Latest / The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library / The Shuttle Chapter 3 - Young Lady Anstruthers

Transcript

The Shuttle Chapter 3 - Young Lady Anstruthers · The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library

0:00
Speaker 1: CHAPTER III. YOUNG LADY ANSTROTHERS When the marriage took place,
0:11
Speaker 1: the event was accompanied by an ingeniously elate flourish of trumpets.
0:16
Speaker 1: Miss Vanderpool's frocks were multitudinous and wonderful, as also her
0:19
Speaker 1: jewels purchased at Tiffany's. She carried a thousand trunks, more
0:24
Speaker 1: or less, across the Atlantic. When the ship steamed away
0:27
Speaker 1: from the dock, the wharf was like a flower-garden in
0:29
Speaker 1: the blaze of brilliant and delicate attire, worn by the
0:32
Speaker 1: bevy of relatives and intimates, who stood waving their handkerchiefs
0:35
Speaker 1: and laughingly calling out farewell good wishes. Sir Nigel's mental
0:40
Speaker 1: attitude was not a sympathetic or admiring one, as he
0:43
Speaker 1: stood by his bride's side looking back. If Rosie's half-happy,
0:47
Speaker 1: half-tearful excitement had left her the leisure to reflect on
0:50
Speaker 1: his expression, she would not have felt it encouraging. what
0:54
Speaker 1: a deuce of a row americans make he said even
0:57
Speaker 1: before they were out of hearing of the voices it
1:00
Speaker 1: will be a positive rest to be in a country
1:02
Speaker 1: where the women do not cackle and shriek with laughter
1:05
Speaker 1: he said it with that simple rudeness which at times
1:08
Speaker 1: professed to be almost impersonal and which rosalie had usually
1:11
Speaker 1: tried to believe was the outcome of a kind of
1:13
Speaker 1: cool british humour but this time she started a little
1:17
Speaker 1: at his words i suppose we do make more noise
1:20
Speaker 1: than english people she admitted a second or so later
1:24
Speaker 1: I wonder why?' And without waiting for an answer, somewhat
1:27
Speaker 1: as if she had not expected or quite wanted one,
1:30
Speaker 1: she leaned a little further over the side to look back,
1:33
Speaker 1: waving her small, flattering handkerchief to the many still in
1:36
Speaker 1: tumult on the wharf. She was not perceptive or quick
1:39
Speaker 1: enough to take offence to realise that the remark was
1:42
Speaker 1: significant and that Sir Nigel had already begun as he
1:45
Speaker 1: meant to go on. It was far from being his
1:48
Speaker 1: intention to play the part of an American husband, who
1:51
Speaker 1: was plainly a creature in whom no authority vested itself.
1:55
Speaker 1: Americans let their women do and say anything, and were
1:58
Speaker 1: capable of fetching and carrying for them. He had seen
2:01
Speaker 1: a man run upstairs for his wife's wrap, cheerfully, without
2:05
Speaker 1: the least apparent sense that the service was the part
2:07
Speaker 1: of a footman, if there was one in the house,
2:10
Speaker 1: and a parlour-maid, if there was not. Sir Nigel had
2:13
Speaker 1: been brought up in the good early Victorian days— when
2:16
Speaker 1: a nice little woman to fetch your slippers for you
2:19
Speaker 1: figured in certain circles as domestic bliss. Girls were educated
2:23
Speaker 1: to fetch slippers as retrievers were trained to go into
2:26
Speaker 1: the water after sticks, and terriers to bring back balls
2:30
Speaker 1: thrown for them. The new Lady Anstruthers had it supervene
2:34
Speaker 1: several opportunities to obtain a new view of her bridegroom's
2:37
Speaker 1: character before their voyage across the Atlantic was over. At
2:41
Speaker 1: this period of the slower and more cumbrous weaving of
2:44
Speaker 1: the shuttle, the world had not yet awakened even to
2:47
Speaker 1: the possibilities of the ocean greyhound. An Atlantic voyage, at times,
2:51
Speaker 1: was capable of offering to a bride and bridegroom days
2:55
Speaker 1: enough to begin to glance into their future with a
2:57
Speaker 1: premonition of the waning of the honeymoon, at least and
3:00
Speaker 1: especially if they were not sea-proof, to wish wearily that
3:03
Speaker 1: the first half of it were over. Rosalie was not weary,
3:07
Speaker 1: but she began to be bewildered. as she had never
3:10
Speaker 1: been a clever girl or quick to perceive, and had
3:13
Speaker 1: spent her life among women indulging American men, she was
3:17
Speaker 1: not prepared with any precedent which made her situation clear.
3:21
Speaker 1: The first time Sir Nigel showed his temper to her,
3:24
Speaker 1: she simply stared at him, her eyes looking like those
3:27
Speaker 1: of a puzzled, questioning child. Then she broke into her
3:30
Speaker 1: nervous little laugh because she didn't know what else to do.
3:34
Speaker 1: At his second outbreak her stare was rather startled, and
3:37
Speaker 1: she did not laugh. Her first awakening was to an
3:41
Speaker 1: anxious wonderment concerning certain moods of gloom, or what seemed
3:44
Speaker 1: to be gloom, to which he seemed prone. As she
3:48
Speaker 1: lay in her steamer-chair, he would at times march stiffly
3:51
Speaker 1: up and down the deck, apparently aware of no other
3:54
Speaker 1: existence than his own, his features expressing a certain clouded
3:57
Speaker 1: resentment of whose very unexplainableness she secretly stood in awe.
4:03
Speaker 1: She was not astute enough, poor girl, to leave him alone,
4:06
Speaker 1: and when, with innocent questioning, she endeavoured to discover his trouble,
4:10
Speaker 1: the greatest mystification she encountered was that he had the
4:12
Speaker 1: power to make her feel that she was in some
4:15
Speaker 1: way taking a liberty and showing her lack of tact
4:18
Speaker 1: and perspicuity.' Is anything the matter, Nigel?' she asked at first,
4:23
Speaker 1: wondering if she were guilty of silliness in trying to
4:26
Speaker 1: slip her hand into his. She was sure she had
4:29
Speaker 1: been when he answered her.' No,' he said chillingly.' I
4:33
Speaker 1: don't believe you're happy,' she returned. somehow you seem so— so different.''
4:38
Speaker 1: I have reasons for being depressed,' he replied, and it
4:43
Speaker 1: was with a stiff finality which struck a note of
4:45
Speaker 1: warning to her, signifying that it would be better taste
4:48
Speaker 1: in her to put an end to her simple efforts.
4:51
Speaker 1: She vaguely felt herself put in the wrong, and he
4:54
Speaker 1: preferred that it should be so. It was the best
4:57
Speaker 1: form of preparation for any mood he might see that
4:59
Speaker 1: it might pay him to show her in the future.'
5:02
Speaker 1: He was, in fact, confronting disdainfully his position. He had
5:07
Speaker 1: her on his hands, and he was returning to his
5:09
Speaker 1: relations with no definite advantage to exhibit as the result
5:12
Speaker 1: of having married her. She had been supplied with an income,
5:16
Speaker 1: but he had no control over it. It would not
5:19
Speaker 1: have been so if he had not been in such
5:21
Speaker 1: straits that he had been afraid to risk his chance
5:23
Speaker 1: by making a stand. To have a wife with money—
5:27
Speaker 1: a silly sweet temper and no will of her own,
5:30
Speaker 1: was of course better than to be penniless, head over
5:32
Speaker 1: heels in debt, and hemmed in by difficulties on every side.
5:36
Speaker 1: He had seen women trained to give in to anything
5:39
Speaker 1: rather than be bullied in public, to accede in the
5:42
Speaker 1: end to any demand, rather than endure the shame of
5:45
Speaker 1: a certain kind of scene made before servants, and a
5:47
Speaker 1: certain kind of insolence used to relatives and guests. The
5:51
Speaker 1: quality he found most maddeningly irritating in Rosalie was her
5:55
Speaker 1: obviously absolute unconsciousness of the fact that it was entirely
5:59
Speaker 1: natural and proper that her resources should be in her
6:02
Speaker 1: husband's hands. He had, indeed, even in these early days,
6:07
Speaker 1: made a tentative effort or so in the form of
6:09
Speaker 1: a suggestive speech. He had given her openings to give
6:12
Speaker 1: him an opening to put things on a practical basis,
6:15
Speaker 1: but she had never had the intelligence to see what
6:18
Speaker 1: he was aiming at, and he had found himself almost
6:20
Speaker 1: floundering ungracefully in his remarks while she had looked at
6:24
Speaker 1: him without a sign of comprehension in her simple anxious
6:27
Speaker 1: blue eyes. The creature was actually trying to understand him
6:31
Speaker 1: and could not. That was the worst of it, the
6:33
Speaker 1: blank wall of her unconsciousness, her childlike belief that he
6:37
Speaker 1: was far too grand a personage to require anything. These
6:41
Speaker 1: were the things he was thinking over when he walked
6:43
Speaker 1: up and down the deck in unamiable solitariness. Rosie awakened
6:48
Speaker 1: to the amazed consciousness of the fact that instead of
6:51
Speaker 1: being pleased with the luxury and prettiness of her wardrobe
6:53
Speaker 1: and appointments, he seemed to dislike and disdain them.' You
6:58
Speaker 1: American women change your clothes too much and think too
7:01
Speaker 1: much of them,' was one of his first amiable criticisms.'
7:04
Speaker 1: You spend more than well-bred women should spend on mere
7:07
Speaker 1: dresses and bonnets. In New York it always strikes an
7:11
Speaker 1: Englishman that the women look en dimanche at whatever time
7:14
Speaker 1: of day you come across them.' Oh, Nigel!' cried Rosie woefully.
7:19
Speaker 1: She couldn't think of anything more to say than,' Oh, Nigel!''
7:23
Speaker 1: I' m sorry to say it's true,' he replied loftily. That
7:27
Speaker 1: she was an American and a New Yorker was being
7:29
Speaker 1: impressed upon poor little Lady Anstruthers in a new way,
7:33
Speaker 1: somehow as if the mere cold statement of the fact
7:36
Speaker 1: put a fine edge of sarcasm to any remark. She
7:39
Speaker 1: was of too innocent a loyalty to wish that she
7:41
Speaker 1: were neither the one nor the other but she did
7:44
Speaker 1: wish that Nigel was not so prejudiced against the people
7:47
Speaker 1: and places she cared for so much. She was sitting
7:51
Speaker 1: in her stateroom and folded in a dressing-gown covered with
7:54
Speaker 1: cascades of lace, tied with knots of embroidered ribbon, and
7:58
Speaker 1: her maid Hannah, who admired her greatly, was brushing her
8:01
Speaker 1: fair long hair with a gold-backed brush, ornamented with a
8:04
Speaker 1: monogram of jewels. If she had been a French duchess
8:08
Speaker 1: of a piquant type, or an English one with an
8:10
Speaker 1: aquiline nose, she would have been beyond criticism. if she
8:14
Speaker 1: had been a plump over-fed woman or an ugly ill-natured
8:17
Speaker 1: gross one she would have looked vulgar but she was
8:20
Speaker 1: a little thin fair new yorker and although she was
8:23
Speaker 1: not beyond criticism if one demanded high distinction she was
8:27
Speaker 1: pretty and nice to look at but nigel anstruthers would
8:30
Speaker 1: not allow this to her his own tailor's bills being
8:33
Speaker 1: far in arrears and his pocket disgustingly empty the sight
8:37
Speaker 1: of her ingenious sumptuousness and the gay accustomed simpleness of
8:41
Speaker 1: outlook with which he accepted it as her natural right
8:44
Speaker 1: irritated him and roused his venom. Bills would remain unpaid
8:48
Speaker 1: if she was permitted to spend her money on this
8:50
Speaker 1: sort of thing without any consideration for the requirements of
8:54
Speaker 1: other people. He inhaled the air and made a gesture
8:57
Speaker 1: of distaste.' This sachet business is rather overpowering,' he said.'
9:02
Speaker 1: It' s the sort of thing a woman should be particularly
9:05
Speaker 1: discreet about.'' Oh, Nigel!' cried the poor girl agitatedly.' Hannah,
9:10
Speaker 1: do go and call the steward to open the windows.''
9:13
Speaker 1: Is it really strong?' she implored as Hannah went out.'
9:16
Speaker 1: How dreadful! It's only Aris, and I didn't know Hannah
9:20
Speaker 1: had put it in the trunks.'' My dear Rosalie,' with
9:23
Speaker 1: a wave of the hand taking in both herself and
9:26
Speaker 1: her dressing-case,' it is all too strong.'' Oh, what?' gaspingly.'
9:32
Speaker 1: The whole thing— all that lace and love-knot arrangement,' the gold-backed
9:36
Speaker 1: brushes and scent-bottles with diamonds and rubies sticking in them.
9:41
Speaker 1: they were wedding presents they came from tiffany's everyone thought
9:45
Speaker 1: them lovely they look as if they belonged to the
9:48
Speaker 1: dressing-table of a frenchwoman of the demi-monde i feel as
9:51
Speaker 1: if i had actually walked into the apartment of some
9:54
Speaker 1: notorious parisian soubrette rosalie Vanderpool was a clean-minded little person.
10:00
Speaker 1: Her people were of the clean-minded type, therefore she did
10:03
Speaker 1: not understand all that this ironic speech implied, but she
10:06
Speaker 1: gathered enough of its significance to cause her to turn
10:09
Speaker 1: first red and then pale, and then to burst into tears.
10:13
Speaker 1: She was crying and trying to conceal the fact when
10:15
Speaker 1: Hannah returned. She bent her head and touched her eyes
10:19
Speaker 1: furtively while her toilette was completed. Sir Nigel had retired
10:23
Speaker 1: from the scene, but he had done so feeling that
10:26
Speaker 1: he had planted a seed and bestowed a practical lesson.
10:29
Speaker 1: He had, it is true, bestowed one, but again she
10:32
Speaker 1: had not understood its significance and was only left bewildered
10:36
Speaker 1: and unhappy. She began to be nervous and uncertain about
10:39
Speaker 1: herself and about his moods and points of view. She
10:42
Speaker 1: had never been made to feel so at home. Everyone
10:46
Speaker 1: had been kind to her, and lenient to her lack
10:48
Speaker 1: of brilliancy. No one had expected her to be brilliant,
10:52
Speaker 1: and she had been quite sweet-temperedly resigned to the fact
10:54
Speaker 1: that she was not the kind of girl who shone
10:57
Speaker 1: either in society or elsewhere. She did not resent the
11:00
Speaker 1: fact that she knew people said of her,' She isn't
11:03
Speaker 1: in the least bit bright, Rosie Vanderpool, but she's a
11:06
Speaker 1: nice sweet little thing.' She had tried to be nice
11:09
Speaker 1: and sweet, and had aspired to nothing higher. But now
11:13
Speaker 1: that seemed so much less than enough. Perhaps Nigel ought
11:17
Speaker 1: to have married one of the clever ones, somebody who
11:19
Speaker 1: would have known how to understand him, and who would
11:22
Speaker 1: have been more entertaining than she could be. Perhaps she
11:25
Speaker 1: was beginning to bore him, perhaps he was finding her
11:28
Speaker 1: out and beginning to get tired. At this point the
11:31
Speaker 1: always too ready tears would rise to her eyes, and
11:34
Speaker 1: she would be overwhelmed by a sense of homesickness. Often
11:38
Speaker 1: she cried herself silently to sleep, longing for her mother,
11:42
Speaker 1: her nice, comfortable, ordinary mother, whom she had several times
11:45
Speaker 1: felt Nigel had some difficulty in being unreservedly polite to,
11:49
Speaker 1: though he had been polite on the surface. By the
11:53
Speaker 1: time they landed she had been living under so much
11:55
Speaker 1: strain in her effort to seem quite unchanged that she
11:58
Speaker 1: had lost her nerve. She did not feel well, and
12:01
Speaker 1: was sometimes afraid that she might do something silly and
12:04
Speaker 1: hysterical in spite of herself— begin to cry, for instance,
12:07
Speaker 1: when there was really no explanation for her doing it.
12:11
Speaker 1: But when she reached London the novelty of everything so
12:13
Speaker 1: excited her that she thought she was going to be better,
12:16
Speaker 1: and then she said to herself it would be proof
12:19
Speaker 1: to her that all her fears had been nonsense. This
12:22
Speaker 1: return of hope made her quite light-spirited, and she was
12:25
Speaker 1: almost gay in her little outbursts of delight and admiration
12:28
Speaker 1: as she drove about the streets with her husband. She
12:32
Speaker 1: did not know that her ingenious ignorance of things he
12:34
Speaker 1: had known all his life, her rapture over common monuments
12:37
Speaker 1: of history, led him to say to himself that he
12:40
Speaker 1: felt rather as if he were taking a housemaid to
12:42
Speaker 1: see a Lord Mayor's show. Before going to Stornham Court
12:46
Speaker 1: they spent a few days in town. There had been
12:49
Speaker 1: no intention of proclaiming their presence to the world, and
12:52
Speaker 1: they didn't do so, but unluckily certain tradesmen discovered the
12:56
Speaker 1: fact that Sir Nigel Anstruthers had returned to England with
12:59
Speaker 1: the bride he had secured in New York. The conclusion
13:02
Speaker 1: to be deduced from this circumstance was that the particular
13:05
Speaker 1: moment was a good one in which to send in
13:07
Speaker 1: bills for account rendered. The tradesmen quite shared Anstruther's point
13:12
Speaker 1: of view. Their reasoning was delightfully simple, and they were
13:15
Speaker 1: wholly unaware that it might have been called gross. A
13:18
Speaker 1: man over his head and ears in debt naturally expected
13:22
Speaker 1: his creditors would be paid by the young woman who
13:24
Speaker 1: had married him. America had in these days been so
13:28
Speaker 1: little explored by the thrifty, impecunious well-born that its ingenious
13:32
Speaker 1: sentimentality in certain matters was by no means comprehended. By
13:37
Speaker 1: each post Sir Nigel received numerous bills, sometimes letters accompanied them,
13:42
Speaker 1: and once or twice respectful but firm male persons brought
13:45
Speaker 1: them by hand and demanded interviews which irritated Sir Nigel extremely.
13:50
Speaker 1: Given time to arrange matters with Rosalie, to train her
13:53
Speaker 1: to some sense of her duty, he believed that the
13:56
Speaker 1: account rendered could be wiped off, but he saw he
13:59
Speaker 1: must have time. She was such a little fool. Again
14:02
Speaker 1: and again he was furious at the fate which had
14:05
Speaker 1: forced him to take her. The truth was that Rosalie
14:09
Speaker 1: knew nothing whatever about unpaid bills. Reuben Vanderpool's daughters had
14:13
Speaker 1: never encountered an indignant tradesman in their lives. When they
14:17
Speaker 1: went into stores, they were received with unfeigned rapture. Everything
14:21
Speaker 1: was dragged forth to be displayed to them. Attendants waited
14:25
Speaker 1: to leap forth to supply their smallest behest. They knew
14:28
Speaker 1: no other phase of existence than the one in which
14:31
Speaker 1: one could buy anything one wanted, and pay any price
14:33
Speaker 1: demanded for it. Consequently, Rosalie did not recognise signs which
14:38
Speaker 1: would have been obviously recognisable by the initiated. If Sir
14:42
Speaker 1: Nigel Anstruthers had been a nice young fellow who had
14:45
Speaker 1: loved her, and he had been honest enough to make
14:47
Speaker 1: a clean breast of his difficulties, she would have thrown
14:50
Speaker 1: herself into his arms and implored him effusively to make
14:53
Speaker 1: use of all her available funds, and if the supply
14:56
Speaker 1: had been insufficient, would have immediately written to her father
14:59
Speaker 1: for further donations, knowing that her appeal would be responded
15:02
Speaker 1: to at once. But Sir Nigel Anstruthers cherished no sentiment
15:07
Speaker 1: for any other individual than himself, and he had no
15:10
Speaker 1: intention of explaining that his mere vanity had caused him
15:13
Speaker 1: to mislead her, that his rank and estate counted for nothing,
15:16
Speaker 1: and that he was in fact a pauper loaded with
15:18
Speaker 1: dishonest debts. He wanted money, but he wanted it to
15:22
Speaker 1: be given to him as if he conferred a favour
15:24
Speaker 1: by receiving it. It must be transferred to him as
15:27
Speaker 1: though it were his by right. What did a man
15:29
Speaker 1: marry for?' Therefore his wife's unconsciousness that she was inflicting
15:34
Speaker 1: outrage upon him by her mere mental attitude filled his
15:37
Speaker 1: being with slowly rising gall. Poor Rosalie went joyfully forth
15:42
Speaker 1: shopping after the manner of all newly arrived Americans. She
15:45
Speaker 1: bought new toilettes and gewgaws and presents for her friends
15:49
Speaker 1: and relations in New York, and each package which was
15:52
Speaker 1: delivered at the hotel added to Sir Nigel's rage. that
15:56
Speaker 1: the little blockhead should be allowed to do what she
15:58
Speaker 1: liked with her money, and that he should not be
16:00
Speaker 1: able to forbid her. This he said to himself at
16:03
Speaker 1: intervals of five minutes through the day, which led to
16:05
Speaker 1: another small episode.' You are spending a great deal of money,'
16:10
Speaker 1: he said one morning in his condemnatory manner. Rosalie looked
16:14
Speaker 1: up from the lace flounce which had just been delivered,
16:16
Speaker 1: and gave the little nervous laugh which was becoming entirely
16:19
Speaker 1: uncertain of propitiating.' Am I?' she answered. They say all
16:24
Speaker 1: Americans spend a good deal.'' Your money ought to be
16:28
Speaker 1: in proper hands and properly managed,' he went on with
16:31
Speaker 1: cold precision.' If you were an Englishwoman, your husband would
16:35
Speaker 1: control it.'' Would he?' The simple, sweet-tempered obtuseness of her
16:40
Speaker 1: tone was an infuriating thing to him. There was the
16:44
Speaker 1: usual shade of troubled surprise in her eyes as they
16:46
Speaker 1: met his.' I don't think men in America ever do that.
16:51
Speaker 1: I don't believe the nice ones want to. You see,
16:54
Speaker 1: they have such a pride at about always giving things
16:57
Speaker 1: to women and taking care of them. I believe a
17:00
Speaker 1: nice American man would break stones in the street rather
17:03
Speaker 1: than take money from a woman, even his wife. I mean,
17:07
Speaker 1: while he could work. Of course, if he was ill
17:10
Speaker 1: or had ill luck or anything like that, he wouldn't
17:12
Speaker 1: be so proud as not to take it from the
17:14
Speaker 1: person who loved him most and wanted to help him.
17:17
Speaker 1: You do sometimes hear of a man who won't work
17:20
Speaker 1: and lets his wife support him, but it's very seldom—
17:23
Speaker 1: and they're always the low kind that other men look
17:26
Speaker 1: down on.'' Wanted to help him?' Sir Nigel selected the
17:30
Speaker 1: phrase and quoted it between puffs of the cigar he
17:33
Speaker 1: held in his fine, rather cruel-looking hands, and his voice
17:37
Speaker 1: expressed a not too subtle sneer.' A woman is not
17:41
Speaker 1: helping her husband when she gives him control of her fortune.
17:44
Speaker 1: She's only doing her duty and accepting her proper position
17:47
Speaker 1: with regard to him. The law used to settle the
17:50
Speaker 1: thing definitely.' did it rosy faltered weakly she knew he
17:56
Speaker 1: was offended again and that she was once more somehow
17:59
Speaker 1: in the wrong so many things about her seemed to
18:02
Speaker 1: displease him and when he was displeased he always reminded
18:05
Speaker 1: her that she was stupidly objectionably guilty of not being
18:09
Speaker 1: an englishwoman whatsoever it happened to be the fault she
18:13
Speaker 1: had committed out of her depth of ignorance he did
18:16
Speaker 1: not forget it it was no habit of his to
18:19
Speaker 1: endeavour to dismiss offences he preferred to hold them in
18:22
Speaker 1: possession as if they were treasures and to turn them
18:25
Speaker 1: over and over in the mental seclusion which nourishes the
18:28
Speaker 1: growth of injuries, since within its barriers there is no
18:31
Speaker 1: chance of their being palliated by the apologies or explanations
18:35
Speaker 1: of the offender. During their journey to Stornham Court the
18:39
Speaker 1: next day he was in one of his black moods.
18:42
Speaker 1: Once in the railway carriage he paid small attention to
18:45
Speaker 1: his wife, but sat rigidly reading his times, until about
18:48
Speaker 1: midway to their destination he descended at a station and
18:52
Speaker 1: paid a visit to the buffet in the small refreshment room,
18:55
Speaker 1: after which he settled himself to doze in an exceedingly
18:58
Speaker 1: unbecoming attitude, his travelling cap pulled down, his rather heavy
19:03
Speaker 1: face congested with the dark flush Rosalie had not yet
19:06
Speaker 1: learned was due to the fact that he had hastily
19:08
Speaker 1: tossed off two or three whiskies and sodas. Though he
19:12
Speaker 1: was never either thick of utterance or unsteady on his feet,
19:15
Speaker 1: whisky and soda formed an important factor in his existence.
19:19
Speaker 1: When he was annoyed or dull, he at once took
19:22
Speaker 1: the necessary precautions against being overcome by these feelings, and
19:26
Speaker 1: the effect upon a constitutionally evil temper was to transform
19:30
Speaker 1: it into an infernal one. The night had been a
19:33
Speaker 1: bad one for Rosie. Such floods of homesick longing had
19:36
Speaker 1: overpowered her that she had not been able to sleep.
19:40
Speaker 1: She had risen feeling shaky and hysterical, and her nervousness
19:43
Speaker 1: had been added to by her fear that Nigel might
19:46
Speaker 1: observe her and make comment. Of course, she told herself
19:49
Speaker 1: it was natural. that he should not wish her to
19:51
Speaker 1: appear at Stornham Court looking a pale, pink-nosed little fright.
19:55
Speaker 1: Her efforts to be cheerful had indeed been somewhat touching,
19:59
Speaker 1: but they had met with small encouragement. She thought the
20:03
Speaker 1: green-clothed country lovely as the train sped through it, and
20:07
Speaker 1: a lump rose in her small throat because she knew
20:09
Speaker 1: she might have been so happy if she'd not been
20:11
Speaker 1: so frightened and miserable. The thing which had been dawning
20:15
Speaker 1: upon her took clearer, more awful form. Incidents she had
20:19
Speaker 1: tried to explain and excuse to herself upon all sorts
20:22
Speaker 1: of futile simple grounds began to loom up before her
20:25
Speaker 1: in something like their actual proportions. She had heard of
20:29
Speaker 1: men who had changed their manner towards girls after they'd
20:32
Speaker 1: married them, but she did not know they had begun
20:34
Speaker 1: to change so soon. This was so early in the
20:37
Speaker 1: honeymoon to be sitting in a railway carriage, in a
20:40
Speaker 1: corner remote from that occupied by a bridegroom, who read
20:44
Speaker 1: his paper in what was obviously intentional, resentful solitude. Emily
20:49
Speaker 1: Soames' father, she remembered it against her will, had been
20:52
Speaker 1: obliged to get a divorce for Emily after her two
20:54
Speaker 1: years of wretched married life. But Alfred Soames had been
20:58
Speaker 1: quite nice for six months at least. It seemed as
21:01
Speaker 1: if all this must be a dream, one of those
21:03
Speaker 1: nightmare things in which you suddenly find yourself married to
21:06
Speaker 1: someone you cannot bear, and you don't know how it happened,
21:10
Speaker 1: because you yourself had had nothing to do with the matter.
21:13
Speaker 1: She felt that presently she must waken with a start,
21:16
Speaker 1: and find herself breathing fast and panting out, half laughing,
21:20
Speaker 1: half crying, Oh, I'm so glad it's not true, I'm
21:23
Speaker 1: so glad it's not true. But this was true, and
21:27
Speaker 1: there was Nigel. and she was in a new unexplored world.
21:31
Speaker 1: Her little trembling hands clutched each other. The happy, light,
21:35
Speaker 1: girlish days, full of ease and friendliness and decency, seemed
21:38
Speaker 1: gone for ever. It was not Rosalie Vanderpool who pressed
21:42
Speaker 1: her colourless face against the glass of the window, looking
21:45
Speaker 1: out at the flying trees. It was the wife of
21:48
Speaker 1: Nigel Anstruthers. And suddenly, by some hideous magic— She had
21:52
Speaker 1: been snatched from the world to which she belonged, and
21:55
Speaker 1: was being dragged by a jailer to a prison from
21:57
Speaker 1: which she didn't know how to escape. Already Nigel had
22:01
Speaker 1: managed to convey to her that in England a woman
22:04
Speaker 1: who was married could do nothing to defend herself against
22:06
Speaker 1: her husband, and that to endeavour to do anything was
22:10
Speaker 1: the last impossible touch of vulgar ignominy. The vivid realisation
22:14
Speaker 1: of the situation seized upon her like a possession as
22:17
Speaker 1: she glanced sideways at her bridegroom, and hurriedly glanced away
22:21
Speaker 1: again with a little hysterical shudder. New York, good-tempered, lenient,
22:26
Speaker 1: free New York, was millions of miles away, and Nigel
22:30
Speaker 1: was so loathly near, and— and so ugly! She'd never known
22:34
Speaker 1: before that he was so ugly, that his face was
22:37
Speaker 1: so heavy, his skin so thick and coarse, and his
22:40
Speaker 1: expression so evilly ill-tempered. She was not sufficiently analytical to
22:44
Speaker 1: be conscious that she had, with one bound— leapt to
22:47
Speaker 1: the appalling point of feeling uncontrollable physical abhorrence of the
22:51
Speaker 1: creature to whom she was chained for life. She was
22:54
Speaker 1: terrified at finding herself forced to combat the realisation that
22:58
Speaker 1: there were certain expressions of his countenance which made her
23:01
Speaker 1: feel sick with repulsion. Her self-reproach also was as great
23:06
Speaker 1: as her terror. He was her husband, her husband, and
23:09
Speaker 1: she was a wicked girl. She repeated the words to
23:13
Speaker 1: herself again and again, but remotely she knew that when
23:16
Speaker 1: she said, He is my husband. That was the worst
23:20
Speaker 1: thing of all. This inward struggle was a bad preparation
23:23
Speaker 1: for any added misery, and when their railroad journey terminated
23:27
Speaker 1: at Stornham Station she was met by new bewilderment. The
23:31
Speaker 1: station itself was a rustic place where wild roses climbed
23:35
Speaker 1: down a bank to meet the very train itself. The
23:37
Speaker 1: stationmaster's cottage had roses and clusters of lilies waving in
23:41
Speaker 1: its tiny garden. The stationmaster— A good-natured, red-faced man came forward,
23:47
Speaker 1: bearing his head, to open the railroad carriage door with
23:50
Speaker 1: his own hand. Rosie thought him delightful, and bowed and
23:53
Speaker 1: smiled sweet-temperedly to him and to his wife and little girls,
23:57
Speaker 1: who were curtsying at the garden gate. She was sufficiently
24:00
Speaker 1: homesick to be actually grateful to them for their air
24:03
Speaker 1: of welcoming her. But as she smiled, she glanced furtively
24:07
Speaker 1: at Nigel to see if she was doing exactly the
24:09
Speaker 1: right thing. He himself was not smiling. and did not
24:13
Speaker 1: unbend even when the station-master, who had known him from
24:16
Speaker 1: his boyhood, felt at liberty to offer a deferential welcome.'
24:20
Speaker 1: Happy to see you home with our ladyship, Sir Nigel,'
24:24
Speaker 1: he said.' Very happy, if I may say so.' Sir
24:27
Speaker 1: Nigel responded to the respectful amiability with a half-military lifting
24:31
Speaker 1: of his right hand, accompanied by a grunt.' You do well,'
24:36
Speaker 1: he said, and strode past him to speak to the
24:39
Speaker 1: footman who had come from Stornham Court with the carriage.
24:42
Speaker 1: The new and nervous little lady Anstruthers, who was left
24:45
Speaker 1: to trot after her husband, smiled again at the ruddy,
24:48
Speaker 1: kind-looking fellow, this time in conscious deprecation. In the simplicity
24:53
Speaker 1: of her republican sympathy with a well-meaning fellow-creature who might
24:57
Speaker 1: feel himself snubbed, she could have shaken him by the hand.
25:01
Speaker 1: She had even parted her lips to venture a word
25:03
Speaker 1: of civility when she was startled by hearing Sir Nigel's
25:06
Speaker 1: voice raised in angry rating.' Damned bad management not to
25:11
Speaker 1: bring something else,' she heard. kind of thing you fellows
25:14
Speaker 1: are always doing she made her way to the carriage
25:17
Speaker 1: flurried again by not knowing whether she was doing right
25:20
Speaker 1: or wrong sir nigel had given her no instructions and
25:24
Speaker 1: she had not yet learned that when he was in
25:25
Speaker 1: a certain humour there was equal fault in obeying or
25:28
Speaker 1: disobeying such orders as he gave The carriage from the court,
25:33
Speaker 1: not in the least a new or smarter quippage, was
25:35
Speaker 1: drawn up before the entrance of the station, and Sir
25:38
Speaker 1: Nigel was in a rage because the vehicle brought for
25:41
Speaker 1: the luggage was too small to carry it all.' Very sorry,
25:45
Speaker 1: Sir Nigel,' said the coachman, touching his hat two or
25:47
Speaker 1: three times in his agitation.' Very sorry. The omnibus was
25:51
Speaker 1: a little out of order. The spring, Sir Nigel, and
25:54
Speaker 1: I thought—'' You thought,' was the heated interruption,' what right
25:58
Speaker 1: had you to think, dammit?' You' re not paid to think,
26:01
Speaker 1: you're paid to do your work properly.' Here are a
26:04
Speaker 1: lot of damned boxers who are sure to go with us,'
26:06
Speaker 1: and where's your maid?' wheeling around upon his wife. Rosalie
26:10
Speaker 1: turned towards the woman who was approaching from the waiting-room.' Hannah,'
26:15
Speaker 1: she said timorously, 'drop those confounded bundles,' ordered Sir Nigel,'
26:19
Speaker 1: and show James the boxes her ladyship is obliged to
26:22
Speaker 1: have this evening.' Be quick about it, and don't pick
26:24
Speaker 1: out half a dozen. The cart can't take them.' Hannah
26:28
Speaker 1: looked frightened. This sort of thing was new to her, too.
26:32
Speaker 1: She shuffled her packages onto a seat and followed the
26:34
Speaker 1: footman to the luggage. Sir Nigel continued rating the coachman.
26:39
Speaker 1: Any form of violent self-assertion was welcome to him at
26:41
Speaker 1: any time, and when he was irritated he found it
26:44
Speaker 1: a distinct luxury to kick a dog or throw a
26:47
Speaker 1: boot at a cat. The springs of the omnibus, he argued,
26:50
Speaker 1: had no right to be broken when it was known
26:52
Speaker 1: that he was coming home. His anger was only added
26:55
Speaker 1: to by the coachman's halting endeavours in his excuses to
26:59
Speaker 1: veil a fact he knew his master was aware of,
27:02
Speaker 1: that everything at Stornham was more or less out of order,
27:05
Speaker 1: and that dilapidations were the inevitable result of there being
27:08
Speaker 1: no money to pay for repairs. The man leaned forward
27:11
Speaker 1: on his box and spoke at last in a low voice.'
27:13
Speaker 1: The bus has been broken some time,' he said.' It' s
27:18
Speaker 1: an expensive job, Sir Nigel. Her ladyship thought it better
27:21
Speaker 1: to—' Sir Nigel turned white about the mouth.' Hold your tongue,'
27:26
Speaker 1: he commanded, and the coachman got red in the face, saluted,
27:30
Speaker 1: biting his lips, and sat very stiff and upright on
27:33
Speaker 1: his box. The station-master edged away uneasily and tried to
27:37
Speaker 1: look as if he were not listening, but Rosalie could
27:40
Speaker 1: see that he couldn't help hearing, nor could the country
27:42
Speaker 1: people who had been passengers by the train, and who
27:45
Speaker 1: were collecting their belongings and getting into their traps. Lady
27:49
Speaker 1: Anstruthers was ignored and remained standing while the scene went on.
27:53
Speaker 1: She could not help recalling the manner in which she
27:56
Speaker 1: had been invariably received in New York on her return
27:58
Speaker 1: from any journey, how she was met by comfortable, merry
28:02
Speaker 1: people and taken care of at once. This was so strange,
28:06
Speaker 1: it was so queer, so different.' Oh, never mind, Nigel, dear,'
28:10
Speaker 1: she said at last, with innocent indiscretion.' It doesn't really matter,
28:14
Speaker 1: you know.' Sir Nigel turned upon her a blaze of
28:17
Speaker 1: haughty indignation.' If you'll pardon my saying so, it does matter,'
28:22
Speaker 1: he said.' It matters confoundedly. Be good enough to take
28:26
Speaker 1: your place in the carriage.' He moved to the carriage door,
28:29
Speaker 1: and not too civilly put her in. She gasped a
28:32
Speaker 1: little for breath as she sat down. He had spoken
28:35
Speaker 1: to her as if she had been an impertinent servant
28:37
Speaker 1: who had taken a liberty. The poor girl was bewildered
28:41
Speaker 1: to the verge of panic. When he had ended his
28:43
Speaker 1: tirade and took his place beside her, he wore his
28:46
Speaker 1: most haughtily intolerant air.' May I request that in future
28:50
Speaker 1: you will be good enough not to interfere when I
28:53
Speaker 1: am reproving my servants?' he remarked.' I didn't mean to interfere,'
28:57
Speaker 1: she apologised tremulously.' I don't know what you meant. I
29:01
Speaker 1: only know what you did,' was his response.' You American
29:05
Speaker 1: women are too fond of cutting in. An Englishman can
29:08
Speaker 1: think for himself without his wife's assistance.' the tears rose
29:12
Speaker 1: to her eyes. The introduction of the international question overpowered
29:16
Speaker 1: her as always.' Don' t begin to be hysterical,' was the
29:20
Speaker 1: ameliorating tenderness with which he observed the two hot salt
29:24
Speaker 1: drops which fell despite her.' I should hardly wish to
29:27
Speaker 1: present you to my mother, bathed in tears.' She wiped
29:31
Speaker 1: the salt drops hastily away, and sat for a moment
29:34
Speaker 1: in silence in the corner of the carriage. Being wholly
29:37
Speaker 1: primitive and unanalytical, she was ashamed and began to blame herself.
29:41
Speaker 1: He was right. She must not be silly because she
29:44
Speaker 1: was unused to things. She ought not to be disturbed
29:47
Speaker 1: by trifles. She must try to be nice and look cheerful.
29:51
Speaker 1: She made an effort and did not speak for a
29:53
Speaker 1: few minutes. When she had recovered herself, she tried again.'
29:57
Speaker 1: English country is so pretty,' she said, when she thought
30:00
Speaker 1: she was quite sure that her voice would not tremble.'
30:02
Speaker 1: I do so like the hedges and the darling little
30:05
Speaker 1: red-roofed cottages.' It was an innocent tentative at saying something
30:09
Speaker 1: agreeable which might propitiate him. She was beginning to realise
30:13
Speaker 1: that she was continually making efforts to propitiate him, but
30:17
Speaker 1: one of the forms of unpleasantness most enjoyable to him
30:20
Speaker 1: was the snubbing of any gentle effort at palliating his mood.
30:24
Speaker 1: He condescended in this case no response whatever, but merely
30:27
Speaker 1: continued staring contemptuously before him.' It is so picturesque and
30:32
Speaker 1: so unlike America,' was the pathetic little commonplace she ventured next.'
30:36
Speaker 1: Ain' t it, Nigel?' He turned his head slowly towards her,
30:42
Speaker 1: as if she had taken a new liberty in disturbing
30:44
Speaker 1: his meditations.' What?' he drawled. It was almost too much
30:49
Speaker 1: for her to sustain herself under. Her courage collapsed.' I
30:54
Speaker 1: was only saying how pretty the cottages were,' she faltered,'
30:57
Speaker 1: and that there's nothing like this in America.'' You ended
31:01
Speaker 1: your remark by adding,' Ain' t it?' her husband condescended.' There' s
31:06
Speaker 1: nothing like that in England.' I shall ask you to
31:08
Speaker 1: do me the favour of leaving Americanisms out of your
31:11
Speaker 1: conversation' when you're in the Society of English Ladies and Gentlemen.'
31:14
Speaker 1: It won't do.'' I didn't know I said it,' Rosie
31:19
Speaker 1: answered feebly.' That is the difficulty,' was his response.' You
31:24
Speaker 1: never know, but educated people do.' There was nothing more
31:28
Speaker 1: to be said, at least for a girl who had
31:30
Speaker 1: never known what it was to be bullied. This one
31:33
Speaker 1: felt like a beggar, or a scullery maid, who, being
31:36
Speaker 1: rated by her master, had not the refuge of being
31:39
Speaker 1: able to give warning. She could never give warning. The
31:42
Speaker 1: Atlantic Ocean was between her and those who had loved
31:45
Speaker 1: and protected her all her short life, and the carriage
31:48
Speaker 1: was bearing her onwards to the home in which she
31:50
Speaker 1: was to live alone as this man's companion to the
31:53
Speaker 1: end of her existence. She made no further propitiatory efforts,
31:58
Speaker 1: but sat and stared in simple blankness at the country,
32:01
Speaker 1: which seemed to increase in loveliness at each new point
32:04
Speaker 1: of view. Sometimes she saw sweet wooded rolling lands made
32:08
Speaker 1: lovelier by the homely farmhouses and cottages, enclosed and sheltered
32:12
Speaker 1: by thick hedges and trees. Once or twice they drove
32:15
Speaker 1: past a park enfolding a great house, guarded by its
32:18
Speaker 1: huge central oaks and beeches. Once the carriage passed through
32:23
Speaker 1: an adorable little village, where children played on the green,
32:26
Speaker 1: and a square-towered grey church seemed to watch over the
32:29
Speaker 1: steep-roofed cottages and creeper-covered vicarage. If she had been a
32:33
Speaker 1: happy American tourist, travelling in company with impressionable friends, she
32:37
Speaker 1: would have broken into ecstatic little exclamations of admiration every
32:41
Speaker 1: five minutes. But it had been driven home to her
32:44
Speaker 1: that to her present companion, to whom nothing was new,
32:47
Speaker 1: Her rapture would merely represent the crudeness which had existed
32:50
Speaker 1: in contentment in a brownstone house on a noisy thoroughfare,
32:54
Speaker 1: through a life which had been passed tramping up and
32:56
Speaker 1: down numbered streets and avenues. They approached at last a
33:00
Speaker 1: second village with a green, a grass-grown street, and the
33:04
Speaker 1: irregular red-tiled cottages, which, to the unaccustomed eye, seemed rather
33:08
Speaker 1: to represent studies for sketches than absolute realities. The bells
33:13
Speaker 1: in the church tower broke forth into a chime, and
33:16
Speaker 1: people appeared at the doors of the cottages. The men
33:19
Speaker 1: touched their foreheads as the carriage passed, and the children
33:22
Speaker 1: made bobbing curtsies. Sir Nigel condescended to straighten himself a
33:27
Speaker 1: trifle in his seat, and recognised the greetings with a
33:30
Speaker 1: stiff half-military salute. The poor girl at his side felt
33:34
Speaker 1: that he put as little feeling as possible into the movement,
33:37
Speaker 1: and that if she herself had been a bowing villager,
33:40
Speaker 1: She would almost have preferred to be wholly ignored. She
33:43
Speaker 1: looked at him questioningly.' Are they? Must I?' she began.'
33:48
Speaker 1: Make some civil recognition,' answered Sir Nigel, as if he
33:52
Speaker 1: were instructing an ignorant child.' It is customary.' So she
33:57
Speaker 1: bowed and tried to smile, and the joyous clamour of
34:00
Speaker 1: the bells brought the awful lump into her throat again.
34:03
Speaker 1: It reminded her of the ringing of the chimes at
34:05
Speaker 1: the New York church on that day of her marriage—
34:08
Speaker 1: which had been so full of gay, luxurious bustle, so
34:11
Speaker 1: crowded with wedding presents and flowers, and warm-hearted, affectionate congratulations,
34:16
Speaker 1: and good wishes uttered in merry American voices. The park
34:21
Speaker 1: at Stornham Court was large and beautiful and old. The
34:24
Speaker 1: trees were magnificent, and the broad sweep of sward and
34:27
Speaker 1: rich dip of ferny dell all that the imagination could desire.
34:31
Speaker 1: The court itself was old and many-gabled and mellow red
34:35
Speaker 1: and fine. Rosalie had learned from no precedent as yet,
34:38
Speaker 1: that houses of its kind may represent the apotheosis of
34:41
Speaker 1: discomfort and dilapidation within, and only become more beautiful without.
34:47
Speaker 1: Tumbled-down chimneys and broken tiles, being clambered over by tossing ivy,
34:51
Speaker 1: are pictures to delight the soul. As she descended from
34:55
Speaker 1: the carriage, the girl was tremulous and uncertain of herself,
34:58
Speaker 1: and much overpowered by the unbending air of the manservant
35:02
Speaker 1: who received her as if she were a parcel in
35:04
Speaker 1: which it was no part of his duty, to take
35:06
Speaker 1: the smallest interest. As she mounted the stone steps she
35:10
Speaker 1: caught a glimpse of broad gloom within the threshold, a
35:13
Speaker 1: big square dingy hall where some other servants were drawn
35:17
Speaker 1: up in a row. She had read of something of
35:19
Speaker 1: the sort in English novels, and she was suddenly embarrassed
35:23
Speaker 1: afresh by her realisation of the fact that she did
35:26
Speaker 1: not know what to do, and that if she made
35:28
Speaker 1: a mistake Nigel would never forgive her. An elderly woman
35:32
Speaker 1: came out of a room opening into the hall. She
35:35
Speaker 1: was an ugly woman of a rigid carriage, which, with
35:38
Speaker 1: the obvious intention of being severely majestic, was only antagonistic.
35:42
Speaker 1: She had a flaccid chin, and was curiously like Nigel.
35:46
Speaker 1: She had also his expression when he intended to be disagreeable.
35:50
Speaker 1: She was the dowager Lady Anstruthers, and being an entirely
35:53
Speaker 1: revolting old person at her best, she objected extremely to
35:57
Speaker 1: the transatlantic bride who had made her a dowager, though
36:00
Speaker 1: she was determinedly prepared to profit by any practical benefit
36:03
Speaker 1: likely to accrue.' Well, Nigel,' she said in a deep voice,'
36:07
Speaker 1: here you are at last.' This was, of course, a
36:11
Speaker 1: statement not to be refuted. She held out a leathern cheek,
36:15
Speaker 1: and as Sir Nigel also presented his, their caress of
36:18
Speaker 1: greeting was a singular and not effusive one.' Is this
36:22
Speaker 1: your wife?' she asked, giving Rosalie a bony hand, and
36:25
Speaker 1: as he did not indignantly deny this to be the fact,
36:29
Speaker 1: she added,' How do you do?' Rosalie murmured a reply,
36:33
Speaker 1: and tried to control herself by making another effort to
36:36
Speaker 1: swallow the lump in her throat. But she could not
36:38
Speaker 1: swallow it. She had been keeping a desperate hold on
36:41
Speaker 1: herself too long. The bewildered misery of her awakening, the
36:45
Speaker 1: awkwardness of the public row at the station, the sulks
36:49
Speaker 1: which had filled the carriage to repletion through all the
36:51
Speaker 1: long drive, and finally the jangling bells which had so
36:55
Speaker 1: recalled that last joyous day at home, at home, had
36:58
Speaker 1: brought her to a point where this meeting between mother
37:01
Speaker 1: and son, these two stony, unpleasant creatures, exchanging a reluctant
37:06
Speaker 1: rub of uninviting cheeks, as two savages might have rubbed noses,
37:11
Speaker 1: proved the finishing impetus to hysteria. They were so hideous,
37:14
Speaker 1: these two, and so ghastly comic and fantastic in their
37:18
Speaker 1: unresponsive glumness, that the poor girl lost all hold upon herself,
37:22
Speaker 1: and broke into a trembling shriek of laughter.' Oh!' she
37:26
Speaker 1: gasped in terror at what she felt to be her
37:29
Speaker 1: indecent madness.' Oh, how, how!' And then, seeing Nigel's furious start,
37:35
Speaker 1: his mother's glare, and all the servants alarmed stare at her,
37:39
Speaker 1: she rushed staggering to the only creature she felt she knew,
37:41
Speaker 1: her maid Hannah, clutched her, and broke down into wild sobbing.' Oh,
37:47
Speaker 1: take me away!' she cried. oh do oh do oh
37:50
Speaker 1: hannah oh mother mother take your mistress to her room
37:55
Speaker 1: commanded sir nigel go downstairs he called out to the
37:58
Speaker 1: servants take her upstairs at once and throw water in
38:01
Speaker 1: her face to the excited hannah and as the new
38:05
Speaker 1: lady anstruthers was half led half dragged in humiliated hysteric
38:09
Speaker 1: disorder up the staircase he took his mother by the
38:12
Speaker 1: elbow marched her into the nearest room and shut the
38:15
Speaker 1: door There they stood and stared at each other, breathing quick,
38:19
Speaker 1: enraged breaths, and looking particularly alike with their heavy-featured, thick-skinned,
38:23
Speaker 1: infuriated faces. It was the dowager who spoke first, and
38:28
Speaker 1: her whole voice and manner expressed all she intended that
38:31
Speaker 1: they should, all the derision, dislike, and scathing resignment to
38:35
Speaker 1: a grotesque fate.' Well,' said her ladyship, 'so this is
38:40
Speaker 1: what you have brought home from America.' End of chapter
38:45
Speaker 1: 3