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The Shuttle Chapter 42 - In the Ballroom · The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library

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  Speaker 1: CHAPTER XLII IN THE BALL-ROOM Though Dunstan Village was cut
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  Speaker 1: off by its misfortune from its usual intercourse with its neighbours,
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  Speaker 1: in some mystic manner villagers even at twenty miles' distance
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  Speaker 1: learned all it did and suffered, feared or hoped. It
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  Speaker 1: did not hope greatly, the rustic habit of mind tending
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  Speaker 1: towards a discouraged outlook and cherishing the drama of impending calamity.
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  Speaker 1: As far as Youngford and Marling, inmates of cottages and
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  Speaker 1: farmhouses were inclined to think it probable that Dunstan would
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  Speaker 1: be swept away, and rumours of spreading death and disaster
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  Speaker 1: were popular. Tread, the advanced blacksmith at Stornham, having heard
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  Speaker 1: in his bike on better days of the great plague
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  Speaker 1: of London, was greatly in demand as a narrator of
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  Speaker 1: illuminating anecdotes at the Clock Inn. Among the parties gathered
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  Speaker 1: at the large houses Mount Dunstan himself was much talked of.
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  Speaker 1: If he had been a popular man he might have
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  Speaker 1: become a sort of hero. As he was not popular
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  Speaker 1: he was merely a subject for discussion. The fever-stricken patients
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  Speaker 1: had been carried in carts to the Mount and given
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  Speaker 1: beds in the ballroom, which had been made into a
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  Speaker 1: temporary ward. Nurses and supplies had been sent for from London,
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  Speaker 1: and two energetic young doctors had taken the place of
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  Speaker 1: old Dr. Fenwick, who had been frightened and overworked into
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  Speaker 1: an attack of bronchitis which confined him to his bed.
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  Speaker 1: Where the money came from, which must be spent every
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  Speaker 1: day under such circumstances, it was difficult to say. To
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  Speaker 1: the simply conservative of mind, the idea of filling one's
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  Speaker 1: house with dirty East End hop-pickers infected with typhoid seemed
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  Speaker 1: too radical. Surely he could have done something less extraordinary.
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  Speaker 1: Would everybody be expected to turn their houses into hospitals
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  Speaker 1: in case of village epidemics, now that he had established
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  Speaker 1: a precedent? But there were people who approved and were
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  Speaker 1: warm in their sympathy with him. At the first dinner-party
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  Speaker 1: where the matter was made the subject of argument, the
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  Speaker 1: beautiful Miss Vanderpool, who was present, listened silently to the
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  Speaker 1: talk with such brilliant eyes that Lord Dunham, who was
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  Speaker 1: in an elderly way her staunch admirer, spoke to her
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  Speaker 1: across the table.' Tell us what you think of it,
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  Speaker 1: Miss Vanderpool,' he suggested. She didn't hesitate at all.' I
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  Speaker 1: like it,' she answered in her clear, well-heard voice.' I
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  Speaker 1: like it better than anything I have ever heard.'' So
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  Speaker 1: do I,' said old Lady Allenby shortly.' I should never
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  Speaker 1: have done it myself, but I like it just as
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  Speaker 1: you do.'' I knew you would, Lady Allenby,' said the girl.'
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  Speaker 1: And you too, Lord Dunham.'' I like it so much
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  Speaker 1: that I shall write and ask if I cannot be
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  Speaker 1: of assistance,' Lord Dunham answered.' Betty was glad to hear this.
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  Speaker 1: Only quickness of thought prevented her from the error of
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  Speaker 1: saying thank you as if the matter were personal to herself.'
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  Speaker 1: If Mount Dunstan was restive under the obviousness of the
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  Speaker 1: fact that help was so sorely needed, he might feel
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  Speaker 1: less so if her offer was only one among others.'
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  Speaker 1: It seems rather the duty of the neighbourhood to show
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  Speaker 1: some interest,' put in Lady Allenby.' I shall write to
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  Speaker 1: him myself. He is evidently of a new order of
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  Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan. It is to be hoped he won't take
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  Speaker 1: the fever himself and die of it. He ought to
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  Speaker 1: marry some handsome, well-behaved girl and re-found the family.' Nigel
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  Speaker 1: Amstruther spoke from his side of the table, leaning slightly forward.'
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  Speaker 1: He won't if he doesn't take better care of himself.
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  Speaker 1: He passed me on the road two days ago, riding
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  Speaker 1: like a lunatic. He looks frightfully ill, yellow and drawn
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  Speaker 1: and lined. He has not lived the life to prepare
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  Speaker 1: him for settling down to a fight with typhoid fever.
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  Speaker 1: He would be done for if he caught the infection.''
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  Speaker 1: I beg your pardon,' said Lord Dunham, with quiet decision.'
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  Speaker 1: Unprejudiced inquiry proves that his life has been entirely respectable.'
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  Speaker 1: As Lady Allenby says, he seems to be of a
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  Speaker 1: new order of Mount Dunstan.'' No doubt you are right,'
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  Speaker 1: said Sir Nigel, suavely. He looked ill, notwithstanding.'' As to
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  Speaker 1: looking ill,' remarked Lady Allenby to Lord Dunham, who sat
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  Speaker 1: near her,' that man looks as if he were going
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  Speaker 1: to pieces pretty rapidly himself, and unprejudiced inquiry would not
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  Speaker 1: prove that his past had nothing to do with it.'
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  Speaker 1: Betty wondered if her brother-in-law were lying. It was generally
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  Speaker 1: safest to argue that he was.' but the fever burned
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  Speaker 1: high at Mount Dunstan, and she knew by instinct what
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  Speaker 1: its owner was giving of the strength of his body
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  Speaker 1: and brain. A young unmarried woman cannot go about, however,
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  Speaker 1: making anxious inquiries concerning the welfare of a man who
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  Speaker 1: has made no advance towards her. She must wait for
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  Speaker 1: the chance which brings news. The fever, having ill-cared-for and
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  Speaker 1: habitually ill-fed bodies to work upon, wrought fiercely, despite the
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  Speaker 1: energy of the two young doctors and the trained nurses.'
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  Speaker 1: There were many dark hours in the ballroom ward, hours
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  Speaker 1: filled with groans and wild ravings. The floating Terpsichorean goddesses
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  Speaker 1: upon the lofty ceiling gazed down with wondering eyes at
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  Speaker 1: haggard faces and plucking hands, which sometimes, behind the screen
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  Speaker 1: drawn around their beds, ceased to look feverish, and grew
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  Speaker 1: paler and stiller until they moved no more. But at
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  Speaker 1: least none had died through want of shelter and care.
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  Speaker 1: The supplies needed came from London each day, Lord Dunham
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  Speaker 1: had sent a generous cheque to the aid of the sufferers,
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  Speaker 1: and so also had old Lady Allenby. But Miss Vanderpool,
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  Speaker 1: consulting medical authorities and hospitals, learned exactly what was required,
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  Speaker 1: and necessities were forwarded daily in their most easily utilisable form.'
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  Speaker 1: You generously told me to ask you for anything we
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  Speaker 1: found we had required,' Mr. Penzance wrote to her in
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  Speaker 1: his note of thanks.' My dear and kind young lady,
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  Speaker 1: you leave nothing to ask for.' Our doctors, who are
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  Speaker 1: young and enthusiastic, are filled with delight in the completeness
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  Speaker 1: of the resources placed in their hands.' She had, in fact,
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  Speaker 1: gone to London to consult an eminent physician who was
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  Speaker 1: an authority of worldwide reputation. Like the head of the
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  Speaker 1: legal firm of Townlinson and Shepherd, he had experienced a
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  Speaker 1: new sensation in the visit paid him by an indubitably
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  Speaker 1: modern young beauty, who wasted no word, and whose eyes,
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  Speaker 1: while he answered her amazingly clear questions— were as intelligently
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  Speaker 1: intent as those of an ardent and serious young medical student.
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  Speaker 1: What a surgical nurse she would have made! It seemed
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  Speaker 1: almost a pity that she evidently belonged to a class,
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  Speaker 1: the members of which are rich enough to undertake the
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  Speaker 1: charge of entire epidemics, but who do not usually give
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  Speaker 1: themselves to such work, especially when they are young and
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  Speaker 1: astonishing in the matter of looks. In addition to the
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  Speaker 1: work they did in the ballroom ward, Mount Dunstan and
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  Speaker 1: the vicar found much to do among the villagers. Ignorance
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  Speaker 1: and alarm combined to create dangers, even where they might
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  Speaker 1: not have been feared. Daily instruction and inspection of the
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  Speaker 1: cottages and their inmates was required. The knowledge that they
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  Speaker 1: were under control and supervision was a support to the
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  Speaker 1: frightened people, and prevented their lapsing into careless habits. Also,
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  Speaker 1: there began to develop among them a secret dependence upon
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  Speaker 1: and desire to please his lordship, as the existing circumstances
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  Speaker 1: drew him nearer to them, and unconsciously they were attracted
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  Speaker 1: and dominated by his strength. The strong man carries his
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  Speaker 1: power with him, and when Mount Dunstan entered a cottage
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  Speaker 1: and talked to its inmates, the anxious wife or surlily
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  Speaker 1: depressed husband was conscious of feeling a certain sense of security.
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  Speaker 1: It had been a queer enough thing this he had done,
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  Speaker 1: bundling the infected hoppers out of their leaking huts and
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  Speaker 1: carrying them up to the mount itself for shelter and care.
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  Speaker 1: At the most, GENTLEFOLK GENERALLY GAVE SOUP OR BLANKETS OR
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  Speaker 1: HOSPITAL TICKETS AND LEFT THE REST TO LUCK. BUT GENTRYWAY
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  Speaker 1: OR NOT, A MAN WHO DID A THING LIKE THAT
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  Speaker 1: WOULD BE LIKELY TO DO OTHER THINGS IF THEY WERE NEEDED,
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  Speaker 1: AND GAVE FOLK A FEELING OF BEING SAFER THAN ORDINARY
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  Speaker 1: SOUP AND BLANKETS AND HOSPITAL TICKETS COULD MAKE THEM. BUT
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  Speaker 1: WHERE DID THE MONEY COME FROM? WAS ASKED DURING THE
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  Speaker 1: FIRST DAYS. BEDS AND DOCTORS, NURSES AND MEDICINE, FINE BRANDY
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  Speaker 1: AND UNLIMITED FOWLS FOR BROTH DID NOT COME UP FROM
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  Speaker 1: LONDON WITHOUT BEING PAID FOR. pounds and pounds a day
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  Speaker 1: must be paid out to get the things that were
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  Speaker 1: delivered regular in hampers and boxes the women talked to
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  Speaker 1: one another over their garden palings the men argued together
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  Speaker 1: over their beer at the public-house was he running into
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  Speaker 1: more debt but even the village knew that mount dunstan
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  Speaker 1: credit had been exhausted long ago and there had been
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  Speaker 1: no money at the mount within the memory of man
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  Speaker 1: so to speak One morning the matron with the sharp
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  Speaker 1: temper found out the truth, though the outburst of gratitude
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  Speaker 1: to Mount Dunstan which resulted in her enlightenment was entirely
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  Speaker 1: spontaneous and without intention. Her doubt of his Mount Dunstan
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  Speaker 1: blood had grown into a sturdy liking, even for his
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  Speaker 1: short speech and his often drawn-down brows.' We' ve got more
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  Speaker 1: to thank your lordship for than common help,' she said.'
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  Speaker 1: God almighty knows where we'd all have been but for
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  Speaker 1: what you've done. Those poor souls you've nursed and fed.''
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  Speaker 1: I' ve not done it,' he broke in promptly.' You' re mistaken.
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  Speaker 1: I could not have done it. How could I?'' Well,'
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  Speaker 1: exclaimed the matron frankly,' we was wondering where things came from.''
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  Speaker 1: You might well wonder.' Have any of you seen Lady
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  Speaker 1: Anstruthers' sister, Miss Vanderpool, ride through the village?' She used
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  Speaker 1: sometimes to ride this way.' If you saw her, you'll
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  Speaker 1: remember it.'' The American young lady?' in ejaculatory delight.' My words, yes.
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  Speaker 1: A fine young woman with black hair.' That which they
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  Speaker 1: say is millions wouldn't cover it.'' They won't,' grimly.' Lord
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  Speaker 1: Dunham and Lady Allenby of Dole kindly sent checks to
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  Speaker 1: help us, but the American young lady was first in
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  Speaker 1: the field. She sent both doctors and nurses, and has
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  Speaker 1: supplied us with food and medicine every day. As you say, Mrs. Brown,
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  Speaker 1: God Almighty knows what would have become of us but
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  Speaker 1: for what she has done.' Mrs. Brown had listened with
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  Speaker 1: rather open mouth. She caught her breath heartily as a
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  Speaker 1: sort of approving exclamation. god bless her she broke out
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  Speaker 1: girls isn't generally like that their heads is too full
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  Speaker 1: of finery god bless her! American or no American, that's
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  Speaker 1: what I say!' Mount Dunstan's red-brown eyes looked as if
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  Speaker 1: she had pleased him.' That' s what I say, too,' he answered.'
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  Speaker 1: God bless her!' There was not a day which passed
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  Speaker 1: in which he did not involuntarily say the words to
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  Speaker 1: himself again and again. She had been wrong when she
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  Speaker 1: had said in her musings that they were as far
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  Speaker 1: apart as if worlds rolled between them. Something stronger than
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  Speaker 1: sight or speech drew them together. The thread which wove
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  Speaker 1: itself through his thoughts grew stronger and stronger. The first
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  Speaker 1: day her gifts arrived, and he walked about the ballroom
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  Speaker 1: directing the placing of hospital cots and hospital aids and comforts,
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  Speaker 1: the spirit of her thought and intelligence, the individuality and
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  Speaker 1: cleverness of all her methods brought her so vividly before him,
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  Speaker 1: that it was almost as if she walked by his side,
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  Speaker 1: and as if they spoke together, as if she said,'
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  Speaker 1: I have tried to think of everything. I want you
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  Speaker 1: to miss nothing. Have I helped you? Tell me if
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  Speaker 1: there is anything more.' The thing which moved and stirred
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  Speaker 1: him was his knowledge that when he had thought of her,
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  Speaker 1: she had also been thinking of him, or of what
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  Speaker 1: deeply concerned him. When he had said to himself, tossing
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  Speaker 1: on his pillow, what would she do? She had been
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  Speaker 1: planning in such a way as answered his question. Each
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  Speaker 1: morning when the day's supplies arrived, it was as if
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  Speaker 1: he had received a message from her. As the people
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  Speaker 1: in the cottages felt the power of his temperament and
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  Speaker 1: depended upon him, so also did the patients in the
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  Speaker 1: ballroom ward. The feeling had existed from the outset and
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  Speaker 1: increased daily. The doctors and nurses told one another that
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  Speaker 1: his passing through the room was like the administering of
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  Speaker 1: a tonic. Patients, who were weak and making no effort,
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  Speaker 1: were lifted upon the strong wave of his will and
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  Speaker 1: carried onward toward the shore of greater courage and strength.
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  Speaker 1: Young Dr. Thwaite met him when he came in one
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  Speaker 1: morning and spoke in a low voice. There's a young
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  Speaker 1: man behind the screen there who's very low, he said.
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  Speaker 1: He's had an internal hemorrhage towards morning and has lost
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  Speaker 1: his pluck. He has a wife and three children. We've
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  Speaker 1: been doing our best for him with hot water bottles
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  Speaker 1: and stimulants, but he has not the courage to help us.
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  Speaker 1: You have an extraordinary effect on them all, Lord Mount Dunstan.
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  Speaker 1: When they're depressed they always ask when you're coming in,
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  Speaker 1: and this man, Patton his name is, hath asked for
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  Speaker 1: you several times. Upon my word, I believe you might
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  Speaker 1: set him going again. Mount Dunstan walked to the bed,
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  Speaker 1: and going behind the screen, stood looking down at the
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  Speaker 1: young fellow lying, breathing pantingly. His eyes were closed as
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  Speaker 1: he laboured, and his pinched white nostrils drew themselves in
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  Speaker 1: and puffed out at each breath. A nurse on the
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  Speaker 1: other side of the cot had just surrounded him with
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  Speaker 1: fresh hot water-bottles. Suddenly the sunken eyelids flew open, and
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  Speaker 1: the eyes met Mount Dunstan's in imploring anxiousness.' Here I am, Patton,'
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  Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan said.' You need not speak.'' But he must speak.'
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  Speaker 1: Here was the strength his sinking soul had longed for.'
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  Speaker 1: Cruel bag! Going fast, my lord!' he panted.' Mount Dunstan
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  Speaker 1: made a sign to the nurse who gave him a chair.'
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  Speaker 1: He sat down close to the bed and took the
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  Speaker 1: bloodless hand in his own.' No,' he said,' you' re not going.'
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  Speaker 1: You' ll stay here.' I' ll see to that.'' The poor fellow
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  Speaker 1: smiled wanly.' Vague yearnings had led him sometimes in the
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  Speaker 1: past to wander into chapels, or stop and listen to
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  Speaker 1: street preachers, and orthodox platitudes came back to him. God's will,
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  Speaker 1: he trailed out. It's nothing of the sort. It's God's
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  Speaker 1: will that you pull yourself together. A man with a
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  Speaker 1: wife and three children has no right to slip out.
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  Speaker 1: A yearning look flickered in the lad's eyes. He was
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  Speaker 1: scarcely more than a lad, having married at seventeen, and
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  Speaker 1: had a child each year. She's a good girl. Keep
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  Speaker 1: that in your mind while you fight this out, said
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  Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan. Say it over to yourself each time you
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  Speaker 1: feel yourself letting go. Hold on to it. I am
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  Speaker 1: going to fight it out with you. I shall sit
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  Speaker 1: here and take care of you all day, all night
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  Speaker 1: if necessary. The doctor and the nurse will tell me
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  Speaker 1: what to do. Your hand is warmer already. Shut your eyes.
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  Speaker 1: He did not leave the bedside until the middle of
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  Speaker 1: the night. By that time the worst was over. He
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  Speaker 1: had acted throughout the hours under the direction of nurse
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  Speaker 1: and doctor. No one but himself had touched the patient.
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  Speaker 1: When Patton's eyes were opened they rested on him with
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  Speaker 1: a weird, growing belief. He begged his lordship to hold
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  Speaker 1: his hand and was uneasy when he laid it down.'
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  Speaker 1: Keeps me up,' he whispered.' He pours something into them— figure,
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  Speaker 1: magnetic power, life. He's like a charged battery,' Dr. Thwaites
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  Speaker 1: said to his co-workers. He sat down by Patton just
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  Speaker 1: in time. It sets one to thinking.' Having saved Patton,
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  Speaker 1: he must save others. When a man or woman sank
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  Speaker 1: or had increased fever, they believed that he alone could
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  Speaker 1: give them help. In delirium, Patience cried out for him.
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  Speaker 1: He found himself doing hard work, but he did not
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  Speaker 1: flinch from it. The adoration for him became a sort
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  Speaker 1: of passion. Haggard faces lighted up into life at the
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  Speaker 1: sound of his footstep, and heavy heads turned longingly on
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  Speaker 1: their pillows as he passed by. In the winter days
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  Speaker 1: to come there would be many an hour's talk in
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  Speaker 1: East End courts and alleys, of the queer time when
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  Speaker 1: a score or more of them had lain in the
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  Speaker 1: great room, with the dancing and floating goddesses looking down
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  Speaker 1: at them from the high painted ceiling, and the swell
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  Speaker 1: who was a lord walking about among them, working for
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  Speaker 1: them as the nurses did, and sitting by some of
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  Speaker 1: them through awful hours, sometimes holding burning or slackening and
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  Speaker 1: chilling hands with a grip whose steadiness seemed to hold
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  Speaker 1: them back from the brink of the abyss they were
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  Speaker 1: slipping into. the mere ignorantly childish desire to do his
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  Speaker 1: prowess credit and to play him fair, save more than
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  Speaker 1: one man or woman from going out with the tide.
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  Speaker 1: It is the first time in my life that I
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  Speaker 1: have fairly counted among men. It is the first time
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  Speaker 1: I have known human affection other than yours, Penzance. They
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  Speaker 1: want me, these people. They are better for the sight
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  Speaker 1: of me. It's a new experience, and it's good for
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  Speaker 1: a man's soul, he said.