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: in the state prayers, and by the time we arrived
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: at Saint Chrysostom had become so powerful that I had
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: worked her mind into exactly the condition I desired. The
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: congregation rose, Lena Houghton, still dominated by me, knelt longer
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: than the rest, but at last she got up and
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: walked down the aisle, and I felt a great sense
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: of relief and satisfaction. We were out in the open
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: air once more, and I had triumphed. I was quite
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: sure that she would tell the first person she met,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: for as I have said before, she was entirely taken
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: up with me and to have kept me to herself
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: would have required far more strength and unselfishness than she
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: at that moment possessed. She walked slowly through the churchyard,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: feeling much pleased to see that the curate had just
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: left the vestry door, and that in a few moments
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: their paths must converge. Mister Blackthorne had only been ordained
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: three or four years, and was a little younger and
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: much less experienced in the ways of the world than
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: Zigismund Zaluski. He was a good, well meaning fellow, a
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: little narrow, a little prejudiced, a little spoiled by the
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: devotion of the district visitors and Sunday school teachers. But
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: he was honest and energetic, and as a worker among
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: the poor few could have equalled him. He seemed to fancy, however,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: that with the poor his work ended, and he was
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: not always so wise as he might have been in
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Muddleton society. Good afternoon, Miss Houghton, he exclaimed, Do you
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: happen to know if your brother is at home? I
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: want just to speak to him about the choir treat Oh,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: he is surely to be in by this time, said Lena,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: and they walked home together. I am so glad to
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: have this chance of speaking to you, she began, rather nervously.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: I wanted particularly to ask your advice. Mister Blackthorne, being
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: human and young, was not unnaturally flattered by this remark. True,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: he was becoming well accustomed to this sort of thing,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: since the ladies of Muddleton were far more fond of
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: seeking advice from the young and good looking Curate than
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: from the elderly and experienced Rector. They said it was
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: because mister Blackthorne was so much more sympathetic and understood
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: the difficulties of the day so much better. But I
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: think they unconsciously deceived themselves, for the Rector was one
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: of a thousand, and the Curate, though he had in
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: him the makings of a fine man, was as yet
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: altogether crude and young. Was it about anything in your district?
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: He asked to devoutly, hoping that she was not going
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: to propound some difficult question about the origin of evil
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: or any other obscure subject. For though he liked the
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: honor of being consulted, he did not always like the
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: trouble it involved, and he remembered with a shudder that
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Miss Houghton had once asked him his opinion about the
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: ethical concept of the good. It was only that I
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: was so troubled about something Missus O'Reilly has just told me,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: said Lena Houghten. You won't tell any one that I
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: told you on no account, said the curate warmly. Well
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: you know mister Zaluski and how the Morleys have taken
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: him up. Every one has taken him up, said the Curate,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: with the least little touch of resentment in his tone.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: I knew that the Morleys were his special friends. I
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: imagine that he admires Miss Morley. Yes, everyone thinks they
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: are either engaged or on the brink of it. And oh,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: mister Blackthorn, can't you or somebody put a stop to it,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: for it seems such a dreadful fate for poor Gertrude.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: The Curate looks startled. Why I don't profess to like
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: mister Zaluski, he said, But I don't know anything exactly
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: against him. But I do. Missus O'Reilly has just been
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: telling me. What did she tell you, he asked, with
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: some curiosity. Why she has found out that he is
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: really a nihilist. Just think of a nihilist going about
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: loose like this, and playing tennis at the rectory and
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: all the good houses. And not only that, but she
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: says he is altogether a dangerous, unprincipled man with a
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: dreadful temper. You can't think how unhappy she is about
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: poor Gertrude. And so am I, for we were at
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: school together and have always been friends. I'm very sorry
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: to hear about it, said mister Blackthorn. But I don't
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: see that anything can be done. You see, one does
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: not like to interfere in these sort of things. It
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: seems officious rather and meddlesome. Yes, that is the worst
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: of it, she replied with a sigh. I suppose we
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: can do nothing. Still, it has been a great relief
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: just to tell you about it and get it off
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: my mind. I suppose we can only hope that something
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: may put a stop to it all. We must just
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: leave it to chance. This sentiment amused me not a little.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Leave it to chance. Indeed, had she not caused me
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: to grow stronger and larger by every word she uttered,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: and had not the conversation revealed to me mister Blackthorne's
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: one vulnerable part. I knew well enough that I should
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: be able to dominate his thoughts as I had done hers.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: Finding me burdensome, she had passed me on to somebody else,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: with additions that vast increased my working powers. And then
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: she talked of leaving it to chance. The way in
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: which mortals practice pious frauds on themselves is really delightful.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: And yet Lena Houghton was a good sort of girl,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: and had from her childhood repeated the Catechism words which
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: proclaim that my duty to my neighbor is to love
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: him as myself, to keep my tongue from evil, speaking, lying,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: and slandering. What is more, she took great pains to
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: teach these words to a big class of Sunday school children,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: and went rain or shine to spend two hours each
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Sunday in a stuffy school room for that purpose. It
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: was strange that she should be so ready to believe
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: evil of her neighbor, and so eager to spread the story.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: But my progenitor is clever, and doubtless knows very well
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: whom to select as his tools. By this time they
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: had reached a comfortable looking red brick house with white
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: stone facings, and in the discussion of the arrangements, for
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: the choir treat I was entirely forgotten and of my
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: second stage recording by Ronda Fetterman, chapter three of the
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Autobiography of a Slander by Edna Laol. This LibriVox recording
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. My third stage alas such
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: is our weakness, that we often more readily believe and
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: speak of another that which is evil than that which
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: is good. But perfect men do not easily give credit
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: to every report, because they know man's weakness, which is
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: very prone to evil and very subject to fail in words,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Thomas A. Kempis all. Through that evening and through the
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: first part of the succeeding day, I was crowded out
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: of the Curate's mind by a host of thoughts with
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: which I had nothing in common. And though I hovered
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: about him as he taught in the school, and visited
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: several sick people, and argued with an habitual drunkard, and
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: worked at his Sunday sermon, a power which I felt
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: but did not understand, baffled all my attempts to gain
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: an entrance and attract his notice. I made a desperate
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: attack on him after lunch, as he sat smoking and
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: enjoying a well earned rest, but it was of no avail.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: I followed him to a large Gordon party later on,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: but to my great annoyance, he went about talking to
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: everyone in the pleasantest way imaginable, though I perceived that
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: he was longing to play tennis instead. At length, however,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: my opportunity came. Mister Blackthorne was talking to the lady
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: of the house, Missus Cortony, when she suddenly exclaimed, Ah,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: here is mister Zaluski just arriving. I began to be
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: afraid that he had forgotten the day, and he is
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: always such an acquisition. How do you do, mister Zaluski,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: she said, greeting my victim warmly as he stepped on
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: to the terrace. So glad you were able to come,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: you know, mister Blackthorne, I think. Zeluski greeted the curate pleasantly,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: and his dark eyes lighted up with a gleam of amusement.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: Oh we are great friends, he said, laughingly. Only you
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: know I sometimes shock him a little, just a very little.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: That is very unkind of you, I am sure, said
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: Missus Cortoney, smiling. No, not at all, said Zeluski, with
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: the audacity of a privileged being. It is just my
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: little amusement, very harmless, very what you call innocent. Mister
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: Blackthorn cannot make up his mind about me. One day
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: I appear to him to be Catholic, the next comtest,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: the next Orthodox Greek, the next a convert to the
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: Anglican Communion. I am a mystery, you see, and mysteries
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: are as indispensable in life as in a romance. He laughed,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: Missus Courtney laughed too, and a little friendly banter was
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: carried on between them. While the Curate stood by, feeling
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: rather out of it. I drew nearer to him, perceiving
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: that my prospects bid fair to improve. For very few
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: people can feel out of it without drifting into a
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: self regarding mood, and then they are the easiest prey imaginable. Undoubtedly,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: a man like Zeluski, with his easy nonchalance, his knowledge
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: of the world, his genuine good nature, and the background
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: of sterling qualities, which came upon you as a surprise.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: Because he loved to make himself seem a mere idler,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: was apt to eclipse an ordinary mortal like James Blackthorne.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: The Curate perceived this and did not like to be eclipsed.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, nobody does. It seemed to
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: him a little unfair that he who had hitherto been
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: made much of should be called to play second fiddle
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: to this rich Polish fellow who had never done anything
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: for Muddleton or the neighborhood. And then, too, Sigismund Seleuski
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: had a way of poking fun at him, which he
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: resented and would not take in good part. Something of
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: this began to stir in his mind, and he cordially
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: hated the poll. When Jim Courteney, who arranged the tennis,
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: came up and asked him to play in the next set,
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: passing the curate by altogether, then I found no difficulty
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: at all in taking possession of him. Indeed, he was
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: delighted to have me brought back to his memory. He
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: positively gloated over me, and I grew apace. Zeluski in
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: the seventh Heaven of Happiness was playing with Gertrude Morley,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: and his play was so good and so graceful that
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: everyone was watching it with pleasure. His partner, too, played well.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: She was a pretty, fair haired girl with soft gray
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: eyes like the eyes of a dove. She wore a
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: white tennis dress and a white sailor hat, and at
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: her throat she had fastened a cluster of those beautiful
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: orange colored roses known by the prosaic name of William
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: Allen Richardson. If mister Blackthorne grew angry as he watched
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: Sigismund Seleuski, he grew doubly angry as he watched Gertrude Morley.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: He said to himself that it was intolerable that such
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: a girl should fall a prey to a vain, shallow,
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: unprincipled farner. And in a few minutes he had painted
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: such a dark picture of poor Sigismund, that my strength
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: increased tenfold. Mister Blackthorne, said, Missus Courteney, would you take
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: Missus Milton Cleave to have an ice? Now? Missus Milton
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: Cleave had always been one of the Curate's great friends.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: She was a very pleasant, talkative woman of six and thirty,
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: and a general favorite. Her popularity was well deserved, for
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: she was always ready to do a kind action, and
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: often went out of her way to help people who
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: had not the slightest claim upon her. There was, however,
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: no repose about Missus Milton Cleave, and an acute observer
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: would have discovered that her universal readiness to help was
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: call as to some extent by her good heart, but
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: in a very large degree by her restless and over
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: active brain. Her sphere was scarcely large enough for her.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: She would have made an excellent head of an orphan
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: asylum or manager of some large institution, but her quiet
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: country life offered far too narrow a field for her energy.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: It really is quite a treat to watch mister Zaluski's play,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: she remarked, as they walked to the refreshment tent at
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: the other end of the lawn. Certainly foreigners know how
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: to move much better than we do. Our best players
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: look awkward beside them. Do you think so, said mister Blackthorn.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: I am afraid I am full of prejudice, and consider
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: that no one can equal a true born Britain. And
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: I quite agree with you in the main, said missus
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: Milton Cleave, though I confess that it is rather refreshing
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: to have a little variety. The curate was silent, but
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: his silence merely covered his absorption in me, and I
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: began to exercise a faint influence through his mind on
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: the mind of his companion. This caused her, at length
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: to say, I don't think you quite like mister Zaluski.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: Do you know much about him? I have met him
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: several times this summer, said the curate, in the tone
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: of some one who could have said much more if
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: he would. The less satisfying his replies, the more Missus
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Milton Cleave's curiosity grew. Now tell me candidly, she said
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: at length. Is there not some mystery about our new neighbor?
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: Is he quite what he seems to be? I fear
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: he is not, said mister Blackthorn, making the admission in
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: a tone of reluctance, though to tell the truth, he
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: had been longing to pass me on for the last
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: five minutes. You mean that he is fast worse than that,
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: said James Blackthorne, lowering his voice as they walked down
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: one of the shady garden paths. He is a dangerous,
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: unprincipled fellow, and, into the bargain, an avowed nihilist. All
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: that is involved in that word you perhaps scarcely realize.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: Indeed I do, she exclaimed, with a shocked expression. I
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: have just been reading a review of that book by Stepnak.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: Their social and religious views are terrible, free love, atheism,
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: everything that could bring ruin on the human race. Is
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: he indeed a nihilist? Mister Blackthorne's conscience gave him a
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: sharp prick, for he knew that he ought not to
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: have passed me on. He had tried to pacify it
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: with the excuse that he had only promised not to
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: tell that Miss Houghton had been his informant. I assure you,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: he said impressively, it is only too true. I know
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: it on the best authority. And here I cannot help
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: remarking that it has always seemed to me strange that
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: even experienced women of the world, like missus Milton Cleave,
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: can be so easily hoodwinked by that vague nonentity, the
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: best authority. I am inclined to think that, were I
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: a human being, I should retort with an expressive motion
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: of the finger and thumb. Oh, you know it on
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: the best authority? Do you then that for your story? However,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: I thrived wonderfully on the best authority, and it would
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: be ungrateful of me to speak evil of that powerful,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: though imaginary being. At right angles with the garden walk
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: down which the two were pacing. There was another wide
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: pathway bordered by high, closely clipped shrubs. Down this paste
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: a very different couple, Missus Milton Cleave, caught sight of them,
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: and so did the curate. Missus Milton Cleave sighed, I
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: am afraid he is running after Gertrude Morley, poor girl.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: I hope she will not be deluded into encouraging him.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: And then they made just the same little set remarks
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: about the desirability of stopping so dangerous an acquaintance, and
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: the impossibility of interfering with other people's affairs, and the
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: sad necessity of standing by with folded hands. I laughed
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: so much over their hollow little phrases that at last
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: I was fain to beat a retreat, and, prompted by
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: curiosity to know a little of the truth, I followed
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: Sigismund and Gertrude down the broad grassy pathway. I knew,
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: of course, a good deal of Zeluski's character, because my
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: own existence and growth pointed out what he was not. Still,
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: to study a man by a process of negation is tedious.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: And though I knew that he was not a nihilist
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: or a free lover, or an atheist, or an unprincipled
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: fellow with a dangerous temper. Yet I was curious to
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: see him as he really was. If you only knew
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: how happy you had made me, he was saying. And indeed,
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: as far as happiness went, there was not much to
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: choose between them. I fancy for Gertrude Morley looked radiant,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: and in her clove like eyes there was the reflection
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: of the love which flashed in his. You must talk
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: to my mother about it, she said, after a minute's silence.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: You see, I am still under age, and she and
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: Uncle Henry, my guardian, must consent before we are actually betrothed.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: I will see them at once, said Zaluski eagerly. You
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: could see my mother, she replied. But Uncle Henry is
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: still in Sweden and will not be in town for
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: another week. Must we really wait so long? Sighed Sigismund impatiently.
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: She laughed at him gently. A whole week. But then
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: we are sure of each other. I do not think
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: we ought to grumble. But perhaps they may think that
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: a merchant has no fitting match for you, he suggested.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: I am nothing but a plain merchant, and my people
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: have been in the same business for four generations. As
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: far as wealth goes, I might perhaps satisfy your people,
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: But for the rest I am but a prosaic fellow,
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: with neither noble blood, nor the brain of a genius,
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: nor anything out of the common. It will be enough
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: for my mother that we love each other, she said, shyly.
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: And your uncle it will be enough for him that
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: you are upright and honorable enough that you are your
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: self Sigismund. They were sitting now in a little sheltered recess,
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: clipped out of the yew trees, when that softly spoken
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: Sigismund fell from her lips. Zaluski caught her in his
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: arms and kissed her again and again. I have led
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: such a lonely life, he said, after a few minutes
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: during which their talk had baffled my comprehension. All my
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: people died while I was still a boy. Then who
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: brought you up? She inquired? An uncle of mine, the
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: head of our firm in Saint Petersburg. He was very
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: good to me, but he had children of his own,
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: and of course I could not be to him as
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: one of them. I have had many friends and much
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: kindness shown to me, but love none till to day,
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: and then again they fell into the talk which I
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: could not fathom, and so I left them in their
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: brief happiness, for my time of idleness was over, and
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: I was ordered to attend Missus Milton Cleave without a
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: moment's delay. End of My third stage recording by Rhonda Fetterman,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: Chapter four of the Autobiography of a Slander by Edna Layoul.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. My fourth stage,
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: Oh the little more and how much it is r Browning.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: Missus Milton Cleave had one weakness. She was possessed by
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: an inordinate desire for influence. This made her always eagerly
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: anxious to be interesting, both in her conversation and in
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: her letters, and to this end she exerted herself with unweary,
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: hurrying activity. She liked influencing mister Blackthorne, and spared no
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: pains on him that afternoon, And indeed the Curate was
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: a good deal flattered by her friendship, and considered her
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: one of the most clever and charming women he had
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: ever met. Sigismund and Gertrude returned to the ordinary world,
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: just as Missus Milton Cleave was saying good bye to
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: the hostess. She glanced at them searchingly. Good Bye, Gertrude,
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: she said, a little coldly. Did you win a tennis? Indeed,
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: we did, said Gertrude, smiling. We came off with flying colors.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: It was a love set. The girl was looking more
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: beautiful than ever, and there was a tell tale color
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: in her cheeks and an unusual light in her soft
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: gray eyes. As for Zaluski, he was so evidently in
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: love and had the audacity to look so supremely happy
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: that missus Milton Cleave was more than ever impressed with
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: the gravity of the situation. The curate handed her into
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: her Victoria, and she drove home through the sheltered lanes,
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: musing sadly over the story she had heard and wondering
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: what Gertrude's future would be. When she reached home, however,
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: the affair was driven from her thoughts by her children,
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: of whom she was devotedly fond. They came running to
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: meet her, frisking like so many kittens round her as
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: she went upstairs to her room, and begging to stay
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: with her while she dressed for dinner. During dinner, she
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: was engrossed with her husband. But afterwards, when she was
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: alone in the drawing room, I found my opportunity for
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: working on her restless mind. Dear me, she exclaimed, throwing
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: aside the newspaper she had just taken up. I ought
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: to write to missus Selden at Dulminster about that g
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: f S girl. As a matter of fact, she ought
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: not to have written. Then. The letter might well have
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: waited till the morning, and she was overtired and needed rest.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: But I was glad to see her take up her pen,
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: for I knew I should come in most conveniently to
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: fill up the second side of the sheet. Before long,
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: Jane Stiggins, the member who had migrated from Muddleton to Dulminster,
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: had been duly reported, wound up and made over to
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: the Archdeacon's wife. Then the tired hand paused, what more
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: could she say to her friend. We are leading our
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: usual quiet life here, she wrote, with the ordinary round
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: of tennis parties and picnics to enliven us. The children
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: have all been wonderfully well, and I think you will
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: see a great improvement in your god daughter when you
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: next come to stay with us, Oh dear sighed missus
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: Milton cleave, how dull and stupid I am to night,
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: I can't think of a single thing to say. Then
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: at length I flashed into her mind, and with a
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: sigh of relief and a little rising flush of excitement,
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: she went on much more rapidly. It is such a
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: comfort to be quite at rest about them, and to
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: see them all looking so well. But I suppose one
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: can never be without some cause of worry, And just
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: now I am very unhappy about that nice girl, Gertrude Morley,
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: whom you admired so much when you were last here.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: The whole neighborhood has been dominated this year by a
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: young Polish merchant named Ziggismund z Luski, who is very
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: clever and musical and knows well how to win popularity.
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: He has taken Ivy Cottage for four months, and is
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: I fear doing great mischief. The Morleys are his special friends,
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: and I greatly fear he is making love to Gertrude.
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: Now I know, privately, on the very best authority, that
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: although he has so completely deceived every one, and has
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: managed so cleverly to pose as a respectable man, that
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: mister Zaluski is really a nihilist, a free lover, an atheist,
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: and altogether a most unprincipled man. He is very clever
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: and speaks English most fluently. Indeed, he has lived in
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: London since the spring of eighteen eighty one. He told
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: me so himself. I cannot help fancying that he must
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: have been concerned in the assassination of the late Czar,
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: which you will remember took place in that year, early
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: in March. It is terrible to think of the poor
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: Morley's entering blindfold on such an undesirable connection. But at
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: the same time I really do not feel that I
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: could say anything about it. Excuse this hurry note, Dear Charlotte,
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: and with love to yourself and kindest remembrances to the Archdeacon,
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: believe me very affectionately, Yours, Georgina Milton Cleave p s.
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: It may perhaps be as well not to mention this
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: affair about Gertrude Morley and mister Zeluski. They are not
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: yet engaged, as far as I know, and I sincerely
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: trust it may prove to be a mere flirtation. I
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: had now grown to such enormous dimensions that any one
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: who had known me in my infancy would scarcely have
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: recognized me. While naturally, the more I grew, the more
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: powerful I became, and the more capable both of impressing
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: the minds which received me, and of injuring Zeluski, Poor Zeleuski,
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: who was so foolishly, thoughtlessly happy, he little dreamed of
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: the faith that awaited him. His whole world was bright
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: and full of promise. Each hour of love seemed to
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: improve him, to deepen his whole character, to tone down
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: his rather flippant manner, to awaken for him new and
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: hitherto unthought of realities. But while he basked in his
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: new happiness, I traveled in my close, stuffy envelope to Dulminster, and,
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: after having been tossed in and out of bags, shuffled, stamped, thumped,
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: tied up, and generally shaken about, I arrived one morning
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: at Dulminster Archdeaconry and was laid on the breakfast table
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: among other appetizing things to greet missus Selden when she
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: came downstairs. And of my fourth stage recording by Ronda Fetterman,
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: Chapter five of the Autobiography of a Slander by Edna Lyall.
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain my fifth stage. Also,
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: it is not wise to believe everything you hear, not
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: immediately to carry to the ears of others what you
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: have either heard or believed. Thomas A. Kempis. Though I
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: was read in silence at the breakfast table and not
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: passed on to the archdeacon, I laid dormant in Missus
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: Seldon's mind all day, and came to her aid that
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: night when she was at her wits end for something
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: to talk about. Missus Selden, though a most worthy and
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: estimable person, was of a phlegmatic temperament. Her sympathies were
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: not easily aroused. Her mind was lazy and torpid. In conversation,
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: she was unutterably dull. There were times when she was
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: painfully conscious of this, and would have given much for
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: the cease flow of words which fell from the lips
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: of her friend, Missus Milton Cleave. And that evening after
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: my arrival chanced to be one of these occasions, for
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: there was a dinner party at the Archdeaconry, given in
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: honor of a well known author who was spending a
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: few days in the neighborhood. I wish you could have,
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: mister Shrewsbury at your end of the table, Thomas. Missus
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: Seldon had remarked to her husband with a sigh, as
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: she was arranging the guests on paper that afternoon. Oh
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: he must certainly take you in, my dear, said the archdeacon.
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: And he seems a very clever, well read man. I'm
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: sure you will find him easy to talk to. Poor
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: missus Selden thought that she would rather have had someone
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: who was neither clever nor well read. But there was
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: no help for her, and whether she would or not,
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: she had to go in to dinner with the literary lion.
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: Mister Mark Shrewsbury was a novelist of great ability. Some
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: twenty years before he had been called to the bar, and,
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: conscious of real talent, had been greatly embittered by the
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: impossibility of getting on in his profession. At length, in disgust,
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: he gave up all hopes of success and devoted himself
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: instead to literature. In this field he won the recognition
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: for which he craved. His books were read everywhere, his
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: name became famous, his income steadily increased, and he had
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: the pleasant consciousness that he had found his vocation. Still
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: in spite of his success, he could not forget the
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: bitter years of failure and disappointment which had gone before.
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: And though his novels were full of genius, they were
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: pervaded by an undertone of sarcasm, so that people, after
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: reading them were more ready than before to take cynical
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: views of life. He was one of those men whose
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: quiet and passive bases reveal scarcely anything of their character.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: He was neither tall nor short, neither dark nor fair,
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: neither handsome nor the reverse. In fact, his personality was
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: not in the least impressive, while like most true artists,
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: he observed all things so quietly that you rarely discovered
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: that he was observing at all. Dear me, people would say,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: is Mark Shrewsbury really here? Which is he? I don't
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: see any one at all, like my idea of a novelist.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: There he is the man in spectacles, would be the reply.
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: And really the spectacles were the only noteworthy thing about him.
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: Missus Selden, who had seen several authors and authorsses in
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: her time and knew that they were, as a rule
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: most ordinary, humdrum kind of people, was quite prepared for
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: her fate. She remembered her astonishment as a girl, when
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: having laughed and cried at the play and taken the
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: chief actor as her idea ill hero, she had had
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: him pointed out to her one day in Regent Street,
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: and found him to be a most commonplace looking man,
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: the very last person one would have supposed capable of
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: stirring the hearts of a great audience. Meanwhile, dinner progressed,
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: and missus Selden talked to an empty headed but loquacious
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: man on her left, and racked her brains for something
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: to say to the alarmingly silent author on her right.
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: She remembered hearing that Charles Dickens would often sit silent
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: through the whole of dinner, observing quietly those about him,
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: but that at dessert he would suddenly come to life
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: and keep the whole table in roars of laughter. She
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: feared that mister Shrewsbury meant to imitate the great novelist
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: in the first particular, but was scarcely likely to follow
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: his example in the last. At length, she asked him
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: what he thought of the cathedral, and a few tepid
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: remarks followed. How utterably this good lady bores me, thought
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: the author. How odd it is that his characters talk
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: so well in his books, and that he is such
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: a stick, thought missus Selden. I suppose it's the effect
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: of cathedral Town atmosphere, reflected the author. I suppose he
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: has eaten up with conceit and won't trouble himself to
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: talk to me, thought the hostess. By the time the
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: fish had been removed, they had arrived at a state
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: of mutual contempt. Mindful of the reputation they had to
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: keep up. However, they exerted themselves a little more while
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: the entrees went round. Seldom reads, I should fancy and
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: never thinks, reflected the author, glancing at missus Selden's placid,
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: unintellectual face, What on earth can I say to her?
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: Very unpractical, I am sure, reflected missus Selden, the sort
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: of man who lives in a world of his own
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: and only lays down his pen to take up a book.
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: Look what subject shall I start? What delightful weather we
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: have been having the last few days, observed the author,
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: real genuine summer weather. At last, the same remark had
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: been trembling on missus Selden's lips. She assented with great
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: cheerfulness and alacrity, and over that invaluable topic which is
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: always so safe, and so congenial, and so ready at hand.
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: They grew quite friendly, and the conversation for fully five
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: minutes was animated. An interval of thought followed. How wearisome
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: is society, reflected missus Selden. It is hard that we
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: must spend so much money in giving dinners, and having
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: so much trouble for so little enjoyment. One pays dearly
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: for fame, reflected the author. What a confounded nuisance it
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: is to waste all this time when there are the
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: last proofs of what cass to be done for the
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: nine o'clock post tomorrow morning. Goodness knows what time I
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: shall get to bed to night. Then missus Selden thought
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: regretfully of the comfortable easy chair that she usually enjoyed
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: after dinner, and the ten minutes nap, and the congenial
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: needle work. And Mark Shrewsbury thought of his chambers in
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: pump Court, and longed for his typewriter and his books,
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: and his swivel chair and his favorite Mersham. I should
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: be less afraid to talk if there were not always
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: the horrible idea that he may take down what one says,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: thought missus Selden. I should be less bored if she
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: would only be her natural self, reflected the author, and
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: would not talk prim platitudes. This was hard, for he
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: had talked nothing else himself. Does she think she is
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: so interesting that I am likely to study her for
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: my next book? Have you been abroad this summer? Inquired
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: missus Selden, making another spasmodic attempt at conversation. No I
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: detest traveling, replied Mark Shrewsbury. When I need change, I
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: just settled down in some quiet country district for a
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: few months, somewhere near Windsor, or Rgate or Muddleton. There
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: is nothing to my mind like our English scenery. Oh
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: do you know Muddleton, exclaimed missus Seldon. Is it not
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: a charming little place? I often stay in the neighborhood
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: with the Milton Cleves. I know Milton Cleave well, said
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: the author. A capital fellow. Quite the typical country gentleman,
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: is he not, said missus Selden, much relieved to have
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: found this subject in common. His wife is a great
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: friend of mine. She is full of life and energy,
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: and does an immense amount of good. Did you say
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: you had stayed with them. No, but just last year
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: I took a house in that neighborhood for a few months,
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: A most charming little place. It was just fit for
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: a lonely bachelor. I dare say you remember it, Ivy
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: Cottage on the Newton Road. Did you stay there? Now?
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: What a curious coincidence. Only this morning I heard from
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: Missus Milton Cleave that Ivy Cottage had been taken this
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: summer by a mister Sigismund Zaluski, a Polish merchant who
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: is doing untold harm in the neighborhood. He is a
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: very clever, unscrupulous man, and has managed to take in
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: almost every one. Why what is he a swindler or
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: a burglar in the skies like the house on the
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: marsh fellow asked the author, with a little twinkle of
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: amusement in his face. Oh much worse than that, said
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: Missus Selden, lowering her voice. I assure you, mister Shrewsbury,
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: you would hardly credit the story of if I were
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: to tell it you. It is really stranger than fiction.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: Mark Shrewsbury pricked up his ears. He no longer felt bored.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: He began to think that after all, there might be
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: some compensation for this wearisome dinner party. He was always
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: glad to seize upon material for future plots, and somehow
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: the notion of a mysterious poll suddenly making his appearance
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: in that quiet country neighborhood and winning undeserved popularity rather
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: took his fancy. He thought he might make something of it. However,
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: he knew human nature too well to ask a direct question.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry to hear that, he said, becoming all at
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: once quite sympathetic and approachable. I don't like the thought
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: of those simple, unsophisticated people being hoodwinked by a scoundrel.
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: No is it not sad, said missus Selden, Such pleasant,
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: hospitable people as they are. Do you remember the Morleys? Oh? Yes,
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: there was a pretty daughter who played tennis well, quite
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: so Gertrude Morley. Well, would you believe it? This miserable
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: fortune hunter is actually either engaged to her, or on
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: the eve of being engaged. Poor missus Milton Cleave is
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: so unhappy about it, for she knows on the best
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: authority that mister Zaluski is unfit to enter a respectable house.
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: Perhaps he is really some escaped criminal, suggested mister Shrewsbury tentatively.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: Missus Selden hesitated. Then, under the cover of the general
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: roar of conversation, she said, in a low voice, you
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: have guessed quite rightly, he is one of the nihilists
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: who are concerned in the assassination of the late Czar.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: You don't say so, exclaimed Mark Shrewsbury, much startled. Is
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: it possible? Indeed, it is only too true, said missus Selden.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: I heard it only the other morning, and on the
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: very best authority, poor Gertrude Morley. My heart bleeds for her. Now.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: I can't help observing here that this must have been
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: the merest figure of speech. For just then there was
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: a comfortable little glow of satisfaction about missus Selden's heart.
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: She was so delighted to have got on well, as
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: she expressed it with the literary lion. And by this
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: time dessert was on the table, and soon the tedious
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: ceremony would be happily over. But how did he escape?
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: Asked Mark Shrewsbury, still with the thought of copy in
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: his mind. I don't know the details, said missus Selden.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: Probably they are only known to himself. But he managed
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: to escape so somehow in the month of March eighteen
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: eighty one, and to reach England safely. I feared is
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: only too often the case in this world. Wickedness is
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: apt to be successful, to flourish like a green bay tree,
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: said Mark Shrewsbury, congratulating himself on the aptness of the
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: quotation and its suitability to the archdeaconal dinner table. It
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: is the strangest story I have heard for a long time.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: Just then there was a pause in the general conversation,
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: and missus Selden took advantage of it to make the
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: sign for rising, so that no more passed. With regard
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: to Zeluski, Shrewsbury, flattering himself that he had left a
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: good impression by his last remark, thought better not to
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: effaced it later in the evening by any other conversation
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: with his hostess. But in the small hours of the night,
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: when he had finished his bundle of proofs, he took
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: up his note book, and, strangling his yawns, made two
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: or three brief, pithy notes of the story missus Selden
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: had told him, adding a further development which occurred to
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: him and wondering to himself whether like a Green Bay
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: Tree would be a selling title. After this, he went
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: to bed and slept the Sleep of the Just or
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: the Unbroken Sleep, which goes by that name. End of
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: my fifth stage recording by Ronda Fetterman, Chapter six of
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: the Autobiography of a Slander by Edna Laol. This LibriVox
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. My sixth stage. But
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: whispering tongues can poison truth. Coleridge, London in early September
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: is a somewhat true place. Mark Shrewsbury found it less
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: pleasing in reality than in his visions during the dinner
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: party at Dulminster. True, his chambers were comfortable, and his
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: typewriter was as invaluable a machine as ever, and his
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: novel was drawing to a successful conclusion. But though all
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: these things were calculated to cheer him, he was nevertheless depressed.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: Town was dull, the heat was trying, and he had
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: never in his life found it so difficult to settle
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: down to work. He began to agree with the preacher
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: that of making many books there is no end, and
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: that in spite of his favorite Remington's perfected number two novel,
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: writing was a weariness to the flesh. Soon he drifted
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: into a sort of vague idleness, which was not a good,
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: honest holiday, but just a lazy waste of time and brains.
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: I was pleased to observe this, and was not slow
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: to take advantage of it. Had he stayed in pump Court,
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: he might have forgotten me altogether in his work. But
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: in the soft luxury of his club life, I found
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: that I had a very fair chance of being passed
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: on to someone else. One hot afternoon, on waking from
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: a comfortable nap in the depths of an armchair at
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: the club, Shrewsbury was greeted by one of his friends.
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: I thought you were in Switzerland, old fellow, he exclaimed,
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: yawning and stretching himself. Came back yesterday, awfully bad season. Confoundedly,
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: dull returned the other. Where have you been down with
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: Warren near Dulminster? Deathly, Dull hull do for your next novel, eh,
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: said the other, with a laugh. Mark Shrewsbury smiled good naturedly.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: Talking of novels. He observed with another yawn, I heard
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: such a story down there, did you? Let's hear it?
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: A nice little scandal would do instead of a pick
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: me up. It's not a scandal. Don't raise your expectations.
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: It's the story of a successful scoundrel. And then I
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: came out again in full vigor, nay, with vastly increased powers.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: For though Mark Shrewsbury did not add very much to
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: me or alter my appearance, yet his graphic words made
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: me much more impressive than I had been under the
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: management of missus Selden. Hm, that's a queer story, said
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: the limp looking young man from Switzerland. I say, have
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: a game of billiards, will you? Shrewsbury, with prestigious yawn,
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: dragged himself up out of his chair, and the two
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: went off together. As they left the room, the only
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: other man pressed looked up from his newspaper, following them
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: with his eyes. Shrewsbury the novelist, he thought to himself
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: a sterling fellow, and he heard it from an archdeacon's wife,
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: confound it all the thing must be true. Then I'll
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: write and make full inquiries about this Zeluski. Before consenting
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: to the engagement and being a prompt business like man,
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: Gertrude Morley's uncle sat down and wrote the following letter
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: to a Russian friend of his who lived at Saint
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: Petersburg and who might very likely be able to give
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: some account of Zeluski. Dear Leonov, some very queer stories
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: are afloat about a young Polish merchant by name Sigismund Zeleuski,
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: the head of the London branch of the firm of
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: Zeluski and Zernoff at Saint Petersburg. Will you kindly make
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: inquiries for me as to his true character and history.
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: I would not trouble you with this affair, but the
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: fact is Zuluski has made an offer of marriage to
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: one of my words, and before consenting to any betrothal,
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: I must know what sort of man he really is.
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: I take it for granted that there is no smoke
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: without fire, and that there must be something in the
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: very strange tale which I have just heard on the
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: best authority. It is said that this Sigismund Zeleuski left
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: Saint Petersburg in March eighteen eighty one after the assassination
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: of the late Czar in which he was seriously compromised.
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: He is said to be an out and out nihilist,
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: an atheist, and in short, a dangerous, disreputable fellow. Will
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: you sift the matter for me? I don't wish to
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: dismiss the fellow without good reason, but of course I
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: could not think of permitting him to be engaged my
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: niece until these charges are entirely disproved. With kind remembrances
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: to your father, I am yours faithfully, Henry Crichton Morley.
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: End of my sixth stage recording by Ronda Fetterman, Chapter
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: seven of the Autobiography of a Slander by Edna Lyall.
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. My seventh stage. Yet,
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: on the dull silence breaking with a lightning flash, a
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: word bearing endless desolation on its blighting wings, I heard
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: Earth can forge no keener weapon, dealing surer death and pain,
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: and the cruel echo answered through long years again a
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: a proctor. Curiously enough, I must actually have started for
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: Russia on the same day that Sigismund Zeleuski was summoned
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: by his uncle at Saint Petersburg to return on a
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: matter of urgent business. I learned afterwards that the telegram
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: arrived at Muddleton on the afternoon of one of those
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: sunny September days and found Zeluski as usual at the Morleys.
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: He was very much annoyed at being called away just then,
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: and before he had received any reply from Gertrude's uncle
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: as to the engagement. However, after a little abolition of anger,
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: he regained his usual philosophic tone, and, reminding Gertrude that
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: he need not be away from England for more than
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: a fortnight, he took leave of her and set off
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: in a prompt manly fashion, leaving most of his belongings
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: at Ivy Cottage, which was his for another six weeks,
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: and to which he hoped shortly to return after a
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: weary time of imprisonment. In my envelope, I at length
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: reached my destination at Saint Petersburg and was read by
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: Dmitri Leonov. He was a very busy man, and by
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: the same post received dozens of other letters. He merely
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: muttered that well known firm a most unlikely story, and
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: then thrust me into a drawer with other letters which
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: had to be answered. Very probably. I escaped his memory
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: altogether for the next few days. However, there I was
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: a startling accusation in black and white, and as everybody knows,
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: Saint Petersburg is not London. The Leonov family lived on
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: the third story of a large block of buildings in
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: the search Ofskaya. About two o'clock in the morning on
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: the third day after my arrival, the whole household was
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: roused from sleep by thundering raps on the door and
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: the dreaded cry of open to the police. The unlucky
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: master was forced to allow himself, his wife, and his
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: children to be made prisoners, while every corner of the
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: house was searched and every book and paper examined. Leonov
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: had nothing whatever to do with the revolutionary movement, but
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: absolute innocence does not free people from the police inquisition.
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: And five or six years ago, when the search mania
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: was at its height, a CASI is on record of
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: a poor lady whose house was searched seven times within
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: twenty four hours, though there was no evidence whatever that
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: she was connected with the Nihilis. The whole affair was
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: in fact a misunderstanding, as she was perfectly innocent. This
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: search in Dmitri Leonov's house was also a misunderstanding, and
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: in the dominions of the Czar, misunderstandings are of frequent occurrence.
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: Leonov knew himself to be innocent, and he felt no fear,
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: though so considerable annoyance while the search was prosecuted. He
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: could hardly believe the evidence of his senses, when, without
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: a word of explanation, he was informed that he must
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: take leave of his wife and children and go in
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: the charge of the gendarmes to the house of preventive detention.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: Being a sensible man, he kept his temper, remarked courteously
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: that some mistake must have been made, embraced his weeping wife,
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: and went off passively, while the pristav carried away a
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: bundle of letters in which I occupied the most prominent place.
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: Leonov remained a prisoner only for a few days. There
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: was not a shred of evidence against him, and having
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: suffered terrible anxiety, he was finally released, but mister Crichton
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: Morley's letter was never restored to him. It remained in
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: the hands of the authorities, and the night after Leonov's arrest,
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: the priest of the procurator and the gendarmes made their
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: way into the dwelling of Sigismund Zeleuski's uncle, where a
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: similar search was prosecuted. Sigismund was asleep and dreaming of
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: Gertrude and of his idyllic summer in England. When his
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: bedroom door was forced open and he was roughly roused
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: by the gendarmes. His first feeling was one of amazement,
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: his second one of indignation. However, he was obliged to
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: get up at once and dress, the policeman rigorously keeping
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: guard over him the whole time, for fear he should
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: destroy any treasonable document. How I shall make them laugh
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: in England when I tell them of this ridiculous affair,
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: reflected Sigismund as he was solemnly marched into the adjoining room,
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: where he found his uncle and cousins, each guarded by
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: a policeman. He made some jesting remark, but was promptly
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: reprimanded by his jailer, and in wearisome silence, the household
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: waited while the most rigorous search of the premises was made.
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: Of course, nothing was found, but to the amazement of all,
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: Sigismund was formally arrested. There must be some mistake, he exclaimed.
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: I have been resident in England for some time. I
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: have no connection whatever with Russian politics. Oh, we are
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: well aware of your residence in England, said the pristav
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: you left Saint Petersburg early in March eighteen eighty one.
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: We are well aware of that. Something in the man's
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: tone made Sigismund's heart stand still. Could he possibly be
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: suspected of complicity in the plot to assassinate the late Czar?
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: The idea would have made him laugh had he been
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: in England, in Saint Petersburg, and under these circumstances, it
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: made him tremble. There is some terrible mistake, he said,
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: I have never had the slightest connection with the Revolutionary Party.
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: The Priest of shrugged his shoulders, and Sigismund, feeling like
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: one in a dream, took leave of his relations and
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: was escorted at once to the house of preventive detention.
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: Arrived at his destination, he was examined in a brief,
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: unsatisfactory way, but when he angrily asked for the evidence
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: on which he had been arrested, he was merely told
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: that information had been received charging him with being concerned
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: in the assassination of the late Emperor and of being
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: an advanced member of the Nihilist party. His vehement denials
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: were received with scornful incredulity. His departure for England just
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: after the assassination and his prolonged absence from Russia, of course,
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: gave color to the accusation, and he was ordered off
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: to his cell to reflect and of my seventh stage
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: recording by Ronda Fetterman, Chapter eight of the Autobiography of
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: a Slander by Edna Laoul. This LibriVox recordings in the
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: public domain. My triumphant finale. Words are mighty. Words are
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: living serpents with their venomous stings, or bright angels crowding
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: round us with Heaven's light upon their wings. Every word
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: has its own spirit, true or false, that never dies.
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: Every word man's lips have uttered echoes in God's skies.
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: A a proctor, my labors were now nearly at an end, and,
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: being so to speak, off duty, I could occupy myself
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: just as I pleased. I therefore resolved to keep watch
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: over Zaluski in his prison For the first few hours
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: after his arrest. He was in a violent passion. He
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: paced up and down his tiny cell like a lion
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: in a cage. He was beside himself with indignation, and
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: the blood leapt through his veins like wildfire. Then he
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: became a little ashamed of himself and tried to grow quiet,
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: And after a sleepless night, he passed to the opposite
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: extreme and sat all day on the solitary stool in
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: his grim abode, his head resting on his hands, and
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: his mind a prey to the most fearful melancholy. The
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: second night, however, he slept and awoke with a steady
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: resolve in his mind. It will never do to give
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: way like this, or I shall be in a brain fever.
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: In no time, he reflected, I will get leave to
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: have books and writing materials. I will make the best
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: of a bad business. He remembered how pleased he had
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: been when Gertrude had once smiled on him, because when
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: all others in the party were grumbling at the discomforts
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: of a certain picnic where the provisions had gone astray,
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: he had gaily made the best of it and ransacked
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: the nearest cottages for bread and cheese. He set to
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: work bravely, now hoped daily for his release, read all
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: the books he was allowed to receive, invented solitary games,
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: began a novel, and drew caricatures. In October he was
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: again examined, but having nothing to reveal. It was inevitable
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: that he could reveal nothing, and he was again sent
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: back to his cell to reflect. I perceived that after
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: this his heart began to fail him. Existed in the
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: House of Preventive Detention, a system of communication between the
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: luckless prisoners, carried on by means of tapping on the wall. Sigismund,
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: being a clever fellow, had become a great adept at
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: this telegraphic system, and had struck up a friendship with
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: a young student in the next cell. This poor fellow
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: had been imprisoned three years, his sole offense being that
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: he had in his possession a book of which the
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: government did not approve, and that he was first cousin
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: to a well known nihilist. The two became as devoted
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: to each other as Silvio Pelico and Count oor Aboni.
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: But it soon became evident to Valerian Vasilowitch that unless
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: Auluski was released, he would soon succumb to the terrible
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: restrictions of prison life. Keep up your heart, my friend,
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: he used to say. I have borne it three years
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: and am still alive to tell the tale. But you
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: are stronger both in mind and body, said Sigismund, and
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: you are not madly in love as I am. And
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: then he would pour forth a rhapsody about Gertrude, and
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: about English life, and about his hopes and fears for
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: the future, to all of which Valerian, like the brave fellow,
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: he was replied with words of encouragement. But at length
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: there came a day when his friend made no answer
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: to his usual morning greeting, Are you ill? He asked.
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: For some time there was no reply, but after a
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: while Sigismund rapped faintly the despairing words dead beat. Valerian
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: felt the tears start to his eyes. It was what
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: he had all along expected, and for a time grief
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: and indignation and his miserable helplessness made him all almost
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: beside himself. At last he remembered that there was at
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: least one thing in his power. Each day he was
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: escorted by a warder to a tiny square walled off
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: in the exercising ground, and was allowed to walk for
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: a few minutes. He would take this opportunity of begging
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: the warder to get a doctor for his friend, but
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: unfortunately the doctor did not think very seriously of Zeluski's case.
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: In that dreary prison, he had patience in the last
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: stages of all kinds of disease and Sigismund, who had
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: been in confinement too short a time to look as
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: ill as the others, did not receive much attention. Certainly,
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: the doctor admitted his lungs were affected. Probably the sudden
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: change of climate and a lack of good food and
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: fresh air had been too much for him. So the
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: Solemn force ended and he was left to his fate.
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: If I were indeed a nihilist and suffered for a
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: cause which I had at heart, he telegraphed Valerian, I
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: could bear it better, but to be kept here for
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: an imaginary offense, to bear cold and hunger and illness,
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: all to no purpose, that beats me. There can't be
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: a God, or such things would not be allowed to me.
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: It seems, said Valerian, that we are the victims of
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: violated law. Others have shown tyranny or injustice or cruelty,
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: and we are the victims of their sin. Don't say
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: there is no god. There must be a god to
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: avenge such hideous wrong. So they spoke to each other
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: through their prison wall, as men in the free outer
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: world seldom care to speak. And I, who knew no barriers,
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: look now on Valerian's gaunt figure and brave but prematurely
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: old face. Now on poor Zaluski, who, in his weary imprisonment,
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: had wasted away till one could scarcely believe that he
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: was indeed the same lithe active fellow who had played
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: tennis at Missus mc courteney's garden party. Day and night
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: Valerian listened to the terrible cough which came from the
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: adjoining cell. It became perfectly apparent to him that his
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: friend was dying. He knew it as well as if
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: he had seen the burning, hectic flush on his hollow cheeks,
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: and heard the panting, hurried breaths, and watched the unnatural
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: brilliancy of his dark eyes. At length, he thought the
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: time had come for another sort of comfort, my friend,
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: he said, one day, it is too plain to me
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: now that you are dying. Right to the procader and
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: tell him so. In some cases men have been allowed
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: to go home to die. A wild hope seized on
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: poor Sigismund. He sat down to the little table in
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: his cell and wrote a letter to the procurator, a
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: letter which might have almost drawn tears from a flint.
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: Again and again, he passionately asserted his innocence and begged
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: to know on what evidence he was imprisoned. He began
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: to think that he could die content if he might
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: leave this terrible cell, might be a free agent once more,
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: if only for a few days at least, he might,
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: in that case, clear his character and convince Gertrude that
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: his imprisonment had all been a hideous mistake. Nay, he
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: fancied that he might live through a journey to England
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: and see her once again. But the procurator would not
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: let him be set free, and used to believe that
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: his case was really a serious one. Sigismund's last hope
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: left him. The days and weeks dragged slowly on, and when,
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: according to English reckoning, new Year's Eve arrived, he could
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: scarcely believe that only seventeen weeks ago he had actually
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: been with Gertrude, and that disgrace and imprisonment had seemed
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: things that could never come near him, and death had
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: been a far away possibility, and life had been full
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: of bliss. As I watched him a strong desire seized
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: me to revisit the scenes of which he was thinking,
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: and I winged my way back to England and soon
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: found myself in the drowsy, respectable streets of Muddleton. It
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: was New Year's Eve, and I saw Missus O'Reilly preparing
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: presents for her grandchildren, and talking as she tied them up,
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: of that dreadful Nihilis too, who had deceived them in
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: the summer. I saw Lena Houghton and mister Blackthorne and
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: Missus Milton Cleave kneeling in church on that Friday morning,
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: praying that pity might be shown upon all prisoners and captives,
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: and all that are desolate or oppressed. It never occurred
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: to them that they were responsible for the sufferings of
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: one weary prisoner, or that his death would be laid
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: at their door. I flew to Dulminster and saw Missus
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: Selden kneeling in the cathedral at the late evening service
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: and rigorously examining herself as to the shortcomings of the
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: dying year. She confessed many things in a vague, untroubled way,
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: but had any one told her that she had cruelly
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: wronged her neighbor, and helped to bring an innocent man
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: to shame and prison and death. She would not have
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: believed the accusation I sought out Mark Shrewsbury. He was
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: at his chambers in pump Court, working away with his typewriter.
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: He had a fancy for working the old year out
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: and the new year in, and now he was in
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: the full swing of that novel which had suggested itself
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: to his mind when missus Selden described the rich and
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: mysterious foreigner who had settled down at Ivy Cottage most happily.
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: He labored on, never dreaming that his careless words had
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: doomed a fellow man to a painful and lingering death,
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: never dreaming that while his fingers flew to and fro
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: over his dainty little keyboard describing the clever doings of
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: the unscrupulous foreigner, another man, the victim of his idle gossip,
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: tapped dying messages on a dreary prison wall. For the
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: end had come through the evening, Sigismund rested wearily on
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: his truckle bed. He could not lie down because of
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: his cough, and since there were no extra pillows to
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: prop him up. He had to rest his head and
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: shoulders against the wall. There was a gas burner in
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: the tiny cell, and by its light he looked round
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: the bare walls of his prison with a blank, hopeless
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: yet wistful gaze. There was the stool, There was the table.
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: There were the clothes he should never wear again. There
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: was the door through which his lifeless body would soon
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: be carried. He looked at everything lingeringly, for he knew
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: that this desolate prison was the last bit of the
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: world he should ever see. Presently, the gas was turned out.
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: He sighed as he felt the darkness close in upon him,
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: for he knew that his eyes would never again see light,
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: knew that in this dark, lonely cell he must lie
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: and wait for death. And he was young and wished
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: to live, and he was in love and longed most
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: terribly for the presence of the woman he loved. The
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: awful desolateness of this cell was more than he could endure.
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: He tried to think of his past life, He tried
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: to live once again through those happy weeks with Gertrude.
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: But always he came back to the aching misery of
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: the present, the cold and the pain and the darkness.
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: And the terrible solitude. His nerveless fingers felt their way
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: to the wall and faintly wrapped a summons Valarian. He said,
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: I shall not live through the night. Watch with me.
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: The faint raps sounded clearly in the stillness of the
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: great building, and Valerian dreaded lest the warders should hear
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: them and deal out punishment for an a thence which
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: by day they were forced to wink at. But he
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: would not, for the world have deserted his friend. He
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: drew his stool close to the wall, wrapped himself round
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: in all the clothes he could muster, and, shivering with cold,
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: kept watch through the long winter night. I am near you,
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: he telegraphed. I will watch with you till morning. From
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: time to time, sigismund rapped faint messages, and Valerian replied
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: with comfort and sympathy. Once he thought to himself, my
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: friend is better. There is more power in his hand.
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: And indeed he trembled, fearing that the sharp emphatic raps
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: must certainly attract notice and put an end to their communion.
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: Tell my love that the accusation was false, false. The
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: word was vehemently repeated. Tell her I died broken hearted,
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: loving her to the end. I will tell her all
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: when I am free, said poor Valerian, wondering with a sigh,
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: when his unjust imprisonment would end. Do you suffer much?
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: He asked. There was a brief interval Sigismund hesitated to
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: tell a falsehood in his last extremity. It will soon
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 1: be over. Do not be troubled for me, he replied,
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: And after that there was a long, long silence, Poor fellow.
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: He died hard, and I wish that those comfortable English
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: people could have been dragged from their warm beds and
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: brought into the cold, dreary cell where their victim lay,
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: fighting for breath, suffering cruelly in mind and body. Valerian,
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 1: listening in sad suspense, heard one more faint word, wrapped
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: by the dying man. Farewell, God be with you, he replied,
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: unable to check the tears which rained down as he
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: thought of the life so sadly ended and of his
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: own bereavement. He heard no more. Sigismund's strength felled him,
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: and I to whom the darkness made no difference, watched
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: him through the last dread struggle. There was no one
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: to raise him or hold him, no one to comfort him. Alone,
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: in the cold and darkness of that first morning of
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: the year eighteen eighty seven, he died. Valerian did not
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: hear through the wall his last faint, gasping cry, but
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: I heard it, and its exceeding bitterness would have made
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: mortals weep Gertrude. He sobbed Gertrude, and with that his
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: head sank on his breast, and the life, which but
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 1: for me, might have been so happy and prosperous, was ended.
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: Prompted by curiosity, I instantly returned to Muddleton and sought
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: out Gertrude Morley. I stole into her room. She lay asleep,
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 1: but her dreams were troubled, and her face, once so
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: fresh and bright, was worn with pain and anxiety. Scarcely
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: had I entered the room, when, to my amazement, I
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: saw the spirit of Sigismund Zeleuski. I saw him bend
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 1: down and kissed the sleeping girl, and for a moment
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: her sad face lighted up with a radiant smile. I
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: looked again. He was gone. Then Gertrude threw up both
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: her arms and with a bitter cry, awoke from her
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: dream Sigismund, she cried, Oh, Sigismund, now I know that
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: you are dead. Indeed, for a long long time she
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: lay in a sort of trance of misery. It seemed
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: as if the life had been almost crushed out of her.
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: And it was not until the bells began to ring
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: for the six o'clock service, merrily peeling out there welcome
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: of the new year morning, that full consciousness returned to
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: her again. But as she clearly realized what had happened,
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: she broke into such a passion of tears as I
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: had never before witnessed. While still in the darkness, the
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: new year's bells rang gaily, and she knew that they
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: heralded for her the beginning of a lonely life. And
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: so my work ended, My part in this world was
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: played out. Nevertheless, I still live, and there will come
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: a day when Sigismund and Gertrude shall be comforted and
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: the slanderers punished. For poor Valerian was right. And there
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: is an avenger in whom even my progenitor believes, and
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: before whom he trembles. There will come a time when
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: those self satisfied ones whose hands are all the time
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: steeped in blood, shall be confronted with me, and shall
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: realize to the full all that their idle words have
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: brought about. For that day I wait, and though afterwards
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 1: I shall be finally destroyed in the general destruction of
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: all that is unmitigatedly evil, I promise myself a certain
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: satisfaction and pleasure, a feeling I doubtless inherit from my
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: progenitor when I watch the shame and horror and remorse
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 1: of Missus O'Reilly and the rest of the people to
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: whom I owe my existence and rapid growth. End of
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: My Triumphant Finale recording by Ronda Fetterman. End of The
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: Autobiography of a Slander by Edma Layl