Latest / Wives and Daughters / 052 - Troubles Never Come Alone
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Chapter fifty one of Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell.
- 0:06Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter fifty one,
- 0:11Speaker 1: Troubles Never Come Alone. Mollie had her out of door
- 0:16Speaker 1: things on, and she crept away as she was bidden.
- 0:20Speaker 1: She lifted her heavy weight of heart and body along
- 0:23Speaker 1: till she came to a field not so very far off,
- 0:27Speaker 1: where she had sought the comfort of loneliness ever since
- 0:30Speaker 1: she was a child. And there under the hedge bank,
- 0:34Speaker 1: she sat down, burying her face in her hands and
- 0:37Speaker 1: quivering all over as she thought of Cynthia's misery, which
- 0:41Speaker 1: she might not try to touch or assuage. She never
- 0:45Speaker 1: knew how long she sat there, but it was long
- 0:48Speaker 1: past lunch time when once again she stole up to
- 0:51Speaker 1: her room. The door opposite was wide open. Cynthia had
- 0:56Speaker 1: quitted the chamber. Molly arranged her dress and went down
- 1:01Speaker 1: into the drawing room. Cynthia and her mother sat in
- 1:05Speaker 1: the stern repose of an armed neutrality. Cynthia's face looked
- 1:10Speaker 1: made of stone for color and rigidity, but she was
- 1:14Speaker 1: netting away as if nothing unusual had occurred. Not so,
- 1:18Speaker 1: missus Gibson. Her face bore evident marks of tears, and
- 1:22Speaker 1: she looked up and greeted Molly's entrance with a faint,
- 1:25Speaker 1: smiling notice. Cynthia went on as though she had never
- 1:29Speaker 1: heard the opening of the door or felt the approaching
- 1:32Speaker 1: sweep of Molly's dress. Molly took up a book, not
- 1:36Speaker 1: to read, but to have the semblance of some employment
- 1:39Speaker 1: which should not necessitate conversation. There was no measuring the
- 1:44Speaker 1: duration of the silence that ensued. Molly grew to fancy
- 1:48Speaker 1: it was some old enchantment that weighed upon their tongues
- 1:52Speaker 1: and kept them still at length. Cynthia spoke, but she
- 1:56Speaker 1: had to begin again before her words came clear.
- 1:59Speaker 2: I was both to know that, henceforward, all is at
- 2:02Speaker 2: an end between me and Roger Hamley.
- 2:05Speaker 1: Molly's book went down upon her knees. With open eyes
- 2:09Speaker 1: and lips, she strove to draw in Cynthia's meaning. Missus
- 2:13Speaker 1: Gibson spoke querulously, as if injured.
- 2:17Speaker 3: I could have understood this if it had happened three
- 2:19Speaker 3: months ago when you were in London. But now it's
- 2:21Speaker 3: just nonsense, Cynthia, and you know you don't mean it.
- 2:25Speaker 1: Cynthia did not reply, nor did the resolute look on
- 2:29Speaker 1: her face change. When Molly spoke at last.
- 2:33Speaker 4: Cynthia think of him it will break his heart.
- 2:38Speaker 1: No, said Cynthia.
- 2:40Speaker 2: It will not. But even if it did, I cannot
- 2:43Speaker 2: help it.
- 2:44Speaker 4: All this talk will soon pass away, said Molly. And
- 2:48Speaker 4: when he knows the truth from your own self, from.
- 2:51Speaker 2: My own self, he shall never hear it. I do
- 2:53Speaker 2: not love him well enough to go through the shame
- 2:55Speaker 2: of having to excuse myself to plead that he will
- 2:58Speaker 2: reinstate me in his good opinion. Confession may be well,
- 3:02Speaker 2: I can never believe it pleasant, but it may be
- 3:04Speaker 2: in ease of mind if one makes it to some people,
- 3:07Speaker 2: to some person, and it may not be a mortification
- 3:10Speaker 2: to sue for forgiveness. I cannot tell. All I know is,
- 3:14Speaker 2: and I know it clearly, and will act upon it inflexibly.
- 3:17Speaker 1: That and here she stopped short.
- 3:22Speaker 3: I think you might finish your sentence.
- 3:24Speaker 1: Said her mother, after a silence of five seconds.
- 3:29Speaker 2: I cannot bear to exculpate myself to Roger Hamley. I
- 3:32Speaker 2: will not submit to his thinking less well of me
- 3:34Speaker 2: than he has done, however foolish his judgment may have been.
- 3:38Speaker 2: I would rather never see him again for those two reasons.
- 3:41Speaker 2: And the truth is I do not love him. I
- 3:43Speaker 2: like him, I respect him, but I will not marry him.
- 3:47Speaker 2: I have written to tell him so. That was merely
- 3:49Speaker 2: as a relief to myself, for when or where the
- 3:52Speaker 2: latter will reach him, and I have written to old
- 3:54Speaker 2: mister Hamley. The relief is the one good thing come
- 3:56Speaker 2: out of it all. It is such a comfort to
- 3:59Speaker 2: feel free again. It wearied me so to think of
- 4:01Speaker 2: straining up to his goodness extenuate my conduct.
- 4:05Speaker 1: She concluded, quoting mister Gibson's words. Yet, when mister Gibson
- 4:10Speaker 1: came home after a silent dinner, she asked to speak
- 4:13Speaker 1: with him alone in his consulting room, and there laid
- 4:17Speaker 1: bare the exculpation of herself which she had given to
- 4:20Speaker 1: Molly many weeks before. When she had ended, she said.
- 4:25Speaker 2: And now, mister Gibson, I shall treat you like a friend.
- 4:28Speaker 2: Help me to find some home far away where all
- 4:31Speaker 2: the evil talking and gossip Mamma tells me of cannot
- 4:34Speaker 2: find me and follow me. It may be wrong to
- 4:36Speaker 2: care for people's good opinion, but it is me and
- 4:39Speaker 2: I cannot alter myself. You, Molly, all the people in
- 4:43Speaker 2: the town. I haven't the patience to live through the
- 4:46Speaker 2: nine days. Wonder I want to go away and be
- 4:48Speaker 2: a governess.
- 4:49Speaker 5: But my dear Cynthia, how soon Roger will be back
- 4:53Speaker 5: a tower of strength?
- 4:55Speaker 2: Has not Mamma told you? I have broken it all
- 4:57Speaker 2: off with Roger, I wrote this morning. I wrote to
- 5:00Speaker 2: his father. That letter will reach tomorrow. I wrote to Roger.
- 5:04Speaker 2: If he ever receives that letter, I hope to be
- 5:07Speaker 2: far away by that time in Russia. Maybe nonsense.
- 5:11Speaker 5: An engagement like yours cannot be broken off except by
- 5:14Speaker 5: mutual consent. You've only given others a great deal of
- 5:17Speaker 5: pain without freeing yourself, Nor will you wish it. In
- 5:21Speaker 5: a month's time, when you come to think calmly, you'll
- 5:24Speaker 5: be glad to think of the stay and support of
- 5:26Speaker 5: such a husband as Roger. You have been in fault
- 5:29Speaker 5: and have acted foolishly at first, perhaps wrongly afterwards. But
- 5:34Speaker 5: you don't want your husband to think you faultless.
- 5:37Speaker 1: Yes, I do, said Cynthia.
- 5:39Speaker 2: At any rate, my lover must think me so. And
- 5:42Speaker 2: it is just because I do not love him, even
- 5:44Speaker 2: as so light a thing as I could love, that
- 5:46Speaker 2: I feel that I couldn't bear to have to tell
- 5:48Speaker 2: him I'm sorry, and stand before him like a chid
- 5:51Speaker 2: and child to be admonished and forgiven.
- 5:54Speaker 5: But here you are just in such a position before me, Cynthia.
- 5:58Speaker 2: Yes, but I love you better than Roger. I've often
- 6:01Speaker 2: told Molly so, and I would have told you if
- 6:03Speaker 2: I hadn't expected in a hope to leave you all
- 6:06Speaker 2: before long. I could see if the recollection of it
- 6:09Speaker 2: all came up before your mind. I could see it
- 6:11Speaker 2: in your eyes. I shouldn't know it by instinct. I
- 6:14Speaker 2: have a fine instinct for reading the thoughts of others
- 6:16Speaker 2: when they refer to me. They almost hate the idea
- 6:18Speaker 2: of Roger judging me by his own standard, which wasn't
- 6:21Speaker 2: made for me, and graciously forgiving me at last.
- 6:25Speaker 5: Then I do believe it's right for you to break it.
- 6:27Speaker 1: Off, said mister Gibson, almost as if he were thinking
- 6:31Speaker 1: to himself.
- 6:32Speaker 5: That poor lad. But it will be best for him too,
- 6:35Speaker 5: and he'll get over it. He has a good, strong heart,
- 6:38Speaker 5: poor old Roger.
- 6:40Speaker 1: For a moment, Cynthia's wilful fancy stretched after the object
- 6:45Speaker 1: passing out of her grasp, Roger's love became for the
- 6:48Speaker 1: instant a treasure. But again she knew that in its
- 6:52Speaker 1: entirety of high, undoubting esteem, as well as of passionate regard,
- 6:56Speaker 1: it would no longer be hers. And for the flaw
- 7:00Speaker 1: which she herself had made, she cast it away and
- 7:03Speaker 1: would none of it. Yet, often in after years, when
- 7:08Speaker 1: it was too late, she wondered and strove to penetrate
- 7:12Speaker 1: the inscrutable mystery of what.
- 7:14Speaker 2: Would have been.
- 7:16Speaker 5: Still, take till tomorrow before you act upon your.
- 7:19Speaker 1: Decision, said mister Gibson, slowly.
- 7:22Speaker 5: What faults you have fallen into have been mere girlish
- 7:25Speaker 5: faults at first, leading you into much deceit, I.
- 7:28Speaker 2: Grant, don't give yourself the trouble to define the shades
- 7:32Speaker 2: of blackness.
- 7:33Speaker 1: Said Cynthia bitterly.
- 7:35Speaker 2: I'm not so obtuse, but what I know them all
- 7:37Speaker 2: better than any one can tell me. And as for
- 7:40Speaker 2: my decision, I acted upon it at once. It may
- 7:43Speaker 2: be long before Roger gets my letter, but I hope
- 7:45Speaker 2: he is sure to get it at last, And as
- 7:47Speaker 2: I said, I have let his father know it won't
- 7:49Speaker 2: hurt him. Oh, sir, I think if I had been
- 7:52Speaker 2: differently brought up, I shouldn't have had the sore, angry
- 7:54Speaker 2: heart I have now. No, don't I don't want reason
- 7:58Speaker 2: in comfort. I can't stand it. I should always have
- 8:01Speaker 2: wanted admiration and worship and men's good opinion. Those unkind
- 8:06Speaker 2: gossips to visit Molly with their hard words. Oh dear,
- 8:09Speaker 2: I think life is very dreary.
- 8:12Speaker 1: She put her head down on her hands, tired out
- 8:15Speaker 1: mentally as well as bodily. So mister Gibson thought he
- 8:20Speaker 1: felt as if much speech from him would only add
- 8:23Speaker 1: to her excitement and make her worse. He left the
- 8:26Speaker 1: room and called Molly, from where she was sitting dolefully,
- 8:31Speaker 1: go to Cynthia, he whispered, and Molly went. She took
- 8:35Speaker 1: Cynthia into her arms with gentle power, and laid her
- 8:39Speaker 1: head against her own breast, as if the one had
- 8:41Speaker 1: been a mother and the other a child.
- 8:44Speaker 4: Oh, my darling, she murmured, I do so love you,
- 8:49Speaker 4: dear dear Cynthia.
- 8:51Speaker 1: And she stroked her hair and kissed her eyelids. Cynthia
- 8:54Speaker 1: passive all the while till suddenly she started up, stung
- 8:58Speaker 1: with a new idea, and looking Molly straight in the face,
- 9:01Speaker 1: she said.
- 9:03Speaker 2: Molly Roger will marry you. See if it isn't so,
- 9:06Speaker 2: you too good.
- 9:08Speaker 1: But Molly pushed her away with a sudden violence of repulsion.
- 9:12Speaker 1: Don't she said, she was crimson with shame and indignation.
- 9:18Speaker 4: Your husband this morning, mine tonight? What do you take
- 9:21Speaker 4: him for a man?
- 9:24Speaker 1: Smiled Cynthia.
- 9:25Speaker 2: And therefore, if you won't let me call him changeable,
- 9:28Speaker 2: I'll coin a word and call him consolable.
- 9:31Speaker 1: But Molly gave her back no answering smile. At this moment,
- 9:35Speaker 1: the servant Maria entered the consulting room where the two
- 9:38Speaker 1: girls were. She had a scared look. Isn't naster here,
- 9:43Speaker 1: asked she, as if she distrusted her eyes. No, said Cynthia.
- 9:49Speaker 2: I heard him go out. I had him shut the
- 9:51Speaker 2: front door, not five minutes.
- 9:52Speaker 1: Ago, Oh dear, said Maria.
- 9:56Speaker 2: And there's a man come on horseback from Hanley Hall,
- 9:59Speaker 2: and he says mister Osborne is dead, and that master
- 10:02Speaker 2: must go off to the squire straight away. Osbend Hamley dead.
- 10:07Speaker 1: Said Cynthia. In awed surprise. Molly was out at the
- 10:11Speaker 1: front door, seeking the messenger through the dusk round into
- 10:15Speaker 1: the stable yard, where the groom sat motionless on his
- 10:18Speaker 1: dark horse flecked with foam, made visible by the lantern
- 10:22Speaker 1: placed on the steps near where it had been left
- 10:24Speaker 1: by the servants, who were dismayed at this news of
- 10:27Speaker 1: the handsome young man who had frequented their master's house
- 10:31Speaker 1: so full of sportive elegance and winsomeness. Mollie went up
- 10:35Speaker 1: to the man, whose thoughts were lost in recollection of
- 10:39Speaker 1: the scene he had left at the place he had
- 10:41Speaker 1: come from. She laid her hand on the hot, damp
- 10:44Speaker 1: skin of the horse's shoulder.
- 10:46Speaker 6: The man started, is the doctor coming, miss, for.
- 10:50Speaker 1: He saw who it was by the dim light. He
- 10:53Speaker 1: is dead, is he not, asked Molly in a low voice.
- 10:58Speaker 6: I'm a feared he is. Leastways, there's no doubt according
- 11:02Speaker 6: to what they say. But I've written hard. There may
- 11:06Speaker 6: be a chance. Is the doctor coming, miss?
- 11:10Speaker 4: He's gone out they are seeking him. I believe I
- 11:13Speaker 4: will go myself, Oh the poor old squire.
- 11:18Speaker 1: She went into the kitchen went over the house with
- 11:21Speaker 1: swift rapidity to gain news of her father's whereabouts. The
- 11:25Speaker 1: servants knew no more than she did. Neither she nor
- 11:28Speaker 1: they had heard what Cynthia, ever quick of perception, had done.
- 11:33Speaker 1: The shutting of the front door had fallen on deaf ears.
- 11:36Speaker 1: As far as others were concerned upstairs, sped Molly to
- 11:40Speaker 1: the drawing room, where Missus Gibson stood at the door,
- 11:44Speaker 1: listening to the unusual stir in the house.
- 11:47Speaker 3: What is it, Molly?
- 11:49Speaker 1: Why?
- 11:49Speaker 3: How white you look? Child?
- 11:51Speaker 4: Where's Papa gone out?
- 11:53Speaker 3: What's the matter?
- 11:54Speaker 7: Where?
- 11:56Speaker 3: How should I know? I was asleep? Jenny came upstairs,
- 12:00Speaker 3: her way to the bedrooms. She's a girl who never
- 12:02Speaker 3: keeps to her work, and Maria takes advantage of her.
- 12:05Speaker 1: Jenny, Jenny cried Molly, frantic at the delay.
- 12:10Speaker 3: Don't shout dear ring the bell. What can be the matter, oh, Jenny.
- 12:16Speaker 1: Said Molly, half way up the stairs to meet her.
- 12:19Speaker 4: Who wanted papa.
- 12:21Speaker 1: Cynthia came to join the group. She too had been
- 12:24Speaker 1: looking for traces or tidings of mister Gibson. What is
- 12:28Speaker 1: the matter, said Missus Gibson.
- 12:31Speaker 3: Can nobody speak and answer a question?
- 12:34Speaker 2: Osbend Hamley is dead, said Cynthia, gravely dead, Osborne, poor fellow.
- 12:44Speaker 3: I knew it would be so, though, I was sure
- 12:46Speaker 3: of it. But mister Gibson can do nothing if he's dead,
- 12:50Speaker 3: poor young man. I wonder where Roger is now? He
- 12:53Speaker 3: ought to come home.
- 12:55Speaker 1: Jenny had been blamed for coming into the drawing room
- 12:58Speaker 1: instead of Maria, whose place it was, and so had
- 13:02Speaker 1: lost the few wits she had to Molly's hurried questions,
- 13:05Speaker 1: her replies had been entirely unsatisfactory. A man had come to.
- 13:10Speaker 2: The back door.
- 13:11Speaker 1: She could not see who it was. She had not
- 13:13Speaker 1: asked his name. He wanted to speak to Master.
- 13:16Speaker 6: Master had seemed in a hurry and only stopped to
- 13:19Speaker 6: get his hat.
- 13:20Speaker 4: He will not belong away, thought Molly, or he would
- 13:23Speaker 4: have left word where he was going. But oh, the
- 13:26Speaker 4: poor father, all alone.
- 13:28Speaker 1: And then a thought came into her head, which she
- 13:31Speaker 1: acted upon straight.
- 13:34Speaker 4: Go to James, tell him to put a side saddle
- 13:36Speaker 4: I had in November on Nora Crena. Don't cry, Jenny,
- 13:40Speaker 4: there's no time for that. No one is angry with you.
- 13:43Speaker 1: Run so down into the cluster of collected women, Molly came,
- 13:47Speaker 1: equipped in her jacket and skirt, quick determination in her eyes, controlled,
- 13:53Speaker 1: quivering about the corners of her mouth. Why what in
- 13:56Speaker 1: the world, said missus Gibson.
- 14:00Speaker 3: Molly, what are you thinking about?
- 14:02Speaker 1: But Cynthia had understood it at a glance and was
- 14:05Speaker 1: arranging Molly's hastily assumed dress as she passed along.
- 14:09Speaker 4: I am going, I must go. I cannot bear to
- 14:12Speaker 4: think of him alone. When Papa comes back, he is
- 14:15Speaker 4: sure to go to Hamley, and if I am not wanted,
- 14:18Speaker 4: I can come back with him.
- 14:20Speaker 1: She heard Missus Gibson's voice following her in remonstrance, but
- 14:23Speaker 1: she did not stay for words. She had to wait
- 14:26Speaker 1: in the stable yard, and she wondered how the messenger
- 14:29Speaker 1: could bear to eat and drink the food and beer
- 14:32Speaker 1: brought out to him by the servants. Her coming out
- 14:35Speaker 1: had evidently interrupted the eager talk, the questions and answers
- 14:39Speaker 1: passing sharp to and fro. But she caught the words.
- 14:43Speaker 6: All amongst the tangled grass. And the squire would let
- 14:47Speaker 6: none of us touch him. He took him up as
- 14:51Speaker 6: if he was a baby, and he had to rest
- 14:54Speaker 6: many a time, and once he sat him down on
- 14:56Speaker 6: the ground, but still he kept him in his arms.
- 15:00Speaker 6: But we thought we should never have gotten him up again.
- 15:04Speaker 6: Him and the.
- 15:04Speaker 4: Body, the body.
- 15:07Speaker 1: Molly had never felt that Osborne was really dead till
- 15:11Speaker 1: she heard those words. They rode quick under the shadows
- 15:15Speaker 1: of the hedgerow trees, but when they slackened speed to
- 15:18Speaker 1: go up a brow, or to give their horses breath.
- 15:21Speaker 1: Molly heard those two little words again in her ears,
- 15:25Speaker 1: and said them over again to herself, in hopes of
- 15:28Speaker 1: forcing the sharp truth into her unwilling sense. But when
- 15:33Speaker 1: they came in sight of the square stillness of the
- 15:35Speaker 1: house shining in the moonlight, the moon having risen by
- 15:39Speaker 1: this time, Molly caught at her breath, and for an
- 15:43Speaker 1: instant she thought she never could go in and face
- 15:46Speaker 1: the presence in that dwelling. One yellow light burnt steadily,
- 15:51Speaker 1: spotting the silver shining with its earthly coarseness. The man
- 15:55Speaker 1: pointed it out. It was almost the first word he
- 15:58Speaker 1: had spoken since they had left Hollingford.
- 16:01Speaker 6: It's the old nursery. They carried him there. The squire
- 16:05Speaker 6: broke down at the stair foot, and they took him
- 16:10Speaker 6: to the readiest place. I'll be bound for it. The
- 16:14Speaker 6: squire is there herself, and old Robin too. They fetched
- 16:18Speaker 6: him as a knowledgeable man among dumb beasts, till the
- 16:23Speaker 6: regular doctor came.
- 16:25Speaker 1: Molly dropped down from her seat before the man could
- 16:28Speaker 1: dismount to help her. She gathered up her skirts and
- 16:31Speaker 1: did not stay again to think of what was before her.
- 16:35Speaker 1: She ran along the once familiar turns and swiftly up
- 16:38Speaker 1: the stairs and through the doors till she came to
- 16:41Speaker 1: the last. Then she stopped and listened. It was a
- 16:45Speaker 1: deathly silence. She opened the door. The squire was sitting
- 16:50Speaker 1: alone at the side of the bed, holding the dead
- 16:52Speaker 1: man's hand, and looking straight before him at vacancy. He
- 16:57Speaker 1: did not stir or move even so much as an
- 17:00Speaker 1: eyelid at Molly's entrance. The truth had entered his soul
- 17:04Speaker 1: before this, and he knew that no doctor.
- 17:09Speaker 7: Be he, ever so cunning, could with all his striving,
- 17:14Speaker 7: put the breath into that body again.
- 17:18Speaker 1: Molly came up to him with the softest steps, the
- 17:22Speaker 1: most hushed breath that she ever could. She did not speak,
- 17:26Speaker 1: for she did not know what to say. She felt
- 17:29Speaker 1: that he had.
- 17:30Speaker 4: No more hope from earthly skill, So what was the
- 17:33Speaker 4: use of speaking of her father and the delay in
- 17:36Speaker 4: his coming.
- 17:38Speaker 1: After a moment's pause, standing by the old man's side,
- 17:42Speaker 1: she slipped down to the floor and sat at his feet.
- 17:46Speaker 1: Possibly her presence might have some balm in it, but
- 17:49Speaker 1: uttering of words was as a vain thing. He must
- 17:54Speaker 1: have been aware of her being there, but he took
- 17:56Speaker 1: no apparent notice. There they sat silent and still, he
- 18:01Speaker 1: in his chair, she on the floor, the dead man
- 18:05Speaker 1: beneath the sheet. For a third she fancied that she
- 18:09Speaker 1: must have disturbed the father in his contemplation of the
- 18:12Speaker 1: quiet face, now more than half but not fully covered
- 18:17Speaker 1: up out of sight. Time had never seemed so without measure,
- 18:22Speaker 1: Silence had never seemed so noiseless as it did to Mollie.
- 18:26Speaker 1: Sitting there in the acuteness of her senses, she heard
- 18:30Speaker 1: a step mounting a distant staircase, coming slowly, coming nearer.
- 18:36Speaker 1: She knew it not to be her father's, and that
- 18:38Speaker 1: was all she cared about. Nearer and nearer, close to
- 18:42Speaker 1: the outside of the door, a pause and a soft,
- 18:46Speaker 1: hesitating tap. The great, gaunt figure sitting by her side
- 18:51Speaker 1: quivered at the sound. Molly rose and went to the door.
- 18:55Speaker 1: It was Robinson, the old butler, holding in his hand
- 18:59Speaker 1: a covered base of soup.
- 19:01Speaker 8: God bless you, miss, said he make him touch a
- 19:05Speaker 8: drop o this. He's gone since breakfast without food, and
- 19:09Speaker 8: it's past one in the morning now.
- 19:12Speaker 1: He softly removed the cover, and Molly took the basin
- 19:16Speaker 1: back with her to the place at the squire's side.
- 19:19Speaker 1: She did not speak for She did not well know
- 19:22Speaker 1: what to say or how to present this homely want
- 19:25Speaker 1: of nature before one so wrapt in grief, But she
- 19:29Speaker 1: put a spoonful to his lips and touched him with
- 19:32Speaker 1: the savory food, as if he had been a sick child,
- 19:35Speaker 1: and she the nurse. And instinctively he took down the
- 19:38Speaker 1: first spoonful of the soup. But in a minute he said,
- 19:42Speaker 1: with a sort of cry, and almost overturning the basin.
- 19:45Speaker 1: Molly held by his passionate gesture as he pointed to
- 19:49Speaker 1: the bed.
- 19:50Speaker 7: He will never eat again. Never.
- 19:56Speaker 1: Then he threw himself across the corpse and wept in
- 19:59Speaker 1: such a te terrible manner that Molly trembled, lest he
- 20:02Speaker 1: also should die, should break his heart there. And then
- 20:07Speaker 1: he took no more notice of her words, of her tears,
- 20:11Speaker 1: of her presence, than he did that of the moon,
- 20:14Speaker 1: looking through the unclosed window with passionless stare. Her father
- 20:19Speaker 1: stood by them both before either of them was aware.
- 20:23Speaker 1: Go downstairs, Molly said he gravely, but he stroked her
- 20:27Speaker 1: head tenderly as she.
- 20:28Speaker 5: Rose go into the dining room.
- 20:31Speaker 1: Now she felt the reaction from all her self control.
- 20:35Speaker 1: She trembled with fear as she went along the moonlit passages.
- 20:40Speaker 1: It seemed to her as if she should meet Osborne
- 20:42Speaker 1: and hear it all explained how he came to die,
- 20:46Speaker 1: what he now felt and thought and wished her to do.
- 20:49Speaker 1: She did get down to the dining room the last
- 20:52Speaker 1: few steps with a rush of terror, senseless terror of
- 20:55Speaker 1: what might be behind her, And there she found supper
- 20:59Speaker 1: laid out and candle's lit, and Robinson bustling about decanting
- 21:03Speaker 1: some wine. She wanted to cry, to get into some
- 21:08Speaker 1: quiet place and weep away her over excitement, but she
- 21:12Speaker 1: could hardly do so. There she only felt very much tired,
- 21:17Speaker 1: and to care for nothing in this world anymore. But
- 21:20Speaker 1: vividness of life came back when she found Robinson holding
- 21:24Speaker 1: a glass to her lips as she sat in the
- 21:26Speaker 1: great leather easy chair to which she had gone instinctively
- 21:30Speaker 1: as a place of rest. Drink.
- 21:33Speaker 8: Miss it's good, old Madeira, your papa said, as how
- 21:37Speaker 8: you was to eat a bit, says he.
- 21:40Speaker 5: My daughter may have to stay here, mister Robinson, and
- 21:42Speaker 5: she's young for the work. Persuade her to eat something
- 21:45Speaker 5: or she'll break down utterly.
- 21:48Speaker 8: Those was his very words.
- 21:51Speaker 1: Mollie did not say anything. She had not energy enough
- 21:55Speaker 1: for resistance. She drank, and she ate at the old
- 21:59Speaker 1: servant's bud, and then she asked him to leave her alone,
- 22:03Speaker 1: and went back to her easy chair and let herself
- 22:06Speaker 1: cry and so ease her heart. End of chapter fifty one.