Latest / Daily Classic Sci Fi Books / 17 - The Flying Inn - GK Chesterton

Transcript

17 - The Flying Inn - GK Chesterton · Daily Classic Sci Fi Books

0:00
Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen, The poet in Parliament, during the singular entrance
0:06
Speaker 1: and exit of Dorian Wimpole M P J P et cetera,
0:11
Speaker 1: Lady Joan was looking out of the magic casements of
0:14
Speaker 1: that turret room, which was now literally, and not only poetically,
0:18
Speaker 1: the last limit of ivy wood House. The old broken
0:22
Speaker 1: hole and black staircase up which the lost dog Koodle
0:26
Speaker 1: used to come and go, had long ago been sealed
0:29
Speaker 1: up and cemented with a wall of exquisite Eastern workmanship.
0:34
Speaker 1: All through the patterns, Lord Ivywood had preserved and repeated
0:37
Speaker 1: the principle that no animal shape must appear. But like
0:41
Speaker 1: all lucid dogmatists, he perceived all the liberties his dogma
0:45
Speaker 1: allowed him, and he irradiated this remote end of Ivywood
0:49
Speaker 1: with sun and moon and solar and starry systems, with
0:53
Speaker 1: the Milky Way for a dato in a few comets
0:56
Speaker 1: for comic relief. The thing was well done of its kind,
1:00
Speaker 1: as were all the things that Philip ivy Wood got
1:02
Speaker 1: done for him. And if all the windows of the
1:04
Speaker 1: turret were closed with their peacock curtains, a poet with
1:08
Speaker 1: anything like a Hypsian appreciation of the family Champagne might
1:12
Speaker 1: almost fancy he was looking out across the sea on
1:15
Speaker 1: a night crowded with stars, and what was yet more important,
1:20
Speaker 1: even my Cisra that exact thinker could not call the
1:25
Speaker 1: moon a live animal without falling into idolatry. But Joan,
1:30
Speaker 1: looking out of real windows on a real sky and sea,
1:33
Speaker 1: thought no more about the astronomical wall paper than about
1:36
Speaker 1: any other wall paper. She was asking herself in sullen emotionalism,
1:42
Speaker 1: and for the thousandth time, a question she had never
1:45
Speaker 1: been able to decide. It was the final choice between
1:49
Speaker 1: an ambition and a memory, And there was this heavy
1:52
Speaker 1: weight in the scale that the ambition would probably materialize
1:56
Speaker 1: and the memory probably wouldn't. It has been in the
2:00
Speaker 1: same weight, in the same scale a million times since
2:04
Speaker 1: Satan became the prince of this world. But the evening
2:07
Speaker 1: stars were strengthening over the old sea shore, and they
2:11
Speaker 1: also wanted weighing like diamonds. As once before, at the
2:15
Speaker 1: same stage of brooding, she heard behind her the swish
2:18
Speaker 1: of Lady Enid's skirts that never came so fast save
2:22
Speaker 1: for a serious cause. Joone, please do come. Nobody, but
2:27
Speaker 1: you I do believe could move him Joan looked at
2:30
Speaker 1: Lady Enid and realized that the lady was close on crying.
2:34
Speaker 1: She turned a trifle pale and asked quietly for the question.
2:39
Speaker 1: Philip says he's going to London now with that leg
2:42
Speaker 1: and all cried Enid, and he won't let us say
2:45
Speaker 1: a word. But how did it all happen? Asked Joan.
2:49
Speaker 1: Lady Enid Wimple was quite incapable of explaining how it
2:53
Speaker 1: all happened, so the task must for the moment devolve
2:56
Speaker 1: on the author. The simple fact was that Ivywood, in
3:00
Speaker 1: the course of turning over magazines on his sofa, happened
3:04
Speaker 1: to look at a paper from the Midlands. The Turkish News,
3:08
Speaker 1: said mister Levison rather nervously, is on the other side
3:13
Speaker 1: of the page. But Lord Ivywood continued to look at
3:16
Speaker 1: the side of the paper that did not contain the
3:19
Speaker 1: Turkish News, with the same dignity of lowered eyelids and
3:23
Speaker 1: unconscious brow with which he had looked at the Captain's
3:26
Speaker 1: message when Joan found him by the turret. On the
3:30
Speaker 1: page covered merely with casual provincial happenings was a paragraph
3:35
Speaker 1: echo of Pebblewick Mystery reported reappearance of the vanishing inn
3:41
Speaker 1: underneath was printed in smaller letters. An almost incredible report
3:46
Speaker 1: from Whittington announces that the mysterious sign of the Old
3:50
Speaker 1: Ship has once more been seen in this country, though
3:53
Speaker 1: it has long been relegated by scientific investigators to the
3:56
Speaker 1: limbo of old rustic superstitions. According to the local version,
4:01
Speaker 1: mister Simmons, a dairy man of Whittington, was serving in
4:05
Speaker 1: his shop when two motorists entered, one of them asking
4:08
Speaker 1: for a glass of milk. They were in the most
4:10
Speaker 1: impenetrable motoring panopoly, with darkened goggles and waterproof collars, turned up,
4:16
Speaker 1: so that nothing can be recalled of them personally, except
4:19
Speaker 1: that one was a person of unusual stature. In a
4:23
Speaker 1: few moments, this latter individual went out of the shop
4:25
Speaker 1: again and returned with a miserable specimen out of the street,
4:29
Speaker 1: one of the tattered loafers that linger about our most
4:32
Speaker 1: prosperous towns, tramping the streets all night and even begging
4:36
Speaker 1: in defiance of the police. The filth and disease of
4:39
Speaker 1: the creature were so squalid that mister Simmons at first
4:42
Speaker 1: refused to serve him with the glass of milk, which
4:45
Speaker 1: the taller motorists wished to provide for him at length. However,
4:49
Speaker 1: mister Simmons consented, and was immediately astonished by an incident
4:54
Speaker 1: against which he certainly had a more assured right to protest.
4:58
Speaker 1: The taller motorists sang to the low but man, you're
5:02
Speaker 1: blue in the face, made a species of signs to
5:05
Speaker 1: the smaller motorist, who thereupon appears to have pierced a
5:09
Speaker 1: sort of cindrilical trunk or chest that seemed to be
5:13
Speaker 1: his only luggage, and drawn from it a few drops
5:16
Speaker 1: of a yellow liquid, which he deliberately dropped into the
5:19
Speaker 1: ragged creature's milk. It was afterward discovered to be rum,
5:23
Speaker 1: and the protests of mister Simmons may be imagined. The
5:27
Speaker 1: tall motorist, however, warmly defended his action, having apparently some
5:31
Speaker 1: wild idea that he was doing an act of kindness.
5:35
Speaker 1: Why I found the man nearly fainting, he said, if
5:38
Speaker 1: you'd picked him off a raft, he couldn't be more
5:41
Speaker 1: collapsed with cold and sickness. And if you'd picked him
5:44
Speaker 1: off a raft, you'd have given him rum. Yes, by
5:48
Speaker 1: Saint Patrick, if you were a bloody pirate, and made
5:51
Speaker 1: him walk the plank. Afterward, mister Simmons replied with dignity
5:55
Speaker 1: that he did not know how it was with rafts
5:58
Speaker 1: and could not permit such language in his shop. He
6:02
Speaker 1: added that he would lay himself open to a police
6:04
Speaker 1: prosecution if he permitted the consumption of alcohol in his shop,
6:08
Speaker 1: since he did not display a sign. The motorists then
6:13
Speaker 1: made the amazing reply, but you do display a sign,
6:16
Speaker 1: you jolly old man. Did you think I couldn't find
6:19
Speaker 1: my way to the sign of the old ship, you
6:22
Speaker 1: sly boots. Mister Simmons was now fully convinced of the
6:26
Speaker 1: intoxication of his visitors, and, refusing a glass of rum
6:30
Speaker 1: rather boisterously offered him, went outside his shop to look
6:34
Speaker 1: round for a policeman. To his surprise, he found the
6:37
Speaker 1: officer engaged in dispersing a considerable crowd which was staring
6:41
Speaker 1: up at some object behind him. On looking round, he
6:45
Speaker 1: states in his deposition, he saw what was undoubtedly one
6:49
Speaker 1: of the low tavern signs at one time common in England.
6:53
Speaker 1: He was wholly unable to explain its presence outside his premises,
6:58
Speaker 1: and as it undoubtedly legal, the motorist's action, the police
7:02
Speaker 1: declined to move in the matter. Later, the two motorists
7:06
Speaker 1: have apparently left the town unmolested in a small, second
7:10
Speaker 1: hand two cedar. There is no clue to their destination,
7:13
Speaker 1: except it be indicated by a single incident. It appears that,
7:18
Speaker 1: when they were waiting for the second glass of milk,
7:20
Speaker 1: one of them drew attention to a milk can of
7:22
Speaker 1: a shape seemingly unfamiliar to him, which was, of course
7:26
Speaker 1: the Mountain milk, now so much recommended by doctors. The
7:30
Speaker 1: taller motorist, who seemed in every way strangely ignorant of
7:34
Speaker 1: modern science and social life, asked his companion where it
7:38
Speaker 1: came from, receiving, of course, the reply that it is
7:41
Speaker 1: manufactured in the model village of peace Ways, under the
7:45
Speaker 1: personal superintendence of its distinguished and philanthropic inventor, doctor Meadows.
7:50
Speaker 1: Upon this, the taller person, who appeared highly irresponsible, actually
7:55
Speaker 1: bought the whole can, observing as he tucked it under
7:58
Speaker 1: his arm that it would help him to remember the address. Later,
8:03
Speaker 1: our readers will be glad to hear that the legend
8:05
Speaker 1: of the old ship sign has once more yielded to
8:08
Speaker 1: the wholesome skepticism of science. Our representative reached Whittington after
8:13
Speaker 1: the practical jokers or whatever they were, had left. But
8:17
Speaker 1: he searched the whole frontage of mister Simmons's shop, and
8:20
Speaker 1: we are in a position to assure the public that
8:23
Speaker 1: there is no trace of the alleged sign. Lord Ivywood
8:29
Speaker 1: laid down the newspaper and looked at the rich and
8:31
Speaker 1: serpentine embroideries on the wall, with the expression that a
8:35
Speaker 1: great general might have if he saw a chance of
8:37
Speaker 1: really ruining his enemy, if he would also ruin all
8:40
Speaker 1: his previous plan of campaign. His pallid and classic profile
8:45
Speaker 1: was as immovable as a cameo, but anyone who had
8:48
Speaker 1: known him at all would have known that his brain
8:51
Speaker 1: was going like a motor car that had broken the
8:53
Speaker 1: speed limit long ago. Then he turned his head and said,
8:58
Speaker 1: please tell Hicks to bring round the long blue car
9:00
Speaker 1: in half an hour. It can be fitted up for
9:02
Speaker 1: a sofa, and asked the gardener to cut a pole
9:05
Speaker 1: of about four feet nine inches and put a cross
9:08
Speaker 1: piece for a crutch. I'm going to London to night.
9:12
Speaker 1: Mister Levison's lower jaw literally fell with astonishment. The doctor
9:17
Speaker 1: said three weeks. He said, if I may ask it,
9:20
Speaker 1: where are you going Saint Stephen's Westminster, answered Ivywood. Surely,
9:26
Speaker 1: said mister Levison, I could take a message. You could
9:30
Speaker 1: take a message, assented Ivywood. I'm afraid they would not
9:33
Speaker 1: allow you to make a speech. It was a moment
9:37
Speaker 1: or two afterward that Enid Whimpole had come into the
9:39
Speaker 1: room and striven in vain to shake his decision. Then
9:43
Speaker 1: it was that Joan had been brought out of the
9:45
Speaker 1: turret and saw Philip standing sustained upon a crutch of
9:48
Speaker 1: garden timber, and admired him as she had never admired
9:52
Speaker 1: him before. While he was being helped downstairs, while he
9:56
Speaker 1: was being propped in the car with such limited comfort
9:59
Speaker 1: as possible, she did really feel in him something worthy
10:02
Speaker 1: of his ancient roots, worthy of such hills, and of
10:06
Speaker 1: such a sea. For she felt God's wind from nowhere,
10:09
Speaker 1: which is called the will, and is man's only excuse
10:13
Speaker 1: upon this earth. In the small tute of the starting motor,
10:18
Speaker 1: she could hear a hundred trumpets, such as might have
10:20
Speaker 1: called her ancestors and his to the glories of the
10:24
Speaker 1: Third Crusade. Such imaginary military honors were not, at least
10:29
Speaker 1: in the strategic sense undeserved. Lord Ivywood really had seen
10:33
Speaker 1: the whole map of the situation in front of him,
10:36
Speaker 1: and swiftly formed a plan to meet it in a
10:39
Speaker 1: manner not unworthy of Napoleon. The realities of the situation
10:43
Speaker 1: unrolled themselves before him, and his mind was marking them
10:46
Speaker 1: one by one as with a pencil. First, he knew
10:49
Speaker 1: that Dolroy would probably go to the model village. It
10:53
Speaker 1: was just the sort of place he would go to.
10:55
Speaker 1: He knew Dolroy was almost constitutionally incapable of not kicking
10:59
Speaker 1: up some kind of row in a place of that kind. Second,
11:05
Speaker 1: he knew that if he missed Dalroy at this address,
11:08
Speaker 1: it was very likely to be his last address. He
11:11
Speaker 1: and mister Pump were quite clever enough to leave no
11:14
Speaker 1: more hints behind. Third, he guessed, by careful consideration of
11:19
Speaker 1: map and clock, that they could not get so remoted
11:22
Speaker 1: region in so cheap a car under something like two days,
11:27
Speaker 1: nor do anything very conclusive in less than three. Thus
11:31
Speaker 1: he had just time to turn round him. Fourth, he
11:35
Speaker 1: realized that ever since that day when Dalroy swung round
11:38
Speaker 1: the signboard and smote the policeman into the ditch, Dalroy
11:41
Speaker 1: had swung round the Ivywood Act on Lord Ivywood. He
11:46
Speaker 1: Lord Ivywood had thought, and might well have thought rightly,
11:50
Speaker 1: that by restricting the old signposts to a few places
11:54
Speaker 1: so select that they can afford to be eccentric, and
11:57
Speaker 1: forbidding such artistic symbols to all other places, he could
12:02
Speaker 1: sweep fermented liquor for all practical purposes out of the land.
12:07
Speaker 1: The arrangement was exactly that at which all such legislation
12:11
Speaker 1: is consciously or unconsciously aiming. A sign board could be
12:15
Speaker 1: a favor granted by the governing class to itself. If
12:20
Speaker 1: a gentleman wished to claim the liberties of a bohemian,
12:23
Speaker 1: the path would be open. If a bohemian wished to
12:26
Speaker 1: claim the liberties of a gentleman, the path would be shut.
12:30
Speaker 1: So gradually, Lord Ivywood had thought, the old signs, which
12:34
Speaker 1: can alone sell alcohol, will dwindle down to mere curiosities
12:39
Speaker 1: like audit ale or the mead that may still be
12:41
Speaker 1: found in the new forest. The calculation was by no
12:45
Speaker 1: means unstatesmanlike, but like many other statesmanlike calculations, it did
12:51
Speaker 1: not take into account the idea of deadwood walking about
12:55
Speaker 1: so long as his flying foes might set up their
12:57
Speaker 1: sign anywhere. It mattered whether the result was enjoyment or
13:02
Speaker 1: disappointment for the populace. In either case it must mean
13:06
Speaker 1: constant scandal or riot. If there was one thing worse
13:10
Speaker 1: than the appearance of the old ship, it was its disappearance.
13:16
Speaker 1: He realized that his own law was letting them loose
13:18
Speaker 1: every time, for the local authorities hesitated to act on
13:22
Speaker 1: the spot in defiance of a symbol now so exclusive
13:26
Speaker 1: and therefore impressive. He realized that the law must be altered,
13:31
Speaker 1: must be altered at once, must be altered if possible,
13:35
Speaker 1: before the fugitives broke away from the model village of
13:38
Speaker 1: peace Ways. He realized that it was Thursday. This was
13:43
Speaker 1: the day on which any private member of Parliament could
13:45
Speaker 1: introduce any private bill of the kind called non contentious
13:50
Speaker 1: and pass it without a division, so long as no
13:52
Speaker 1: particular member made any particular fuss. He realized that it
13:57
Speaker 1: was improbable that any particular member would make any particular
14:00
Speaker 1: fuss about Lord Ivywood's own improvement on Lord Ivywood's own act. Finally,
14:07
Speaker 1: he realized that the whole case could be met by
14:09
Speaker 1: so slight an improvement as this change the words of
14:13
Speaker 1: the Act, which he knew by heart, as happier man
14:16
Speaker 1: might know a song. If such a sign be present,
14:19
Speaker 1: liquids containing alcohol can be sold on the premises. To
14:24
Speaker 1: these other words, liquids containing alcohol can be sold, if
14:29
Speaker 1: previously preserved for three days on the premises it was
14:34
Speaker 1: mate in a few moves. Parliament could never reject or
14:37
Speaker 1: even examine so slight an emendation, and the revolution of
14:41
Speaker 1: the old Ship and the late King of Ithaca would
14:44
Speaker 1: be crushed forever. It does undoubtedly show, as we have said,
14:49
Speaker 1: something napoleonic in the man's mind, that the whole of
14:53
Speaker 1: this excellent and even successful plan was complete long before
14:57
Speaker 1: he saw the great glowing clock on the towers of
14:59
Speaker 1: Westmins and knew he was in time. It was unfortunate,
15:04
Speaker 1: perhaps that about the same time, or not long after,
15:08
Speaker 1: another gentleman of the same rank, and indirectly of the
15:11
Speaker 1: same family, having left the restaurant in Regent Street and
15:15
Speaker 1: the tangle of Piccadilly, had drifted serenely down Whitehall, and
15:19
Speaker 1: had seen the same great golden goblin's eye on the
15:22
Speaker 1: tall tower of Saint Stephen, the Poet of the Birds.
15:26
Speaker 1: Like most Esthetes had known as little of the real
15:29
Speaker 1: town as he had of the real country, but he
15:32
Speaker 1: had remembered a good place for supper, and as he
15:36
Speaker 1: passed certain great cold clubs, built of stone and looking
15:40
Speaker 1: like a Syrian sarcophagi, he remembered that he belonged to
15:44
Speaker 1: many of them. And so when he saw afar Off
15:47
Speaker 1: sitting above the river what had been very erroneously described
15:51
Speaker 1: as the best club in London, he suddenly remembered that
15:54
Speaker 1: he belonged to that too. He could not at the
15:57
Speaker 1: moment recall what constituency in South England it was that
16:01
Speaker 1: he sat for, but he knew he could walk into
16:04
Speaker 1: the place if he wanted to. He might not have
16:07
Speaker 1: so expressed the matter, but he knew that in an
16:10
Speaker 1: oligarchy things go by respect for persons and not for
16:13
Speaker 1: claims by visiting cards and not by voting cards. He
16:18
Speaker 1: had not been near the place for years, being permanently
16:21
Speaker 1: paired against the famous patriot who had accepted an important
16:25
Speaker 1: government appointment in a private mad house. Even in his
16:29
Speaker 1: silliest days, he had never pretended to feel any respect
16:32
Speaker 1: for modern politics, and made all haste to put his
16:35
Speaker 1: leaders and the mad Patriots leaders on the well selected
16:39
Speaker 1: list of the creatures whom Man forgets he had made
16:43
Speaker 1: one really eloquent speech in the House on the subject
16:46
Speaker 1: of guerrillas, and then found he was speaking against his party.
16:50
Speaker 1: It was an indescribable sort of place, anyhow, Even Lord
16:54
Speaker 1: Ivywood did not go to it except to do some
16:57
Speaker 1: business that could be done nowhere else. As was the
17:00
Speaker 1: case that night. Ivywood was what is called a peer
17:04
Speaker 1: by courtesy. His place was in the Commons, and for
17:08
Speaker 1: the time being on the opposition side. But though he
17:11
Speaker 1: visited the House but seldom, he knew far too much
17:14
Speaker 1: about it to go into the chamber itself. He limped
17:18
Speaker 1: into the smoking room, though he did not smoke, procured
17:21
Speaker 1: a needless cigarette in a much needed sheet of note paper,
17:25
Speaker 1: and composed a curt but careful note to the one
17:27
Speaker 1: member of the Government whom he knew must be in
17:30
Speaker 1: the House, having sent it up to him. He waited outside.
17:35
Speaker 1: Mister Dorrian Wimpole also waited, leaning on the parapet of
17:40
Speaker 1: Westminster Bridge and looking down the river. He was becoming
17:44
Speaker 1: one of the Oysters in a more solemn and solid
17:47
Speaker 1: sense than he had hitherto conceived possible. And also with
17:51
Speaker 1: a strictly vegetarian beverage which bears the noble and starry
17:55
Speaker 1: name of Nuits. He felt that piece with all things,
17:59
Speaker 1: even in a manner with politics. It was one of
18:03
Speaker 1: those magic hours of evening when the red and golden
18:06
Speaker 1: lights of men are already lit along the river and
18:09
Speaker 1: look like the lights of goblins, but daylight still lingers
18:13
Speaker 1: in a cold and delicate green. He felt about the
18:17
Speaker 1: river something of that smiling and glorious sadness which two
18:21
Speaker 1: Englishmen have expressed under the figure of the white wood
18:24
Speaker 1: of an old ship fading like a fantom Turner in
18:27
Speaker 1: painting and Henry Newbolt in poetry. He had come back
18:32
Speaker 1: to earth like a man fallen from the moon. He was,
18:35
Speaker 1: at bottom, not only a poet, but a patriot, and
18:38
Speaker 1: a patriot is always a little sad. Yet his melancholy
18:43
Speaker 1: was mixed up with that immutable yet meaningless faith which
18:46
Speaker 1: few Englishmen, even in modern times, fail to feel. At
18:50
Speaker 1: the unexpected sight either of Westminster or of that height
18:54
Speaker 1: on which stands the Temple of Saint Paul, while flows
18:58
Speaker 1: the Sacred River, while stands the Sacred Hill, he murmured
19:03
Speaker 1: in some schoolboy echo of the ballad of Lake Regulus,
19:08
Speaker 1: while flows the sacred River, while stands the sacred Hill.
19:13
Speaker 1: The proud old pantaloons and nincompoops, who yawn at the
19:17
Speaker 1: very length of their own lives in that accursed sanhedrum
19:20
Speaker 1: where people put each other's hats on in a poisonous
19:24
Speaker 1: room with no more windows than hell, shall have such
19:28
Speaker 1: honor still relieved by this rendering a Macaulay in the
19:33
Speaker 1: style known among his cultured friends as ver libre or poesy.
19:38
Speaker 1: Set free from the shackles of formal meter, he strolled
19:42
Speaker 1: toward the member's entrance and went in. Lacking Lord Ivywood's experience,
19:48
Speaker 1: he strolled into the commons chamber itself and sat down
19:52
Speaker 1: on a green bench, under the impression that the house
19:55
Speaker 1: was not sitting. He was, however, gradually able to distinguish
19:59
Speaker 1: some six or eight drowsy human forms from the seats
20:02
Speaker 1: on which they sat, and to hear a senile voice
20:06
Speaker 1: with an Essex accent, saying all on one note and
20:10
Speaker 1: without beginning or end, in a manner which is quite
20:13
Speaker 1: impossible to punctuate. No wish at all that this proposal
20:18
Speaker 1: should be regarded except in the right way, and have
20:20
Speaker 1: tried to put it in the right way, and cannot
20:22
Speaker 1: think the Honorable Member was altogether adding to his reputation
20:26
Speaker 1: in putting it in what those who think we must
20:29
Speaker 1: of course consider the wrong way. And I, for one,
20:32
Speaker 1: am free to say that.
20:33
Speaker 2: If in his desire to settle this great question he
20:36
Speaker 2: takes this hasty course, and this revolutionary course about slate pencils,
20:41
Speaker 2: he may not be able to prevent the extremists behind him.
20:44
Speaker 1: From applying it to lead pencils.
20:46
Speaker 2: And while I should be the last to increase the
20:49
Speaker 2: heat and the excitement and the personalities of this debate,
20:52
Speaker 2: if I could possibly help it, I must confess that,
20:55
Speaker 2: in my opinion, the Honorable Gentleman has himself encouraged that
20:59
Speaker 2: heat and personality in a manner that he now doubtless regrets.
21:03
Speaker 2: I have no desire to use abusive terms. Indeed, you,
21:06
Speaker 2: mister Speaker, would not allow me, of course to use
21:09
Speaker 2: abusive terms. But I must tell the Honorable Member face
21:12
Speaker 2: to face that the perambulators with which he has twitted
21:15
Speaker 2: me cannot be germane to this discussion. I should be
21:18
Speaker 2: the last person Dorian Wimpole had softly risen to go
21:23
Speaker 2: when he was arrested by the sight of someone sliding
21:26
Speaker 2: into the house and handing a note to the solitary
21:29
Speaker 2: young man with heavy eyelids, who was at that moment
21:33
Speaker 2: governing all England from the treasury bench. Seeing him go out,
21:38
Speaker 2: Dorian had a sickening sweetness of hope, as he might
21:41
Speaker 2: have said in his earlier poems, that something intelligible might
21:45
Speaker 2: happen after all, and followed him out almost with alacrity.
21:51
Speaker 2: The solitary and sleepy Governor of Great Britain went down
21:54
Speaker 2: into the lower crypts of its Temple of Freedom and
21:57
Speaker 2: turned into an apartment, where Wimpole was astonished to see
22:00
Speaker 2: his cousin Ivywood sitting at a little table with a
22:03
Speaker 2: large crutch, leaning beside him, as serene as long. John Silver,
22:08
Speaker 2: the young man with the heavy eyelids, sat down opposite him,
22:12
Speaker 2: and they had a conversation, which Wimpole of course did
22:15
Speaker 2: not hear. He withdrew into an adjoining room, where he
22:19
Speaker 2: managed to procure coffee and a liqueur, an excellent liqueur
22:23
Speaker 2: which he had forgotten, and of which he had more
22:26
Speaker 2: than one glass. But he had so posted himself that
22:30
Speaker 2: ivy Wood could not come out without passing him, and
22:33
Speaker 2: he waited for what might happen with exquisite patience. The
22:38
Speaker 2: only thing that seemed to him queer was that every
22:41
Speaker 2: now and then a bell rang in several rooms at once.
22:44
Speaker 2: And whenever the bell rang, Lord ivy Wood nodded as
22:48
Speaker 2: if he were part of the electrical machinery. And whenever
22:52
Speaker 2: Lord ivy Wood nodded, the young man turned and sped
22:55
Speaker 2: upstairs like a mountaineer, returning in a short time to
22:58
Speaker 2: resume the conversation. On the third occasion, the poet began
23:03
Speaker 2: to observe that many others from the other rooms could
23:05
Speaker 2: be heard running upstairs at the sound of this bell,
23:09
Speaker 2: and returning with the slightly less rapid step which expresses
23:12
Speaker 2: relief after.
23:13
Speaker 1: A duty done. Yet did he not know that this
23:16
Speaker 1: duty was representative government, and that it is thus that
23:20
Speaker 1: the cry of Cumberland or Cornwall can come to the
23:23
Speaker 1: ears of an English king. Suddenly the sleepy young man
23:27
Speaker 1: sprang erect, uninspired by any bell, and strode out once more.
23:33
Speaker 1: The poet could not help hearing him say as he
23:35
Speaker 1: left the table, jotting down something with a pencil. Alcohol
23:40
Speaker 1: can be sold if previously preserved for three days on
23:43
Speaker 1: the premises. I think we can do it, but you
23:46
Speaker 1: can't come on for half an hour. Saying this, he
23:50
Speaker 1: darted upstairs again, And when Dorian saw Ivywood come out
23:53
Speaker 1: laboriously afterward on his large country crutch, he had exactly
23:58
Speaker 1: the same revulsion in his favor that Joan had had.
24:02
Speaker 1: Jumping up from his table, which was in one of
24:05
Speaker 1: the private dining rooms, he touched the other on the
24:07
Speaker 1: elbow and said, I want to apologize to you, Philip,
24:11
Speaker 1: for my rudeness this afternoon. Honestly, I am sorry. Pine
24:16
Speaker 1: woods and prison cells try a man's temper, but I
24:19
Speaker 1: had no rag of excuse for not saying that. For
24:22
Speaker 1: neither of them were you to blame. I'd no notion
24:26
Speaker 1: you were coming up to town to night with your
24:28
Speaker 1: leg in all, you mustn't knock yourself up like this.
24:32
Speaker 1: Do sit down a minute. It seemed to him that
24:35
Speaker 1: the bleak face of Philip softened a little. How far
24:38
Speaker 1: he really softened will never be known until such men
24:41
Speaker 1: as he are understood by their fellows. It is certain
24:45
Speaker 1: that he carefully unhooked himself from his crutch and sat
24:48
Speaker 1: down opposite his cousin, whereupon his cousin struck the table
24:52
Speaker 1: so that it rang like a dinner bell, and called
24:55
Speaker 1: out waiter as if he were in a crowded restaurant.
25:00
Speaker 1: Before Lord Ivywood could protest, he said, it's awfully jolly
25:04
Speaker 1: that we've met. I suppose you've come up to make
25:07
Speaker 1: a speech. I should like to hear it. We haven't
25:11
Speaker 1: always agreed, but by God, if there's anything good left
25:14
Speaker 1: in literature, it's your speeches reported in a newspaper, that
25:19
Speaker 1: thing of yours that ended death and the last shutting
25:22
Speaker 1: of the iron doors of defeat. Why you must go
25:25
Speaker 1: back to Strafford's last speech for such English. Do let
25:29
Speaker 1: me hear your speech. I've got a seat upstairs, you know,
25:33
Speaker 1: if you wish it, said ivy Wood hurriedly. But I
25:36
Speaker 1: shan't make much of a speech tonight, and he looked
25:39
Speaker 1: at the wall behind Wimpole's head with thunderous wrinkles thickening
25:43
Speaker 1: on his brow. It was essential to his brilliant and
25:46
Speaker 1: rapid scheme, of course, that the Commons should make no
25:49
Speaker 1: comment at all on his little alteration in the law.
25:53
Speaker 1: An intendant hovered near in response to the demand for
25:56
Speaker 1: a waiter, and was much impressed by the presence and
25:59
Speaker 1: condition of Ivywood. But as that exalted cripple resolutely refused
26:04
Speaker 1: anything in the way of liquor, his cousin was so
26:07
Speaker 1: kind as to have a little more himself, and resumed
26:10
Speaker 1: his remarks. It's about this public house affair of yours.
26:14
Speaker 1: I suppose i'd like to hear you speak on that.
26:18
Speaker 1: Perhaps i'll speak myself. I've been thinking about it a
26:21
Speaker 1: good deal all day, and a good deal of last
26:24
Speaker 1: night too. Now here's what I should say to the house,
26:27
Speaker 1: if I were you to begin with? Can you abolish
26:30
Speaker 1: the public house? Are you important enough now to abolish
26:33
Speaker 1: the public house? Whether it's right or wrong? Can you,
26:37
Speaker 1: in the long run prevent haymakers having ale any more
26:41
Speaker 1: than you can prevent me having this glass of chartreuse?
26:45
Speaker 1: The attendant, hearing the word once more, drew near, but
26:48
Speaker 1: heard no further order. Or rather, the orders he heard
26:51
Speaker 1: were such as he was less able to cope with.
26:55
Speaker 1: Remember the curate, said Dorian, abstractedly, shaking his head at
26:59
Speaker 1: the functionary. Remember the sensible little high church curate, who,
27:04
Speaker 1: when asked for a temperance sermon, preached on the text.
27:07
Speaker 1: Suffer us not to be overwhelmed in the water floods. Indeed, indeed, Philip,
27:12
Speaker 1: you are in deeper waters than you know. You will
27:15
Speaker 1: abolish ale, you will make. Can't forget hop poles and Devonshire,
27:19
Speaker 1: forget cider. The fate of the inn is to be
27:22
Speaker 1: settled in that hot little room upstairs. Take care its
27:26
Speaker 1: fate and yours are not settled in the inn. Take
27:30
Speaker 1: care Englishmen don't sit in judgment on you, as they
27:33
Speaker 1: do on many another corpse at an inquest at a
27:36
Speaker 1: common public house. Take care that the one tavern that
27:40
Speaker 1: is really neglected and shut up and passed like a
27:43
Speaker 1: house of pestilence is not the tavern in which I
27:47
Speaker 1: drink to night, and that merely because it is the
27:49
Speaker 1: worst tavern on the King's Highway. Take care this place
27:53
Speaker 1: where we sit does not get a name like any
27:55
Speaker 1: pub where sailors are hocused or girls debauched. That is
28:00
Speaker 1: what I shall say to them, said he, rising cheerfully.
28:04
Speaker 1: That's what I shall say. See you to it, he cried,
28:07
Speaker 1: with a sudden passion, and apparently to the waiter, see
28:10
Speaker 1: you to it. If the sign that is destroyed is
28:12
Speaker 1: not the sign of the old ship, but the sign
28:16
Speaker 1: of the mace, and bauble, and in the words of
28:19
Speaker 1: a highly historical brewer, if we see a dog bark
28:22
Speaker 1: at your going, Lord Ivywood was observing him with a
28:26
Speaker 1: deathly quietude. Another idea had come into his fertile mind.
28:31
Speaker 1: He knew his cousin, though excited, was not in the
28:34
Speaker 1: least intoxicated. He knew that he was quite capable of
28:38
Speaker 1: making a speech, and even a good one. He knew
28:41
Speaker 1: that any speech, good or bad, would wreck his whole
28:43
Speaker 1: plan and send the wild Inn flying again. But the
28:47
Speaker 1: orator had resumed his seat and drained his glass, passing
28:50
Speaker 1: a hand across his brow, and he remembered that a
28:53
Speaker 1: man who keeps a vigil in the wood all night
28:56
Speaker 1: and drinks wine on the following evening is liable to
28:59
Speaker 1: an accident that is not drunkenness, but something much healthier.
29:04
Speaker 1: I suppose your speech will come on pretty soon, said Dorian,
29:07
Speaker 1: looking at the table. You'll let me know when it does,
29:10
Speaker 1: of course, really and truly I don't want to miss it,
29:14
Speaker 1: and I've forgotten all the ways here and feel pretty tired.
29:18
Speaker 1: You will let me know, yes, said Lord Ivywood. Stillness
29:23
Speaker 1: fell along all the rooms until Lord Ivywood broke it
29:27
Speaker 1: by saying debate is a most necessary thing, but there
29:32
Speaker 1: are times when it rather impedes than assists parliamentary government.
29:38
Speaker 1: He received no reply. Dorian still sat as if looking
29:41
Speaker 1: at the table, but his eyelids had lightly fallen. He
29:44
Speaker 1: was asleep. Almost at the same moment, the member of Government,
29:49
Speaker 1: who was nearly asleep, appeared at the entrance of the
29:53
Speaker 1: long room and made some sort of weary signal. Philip
29:56
Speaker 1: Ivywood raised himself on his crutch and stood for a
30:00
Speaker 1: moment looking at the sleeping man. Then he and his
30:03
Speaker 1: crutch trailed out of the long room, leaving the sleeping
30:06
Speaker 1: man behind. Nor was that the only thing that he
30:09
Speaker 1: left behind. He also left behind an unlighted cigarette, and
30:13
Speaker 1: his honor, and all the England of his fathers, everything
30:17
Speaker 1: that could really distinguish that high house beside the river
30:21
Speaker 1: from any tavern for the hocussing of sailors. He went
30:26
Speaker 1: upstairs and did his business in twenty minutes, and the
30:29
Speaker 1: only speech he had ever delivered without any trace of eloquence.
30:34
Speaker 1: And from that hour forth he was the naked fanatic,
30:38
Speaker 1: and could feed on nothing but the future. End of
30:43
Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen