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The Wheels of Chance Chapters 16 to 19 · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Section six of the Wheels of Chance. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Marianne Spiegel. The Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen of the Artificial in Man and of the Zeitgeist.
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  Speaker 1: You have seen these two young people, but channel by
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  Speaker 1: the bye is the man's name, and the girls is
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  Speaker 1: Jesse Milton. From the outside you have heard them talking.
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  Speaker 1: They ride now side by side, but not too close together,
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  Speaker 1: and in an uneasy silence, toward Hazelmere. And this chapter
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  Speaker 1: will concern itself with those curious little council chambers inside
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  Speaker 1: their skulps, where their motives are in session and their
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  Speaker 1: acts are considered and passed. But first a word concerning
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  Speaker 1: whigs and false teeth. Some jester enlarging a upon the
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  Speaker 1: increase of bald heads and pure blind people, has deduced
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  Speaker 1: a wonderful feature for the children of men. Man, he said,
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  Speaker 1: was nowadays a hairless creature by forty or fifty. And
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  Speaker 1: for hair we give him a wig shriveled, and we
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  Speaker 1: patted him toothless and low false teeth set in gold.
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  Speaker 1: Did he lose a limb, and a fine new artificial
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  Speaker 1: one was at his disposal. Get indigestion, and to hand
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  Speaker 1: was artificial digestive fluid or bile or pancreatine, as the
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  Speaker 1: case might be. Complexions too were replaceable spectacles, superseded and
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  Speaker 1: inefficient eyelands, and imperceptible false diaphragms or thrust into the
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  Speaker 1: failing ear. So he went over our anatomies, until at
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  Speaker 1: last he had conjured up a weird thing of shreds
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  Speaker 1: and patches, a similar crum, an artificial body of a man,
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  Speaker 1: but with a doubtful germ of living flesh lurking somewhere
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  Speaker 1: in his recesses. To that he held, we were coming.
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  Speaker 1: How far such odd substitution for the body is possible
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  Speaker 1: need not concern us now. But the devil, speaking by
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  Speaker 1: the lips of mister Rudyard Kipling, hath it that in
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  Speaker 1: the case of one Tomlinson, the thing, so far as
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  Speaker 1: the soul is concerned, has already been accomplished. Time was
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  Speaker 1: when men had simple souls, desires as natural as their eyes,
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  Speaker 1: a little reasonable philanthropy, a little reasonable philoprogenitiveness, hunger, and
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  Speaker 1: a taste for good living, a decent personal vanity, a healthy,
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  Speaker 1: satisfying pugnacity, and so forth. But now we are taught
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  Speaker 1: and disciplined for years and years, and thereafter we read
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  Speaker 1: and read for all the time. Some strenuous nerve destroying
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  Speaker 1: business permits, petadogic hypnotists, pulpit and platform hypnotists, book writing hypnotists,
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  Speaker 1: newspaper writing hypnotists are at us. All this sugar you
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  Speaker 1: are eating, they tell us, is ink and forthwith we
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  Speaker 1: reject it with infinite disgust. This black draft of unrequited
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  Speaker 1: toil is true happiness, and down it goes with every
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  Speaker 1: symptom of pleasure. This is been, they say, is dull,
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  Speaker 1: past believing, and we yawn and stretch beyond endurance. Pardon,
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  Speaker 1: they interrupt, But this is been is deep and delightful,
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  Speaker 1: and we vie with one another in an excess of entertainment.
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  Speaker 1: And when we open the heads of these two young people,
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  Speaker 1: we find not a straightforward motive on the surface. Anywhere.
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  Speaker 1: We find, indeed, not a soul so much as an
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  Speaker 1: over soul, a zeitgeist, a congestion of acquired ideas, a
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  Speaker 1: highways feast of fine confused thinking the girl is resolute
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  Speaker 1: to live her own life, a phrase you may have
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  Speaker 1: heard before. And the man has a pretty perverted ambition
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  Speaker 1: to be a cynical artistic person of the very calmest description.
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  Speaker 1: He is hoping for the oakeing of passion in her,
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  Speaker 1: among other things. He knows passion ought to awaken from
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  Speaker 1: the text books he has studied. He knows she admires
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  Speaker 1: his genius, but he is unaware that she does not
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  Speaker 1: admire his head. He is quite a distinguished art critic
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  Speaker 1: in London, and he met her at that celebrated lady
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  Speaker 1: novelists her stepmother. And here you have them well embarked
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  Speaker 1: upon the adventure. Both are in the first stage of repentance,
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  Speaker 1: which consists, as you have probably found for yourself, in
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  Speaker 1: setting your teeth hard and saying I will go on.
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  Speaker 1: Things you see have jarred a little. And they ride
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  Speaker 1: on their way together with a certain aloofness of manner
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  Speaker 1: that promises ill for the orthodox development of the adventure.
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  Speaker 1: He perceives he was too precipitate, but he feels his
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  Speaker 1: honor is involved, and meditates the development of a new attack.
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  Speaker 1: And the girl, she is unawakened, her motives are bookish,
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  Speaker 1: written by a Haphazards indicate of authors, novelists, and biographers
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  Speaker 1: on her white inexperience. An artificial oversoul she is that
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  Speaker 1: may presently break down and reveal a human being beneath it.
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  Speaker 1: She is still in that schoolgirl phase when a talkative
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  Speaker 1: old man is more interesting than a tongue tied young one,
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  Speaker 1: and when to be an eminent mathematician, say, or to
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  Speaker 1: edit a daily paper seems as fine an ambition as
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  Speaker 1: any girl need aspire to Bechamel was to have helped
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  Speaker 1: her to obtain that in the most expeditious manner. And
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  Speaker 1: here he is beside her, talking enigmatical phrases about passion,
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  Speaker 1: looking at her with the oddest expression, and once and
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  Speaker 1: that was his gravest offense, offering to kiss her at
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  Speaker 1: any rate. He has apologized, she still scarcely realizes. You
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  Speaker 1: see the scrape she has got into chapter seventeen, the
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  Speaker 1: encounter at Midhurst. We left mister hoopdriver at the door
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  Speaker 1: of the little Tea, toy and Tobacco shop. You must
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  Speaker 1: not think that a strain is put on coincidence when
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  Speaker 1: I tell you that next door to missus Wardours, that
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  Speaker 1: was the name of the bright eyed little old lady
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  Speaker 1: with whom mister Hoopdriver had stopped is the Angel Hotel,
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  Speaker 1: And in the Angel Hotel on the night that mister
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  Speaker 1: Hoopdriver reached Midhurst, where mister and Miss Beaumont are Bechamel
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  Speaker 1: and Jesse Milton. Indeed, it was a highly probable thing,
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  Speaker 1: for if one goes through Guildford, the choice of southward
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  Speaker 1: roads is limited. You may go by Petersfield to Portsmouth,
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  Speaker 1: or by Midhurst to Chichester. In addition to which highways,
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  Speaker 1: there is nothing for it but minor roadways to Petworth
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  Speaker 1: or Pulborough and cross cuts Brighton Wood and coming to
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  Speaker 1: Midhurst from the north, the Angel's entrance lies yawning to
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  Speaker 1: engulf your highly respectable cyclists, while missus Wardour's genial teapot
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  Speaker 1: is equally attractive to those away their means in little scales.
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  Speaker 1: But to people unfamiliar with the Sussex roads, and such
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  Speaker 1: were the three persons of this story, the convergence did
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  Speaker 1: not appear to be so inevitable. Bechamel, tightening his chain
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  Speaker 1: in the angel yard after dinner, was the first to
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  Speaker 1: be aware of their reunion. He saw Hoopdriver walk slowly
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  Speaker 1: across the gateway, his head and haloed in cigarette smoke,
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  Speaker 1: and pass out of sight up the street. Incontinently, a
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  Speaker 1: mass of cloudy uneasiness that had partially dispelled during the
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  Speaker 1: day reappeared and concentrated rapidly into definite suspicion. He put
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  Speaker 1: his screw hammer into his pocket and walked through the
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  Speaker 1: archway into the street to settle the business forthwith, For
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  Speaker 1: he prided himself on his decision. Hoopdriver was merely promenading,
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  Speaker 1: and they met face to face. At the sight of
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  Speaker 1: his adversary, something between disgust and laughter seized mister Hoopdriver,
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  Speaker 1: and for a moment destroyed his animosity ere again, he said,
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  Speaker 1: laughing insincerely, in a sudden outbreak at the perversity of chance.
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  Speaker 1: The other man in brown stopped short in mister Hoopdriver's way, staring,
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  Speaker 1: then his face assumed an expression of dangerous civility. Is
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  Speaker 1: it any information to you, he said, with immense politeness,
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  Speaker 1: when I remark that you are following us, Mister Hoopdriver,
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  Speaker 1: for some occult reason, resisted his characteristic impulse to apologize.
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  Speaker 1: He wanted to annoy the other man in brown, and
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  Speaker 1: a sentence that had come into his head in a
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  Speaker 1: previous rehearsal cropped up appropriately. Since when, said mister hoopdriver,
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  Speaker 1: catching his breath yet bringing the question out valiantly, none
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  Speaker 1: the less, Since when have you purchased the county of Sussex?
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  Speaker 1: May I point out, said the other man in brown,
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  Speaker 1: that I object. We object not only to your proximity
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  Speaker 1: to us. To be frank, you appear to be following
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  Speaker 1: us with an object. You can always, said mister hoopdriver.
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  Speaker 1: Turn round if you don't like it, or go back
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  Speaker 1: the way you came. Oh ho, said the other man
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  Speaker 1: in brown. That's it, I thought, as much, did you,
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  Speaker 1: said mister hoopdriver, Quite at sea, but rising pluckily to
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  Speaker 1: the unknown occasion. What was the man driving at I see,
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  Speaker 1: said the other man. I see, I half suspected. His
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  Speaker 1: manner changed abruptly to a quality suspiciously friendly. Yes, a
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  Speaker 1: word with you, you will, I hope give me ten minutes.
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  Speaker 1: Wonderful things were dawning on mister hoopdriver. What did the
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  Speaker 1: other man take him for? Here at last was reality?
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  Speaker 1: He hesitated. Then he thought of an admirable phrase. You
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  Speaker 1: have some communication. We'll call it a communication, said the
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  Speaker 1: other man. I can spare you the ten minutes, said
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  Speaker 1: mister hoopdriver, with dignity. This way, then, said the other
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  Speaker 1: man in brown, and they walked slowly down the north
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  Speaker 1: street toward the ground. There was perhaps thirty second silence.
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  Speaker 1: The other man stroked his mustache nervously. Mister Hoopdriver's dramatic
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  Speaker 1: instincts were now fully awake. He did not quite understand
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  Speaker 1: in what role he was cast, but it was evidently
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  Speaker 1: something dark and mysterious. Doctor Conan Doyle, Victor Hugo, and
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  Speaker 1: Alexander Dumas were well within mister Hoopdriver's range of reading,
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  Speaker 1: and he had not read them for nothing. I will
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  Speaker 1: be perfectly frank with you, said the other man in brown.
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  Speaker 1: Frankness is always the best course, said mister hoopdriver. Well, then,
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  Speaker 1: who the devil set you on this business? Set me
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  Speaker 1: on this business? Don't pretend to be stupid. Who's your employer?
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  Speaker 1: Who engaged you for this job? Well, said mister hoopdriver, confused, No,
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  Speaker 1: I can't say quite sure. The other man in brown
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  Speaker 1: glanced meaningfully down at his hand, and mister Hoopdriver, following
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  Speaker 1: him mechanically saw a yellow milled edge glittering in the twilight. Now,
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  Speaker 1: your shop assistant is just above the tip receiving class,
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  Speaker 1: and only just above it, so that he is acutely
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  Speaker 1: sensitive on the point, mister hoopdriver flushed hotly, and his
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  Speaker 1: eyes were angry as he met those of the other
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  Speaker 1: man in Brown. Stow it, said mister Hoopdriver, stopping and
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  Speaker 1: facing the tempter. What said the other man in Brown? Surprised, eh,
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  Speaker 1: and so saying he stowed it in his breeches pocket.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think I'm to be bribed? Said mister Hoopdriver,
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  Speaker 1: whose imagination was rapidly expanding the situation by gosh, I'd
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  Speaker 1: follow you now, my dear sir, said the other man
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  Speaker 1: in Brown. I beg your pardon. I misunderstood you. I
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  Speaker 1: really beg your pardon. Let us walk on in your profession.
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  Speaker 1: What have you got to say against my profession? Well, really,
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  Speaker 1: you know, there are detectives of an inferior description watchers
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  Speaker 1: the whole class private inquiry. I did not realize. I
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  Speaker 1: really trust you. Overlook what was After all, you must
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  Speaker 1: admit a natural indiscretion. Men of honor are not so
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  Speaker 1: common in the world, in any profession. It was lucky
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  Speaker 1: for mister Hoopdriver that amid hers they do not light
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  Speaker 1: the lamps in the summer time, or the one they
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  Speaker 1: were passing had betrayed him. As it was, he had
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  Speaker 1: to snatch suddenly at his mustache and tug fiercely at
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  Speaker 1: it to conceal the furious tumult of exultation, the passion
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  Speaker 1: of laughter that came boiling up Detective even in the shadow,
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  Speaker 1: Bechamel saw that the laugh was stifled, but he put
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  Speaker 1: it down to the fact that the phrase men of
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  Speaker 1: honor amused his interlocutor. He'll come round yet, said Bechamel
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  Speaker 1: to himself. He's simply holding out for a fiver, he coughed.
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  Speaker 1: I don't see that it hurts you to tell me
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  Speaker 1: who your employer is, don't you? I do prompt said
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  Speaker 1: Bechamel appreciatively. Now here's the thing I want to put
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  Speaker 1: to you, the colonel of the whole business. You need
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  Speaker 1: not answer if you don't want to. There's no harm
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  Speaker 1: done in my tees telling you what I want to know.
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  Speaker 1: Are you employed to watch me or miss Milton. I'm
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  Speaker 1: not the leaky sort, said mister Hoopdriver, keeping the secret
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  Speaker 1: he did not know. With immense enjoyment. Miss Milton that
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  Speaker 1: was her name. Perhaps he'd tells some more. It's no
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  Speaker 1: good pumping, Is that all you're after? Said mister hoopdriver.
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  Speaker 1: Bechamel respected himself for his diplomatic gifts. He tried to
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  Speaker 1: catch a remark by throwing out a confidence. I take
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  Speaker 1: it there are two people concerned in watching this affair.
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  Speaker 1: Who's the other? Said mister hoopdriver, calmly but controlling, with
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  Speaker 1: enormous internal tension. His self appreciation. Who's the other was
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  Speaker 1: really brilliant. He thought, there's my wife and her stepmother,
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  Speaker 1: and you want to know which it is? Yes, said Bechamel. Well, arstom,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: said mister Hoopdriver, his exultation getting the better of him,
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  Speaker 1: and with a pretty conscious of repartee arstom both Bechamel
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  Speaker 1: turned in patiently. Then he made a last effort. I'd
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  Speaker 1: give a five pound note to know just the precise
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  Speaker 1: state of affairs, he said. I told you to stow that,
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  Speaker 1: said mister hoopdriver, in a threatening tone, and added, with
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  Speaker 1: perfect truth and magnificent mystery. You don't quite understand who
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  Speaker 1: you're dealing with, but you will. He spoke with such
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  Speaker 1: conviction that he half believed that that detective office of
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  Speaker 1: his in London Baker Street in fact really existed. With
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  Speaker 1: that the interview terminated, Bechamel went back to the Angel perturbed.
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  Speaker 1: Hang Detectives. It wasn't the kind of thing he had
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  Speaker 1: anticipated at all. Hoopdriver, with round eyes and a wondering smile,
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  Speaker 1: walked down to where the mill waters glittered in the moonlight, and,
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  Speaker 1: after meditating over the parapet of the bridge for a
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  Speaker 1: space with occasional mutters of private inquiry and the like,
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  Speaker 1: returned with mystery even in his paces towards the town
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  Speaker 1: Chapter eighteen. That glee which Hi Fine's expression in raised
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  Speaker 1: eyebrows and long low whistling noises, was upon mister Hoopdriver
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  Speaker 1: for space. He forgot the tears of the young lady
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  Speaker 1: in gray. Here was a new game, and a real one,
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  Speaker 1: mister Hoopdriver as a private inquiry agent, a Sherlock Holmes
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  Speaker 1: in fact, keeping these two people under observation. He walked
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  Speaker 1: slowly back from the bridge until he was opposite the Angel,
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  Speaker 1: and stood for ten minutes, perhaps contemplating that establishment and
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  Speaker 1: enjoying all the strange sensations of being this wonderful, this
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  Speaker 1: mysterious and terrible thing. Everything fell into place in his scheme.
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  Speaker 1: He had, of course, by a kind of instinct, assumed
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  Speaker 1: the disguise of a cyclist, picked up the first old
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  Speaker 1: crock that he came across as a means of pursuit.
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  Speaker 1: No expense was to be spared. Then he tried to
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  Speaker 1: understand what it was, in particular that he was observing
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  Speaker 1: my wife, her stepmother. Then he remembered her swimming eyes.
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  Speaker 1: Abruptly came a wave of anger that surprised him, rushed
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  Speaker 1: away the detective superstructure and left him plain. Mister Hoopdriver,
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  Speaker 1: this man in brown, with his confident manner and his
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  Speaker 1: proffered half sovereign damn him, was up to no good else.
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  Speaker 1: Why should he object to being watched? He was married,
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  Speaker 1: she was not his sister. He began to understand. A
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: horrible suspicion of the state of affairs came into mister
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Hoopdriver's head. Surely it had not come to that he
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: was a detective. He would find out. How was it
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  Speaker 1: to be done? He began to submit sketches on approval
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: to himself. It required an effort before he could walk
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  Speaker 1: into the Angel bar, a lemonade and bitter, please, said
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: mister hoopdriver. He cleared his throat. Are mister and missus
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  Speaker 1: Bolong stopping here? What a gentleman and a young lady
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  Speaker 1: on bicycle? Fairly young? A married couple, no, said the barmaid,
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  Speaker 1: A talkative person of ample dimensions. There's no married couple
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  Speaker 1: stopping here, but there's a mister and miss bow Beaumont.
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  Speaker 1: She spelt it for precision. Sure you've got the names right,
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  Speaker 1: young man, quite, said mister hoopdriver. Beaumont there is, but
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  Speaker 1: no one of the name of What was the name
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  Speaker 1: you gave, Bowlong, said mister hoopdriver. No, there ain't no Bowlong,
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  Speaker 1: said the barmaid, taking up a glass cloth and a
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: drying tumbler, and beginning to polish the latter. First off,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: I thought you might be asking for Beaumont, the names
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: being similar. We're expecting them on bicycles. Yes, they said,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: they might be Amidhurst to night. Perhaps they'll come presently.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: Beaumont's here, But no Bowlong. Sure that Beaumont ain't the name, certain,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: said mister hoopdriver. It's curious the name's being so alike,
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  Speaker 1: I thought, perhaps, And so they conversed at some length
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: mister Hoopdriver, delighted to find his horrible suspicion disposed of.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: The bar maid, having listened awhile at the staircase, volunteered
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: some particulars of the young couple upstairs. Her modesty was
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: much impressed by the young lady's costume, so she intimated,
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  Speaker 1: and mister Hoopdriver whispered the bandage natural to the occasion
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  Speaker 1: at which she was coquettishly shocked. There'll be no knowing
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  Speaker 1: which is which in a year or two, said the
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  Speaker 1: bar maid, and her manner too. She got off her
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: machine and give it in to stick against the verb,
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  Speaker 1: and in she marched. I am my brother, she says,
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  Speaker 1: want to stop here to night. My brother doesn't mind
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  Speaker 1: what kind of room E as, but I want a
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  Speaker 1: room with a good view, if there's one to be got,
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  Speaker 1: says she. He comes hurrying in after and looks at her.
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  Speaker 1: I've settled the rooms, she says, and he says, damn,
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  Speaker 1: just like that. I can fancy my brother letting me
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  Speaker 1: boss the show like that. I daresay you do, said
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  Speaker 1: mister Hoopdriver. If the truth was known, the bar maid
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: looked down, She smiled and shook her head, put down
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  Speaker 1: the tumbler, polished, and took up another that had been draining,
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  Speaker 1: and shook the drops of water into her little sink. Sink.
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  Speaker 1: She'll be a nice little lot to marry, said the maid.
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  Speaker 1: She'll be wearing the well b dashes as the saying is.
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  Speaker 1: I can't think what girls is coming to. This depreciation
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  Speaker 1: of the young lady in gray was hardly to Hoopdriver's taste. Fashion,
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  Speaker 1: said he taking up his change. Fashion is all the
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  Speaker 1: go with you, ladies, and always was. You'll be wearin
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  Speaker 1: em yourself before a couple years us out nice they'd
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  Speaker 1: look on my figure, said the bar maid with a titter. No,
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  Speaker 1: I ain't one of your fashionable sort, gracious, No, I
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  Speaker 1: should feel as if i'd anything on me, not more
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  Speaker 1: than if i'd forgot Well there i'm talking. She put
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  Speaker 1: down the glass abruptly. I daresay I'm old fashioned, she said,
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  Speaker 1: and walked humming down the bar. Not you, said mister Hoopdriver.
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  Speaker 1: He waited until he caught her eye, and then, with
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: his native courtesy, smiled, raised his cap and wished her
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: good evening. Chapter fourteen. Then mister Hoopdriver returned to the
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: little room with the lead framed windows where he had
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: dined and where the bed was now comfortably made. Sat
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: down on the box under the window, stared at the
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: moon rising on the shining vicarage roof, and tried to
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: collect his thoughts. How they whirled. At first, it was
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: past ten, and most of Midhurst was tucked away in bed.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Some one up the street was learning the violin. At
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: rare intervals, a belated inhabitant hurried home and woke the echoes,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: and a corn quake kept up a busy churning in
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: the vicarage garden. The sky was deep blue, with a
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: still luminous afterglow along the black edge of the hill,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: and the white moon overhead, save for a couple of
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: yellow stars, had the sky to herself. At first, his
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: thoughts were kinetic of deeds and not relationships. There was
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: this malefactor and his victim, and it had fallen on
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: mister Hoopdriver to take a hand in the game. He
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: was married. Did she know he was married? Never for
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: a moment did a thought of evil concerning her cross
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Hoopdriver's mind. Simple minded people see questions of morals so
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: much better than superior persons who have read and thought
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: themselves complex to impotence. He had heard her voice, seen
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: the frank light in her eyes, and she had been weeping.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: That sufficed the rights of the case. He hadn't properly grasped,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: but he would, and that's smirking well. Swine was the
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: mildest for him. He recalled the exceedingly unpleasant incidents of
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: the railway bridge. Then we won't detain you, thanks, said
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: mister Hoopdriver aloud in a strange, unnatural, contemptible voice supposed
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: to represent that of Bechamon. Oh, the beggar. I'll be
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: level with him. Yet he's afraid of us detectives that
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: all swear. If missus Werder should chance to be on
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: the other side of the door within ear shot, well
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: and good for a space. He meditated chastisements and revenges
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: physical impossibilities for the most part. Bechamel's staggering headlong from
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: the impact of mister Hoopdriver's large but to tell the truth,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: ill supported fist, Bechamel's five foot nine of height, lifted
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: from the ground and quivering under a vigorously applied horsewhip,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: so pleasant with such dreaming that mister Hoopdriver's peaked face
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: under the moonlight was transfigured. One might have paired him
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: with that well known and universally admired triumph, the soul's awakening.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: So sweet was his ecstasy, and presently with his thirst
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: for revenge glutted by six or seven violent assaults, a duel,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: and two vigorous murders, his mind came round to the
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: young lady in gray again. She was a plucky one too.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: He went over the incident the barmaid of the angel
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: had described to him. His thoughts ceased to be a torrent,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: smoothed down to a mirror in which she was reflected
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: with infinite clearness and detail. He'd never meant anything like
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: her before. Fancy that bolster of a barmaid being dressed
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: in that way. He waffed a contemptuous laugh. He compared
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: her color, her vigor, her voice, with the young ladies
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: in business with whom his lot had been cast. Even
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: in tears, she was beautiful, more beautiful indeed to him,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: for it made her seem softer and weaker, more accessible.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: And such weeping as he had seen before, had been
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: so much a matter of damp white faces, red nose,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: and hair coming out of curl your draper's assistant becomes
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: something of a judge of weeping, because weeping is the
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: custom of all young ladies in business, when for any
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: reason their services are dispensed with. She could weep, and
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: by gosh, she could smile. He knew that, and reverting
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: to acting abruptly, he smiled confidently at the puckered pallor
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: of the moon. It is difficult to say how long
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: mister Hoopdriver's pensiveness lasted. It seemed a long time before
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: his thoughts of action returned. Then he remembered that he
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: was a watcher. That tomorrow he must be busy. It
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: would be a character to make notes, and he pulled
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: out his little note book. With that in hand, he
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: fell a thinking again, would that Chap tell her the
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: texts were after them? If so, would she be as
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: anxious to get away as he was. He must be
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: on the allt if possible. He must speak to her,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: just a significant word, your friend, trust me. It occurred
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: to him that tomorrow these fugitives might rise early to escape.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: At that he thought of the time and found it
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: was half past eleven. Lord, he said, I must see
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: that I wake. He yawned and rose the blind was up,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: and he pulled back the little chintz curtains to let
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: the sunlight strike across the bed, hung his watch within
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: good view of his pillow on a nail that supported
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: a kettle holder, and sat down on his bed to undress.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: He lay awake for a little while, thinking of the
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: wonderful possibilities of the morrow. And thence he passed gloriously
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: into the wonderland of dreams and of Section six.