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Sir Edmund Orme - Henry James · Henry James Classics Podcast

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  Speaker 1: Section one of Sir Edmund Orme. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by Nicholas Clifford. Sir Edmund Orme by Henry James, Section one.
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  Speaker 1: The statement appears to have been written, though the fragment
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: is undated, long after the death of his wife, who
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: might take to have been one of the persons referred to.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: There is, however, nothing in the strange story to establish
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: this point, which is perhaps not of importance. When I
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: took possession of his effects, I found these pages in
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: a locked drawer, among papers relating to that unfortunate lady's
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  Speaker 1: too brief career. She died in childbirth a year after
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  Speaker 1: her marriage, letters, memoranda, accounts, faded photographs, cards of invitation.
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  Speaker 1: That is the only connection I can point to. And
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  Speaker 1: you may easily and will probably say that the tale
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  Speaker 1: is too extravagant to have had a demonstraum origin. I cannot,
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  Speaker 1: i admit, vouch for his having intended it as a
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  Speaker 1: report of real occurrence. I can only vouch for his
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  Speaker 1: general veracity. In any case, it was written for himself,
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  Speaker 1: not for others. I offer it to others having full option,
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  Speaker 1: precisely because it is so singular. Let them, in respect
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  Speaker 1: of the form of the thing, bear in mind that
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  Speaker 1: it was written quite for himself. I have altered nothing
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  Speaker 1: but the names. If there is a story in the matter,
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  Speaker 1: I recognize the exact moment at which it began. This
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: was on a soft, still Sunday noon in November, just
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  Speaker 1: after church on the sunny parade. Brighton was full of people.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: It was the height of the season, and the day
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  Speaker 1: was even more respectable than lovely, which helped to account
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  Speaker 1: for the multitude of walkers. The Blue Sea itself was decorous.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: It seemed to doze with a gentle snore, if that
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  Speaker 1: be decorum, as if nature were preaching a sermon. After
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: writing letters all the morning, I had come out to
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: take a look at it before luncheon. I was leaning
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: over the rail which separates the King's Road from the beach,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: and I think I was smoking a cigarette when I
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: became conscious of an intended joke in the shape of
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: a light walking stick laid across my shoulders. The idea
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: I found had been thrown off by Teddy Bostwick of
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: the Rifles, and was intended as a contribution to talk.
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  Speaker 1: Our talk came off as we strolled together. He always
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  Speaker 1: took your arm to show you he forgave you your
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: obtuseness about his humor, and looked at the people, and
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: bowed to some of them, and wondered who others were,
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  Speaker 1: and differed an opinion as to the prettiness of the girls.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: About Charlotte Marden. We agreed, however, as we saw her
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  Speaker 1: coming toward us with her mother, and there surely could
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: have been no one who wouldn't have agreed with us.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: The brighton air of old used to make plain girls
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: pretty and pretty girls prettier. Still I don't know whether
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: it works the spell now. The place, at any rate,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: was rare for complexions, and miss Marden's was one that
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  Speaker 1: made people turn round. It made us stop. Heaven knows,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: at least it was one of the things, for we
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: already knew the ladies. We turned with them, We joined them,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: We went where they were going. They were only going
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: to the end and back. They had just come out
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: of church. It was another manifestation of Teddy's humor that
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: he got immediate possession of Charlotte leaving me to walk
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: with her mother. However, I was not unhappy. The girl
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  Speaker 1: was before me, and I had her to talk about.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: We prolonged our walk. Missus Marden kept me, and presently
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: she said she was tired and must sit down. We
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: found a place on a sheltered bench. We gossiped as
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  Speaker 1: the people passed. It had already struck me in this
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  Speaker 1: pair that the resemblance between the mother and the daughter
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: was wonderful even among such resemblances. The more so that
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: it took so little account of a difference of nature
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: one often hears mature. Her mothers spoken of his warnings,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: sign posts more or less discouraging of the way daughters
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  Speaker 1: may go. But there was nothing deterrent in the idea
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  Speaker 1: that Charlotte at fifty five should be as beautiful, even
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  Speaker 1: though it were conditioned on her being as pale and
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  Speaker 1: preoccupied as missus Marden at twenty two. She had a
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  Speaker 1: kind of rosy blankness, and she was admirably handsome. Her
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  Speaker 1: head had the charming shape of her mother's, and her
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  Speaker 1: features the same fine order. Then there were looks and
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  Speaker 1: movements and tones, moments when you could scarcely say whether
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  Speaker 1: it were aspect or sound, which between the two personalities
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  Speaker 1: were a reflection, a recall. These ladies had a small
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  Speaker 1: fortune at a cheerful little house at Brighton, full of
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  Speaker 1: portraits and tokens and trophies, stuffed animals on the top
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  Speaker 1: of bookcases, and sallow varnished fish under glass, to which
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  Speaker 1: missus Marden professed herself attached by pious memories. Her husband
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  Speaker 1: had been warded there in ill health, to spend the
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  Speaker 1: last years of his life, and she had already mentioned
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  Speaker 1: to me that it was a place in which she
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  Speaker 1: felt herself still under the protection of his goodness. His
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  Speaker 1: goodness appeared to have been great, and she sometimes had
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: the air of defending it against mysterious imputations. Some sense
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: of protection, of an influence invoked and cherished, was evidently
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: necessary to her. She had a dim wistfulness, a longing
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: for security. She wanted friends, and she had a good many.
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  Speaker 1: She was kind to me at our first meeting, and
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: I never suspected her of the vulgar purpose of making
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: up to me, a suspicion, of course, unduly frequent in
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: conceited young men. It never struck me that she wanted
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: me for her daughter, nor yet like some unnatural mamas.
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  Speaker 1: For herself. It was as if they had had a common, deep,
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  Speaker 1: shy need and had been ready to say, Oh, be
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  Speaker 1: friendly to us, and be trustful. Don't be afraid you
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  Speaker 1: won't be expected to marry us. Of course, there's something
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: about mamma that's really what makes her such a dear
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Charlotte said to me confidentially at an early stage of
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  Speaker 1: our acquaintance. She worshiped her mother's appearance. It was the
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  Speaker 1: only thing she was vain of. She accepted the raised
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: eyebrows as a charming ultimate fact, she looks as if
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: she were waiting for the doctor. Dear Mamma, she said,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: on another occasion, perhaps you're the doctor. Do you think
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  Speaker 1: you are? It appeared, in the event that I had
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  Speaker 1: some healing power at any rate, When I learned for
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: she once dropped the remark that missus Marden also thought
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  Speaker 1: there was something awfully strange about Charlotte. The relation between
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  Speaker 1: the two ladies became extremely interesting. It was happy enough
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  Speaker 1: at bottom, each had the other so much on her mind.
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  Speaker 1: On the parade, the stream of strollers held its course,
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  Speaker 1: and Charlotte presently went by with Teddy Bostwick. She smiled
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  Speaker 1: and nodded and continued. But when she came back, she
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  Speaker 1: stile spoke to us. Captain Bostwick positively declined to go in.
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  Speaker 1: He said the occasion was too jolly. Might they therefore
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  Speaker 1: take another turn? Her mother dropped to do as you like,
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  Speaker 1: and the girl gave me an impertinent smile over her shoulder.
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  Speaker 1: As they quitted us. Teddy looked at me with his
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  Speaker 1: glass in one eye. But I didn't mind that. It
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  Speaker 1: was only of miss Marden. I was thinking, as I
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  Speaker 1: observed to my companion laughing, she's a bit of a cock,
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  Speaker 1: you know. Don't say that. Don't say that, missus Marden murmured.
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  Speaker 1: The nicest girls always are just a little I was
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  Speaker 1: magnanimous enough to plead, then why are they always punished?
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  Speaker 1: The intensity of the question startled me. It had come
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  Speaker 1: out in such a vivid flash. Therefore I had to
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  Speaker 1: think a moment before I inquired, what you know about it?
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  Speaker 1: I was a bad girl myself, and were you punished?
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  Speaker 1: I carry it through life, said missus Marden, looking away
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  Speaker 1: from me. Ah. She suddenly panted at the next breath,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: rising to her feet and staring at her daughter, who
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  Speaker 1: had reappeared again with Captain Bosstwig. She stood a few
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  Speaker 1: seconds with the queerest expression in her face. Then she
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  Speaker 1: sat upon the seat again, and I saw that she
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  Speaker 1: had blushed. Crimson Charlotte, who had observed her movement, came
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  Speaker 1: up straight to her, and, taking her hand with quick tenderness,
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  Speaker 1: seated herself on the other side of her. The girl
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  Speaker 1: had turned pale. She gave her mother a fixed, frightened look.
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  Speaker 1: Missus Marden, who had had some shock which escaped our detection,
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  Speaker 1: recovered herself. That is, she sat quiet and inexpressive, gazing
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  Speaker 1: at the indifferent crowd, the sunny air, the slumbering sea.
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  Speaker 1: My eye happened to fall, however, on the interlocked hands
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  Speaker 1: of the two ladies, and I quickly guessed that the
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  Speaker 1: grasp of the elder one was violent. Bosswick stood before them,
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  Speaker 1: wondering what was the matter, and asking me, from his
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  Speaker 1: little vacance disk if I knew, which led Charlotte to
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  Speaker 1: say to him, after a moment, with a certain irritation,
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  Speaker 1: don't stand there that way, Captain Bostwick, go away, please
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  Speaker 1: go away. I got up at this, hoping that missus
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  Speaker 1: Marden wasn't ill, but she immediately begged that we would
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  Speaker 1: not go away, that we would particularly stay, and that
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  Speaker 1: we would presently come home to lunch. She drew me
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  Speaker 1: down beside her, and for a moment I felt her
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  Speaker 1: hand pressing my arm in a way that might have
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  Speaker 1: been an involuntary betrayal of distress, and might have been
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  Speaker 1: a private signal. What she might have wished to point
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  Speaker 1: out to me I couldn't divine. Perhaps she had seen
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  Speaker 1: somebody or something abnormal in the crowd. She explained to
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  Speaker 1: us in a few minutes that she was all right,
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  Speaker 1: that she was only liable to palpitations. They came as
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  Speaker 1: quickly as they went. It was time to move, and
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  Speaker 1: we moved. The incident was felt to be closed. Bostwick
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  Speaker 1: and I lunched with our sociable friends, and when I
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  Speaker 1: walked away with him, he declared that he had never
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  Speaker 1: seen such dear kind creatures. Missus Marden had made his
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  Speaker 1: promise to come back the next day to tea, and
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  Speaker 1: had exhorted us in general to come as often as
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  Speaker 1: we could. Yet the next day, when at five o'clock
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  Speaker 1: I knocked at the door of the Pretty House, it
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  Speaker 1: was to learn that the ladies had gone up to town.
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  Speaker 1: They had left a message for us with the butler.
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  Speaker 1: He was to say that they had suddenly been called
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  Speaker 1: were very sorry, they would be absent a few days.
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  Speaker 1: That was all I could extract from the dumb domestic.
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  Speaker 1: I went again three days later, but they were still away,
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  Speaker 1: and it was not till the end of a week
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  Speaker 1: that I got a note from missus Marden saying we
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  Speaker 1: are back. Do come and forgive us. It was on
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  Speaker 1: this occasion I remember the occasion of my going just
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  Speaker 1: after getting the note that she told me she had intuitions.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know how many people that were in England
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  Speaker 1: at that time in that predicament, but there were very
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  Speaker 1: few who would have mentioned it, so that the announcements
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  Speaker 1: sruck me as original, especially as a point was that
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  Speaker 1: some of these uncanny promptings were connected with me. There
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  Speaker 1: were other people present, idle brightened folk, old women with
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  Speaker 1: frightened eyes and irrelevant interjections, and I had but a
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  Speaker 1: few minutes talk with Charlotte. But the day after this
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  Speaker 1: I met them both at dinner and had the satisfaction
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  Speaker 1: of sitting next to miss Marden. I recall that hour
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  Speaker 1: as the hour on which at first completely came over
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  Speaker 1: me that she was a beautiful liberal creature. I had
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  Speaker 1: seen her personality in patches and gleams, like a song
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  Speaker 1: sung in snatches, But now it was before me in
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  Speaker 1: a large, rosy glow, as if it had been a
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  Speaker 1: full volume of sound. I heard the whole of the air.
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  Speaker 1: It was sweet, fresh music. I was often to hummet over.
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  Speaker 1: After dinner, I had a few words with missus Marden.
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  Speaker 1: It was at the moment late in the evening when
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  Speaker 1: tea was handed about. A servant passed near us with
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  Speaker 1: a tray. I asked her if she would have a cup, and,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: on her assenting, took one and handed it to her.
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  Speaker 1: She put out her hand for it, and I gave
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  Speaker 1: it to her safely, as I supposed. But as she
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  Speaker 1: was in the act of receiving it, she started and flted,
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  Speaker 1: so that the cup and saucer dropped with a crash
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: of porcelain, and without on the part of my interlocutress
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  Speaker 1: the usual woman's movement to save her dress. I stooped
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: to pick up the fragments, and when I raised myself,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Missus Marden was looking across the room at her daughter,
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  Speaker 1: who looked back at her, smiling but with an anxious
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: light in her eyes. Dear mamma, what on earth is
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  Speaker 1: the matter with you? The silent question seemed to say.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Missus Marden colored, just as he had done after her
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  Speaker 1: strange movement on the parade the other week. And I
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  Speaker 1: was therefore surprised when she said to me, with unexpected assurance,
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  Speaker 1: you should really have a steadier hand. I had begun
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: to stammer a defense of my hand when I became
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: away that she had fixed her eyes upon me with
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: an intense appeal. It was ambiguous at first, and only
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: added to my confusion, And suddenly I understood as plainly
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: as if she had murmured, make believe it with you,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Make believe it with you. The servant came back to
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: take the morsels of the cup and wipe up the
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: spill tea, And while I was in the midst of
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: making believe, missus Marden abruptly brushed away from me and
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: from her daughter's attention, and went into another room. I
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: noticed that she gave no heed to the state of
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: her dress. I saw nothing more of either of them
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: that evening, But the next morning, in the King's Road,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: I met miss Marden with a roll of music in
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: her muff. She told me she had been a little
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: way alone to practicetuets with a friend, and I asked
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: her if she would go a little way further in company.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: She gave me leave to attend her to her door,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: and as we stood before it, I inquired if I
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: might go in. No, not to day. I don't want you,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: she said candidly, though not roughly. While the words caused
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: me to direct a wistful, disconcerted gaze at one of
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: the windows of the house, it fell upon the white
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: face of missus Marden, who was looking out at us
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: from the drawing room. She stood there long enough for
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: me to see that it was she and not an apparition,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: as I had thought for a second, and then she
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: vanished before her daughter had observed her. The girl during
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: our walk had said nothing about her. As I had
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: been told they didn't want me. I left them alone
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: a little after which circumstances supervened that kept us still
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: longer apart. I finally went up to London, and while
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: there I received a pressing invitation to come immediately down
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: to Tranton, a pretty old place in Sussex belonging to
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: a couple whose acquaintance I had lately made. I went
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: to Tranton from town, and on arriving found the Mardens
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: with a dozen other people at the house. The first
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: thing Missus Marden said was will you forgive me? And
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: when I asked what I had to forgive, she answered,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: my throwing my tea over you. I replied that it
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: had gone over herself, whereupon she said, at any rate,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: I was very rude, but some day I think you'll understand,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: and then you'll make allowances for me. The first day
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: I was there she dropped two or three of these
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: references she had already indulged in more than one to
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: the mystic initiation that was in store for me. So
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: that I began, as the phrase is, to chaffer about it,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: to say I would rather it were less wonderful and
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: take it out at once. She answered that when it
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: should come to me, I would have to take it out.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: There would be little enough option that it would come
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: was privately clear to her a deep presentiment, which was
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: the only reason she had ever mentioned the matter. Didn't
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: I remember? She had told me she had intuitions from
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: the first time of her seeing me. She had been
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: sure that there were things I should not escape, knowing
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: meanwhile there was nothing to do but wait and keep cool,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: not to be precipitate. She particularly wished not to be
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: any more nervous than she was, and I was above
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: all not to be nervous myself. One got used to everything.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: I declared that, though I couldn't make out what she
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: was talking about, I was terribly frightened. The absence of
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: a clue gave such a range to one's imagination. I
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: exaggerated on purpose, For if missus Marden was mystifying, I
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: can scarcely say she was alarming. I couldn't imagine what
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: she meant, but I wondered more than I shuddered. I
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: might have said to myself that she was a little
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: wrong in the upper story, but that never occurred to me.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: She struck me as hopelessly right. There were other girls
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: in the house, but Charlotte Marden was the most charming,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: which was so generally felt to be the case that
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: she really interfered with the slaughter of ground game. There
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: were two or three men, and I was of the
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: number who actually preferred her to the society of the beating.
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  Speaker 1: In short, she was recognized as a form of sport,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: superior and exquisite. She was kind to all of us.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: She made us go out late and come in early.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: I don't know whether she flirted, but several other members
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: of the party thought they did. Indeed, as regards himself,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Teddy Bostwick, who had come over from Brighton, was visibly sure.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: The third day I was at Tranton was the Sunday,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: and there was a very pretty walk to morning service
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: over the fields. It was gray, windless weather, and the
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: bell of the little old church that nestled in the
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: hollow of the Sussex Down sounded near and domestic. We
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: were a straggling procession in the mild, damp air, which
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: is always at that season, gave one the feeling that
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: after the trees were bare, there was more of it,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: a largers sky, and I managed to fall a good
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: way behind with Miss Marden. I remember entertaining as we
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: moved together over the turf, a strong impulse to say
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: something intensely personal, something violent and important important for me,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: such as that I had never seen her so lovely,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: or that that particular moment was the sweetest of my life.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: But always in youth such words have been on the
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: lips many times before they are spoken, and I had
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: the sense not that I didn't know her well enough,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: I cared little for that, but that she didn't know
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: me well enough. In the church, where there were old
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Tranton tombs and brasses, the big trant and pew was full.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Several of us were scattered, and I found a seat
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: for Miss Marden and another for myself beside it, at
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: a distance from her mother and from most of our friends.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: There were two or three decent rustics on the bench
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: who moved in further to make room for us, and
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: I took my place first to cut off my companion
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: from our neighbors. After she was seated, there was still
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: a space left which remained empty till service was about
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: half over. This, at least was the moment at which
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: I became aware that another person had entered and had
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: taken the seat. When I noticed him, he had apparently
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: been for some minutes in the pew, for he had
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: settled himself and put down his hat beside him, and
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: with his hands crossed on the knob of his cane,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: was gazing before him at the altar. He was a
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: pale young man in black, with the air of a
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: gentleman I was slightly startled on perceiving him, for Miss
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: Marden had not attracted my attention to his entrance by
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: moving to make room for him. After a few minutes,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: observing that he had no prayer book, I reached across
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: my neighbor and placed mine before him on the ledge
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: of the pew, A maneuver, the motive of which was
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: not unconnected with the possibility that, in my own destitution,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Miss Marden would give me one side of herb velvet
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: volume to hold. The pretext, however, was destined to fail,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: for at the moment I offered him the book, the intruder,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: whose intrusion I had so condoned, rose from his place,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: without thanking me, stepped noiselessly out of the pew, no door,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: and so discreetly as to attract no attention, passed down
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: the center of the church a few minutes had sufficed
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: for his devotions. His behavior was unbecoming his early departure
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: even more than his late arrival. But he managed so
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: quietly that we were not incommoded, and I perceived, on
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: turning a little to glance after him, that nobody was
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: disturbed by his withdrawal. I only noticed and with surprise
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: that missus Marden had been so affected by it as
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: to rise involuntarily an instant in her place. She stared
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: at him as he passed, but he passed very quickly,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: and she as quickly dropped down again, though not too
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: soon to catch my eye. Across the church. Five minutes later,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: I asked miss Marden in a low voice if she
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: would kindly pass me back my prayer book. I had
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: waited to see if she would spontaneously perform the act.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: She restored this aid to devotion, but had been so
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: far from troubling herself about it that she could say
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: to me as she did, so, why on earth did
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: you put it there? I was on the point of
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: answering her when she dropped on her knees and I
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: held my tongue. I had only been going to say,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: to be decently civil after the benediction. As we were
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: leaving our places, I was slightly surprised again to see
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: that missus Marden, instead of going out with her companions,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: had come up the aisle to join us, having apparently
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: something to say to her daughter. She said it, but
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: in an instant I observed that it was only a
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: pretext her real business was with me. She pushed Charlotte
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: forward and suddenly murmured to me, did you see him,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: the gentleman who sat down here? How could I help
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: seeing him? Hush, she said, with the intensest excitement. Don't
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: speak to her, don't tell her. She slipped her hand
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: into my arm to keep me near her, to keep me,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: it seemed, away from her daughter. The pregaortion was unnecessary
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: for Teddy Bostwick had already possession of miss Marden, and
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: as they passed out of the church in front of me,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: I saw one of the other men close up on her.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Other hand, It appeared to be considered that I had
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: had my turn. Missus Marden withdrew her hand from my
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: arm as soon as we got out, but not before
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: I felt that she had really needed the support. Don't
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: speak to any one, don't tell any one, she went on.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: I don't understand. Tell them what why that you saw him?
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: Surely they saw him for themselves, not one of them,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Not one of them, She spoke in a tone of
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: such passionate decision that I glanced at her. She was
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: staring straight before her, But she felt the challenge of
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: my eyes, and she stopped short in the old brown
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: timber porch of the church with the others well in
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: advance of us, and said, looking at me now, and
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: in a quite extraordinary manner, you're the only person, the
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: only person in the world, but you, dear madam Oh
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: well me, of course, that's my curse. And with this
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: she moved rapidly away from me to join the body
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: of the party. I hovered on its outskirts on the
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: way home, for I had food for rubination. Whom had
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: I seen? And why was the apparition it rose before
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: my mind's eye very vividly, again invisible to the others.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: If an exception had been made for Missus Marsden, why
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: did it constitute a curse? And why was I to
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: share so questionable an advantage. This inquiry carried on in
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: my own locked breast, kept me doubtless silent enough during luncheon.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: After luncheon, I went out on the old terrace to
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: smoke a cigarette. But I had only taken a couple
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: of turns when I perceived Missus Marden's molded mask at
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: the window of one of the rooms which opened on
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: the crooked flags. It reminded me of the same flitting
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: presence at the window at brighton the day I met
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Charlotte and walked home with her. But this time my
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: ambiguous friend didn't vanish. She tapped on the pain and
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: motioned me to come in. She was in a queer
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: little apartment, one of the many reception rooms of which
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: the ground floor at Tranton consisted. It was known as
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: the Indian Room and had a decoration vaguely oriental. Bamboo lounges,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: lacquered screens, lanterns with long fringes, and strange idols and cabinets.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Objects not held conduce to sociability. The place was little used,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: and when I went round to her, we had it
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: to ourselves. As soon as I entered, she said to me,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: please tell me this. Are you in love with my daughter?
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: I hesitated a moment before I answer your question. Will
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: you kindly tell me what gives you the idea? I
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: don't consider that I have been very forward. Missus Marden,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: contradicting me with her beautiful, anxious eyes, gave me no
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: satisfaction on the point I mentioned. She only went on strenuously.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Did you say nothing to her on the way to church?
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: What makes you think I said anything? The fact that
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: you saw him, saw whom dear missus Martin, Oh you know,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: she answered, gravely, even a little reproachfully, as if I
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: were trying to humiliate her by making her phrase the unfrasable.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: Do you mean the gentleman who formed the subject of
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: your strange statement at church, the one who came into
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: the pew? You saw him? You saw him, Missus Mardon panted,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: with a strange mixture of dismay and relief. Of course
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: I saw him, and so did you. It didn't follow.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: Did you feel it to be inevitable? I was puzzled again,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: inevitable that you should see him? Certainly, since I'm not blind,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: you might have been. Every one else is I was
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: wonderfully at sea, and I frankly confessed it to my interlocutress.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: But the case was not made clearer by her presently exclaiming,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: I knew you would from the moment you should really
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: be in love with her. I knew it would be
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: the test. What do I mean the proof? Are these
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: such strange bewilderments attached to that high state? I asked, smiling,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: you perceive there? Are you see him? You see him?
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Missus Marden announced with tremendous exultation. You'll see him again.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: I've no objection, but I shall take more interest in
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: him if you'll kindly tell me who he is. She hesitated,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: looking down a moment. Then she said, raising her eyes,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you if you'll tell me first what you
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: said to her on the way to church? Has she
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: told you I said anything? Do I need that? Smiled
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: Missus Marden. Oh yes, I remember your intuitions, but I'm
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: sorry to see they're at fault this time because I
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: really said nothing to your daughter. That was the least
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: out of the way. Are you very sure, on my honor,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: missus Marden? Then you consider that you're not in love
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: with her? That's another affair, I laughed, You are? You are?
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: You wouldn't have seen him if you hadn't been. Who
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: the deuce is he? Then, Madam, I inquired with some irritation,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: She would still only answer me with another question. Didn't
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: you at least want to say something to her? Didn't
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: you come very near it? The question was much to
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: the point it justified the famous intuitions. Very near it?
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: It was the turn of a hair. I don't know
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: what kept me quiet. That was quite enough, said missus Marden.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: It isn't what you say that determines it. It's what
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: you feel. That's what he goes by. I was annoyed
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: at last by her reiterated reference to an identity yet
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: to be established, and I clasped my hands with an
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: air of supplication which covered much real impatience, a sharper curiosity,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: and even the first short throbs of a certain sacred dread.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: I entreat you to tell me whom you're talking about.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: She threw up her arms, looking away from me, as
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: if to shake off both reserve and responsibility. Sir edmund Orme,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: and who is Sir edmund Orme? At the moment I spoke,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: she gave a start, hush, here they come. Then, as
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: following the direction of her eyes, I saw Charlotte Martin
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: on the terrace at the window, she added, with an
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: intensity of warning, don't notice him. Never. Charlotte, who had
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: had her hands beside her eyes, peering into the room
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: and smiling, made a sign that she was to be admitted,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: on which I went and opened the long window. Her
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: mother turned away, and the girl came in with a
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: laughing challenge, what plot in the world are you two
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: hatching here some plan. I forget what was in prospect
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: for the afternoon as to which missus Marden's participation or
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: consent was solicited. My adhesion was taken for granted, and
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: she had been half over the place in her quest.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: I was florried because I saw that Missus Mardin was
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: flurried when she turned round to meet her daughter. She
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: covered it by a kind of extravagance, throwing herself on
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: the girl's neck and embracing her. And to pass it off,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: I said fancifully to Charlotte, I've been asking your mother
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: for your hand, Oh indeed, and has she given it?
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Miss Marden answered gaily, she was just going to when
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: you appeared there. Well, it's only for a moment. I'll
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: leave you free. Do you like him, Charlotte, missus Marden asked,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: with a candor I scarcely expected. It's difficult to say
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: it before him, isn't it, The girl replied, entering into
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: the humor of the thing, but looking at me as
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: if she didn't like me, she would have had to
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: say it before another person as well. For at that
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: moment there stepped into the room from the terrace. The
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: window had been left open a gentleman who had come
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: into sight, at least into mine only within the instant
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Missus Marden had said, here they come, but he appeared
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: to have followed her daughter at a certain distance. I
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: immediately recognized him as the personage who had sat beside
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: us in church. This time I saw him better, saw
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: that his face and his old air was strange. I
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: speak of him as a personage because one felt indescribably
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: as if a reigning prince had come into the room.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: He held himself with a kind of habitual majesty, as
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: if he were different from us. Yet he looked fixedly
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: and gravely at me, till I wondered what he expected
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: of me. Did he consider that I should bend my
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: knee or kiss his hand? He turned his eyes in
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: the same way on Missus Marden, But she knew what
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: to do. After the first agitation produced by his approach,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: she took no notice of him. Whatever it made me
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: remember her passionate adjuration to me. I had to achieve
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: a great effort to imitate her, For though I knew
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: nothing about him but that he was Sir edmund Orme,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: I felt his presence as a strong appeal, almost as
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: an oppression. He stood there without speaking, young, pale, handsome,
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: clean shaven, decorous, with extraordinary light blue eyes, and something
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: old fashioned like a portrait of years ago in his head.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: His manner of wearing his hair. He was in complete
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: mourning when immediately felt that he was very well dressed,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: and he carried his hat in his hand. He looked again,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: strangely hard at me, harder than any one in the
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: world had ever looked before, and I remember feeling rather
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: cold and wishing he would say something. No silence had
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: ever seemed to me so soundless. All this was, of
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: course an impression, intensely rapid, but that it had consumed
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: some instance was proved to me suddenly by the aspect
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: of Charlotte Marden, who stared from her mother to me
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: and back again. He never looked at her, and she
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: had no appearance of looking at him, and then broke
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: out with what on earth is the matter with you?
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: You've such odd faces. I felt the color come back
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: to mine, and when she went on in the same tone,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: one would think you had seen a ghost. I was
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: conscious that I had turned very red. Sir Edmund Orb
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: never blushed, and I could see that he had no
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: capacity for embarrassment. One had met people of that sort,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: but never any one with such a grand indifference. Don't
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: be impertinent, and go and tell them all that I'll
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: join them, said missus Marden, with much dignity, but with
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: a quaver in her voice. And will you come you,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: the girl asked, turning away. I made no answer, taking
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: the question somehow as meant for her companion, But he
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: was more silent than I. And when she reached the
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: door she was going out that way, She stopped with
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: her hand on the knob and looked at me, repeating it.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: I assented, springing forward to open the door for her,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: and as she passed out, she exclaimed to me mockingly,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: you haven't got your wits about you. You shan't have
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: my hand. I closed the door and turned round to
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: find that Sir edmund Orme had during the moment my
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: back was presented to him. Retired by the window, Missus
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: Marden stood there and we looked at each other long.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: It had only then, as the girl flitted away, come
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: home to me that her daughter was unconscious of what
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: had happened. It was that, oddly enough, that gave me
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: a sudden, sharp shake, and not my own perception of
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: our visitor, which appeared perfectly natural. It made the fact
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: vivid to me that she had been equally unaware of
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: him in church, and the two facts together, now that
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: they were over, set my heart more sensibly beating. I
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: wiped my forehead, and missus Marden broke out with a low,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: distressful wail. Now you know my life, Now you know
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: my life in God's name? Who is he? What is he?
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: He's a man I wronged? How did you wrong him? Oh? Awfully?
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: Years ago? Years ago? Why he's very young, young, hung young,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: cried missus Martin. He was born before I was. Then
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: why does he look? So? She came nearer to me.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: She laid her hand on my arm, and there was
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: something in her face that made me shrink a little.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: Don't you want to stand? Don't you feel she murmured, reproachfully,
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: I feel very queer. I laughed, and I was conscious
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: that my laugh betrayed it. He's dead, said Missus Marden
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: from her white face. Dead. I panted that that gentleman
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: was I couldn't even say the word call him what
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: you like? There are twenty vulgar names. He's a perfect presence,
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: He's a splendid presence, I cried. The place is haunted, haunted,
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: I exulted in the word, as if it represented the
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: fulfillment of my dearest dream. It isn't the place, more's
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: the pity that has nothing to do with it. That
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: it's you, dear lady, I said, as if this were
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: still better. No, nor me either. I wish it were.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: Perhaps it's me, I suggested, with a sickly smile. It's
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: nobody but my child, my innocent, innocent child. And with this,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: missus Marden broke down. She dropped into a chair and
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: burst into tears. I stammered some question, I pressed her on,
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: some bewildered appeal, but she waved me off unexpectedly and passionately,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: I persisted, couldn't I help her? Couldn't I intervene? You
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: have intervened? She sobbed. You're in it, you're in it.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: I'm very glad to be in anything, so curious, I
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: boldly declared, glad or not, you can't get out of it.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: I don't want to get out of it. It's too interesting.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you like it. Go away, But I want
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: to know more about it. You'll see all you want.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: Go away, But I want to understand what I see.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: How can you what I don't understand myself. We'll do
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: so together, we'll make it out. At this, she got up,
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: doing what she could to obliterate her tears. Yes, it
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: will be better together. That's why I've liked you. Oh,
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: we'll see it through, I declared. Then you must control
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: yourself better. I will. I will with practice. You'll get
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: used to it, said missus Marden, in a tone I
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: never forgot. But go and join them. I'll come. In
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: a moment. I passed out to the terrace, and I
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: felt that I had a part to play. So far
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: from dreading another encounter with the perfect presence, as missus
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: Marden called it, I was filled with an excitement that
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: was positively joyous. I desired a renewal of the sensation.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: I opened myself wide to the impression. I went round
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: the house as quickly as if I expected to overtake
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: Sir edmund Orme. I didn't overtake him just then, but
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: the day was not the close. Without my recognizing that
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: has been missus Marden had said, I should see all
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: I wanted of him. End of Section one Section two
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: of Sir Edmund Orme by Henry James. We took, or
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: most of us took the collective sociable walk, which in
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: the English country house is the consecrated pastime on Sunday afternoons.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: We were restricted to such a regulated ramble as the
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: ladies were good for. The afternoons moreover, were short, and
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: by five o'clock we were restored to the fireside in
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: the hall, with the sense on my part at least
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: that we might have done a little more for our tea.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: Missus Marden had said that she would join us, but
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: she had not appeared. Her daughter, who had seen her
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: again before we went out, only explained that she was tired.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: She remained invisible all the afternoon. But this was the
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: detail to which I gave as little heed as I
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: had given to the circumstance of my not having Miss
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: Martin to myself during all our walk. I was too
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: much taken up with another emotion to care. I felt
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: beneath my feet the threshold of the strange door in
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: my life which had suddenly been thrown open, and out
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: of which unspeakable vibrations played up through me like a fountain.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: I heard heard all my days of apparitions, but it
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: was a different thing to have seen one, and to
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: know that I should, in all probability see it familiarly
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: as it were. Again, I was on the lookout for
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: it as a pilot for the flash of a revolving light,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: and I was ready to generalize on the sinister subject,
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: to declare that ghosts were much less alarming and much
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: more amusing than was commonly supposed. There was no doubt
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: that I was extremely nervous. I couldn't get over the
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: distinction conferred upon me, the exception in the way of
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: mystic enlargement of vision made in my favor. At the
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: same time, I think I did justice to missus Marden's absence.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: It was a commentary on what she had said to me,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: now you know my life. She had probably been seeing
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: Sir edmund Orme for years, and not having my firm fiber,
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: she had broken down under him. Her nerve was gone,
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: though she had also been able to attest that in
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: a degree one got used to him. She had got
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: used to breaking down. And of section two Friendly Hour
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: at Tranton, the firelight played into the wide white last
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: century hall sympathies almost confessed themselves lingering together before dressing
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: on deep sofas in muddy boots for last words, after walks,
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: and even solitary absorption in the third volume of a
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: novel that was wanted by some one else seemed a
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: form of geniality. I watched my moment and went over
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: to Charlotte Marden when I saw she was about to withdraw.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: The ladies had left the place one by one, and
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: after I had addressed myself, particularly to Miss Marden, the
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: three men who were near her, gradually dispersed. We had
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: a little vague talk. She appeared preoccupied, and heaven knows
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: I was, after which she said she must go. She
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: should be late for dinner. I proved to her by
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: book that she had plenty of time, and she objected
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: that she must at any rate go up to see
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: her mother. She was afraid she was unwell. On the contrary,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: she's better than she has been for a long time.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: I'll guarantee that, I said, she has found out that
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: she can have confidence in me, and that has done
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: her good. Miss Marden had dropped into her chair again.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: I was standing before her, and she looked up at me,
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: without his smile, with a dim distress in her beautiful eyes,
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: not exactly as if I were hurting her, but as
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: if she were no longer disposed to treat it as
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: a joke. What had passed? Whatever it was, it was
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: at the same time difficult to be serious about it
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: between her mother and myself. But I could answer her
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: inquiry in all kindness and candor, for I was really
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: conscious that the poor lady had put off a part
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: of her burden on me, and was proportionately relieved and eased.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: I'm sure she has slept all the afternoon, as she
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: hasn't slept for years. I went on, you have only
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: to ask her. Charlotte got up again. You make yourself
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: out very useful. You've a good quarter of an hour,
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: I said, Haven't I a right to talk to you
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: a little this way alone? When your mother has given
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: me your hand? And is it your mother who has
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: given me yours? I'm much obliged to her, but I
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: don't want it. I think our hands are not our mothers.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: They happen to be our own. Laughed the girl. Sit down,
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: Sit down, and let me tell you, I pleaded. I
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: still stood before her urgently to see if she wouldn't
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: oblige me. She hesitated a moment, looking vaguely this way
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: and that, as if under a compulsion that was slightly painful.
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: The empty hall was quiet. We heard the loud ticking
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: of the great clock. Then she slowly sank down, and
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: I drew a chair close to her. This made me
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: face round to the fire again, and with the movement
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: I perceived disconcertedly that we were not alone. The next instant,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: more strangely than I can say, my discomposure, instead of increasing,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: dropped for the person before the fire was Sir edmund Orme.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: He stood there as I had seen him in the
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: Indian room, looking at me with the expressionless attention which
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: borrowed its sternness from his somber distinction. I knew so
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: much more about him now that I had to check
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: a movement of recognition, an acknowledgment of his presence when
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: once I was aware of it, and that it lasted
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: the sense that we had company Charlotte and I quitted me.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: It was impressed on me, on the contrary, that I
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: was more intensely alone with Miss Marden. She evidently saw
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: nothing to look at, and I made a tremendous and
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: very nearly successful effort to conceal from her that my
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: own situation was different. I say very nearly, because she
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: watched me an instant while my words were arrested in
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: a way that made me fear she was going to say, again,
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: as she had said in the Indian room, what on
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: earth is the matter with you? What the matter with me? Was?
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: I quickly told her, for the full knowledge of it
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: rolled over me with the touching spectacle of her unconsciousness.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: It was touching that she became in the presence of
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: this extraordinary portent. What was portended danger or sorrow? Bliss?
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: Urbane was a minor question. All I saw as she
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: sat there was that innocent and charming. She was close
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: to a horror, as she might have thought it that
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: happened to be veiled from her. But that might in
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: any moment be tosay. I didn't mind it now, as
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: I found, but nothing was more possible than she should,
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: And if it wasn't curious and interesting, it might easily
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: be very dreadful if I didn't mind it for myself,
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: As I afterwards saw, this was largely because I was
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: so taken up with the idea of protecting her. My
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: heart beat high with this idea. On the spot, I
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: determined to do everything I could to keep her sense sealed.
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: What I could do might have been very obscure to
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: me if I had not in all this become more
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: aware than of anything else that I loved her. The
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: way to save her was to love her, and the
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: way to love her was to tell her now and
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: here that I did so. Sir edmund Orme didn't prevent me,
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: especially as after a moment he turned his back to
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: us and stood looking discreetly at the fire. At the
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: end of another moment, he leaned his head on his
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: arm against the chimney piece, with an air of gradual dejection,
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: like his spirit, still more weary than discreet. Charlotte Marden
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: was startled by what I said to her, and she
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: jumped up to escape it. But she took no offense.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: My tenderness was too real. She only moved about the
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: room with a deprecating murmur. And I was so busy
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: following up any little advantage that I might have obtained
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: that I didn't notice in what manners edmund Orme disappeared.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: I only observed presently that he had gone. This made
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: no difference. He had been so small a hindrance. I
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: only remember being struck suddenly with something inexorable in the slow, sweet,
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: sad head shake that Miss Marden gave me. I don't
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: ask for an answer now, I said, I only want
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: you to be sure to know how much depends on it. Oh,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: I don't want to give it to you now wherever,
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: she replied, I hate the subject. Please, I wish one
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: could be let alone. And then, as if I might
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: have found something harsh in this irrepressible, artless cry of
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: beauty beset, she added, quickly, vaguely kindly, as she left
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: the room. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: At dinner I could be generous enough to be glad
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: for her that I was placed on the same side
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: of the table with her, where she couldn't see me.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: Her mother was nearly opposite to me, and just after
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: we had sat down, missus Martin gave me one long,
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: deep look in which all our strange communion was expressed.
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: It meant, of course, she has told me, but it
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: meant other things beside. At any rate, I know what
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: my answering looked to her, conveyed, I've seen him again.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: I've seen him again. This didn't prevent Missus Marden from
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: treating her neighbors with her usual scrupulous blandness. After dinner,
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: when in the drawing room, the men joined the ladies,
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: and I went straight up to her to tell her
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: how I wished we could have some private conversation. She
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: said immediately, in a low tone, looking down at her
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: fan while she opened and shut it. He's here, he's
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: here here. I looked round the room, but I was disappointed.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: Look where she is, said missus Marden, with just the
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: faintest asperity. Charlotte was, in fact not in the main saloon,
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: but in an apartment into which it opened, and which
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: was known as the Morning Room. I took a few
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: steps and saw her through a doorway, upright in the
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: middle of the room, talking with three gentlemen, whose backs
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: were practically turned to me. For a moment, my quest
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: seemed vain. Then I recognized that one of the gentlemen,
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: the middle one, was Sir Edmund Orme. This time it
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: was surprising that the others didn't see him. Charlotte seemed
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: to be looking straight at him, addressing her conversation to him.
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: She saw me after an instant, however, and immediately turned
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: her eyes away. I went back to her mother, with
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: an annoyed sense that the girl would think I was
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: watching her, which would be unjust. Missus Marden had found
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: a small silph a little apart, and I sat down
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: beside her. There were some questions I had so wanted
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: to go into that I wished we were once more
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: in the Indian room. I presently gathered, however, that our
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: privacy was all sufficient. We communicated so closely and completely now,
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: and with such silent reciprocities, that it would in every
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: circumstance be adequate. Oh, yes, he's there, I said, And
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: at about a quarter past seven he was in the hall.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: I knew it at the time, and I was so glad,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: so glad that it was your affair this time and
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: not mine. It's a rest for me. Did you sleep
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: all the afternoon? I asked, as I haven't done for months,
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: But how did you know that? As you knew, I
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: take it that Sir Edmund was in the hall. We
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: shall evidently each of us know things now where the
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: other is concerned, where he is concerned. Missus Marden amended,
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: it's a blessing. The way you take it, she added,
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: with a long, mild sigh. I I take it as
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: a man who's in love with your daughter, of course,
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: of course intense as I now felt my desire for
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: the girl to be, I couldn't help laughing a little
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: at the tone of these words, and it led my
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: companion immediately to say, otherwise you wouldn't have seen him.
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: But every one doesn't see him who's in love with her,
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: or there would be dozens they're not in love with
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: her as you are. I can, of course, only speak
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: for myself, and I found a moment before dinner to
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: do so, she told me immediately. And have I any hope,
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: any chance? That's what I long for, what I pray for. Ah,
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: how can I thank you enough? I murmured. I believe
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: it will all pass if she loves you, missus Martin continued,
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: it will all pass. We shall never see him again, Oh,
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: if she loves me, I don't care how often I
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: see him. Ah, you take it better than I could,
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: said my companion. You have the happiness to know, not
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: to understand. I don't indeed, what on earth does he want?
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: He wants to make me suffer? She turned her wan
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: face upon me with this, and I saw now for
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: the first time fully, how perfectly. If this had been
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: Sir Edmund Orme's purpose, he had succeeded for what I
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: did to him. Missus Marden explained, And what did you
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: do to him? She looked at me a moment. I
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: killed him, as I had seen him fifty yards away,
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: only five minutes before. The words gave me a start. Yes,
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: I make you jump, be careful. He still there, but
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: he killed himself. I broke his heart. He thought me
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: awfully bad. We were to have been married, but I
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: broke it off just at the last I saw some
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: one I liked better. I had no reason but that.
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: It wasn't for interest, or money, or position or anything
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: of that sort. All those things were his. It was
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: simply that I fell in love with Cap Martin. When
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: I saw him, I felt that I couldn't marry any
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: one else. I wasn't in love with Edma Dorb, my mother,
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: my eldest sister, had brought it about. But he did
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: love me. I told him I didn't care, that I couldn't,
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: that I wouldn't. I threw him over, and he took something,
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: some abominable drug or draft that proved fatal. It was dreadful,
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: it was horrible. He was found that way. He died
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: in agony. I married Captain Marden, but not for five years.
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: I was happy, perfectly happy time obliterates. But when my
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: husband died, I began to see him. I had listened intently,
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: but I wondered to see your husband. Never never that way,
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: thank God, to see him with Chartie, always with Chartie.
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: The first time it nearly killed me about seven years
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: ago when she first came out. Never when I by
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: myself only with her. Sometimes not for months that every day,
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: for I've tried everything to break the spell, doctors and
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: regimes and climates. I prayed to God on my knees
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: that day at Brighton on the parade with you when
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: you thought I was ill. That was the first for
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: an age. And then in the evening when I knocked
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: my tea over you, and the day you were at
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: the door with Charlotte and I saw you from the window.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: Each time he was there, I see, I see. I
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: was more thrilled than I could say. It's an apparition
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: like another, like another. Have you ever seen another? No,
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: I mean the sort of thing one has heard of
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: it's tremendously interesting to encounter a case. Do you call
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: me a case? Missus Marden asked, with exquisite resentment, I
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: mean myself. Oh you're the right one, she exclaimed. I
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: was right when I trusted you. I'm devoutly grateful you did.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: But what made you do it? I had thought the
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: whole thing out. I had had time in those dread
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: years while he was punishing me in my daughter. Hardly
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: that I objected if she never knew. That has been
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: my terror, that she will from one occasion to another.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: I've an unspeakable dread of the effect on her. She shan't,
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: she shan't, I declared so loud that several people looked round.
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: Missus Martin made me get up, and I had no
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: more talk with her that evening. The next day I
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: told her I must take my departure from Tranton. It
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: was neither comfortable nor considerate to remain as a rejected suitor.
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: She was disconcerted, but she accepted my reasons, only saying
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: to me, out of her mournful eyes, you'll leave me
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: alone that with my burden. It was of course understood
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: between us that for many weeks to come, there would
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: be no discretion in worrying poor Charlotte. Such were the
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: terms in which, with odd feminine and maternal inconsistency, she
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: alluded to an attitude on my part that she favored.
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: I was prepared to be heroically considerate, but it seemed
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: to me that even this delicacy permitted me to say
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: a word to Miss Marden before I went. I begged
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: her after breakfast to take a turn with me on
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: the terrace, and as she hesitated, looking at me distantly,
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: I informed her that it was only to ask her
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: a question and to say good bye. I was leaving
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: trantent for her. She came out with me and we
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: passed slowly round the house three or four times. Nothing
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: is fine as the dis great airy platform, from which
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: every look is the sweep of the country, with the
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: sea on the furthest edge. It might have been that
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: as we passed the windows, we were conspicuous to our
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: friends in the house, who would divine sarcastically why I
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: was so significantly bolting, But I didn't care. I only
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: wondered whether they wouldn't really this time make out. Sir
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: edmund Orme, who joined us on one of our turns
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: and strolled slowly on the other side of my companion.
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: Of what transcendent essence he was composed, I knew not.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: I have no theory about him leaving at the others,
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: any more than I have one about such or such
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: another of my fellow mortals whom I have elbowed in life.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: He was as positive, as individual, as ultimate a fact
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: as any of these. Above all, he was as respectable
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: as sensitive a fact, so that I should no more
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: have thought of taking a liberty of practicing an experiment
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: with him, of touching him, for instance, or speaking to him,
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: since he set the example of silence, than I should
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: have thought of committing any other social grossness. He had always,
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: as I saw more fully later, the perfect propriety of
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: his position, had always the appearance of being dressed and
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: in attitude and aspect of comporting himself as the occasion demanded.
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: He looked strange and contestably, but somehow he always looked right.
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: I very soon came to an attached idea of beauty
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: to his unmentionable presence, the beauty of an old story
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: of love and pain. What I ended by feeling was
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: that he was on my side, that he was watching
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: over my interest. That he was looking to it in
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: my heart shouldn't be broken. Oh, he had taken it seriously,
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: his own catastrophe. He had certainly proved that in his day,
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: if poor missus Marden, as she told me, had thought
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: it out. I also subjected the case to the finest
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: analysis of which my intellect was capable. It was a
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: case of retributive justice. The mother was to pay in
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: suffering for the suffering she had inflicted, and as the
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: disposition to jilted lover might have been transmitted to the daughter,
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: the daughter was to be watched so that she might
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: be made to suffer should she do an equal wrong.
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: She might reproduce her mother in character as vividly as
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: she did in face on the day she should transgress.
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: In other words, her eyes would be opened suddenly and
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: unpity to the perfect presence which she would have to
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: work as she could, into her conception of a young
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: lady's universe. I had no great fear for her, because
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: I didn't believe she was in any cruel degree a coquette.
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: We should have a good deal of ground to get
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: over before I, at least should be in a position
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: to be sacrificed by her. She couldn't throw me over
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: before she had made a little more of me. The
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: question I asked her on the terrace that morning was
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: whether I might continue during the winter to come to
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: missus Martin's house. I promised not to come too often
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: and not to speak to her for three months. Of
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: the question I had raised the day before, she replied
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: that I might do as I liked, and on this
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: we parted. I carried out the vow I had made her.
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: I held my tongue for my three months. Unexpectedly to myself,
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: there were moments of this time when she struck me
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: as capable of playing with a man. I wanted so
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: to make her like me that I became subtle and ingenious,
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: wonderfully alert, patiently diplomatic. Sometimes I thought I had earned
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: my reward, brought her to the point of saying, well, well,
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: you're the best of them all. You may speak to
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: me now. Then there was a greater blankness than ever
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: in her beauty, and on certain days a mocking light
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: in her eyes, of which the meaning seemed to be,
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: if you don't take care, I will accept you to
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: have done with you more effectually Missus Marden was a
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: great help to me simply by believing in me, and
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: I valued her faith all the more that it continued,
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: even though there was a sudden intermission of the miracle
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: that had been wrought for me. After our visit to Tranton,
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: Sir Edmund Orb gave us a holiday, and I confess
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: it was at first a disappointment to me. I felt
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: less designated, less connected with Charlotte. Oh don't cry till
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: you're out of the wood, her mother said. He has
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: left me off sometimes for six months. He'll break out
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: again when you least expected. He knows what he's about.
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: For her, these weeks were happy, and she was wise
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: enough not to talk about me to the girl. She
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: was so good as to assure me that I was
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: taking the right way, that I looked as if I
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: felt secure, and that in the long run, women give
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: way to that. She had known them to do it,
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: even when the man was a fool for looking so,
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: or was a fool on any terms. For herself, she
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: felt it to be a good time, a sort of
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: Saint Martin's Summer of the soul. She was better than
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: she had been for years, and she had me to
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: thank for it. The sense of visitation was light upon her.
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: She wasn't in anguish every time she looked round. Charlotte
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: contradicted me very often, but she contradicted herself still more.
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: That winter was a wonder of mildness, and we often
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: sat out in the sun. I walked up and down
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: with Charlotte and missus Marden, sometimes on a bench, sometimes
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: in a bath chair, waited for and smiled at us
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: as we passed. I always looked out for a sign
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: in her face he's with you, he's with you. She
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: would see him before I should, But nothing came. The
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: season had brought us also a sort of spiritual softness.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: Toward the end of April, the air was so like
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: June that meeting my two friends one night at some
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: brighten sociability, an evening party with amateur music, I drew
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: Miss Marden unresistingly out upon a balcony to which the
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: window in one of the rooms stood open. The night
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: was close and thick, the stars were dim, and below us,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: under the cliff, we heard the regular rumble of the sea.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: We listened to it a little, and we heard, mixed
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: with it from within the house, the sound of a
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: violin accompanied by a piano, a performance which had been
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: our pretext for passing out. Do you like me a
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: little better? I asked abruptly, after a minute, could you
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: listen to me again? I had no sooner spoken, and
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: she laid her hand quickly with a certain force on
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: my arm. Hush, isn't there some one? There? She was,
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: looking into the gloom of the far end of the balcony.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: This balcony ran the whole width of the house, a
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: width very great in the best of the old houses
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: at Brighton. We were lighted a little by the open
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: window behind us, but the other windows curtained within left
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: the darkness undiminished, so that I made out, but dimly,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: the figure of a gentleman standing there and looking at us.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: He was in evening dress, like a guest. I saw
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: the vague shine of his white shirt and the pale
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: oval of his face, and he might perfectly have been
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: a guest who had stepped out in advance of us
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: to take the air. Miss Marden took him for one
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: at first, then evidently, even in a few seconds, she
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: saw that the intensity of his gaze was unconventional. What
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: else she saw I couldn't determine I was too taken
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: up with my own impression to do more than feel
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: the quick content act of her uneasiness. My own impression was,
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: in fact the strongest of sensations, a sensation of horror.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: For what could the thing mean but that the girl
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: at last saw. I heard her give a sudden, gasping
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: ah and move quickly into the house. It was only
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: afterwards that I knew that I myself had had a
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: totally new emotion, my horror passing into anger, and my
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: anger into a stride along the balcony with a gesture
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: of reprobation. The case was simplified to the vision of
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: a frightened girl whom I loved. I advanced to vindicate
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: her security, but I found nothing there to meet me.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: It was either all a mistake or Sir edmund Orme
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: had vanished. I followed Miss Marden immediately, but there were
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: symptoms of confusion in the drawing room. When I passed in,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: a lady had fainted, The music had stopped. There was
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: a shuffling of chairs and a pressing forward. The lady
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: was not Charlotte, as I feared, but missus Mardin, who
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: had suddenly been taken ill I remembered the relief with
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: which I learned this, For to see Charlotte stricken would
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: have been anguish, and her mother's condition gave a channel
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: to her agitation. It was, of course all a matter
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: for the people of the house and for the ladies,
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: and I could have no share in attending to my
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: friends or in conducting them to their carriage. Missus Marden
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: revived and insisted on going home, after which I uneasily withdrew.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: I called the next morning to ask about her, and
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: was informed that she was better. But what I asked
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: if miss Marden would see me. The message sent down
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: was that it was impossible. There was nothing for me
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: to do all day but to roam about with a
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: beating heart. But toward evening I received a line and
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: pencil brought by hand. Please come, mother wishes you. Five
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: minutes afterwards, I was at the door again and ushered
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: into the drawing room. Missus Marden lay upon the sofa,
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: and as soon as I looked at her, I saw
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: the shadow of death in her face. But the first
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: thing she said was that she was better, ever so
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: much better. Her poor old heart had been behaving queerly again,
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: but now it was quiet. She gave me your hand,
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: and I bent over her with my eyes and hers,
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: and in this way I was able to read what
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: she didn't speak. I'm really very ill, but appeared to
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: take what I say exactly as I say it. Charlotte
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: stood there beside her, looking not frightened now, but intensely grave,
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: and not beating my eyes. She has told me, she
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: has told me her mother went on, she has told you.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: I stared from one of them the other, wondering if
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: Missus Marden meant that the girl had spoken to her
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: of the circumstances on the balcony, that you spoke to
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: her again, that you are admirably faithful. I felt a
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: thrill of joy at this. It showed me that that
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: memory had been uppermost, and also that Charlotte had wished
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: me to say the thing that would soothe her mother most,
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: not the thing that would alarm her. Yet I now
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: knew myself as well as if Missus Martin had told
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: me that she knew and had known at the moment
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: what her daughter had seen. I spoke, I spoke, but
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: she gave me no answer. I said, she will now,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: won't you, Chartie? I wanted so I wanted. The poor
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: lady murmured with ineffable wistfulness. You're very good to me,
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: Charlotte said to me, seriously and sweetly, looking fixedly on
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: the carpet. There was something different in her, different from
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: all the past. She had recognized something she felt a coercion.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: I could see that she was trembling. Ah, if you
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: would let me show you how good I can be,
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: I exclaimed, holding out my hands to her. As I
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: uttered the words, I was touched with the knowledge that
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: something had happened. A form had constituted itself on the
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: other side of the bed, and the form leaned over
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: Missus March. My whole being went forth into a mute
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: prayer that Charlotte shouldn't see it, and that I should
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: be able to betray nothing. The impulse to glance toward
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: Missus Marden was even stronger than the involuntary movement of
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: taking in Sir Edward Orme. But I could resist even that,
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: and Missus Marden was perfectly still. Charlotte got up to
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: give me her hand, and with the definite act she
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: saw she gave with a shriek, one stare of dismay,
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: and another sound like a wail of one of the
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: lost fell at the same instant on my ear. But
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: I had already sprung toward the girl to cover her,
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: to veil her face. She had already thrown herself into
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: my arms. I held her there a moment, bending over her,
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: given up to her, feeling each of her throbs with
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: my own, and not knowing which was which. Then all
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, coldly I gathered that we were alone.
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: She released herself. The fear figure beside the sofa had vanished,
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: but Missus Marden lay in her place, with closed eyes
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: and with something in her stillness that gave us both
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: another terror. Charlotte expressed it in the cry of Mother, Mother,
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: with which she flung herself down. I fell on my
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: knees beside her. Missus Marden had passed away. Was the
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: sound I heard when Charley shrieked. The other and still
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: more tragic sound, I mean, the despairing cry of the
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: poor lady's death shock or the articulate sob. It was
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: like a waft from a great tempest of the exercised
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: and pacified spirit, possibly the latter, for that was mercifully
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: the last of Sir Edmund Orme end of Section two.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: End of Sir Edmund Orme by Henry James S.