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14 - The House of Arden - E Nesbit · Daily Sci-Fi Books

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter eleven, Developments, Part one. Come on, said Drid. You
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: measure up the hypo and put the four pie dishes ready.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: I'll get the water. He got it with Missus Hornyset's help,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: two brimming pailsful. You mustn't come in for anything, will you,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: missus Honyset, He earnestly urged. You see, if the door's
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: open ever so little, all the photographs will be done
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: for lo love a duck, said Missus Honeyset, holding her
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: fat waist with her fat hands. I sha'n't come in.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I ain't got nothin to come in for. We'll bolt
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: the door all the same, said Edred when she was gone.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: In case she was to think of something, he shot
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: the great wooden bolt. Now it'll be quite dark, he said,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: And of course it wasn't you know the aggravating way
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: rooms have of pretending to be quite dark until you
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: want them to be dark, and then by no means.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: This room didn't even pretend to be dark to begin with.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Its shutters had two hard shaped holes high up through
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: which the light showed quite dazzingly. Edred had to climb
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: up on to the window seat and stuff up the
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: holes very tight with crusted newspaper to get, which she
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: had to unbolt the door. There, he said, as he
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: pulled and patted the newspaper till it really and darkly
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: filled the heart shaped holes. Now it will be quite dark.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: And again it wasn't long. Dusty rays of light came
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: through the cracks where the hinges of the shutters were.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Newspapers were no good for them. The door had to
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: be unbolted, and missus Hornysett found she was sitting in
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: a little low chair at the back door, plucking a
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: white chicken. The sight of the little white feathers floating
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: fluffing above brought wonderful memories to Edred, but he only said,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: I say, you haven't any old curtains, have you? Thick
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: ones or thin if they were red. Missus Honeyset laid
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: the chickens down among his white feathers and went to
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: chest of drawers that stood in the kitchen. Here you are,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: she said, handing out the two old red velvet curtains,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: with which she disappeared. But he was back again quite quickly.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: You haven't got a hammer, I suppose, said he. The
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: dresser drawer yielded a hammer and Edrith took it away
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: to return almost at once with I suppose there aren't
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: any tacks, I suppose, said missus honeyst laughing. There ain't
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: much sense locking that steel room door on the inside,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: when it ain't me that keeps sola popping in, but
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: you that keeps all a poppin out. However, she gave
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: him the tax rusty ones in a damp screw of
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: paper when he had hammered his fingers a good deal,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: and the tax a little. The tax consented to hold
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: up the curtain, or the curtain condescended to be held
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: up by the tax. And now said Ydred, shutting the door.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: It really is dark, he meant, But of course it wasn't.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: There was a gap under the door so wide, as
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Elfrida said that you could have almost crawled through it.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: That meant another appeal to missus Honeyset for another curtain,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: And this time missus Honeyset told him to go along
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: with him for a little boret and threw a handful
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: of downy, soft white feathers at him. But she laughed too,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: and gave him the curtain, and at last it really
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: was dark, And then they had to unbolt the door again,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: because Elfrida had forgotten where she had put the matches.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: You will readily understand that after all this preparation, the
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: children were at the last point of impatience, and everything
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: seemed to go slowly. The lamp with the red shade
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: burned up presently, and then the four pie dishes were
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: filled with water that looked pink in that strange light.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: One good thing, said Edred. The hypo has had time
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: to melt, and now there was careful snipping, and long
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: ribbons of black paper curled unheeded round the legs of
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: the operators. I wish we were born photographers like the
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: man who took aunt Edith and you on the beach
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: with the donkey, said Edrid nervously, as he began to
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: pass the film in and out of the water in
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: pie dish number one. Oh be sure there are no
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: air bubbles, said Elfrida. You might let me do some
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: of it. You shall do the next one, said Edred,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: almost holding his breath. Dear reader, do you recall the
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: agitating moment when you pass the film through the hypol
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: and hold it up to the light and nothing happens.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Do you remember the painful wonder whether you may have
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: forgotten to set the shutter, or whether you have got
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: hold of an unexposed film by mistake. Your breath comes
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: with difficulty, your fingers feel awkward, and the film is
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: unnaturally slippery. You dip it into the hypo bath again
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: and draw it through and through with a calmness of despair.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: I don't believe it's coming out at all, you say,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: And then comes the glorious moment when you hold it
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: up again to the red light and murmur rapturously. Ah,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: it is beginning to show. If you will kindly remember
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: all the emms of those exciting moments on an occasion,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: let us say, when you had not had your camera
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: very long, Then multiply by seven million, add x an
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: unknown quantity of an emotion quite different from anything you
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: have ever felt, and you will have some idea what
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Edred and Elfrida felt when the first faint, gray, formless
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: patches began to appear on the film. But you might
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: multiply till you had used up the multiplication table and
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: had ixies as long as you could afford them, And
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: yet never imagine the rapture with which the two children
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: saw the perfect development of the six little perfect pictures,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: for they were perfect. They were perfect pictures of arden
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Castle at the time when it too was perfect, no
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: broken arches, no crumbling wall, but every part neat and
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: clear cut as they had seen it when they went
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: into the past that was three hundred years ago. They
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: were equally fortunate with the second film, it too had
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: its six faultless pictures of Ardencastle three hundred years ago.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Only just before the moment which was the right moment
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: for taking the film out of the hyperbath and beginning
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: to wash it, a tiny white feather fell out of
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Edred's hair into the dish. It was so tiny that
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: in that dim light he did not notice it, and
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: it did not stick to the film or do any
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: of those things which you might have feared if you
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: had seen the little white thing flutter down. It may
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: have been the feathers doing I don't know. I just
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: tell you the thing as it happened. Of course, you
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: know that films have to be pinned up to dry well.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: The first film was pinned on the right hand panel
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: of the door, and the second film was pinned on
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: the left hand panel of the door, And when it
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: came to the third, the one that had had the
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: little white feather dropped near it. There was nothing wooden
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: left to pinito, for the walls were of stone, nothing
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: wooden except the shutters, and it was spinned across these.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter, said Edred, because we needn't open the
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: shutters till it's dry. And with that he stuck in
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: four pins at his four corners and turned to blow
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: out the lamp and unbolt the door. He meant to
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: do this, but the door, as a matter of fact,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: wasn't bolted at all, because Edith had forgotten to do
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: it when he came back with the dusters, so he
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: couldn't have unbolted it anyway. But he could blow out
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: the red sided lamp, and hit did, and then the
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: wonderful thing happened. Of course, the room ought to have
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: been quite dark, I'm sure enough trouble had been taken
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: to make it so. But it wasn't the window. The window.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: The shutters were the shutters that the film was pinned on,
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  Speaker 1: the film on which the little white feather had fallen,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: the little white feather that had settled on Edrid's hair
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: when Missus Honyset was plucking that chicken at the back door.
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  Speaker 1: That window now showed as a broad oblong of light,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: and in that broad oblong was a sort of shining,
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  Speaker 1: a faint, sparkling movement, like the movement of the light
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: on the sheet of a cinematograph before the pictures begin
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  Speaker 1: to show. Oh, said Elfrida, catching at Edred's hand, What
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: she did catch was his hair. She felt her way
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: down his arm, and so caught what she had meant
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  Speaker 1: to catch, and held it fast. It's more magic, said Edred, ungratefully.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I do wish. Oh hush, said Elfrida. Look, oh, look,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: the light broad oblong saw suddenly changed from mere light
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  Speaker 1: to figures, to movement. It was a living picture, rather
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: like a cinematograph, but much more like something else. The
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: something else that it was more like was life. It
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: seemed as though the window had been opened, as though
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: they could see through it into the world of light
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: and sunshine and blue sky, the world where things happened.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: There was the castle, and there were people going across
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  Speaker 1: the drawbridge, men with sacks on their backs, and a
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  Speaker 1: man with a silver chain round his neck and a
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: tall stick in his hand was standing under the great gateway,
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  Speaker 1: telling them where to take the sacks, and a car
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  Speaker 1: drew up with casks, and they were rolled across the
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  Speaker 1: drawbridge and under the tall arch of the gate tower.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: The men were dressed. Then something blinked and the scene changed.
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  Speaker 1: It was indoors, now a long room with many pictures
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  Speaker 1: on one side of it, and many windows on the other.
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  Speaker 1: A lady in a large white collar and beautiful long
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  Speaker 1: curls bery like Aunt Edith, was laying fine dresses in
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  Speaker 1: a chest. A gentleman, also with long hair and with
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: a good deal of lace about his collar and cuffs,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: was putting jugs and plates of gold and silver into
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: another chest. And servants kept bringing more golden, grand things,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: and more and more. Edrit and Elfrida did not say
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  Speaker 1: a word. They couldn't. What they were looking at was
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: far too thrilling. But in each heart the same words
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  Speaker 1: were uttered, that's the treasure, And each mind held the
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: same thought. If it only goes on till the treasure's hidden,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: we shall see where they put it, and then we
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: can go and fire it. I think myself that the
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: white moldiwarp was anxious to help a little. I believe
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: it had arranged the whole of this exhibition, so that
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  Speaker 1: the children might get an idea of the whereabouts of
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: the treasure, and so ceased to call on it at
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: all hours of the day and night, with a sort
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: of poetry which even a mole must see not to
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  Speaker 1: be so very good. However this may be, it was
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: a wonderful show. One seemed to see things better, somehow,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: like that through the window that looked into the past,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: than one did who was really in the past, taking
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: an active part in what was going on. There appeared,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: at any rate, to be no doubt that this really
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: was the treasure, and still less that it was a
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  Speaker 1: treasure both plentiful and picturesque. Quickly and more quickly, the beautiful,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: rich things were being packed into the chests, more and
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: more pale, looked the lady, more and more anxious the gentleman.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: The lady was taking from her waiting woman little boxes
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: and bundles with which the woman's apron was filled, and
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: the chest before which she was kneeling was nearly full
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: when the door at the end of the gallery opened suddenly,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: and Elfrida and Edred, in the dark in the still room,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: were confronted with the spectacle of themselves coming down the
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: long picture gallery towards that group of chests and treasure
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: and hurried human people. They saw themselves in blue silk
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: and lace and black velvet, and they saw on their
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: own faces fear and love and the wonder what was
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: to happen next. They saw themselves embraced by the grown ups,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: who were quite plainly father and mother. They saw themselves speak,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: and the grown up's reply, I'd give all my pocket
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: money for a year to hear what they're saying. Edred
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: told himself that daddy is just like my daddy, Elfrida
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: was telling herself, And just like the daddy in the tower,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: that was so like my own daddy. Then the children
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: in the picture kneel down, and the daddy in the
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: picture laid his hands on their heads, and the children
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: out of the picture bent their own heads there in
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: the dark still room, for they knew what was happening
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: in the picture. Elfrida even half held out her arms,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: but it was no good. Again, the scene changed. A
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: chest was being carried by four men who strained and
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: staggered under its weight. They were carrying it along a
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: vaulted passage by ropes that passed under the chest and
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: over their shoulders. Every now and then they set it
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: down and stretched and wiped their faces, and the picture
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: kept on changing, so that the children seemed to be
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: going with the men down a flight of stairs into
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: a spacious hall full of men, all talking and very
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: busy with armor and big boots. And then across the
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: courtyard full of more men, very busy too, polishing axes
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: and things that looked like spears, cleaning muskets, and fitting
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: new flints to pistols, and sharpening swords on a big grindstone.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Edred would have loved to stay and watch them do
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: these things. But they and their work were gone quite quickly,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: and the chest and the men who carried it were
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: going under an archway ere. One of the men wanted
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: to rest again, but the others said it was not
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: worth while they were almost there. It was quite plain
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: that they said this, though no sound could be heard.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: Now we shall really know, said Dre to himself. Elfrida
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: squeezed his hand. That was just what she was thinking.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Two the men stopped at a door, knocked, knocked again,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: and yet once more, and curiously enough, the children in
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: the still room could hear the sound of the knocking
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: quite plainly, though they heard nothing else. The men looked
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: at each other across the chest that they had set down.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Then one man set his shoulder to the door. There
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: was a scrunching sound, and the picture disappeared went out,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: and there were the shutters with the film pinned across
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: them and behind them. The door opened, and Missus Honey said,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: telling them that dinner, which was roast rabbit and a
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: bold hand of pork, would be cold if they didn't
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: make haste and come along. Oh, missus Honey, said, said Elfrida,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: with deep feeling. You are too bad, you really are.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: I hope I've not spoiled the photos, said Missus Honeysett.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: But I did not three times, and you was that quiet.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: I was afraid something had happened to you, poisoned yourselves
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: without thinking, or something of that. It's too bad, said
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Edred bitterly. It's much too bad. I don't want any dinner.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: I don't want anything. Everything spoiled, perhaps, said Missus hanneyst patiently.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: I might have on knocking longer, only I thought the
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: door was bolted. You did so keep on a bolting
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: of it at the beginning, didn't you? So? I just
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: got hold of the handle to try and it come
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: open in my hand. Come along, Levey, don't bear malice
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: now I didn't go for to do it. And I'll
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: get you some more or whatever it is that's spoilt,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: and you can take some more photos tomorrow. You might
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: have known we were all right, said Edred, still furious.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: But both thought it only fair to say it. It
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: wasn't the photographs that were spoiled. And they said it
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: at the same moment. Then what was it, said missus Honeyset,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: And do come along, for godness sake and eat your
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: dinner while it's hot. It was. It was a different
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: sort of picture, said Elfrida with a gulp. And it
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: was a pity. Never mind, love, said missus Honeyset, who
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: was as kind as a grandmother. And I can't say
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: more than that, there's a lovely surprise coming by and
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: by for good little girls and boys, and the rabbit'll
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: be stone cold if you don't make haste. Leastways it
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: would have been if I hadn't thought so popp it
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: in the oven when I came to call you, knowing
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: full well what your hands would be like after all
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: that messing about with poisoning dishes, and if I was
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: your aunt, art forbid it done right? And now come
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: along and wash your hands, and don't let's have any
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: more nonsense about it. Do you hear? I dare say
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: you noticed that missus Honeysett was quite cross at the
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: end of this speech, and quite coaxing and kind at
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: the beginning. She had just talked herself into being cross.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: It's quite easy, I dare say, you have often done it.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: It was a silent dinner, the first silent meal since
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: the children had come to arden Castle. You can judge
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: of Edrid's feelings when I tell you that he felt
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: as though the rabbit would choke him and refused a
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: second helping of gooseberry pie with heart falt sincerity. Elfrida
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: did not eat so much as usual either. It really
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: was a bitter disappointment. You have been so near seeing
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: where the treasure was. And then just because they hadn't
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: happened to bolt the door that last time, all was
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: in vain. Missus Honneysett thought they were sulking about a
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: silly try rifle, and nearly said so when Edred refused
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: the pie. It was at the end of the dinner
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: that Elfrida, as she got down from her chair, saw
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Missus Honeyst's face and saw how different it looked from
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: the kind face that she usually wore. She went over
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: to her, very slowly and very quickly, threw her arms
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: round her and kissed her. I'm sorry we've been so piggy,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: she said. It's not your fault that you're not clever
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: enough to know about pictures than things, is it. If
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: missus Honeyset hadn't been a perfect dear, this apology would
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: have been worse than none. But she was a perfect dear,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: So she laughed and hugged Elfrida, and somehow Edred got
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: caught into the hug and the love, and the three
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: were friends again. The sky was blue and the sun
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: began to shine. End of Section fourteen.