Latest / The Importance of Being Earnest / Admirable Crichton - J. M. Barrie

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Admirable Crichton - J. M. Barrie · The Importance of Being Earnest

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  Speaker 1: Act one of the Admirable Criton. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The
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  Speaker 1: Admirable Criton by J. M. Barry, Act one at Lom House,
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  Speaker 1: may Fair, a moment before the curtain rises, the Honorable
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  Speaker 1: Ernest Woolley drives up to the door of Lom House
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  Speaker 1: in may Fair. There is a happy smile on his pleasant,
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  Speaker 1: insignificant face, and this presumably means that he is thinking
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  Speaker 1: of himself. He is too busy over nothing, this man
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  Speaker 1: about town, to be always thinking of himself. But on
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  Speaker 1: the other hand, he almost never thinks of any other person.
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  Speaker 1: Probably Ernest's great moment is when he wakes of a
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  Speaker 1: morning and realizes that he really is earnest, for we
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  Speaker 1: all must wish to be that which is our ideal.
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  Speaker 1: We can conceive him spring out of bed lightheartedly and
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  Speaker 1: waiting for his man to do the rest. He is
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  Speaker 1: dressed in excellent taste, with just the little bit more,
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  Speaker 1: which shows that he is not without a sense of humor.
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  Speaker 1: The dandiacal are often saved by carrying a smile at
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  Speaker 1: the whole thing in their spats. Let us say Ernest
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  Speaker 1: left Cambridge the other day a member of the Athenaeum,
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  Speaker 1: which he would be sorry to have you confound with
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  Speaker 1: a club in London of the same name. He is
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  Speaker 1: a bachelor, but not of arts, no mean epigrammatist, as
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  Speaker 1: you shall see, and a favorite of the ladies. He
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  Speaker 1: is almost a celebrity in restaurants where he dines, frequently
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  Speaker 1: returning to sup and during this last year he has
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  Speaker 1: probably paid as much in them for the privilege of
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  Speaker 1: handing his hat to an attendant. As the rent of
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  Speaker 1: a working man's flat, he complains brightly that he is
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  Speaker 1: hard up, and that if somebody or other at Westminster
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  Speaker 1: does not look out, the country will go to the dog.
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  Speaker 1: He is no fool. He has the shrewdness to float
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  Speaker 1: with the current because it is a labor saving process.
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  Speaker 1: But he has sufficient pluck to fight. If fight, he
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  Speaker 1: must a brief contest, for he would soon be toppled over.
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  Speaker 1: He has a light nature, which would enable him to
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  Speaker 1: bob up cheerily in new conditions and return unaltered to
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  Speaker 1: the old ones. His selfishness is his most endearing quality.
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  Speaker 1: If he has his way he will spend his life
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  Speaker 1: like a cat in pushing his betters out of the
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  Speaker 1: soft places, and until he is old he will be
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  Speaker 1: fondled in the process. He gives his hat to one
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  Speaker 1: footman and his kne to another, and mounts the great
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  Speaker 1: staircase unassisted and undirected. As a nephew of the house.
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  Speaker 1: He need show no credentials, even to Crichton, who is
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  Speaker 1: guarding a door above. It would not be good taste
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  Speaker 1: to describe Crichton, who is only a servant. If to
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  Speaker 1: the scandal of all good houses he is to stand
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  Speaker 1: out as a figure in the play, he must do
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  Speaker 1: it on his own. As they say in the Pantry
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  Speaker 1: and the Boudoir, we are not going to help him.
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  Speaker 1: We have had misgivings ever since we found his name
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  Speaker 1: in the title, and we shall keep him out of
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  Speaker 1: his rights as long as we can. Even though we
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  Speaker 1: softened to him. He would not be a hero in
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  Speaker 1: these clothes of servitude, and he loves his clothes. How
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  Speaker 1: to get him out of them it would require a cataclysm.
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  Speaker 1: To be an indoor servant at all is to crten
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  Speaker 1: a badge of honor. To be a butler at thirty
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  Speaker 1: is the realization of his proudest ambitions. He is devotedly
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  Speaker 1: attached to his master, who, in his opinion, has but
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  Speaker 1: one fault. He is not sufficiently contemptuous of his inferiors.
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  Speaker 1: We are immediately to be introduced to this solitary failing
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  Speaker 1: of a great English peer. This perfect butler then opens
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  Speaker 1: a door and ushers earnest into a certain room. At
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  Speaker 1: the same moment the curtain rises on this room, and
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  Speaker 1: the play begins. It is one of several reception rooms
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  Speaker 1: in lom House, not the most magnificent, but quite the softest,
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  Speaker 1: and of a warm afternoon. All that those who are
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  Speaker 1: anybody crave for is the softest. The larger rooms are
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  Speaker 1: magnificent and bare, carpetless, so that it is an accomplishment
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  Speaker 1: to keep one's feet on them. They are sometimes lent
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  Speaker 1: for charitable purposes. They are also all in use on
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  Speaker 1: the night of a dinner party, when you may find
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  Speaker 1: yourself alone in one having taken a wrong turning, or
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  Speaker 1: alone save for two others who are within hailing distance.
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  Speaker 1: This room, however, is comparatively small and very soft. There
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  Speaker 1: are so many cushions in it that you wonder why
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  Speaker 1: if you are an outsider, and don't know that it
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  Speaker 1: needs six cushions to make one fair head comfy. The
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  Speaker 1: couches themselves are cushions as large as beds, and there
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  Speaker 1: is an art of sinking into them, and of waiting
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  Speaker 1: to be helped out of them. There are several famous
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  Speaker 1: paintings on the walls, of which you may say jolly
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  Speaker 1: thing that without losing caste as knowing too much. And
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  Speaker 1: in cases there are glorious miniatures, but the daughters of
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  Speaker 1: the house cannot tell you of whom there is a
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  Speaker 1: catalog somewhere. There are a thousand or so of roses
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  Speaker 1: in basins, several library novels, and a row of weakly
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  Speaker 1: illustrated newspapers, lying against each other like fallen soldiers. If
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  Speaker 1: any one disturbs this row, Crichton seems to know of
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  Speaker 1: it from afar, and appears noiselessly and replaces the wanderer.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: One thing unexpected in such a room is a great
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  Speaker 1: array of tea things. Ernest spots them with a twinkle,
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  Speaker 1: and has his epigram at once unsheathed. He dallies, however,
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  Speaker 1: before delivering the thrust.
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  Speaker 2: I perceive from the teacup's Crichton that the great function
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  Speaker 2: is to take place here.
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  Speaker 1: With a respectful sigh, Yes, sir, chuckling heartlessly.
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  Speaker 2: The servants hall coming up to have tea in the drawing.
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  Speaker 1: Room with terrible sarcasm.
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  Speaker 2: No wonder you look happy, Crichton under the knife. No, sir,
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  Speaker 2: do you know, Crichton, I think that with an effort,
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  Speaker 2: you might look even happier.
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  Speaker 1: Crichton smiles Wanly.
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  Speaker 2: You don't approve of his Lordship's compelling his servants to
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  Speaker 2: be equals once a month.
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  Speaker 3: It is not for me, sir, to disapprove of his
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  Speaker 3: Lordship's radical views.
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  Speaker 2: Certainly not. And after all, it is only once a
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  Speaker 2: month that he is affable to you.
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  Speaker 3: On all other days of the month, Sir, his Lordship's
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  Speaker 3: treatment of us is everything that could be desired.
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  Speaker 1: This is the epigram teacups life.
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  Speaker 2: Crichton is like a cup of tea. The more heartily
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  Speaker 2: we drink, the sooner we reach.
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  Speaker 1: The obediently, thank you, sir. Becoming confidential as we do
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  Speaker 1: when we have need of an ally, Crichton.
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  Speaker 2: In case I should be asked to say a few
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  Speaker 2: words to the servants, I've strung together a little speech.
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  Speaker 1: His hand strays to his pocket.
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  Speaker 2: I was wondering where I should stand.
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  Speaker 1: He tries various places and postures, and comes to rest
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  Speaker 1: leaning over a high chair. Whence, in dumb show, he
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  Speaker 1: addresses a gathering Crichton, with the best intentions, gives him
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  Speaker 1: a footstool to stand on, and departs happily, unconscious that
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  Speaker 1: Ernest in some dudgeon, has kicked the footstool across the room.
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  Speaker 1: Addressing an imaginary audience, and desirous of startling them at once.
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  Speaker 2: I suppose you are all little fishes at the bottom
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  Speaker 2: of the sea.
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  Speaker 1: He is not quite satisfied with his position, though sure
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  Speaker 1: that the fault must lie with the chair for being
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  Speaker 1: too high, not with him for being too short. Crichton's
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  Speaker 1: suggestion was not perhaps a bad one, after all. He
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  Speaker 1: lifts the stool, but hastily conceals it behind him on
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  Speaker 1: the entrance of the ladies Catherine and Agatha, two daughters
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  Speaker 1: of the house. Katherine is twenty and Agatha two years younger.
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  Speaker 1: They are very fashionable young women, indeed who might wake
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  Speaker 1: up for a dance. But they are very lazy, Catherine,
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  Speaker 1: being two years lazier than Agatha, uneasily jocular because he
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  Speaker 1: is concealing the footstool.
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  Speaker 2: Uh, and how are my little friends.
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  Speaker 1: Today contriving to reach a settee?
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  Speaker 4: Don't be silly, earnest. If you want to know how
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  Speaker 4: we are, we are dead. Even to think of entertaining
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  Speaker 4: the servants is so exhausting, subsiding nearer the door.
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  Speaker 5: Besides which we've had to decide what frocks to take
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  Speaker 5: with us on the yacht, and that is such a
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  Speaker 5: mental strain.
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  Speaker 2: Are you poor? Overwork things?
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  Speaker 1: Evidently Agatha is his favorite, for he helps her to
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  Speaker 1: put her feet on the settee, while Catherine has to
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  Speaker 1: dispose of her own feet.
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  Speaker 2: Rest your weary limbs.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps in revenge.
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  Speaker 5: But why have you a footstool in your hand?
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  Speaker 6: Yes?
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  Speaker 1: Why brilliantly. But to be sure he has had time
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  Speaker 1: to think it out.
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  Speaker 2: You see, as the servants are to be the guests,
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  Speaker 2: I must be the butler. I was practicing. This is
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  Speaker 2: a tray, observe.
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  Speaker 1: Holding the footstool as a tray, he minces across the
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  Speaker 1: room like an accomplished footman. The gods favor him, for
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  Speaker 1: just here lady Mary enters, and he holds out the
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  Speaker 1: footstool to her a tea, My lady, Lady Mary is
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  Speaker 1: a beautiful creature of twenty two and is of a
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  Speaker 1: natural hot tour which is at once the fury and
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  Speaker 1: the envy of her sisters. If she chooses, she can
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  Speaker 1: make you seem so insignificant that you feel you must
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  Speaker 1: be swept away with the crumb brid hush. She seldom
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  Speaker 1: chooses because of the trouble of preening herself. As she
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  Speaker 1: does it, she is usually content to show that you
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  Speaker 1: merely tire her eyes. She often seems to be about
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  Speaker 1: to go to sleep. In the middle of a remark.
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  Speaker 1: There is quite a long and anxious pause, and then
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  Speaker 1: she continues, like a clock that hesitates bored in the
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  Speaker 1: middle of its strike, arching her brows.
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  Speaker 6: Ah, it is only you, Ernest, I thought there was
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  Speaker 6: some one here.
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  Speaker 1: And she also bestows herself on cushions, a little piqued
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  Speaker 1: and deserting.
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  Speaker 2: The footstool had a very tiring day.
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  Speaker 1: Also, Mary yawning.
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  Speaker 6: Oo oh, dreadfully been trying on engagement rings all the morning.
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  Speaker 1: Who is as fond of gossip as the oldest club member?
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  Speaker 1: What's that to Agatha?
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  Speaker 2: Is it Brocklehurst?
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  Speaker 1: The energetic Agatha nods.
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  Speaker 2: You have given your warm young heart to bronchie.
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  Speaker 1: Lady Mary is impervious to his humor, but he continues bravely.
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  Speaker 2: I don't wish to fatigue you Mary by insisting on
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  Speaker 2: a verbal answer. But if without straining yourself, you can
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  Speaker 2: signify yes or no, won't you make the effort.
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  Speaker 1: She indolently flashes a ring on her most important finger,
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  Speaker 1: and he starts back melodramatically the ring.
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  Speaker 2: Then I am too late, too.
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  Speaker 1: Late, fixing Lady Mary sternly, like a prosecuting counsel.
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  Speaker 2: May I ask Mary, does Brocky know? Of course it
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  Speaker 2: was that terrible mother of his who pulled this through.
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  Speaker 2: Mother does everything for Brockie. Still, in the eyes of
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  Speaker 2: the law, you will not be her wife, but his,
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  Speaker 2: And therefore I hold that Brocky ought to be informed.
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  Speaker 1: Now he discovers that their languorous eyes have closed.
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  Speaker 2: If you girls are shiming sleep in the expectation that
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  Speaker 2: I shall awaken you in the manner beloved of ladies,
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  Speaker 2: abandon all such hopes.
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  Speaker 1: Catherine and Agatha look up without speaking. Speaking without looking.
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  Speaker 6: Up, you impertinent boy.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Eagerly plucking another epigram from his quiver.
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  Speaker 2: I knew that it was though I don't know everything, Agatha,
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  Speaker 2: I'm not young enough to know everything.
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  Speaker 1: He looks hopefully from one to another. But though they
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  Speaker 1: try to grasp this, his brilliance baffles them. His secret
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  Speaker 1: admirer young enough, encouragingly.
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  Speaker 2: Don't you see I'm not young enough to know everything.
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  Speaker 4: I'm sure it's awfully clever, but it's so puzzling.
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  Speaker 1: Here, Crichton ushers in an athletic, pleasant faced young clergyman,
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  Speaker 1: mister Trehearne, who greets the company.
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  Speaker 5: Ernest say it to mister.
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  Speaker 2: Treehearn Look here, Trehearne, I'm not young enough to know everything.
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  Speaker 1: How do you mean, Ernest a little nettled, I.
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  Speaker 2: Mean what I say.
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  Speaker 6: Say it again, say it more slowly.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not young enough to know everything.
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  Speaker 7: I see what you really mean, my boy, is that
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  Speaker 7: you are not old enough to know everything.
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  Speaker 2: No, I don't.
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  Speaker 7: I assure that's it.
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  Speaker 6: Of course it.
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  Speaker 5: Is, yes, Ernest, that's it.
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  Speaker 1: Earnest, in desperation, appeals to Crichton.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not young enough, Chrichton, to know everything.
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  Speaker 1: It is an anxious moment, but a smile is at
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  Speaker 1: length extorted from Crichton, as with a cork screw. Thank you, sir,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: he goes relieved.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: Bah, if you had that fellow's head, Jrahearne, you would
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: find something better to do with it than play cricket.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: I hear you bowl with your head.
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  Speaker 1: With proper hue.
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  Speaker 7: I'm afraid cricket is all I'm good for Ernest who.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Thinks he has a heavenly nose.
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  Speaker 5: Indeed it isn't. You are sure to get on, mister Trehearne.
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  Speaker 7: Thank you, Lady Catherine.
• 14:13
  Speaker 5: But it was the bishop who told me so. He said,
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: a clergyman who breaks both ways is sure to get
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: on in England.
• 14:20
  Speaker 7: I'm jolly glad.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: The Master of the house comes in, accompanied by Lord Brocklehurst.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: The Earl of Loam is a widower, a philanthropist, and
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: a peer of advanced ideas. As a widower, he is
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: at least able to interfere in the domestic concerns of
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: his house, to rummage in the drawers, so to speak,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: for which he has felt an itching all his blameless life.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: His philanthropy has opened quite a number of other drawers
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: to him, and his advanced ideas have blown out his figure.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: He takes in all the weightiest monthly reviews and prefers
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: those that are uncut, because he perhaps never looks better
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: better than when cutting them. But he does not read them,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: and save for the cutting, it would suit him as
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: well merely to take in the covers. He writes letters
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: to the papers, which are printed in a type to
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: scale with himself, and he is very jealous of those
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: other correspondents who get his type. Let laws and learning
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: art in commerce die, but leave the big type to
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: an intellectual aristocracy. He is really the reformed house of
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: lords which will come some day. Young Lord Brocklehurst is
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: nothing save for his rank. You could pick him up
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: by the handful any day in Piccadilly or Holborn, buying
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: socks or selling them expansively.
• 15:45
  Speaker 8: You are here, ernest, feeling fit for the voyage, Traherne.
• 15:49
  Speaker 7: Looking forward to it enormously.
• 15:52
  Speaker 8: That's right.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: He chases his children about as if they were chickens.
• 15:57
  Speaker 8: Now then Mary up and doing up and doing time.
• 16:00
  Speaker 8: We had the servants in. They enjoy it so much
• 16:03
  Speaker 8: they hate it. Mary to your duties.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: And he points severely to the tea table, twinkling.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: Congratulations.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Brockie, who detests humor.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: Thanks Mother, pleased with dignity.
• 16:21
  Speaker 9: Mother is very.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: Pleased that's good. Do you go on the art with us?
• 16:27
  Speaker 9: Sorry, I can't. And look here, Ernest, I will not
• 16:31
  Speaker 9: be called brocky.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Mother don't like it.
• 16:35
  Speaker 9: She does not.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: He leaves Ernest, who forgives him and begins to think
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: about his speech. Crichton enters, speaking as one man to another.
• 16:47
  Speaker 8: We are quite ready, Crichton.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Crichton is distressed, sarcastically. How Crichton enjoys it, frowning.
• 16:58
  Speaker 8: He's the only one who doesn't, pitiful.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: Creature shuddering under his lord's displeasure.
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: They can't help being conservative, My lord, be a man.
• 17:09
  Speaker 8: Crighton. You are the same flesh and blood as myself
• 17:13
  Speaker 8: in pain.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Ugh, my lord, sharply.
• 17:18
  Speaker 8: Show them in. And by the way, they were not
• 17:21
  Speaker 8: all here last time.
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: Oh, my lord, except the merest trifles.
• 17:27
  Speaker 8: It must be everyone lowering, and remember this, Chriten. For
• 17:32
  Speaker 8: the time being, you are my equal. Testily, I shall
• 17:37
  Speaker 8: soon show you whether you are not my equal. Do
• 17:40
  Speaker 8: as you are told.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: Crichton departs to obey, and his lordship is now a general.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: He has no pity for his daughters and uses a
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: terrible threat.
• 17:52
  Speaker 8: And girls, remember no condescension. The first who condescends recites.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: This sends them scurrying to their labors.
• 18:02
  Speaker 8: By the way, Brocklehurst, can you do anything?
• 18:06
  Speaker 9: How do you mean.
• 18:08
  Speaker 8: Can you do anything with a penny or a handkerchief?
• 18:11
  Speaker 8: Make them disappear? For instance?
• 18:13
  Speaker 9: Good heavens no, it's pity.
• 18:18
  Speaker 8: Everyone in our position ought to be able to do something. Ernest,
• 18:21
  Speaker 8: I shall probably ask you to say a few words,
• 18:24
  Speaker 8: something bright and sparkling.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: But my dear uncle, I have prepared nothing.
• 18:29
  Speaker 8: Anything impromptu will do.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: Oh well, if anything strikes me on the spur of
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: the moment.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: He unostentatiously gets the footstool into position behind the chair.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: Crichton reappears to announce the guests, of whom the first
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: is the housekeeper, reluctantly Missus Perkins, shaking hands.
• 18:53
  Speaker 8: Very delighted, Missus Perkins, Mary our friend, Missus Perkins, how do.
• 18:58
  Speaker 6: You do, Missus Perkinlkins, won't you sit here?
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Threateningly, Agatha hastily, how do you do?
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: Won't you sit down?
• 19:10
  Speaker 8: Introducing Lord Brocklehurst, my valued friend, Missus Perkins.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Lord Brocklehurst bows and escapes. He has to fall back
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: on Earnest.
• 19:21
  Speaker 9: For heaven's sake, Ernest, don't leave me for a moment.
• 19:24
  Speaker 9: This sort of thing is utterly opposed to all my principles.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Hailee, you stick to me, Brocky, and I'll pull you through.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: Monsieur Fleurie the chef, shaking hands with the chef.
• 19:40
  Speaker 8: Very charmed to see you, Monsieur Fleury, thank you very much.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Fleury bows to Agatha, who is not effusive.
• 19:48
  Speaker 8: Warningly Agatha recitation.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: She tosses her head, but immediately finds a seat and
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: tea for Monsieur Fleury. Treharne and Ernest move about making
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: themselves amiable. Lady Mary is presiding at the.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: Tea tray, Mister Rolston.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Shaking hands with his ballet.
• 20:11
  Speaker 8: How do you do Rolston?
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: Catherine looks after the wants of Roliston.
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: Mister Thompson.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Thomson, the coachman is received with honors, from which he shrinks.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Miss Fisher, This superb creature is no less than Lady
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Mary's maid, and even Lord Loam is a little nervous.
• 20:34
  Speaker 8: This is a pleasure, Miss Fisher.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Unabashed if I might venture, Miss Fisher.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: And he takes her unto himself. Miss Symons to Catherine's maid.
• 20:48
  Speaker 8: You are always welcome, Miss Simmons.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: Perhaps to kindle jealousy in miss Fisher.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: At last we meet?
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: Won't you sit down, Mademoiselle Jean?
• 21:00
  Speaker 8: Charmed to see you, Mademoiselle Jean.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: A place is found for Agatha's maid, and the scene
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: is now an animated one. But still our host thinks
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: his girls are not sufficiently sociable. He frowns on Lady
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Mary in alarm.
• 21:17
  Speaker 6: Mister Johann, this is Fisher, my maid.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Sharply you're what Mary?
• 21:25
  Speaker 6: My friend?
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: Thomas?
• 21:29
  Speaker 8: How do you do? Thomas?
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: The first footman gives him a reluctant hand, Jo, how
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: do you do?
• 21:36
  Speaker 8: John?
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Ernest signs to Lord Brocklehurst, who hastens to him, introducing Brocklehurst.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: This is John. I think you have already met on
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: the doorstep.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: Ye, she comes, wrapping her hands miserably in her apron doggedly.
• 21:57
  Speaker 8: Give me your hand, Jane.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Letters, how do you do, gladdys? You know my uncle?
• 22:05
  Speaker 8: Your hand, Gladys.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: He bestows her on Agatha Tweeny. She is a very
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: humble and frightened kitchen maid of whom we are to
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: see more.
• 22:17
  Speaker 10: So happy to see you, John, I saw you talking
• 22:21
  Speaker 10: to Lord Brocklehurst.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Just now introduce me at the same moment to Ernest.
• 22:28
  Speaker 9: That's an uncommon pretty girl. If I must feed one
• 22:32
  Speaker 9: of them, Earnest, that's the one.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: But Ernest tries to part him in Fisher as they
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: are about to shake hands.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: No, you don't. It won't do.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: Brockie to miss Fisher.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: You are too pretty. My dear mother wouldn't like it.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: Discovering Tweeny, here's something safer, charming girl, Brockie dying to
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: know you. Let me introduce you, Tweeny, Lord Brocklehurst, Lord Brocklehurst.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Tweeny Brocklehurst accepts his fate, but he still has an
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: eye for Fisher, and something may come of this severely.
• 23:10
  Speaker 8: They are not all here, Crichton.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: With a sigh, Odds and inns, a stable boy and
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: a page are shown in and for a moment no
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: daughter of the house advances to them with a roving
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: eye on his children, which is to recite the last
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: of the company are so to say, embraced to tom
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: set as they partake of tea together.
• 23:36
  Speaker 8: And how are all at home?
• 23:38
  Speaker 11: Ferish, my lord? If tis the horses you are inquiring for?
• 23:43
  Speaker 8: No, no, the family? How's the baby blooming? Your lordship?
• 23:49
  Speaker 8: A very fine boy. I remember saying so when I
• 23:52
  Speaker 8: saw him, nice little fellow.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: Not quite knowing whether to let it pass.
• 23:57
  Speaker 11: I beg, pardon, my lord, it's a girl.
• 24:01
  Speaker 8: A girl aha, ha, exactly what I said. I distinctly
• 24:06
  Speaker 8: remember saying, if it's spared, it will be a girl.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Crichton now comes down.
• 24:12
  Speaker 8: Very delighted to see you. Crichton.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Crichton has to shake hands Mary.
• 24:18
  Speaker 8: You know, mister Crichton, he.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Wanders off in search of other prey.
• 24:23
  Speaker 6: Milk and sugar.
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: Crichton a may chained to be seen talking to you,
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: my lady, to.
• 24:30
  Speaker 6: Such a perfect servant as you all, this must be
• 24:33
  Speaker 6: most distasteful.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: Crichton is too respectful to answer.
• 24:39
  Speaker 6: Oh, please do speak, or I shall have to recite you.
• 24:43
  Speaker 6: Do hate it, don't you?
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: It pains me, your ladyship. It disturbs the etiquette of
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: the servants hall. After last month's meeting, the page boy,
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: in a burst of equality, called me Crichton. He was dismissed.
• 25:01
  Speaker 6: I wonder, I really do how you can remain with us.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: I should have felt compelled to give notice, my lady,
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: if the Master had not had a seat in the
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: upper house.
• 25:13
  Speaker 6: I cling to that do go on speaking, and tell
• 25:17
  Speaker 6: me what did mister Ernest mean by saying he was
• 25:20
  Speaker 6: not young enough to know everything.
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: I have no idea, my lady, But you laughed, My lady,
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: he is the second son of.
• 25:31
  Speaker 6: A pair, very proper sentiments. You are a good soul, Crichton.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Desperately to Tweeny.
• 25:41
  Speaker 9: And now tell me have you been to the opera?
• 25:44
  Speaker 9: What sort of weather have you been having in the kitchen?
• 25:47
  Speaker 9: Tweeny gurgles, er, For heaven's sake, woman, be articulate.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Still talking to lady Mary.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: No, my lady, his lordship may compel us to be
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: equal upstairs, but there will never be equality in the
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: servants hall.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Overhearing this, what's that?
• 26:08
  Speaker 8: No equality? Can't you see? Criton that our divisions into
• 26:11
  Speaker 8: class are artificial? That if we were to return to nature,
• 26:14
  Speaker 8: which is the aspiration of my life, or would be equal.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: If I may make so bold as to contradict your lordship.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: With an effort, go on.
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: The divisions into classes, my lord, are not artificial. They
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: are the natural outcome of a civilized society.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: To Lady Mary, there.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: Must always be a master and servants in all civilized communities,
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: My lady, for what it is natural, and whatever is
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: natural is right.
• 26:47
  Speaker 8: Wincing, it is very unnatural for me to stand here
• 26:51
  Speaker 8: and allow you to talk such nonsense.
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: Eagerly, yes, my lord, it is. That is what I've
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: been striving to point out to your lordship.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: To Catherine, what is the matter with Fisher?
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: She is looking, Daggers, the tedious creature, some question of etiquette.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: I suppose she sails across to Fisher.
• 27:14
  Speaker 5: How are you, Fisher?
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: With a toss of her head.
• 27:18
  Speaker 10: I am nothing, my lady, I am nothing at all, Oh.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Dear, who says so affronted?
• 27:25
  Speaker 10: His lordship has asked that kitchen wench to have a
• 27:28
  Speaker 10: second cup of tea?
• 27:29
  Speaker 6: But why not if it pleases.
• 27:32
  Speaker 10: His Lordship to offer it to her before offering it
• 27:34
  Speaker 10: to me?
• 27:35
  Speaker 6: So that is it?
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: Do you want another cup of tea? Fisher?
• 27:40
  Speaker 10: No, my lady, but my position I should have been
• 27:43
  Speaker 10: asked first.
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: Oh dear.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: All this has taken some time, and by now the
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: feeble appetites of the uncomfortable guests have been satiated. But
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: they know there is still another ordeal to face his
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: Lordship's monthly speech. Every one awaits it with misgiving. The
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: servants lest they should applaud as last time in the
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: wrong place, and the daughters because he may be personal
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: about them as the time before. Ernest is annoyed that
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: there should be this speech at all, when there is
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: a much better one coming, and Brocklehurst foresees the degradation
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: of the peerage. All are thinking of themselves alone, save Crichton,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: who knows his master's weakness and fears he may stick
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: in the middle. Lord Loam, however, advances cheerfully to his doom.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: He sees Ernest's stool and artfully stands on it, to
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: his nephew's natural indignation. The three ladies knit their lips,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: the servants look down their noses, and the address begins.
• 28:47
  Speaker 8: My friends, I am glad to see you all looking
• 28:50
  Speaker 8: so happy. It used to be predicated by the Scoffer
• 28:53
  Speaker 8: that these meetings would prove distasteful to you? Are they distasteful?
• 28:57
  Speaker 8: I hear you laughing at the question.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: He has not heard them, but he hears them now,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: the watchful Crichton giving them a lead.
• 29:09
  Speaker 8: No harm in saying that among us to day is
• 29:11
  Speaker 8: one who was formerly hostile to the movement, but who
• 29:14
  Speaker 8: to day has been won over. I refer to Lord Brocklehurst,
• 29:18
  Speaker 8: who I am sure will presently say to me that
• 29:21
  Speaker 8: if the charming lady now by his side has derived
• 29:24
  Speaker 8: as much pleasure from his company as he has derived
• 29:27
  Speaker 8: from hers, he will be more than satisfied.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: I'll look at Tweeny, who trembles for the.
• 29:34
  Speaker 8: Time being the artificial and unnatural, I say, unnatural.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Clearing at Crichton, who bows slightly.
• 29:42
  Speaker 8: Barriers of society are swept away. Would that they could
• 29:45
  Speaker 8: be swept away forever?
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: The page boy cheers yea, and has the one moment
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: of prominence in his life. He grows up, marries and
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: has children, but has never really heard of again.
• 30:00
  Speaker 8: But that is entirely and utterly out of the question.
• 30:03
  Speaker 8: And now for a few months we are to be separated.
• 30:07
  Speaker 8: As you know, my daughters and mister Ernest and Mistress
• 30:10
  Speaker 8: Treherne are to accompany me on my yacht on a
• 30:13
  Speaker 8: voyaged distant parts of the earth. In less than forty
• 30:16
  Speaker 8: eight hours we shall be under way.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: But for Crichton's eye, the reckless page Boy would repeat
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: his success.
• 30:24
  Speaker 8: Do not think our life on the yacht is to
• 30:26
  Speaker 8: be one long, idle holiday. My views on the excessive
• 30:30
  Speaker 8: luxury of the day are well known, and what I
• 30:32
  Speaker 8: preach I am now resolved to practice. I have therefore
• 30:36
  Speaker 8: decided that my daughters, instead of having one maid each
• 30:39
  Speaker 8: as a present, shall on this voyage have but one
• 30:43
  Speaker 8: maid between them.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: Three maids rise also three mistresses.
• 30:49
  Speaker 8: My Lord, my mind is made up.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: I cordially agree.
• 30:56
  Speaker 8: And now, my friends, I should like to think that
• 30:58
  Speaker 8: there is some piece of advice might give you, some thought,
• 31:02
  Speaker 8: some noble saying over which you might ponder in my absence.
• 31:06
  Speaker 8: In this connection, I remember a proverb which has had
• 31:09
  Speaker 8: a great effect on my life. I first heard it
• 31:12
  Speaker 8: many years ago. I have never forgotten it. It constantly
• 31:16
  Speaker 8: cheers and guides me. That proverb is that proverb was
• 31:24
  Speaker 8: the proverb I speak of.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: He grows pale and taps his forehead.
• 31:30
  Speaker 6: Oh, dear, I believe he has forgotten it.
• 31:35
  Speaker 8: Desperately, the proverb, that proverb to which I refer.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: Alas it is gone. The distress is general. He has
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: not even the sense to sit down. He gropes for
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: the proverb in the air. They try applause, but it
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: is no help. I have it now not he with
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: confidence crighton. He does not fail her as quietly as
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: if he were in goloshes mind as well as feet.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: He dismisses the domestics. They go according to precedence as
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: they entered, Yet in a moment they are gone. Then
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: he signs to mister Treherne, and they conduct Lord Lom
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: with dignity from the room. His hands are still catching flies.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: He still mutters the proverb that proverb, but he continues,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: owing to Crichton's skillful treatment to look every inch ap here.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: The ladies have now an opportunity to air their indignation.
• 32:37
  Speaker 6: One maid among three grown.
• 32:39
  Speaker 9: Women, Mary, I think I'd better go that dreadful kitchen maid.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: I can't blame you, George, he salutes her.
• 32:51
  Speaker 9: Your father's views are shocking to me, and I'm glad
• 32:54
  Speaker 9: I'm not to be one of the party on the yacht.
• 32:57
  Speaker 9: My respect for myself, Mary, my natural anger, anxiety as
• 33:00
  Speaker 9: to what mother will say. I shall see you, darling
• 33:03
  Speaker 9: before you sail.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: He bows to the others and goes.
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: A selfish brute, only thinking of himself. What about my speech?
• 33:13
  Speaker 6: One maid among three of us? What's to be done?
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: Pooh, you must do for yourselves.
• 33:20
  Speaker 6: That's all do for ourselves. How can we know where
• 33:24
  Speaker 6: our things are kept.
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: Are you aware that dresses button up the back?
• 33:29
  Speaker 7: Well?
• 33:29
  Speaker 5: How are we to get into our shoes and be
• 33:31
  Speaker 5: prepared for the carriage?
• 33:33
  Speaker 6: Who is to put us to bed? And who is
• 33:35
  Speaker 6: to get us up? And how shall we ever know
• 33:37
  Speaker 6: its morning if there was no one to pull up
• 33:39
  Speaker 6: the blinds?
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Crichton crosses on his way out.
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: How is his lordship now a little easier?
• 33:48
  Speaker 6: Sir Crichton, send Fisher to me, He.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: Goes, I have no pity for you girls.
• 33:55
  Speaker 6: I ernest go away, and don't insult the brokenhearted.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: And uncommon glad I am to go tata all of you.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: He asked me to say a few words. I came
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: here to say a few words, and I'm not at
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: all sure that I couldn't bring an action against him.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: He departs, feeling that he has left a dart behind him.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: The girls are alone with their tragic thoughts. Becomes a
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: mother to the younger ones.
• 34:23
  Speaker 6: At last, my poor sisters come here.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: They go to her.
• 34:29
  Speaker 6: Doubtfully we must make this drawer us closer together. I
• 34:34
  Speaker 6: shall do my best to help you in every way.
• 34:37
  Speaker 6: Just now I cannot think of myself at all. But
• 34:40
  Speaker 6: how unlike you Mary, it is my duty to protect
• 34:44
  Speaker 6: my sisters.
• 34:46
  Speaker 5: I never knew her to be so sweet before.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: Agatha cautiously, what do you propose to.
• 34:52
  Speaker 6: Do, Mary, I propose, when we are on the yacht,
• 34:57
  Speaker 6: to lend Fisher to you. And I don't need her myself.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: Fisher, who has the most character of the three.
• 35:05
  Speaker 6: Of course, as the eldest, I have decided that it
• 35:09
  Speaker 6: is my maid we shall take with us.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: Speaking also for Agatha.
• 35:14
  Speaker 5: Mary, you toad.
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: Nothing on earth would induce Fisher to lift her hand
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: for either me or Catherine.
• 35:21
  Speaker 6: I was afraid of it, Agatha. That is why I
• 35:24
  Speaker 6: am so sorry for you.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: The further exchange of pleasantries is interrupted by the arrival
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: of Fisher.
• 35:32
  Speaker 6: Fisher, you heard what his lordship said.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Yes, my lady, coldly, though the others would have tried blandishment.
• 35:41
  Speaker 6: You have given me some satisfaction of late Fisher, and
• 35:45
  Speaker 6: to mark my approval, I have.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: Decided that you shall be the maid who accompanies us acidly.
• 35:53
  Speaker 10: I thank you, my lady.
• 35:55
  Speaker 6: That is all. You may go.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: Wrapping it out.
• 35:59
  Speaker 10: If you please, my lady. I wish to give notice.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: Catherine and Agatha gleam, But lady Mary is of sterner stuff.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: Taking up a book.
• 36:09
  Speaker 5: Oh, certainly you may go, But why Fisher.
• 36:14
  Speaker 10: I could not undertake my lady to wait upon three?
• 36:17
  Speaker 10: We don't do it.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: In an indignant outburst to Lady Mary.
• 36:22
  Speaker 10: Oh, my lady, to think that this affront looking.
• 36:25
  Speaker 6: Up, I thought I told you to go Fisher.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Fisher stands for a moment, irresolute, then goes. As soon
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: as she has gone, Lady Mary puts down her book
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: and weeps. Oh she is a pretty woman, but this
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: is the only pretty thing we have seen her do.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: Yet succinctly serves you. Right, Crichton comes.
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: It will be Simmons, after all. Send Simmons to me.
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: After hesitating, my.
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: Lady, might I venture to speak? What is it I
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: happen to know, your ladyship that Simmons desires to give
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: notice for the same reason as Fisher.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: Well triumphant?
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: Then Catherine, we.
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: Take Jean Angian also, my lady.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: Lady Mary is reading indifferent though the heavens fall, But
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: her sisters are not ashamed to show their despair to Criton.
• 37:32
  Speaker 4: We can't blame them. Could any maid who respected herself
• 37:36
  Speaker 4: be got to wait upon three.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: With languid interest? I suppose there are such persons Crichton guardedly.
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: I've heard, my lady that there are such.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: A little desperate.
• 37:51
  Speaker 6: Crichton, what's to be done? We sail in two days?
• 37:55
  Speaker 6: Could one be discovered in the time?
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: Frankly a supplicate? And surely you can think of someone
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: after hesitating?
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: There is in this establishment, your ladyship, a young woman, Yes,
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: a young woman on whom I have for some time
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: cast an eye eagerly?
• 38:19
  Speaker 5: Do you mean as a possible lady's maid?
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: I had thought of her, my lady in another connection. Ah,
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: But I believe she is quite the young person you require.
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: Perhaps if you could see.
• 38:33
  Speaker 6: Her, my lady, I shall certainly see her. Bring her
• 38:37
  Speaker 6: to me, he goes, You two needn't wait.
• 38:43
  Speaker 5: Needn't we we see your little game?
• 38:45
  Speaker 6: Mary?
• 38:46
  Speaker 4: We shall certainly remain and have our two thirds of her.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: They sit there doggedly until Crichton returns with Tweeney, who
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: looks scared.
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: This my lady is the young person.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: Frank Oh, dear, it is evident that all three consider
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: her quite unsuitable.
• 39:07
  Speaker 6: Come here, gal, don't be afraid.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: Tweeny looks imploringly at her, idol her appearance.
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: My lady is homely and her manners, as you may
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: have observed, deplorable, but she has a heart of gold.
• 39:23
  Speaker 6: What is your position downstairs?
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: Bobbing?
• 39:27
  Speaker 12: I'm a tweeny, your ladyship.
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: Ah, what a tweeny, that is to say, my lady.
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: She is not, at present, strictly speaking, anything a between maid.
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: She helps the vegetable maid. It is she, my lady,
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: who conveys the dishes from the one end of the
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: kitchen table, where they are placed by the cook, to
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: the other end, where they enter into the charge of
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: Thomas and John.
• 39:55
  Speaker 6: I see, and you and Crichton are ah keep company.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: Crichton draws himself up, aghast a butler.
• 40:06
  Speaker 12: Don't keep company, my lady?
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: Indifferently does he not?
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: No, your ladyship, we butlers may.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: He makes a gesture with his arms, but we do
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: not keep company.
• 40:20
  Speaker 4: I know what it is you are engaged.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: Tweeny looks longingly at Crichton.
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: Certainly not, my lady. The utmost I can say at
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: present is that I have cast a favorable.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: Eye even this, as much to Tweeny.
• 40:38
  Speaker 6: As you choose. But I am afraid Crichton, she will
• 40:41
  Speaker 6: not suit us, my lady.
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: Beneath his simple exterior are concealed a very sweet nature
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: and rare womanly gifts.
• 40:51
  Speaker 4: Unfortunately, that is not what we want.
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: And it is she, my lady, who dresses the hair
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: of the lady's maid for our evening meal.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: The ladies are interested at last She dresses Fisher's hair.
• 41:06
  Speaker 12: Yes, milady, and does them up when they goes to parties.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: Pained, But Nat Scolding does do's.
• 41:16
  Speaker 12: And it's me what alwers she gowns to fit him?
• 41:19
  Speaker 6: What altars which, ohs Mary, I shall certainly have her.
• 41:27
  Speaker 5: We shall certainly have her. Twinny, we have decided to
• 41:30
  Speaker 5: make a lady's made of you, oh loaves.
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: We are doing this for you so that your position
• 41:36
  Speaker 4: socially may be more nearly akin to that of Crichton.
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: Gravely, it will undoubtedly increase the young person's chances.
• 41:46
  Speaker 6: Then, if I get a good character for you from
• 41:48
  Speaker 6: missus Perkins, she will make the necessary arrangements.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: She resumes reading he laid it, milady.
• 41:57
  Speaker 6: And by the way, I hope you are a good sailor.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: Startled.
• 42:02
  Speaker 12: You don't mean, my lady, I'm to go on the ship.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: Certainly, But to Crichton you ain't going, sir. No firm.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: At last, and leave.
• 42:14
  Speaker 12: Ain't I you must leave.
• 42:17
  Speaker 6: Him, not me, girl. Don't be silly, Crichton will be
• 42:23
  Speaker 6: considered in your wages.
• 42:25
  Speaker 12: I ain't going.
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: I feared this, my lady.
• 42:29
  Speaker 12: Nothing will budge me.
• 42:31
  Speaker 6: Leave the room.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: Crichton shows Tweeny out with marked politeness.
• 42:37
  Speaker 4: Crichton, I think you might have shown more displeasure with
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: her contrite.
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: I was touched, my lady. I see, my lady, that
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: the part from her would be a wrench to me,
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: though I could not well say so in her presence,
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: not having yet decided how far I.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: Shall go with her, he is about to go when
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: Lord Long enters, fuming the.
• 43:00
  Speaker 8: Ingrate, the smug, the fop.
• 43:04
  Speaker 5: What is it now, father, that man of.
• 43:06
  Speaker 8: Mine Roliston refuses to accompany us because you are to
• 43:10
  Speaker 8: have but one maid?
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: Hurrah in better taste, darling, father, Rather than you should
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: lose Ralston.
• 43:20
  Speaker 6: We will consent to take all three of them.
• 43:23
  Speaker 8: Whooh, nonsense, Crichton. Find me a valor who can do
• 43:26
  Speaker 8: without free maids.
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: Yes, my Lord, troubled in the time, the most suitable
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: the party, my Lord, the less willing will he be
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: to come without the the usual perk wizards.
• 43:41
  Speaker 8: Any one will do shocked, my lorrd the ingrate the puppy.
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: Agatha has an idea and whispers to Lady Mary, I.
• 43:54
  Speaker 6: Ask a favor of a servant.
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: Never then I will Crichton. Would it not be very
• 44:01
  Speaker 4: distressing to you to let his lordship go attended by
• 44:04
  Speaker 4: a valet who might prove unworthy? It is only for
• 44:08
  Speaker 4: three months, don't you think that you? You yourself?
• 44:11
  Speaker 7: You?
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: As Crichton sees what she wants, he pulls himself up
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: with noble offended dignity, and she is appalled.
• 44:20
  Speaker 4: I beg your pardon.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: He bows stiffly to Crichton.
• 44:26
  Speaker 5: But think of the joy to tweeny.
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: Crichton is moved, but he shakes his head so much.
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: The cleverest Crichton, do you think it's safe to let
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: the master you love go so far away without you
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: while he has these dangerous views about quality? Crichton is
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: profoundly stirred. After a struggle, he goes to his master,
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: who has been pacing the room.
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: My Lord, I've found a man already.
• 44:56
  Speaker 8: Who is he?
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: Crichton presents himself with a jest.
• 45:01
  Speaker 5: Yourself, father, how good of him?
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: Pleased but thinking it a small.
• 45:07
  Speaker 8: Thing, uncommon good? Thank you, Crichton, this helps me nicely
• 45:12
  Speaker 8: out of a hole, and how it will annoy Roliston?
• 45:15
  Speaker 8: Come with me, and we shall tell him not that
• 45:18
  Speaker 8: I think you have lowered yourself in any way.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: Come along, He goes, and Crichton is to follow him,
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: but is stopped by Agatha impulsively offering him her hand,
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: who is much shaken.
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: My lady, a Velli's hand.
• 45:35
  Speaker 4: I had no idea you would feel it so deeply?
• 45:37
  Speaker 4: Why did you do it?
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: Crichton is too respectful to reply. Regarding him, Crichton, I
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: am curious.
• 45:46
  Speaker 6: I insist upon an answer.
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: My lady. I am the son of a battler and
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: a lady's maid, perhaps the happiest of all combinations. And
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: to me, the most beautiful thing in the world is
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: a hoart aristocratic English house, with everyone kept in his place.
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: Though I were equal to your ladyship, where would the
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: pleasure be to me? It would be counterbalanced by the
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: pain of feeling that Thomas and John were equal to me.
• 46:15
  Speaker 5: But Father says, if we are to return to nature,
• 46:19
  Speaker 5: if we did.
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: My lady, the first thing we should do would be
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: to elect a head. Circumstances might alter cases. The same
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: person might not be master, the same persons might not
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: be servants. I can't say as to that, nor should
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: we have the deciding of it. Nature would decide for us.
• 46:41
  Speaker 6: You seem to have thought it all out carefully, Crichton.
• 46:45
  Speaker 5: Yes, my lady, and you have done this for us Crichton,
• 46:48
  Speaker 5: because you thought that that father needed to be kept
• 46:51
  Speaker 5: in his place.
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: I should prefer you to say, my lady, that I
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: have done it for the house.
• 46:58
  Speaker 4: Thank you. Crichton. Mary be nicer to him.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: But Lady Mary has begun to read again.
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: If there was any way in which we could show
• 47:06
  Speaker 4: our gratitude, if I.
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: Might adventure, my lady, would you kindly show it by
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: becoming more like Lady Mary? That disdain is what we
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: like ab our superiors. Even so do we the upper
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: servants disdain the lower servants while they take it out
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: of the odds and ends.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: He goes and they bury themselves in cushions.
• 47:31
  Speaker 4: Oh dear, what a tiring day.
• 47:35
  Speaker 5: I feel dead tucking your feet, you selfish thing.
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: Lady Mary is lying reading on another couch.
• 47:43
  Speaker 6: I wonder what he meant by circumstances might alter cases? Yawning,
• 47:50
  Speaker 6: don't talk, Mary, I was nearly asleep. I wonder what
• 47:56
  Speaker 6: he meant by the same person might not be much,
• 48:01
  Speaker 6: and the same persons might not be servants.
• 48:05
  Speaker 5: Do be quiet, Maryan leave it to nature, he said,
• 48:07
  Speaker 5: nature would decide.
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: I wonder, but she does not wonder very much. She
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: would wonder more if she knew what was coming. Her
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: book slips unregarded to the floor. The ladies are at
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: rest until it is time to dress. End of Act one,
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: Act two of The Admirable Criton. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: Admirable Criton by J. M. Barry, Act too. The island
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: two months have elapsed, and the scene is a desert
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: island in the Pacific on which our adventurers have been wrecked.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: The curtain rises on a sea of bamboo, which shuts
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: out all view save the foliage of palm trees and
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: some gaunt rocks. Occasionally, Crichton and Treherne come momentarily into sight,
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: hacking and hewing the bamboo through which they are making
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: a clearing between the ladies and the shore, and by
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: and by owing to their efforts, we shall have an
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: unrestricted outlook onto a sullen sea that is at present hidden.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: Then we shall also be able to note a mast
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: standing out of the water, all that is left saving
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: floating wreckage of the ill fated yacht the Blue Bell.
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: The beginnings of a hut will also be seen, with
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: Kriton driving its walls into the ground or astride its
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: roof of saplings. For at present he is doing more
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: than one thing at a time. In a red shirt,
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: with the ends of his sailor's breeches thrust into wading boots,
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: he looks a man for the moment we suddenly remember
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: someone saying, perhaps it was ourselves, that a cataclysm would
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: be needed to get him out of his servant's clothes,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: And apparently it has been forthcoming. It is no longer
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: beneath our dignity to cast an inquiring eye on his appearance.
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: His features are not distinguished, but he has a strong
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: jaw and green eyes in which a yellow light burns
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: that we have not seen before. His dark hair, hitherto
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: so decorously sleek, has been ruffled this way and that
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: by wind and weather, as if they were part of
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: the cataclysm, and wanted to help his chance. His muscles
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: must be soft and flabby still, But though they shriek
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: aloud to him to desist, he rains lusty, blows with
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: his axe, like one who has come upon the open
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: for the first time in his life and likes it.
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: He is as yet far from being an expert woodsman.
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: Mark the blood on his hands at places where he
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: has hit them instead of the tree. But note also
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: that he does not waste time in bandaging them. He
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: rubs them in the earth and goes on. His face
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: is still of the discreet pallor that befits a butler,
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: and he carries the smaller logs as if they were
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: a salver. Not in a day or month will he
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: shake off the badge of servitude. But without knowing it,
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: he has begune. But for the hatchets at work and
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: the occasional something horrible falling from a tree into the
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: lady's laps, they hear nothing save the mournful serf breaking
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: on a coral shore. They sit or recline, huddled together
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: against a rock, and they are farther from home in
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: every sense of the word than ever before. Thirty six
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: hours ago they were given three minutes in which to
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: dress without a maid and reach the boats, and they
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: have not made the best of that valuable time. None
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: of them has boots, and had they known this prickly island,
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: they would have thought first of boots. They have a
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: sufficiency of garments, but some of them were gifts dropped
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: into the boat, Lady Mary's tarpaulin coat and hat, for instance,
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: and Catherine's blue jersey and red cap, which certify that
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: the two ladies were lately before the mast. Agatha is
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: too gay in Earnest's dressing gown, and clutches it to
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: her person with both hands, as if afraid that it
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: may be claimed by its rightful owner. There are two
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: pairs of bath slippers between the three of them, and
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: their hair cries aloud and in vain for hair pins.
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: By their side on an inverted bucket sits Earnest, clothed
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: neatly in the garments of day and night, but alas barefooted.
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: He is the only cheerful member of this company of four.
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: But his brightness is due less to a manly desire
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: to succor the helpless than to his having been lately
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: in the throes of composition and to his modest satisfaction
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: with the result, he reads to the ladies, and they listen,
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: each with one scared eye to the things that fall
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: from trees. Who has written on the fly leaf of
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: the only book saved from the wreck?
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: This is what I have written. Wrecked, Wrecked, wrecked on
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: an island in the Tropics, The following the Honorable Ernest Woolley,
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: the Reverend John Dreherne, The Ladies Mary Catherine and Agatha
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: Lazenbie were the tooth servants. We are the sole survivors
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: of Lord Lom's steam yacht Bluebell, which encountered a fearful
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: gale in these seas and soon became a total wreck.
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: The crew behaved gallantly, putting us all into the first boat.
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: What became of them I cannot tell, but we have
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: to dreadful sufferings and insufficiently clad in whatever garments we
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: could lay hold of in the dark.
• 53:55
  Speaker 6: Please don't describe our garments.
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: He did in reaching this island with the loss of
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: only one of our party, namely Lord Loam, who flung
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: away his life in a gallant attempt to save a
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: servant who had fallen overboard.
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: The ladies have wept long and sore for their father.
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: But there is something in this last utterance that makes
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: them look up.
• 54:21
  Speaker 4: But Ernest, it was Crichton who jumped overboard trying to
• 54:24
  Speaker 4: save father.
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: With the candor that is one of his most engaging qualities.
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, it was rather silly of uncle to
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: fling away his life by trying to get into the
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: boat first. And as this document may be printed in
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: the English papers, it struck me an English peer, you know.
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: Every inch in English Peer's daughter.
• 54:45
  Speaker 6: Ernest, that is very thoughtful of you.
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: Continuing well pleased.
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: By night, the cries of wildcats, in the hissing of
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: snakes terrify us extremely.
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: This does not satisfy him so well, and he makes a.
• 54:59
  Speaker 2: Correction, terrify the ladies extremely against these. We have no
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: weapons except one cutlass and hatchet, a bucket washed ashores.
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: At present our only comfortable seat.
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: With some spirit, and Earnest is sitting on it.
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: Hush, oh, do be quiet to add to our horrors.
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: Night falls suddenly in these parts, and it is then
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: that the savage animals begin to prowl and roar.
• 55:29
  Speaker 6: Have you said that vampire bats suck the blood from
• 55:32
  Speaker 6: our toes? As we sleep.
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: No, that's all I end up. Rescue us or we perish.
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: Rich reward, signed Earnest Wooly, in command of our little party.
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: This is written on a leaf taken out of a
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: book of poems that Crichton found in his pocket, A
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: fancy kriton being a reader of poetry. Now I shall
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: put it into the bottle and fling it into the sea.
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: He pushes the precious document into a soda water bottle
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: and rams the cork homb. At the same moment, and
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: without effort, he gives birth to one of his most
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: characteristic epigrams.
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: The tide is going out. We mustn't miss the post.
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: They are so unhappy that they fail to grasp it,
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: and a little petulantly he calls for Crichton. Ever, his
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: stand by in the hour of epigram. Crichton breaks through
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: the undergrowth, quickly, thinking the ladies are in danger. Anything wrong, sir,
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: with fine confidence the tide.
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: Crichton is a postman who calls at our island twice
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: a day for letters.
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: After a pause, thank you, sir, he returns to his labors. However,
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: without giving the smile, which is the epigrammatist's right and
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: Ernest is a little disappointed in him.
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: Poor Crichton, I sometimes think that he is losing his
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: sense of humor. Come along, Agatha.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: He helps his favorite up the rocks, and they disappear
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: gingerly from view.
• 57:05
  Speaker 5: How horribly still it is.
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: Remembering some recent sounds.
• 57:10
  Speaker 6: It is best when it is still.
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: Drawing closer to.
• 57:15
  Speaker 5: Her, Mary, I have heard that they are always very still.
• 57:19
  Speaker 5: Just before they jump, don't.
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: A distinct chapping is heard, and they are startled. Controlling herself,
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: it is only Crichton knocking down trees, almost imploringly.
• 57:33
  Speaker 5: Mary, let us go and stand beside him coldly.
• 57:37
  Speaker 6: Let us servant see that I am afraid.
• 57:40
  Speaker 5: Don't then, but remember this, dear, They often drop on
• 57:43
  Speaker 5: one from above.
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: She moves away, nearer to the friendly sound of the axe,
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: and Lady Mary is left alone. She is the most
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: courageous of them, as well as the haughtiest. But when
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: something she had thought to be a stick glides toward her,
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: she forgets her dignity and scream oh, calling Crichton, Crichton.
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: It must have been Trehearne who was tree felling, for
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: Crichton comes to her from the hut, drawing his cutlass,
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: anxious did you call my lady herself again? Now that
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: he is there? I why should I?
• 58:23
  Speaker 3: I have made mistake?
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: Your ladyship hesitating If you are afraid.
• 58:28
  Speaker 3: Of being alone, my.
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: Lady afraid, certainly not doggedly, you may go, but she
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: does not complain when he remains within eyesight cutting the bamboo.
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: It is heavy work, and she watches him silently.
• 58:45
  Speaker 6: I wish, Crichton, you could work without getting so hot.
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: Mopping his face, I wish I could, my lady. He
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: continues his labors, taking off her oilskins.
• 58:59
  Speaker 6: Oh, it makes me hot to look at you.
• 59:03
  Speaker 3: It almost makes me cool to look at your ladyship, who.
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: Perhaps thinks he is presuming.
• 59:10
  Speaker 6: Anything I can do for you in that way, Crichton,
• 59:12
  Speaker 6: I shall do with pleasure.
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: Quite humbly, thank you, my lady. By this time, most
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: of the bamboo has been cut, and the shore and
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: sea are visible except where they are hidden by the
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: half completed hut. The mast rising solitary from the water,
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: adds to the desolation of the scene, and at last,
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: tears run down Lady Mary's face.
• 59:35
  Speaker 3: Don't give way, my lady. Things might be worse, my
• 59:42
  Speaker 3: poor father, if I could have given my life for hiss.
• 59:47
  Speaker 6: You did all a man could do. Indeed, I thank
• 59:51
  Speaker 6: you Crichton.
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: With some admiration and more wonder you are a.
• 59:57
  Speaker 3: Man, Thank you, my lady.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 6: But it is all so awful, Crichton.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: Is there any hope of a ship coming after hesitation?
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: Of course there is my lady facing him bravely.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 6: Don't treat me as a child. I have got to
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 6: know the worst and to face it.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: Crichton, the truth reluctantly.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 3: We were driven out of our course, my lady, I
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 3: fear far from the track of commerce.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 6: Thank you, I understand.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: For a moment, however, she breaks down. Then she clunches
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: her hands and stands erect, watching her and forgetting, perhaps
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: for the moment, that they are not just a man
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: and woman.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 3: You're a good plucton my lady.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: Falling into the same error. I shall try to be
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: extricating herself.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 6: Crichton. How dare you?
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 3: I beg your ladyship's pardon, But you are, She smiles,
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 3: as if it were a comfort to be told this
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 3: even by Crichton. And a dealership comes. We are three
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 3: men who are going to do our best for you ladies.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: With a curl of the lip.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 6: Mister Ernest does no.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: Work cheerily, but he will, my lady, I doubt it, confidently,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: but perhaps thoughtlessly.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 3: No work, no dinner will make a great change in mister.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 6: Ernest, no work, no dinner. When did you invent that rule?
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: Crichton loaded with bamboo, I didn't invent, my lady.
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 3: I seem to see her growing all over the island.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: Disquieted, Crichton, your manner strikes me as curious, pained, I
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: hope not, your ladyship determined to have it out.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 6: With him, you on not implying anything so unnatural. I
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 6: presume as that if I and my sisters don't work,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 6: there will be no dinner for us.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 3: Rightly, if it is unnatural, my lady, that is the
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 3: end of it.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 6: If now I understand the perfect servant at home holds
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 6: that we are all equal, now I see.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: Wounded to the quick, my lady.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 3: Can you think me so inconsistent?
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 6: That is it?
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 3: Earnestly, my lady, I disbelieved in equality at home because
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 3: it was against nature, And for that same reason I
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 3: as utterly disbelieve in it on an island.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: Relieved by his obvious sincerity, I apologize continuing, Unfortunately, there.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 3: Must always, my lady, be one to command and others
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 3: to obey.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: Satisfied one to command?
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 6: Are this to obey?
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 12: Yes?
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: Then suddenly she realizes that there may be a dire
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: meaning in his confident words. Kriton, who has intended no
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: dire meaning?
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 3: What is it? My lady?
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: But she only stares into his face and then hurries
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: from him. Left alone, he is puzzled, but being a
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: practical man, he busies himself gathering firewood until Tweeney appears,
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: excitedly carrying coco nuts in her skirt. She has made
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: better use than the ladies of her three minutes grace
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: for dressing. Who can be happy even on an island
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: if Crichton is with her?
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 12: Look what I found?
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 3: Coconuts? Bravo.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 12: They grows on trees.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 3: Where did you think they grew?
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 12: I thought, as how they grew immerse into polistics.
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: Wrinkling his brows, Ugh, tweeny, tweeny, anxiously.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 12: Have I offended of your feelings? Again?
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 7: Sir?
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: A little in a despairing outburst.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 12: I'm full of vulgar words and ways, and I thought
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 12: I may keep them in their roles when you are by.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 12: As soon as I'm by myself out there comes in
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 12: a rush like beetles when the house is dark, I
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 12: says them, gloating like in me. It blew me in,
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 12: I says, and oh my eye and ginger, and no think.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 12: And all the time he was being wrecked, I was
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 12: praying to myself, please the Lord. It may be an island,
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 12: as it's natural to be vulgar on.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: A shudder passes through creton, and she is abject.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 12: That's the kind I am, sir. I'm hopeless. You'd better
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 12: give me up.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: She is a pathetic, forlorn creature, and his manhood is stirred,
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: wondering a little at himself for saying it.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 3: I won't give you up. It is strange that one
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 3: so common should attract one so fastidious, But so it
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 3: is that fully, there is something about you, tweeny. There
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 3: is a genesequa about.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: You, knowing only that he has found something in her
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: to command.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 12: Is there is there? Oh, I am glad.
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: Putting his hand on her shoulder like a protector.
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 3: We shall fight your vulgarity together.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: All this time he has been arranging sticks for his fire.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 3: Now get some dry grass.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: She brings him grass, and he puts it under the sticks.
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: He produces an odd lens from his pocket and tries
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: to focus the sun's rays. Why what's that, the ingenious creature?
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 3: That's the glass from my watch and one from mister Treherne's,
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 3: with a little water between them. I'm having to kindle
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 3: a fire with it.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: Properly impressed, oh sir. After one failure, the grass takes
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: fire and they are blowing on it, when excited cries
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: nearby bring them sharply to their feet. Agatha runs to them,
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: white of face, followed by Ernest.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 2: The danger Crichton a tiger cat.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: Getting his cutlass where it is at our heels.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: Look out Crichton.
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: Sh Treherne comes to his assistance, while Lady Mary and
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: Catherine join Agatha in the hut.
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 2: It will be honest.
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: In a moment, he seizes the hatchet and guards the hut.
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: It is pleasing to see. Ernest is no coward.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 2: Listen, the grass is moving, it's coming.
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: It comes, But it is no tiger cat. It is
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: Lord Loam, crawling on his hands and knees, a very
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: exhausted and disheveled peer, wondrously attired in rags. The girls
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: see him and with glad cries rush into his arms.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 8: Father, Mary, Catherine, Agatha. Oh, dear my DearS, my DearS, Oh, dear.
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 2: Darling, sweetest laugh, glad to see you, sir, Uncle, Uncle,
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: dear old uncle.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: For a time such happy cries fill the air, But
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: presently to Earnest thoughtless.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 7: Ernest thought you were a tiger cut.
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: Stung somehow to the quick.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 8: Oh did you? I knew you at once? Ernest, I
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 8: knew you by the way you ran.
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: Ernest smiles forgivingly, venturing forward at.
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 3: Last, my lord, I am glad.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: With upraised finger.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 2: But you are also idling Crichton.
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: Making himself comfortable on the ground.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 2: We mustn't waste time to work.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 3: To work.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: After contemplating him without rancor, yes, sir, he gets a
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: pot from the hut and hangs it on a tripod
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: over the fire, which is now burning brightly.
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 7: Ernest, you be a little more civil, Crichton. Let me help.
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: He is soon busy helping Crichton to add to the
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: strength of the hat, gazing at the pot as ladies
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: are said to gaze on precious stones.
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 8: Is that? But I suppose I'm dreaming again? Timidly it
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 8: isn't by any chance of pot on top of a fire,
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 8: is it?
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 6: Indeed, tis, dearest, it is our supper.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 8: I have been dreaming of a pot on a fire
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 8: for two days, quivering. There's nothing in it, is there?
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 2: Sniff?
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: Uncle, Lord Lom sniffs reverently.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 8: It smells of onions.
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: There is a sudden diversion.
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 5: Father, You have boots, so he has.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: Of course I have, with greedy cunning, you.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 2: Are actually wearing boots. Uncle. It's very unsafe, you know,
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 2: in this climate, is it? We have all abandoned them.
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 2: You observe the blood, the otteries.
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 8: You know I hadn't a notion.
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: He holds out his feet and earnest niels. Oh Lord, yes,
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: in another moment those boots will be his. Quickly, Father,
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: he's trying to get your boots from you. There is
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: nothing in the world we wouldn't give for boots. Rising heartily,
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: a proud spirit misunderstood.
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 2: I only wanted the loan of them.
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: Running her fingers along them lovingly.
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 4: If you lend them to any one, it will be
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 4: to us, won't it.
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 6: Father?
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 8: Certainly my child, oh very well, he.
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: Is leaving these selfish ones.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 2: I don't want your old boots.
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: He gives his uncle a last chance.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 2: You don't think you could spare me one boot? Tartly,
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 2: I do not quite so well. All I can say
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 2: is I'm sorry for you.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: He departs to recline elsewhere.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 6: Father, we thought we should never see you again.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 8: I was washed ashore, my dear, clinging to a hen coop.
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 8: How awful that first night.
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 6: Was, poor father.
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 8: When I woke, I wept. Then I began to feel
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 8: extremely hungry. There was a large turtle on the beach.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 8: I remembered from the Swiss family Robinson that if you
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 8: turn a turtle over, he's helpless. My DearS, I crawled
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 8: towards him. I flung myself upon him.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: Here he pauses to rub his leg.
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 8: The nasty, spiteful brute.
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 6: You didn't turn him over.
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: Vindictively, though he is a kindly man.
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 8: Mary, the censeless thing wouldn't wait. I found that none
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 8: of them would wait.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 5: We should have been as badly off if Creydon hadn't quickly.
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 6: Don't praise Crichton.
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 8: And then those beastly monkeys. I always understood that if
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 8: you flung stones at them, they would retaliate by flinging cocoanuts.
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 8: You would you believe it? I flung a hundred stones,
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 8: and not one monkey had sufficient intelligence to grasp my meaning.
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 8: How I longed for chrighton, wincing.
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 6: For us also, father, Oh for you also.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 8: I tried for hours to make a fire. The authors
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 8: say that when wrecked on an island, you can obtain
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 8: a light by rubbing two pieces of stick together with.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: Feeling the liars.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 6: And all this time you thought there was no one
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 6: on the island but yourself.
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 8: Well, I thought so until this morning. I was searching
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 8: the pools for little fishes, which I caught in my hat.
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 8: When suddenly I saw before me on the sand, what
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 8: a hairpin?
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 6: A hair pin? It must be one of ours. Give
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 6: it me, father, No, it's mine.
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 8: I didn't keep it.
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: Speaking for all three.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 6: Didn't keep it. Found a hairpin on an island, and
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 6: didn't keep it.
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: Humbly, my DearS, scarcely to be placated.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 4: Oh father, we have returned to nature, more than you
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 4: bargained for.
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 6: For shame Agatha.
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: She has something on her mind.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 6: Father. There is something I want you to do at once.
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 6: I mean to assert your position as the chief person
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 6: on the island.
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: They are all surprised.
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 8: But who would presume to question it?
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 5: She must mean Earnest, must I it's.
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 4: Cruel to say anything against Ernest.
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 8: Firmly, if anyone presumes to challenge my position, I shall
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 8: make short work of him.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 4: Here comes Ernest. Now see if you can say these
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 4: horrid things to his face, I.
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 8: Shall teach him his place at.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: Once anxiously, but how chuckling.
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 8: I have just thought of an extremely amusing way of
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 8: doing it.
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: As Earnest approaches, Earnest laughtily.
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 2: Excuse me, uncle, I'm thinking and planning out the building
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 2: of this hut.
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 8: I also have been thinking that.
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: Don't matter, eh, please please, this is important.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 8: I have been thinking that I ought to give you.
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: My boots what father genially take them? My boy, with
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: a rapidity we had not thought him capable of. Ernest
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: becomes the wearer of the boots.
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 8: And now I daresay you want to know why I
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 8: gave them to you, Ernest.
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: Moving up and down in them deliciously.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 2: Not at all. The great thing is I've got em.
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: I've got them majestically, but with a knowing look at
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: his daughter's.
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 8: My reason is that, as head of our little party,
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 8: you Earnest shall be our hunter. You shall clear the
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 8: forests of those savage beasts that make them so dangerous pleasantly.
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 8: And now you know, my dear nephew, or have given
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 8: you my boots.
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 2: This is my answer.
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: He kicks off the boots, still anxious, Father.
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 6: Assert yourself.
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 8: I shall now assert myself.
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: But how to do it? He has a happy thought.
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 8: Call Crichton, Oh, Father.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: Crichton comes in answer to a summons, and is followed
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: by Treherne, wondering a little at Lady Mary's grave.
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 2: Face Crichton, look here, sturdily.
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 8: Silence Crichton. I want your advice as to what I
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 8: ought to do with mister Ernest. He has defied me pooh.
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: After considering, may I speak urbenly, my lord, keeping her
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: eyes fixed on him? That is what we desire, quite humbly.
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 3: Then I may say, your lordship that I've been concer
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 3: hearing mister Ernest's case at odd moments ever since we
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 3: were wrecked. My case sternly hush, since we landed on
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 3: the island, my lord. It seems to me that mister
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 3: Ernest's epigrams have been particularly brilliant, gratified.
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Croydon.
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 3: But I find I seem to find it growing wild,
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 3: my lord in the woods. That sayings which would be
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 3: justly admired in England are not much use on an island.
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 3: Are therefore most respectfully proposed that henceforth, every time mister
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 3: Ernest favors us with an epigram, his head should be
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 3: immersed in a buckle of cold spring water.
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: There is a terrible silence.
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 2: Uneasily serve him right, I should like to see you
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 2: try to do it.
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: Uncle, ever ready to come to the sucker of his lordship.
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 3: My feeling, my lord, is that the next offense I
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 3: should convey him to a retired spot, when I should
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 3: carry out the undertaking in as respectful a manner as
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 3: is consistent with a thorough immersion.
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: Though his manner is most respectful, he is firm. He
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: evidently means what he says a ramrod.
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 6: Father, you must not permit this. Ernest is your nephew.
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: With a hand to his brow.
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 8: After all, he is my nephew Crichton. And as I
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 8: am sure he now sees that I am a strong.
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: Man foolishly in the circumstances.
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 2: A strong man you mean a stout man. You are
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 2: one of mind to two of matter.
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: He looks round in the old way for approval. No
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: one has smiled, and to his consternation, he sees that
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: Crichton is quietly turning up his sleeves. Ernest makes an
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: appealing gesture to his uncle. Then he turns defiantly to Crichton.
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 3: It to be before the ladies, mister Ernest, or in
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 3: the privacy of the wood.
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: He fixes Earnest with his eye. Earnest is cowed, come
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: affecting bravado. Oh all right, succinctly, bring the bucket. Ernest hesitates.
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: He then lifts the bucket and follows Crichton to the
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: nearest spring rather white.
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 8: I'm sorry for him, but I had to be firm.
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 6: Oh father, it wasn't you who was firm. Crichton did it.
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 8: Himself, bless me, so he did.
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: Father, be strong, bewildered.
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 8: You can't mean that, my faithful Crichton.
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 7: Yes I do, Lady Mary, I stake my word that
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 7: Crichton is incapable of acting dishonorably.
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 6: I know that. I know it as well as you don't.
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 6: You see that that is what makes him so dangerous.
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 7: By Jove, I believe I catch your meaning.
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: He is coming back who has always known himself to
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: be a man of ideas.
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 8: Let us all go into the hut, just to show
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 8: him at once that it is our hut.
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 6: As they go, Father, I implore you assert yourself now
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 6: and forever I will, and please don't ask him how
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 6: you are to do it.
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: Crichton returns with sticks to mend the fire loftily from
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: the door of the hut.
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 8: Have you carried out my instructions?
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: Crichton deferentially yes, my lord. Ernest appears mopping his hair,
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: which has become very wet since we last saw him.
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: He is not burying malice, he is too busy drying.
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: But Agatha is specially his champion. It's infamous, infamous, strongly.
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 8: My orders, Agatha, Now, Father.
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: Please striking in attitude before.
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 8: I give you any further orders.
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: Crichton, Yes, my lord, delighted.
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 6: Pooh, it's all right, No, please go on.
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 8: Well, well, this question of the leadership. What do you
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 8: think now, Crichton.
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 3: My lord, I feel it is a matter with which
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 3: I have nothing to do.
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 8: Excellent, ha Mary, that settled it.
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 6: I think it seems too, But I'm not sure you will.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 3: Settle itself naturally, my lord, without any interference from us.
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: The reference to nature gives general dissatisfaction, Father a little severely.
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 8: It settled itself long ago, Crichton, when I was born
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 8: up here, and you, for instance, was born a servant.
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 3: Acquiescing, Yes, my lord, that was how it all came about,
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 3: quite naturally in England. We had nothing to do with
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 3: it there, and we shall have a little to do
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 3: with it here.
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: Relieved, that's all right, Determined to clinch the matter.
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 6: One moment in short, Crichton, his lordship will continue to
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 6: be our natural head.
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 3: I dare say, my lady. I dare say, but you
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 3: must now ask your pardon, my lady. One can't be
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 3: sure on an island.
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: They look at each other uneasily, warningly, Crichton, I don't
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: like this, harassed.
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 3: The more I think of it, your Lordship, the more
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 3: uneasy I become myself. When I heard, my Lord, that
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 3: you had left that hairpin behind.
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: He is pained, feebly.
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 8: One hairpin among so many would only have caused dissension.
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: Very sorry to have to contradict him, Not.
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 3: Sir, my lord, from that hairpin, we could have made
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 3: a needle. With that needle we could wood out of skins,
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 3: have searned trousers, and wish your lordship is in need.
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 3: Indeed we are all in need of them.
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: Suddenly self conscious.
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 3: All on an island, my lady.
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: Father really more distressed by the prospect than she, My lady.
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 3: If nature does not think them necessary, you may be
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 3: sure she won't ask you to.
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: Wear them, shaking his head.
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 3: But among all this undergrowth.
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: Now you see this man in his true colors violently.
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 8: Crichton, you will either this moment say down with nature.
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: Scandalized my lord laughtily.
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 8: Then this is my last word to you. Take a
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 8: month's notice.
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: If the hut had a door, he would now shut
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: it to indicate that the interview is closed. In great distress,
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: your lordship, the disgrace swelling not an You may go adamant.
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 6: And don't come to me Crichton.
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: For a character whose immersion has cleared his brain.
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 2: Aren't you all forgetting that this is an island?
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: This brings them to earth with a bump. Lord Lom
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: looks to his eldest daughter for the fitting response equal
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: to the occasion.
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 6: It makes only this difference that you may go at
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 6: once Crichton to some other part of the island.
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: The faithful servant has been true to his superiors ever
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: since he was created, and never more true than at
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: this moment. But his fidelity is founded on trust in nature,
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: and to be untrue to it would be to be
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: untrue to them. He lets the wood he has been
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: gathering slip to the ground and bows his sorrowful head.
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: He turns to obey. Then affection for these great ones
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: wells up in him.
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 3: My lady, let me work for you. Go you need
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 3: me so sorely. I can't desert you.
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: I won't in alarm lest the others may yield.
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 6: Then, Father, there is but one alternative. We must leave him.
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: Lord lorm is looking yearningly at Crichton. It seems a
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: pity forlornly.
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 5: You will work.
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 7: For us most willingly, But I must swow you all
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 7: that so far Criton has done ninetenth of the scoring.
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: The question is are we to leave this man wrapping
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: himself in his dignity?
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 8: Come, my DearS, my lord Trehamne ernest get our things.
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 2: We don't have any uncle. They all belong to Crichton.
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 7: Everything we have he brought from the wreck. He went
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 7: back to it before it sank. He risked his life.
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 3: My lord. Anything you care to take is yours.
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 2: Quickly, nothing rot if I could have your socks.
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 6: Crichton, Come father, were you ready?
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: Followed by the others? She and Lord Lom pick their
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: way up the rocks. In their indignation, they scarcely notice
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: that daylight is coming to a sudden end.
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 3: My Lord, I implore you, I am not desirous of
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 3: being headed. Do you have a try it?
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 7: My lord?
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 2: Outraged, I try at it eagerly.
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 3: It may be that you will prove to be the
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 3: best man.
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 8: Maybe my children come.
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: They disappear proudly in single file.
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 7: Crichton. I'm sorry, but of course I must go with him, certainly, sir.
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: He calls to Tweeny, and she comes from behind the hut,
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: where she has been watching breathlessly.
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 3: Will you be so kind, sir as to take her
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 3: to the others?
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 7: But shortly?
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 12: But what do it all mean?
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 3: Does Tweeny does?
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: He passes her up the rocks to Treherne.
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 7: We shall meet again soon, Tweeny. Good night, sir, good night.
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 7: I dare say they are not far away.
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 3: Thoughtfully, they went westward, sir, and the wind is blowing
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 3: in that direction. That may mean, sir, that Nature is
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 3: already taking the matter into her own hands. They are
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 3: all hungry, sir, and the pot has come a boil.
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: He takes off the lid.
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 3: The smell will be borne westward. That pot is full
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 3: of nature, mister Trehane, good night, sir, good night.
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: He mounts the rocks with Tweeney, and they are hurt
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: for a little time. After their figures are swallowed up
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: in the fast growing darkness, Crichton stands motionless, the lid
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: in his hand, though he has forgotten it and his
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: reason for taking it off the pot. He is deeply stirred,
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: but presently ashamed of his dejection, for it is as
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: if he doubted his principles. Bravely true to his faith
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: that Nature will decide now as ever before, he proceeds
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: manfully with his preparations for the night. He lights a
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: ship's lantern, one of several treasures he has brought ashore,
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: and is filling his pipe with crumbs of tobacco from
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: various pockets, when the stealthy movements of some animal in
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: the grass startles him. With the lantern in one hand
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: and his cutlass in the other, he searches the ground
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: around the hut. He returns, lights his pipe, and sits
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: down by the fire, which casts weird, moving shadows. There
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: is a red gleam on his face in the darkness.
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: He is a strong and perhaps rather sinister figure. In
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: the great stillness that has fallen over the land. The
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: wash of the surf seems to have increased in volume.
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: The sound is indescribably mournful, except where the fire is
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: Desolation has fallen on the island like a pall. Once
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: or twice, as nature dictates, Crichton leans forward to stir
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: the pot, and the smell is borne westward. He then
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: resumes his silent vigil. Shadows other than those cast by
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: the fire begin to descend the rocks. They are the adventurers,
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: Returning one by one. They steal nearer to the pot
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: until they are squatted round it with their hands out
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: to the blaze. Lady Mary only is absent. Presently she
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: comes within sight of the others, then stands against a
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: tree with her teeth clenched. One wonders, perhaps what nature
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: is to make of her. End of Act two, Act
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: three of the Admirable Criton. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: Vox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The Admirable
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: criton by J. M. Barrie, Act three, The Happy Home.
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: The scene is the hall of their island home two
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: years later. This sturdy log house is no mere extension
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: of the hut we have seen in process of erection,
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: but has been built a mile or less to the
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: west of it, on higher ground and near a stream.
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: When the master chose this site, the others thought that
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: all he expected from the stream was a sufficiency of
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: drinking water. They know better now every time they go
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: down to the mill or turn on the electric light.
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: This hall is the living room of the house, and
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: walls and roof are of stout logs. Across the joists
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: supporting the roof are laid many home made implements, such
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: as spades, saws, fishing rods and from hooks. In the
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: joists are suspended cure foods, of which hams are specially
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: in evidence. Deep recesses halfway up the walls contain various
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: provender in barrels and sacks. There are some skins trophies
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: of the chase on the floor which is otherwise bare.
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: The chairs and tables are in some cases hewn out
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: of the solid wood, and in others the result of
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: rough but efficient carpentering. Various pieces of wreckage from the
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: yacht have been turned to novel uses. Thus the steering
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: wheel now hangs from the center of the roof, with
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: electric lights attached to it. Encased in bladders, a life
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: buoy has become the back of a chair. Two barrels
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: have been halved and turned coyly from each other as
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: a set tee. The farther end of the room is
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: more strictly the kitchen, and is a great recess which
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: can be shut off from the hall by folding doors.
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: There is a large open fire in it. The chimney
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: is half of one of the boats of the yacht.
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: On the walls of the kitchen proper are many plate
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: racks containing shells. There are rows of these of one
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: size and shape, which mark them off as dinner plates
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: or balls. Others are as obviously tureens. They are arranged
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: primly as in a well conducted kitchen. Indeed, neatness and
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: cleanliness are the notes struck everywhere. Yet the effect of
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: the whole is romantic and barbaric. The outer door into
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: this hall is a little peculiar on an island. It
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: is covered with skins and is in four leaves, like
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: the swing doors of fashionable restaurants, which allow you to
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: enter without allowing the hot air to escape during the
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: winter season. Our castaways have found the contrivance useful, but
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: Crichton's brain was perhaps a little lordly when he conceived it.
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: Another door leads by a passage to the sleeping rooms
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: of the house, which are all on the ground floor,
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: and to Crichton's work room, where he is at this moment,
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: and whither we should like to follow him, but in
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: a play we may not, as it is out of sight.
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: There is a large window space without a window, which however,
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: can be shuttered, and through this we have a view
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: of cattle sheds, foul pens, and a field of grain.
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: It is a fine summer evening. Tweeny is sitting there,
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: very busy, plucking the feathers off a bird and dropping
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: them on a sheet placed for that purpose on the floor.
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: She is trilling to herself in the lightness of her heart.
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: We may remember that Tweeny, alone among the women, had
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: dressed wisely for an island when they fled the yacht,
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: and her going away gown still adheres to her, though
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: in fragments a score of pieces have been added here
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: and there as necessity compelled, and these have been patched
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: and repatched in incongruous colors. But when all is said
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: and done, it can still be maintained that Tweeny wears
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: a skirt. She is deservedly proud of her skirt, and
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: sometimes lends it on important occasions when approached in the
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 1: proper spirit. Someone outside has been whistling to Tweeny the
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: guarded whistle, which on a less savage island is sometimes
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: assumed to be an indication to Cook that the constable
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: is willing if the coast be clear. Tweeny, however, is engrossed,
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: or perhaps she is not in the mood for a follower,
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: so he climbs in at the window, undaunted to take
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: her willy nilly. He is a jolly looking laboring man
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: who answers to the name of Daddy. And but though
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: this may be his island name, we recognize him at once.
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: He is Lord Loam, settled down to the new conditions,
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: and enjoying life heartily. As handyman about the happy home.
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: He is comfortably attired in skins. He is still stout,
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: but all the flabbiness has dropped from him. Gone too
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: is his pomposity. His eye is clear brown, his skin
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: he could leap a gate in his hands. He carries
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: an island made concertina, and such as the exuberance of
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: his spirits, that as he lights on the floor he
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: bursts into music and song, something about his being a
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: chickety chickty chick chick, And will Tweeny please to tell
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: him whose chickty chick is she? Retribution follows sharp. We
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: hear a whir, as if from insufficiently oiled machinery, and
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: over the passage door appears a placard showing one word silence.
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: His lordship stops and steals to Tweeny on his tiptoes.
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 12: I thought the gove was out, Well you see he ain't.
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 12: And if he were to catch you here oidlin.
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 1: Lord Loam pales. He lays aside his musical instrument and
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: hurriedly dons an apron. Tweeney gives him the bird to pluck,
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: and busies herself laying the table for dinner softly.
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 8: What is he doing now.
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 12: I think he's working at that plants line or not,
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 12: in cold.
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 2: Proud of his master, and he'll manage it too.
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 8: The man who could build a blacksmith's forge without.
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: Tools not less proud.
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 12: He made the tools.
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 8: Out of half a dozen rusty nails, the sawmill, tweeny,
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 8: the speaking tube, the electric lighting. And look at the
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 8: use he has made of the bits of the yacht
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 8: that were washed ashore, and all in two years. He's
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 8: a master. I'm proud to pluck for.
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: He chirps happily at his work, and she regards him curiously.
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 12: Daddy, you're of little use, but you're a bright, cheerful
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 12: creature to have about the ouse.
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: He beams at this commendation.
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 12: Do you ever think of old times? Now?
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 8: We was a bit different, pausing circumstances alter cases.
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: He resumes his plucking contentedly.
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 12: But Daddy, if the chance was to come of getting.
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 8: Back, I have given up bothering about it.
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 12: You bothered that day long ago when we saw a
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 12: ship past the island, and we all ran like crazy
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 12: folk into the water. Daddy in screamed and held out
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 12: our arms.
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: They are both a little agitated, but it sailed away.
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 12: And we've never seen another.
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 8: If we had had the electrical contrivance we have now,
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 8: we could have attracted that ship's notice.
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: Their eyes rest on a mysterious apparatus that fills a
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: corner of the hall.
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 8: A touch on that lever of Tweeny, and in a
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 8: few moments bonfires would be blazing all round the shore.
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: Backing from the lever, as if it might spring at her.
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 12: It's the most wonderful thing he has done.
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: In a reverie.
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 8: And then England home.
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: Also seeing visions.
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 8: London of a Saturday night, my lords in rising once
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 8: more to address this historic chamber.
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 12: There was little almond beef shop off the Edgeware road.
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: The visions fade, They returned to the Practicall.
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 8: Tweeny, do you think I could have an egg to
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 8: my tea?
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: At this moment, a wiry, athletic figure in skins darkens
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: the window. He is carrying two pails, which are suspended
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: from a pole on his shoulder, and he is earnest.
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: We should say that he is earnest, completely changed, if
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: we were of those who hold that people change. As
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: he enters by the window, he has heard Lord Lom's
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: appeal and is perhaps justifiably indignant.
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 2: What is that about an egg? Why should you have
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 2: an egg.
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: With hot tour? That is my affair, sir, with a
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: Parthian shot, as he withdraws stiffly from the room.
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 8: The gove has never put my head in a bucket.
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: Coming to rest on one of his buckets and speaking
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: with excusable pride to Tweeny nor mine.
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 2: For nearly three months, it was only last week, Tweeny
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 2: that he said to me, Ernest, the water cure has
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 2: worked marvels in you, and I question whether I shall
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 2: require to dip you any more complacently. Of course, that
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 2: sort of thing encourages a fellow.
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: Who has now arranged the dinner table to her satisfaction.
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 12: I won't say, Ernie, I never seen young tapmore improved, gratified.
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Tweeny. That's very precious to me.
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: She retires to the fire to work the great billows
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: with her foot, and Ernest turns to Treherne, who has
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: come in looking more like a cowboy than a clergyman.
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 1: He has a small box in his hand, which he
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: tries to conceal.
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 7: What have you got there, John, don't tell anybody. It
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 7: is a little present for a gulf a set of razors,
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 7: one for each day in the.
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: Week, opening the box and examining its contents.
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 2: Shells, He'll like that. He likes sets of things.
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: In a guarded voice.
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 7: Have you noticed that rather, he's becoming a bit magnificent
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 7: in his ideas?
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 2: Huskily, John, It sometimes gives me the creeps.
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: Making sure that Tweeny is out of hearing.
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 7: What do you think of that brilliant rope he got
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 7: the girls to make for him?
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: Uncomfortably?
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 2: I think he looks too regal in it.
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 7: Regal I sometimes fancy that that's why he's so fond
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 7: of wearing it. Practically, Well, I must take these down
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 7: to the grindstone and put an edge on them.
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 1: Butt in Haulingham, I say, John, I want a word
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: with you. Well, become suddenly diffident, dash it all?
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 2: You know you're a clergyman.
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 7: One of the best things to Garve has done is
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 7: to insist that none of you forget it.
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: Taking his courage in his hands.
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 2: Then would you, John, what wistfully officiate at a marriage ceremony?
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 7: John?
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: Slowly?
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 7: Now, that's really odd.
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 2: Odd seems to me it's natural. And whatever is natural,
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 2: John is right?
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 7: I mean that same question has been put to me
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 7: to day.
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 2: All eagerly by one of the women.
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 7: Oh no, they all put it to me long ago.
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 7: This was by the guv himself, by Jove.
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 2: Admiringly, I say, John, what an observant beggar he is.
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 7: Ah, you fancy he was thinking of you.
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 2: I do not hesitate to affirm, John, that he has
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 2: seen the lovelight in my eyes?
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 7: You answered, I said, yes, I thought it would be
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 7: my duty to officiate if called upon.
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: You're a brick still pondering.
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 7: But I wonder whether he was thinking of you.
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 2: Make your mind easy about that?
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 3: Well?
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 7: My best wish is Agatha is a very fine girl.
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 2: Agatha. What made you think it was? Agatha?
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 7: Man alive? You told me all about it soon after
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 7: we were wrecked.
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 2: Pooh, Agatha is all very well in her way, John,
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 2: But I'm flying.
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 7: At bigger game, Ernest, Which is it?
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 2: Tweeny? Of course, tweeny reprovingly, Ernest.
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 7: I do hope her cooking has nothing to do with this.
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 2: With dignity, her cooking has very little to do with it.
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 7: But does she returned your affection simply?
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 3: Yes?
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 2: John, I believe I may say so. I am unworthy
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 2: of her, but I think I have touched her.
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: Heart with a sigh.
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 7: Ah, some people seem to have all the luck. As
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 7: you know. Catherine won't look at me. I'm sorry, John,
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 7: it's my deserts. I'm a second eleventh sort of chap. Well,
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 7: my heart is good wishes, Ernest.
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 2: Thank you, John. How's the little black pig? To day?
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: Departing he has begun to eat again. After a moment's reflection,
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: Ernest calls to Tweeny.
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 2: Are you very busy?
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: Tweeny coming to him good naturedly, there's always work to do.
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 12: But if you want me, Earnest.
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 2: There's something I should like to say to you, if
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 2: you could spare me a moment willingly?
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 8: What is it?
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 2: What an ass? I used to be?
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: Tweeny tolerantly?
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 12: Oh, let boygones be boygones.
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: Sincerely and at his very best.
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 2: I'm no great shakes even now. But listen to this, Tweeny.
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 2: I've known many women, but until I knew you, I
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 2: never knew any woman to.
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: Whose uneducated ears this sounds dangerously like an epigram.
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 2: Take care the bucket, hurriedly. I didn't mean it in
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 2: that way.
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: He goes chivalrously on his knees.
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 2: Ah tweeny, I don't undervalue the bucket, But what I
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 2: want to say now is that the sweet refinement of
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 2: a dear girl has done more for me than any
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 2: bucket could do.
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: With large eyes?
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 12: Are you offering to walk out with me? Ernie?
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: Passionately?
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 2: More than that, I want to build a little for
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 2: you in the sunny glade down by Porcupine Creek. I
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 2: want to make chairs for you, and tables, and knives
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 2: and forks, and a sideboard for you.
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: Who is fond of language? I like to hear you
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: eyeing him.
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 12: Would there be anyone in the ouse except myself, Ernest humbly?
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 2: Not often, but just occasionally, there would be your adoring
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 2: husband decisively. It won't do, Earnest pleading. It isn't as
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 2: if I should be much there.
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 12: I know, I know, but I don't love you, Earnest.
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 1: I'm that sorry, putting his case cleverly.
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 2: Twice a week I should be away altogether at the dam.
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 2: On the other days. You would never see me from
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 2: breakfast time to supper.
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: With the self abnegation of the true lover.
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 2: If you like, I'll even go fishing on Sundays.
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: It's no use, Ernie rising me fully, thank you, Tweeny.
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 2: It can't be helped. Then he remembers, Tweeny, we shall
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 2: be disappointing the.
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: Governor with a sinking.
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 2: What's that he wanted us to marry?
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 1: Blankly? You and me the gov Her head droops woefully.
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: From without is heard the whistling of a happier spirit,
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: and Tweeny draws herself up fiercely.
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 12: That's, sir, that's the thing stoes out from me.
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: A stalwart youth appears at the window, so handsome and
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: tingling with vitality that glad to dispose Crichton. We cry, thankfully,
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: the hero at last. But this is not the hero.
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 2: It is the.
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: Harrow in this splendid boy clad in skins is what
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: nature has done for lady Mary. She carries bow and
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: arrows and a blowpipe, and over her shoulder is a
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: fat buck, which she drops with a cry of triumph
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: forgetting to enter. Demurely, she leaps through the window, sour LYE.
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 12: Drat you, Polly, Why don't you wipe your feet?
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: Good natured lee, Come tweenye, be nice to me.
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 6: It's a splendid buck.
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 1: But tweeny shakes her off and retires to the kitchen fire.
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 2: Where did you get it?
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: Gayly?
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 6: I sighted a her near Penguin's Creek, but had to
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 6: creep Brown Silver Lake to get to windward of them. However,
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 6: they spotted me, and then the fun began. There was
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 6: nothing for it but to try and run them down.
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 6: So I singled out a fat buck, and away we
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 6: went down the shore of the lake, up the valley
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 6: of rolling stones. He doubled into a brawling river and
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 6: took to the water, but I swam after him. The
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 6: river is only half a mile broad there, but it
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 6: runs strong. He went spinning down the rapids. Down I
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 6: went in pursuit. He clambered ashore. I clambered ashore. Away
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 6: we tore, helped to skelter up the hill and down again.
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 6: I lost him in the marshes, got his track again
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 6: a breadfruit wood, and brought him down with an arrow
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 6: in firefly grove.
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: Staring at her, aren't ye tired?
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 6: Tie it? It was gorgeous.
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 1: She runs up a ladder and deposits her weapons on
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: the joists. She is whistling again, snapping.
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 12: I can't abide a woman whistling indifferently.
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: I like it, stamping.
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 12: Her foot, drop it, Polly, I tell you stung.
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 6: I won't. I'm as good as you are.
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: They are facing each other, defiantly shocked.
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 2: Is this necessary? Think how it would pain him?
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: Lady Mary's eyes take a new expression. We see them
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: soft for the first time.
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 6: Contritely, Tweeny, I beg your pardon. If my whistling annoys you,
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 6: I shall try to cure myself of.
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: It instead of calming, Tweeny, this floods her face in tears.
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 6: Why how can that hurt you, Tweeny, dear?
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 12: Because I can't make you lose your temper?
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 6: Divinely, indeed, I often do, would that I were nicer
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 6: to everybody.
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 2: There you are again, wistfully.
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 12: What makes you want to be so nice? Polly?
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 1: With fervor?
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 6: Only thankfulness?
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: Tweeny, She exults, Oh.
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 6: It is such fun to be alive.
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: So also seemed to think Catherine and Agatha, who bounce
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: in with fishing rods and creel. They too are in
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: manly attire.
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 5: We've got some ripping fish for the Gov's dinner. Are
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 5: we in time? We run another way?
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 12: Tartly, You're please to cook them yourself, Key and looks
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 12: up about it.
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 1: She retires to her hearth, where Agatha follows her yearning.
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 4: Has the gov decided? Who is to wait upon him
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 4: to day?
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: Who is cleaning her fish? It's my turn, Hotly, I
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: don't see that with bitterness.
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 12: It's to be neither of you, Aggie. He wants Polly again.
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: Lady Mary is unable to resist a joyous whistle. Jealously Polly,
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: you toad, But they cannot make Lady Mary angry storming?
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 12: How dare you look so happy?
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: Willing to embrace her?
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 6: I wish, tweeny, there was anything I could do to
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 6: make you happy?
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 12: Also me, Oh I'm happy.
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 1: She remembers Ernest, whom it is easy to forget on
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: an island.
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 12: I've just had a proposal, I tell you.
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: Lady Mary is shaken at last, and her sister's with
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: her a proposal going white, not not. She dare not
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: say his name with singular modesty.
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 2: You needn't be alarmed. It's only me relieved.
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 1: Oh you happy again?
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 4: Honest, you dear, I got such a shock.
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 5: It was only Earnest.
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 1: Showing him her fish and thankfulness.
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 5: They're beautifully fresh.
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: Come and help me cook them with simple dignity.
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 2: Do you mind if I don't cook fish tonight?
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 1: She does not mind, in the least they have all
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 1: forgotten him. All lark is singing in three hearts.
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 2: I think you all might be a little sorry for
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 2: a chap, but.
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: They are not even sorry. And he addresses Agatha in
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: these winged words.
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 2: I'm particularly disappointed in you, Aggie, seeing that I was
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 2: half engaged to you. I think you might have had
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 2: the good feeling to be a little more hurt.
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: Oh bother summing up the situation in so far as
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: it affects himself, I.
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 2: Shall now go and lie down for a bit.
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 1: He retires, coldly, but unregretted. Lady Mary approaches Tweeny with
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: her most insinuating smile.
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 6: Tweeny, as the Govis churs me to wait on him,
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 6: please may have the loan of it again.
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: The reference made with such charming delicacy is evidently to
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: Tweeny's skirt. Doggedly, No, you min't supporting Tweeny, don't you
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: give it to her? Still trying sweet persuasion.
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 6: You know quite well that he prefers to be waited
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 6: on in a skirt.
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 12: I don't care. Get one for yourself.
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 6: It is the only one on the island, and it's mine.
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 1: An aristocrat after all, Tweeny, give me that skirt directly, don't.
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: I won't clearing for action, I shall make you.
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 12: I should like to see you try.
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: An unseemly fracas appears to be inevitable, but something happens.
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 1: The whirr is again heard, and the notice is displayed
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 1: dog's delight to bark and bite. Its effect is instantaneous
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: and cheering. The ladies look at each other guiltily and
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: immediately proceed on tiptoe to their duties. These are all
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: concerned with the master's dinner. Catherine attends to his fish.
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 1: Agatha fills a quaint toast rack and brings the menu,
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: which is written on a shell. Lady Mary twists a
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: wreath of green leaves around her head and places a
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: flower beside the master's plate. Tweeny signs that all is ready,
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: and she and the younger sisters retire into the kitchen,
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: drawing the screen that separates it from the rest of
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 1: the room. Lady Mary beats a tom tom, which is
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: the dinner bell. She then gently works a punka which
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 1: we have not hitherto observed, and stands at attention. No
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 1: doubt she is in hopes that the gov will enter
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: into conversation with her. But she is too good a
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: parlor maid to let her hopes appear in her face.
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 1: We may watch her manner with complete approval. There is
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 1: not one of us who would not give her twenty
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 1: six pounds a year. The Master comes in quietly, a
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 1: book in his hand, still the only book on the island,
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: for he has not thought it worth while to build
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 1: a printing press. His dress is not noticeably different from
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 1: that of the others. The skins are similar, but perhaps
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: these are a trifle more carefully cut, or he carries
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 1: them better. One sees somehow that he has changed for
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 1: his evening meal. There is an odd suggestion of a
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 1: dinner jacket about his dough skin coat. It is perhaps
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 1: too grave a face for a man of thirty two,
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 1: as if he were over much immersed in affairs. Yet
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 1: there is a sunny smile left to lighten it at
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 1: times and bring back its youth. Perhaps too intellectual a
• 1:51:39
  Speaker 1: face to pass as strictly handsome, not sufficiently suggestive of oats.
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 1: His tall figure is very straight, slight rather than thick set,
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 1: but nobly muscular, his big hands firm and hard with labor,
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: though they be are finely shaped. Note the fingers so
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: much more tapered, the nails better tended, and those of
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 1: his domestics. They are one of many indications that he
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 1: is of a superior breed. Such signs, as has often
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 1: been pointed out, are infallible. A romantic figure, too, one
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 1: can easily see why the women folks of this strong
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 1: man's house both a door and fear him. He does
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: not seem to notice who is waiting on him tonight,
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 1: but inclines his head slightly to whoever it is. As
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 1: she takes her place at the back of his chair.
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 1: Lady Mary respectfully places the menu shell before him, and
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: he glances at it.
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 3: Clear please.
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 1: Lady Mary knocks on the screen, and a serving hutch
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: in it opens, through which Tweeney offers two soup plates.
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: Lady Mary selects the clear, and the aperture is closed.
• 1:52:48
  Speaker 1: She works the punka while the master partakes of the soup,
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 1: who always gives praise where it is due.
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 3: An excellent soup, Polly, but still the trifle too rich,
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 3: thank you.
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 1: The next course is the fish, and while it is
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 1: being passed, through the hutch. We have a glimpse of
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 1: three jealous women. Lady Mary's movements are so deft and
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 1: noiseless that any observant spectator can see that she was
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 1: born to wait at table. Unbending as he eats.
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 3: Polly, You're a very smart girl.
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: Bridling but naturally gratified. Lah smiling, and I'm.
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 3: Not the first you've heard it from.
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 1: I'll swear wriggling.
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 6: God gott it.
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 3: He follows on the.
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 2: Island, Polly tossing her head.
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 6: Certainly not.
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 3: I thought that perhaps John nor Earnest.
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 1: Tilting her nose. I don't say that it's for want
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 1: of asking emphatically.
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 3: I'm sure it isn't.
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 1: Perhaps he thinks he has gone too far. You make there,
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 1: flushed with pleasure, She puts before him a bird and vegetables,
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 1: sees that his beaker is fitted with wine, and returns
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 1: to the punka.
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 2: She would love to continue.
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 1: Their conversation, but it is for him to decide. For
• 1:54:13
  Speaker 1: a time, he seems to have forgotten her.
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 3: Did you lose any arrows today?
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 6: Only one in five?
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 3: Like Grove, you're as far as that. How did you
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 3: to cross the black gorge?
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 6: I went across on the rope.
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 1: Hand of a hand, swelling at the implied praise. I
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 1: wasn't in the least dizzy moved you, brave girl. He
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 1: sits back in his chair, a little agitated.
• 1:54:43
  Speaker 3: But never do that again, pouting it.
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 1: Is such fun, Gove decisively, I forbid it, the little rebel.
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 1: I shall surprised Polly. He signs to her sharply to
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 1: step forward, but for a moment she holds back petulantly,
• 1:55:03
  Speaker 1: and even when she does come, it is less obediently
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 1: than like a naughty, sulky child. Nevertheless, with the forbearance
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 1: that is characteristic of the man, he addresses her with
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 1: grave gentleness, rather than severely.
• 1:55:17
  Speaker 3: You must do as I tell you, you.
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 1: Know, strangely passionate. I sha'n't smiling at her fury.
• 1:55:26
  Speaker 3: We shall see proud of me. Polly. There you do
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 3: it at once. Clench your little fists, stamp your feet,
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 3: bite your ribbons.
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: A student of women, or at least of this woman,
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 1: he knows that she is about to do those things,
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: and thus she seems to do them to order. Lady
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 1: Mary screws up her face like a baby and cries.
• 1:55:52
  Speaker 1: He is immediately kind, you.
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 3: Child of nature? Was it cruel of me to wish
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 3: to save you from harmy her eyes.
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 6: I'm an ungracious wretch. Oh God, I don't try half
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 6: hard enough to please you. I'm even wearing.
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 1: She looks down sadly. When I know you prefer it thoughtfully, I.
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 3: Admit I do prefer it. Perhaps I'm in his old
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 3: fashioned in these matters.
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 1: Her tears again threaten.
• 1:56:22
  Speaker 3: Oh dead Polly, that's nothing.
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 6: If I could only please you gov slowly.
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 3: You do please me, child, very much.
• 1:56:34
  Speaker 1: He half rises, very much. Indeed, if he meant to
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 1: say more, he checks himself. He looks at his plate.
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 3: No more, thank you.
• 1:56:45
  Speaker 1: The simple island meal is ended, save for the walnuts
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 1: and the wine, and Crichton is too busy a man
• 1:56:51
  Speaker 1: to linger long over them. But he is a stickler
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 1: for etiquette, and the table is cleared charmingly, though with dispatch,
• 1:56:59
  Speaker 1: before they are placed before him. Lady Mary is an
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 1: artist with the crumb brush, and there are few arts
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 1: more delightful to watch. Dusk has come sharply, and she
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 1: turns on the electric light. It awakens Crichton from a
• 1:57:13
  Speaker 1: reverie in which he has been regarding her.
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 3: Polly, there is only one thing about you that I
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 3: don't quite like.
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 1: She looks up, making a move. If that can be
• 1:57:23
  Speaker 1: said of one who so well knows her place. He
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 1: explains that.
• 1:57:28
  Speaker 3: Action of the hands, What do I do so like
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 3: one washing them? I've noticed that the others tend to
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 3: do it, olso it seems odd archly.
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 6: Oh Gove, have you forgotten what that? Once upon a
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 6: time a certain other person did that groping?
• 1:57:51
  Speaker 3: You mean myself?
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 1: She nods, and he shudders, horrible, afraid she has heard him.
• 1:58:00
  Speaker 6: You haven't for a very long time. Perhaps it is
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 6: natural to servants.
• 1:58:05
  Speaker 3: That must be it.
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 1: He rises, Polly. She looks up expectantly, but he only
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 1: sighs and turns away gently.
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 6: You sighed, Goph, did.
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 3: I I was thinking?
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 1: He paces the room and then turns to her, agitatedly,
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 1: yet with control over his agitation. There is some mournfulness
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 1: in his voice.
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 3: I've always tried to do the right thing on this island.
• 1:58:33
  Speaker 3: Above all, Polly, I want to do the right thing
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 3: by you.
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 1: With shining eyes.
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 6: How we all trust you. That is your reward, gov.
• 1:58:45
  Speaker 1: Who is having a fight with himself, and.
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 3: Now I want a greater reward? Is it fair to you?
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 3: Am I playing in the game. Bill Crichton would always
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 3: like to pray the game if we were in England.
• 1:58:59
  Speaker 1: He pauses so long that she breaks in softly.
• 1:59:03
  Speaker 6: We know now that we shall never see England again.
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 3: I am thinking of two people whom neither of us
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 3: has seen for a long time, Lady Mary lazenbye, and
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 3: one frighten a butler.
• 1:59:17
  Speaker 1: He says the last word bravely, a word he once loved,
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 1: though it is the most horrible of all words to
• 1:59:23
  Speaker 1: him now.
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 6: That cold, haughty, insolent girl. GOV look around you and
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 6: forget them both.
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 3: I had nigh forgotten them. He has had a chance, Polly,
• 1:59:36
  Speaker 3: that butler, in these two years of becoming a man,
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 3: and he has tried to take it. There have been
• 1:59:42
  Speaker 3: many failures, but there has been some success, And with
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 3: it I have let the past drop off me and
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 3: turned my back on it. That Butler seems a far
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 3: away figure to me now, and not myself. I hail him,
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 3: but we scarce know each other. If I am to
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 3: bring him back, he can only be done by force,
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 3: For in my soul he is now abhorrent to me.
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 3: But if I thought it best for you, I'd haul
• 2:00:10
  Speaker 3: him back. I swear as an honest man. I would
• 2:00:13
  Speaker 3: bring him back with all his obsequious ways and deferential airs,
• 2:00:18
  Speaker 3: And let you see the man you call your gove
• 2:00:21
  Speaker 3: melt forever into him who was your servant, shivering.
• 2:00:28
  Speaker 6: You hurt me. You say these things, but you say
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 6: them like a king. To me, it is the past
• 2:00:35
  Speaker 6: that was not real.
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 1: Too grandly a king I sometimes feel for a moment
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 1: the yellow light gleams in his green eyes. We remember
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 1: suddenly what Trehearne and Ernest said about his regal look.
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 1: He checks himself.
• 2:00:52
  Speaker 3: I see it harshly. It is so hard to say,
• 2:00:55
  Speaker 3: And all the time there is another voice within me crying.
• 2:00:59
  Speaker 1: He stops trembling, but not afraid.
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 6: If it is the voice of nature.
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 1: Strongly I know it to be the voice of nature
• 2:01:10
  Speaker 1: in a whisper.
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 6: Then, if you want to say it very much, Gov,
• 2:01:15
  Speaker 6: please say it to Polly laysonby.
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 1: Again in the grip of an idea a.
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 3: King, Polly. Some people hold that the soul but leaves
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 3: one human tenement for another, and so lives on through
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 3: all the ages. I have occasionally thought of late that
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 3: in some past existence I may have been a king.
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 3: It has all come to me so naturally, not as
• 2:01:39
  Speaker 3: if I had had to work it out, but as
• 2:01:42
  Speaker 3: if I remembered for ever the nightly years were gone
• 2:01:46
  Speaker 3: with the old world to the grave. I was a
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 3: king in Babylon, and you were a Christian slave. It
• 2:01:53
  Speaker 3: may have been you, hear me, It may.
• 2:01:56
  Speaker 1: Have been who is as one fascinated.
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 6: It may have.
• 2:02:01
  Speaker 3: Been I am lord over all. They are but hills
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 3: of wood and drawers of water. For me, these shores
• 2:02:08
  Speaker 3: are mine. Why should I hesitate? I have no longer
• 2:02:12
  Speaker 3: any doubt. I do believe I am doing the right thing.
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 3: Dear Polly, I have grown to love you. Are you
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 3: afraid to mate with me?
• 2:02:22
  Speaker 1: She rocks her arms. No words will come from her.
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 3: I was a king in Babylon, and you were a
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 3: Christian slave bewitched.
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 6: You are the most wonderful man I have ever known,
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 6: and I am not afraid.
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 1: He takes her to him reverently. Presently he is seated,
• 2:02:43
  Speaker 1: and she is at his feet, looking up adoringly in
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 1: his face. As the tension relaxes, she speaks with a smile.
• 2:02:51
  Speaker 6: I want you to tell me. Every woman likes to know,
• 2:02:56
  Speaker 6: when was the first time you thought me nicer than
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 6: the others?
• 2:03:00
  Speaker 1: Who like our big men is simple.
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 3: I think a year ago we were chasing goats on
• 2:03:07
  Speaker 3: the big slopes, and you out distanced us all. You
• 2:03:11
  Speaker 3: were the first of our party to run a goat down.
• 2:03:15
  Speaker 1: I was proud of you that day, blushing with pleasure.
• 2:03:19
  Speaker 6: Oh, Gov, I only did it please you. Everything I
• 2:03:23
  Speaker 6: have done has been out of the desire to please you.
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 1: Suddenly anxious, if I thought that, in taking a wife
• 2:03:29
  Speaker 1: from among us, you were imperiling your dignity, perhaps a
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 1: little masterful, have.
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 3: No fear of that, dear. I have thought it all out.
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 3: The wife, Polly always takes the same position as the husband.
• 2:03:44
  Speaker 6: But I am so unworthy. It was sufficient to me
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 6: that I should be allowed to wait on you at
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 6: that table.
• 2:03:50
  Speaker 3: You shall wait on me no longer at one of
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 3: a table I sit, Polly, you shall soon sit there also.
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 1: Boyishly, come, let us try what will.
• 2:04:00
  Speaker 6: Be like as your servant at your feet?
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 3: No is my consort by my side.
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 1: They are sitting thus. When the hatch is again opened
• 2:04:10
  Speaker 1: and coffee offered, but Lady Mary is no longer there
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 1: to receive it, her sisters peep through in consternation. In vain,
• 2:04:19
  Speaker 1: they raddle the cup in the saucer. Agatha brings the
• 2:04:22
  Speaker 1: coffee to Crichton, forgetting for the moment that it is
• 2:04:26
  Speaker 1: not a month.
• 2:04:26
  Speaker 3: Hence help your mistress. First girl.
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 1: Three women are bereft of speech, but he does not
• 2:04:34
  Speaker 1: notice it. He addresses Catherine vaguely.
• 2:04:37
  Speaker 3: Are you a good girl, kitty?
• 2:04:40
  Speaker 1: When she finds her tongue, I I try to be
• 2:04:43
  Speaker 1: gove still more vaguely.
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 2:04:49
  Speaker 1: He takes command of himself again and signs to them
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 1: to sit down. Ernest comes in cheerily, but finding Crichton here,
• 2:04:56
  Speaker 1: is suddenly weak. He subsides on a chair, wondering what
• 2:05:00
  Speaker 1: has happened, Surveying him Earnest. Earnest rises, you're.
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 3: Becoming a little slovenly in your dress, Earnest, I don't.
• 2:05:10
  Speaker 2: Like it, respectfully, thank you.
• 2:05:14
  Speaker 1: Ernest sits again. Daddy and Treherne arrive.
• 2:05:18
  Speaker 3: Daddy, I want you with a sinking?
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 8: Is it because I forgot to clean out the dam?
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: Encouragingly?
• 2:05:26
  Speaker 3: No, No.
• 2:05:28
  Speaker 1: He pours some wine into a goblet.
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 3: A glass of wine with you.
• 2:05:32
  Speaker 1: Daddy, hastily your health cove. He is about to drink,
• 2:05:37
  Speaker 1: but the master checks him and.
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 3: Hers Daddy, this lady has done me the honor to
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 3: promise to be my wife.
• 2:05:45
  Speaker 1: Astounded, Polly, a little perturbed.
• 2:05:50
  Speaker 3: I ought at first to have asked your consent. I
• 2:05:53
  Speaker 3: deeply regret, but nature, may I hope to have your approval?
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 1: May you cove lighted rather, Polly? He puts his proud
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 1: arms round her.
• 2:06:06
  Speaker 7: We all congratulate you, Gov most heartily.
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 2: Long life to you both, sir.
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 1: There is much shaking of hands, all of which is sincere.
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 7: When will it be gov?
• 2:06:18
  Speaker 1: After turning to Lady Mary, who whispers to him.
• 2:06:21
  Speaker 3: As soon as the bridal skirt can be prepared.
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 1: His manner has been most indulgent, and without the slightest
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 1: suggestion of patronage. But he knows it is best for
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: all that he should keep his place, and that his
• 2:06:35
  Speaker 1: presence hampers them.
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 3: My friends, I thank you for your good wishes. I
• 2:06:40
  Speaker 3: thank you all, And now perhaps you would like me
• 2:06:44
  Speaker 3: to leave you to yourselves be joyous. Let there be
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 3: song and danced to night. Polly, I shall take my
• 2:06:52
  Speaker 3: coffee in the parlor, you understand.
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 1: He retires with pleasant dignity. Immediately there is a rush
• 2:06:59
  Speaker 1: of two girls. Lady Mary, oh, oh father, they are
• 2:07:03
  Speaker 1: pinching me, taking her under his protection, Agatha, Catherine never
• 2:07:09
  Speaker 1: presumed to pinch your sister again.
• 2:07:11
  Speaker 8: On the other hand, she may pinch you henceforth as
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 8: much as ever she chooses.
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 1: In the meantime, Tweeney is weeping softly, and the two
• 2:07:20
  Speaker 1: are not above using her as a weapon.
• 2:07:23
  Speaker 5: Poor tweeny. It's a shame.
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 1: After he had almost promised you loyally turning on them.
• 2:07:31
  Speaker 12: No, he never did. It was always honorable as could be,
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 12: twas me as was too vulgar. Don't you dare say
• 2:07:37
  Speaker 12: word again that man to Lord Loam.
• 2:07:41
  Speaker 2: You'll get a lot of titbits out of this Daddy.
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 8: That's what I was thinking.
• 2:07:46
  Speaker 1: Plunged in thought.
• 2:07:48
  Speaker 2: I dare say, I shall have to clean out the
• 2:07:51
  Speaker 2: dam now heartlessly.
• 2:07:54
  Speaker 8: I dare say.
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 1: His gay old heart makes him again proclaim that he
• 2:07:58
  Speaker 1: is a chickadee. Check. He seizes the concertina eagerly.
• 2:08:03
  Speaker 7: That's the proper spirit.
• 2:08:06
  Speaker 1: He puts his arm round Catherine, and in another moment
• 2:08:09
  Speaker 1: they are all dancing to Daddy's music. Never were people
• 2:08:13
  Speaker 1: happier on an island. A moment's pause is presently created
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 1: by the return of Crichton, wearing the wonderful robe of
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 1: which we have already had dark mention. Never has he
• 2:08:24
  Speaker 1: looked more regal, never perhaps felt so regal. We need
• 2:08:28
  Speaker 1: not grudge him the one foible of his rule, for
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: it is all coming to an end. Graciously seeing them hesitate.
• 2:08:37
  Speaker 3: No, no, I am delighted to see you all so happy.
• 2:08:40
  Speaker 3: Go on.
• 2:08:42
  Speaker 7: We don't like to before you gov.
• 2:08:44
  Speaker 1: His last order. It is my wish the merrymaking is resumed,
• 2:08:50
  Speaker 1: and soon Crichton himself joins in the dance. It is
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 1: when the fun is at its fastest and most furious,
• 2:08:56
  Speaker 1: that all stop abruptly, as if turned to stone. They
• 2:09:00
  Speaker 1: have heard the boom of a gun. Presently they are
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 1: alive again. Ernest leaps to the window huskily.
• 2:09:08
  Speaker 7: It was a ship's gun.
• 2:09:10
  Speaker 1: They turned to Crichton for confirmation. Even in that hour
• 2:09:14
  Speaker 1: they turned to Crichton.
• 2:09:16
  Speaker 3: Go yes.
• 2:09:18
  Speaker 1: In another moment, Lady Mary and Lord Loam are alone,
• 2:09:23
  Speaker 1: seeing that her father is unconcerned.
• 2:09:26
  Speaker 6: Father, you had.
• 2:09:28
  Speaker 1: Placidly, yes, my child, alarmed by his unnatural calmness. But
• 2:09:35
  Speaker 1: it was a gun, father, looking an old man now
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 1: and shuddering a little, Yes, a gun.
• 2:09:43
  Speaker 8: I have often heard it. It's only a dream, you know.
• 2:09:47
  Speaker 8: Why don't we go on? Dancing.
• 2:09:49
  Speaker 1: She takes his hands, which have gone cold.
• 2:09:52
  Speaker 6: Father, don't you see they've all rushed down to the beach.
• 2:09:56
  Speaker 8: Come, rush down to the beach. Yes, always that, I
• 2:10:01
  Speaker 8: often dream it. Come, father, come only a dream, my
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 8: poor girl.
• 2:10:08
  Speaker 1: Creighton returns. He is pale but firm.
• 2:10:12
  Speaker 3: We can see lights within a mile of the shore.
• 2:10:14
  Speaker 8: A great ship, A ship, always a ship, Father.
• 2:10:19
  Speaker 1: This is no dream. Looking timidly at Crichton.
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 8: It's a dream, isn't it. There's no ship.
• 2:10:27
  Speaker 1: Soothing him with a touch.
• 2:10:29
  Speaker 3: You are awake, daddy, and there is a ship clutching him.
• 2:10:34
  Speaker 8: You are not deceiving me.
• 2:10:36
  Speaker 1: It is the truth, reeling true.
• 2:10:40
  Speaker 8: A ship a last.
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 1: He goes after the others pitifully quietly.
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 3: There is a small boat between it and the island.
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 3: They must have sent it ashore for water, coming in.
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 3: No that a gun must have been a signal to
• 2:10:58
  Speaker 3: recall it. It is going back. They can't hear our.
• 2:11:02
  Speaker 1: Cries, pressing her temples, going away so near, so near,
• 2:11:09
  Speaker 1: almost to herself.
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 6: I think I'm glad.
• 2:11:14
  Speaker 1: Cheerily, have no fear.
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 3: I shall bring them back.
• 2:11:19
  Speaker 1: He goes towards the table, on which is the electrical apparatus,
• 2:11:23
  Speaker 1: standing on guard as it were between him and the table.
• 2:11:26
  Speaker 6: What are you going to do to fyre the beacons stop?
• 2:11:31
  Speaker 1: She faces him.
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 6: Don't you see what it means?
• 2:11:35
  Speaker 1: Firmly?
• 2:11:36
  Speaker 3: It means that our life on the island has come
• 2:11:39
  Speaker 3: to a natural end.
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 1: Husky Gov.
• 2:11:43
  Speaker 6: Let the ship go, the old.
• 2:11:46
  Speaker 3: Man, you saw what it means to him.
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 1: But I'm afraid, adoringly, dear Polly Gov let the ship go.
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 1: She clings to him, but though it is his death center,
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 1: he loosens her hold.
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 3: Bill Crichton has got to play the game.
• 2:12:05
  Speaker 1: He pulls the levers. Soon through the window one of
• 2:12:09
  Speaker 1: the beacons is seen flaring red. There is a long pause.
• 2:12:13
  Speaker 1: Shouting is heard. Oh here, Ernest is the first to arrive.
• 2:12:23
  Speaker 2: Polly Governor. The boat has turned back. They are English sellers.
• 2:12:28
  Speaker 2: They have landed. We are rescued, I tell you, rescued, Wanley.
• 2:12:34
  Speaker 1: Is it anything to make so greater to do about staring?
• 2:12:38
  Speaker 3: Eh?
• 2:12:39
  Speaker 6: Have we not been happy? Here?
• 2:12:41
  Speaker 2: Happy lord?
• 2:12:43
  Speaker 8: Yes?
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 1: Catching hold of his sleeve.
• 2:12:46
  Speaker 6: Ernest, we must never forget all that the gov has
• 2:12:49
  Speaker 6: done for us.
• 2:12:50
  Speaker 2: Stoutly forget it. The man who could forget it would
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 2: be a selfish wretch and a But I say this
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 2: makes a difference.
• 2:12:59
  Speaker 1: Quick, No, it doesn't, his mind tottering a mighty difference.
• 2:13:06
  Speaker 1: The others come running in, some weeping with joy, others boisterous.
• 2:13:11
  Speaker 1: We see blue jackets gazing through the window at the
• 2:13:13
  Speaker 1: curious scene. Lord Lom comes, accompanied by a naval officer,
• 2:13:18
  Speaker 1: whom he is continually shaking by the hand.
• 2:13:22
  Speaker 8: And here, sir, is our little home. Let me thank
• 2:13:25
  Speaker 8: you in the name of us all again and again
• 2:13:28
  Speaker 8: and again.
• 2:13:29
  Speaker 11: Very proud, my lord. It is indeed an honor to
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 11: have been able to assist so distinguished a gentleman as Lord.
• 2:13:38
  Speaker 8: Long a glorious, glorious day. I shall show you our
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 8: other room. Come my pets, Come Crichton.
• 2:13:47
  Speaker 1: He has not meant to be cruel. He does not
• 2:13:50
  Speaker 1: know he has said it. It is the old life
• 2:13:52
  Speaker 1: that has come back to him. They all go, I'll
• 2:13:56
  Speaker 1: leave Crichton, except Lady Mary, stretching out her arms to him.
• 2:14:01
  Speaker 6: Dick Off, I will never give you up.
• 2:14:05
  Speaker 1: There is a salt smile on his face as he
• 2:14:08
  Speaker 1: shakes his head to her. He lets the cloak slip
• 2:14:11
  Speaker 1: to the ground. She will not take this for an answer. Again,
• 2:14:16
  Speaker 1: her arms go out to him. Then comes the great renunciation,
• 2:14:21
  Speaker 1: by an effort of will, he ceases to be an
• 2:14:23
  Speaker 1: erect figure. He has the humble bearing of a servant.
• 2:14:27
  Speaker 1: His hands come together as if he were washing them.
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 1: It is the speech of his life. My lady, she
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 1: goes away. There is none to salute him now unless
• 2:14:40
  Speaker 1: we do it. End of Act three, Act for of
• 2:14:56
  Speaker 1: the Admirable Criton. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 2:15:01
  Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 2:15:04
  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The Admirable Criton
• 2:15:09
  Speaker 1: by J. M. Barry, Act for the Other Island. Some
• 2:15:14
  Speaker 1: months have elapsed, and we have again the honor of
• 2:15:17
  Speaker 1: waiting upon Lord Loam in his London home. It is
• 2:15:20
  Speaker 1: the room of the first Act, but with a new
• 2:15:23
  Speaker 1: scheme of decoration. For on the walls are exhibited many
• 2:15:27
  Speaker 1: interesting trophies from the island, such as skins, stuffed birds,
• 2:15:31
  Speaker 1: and weapons of the chase labeled shot by Lord Loam,
• 2:15:35
  Speaker 1: Honorable Ernest Wooly's blowpipe, et cetera. There are also two
• 2:15:40
  Speaker 1: large glass cases containing other odds and ends, including, curiously enough,
• 2:15:46
  Speaker 1: the bucket in which Ernest was first dipped, but there
• 2:15:49
  Speaker 1: is no label calling attention to the incident. It is
• 2:15:53
  Speaker 1: not yet time to dress for dinner, and his Lordship
• 2:15:56
  Speaker 1: is on a couch, hastily yet furtively cutting the pages
• 2:15:59
  Speaker 1: of an new book. With him are his two younger
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 1: daughters and his nephew, and they also are engaged in
• 2:16:06
  Speaker 1: literary pursuits. That is to say, the ladies are eagerly
• 2:16:11
  Speaker 1: but furtively reading the evening papers of which Ernest is
• 2:16:14
  Speaker 1: sitting complacently but furtively on an endless number, and doling
• 2:16:19
  Speaker 1: them out as called for. Note the frequent use of
• 2:16:22
  Speaker 1: the word furtive. It implies that they do not wish
• 2:16:25
  Speaker 1: to be discovered by their butler, say, at their otherwise
• 2:16:28
  Speaker 1: delightful task reading aloud with emphasis on the wrong words.
• 2:16:34
  Speaker 4: In conclusion, we most heartily congratulate the honorable Earnest Woolly.
• 2:16:40
  Speaker 4: This book of his, regarding the adventures of himself and
• 2:16:45
  Speaker 4: his brave companions on a desert isle, stirs the heart
• 2:16:49
  Speaker 4: like a trumpet.
• 2:16:51
  Speaker 1: Evidently, the book referred to is the one in Lord
• 2:16:53
  Speaker 1: Lom's hands, handing her a pink paper.
• 2:16:58
  Speaker 2: Here is another reading.
• 2:17:01
  Speaker 5: From the first to the last of mister Woolly's engrossing pages.
• 2:17:05
  Speaker 5: It is evident that he is an ideal man to
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 5: be wrecked with and a true hero.
• 2:17:09
  Speaker 1: Large eyed, earnest, calmly.
• 2:17:14
  Speaker 2: That's how it strikes them.
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 6: You know.
• 2:17:16
  Speaker 2: Here's another one reading.
• 2:17:19
  Speaker 4: There are many kindly references to the two servants who
• 2:17:22
  Speaker 4: are wrecked with the family, and mister Woolle pays the
• 2:17:25
  Speaker 4: butler a glowing tribute in a footnote.
• 2:17:28
  Speaker 1: Some one coughs uncomfortably, who has been searching the index
• 2:17:33
  Speaker 1: for the letter.
• 2:17:33
  Speaker 8: L excellent, excellent. At the same time, I must say, Earnest,
• 2:17:38
  Speaker 8: that the whole book is about.
• 2:17:39
  Speaker 1: Yourself, genially as the author.
• 2:17:43
  Speaker 8: Certainly, certainly still you know, as.
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 1: A peer of the realm with dignity.
• 2:17:49
  Speaker 8: I think, Ernest, you might have given me one of
• 2:17:52
  Speaker 8: your adventures.
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 2: I say it was you who taught us how to
• 2:17:56
  Speaker 2: obtain a fire by rubbing two pieces of stick together,
• 2:18:00
  Speaker 2: beaming do.
• 2:18:01
  Speaker 3: You do you?
• 2:18:02
  Speaker 8: I call that very handsome? What page?
• 2:18:07
  Speaker 11: Here?
• 2:18:07
  Speaker 1: The door opens, and the well bred Crichton enters with
• 2:18:10
  Speaker 1: the evening papers as subscribed for by the house. Those
• 2:18:13
  Speaker 1: we have already seen have perhaps been introduced by Ernest
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 1: up his waistcoat. Every one except the intruder is immediately
• 2:18:21
  Speaker 1: self conscious, and when he withdraws there is a general
• 2:18:25
  Speaker 1: sigh of relief. They pounce on the new papers. Ernest
• 2:18:29
  Speaker 1: evidently gets a shock from one, which he casts contemptuously
• 2:18:33
  Speaker 1: on the floor.
• 2:18:35
  Speaker 4: More fortunate, father, see page eighty one. It was a
• 2:18:39
  Speaker 4: tiger cat, says mister Woolley, of the largest size. Death
• 2:18:44
  Speaker 4: stared Lord Loam in the face, but he never flinched.
• 2:18:47
  Speaker 1: Searching his book eagerly.
• 2:18:49
  Speaker 4: Page eighty one, with presence of mind only equaled by
• 2:18:53
  Speaker 4: his courage, he fixed an arrow in his bow.
• 2:18:57
  Speaker 8: Thank you, Ernest, Thank you, my boy.
• 2:18:59
  Speaker 4: Fortunately he missed, eh, but my great good luck. I
• 2:19:03
  Speaker 4: heard his cries, my cries, and rushing forward with drawn knife,
• 2:19:09
  Speaker 4: I stabbed the monster to the heart.
• 2:19:11
  Speaker 1: Lord Loam shuts his book with a pettish slam. There
• 2:19:15
  Speaker 1: might be a scene here, were it not that Crichton
• 2:19:17
  Speaker 1: reappears and goes to one of the glass cases. All
• 2:19:20
  Speaker 1: are at once on the alert, and his lordship is
• 2:19:23
  Speaker 1: particularly sly.
• 2:19:26
  Speaker 5: Anything in the paper is Catherine, no father, nothing, nothing
• 2:19:31
  Speaker 5: at all.
• 2:19:32
  Speaker 1: It pops out as of yore.
• 2:19:34
  Speaker 2: The papers. The papers are guides that tell us what
• 2:19:38
  Speaker 2: we ought to do, and then we don't do it.
• 2:19:41
  Speaker 1: Crichton, having opened the glass case, has taken out the
• 2:19:44
  Speaker 1: bucket and Earnest, looking round for applause, sees him carrying
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 1: it off, and is undone for a moment of time.
• 2:19:52
  Speaker 1: He forgets that he is no longer on the island,
• 2:19:55
  Speaker 1: and with a sigh, he is about to follow Crichton
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 1: and the bucket to a retired spot. The door closes
• 2:20:01
  Speaker 1: and Ernest comes to himself uncomfortably.
• 2:20:05
  Speaker 8: I told him to take it away, I thought.
• 2:20:10
  Speaker 1: He wipes his brow.
• 2:20:12
  Speaker 2: I shall go and dress.
• 2:20:14
  Speaker 1: He goes, father.
• 2:20:16
  Speaker 5: It's awful having Crichton here. It's like living on tiptoe gloomily.
• 2:20:21
  Speaker 8: Well he is here. We are sitting on a volcano.
• 2:20:25
  Speaker 4: How mean of you. I am sure he has only
• 2:20:28
  Speaker 4: stayed on with us to help us through. It would
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 4: have looked so suspicious if he had.
• 2:20:33
  Speaker 1: Gone at once reveling in the worst.
• 2:20:36
  Speaker 5: And suppose Lady Brocklehurst were to get at him and
• 2:20:39
  Speaker 5: pump him. She's the most terrifying, suspicious old creature in England.
• 2:20:43
  Speaker 5: And Crichton simply can't.
• 2:20:44
  Speaker 1: Tell a lie, my dear.
• 2:20:47
  Speaker 8: That is the volcano to which I was referring.
• 2:20:50
  Speaker 1: He has evidently something to communicate.
• 2:20:53
  Speaker 8: It's all Mary's fault. She said to me yesterday that
• 2:20:55
  Speaker 8: she would break her engagement with Brocklehurst. Unless I told
• 2:20:58
  Speaker 8: him about.
• 2:21:01
  Speaker 1: I'll conjure up the vision of crit in.
• 2:21:04
  Speaker 4: Is she mad well?
• 2:21:05
  Speaker 8: She calls it common honesty.
• 2:21:07
  Speaker 5: Father.
• 2:21:08
  Speaker 1: Have you told him heavily?
• 2:21:11
  Speaker 8: She thinks I have, but I couldn't. She's sure to
• 2:21:15
  Speaker 8: find out tonight.
• 2:21:17
  Speaker 1: Unconsciously, he leans on the island concertina, which he has
• 2:21:20
  Speaker 1: perhaps been lately showing to an interviewer as something he
• 2:21:24
  Speaker 1: made for tweeny. It squeaks, ugh, and they all jump.
• 2:21:29
  Speaker 1: It's like a bird of ill omen vindictively, I must have.
• 2:21:33
  Speaker 8: It, take it away. It has done that twice.
• 2:21:38
  Speaker 1: Lady Mary comes in. She is in evening dress. Undoubtedly
• 2:21:42
  Speaker 1: she meant to sail in, but she forgets, and despite
• 2:21:45
  Speaker 1: her garments, it is a manly entrance. She is properly
• 2:21:49
  Speaker 1: ashamed of herself. She tries again and has an encouraging success.
• 2:21:54
  Speaker 1: She indicates to her sisters that she wishes to be
• 2:21:57
  Speaker 1: alone with Papa.
• 2:21:59
  Speaker 4: All right, but we know what it's about. Come along,
• 2:22:01
  Speaker 4: kit they go.
• 2:22:03
  Speaker 1: Lady Mary thoughtlessly sits like a boy and again corrects herself.
• 2:22:08
  Speaker 1: She addresses her father, but he is in a brown study,
• 2:22:11
  Speaker 1: and she seeks to draw his attention by whistling. This
• 2:22:15
  Speaker 1: troubles them both. Oh, how horrid of me depressed?
• 2:22:20
  Speaker 8: If you would try to remember, sighing, Ah, I.
• 2:22:26
  Speaker 6: Do, but there are so many things to.
• 2:22:28
  Speaker 1: Remember sympathetically there are in a whisper.
• 2:22:34
  Speaker 8: Do you know, Mary, I constantly find myself secreting hairpins.
• 2:22:39
  Speaker 6: I find it so difficult to go up steps one
• 2:22:42
  Speaker 6: at a time.
• 2:22:43
  Speaker 8: I was dining with half a dozen members of our
• 2:22:45
  Speaker 8: party last Thursday, Mary, and they were so eloquent that
• 2:22:48
  Speaker 8: I couldn't help wondering all the time how many of
• 2:22:51
  Speaker 8: their heads he would have put in the bucket?
• 2:22:53
  Speaker 6: Are you so many of his phrases? And my appetite
• 2:22:57
  Speaker 6: is so scandalous far well, that I usually have a
• 2:23:01
  Speaker 6: chop before we sit down to dinner.
• 2:23:03
  Speaker 1: As for my clothes wriggling.
• 2:23:06
  Speaker 8: My dear, you can't think how irksome collars are to
• 2:23:09
  Speaker 8: me nowadays.
• 2:23:11
  Speaker 6: They can't be half such an annoyance father, As.
• 2:23:15
  Speaker 1: She looks dolefully at her skirt hurriedly.
• 2:23:19
  Speaker 8: Quite so, quite so you have ressed early to night. Mary.
• 2:23:22
  Speaker 6: That reminds me. I had a note from Brocklehurst saying
• 2:23:26
  Speaker 6: that he would come a few minutes before his mother
• 2:23:28
  Speaker 6: is has he wanted to have a talk with me.
• 2:23:31
  Speaker 6: He didn't say what about, but of course we know.
• 2:23:35
  Speaker 1: His lordship fidgets with feeling.
• 2:23:38
  Speaker 6: It was good of you to tell him, Father, though
• 2:23:41
  Speaker 6: it is horrible.
• 2:23:42
  Speaker 1: To me covering her face, it seemed so natural at
• 2:23:47
  Speaker 1: the time, petulantly.
• 2:23:49
  Speaker 8: Never again make use of that word in this house, Mary.
• 2:23:53
  Speaker 1: With an effort.
• 2:23:54
  Speaker 6: Father Brocklehurst has been so loyal to me for these
• 2:23:58
  Speaker 6: two years that I should despise myself right to keep
• 2:24:01
  Speaker 6: my my extraordinary lapse from him. Had Brocklehurst been a
• 2:24:06
  Speaker 6: little less good, then you need not have told him
• 2:24:09
  Speaker 6: my strange little secret.
• 2:24:12
  Speaker 8: Weekly Polly, I mean Mary. It was all Crichton's fault.
• 2:24:17
  Speaker 1: He with decision.
• 2:24:19
  Speaker 6: No, Father, no, not a word against him. Though I
• 2:24:23
  Speaker 6: haven't the pluck to go on with it. I can't
• 2:24:25
  Speaker 6: even understand how it ever was, Father, Do you not
• 2:24:30
  Speaker 6: still hear the surf? Do you see the curve of
• 2:24:33
  Speaker 6: the beach?
• 2:24:34
  Speaker 8: I have begun to forget in a low voice. But
• 2:24:37
  Speaker 8: they were happy days. There was something magical about them.
• 2:24:43
  Speaker 6: It was glamor. Father. I have lived Arabian nights, I
• 2:24:48
  Speaker 6: have sat out a dance with the evening star, but
• 2:24:52
  Speaker 6: it was all in a past existence in the days
• 2:24:55
  Speaker 6: of Babylon, and I am myself again. But he has
• 2:25:00
  Speaker 6: been chivalrous always. If the slothful, indolent creature I used
• 2:25:05
  Speaker 6: to be has improved in any way, I owe it
• 2:25:08
  Speaker 6: all to him. I am slipping back in many ways,
• 2:25:12
  Speaker 6: but I am determined not to slip back altogether, in
• 2:25:16
  Speaker 6: memory of him and his island. That is why I
• 2:25:20
  Speaker 6: insisted on your telling Brocklehurst. He can break our engagement
• 2:25:24
  Speaker 6: if he chooses.
• 2:25:25
  Speaker 1: Proudly.
• 2:25:26
  Speaker 6: Mary Lazenby is going to play the game.
• 2:25:29
  Speaker 1: But my dear Lord Brocklehurst is announced meaningly. Father, dear
• 2:25:35
  Speaker 1: oughtn't you to be dressing very unhappy?
• 2:25:39
  Speaker 8: The fact is before I go, I want to say.
• 2:25:44
  Speaker 9: Loam, if you don't mind, I wish very specially to
• 2:25:47
  Speaker 9: have a word with Mary before dinner.
• 2:25:49
  Speaker 1: But yes, Father, She induces him to go, and thus
• 2:25:54
  Speaker 1: courageously faces Lord Brocklehurst to hear her fate. I am
• 2:25:58
  Speaker 1: ready George, who is so agitated that she ought to
• 2:26:02
  Speaker 1: see he is thinking not of her but of himself.
• 2:26:05
  Speaker 9: It is a painful matter. I wish I could have
• 2:26:08
  Speaker 9: spared you this. Mary, Please go on in common fairness,
• 2:26:13
  Speaker 9: of course, this should be remembered that two years had elapsed,
• 2:26:17
  Speaker 9: you and I had no reason to believe that we
• 2:26:20
  Speaker 9: should ever meet again.
• 2:26:22
  Speaker 1: This is more considerate than she had expected, softening, I.
• 2:26:26
  Speaker 6: Was so lost to the world, George.
• 2:26:30
  Speaker 1: With a groan.
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 3: Ugh.
• 2:26:32
  Speaker 9: At the same time, the thing is utterly and absolutely inexcusable.
• 2:26:38
  Speaker 1: Recovering her hot tour.
• 2:26:40
  Speaker 9: Oh, and so I have already said to.
• 2:26:43
  Speaker 1: Mother, disdaining him.
• 2:26:46
  Speaker 9: You have told her, certainly, Mary, certainly, I tell mother everything.
• 2:26:53
  Speaker 1: Curling her lip.
• 2:26:54
  Speaker 6: And what did she say.
• 2:26:56
  Speaker 9: To tell the truth? Mother rather pooh pooed the whole affair.
• 2:27:01
  Speaker 1: Incredulous Lady Brocklehurst, pooh pooh to the whole affair.
• 2:27:06
  Speaker 9: She said, Mary and I will have a good laugh
• 2:27:09
  Speaker 9: over this.
• 2:27:11
  Speaker 1: Outraged George, your mother is a hateful, depraved old woman, Mary,
• 2:27:18
  Speaker 1: turning away.
• 2:27:20
  Speaker 6: Laugh Indeed, when it will always be such a pain
• 2:27:23
  Speaker 6: to me.
• 2:27:24
  Speaker 9: With strange humility, if only you would let me bear
• 2:27:28
  Speaker 9: all the pain?
• 2:27:29
  Speaker 1: Mary, who has taken aback?
• 2:27:32
  Speaker 6: George, I think you are the noblest man.
• 2:27:36
  Speaker 1: She is touched and gives him both her hands. Unfortunately,
• 2:27:40
  Speaker 1: he simpers.
• 2:27:42
  Speaker 9: She was a pretty little thing.
• 2:27:44
  Speaker 1: She stares, but he marches to his doom.
• 2:27:48
  Speaker 9: Ah, not beautiful like you. I assure you it was
• 2:27:51
  Speaker 9: the merest flirtation. There were a few letters, but we've
• 2:27:54
  Speaker 9: got them back. It was all owing to the boat
• 2:27:57
  Speaker 9: being so late at Calais.
• 2:27:59
  Speaker 1: You see, she had such large, helpless eyes fixing him, George.
• 2:28:06
  Speaker 6: When you lunched with father to day at the club.
• 2:28:09
  Speaker 9: I didn't he wired me that he couldn't come with.
• 2:28:13
  Speaker 1: A tremor, But he wrote to you. No, a bird
• 2:28:18
  Speaker 1: singing in her breast.
• 2:28:19
  Speaker 6: You haven't seen him since.
• 2:28:21
  Speaker 1: No, she is saved. Is he to be let off? Also?
• 2:28:26
  Speaker 1: Not at all? She bears down on him like a
• 2:28:28
  Speaker 1: ship of war. George, Who and what is this woman cowering?
• 2:28:36
  Speaker 9: She is the shame of it.
• 2:28:40
  Speaker 1: A lady's maid, properly horrified.
• 2:28:43
  Speaker 9: A what a lady's maid? A mere servant?
• 2:28:47
  Speaker 8: Mary?
• 2:28:48
  Speaker 1: Lady Mary whirls round so that he shall not see
• 2:28:51
  Speaker 1: her face.
• 2:28:53
  Speaker 9: I've first met her at this house when you were
• 2:28:55
  Speaker 9: entertaining the servants, So you see it was largely your
• 2:28:59
  Speaker 9: father's fault.
• 2:29:00
  Speaker 1: Looking him up and down. A lady's maid degraded. Her
• 2:29:07
  Speaker 1: name was Fisher, my maid with open hands?
• 2:29:13
  Speaker 9: Can you forgive me? Mary?
• 2:29:16
  Speaker 6: Oh, George? George.
• 2:29:20
  Speaker 9: Mother urged me not to tell you anything about it.
• 2:29:23
  Speaker 6: But from her heart, I am so glad you told me.
• 2:29:28
  Speaker 9: You see, there was nothing wrong.
• 2:29:30
  Speaker 1: In it, thinking perhaps of another incident, no, indeed, inclined
• 2:29:37
  Speaker 1: to simper again.
• 2:29:38
  Speaker 9: And she behaved awfully well. She quite saw that it
• 2:29:42
  Speaker 9: was because the boat was late. I suppose the glamor
• 2:29:45
  Speaker 9: to a girl in service of a man in high position.
• 2:29:49
  Speaker 6: Glamor, Yes, yes, that was it.
• 2:29:53
  Speaker 9: Mother says that a girl in such circumstances is to
• 2:29:56
  Speaker 9: be excused if she loses her head pulsively.
• 2:30:01
  Speaker 6: Oh, George, I am so sorry if I said anything
• 2:30:04
  Speaker 6: against your mother.
• 2:30:05
  Speaker 8: I am sure.
• 2:30:05
  Speaker 6: She is the dearest old.
• 2:30:06
  Speaker 1: Thing in calm waters at last.
• 2:30:10
  Speaker 9: Of course, four women of our class, she has a
• 2:30:13
  Speaker 9: very different standard.
• 2:30:16
  Speaker 1: Grown tiny of course.
• 2:30:19
  Speaker 9: You see, knowing how good a woman she is herself,
• 2:30:22
  Speaker 9: she was naturally anxious that I should marry someone like her.
• 2:30:26
  Speaker 9: That is what has made her. What's your conduct? So jealously, Mary.
• 2:30:31
  Speaker 1: Hurriedly thinking things out?
• 2:30:33
  Speaker 6: I know, I I think, George, that before your mother comes,
• 2:30:37
  Speaker 6: I should like to say a word to father nervously
• 2:30:41
  Speaker 6: about this. Oh no, I shan't tell him of this
• 2:30:45
  Speaker 6: about something else.
• 2:30:47
  Speaker 9: And you do forgive me, Mary.
• 2:30:50
  Speaker 1: Smiling on him.
• 2:30:52
  Speaker 6: Yes, yes, I I am sure the boat was very late, George.
• 2:30:58
  Speaker 1: Earnestly, it really was.
• 2:31:01
  Speaker 6: I am even relieved to know that you are not
• 2:31:03
  Speaker 6: quite perfect, Dear.
• 2:31:05
  Speaker 1: She rests her hands on his shoulders. She has a
• 2:31:08
  Speaker 1: moment of contrition, George.
• 2:31:11
  Speaker 6: When we are married, we shall try to be not
• 2:31:14
  Speaker 6: an entirely frivolous couple, won't we. We must endeavor to
• 2:31:18
  Speaker 6: be of some little use, Dear.
• 2:31:20
  Speaker 1: The ass no bless so bleeds hunted by the phrases
• 2:31:24
  Speaker 1: of a better man.
• 2:31:25
  Speaker 6: Mary Lazenby is determined to play the game, George.
• 2:31:30
  Speaker 1: Perhaps she adds to herself, except just this Once. A
• 2:31:34
  Speaker 1: kiss closes this episode of the two lovers, and soon
• 2:31:37
  Speaker 1: after the departure of Lady Mary, the Countess of Brocklehurst
• 2:31:41
  Speaker 1: is announced. She is a very formidable old lady alone, George, Mother.
• 2:31:47
  Speaker 9: I told her all. She has behaved magnificently.
• 2:31:51
  Speaker 1: Who has not shared his fears?
• 2:31:53
  Speaker 13: Silly boy?
• 2:31:55
  Speaker 1: She casts a supercilious eye on the island trophies.
• 2:31:59
  Speaker 13: So these are the ones they brought back with them,
• 2:32:01
  Speaker 13: gone away to dry her eyes, I suppose.
• 2:32:04
  Speaker 1: Proud of his mate.
• 2:32:05
  Speaker 9: She didn't cry, mother, No, she reflects.
• 2:32:10
  Speaker 13: You're quite right. I wouldn't have cried cold. I see, yes,
• 2:32:16
  Speaker 13: that was it?
• 2:32:17
  Speaker 1: Who has not often contradicted her?
• 2:32:20
  Speaker 9: I assure you, mother, that wasn't it at all. She
• 2:32:23
  Speaker 9: forgave me at once, opening.
• 2:32:26
  Speaker 1: Her eyes sharply to the fall.
• 2:32:28
  Speaker 9: Oh, she was awfully nice about the boat being laid.
• 2:32:32
  Speaker 9: She even said she was relieved to find that I
• 2:32:35
  Speaker 9: wasn't quite perfect pouncing. She said that she really did.
• 2:32:42
  Speaker 13: I mean, I wouldn't now if I had said that?
• 2:32:45
  Speaker 13: What would have made me say it?
• 2:32:47
  Speaker 1: Suspiciously?
• 2:32:48
  Speaker 13: George?
• 2:32:49
  Speaker 1: Is Mary all? We think her with unexpected spirit.
• 2:32:53
  Speaker 9: If she wasn't, Mother, you would know it.
• 2:32:56
  Speaker 13: Hold your tongue, boy, we don't really know what happened
• 2:33:00
  Speaker 13: on that island.
• 2:33:01
  Speaker 9: You were reading the book all morning.
• 2:33:04
  Speaker 13: How can I be sure that the book is true?
• 2:33:06
  Speaker 9: They all talk of it as true.
• 2:33:08
  Speaker 13: How do I know that they are not lying?
• 2:33:11
  Speaker 9: Why should they lie?
• 2:33:12
  Speaker 13: Why shouldn't they?
• 2:33:14
  Speaker 1: She reflects again.
• 2:33:16
  Speaker 13: If I had been wrecked on an island, I think
• 2:33:18
  Speaker 13: it highly probable that I should have lied when I
• 2:33:20
  Speaker 13: came back. When's some servants with them?
• 2:33:23
  Speaker 9: Krighten the butler.
• 2:33:25
  Speaker 1: He is surprised to see her ring the bell.
• 2:33:28
  Speaker 9: Why mother, you're not going to.
• 2:33:30
  Speaker 1: Yes, I am pointedly, George, watch where a.
• 2:33:34
  Speaker 13: Crichton begins any of his answers to my questions with that.
• 2:33:37
  Speaker 13: That is why, because that is usually the beginning of
• 2:33:41
  Speaker 13: a lie.
• 2:33:42
  Speaker 1: As Crichton opens.
• 2:33:43
  Speaker 9: The door, Mother, you can't do these things in other
• 2:33:46
  Speaker 9: people's houses.
• 2:33:48
  Speaker 1: Coolly to Kriighten. It was I who rang surveying him
• 2:33:53
  Speaker 1: through her eyeglass.
• 2:33:54
  Speaker 13: So you are one of the castaways, Crightoned, Yes, my lady,
• 2:33:59
  Speaker 13: the light book mister Wooley has written about your adventures.
• 2:34:02
  Speaker 1: Crichton, Bows, don't you think so?
• 2:34:05
  Speaker 13: I have not read it, my lady, On that they
• 2:34:09
  Speaker 13: should not have presented you with a copy.
• 2:34:11
  Speaker 9: Presumably Crichton is no reader.
• 2:34:14
  Speaker 13: And by the way, Crichton, were there any books on
• 2:34:16
  Speaker 13: the island?
• 2:34:18
  Speaker 3: I had one, my lady Henley's poems.
• 2:34:22
  Speaker 9: Never heard of him?
• 2:34:24
  Speaker 1: Crichton again, Bows, who has not heard of him either?
• 2:34:28
  Speaker 13: I think you were not the only servant wrecked.
• 2:34:31
  Speaker 3: There was a young woman, my lady.
• 2:34:34
  Speaker 1: I want to see her, Criton Bows, but remains fetch
• 2:34:39
  Speaker 1: her up. He goes, almost standing up to his mother.
• 2:34:45
  Speaker 1: This is scandalous, defining her position.
• 2:34:49
  Speaker 13: I am a mother.
• 2:34:51
  Speaker 1: Catherine and Agatha enter in Dazzling Confections and quake in
• 2:34:55
  Speaker 1: secret to find themselves practically alone with Lady Brocklehurst, even
• 2:34:59
  Speaker 1: as she greets them.
• 2:35:01
  Speaker 13: How do you do, Catherine Agatha? You didn't dress like
• 2:35:04
  Speaker 13: this on the island, I expect, by the way, how
• 2:35:07
  Speaker 13: did you dress?
• 2:35:09
  Speaker 1: They have thought themselves prepared, but not.
• 2:35:13
  Speaker 4: Not so well, of course, but quite the same idea.
• 2:35:16
  Speaker 1: They are relieved by the arrival of Treherne, who is
• 2:35:19
  Speaker 1: in clerical dress.
• 2:35:20
  Speaker 13: How do you do, mister Trehuane. There's not so much
• 2:35:23
  Speaker 13: of you in the book.
• 2:35:24
  Speaker 1: As I'd hoped, modestly, there wasn't very much of me
• 2:35:28
  Speaker 1: on the island, Lady Brocklehurst.
• 2:35:30
  Speaker 13: How do you mean?
• 2:35:31
  Speaker 1: He shrugs his honest shoulders.
• 2:35:34
  Speaker 9: I hear you've got a living trio. Congratulations?
• 2:35:39
  Speaker 7: Thanks?
• 2:35:40
  Speaker 9: Is it a good one?
• 2:35:41
  Speaker 7: So so? They are rather weak in bowling, but it's
• 2:35:45
  Speaker 7: a good bit of turf.
• 2:35:47
  Speaker 1: Confidence is restored by the entrance of Ernest, who takes
• 2:35:50
  Speaker 1: in the situation promptly, and of course knows he is
• 2:35:54
  Speaker 1: a match for any old lady with these.
• 2:35:58
  Speaker 2: How do you do, Lady Brocklehurst, Ah, brilliant.
• 2:36:01
  Speaker 1: Arthur, impervious to satire.
• 2:36:04
  Speaker 2: Oh, I don't know.
• 2:36:06
  Speaker 13: It is as engrossing mister Woolley as if it were
• 2:36:09
  Speaker 13: a work.
• 2:36:09
  Speaker 1: Of fiction, suddenly uncomfortable thanks awfully recovering the fact is
• 2:36:17
  Speaker 1: he is puzzled by seeing the Brocklehurst family exchange meaning
• 2:36:21
  Speaker 1: looks to the rescue Lady Brocklehurst.
• 2:36:25
  Speaker 5: Mister Treethearne and I.
• 2:36:26
  Speaker 1: We are engaged and ernest and I grimly I see
• 2:36:32
  Speaker 1: my DearS thought it wise to keep the island in
• 2:36:34
  Speaker 1: the family. An awkward moment. This for the entrance of
• 2:36:38
  Speaker 1: Lord Lome and Lady Mary, who, after a private talk upstairs,
• 2:36:43
  Speaker 1: are feeling happy and secure with two hands for his
• 2:36:47
  Speaker 1: distinguished guest.
• 2:36:49
  Speaker 8: Aha ha ha, younger than any of them.
• 2:36:51
  Speaker 1: Emily Flatterer to Lady Mary.
• 2:36:55
  Speaker 13: Do you seem in high spirits?
• 2:36:56
  Speaker 6: Mary?
• 2:36:57
  Speaker 1: Gaily, I am, with a significant glance at Lord Brocklehurst.
• 2:37:03
  Speaker 6: After I I mean the fact.
• 2:37:07
  Speaker 1: Is again that disconcerting glance between the Countess and her son.
• 2:37:12
  Speaker 8: Humorously she hears wedding bells. Emily ha ha, coldly.
• 2:37:19
  Speaker 13: Do you Mary can't say I do, but I'm hard.
• 2:37:23
  Speaker 1: Of hearing instantly her match.
• 2:37:26
  Speaker 6: If you don't, Lady Brocklehurst, I'm sure I don't.
• 2:37:30
  Speaker 8: Nervously tut tut see now curier from the island, Emily,
• 2:37:35
  Speaker 8: I should like you to examine them.
• 2:37:38
  Speaker 13: Thank you, Henry. I am glad you've said that, for
• 2:37:40
  Speaker 13: I've just taken a liberty of asking two of them
• 2:37:42
  Speaker 13: to step upstairs.
• 2:37:44
  Speaker 1: There is an uncomfortable silence which the entrance of Crichton
• 2:37:47
  Speaker 1: with Tweeny does not seem to dissipate. Crichton is impenetrable,
• 2:37:51
  Speaker 1: but Tweeney hangs back in fear stoutly.
• 2:37:55
  Speaker 9: Lo I have no handedness undisturbed.
• 2:38:00
  Speaker 13: What have I done? You always begged me to speak
• 2:38:03
  Speaker 13: to the servants her, and I merely wanted to discover
• 2:38:05
  Speaker 13: whether the views you used to hold about equality were
• 2:38:08
  Speaker 13: adopted on the island. Seemed a splendid opportunity. But mister
• 2:38:12
  Speaker 13: Wooley has not a word.
• 2:38:13
  Speaker 6: On the subject.
• 2:38:15
  Speaker 1: All eyes turned to Ernest with confidence.
• 2:38:19
  Speaker 2: The fact is the fatal words.
• 2:38:22
  Speaker 1: Again, not quite certain what he is to assure her of.
• 2:38:26
  Speaker 8: I assure you, Emily.
• 2:38:29
  Speaker 6: As called as steel father, nothing whatever happened on the island,
• 2:38:33
  Speaker 6: of which I, for one am ashamed, And I hope
• 2:38:36
  Speaker 6: Crichton will be allowed to answer Lady Brocklehurst's questions.
• 2:38:40
  Speaker 13: To be sure, there's nothing to make a fuss about,
• 2:38:43
  Speaker 13: and we're a family party.
• 2:38:44
  Speaker 1: To crighton now, trithly, my man, calmly.
• 2:38:49
  Speaker 3: I promise that, my lady.
• 2:38:53
  Speaker 1: Some hearts sink, the hearts that could never understand a
• 2:38:56
  Speaker 1: criton sharply.
• 2:38:58
  Speaker 6: Well, were you all equal on the island, No, my lady,
• 2:39:02
  Speaker 6: I think I may say there was as little a
• 2:39:05
  Speaker 6: quality there as elsewhere.
• 2:39:08
  Speaker 13: Ah, the social distinctions were preserved as at home, my lady.
• 2:39:13
  Speaker 13: The servants they had to keep their place wonderful?
• 2:39:18
  Speaker 1: How was it managed with an inspiration?
• 2:39:21
  Speaker 13: Are you good? Tell me that?
• 2:39:23
  Speaker 1: Can there be a more critical moment in agony?
• 2:39:28
  Speaker 12: If you please, my lady. It was all the Gov's doing.
• 2:39:32
  Speaker 1: They give themselves up for last. Lord Lom tries to
• 2:39:35
  Speaker 1: sink out of sight.
• 2:39:37
  Speaker 3: In the regrettable slang of the servants hall, my lady,
• 2:39:41
  Speaker 3: the master is usually referred to as the gulf.
• 2:39:45
  Speaker 1: I see, She turns to Lord Lom.
• 2:39:48
  Speaker 8: You reappearing, Yes, I understand that is what they call me.
• 2:39:54
  Speaker 13: To Crichton, who didn't even take your meals with the family, No,
• 2:39:58
  Speaker 13: my lady, I dined apart.
• 2:40:02
  Speaker 1: Is all safe alas you girl?
• 2:40:05
  Speaker 13: Also did you dine with Crichton?
• 2:40:08
  Speaker 1: Scared more your ladyship fastening on her with him, I
• 2:40:14
  Speaker 1: took him.
• 2:40:15
  Speaker 12: A bit of supper with with Daddy and Pulley, and the.
• 2:40:18
  Speaker 1: Rest they victis leaping into the breach.
• 2:40:23
  Speaker 2: Dear old Daddy, he was our monkey, you remember our monkey, Agatha.
• 2:40:28
  Speaker 6: Rather, what a.
• 2:40:30
  Speaker 4: Funny old darling.
• 2:40:31
  Speaker 1: He was thus encouraged.
• 2:40:33
  Speaker 5: And don't you think Polly was the sweetest little parrot.
• 2:40:36
  Speaker 13: Mary Ah, I understand animals. You were domesticated.
• 2:40:42
  Speaker 1: Heavily, quite so, quite.
• 2:40:44
  Speaker 13: So the seventh teeth that used to take place here
• 2:40:47
  Speaker 13: once a month.
• 2:40:49
  Speaker 3: They did not seem natural on the island, my lady,
• 2:40:53
  Speaker 3: and were discontinued by the gods orders.
• 2:40:57
  Speaker 9: A clear proof long that they were a mistake.
• 2:41:01
  Speaker 1: Seeing the opportunity for a diversion, I.
• 2:41:04
  Speaker 8: Admit it, frankly, I abandoned them emily. As a result
• 2:41:07
  Speaker 8: of our experiences on the island, I think of going
• 2:41:10
  Speaker 8: over to the Tories. I am delighted to hear it expanding,
• 2:41:16
  Speaker 8: thank you Crichton, thank you.
• 2:41:18
  Speaker 1: That is all he motions to them to go. But
• 2:41:21
  Speaker 1: the time is not yet.
• 2:41:23
  Speaker 13: One moment there is.
• 2:41:24
  Speaker 1: A universal but stifled groan.
• 2:41:27
  Speaker 13: Young people crighton, will be young people even on an island. Now,
• 2:41:31
  Speaker 13: I suppose there was a certain amount of shall we say,
• 2:41:34
  Speaker 13: sentimentalizing going on.
• 2:41:37
  Speaker 1: Yes, my lady, there was ashamed mother disregarding him, which,
• 2:41:45
  Speaker 1: gentlemen to Tweeny, you good tell me confused, if you.
• 2:41:51
  Speaker 2: Please, milady hurriedly.
• 2:41:54
  Speaker 1: The fact is he is checked as before and probably
• 2:41:58
  Speaker 1: says didn't to himself, but he has saved the situation, gasping.
• 2:42:03
  Speaker 12: It was him, mister Ernest, your ladyship.
• 2:42:07
  Speaker 1: Counsel for the prosecution.
• 2:42:09
  Speaker 4: With which lady I've already told you, Lady Brocklehurst, that Ernest, and.
• 2:42:15
  Speaker 13: I yes, now, but you were two years on the.
• 2:42:17
  Speaker 2: Island looking at Lady Mary.
• 2:42:20
  Speaker 13: Was it this lady? No, your ladyship then I don't
• 2:42:23
  Speaker 13: care which of the others it was.
• 2:42:26
  Speaker 1: Tweeny gurgles, MM.
• 2:42:28
  Speaker 13: Well, I suppose that will do?
• 2:42:30
  Speaker 9: Do I hope you are ashamed of yourself mother?
• 2:42:34
  Speaker 1: To Crichton, who is going.
• 2:42:37
  Speaker 9: You are an excellent fellow Crichton. And if after we
• 2:42:40
  Speaker 9: are married you ever wish to change your place, come
• 2:42:44
  Speaker 9: to us.
• 2:42:45
  Speaker 1: Losing her head for the only time. Oh no, impossible
• 2:42:51
  Speaker 1: at once? Suspicious?
• 2:42:53
  Speaker 13: Why impossible?
• 2:42:55
  Speaker 1: Lady Mary cannot answer, or perhaps she is too proud.
• 2:42:58
  Speaker 13: Do you see why it should be in possible, my man.
• 2:43:01
  Speaker 1: He can make or mar his unworthy Mary. Now have
• 2:43:04
  Speaker 1: you any doubt of him?
• 2:43:06
  Speaker 3: Yes, my lady, I had not told you, my lord,
• 2:43:10
  Speaker 3: but as soon as your lordship is suited, I wish
• 2:43:13
  Speaker 3: to leave Servis.
• 2:43:15
  Speaker 1: They are all immensely relieved, except poor Tweeny, the only
• 2:43:19
  Speaker 1: curious one.
• 2:43:21
  Speaker 7: What will you do, Crichton?
• 2:43:23
  Speaker 1: Crichton shrugs his shoulders. God knows it may.
• 2:43:26
  Speaker 3: Mean shall I withdraw?
• 2:43:28
  Speaker 2: My lord?
• 2:43:30
  Speaker 1: He withdraws, without a tremor Tweeny accompanying him. They can
• 2:43:34
  Speaker 1: all breathe again. The thunderstorm is over. Thankful to have
• 2:43:38
  Speaker 1: made herself unpleasant.
• 2:43:39
  Speaker 13: Horrid of me, wasn't it? But if one wasn't disagreeable
• 2:43:43
  Speaker 13: now and again, it would be horribly tedious to be
• 2:43:45
  Speaker 13: an old woman. He will send me yours, Mary, and
• 2:43:48
  Speaker 13: then think at the opportunities you will have been disagreeable
• 2:43:51
  Speaker 13: to me on that understanding, My dear, don't you think
• 2:43:54
  Speaker 13: we might?
• 2:43:55
  Speaker 1: Their cold lips meet vaguely.
• 2:43:59
  Speaker 8: Quite so? Quite so.
• 2:44:02
  Speaker 1: Crichton announces dinner, and they file out. Lady Mary stays
• 2:44:06
  Speaker 1: behind a moment and impulsively holds out her hand to.
• 2:44:10
  Speaker 6: Wish you every dear happiness.
• 2:44:13
  Speaker 1: An enigma to the last.
• 2:44:15
  Speaker 3: The same to you, my lady.
• 2:44:18
  Speaker 6: Do you despise me?
• 2:44:19
  Speaker 1: Crichton, the man who could never tell a lie, makes
• 2:44:23
  Speaker 1: no answer.
• 2:44:24
  Speaker 6: You are the best man among us on.
• 2:44:27
  Speaker 3: An island, my lady, perhaps, But in England no.
• 2:44:32
  Speaker 6: Then there's something wrong with England, my.
• 2:44:36
  Speaker 3: Lady, Not even from you. Can I listen to a
• 2:44:39
  Speaker 3: word against England.
• 2:44:41
  Speaker 6: Tell me one thing. You have not lost your courage, No,
• 2:44:46
  Speaker 6: my lady.
• 2:44:48
  Speaker 1: She goes. He turns out the lights and of Act
• 2:44:54
  Speaker 1: for and of the Admirable Criton by J. M. Barry