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025 - Chapter 25 · House with the Green Shutters

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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty five of the House with the Green Shutters.
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Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Len Nicholson. The House
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Speaker 1: with the Green Shutters by George Douglas Brown, chapter twenty five.
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Speaker 1: Janet and her mother saw a quiver run through Gourley
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Speaker 1: as he stood and glowered from the threshold. He seemed
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Speaker 1: of monstrous bulk and significance, filling the doorway in his silence.
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Speaker 1: The quiver that went through him was a sign of
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Speaker 1: his contending angers, his wills, struggling with the tumult of
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Speaker 1: wrath that threatened to spoil his revenge. To fell that
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Speaker 1: huddled oak with a blow would be a poor return
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Speaker 1: for all he had endured because of him. He meant
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Speaker 1: to sweat punishment out of him, drop by drop, with
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Speaker 1: slow and vicious enjoyment. But the sudden sight of that
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Speaker 1: living disgrace to the gurlies woke a wild desire to
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Speaker 1: leap on him at once and glut his rage, a
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Speaker 1: madness which only a will like his could control. He
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Speaker 1: quivered with the effort to keep it in to bring
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Speaker 1: a beaten and degraded look into a man's face. Rend
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Speaker 1: man who doubt of him in fear. Is a sight
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Speaker 1: that makes decent men WinCE in pain, for it is
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Speaker 1: an outrage on the decency of life, an offense to
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Speaker 1: natural religion, a violation of the human sanctities. Yet Gurley
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Speaker 1: had done it once and again. I saw him down
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Speaker 1: a man at the cross, once, a big man with
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Speaker 1: a Viking beard, dark brown from which he would have
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Speaker 1: looked for manliness. Gurley, with stabbing eyes, threatened and birred
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Speaker 1: and downed him till he crept away with a face
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Speaker 1: like chalk and a hunted, furtive eye. Curiously, it was
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Speaker 1: his manly beard that made the look such a pain,
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Speaker 1: for its contrasting color showed the white face of the coward,
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Speaker 1: and a coward had no right to such a beard.
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Speaker 1: A grim and cruel smile went after him as he
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Speaker 1: slunk away. Hah barked gurly, in lordly and pursuing scorn,
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Speaker 1: and the fellow leapt where he walked as the cry
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Speaker 1: went through him. To break a man's spirit, so take
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Speaker 1: that from him, which he will never recover while he lives,
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Speaker 1: sent him slinking away animo castrato. For that it's what
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Speaker 1: it comes to, is a sinister outrage of the world.
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Speaker 1: It is as bad as the rape of a woman,
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Speaker 1: and ranks with the sin against the holy ghost derives
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Speaker 1: from it. Indeed, Yet it was this outrage that Gurley
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Speaker 1: meant to work upon his son. He would work him
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Speaker 1: down and down, this son of his, till he was
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Speaker 1: less than a man, a frightened, furtive animal. Then perhaps
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Speaker 1: he would give a loose to his other rage, unbuckle
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Speaker 1: his belt, and thrash the grown man like a wriggling
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Speaker 1: urchin on the floor. As he stood glowering from the door.
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Speaker 1: Missus Gurley rose with an appealing cry of John. But
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Speaker 1: Gurley put his eye on her, and she sank into
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Speaker 1: her chair, staring up at him in terror. The strings
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Speaker 1: of the tawdry cap she wore seemed to choke her,
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Speaker 1: and she unfastened them with nervous fingers, fumbling long beneath
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Speaker 1: her lifted chin to get them loose. She did not
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Speaker 1: remove the cap, but let the strings dangle by her jaw,
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Speaker 1: the silly bits of cloth waggling and quivering as she
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Speaker 1: turned her head repeatedly from son to husband and from
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Speaker 1: husband to son, added to her air of helplessness and inefficiency.
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Speaker 1: Once she whispered with ghastly intensity, God have mercy. For
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Speaker 1: a length of time there was a loaded silence. Gurley
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Speaker 1: went up to the hearth and looked down on his
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Speaker 1: son from near at hand, John shrank down in his greatcoat.
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Speaker 1: A wreek of alcohol rose from around him. Janet whimpered,
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Speaker 1: but when Gurdly spoke, it was with deadly quietude. The
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Speaker 1: moan was in his voice. So great was his controlled
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Speaker 1: wrath that he drew in great, shivering breastfools of air
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Speaker 1: between the words, as if for strength to utter them,
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Speaker 1: and they quavered forth on it again. He seemed weakened
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Speaker 1: by his own rage. Aye, man, he breathed, Ye've won, haym,
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Speaker 1: I observe dear me humph. The contrast between the lowness
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Speaker 1: of his voice and his steady breathing anger that possessed
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Speaker 1: the air they felt it coming as in waves was
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Speaker 1: demonic appalling. John could not speak. He was paralyzed by
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Speaker 1: fear to have this vast, hostile force touch him, yet
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Speaker 1: be still struck him dumb. Why did his father not
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Speaker 1: break out in him at once? What did he mean?
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Speaker 1: What was he going to do? The jam of the
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Speaker 1: fireplace cut his right shoulder as he cowered into it
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Speaker 1: to get away as far as he could. I'm saying,
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Speaker 1: ye've one. Haim quivered goodly in a deadly slowness, and
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Speaker 1: his eyes never left his son. And still the son
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Speaker 1: made no reply. In the silence, the ticking of the
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Speaker 1: big clock seemed to fill their world. They were conscious
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Speaker 1: of nothing else. It smote the ear. Aye. John gulped
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Speaker 1: at last from a throat that felt closing. The answer
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Speaker 1: seemed dragged out of him by the insistent silence. Just
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Speaker 1: so breathed his father, and his eyes opened in wide flame.
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Speaker 1: He heaved with the great breath. He drew humph s,
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Speaker 1: m he drawled. He went through to the scullery at
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Speaker 1: the back of the kitchen to wash his hands. Through
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Speaker 1: the open door. Janet and her mother, looking at each
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Speaker 1: other with affrighted eyes, could hear him sneering at intervals.
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Speaker 1: I man, just that now, mmm and again ay ay,
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Speaker 1: dear me in grim falsetto irony. When he came back
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Speaker 1: to the kitchen, he turned to Janet and left his
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Speaker 1: son in a suspended agony. H woman, Jenny, you're there.
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Speaker 1: He said, and nipped her ear as he passed over
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Speaker 1: to his chair. We are ye in Ski in the
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Speaker 1: day I father, she answered, And what did the ski
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Speaker 1: and doctor say? She raised her large, pale eyes to
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Speaker 1: his with a strange look. Then her head sank low
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Speaker 1: on her breast. Nothing, she said, at last, nothing said
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Speaker 1: he nothing for nothing? Then I hope you did not
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Speaker 1: pay him no faither, she answered, I had no the
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Speaker 1: Bobby's when did you get back? He asked, just after,
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Speaker 1: just after her eyes flickered over to John, as if
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Speaker 1: she were afraid of mentioning his name. Oh, just after this, gentleman.
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Speaker 1: But there's nothing strange in that you are always after him.
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Speaker 1: You were born after him and considered after him. Ye,
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Speaker 1: I had the best of it. I hope you are
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Speaker 1: in good health, he sneered, turning to his son. It
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Speaker 1: would never do for a man to break down at
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Speaker 1: the outset to a great career. For ye are at
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Speaker 1: the outset to a great career, are ye? Now? His
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Speaker 1: speech was as soft as the foot of a tiger,
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Speaker 1: and sheathed as rending a cruelty. There was no escaping
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Speaker 1: the crouching stealth of it. If he had leapt with
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Speaker 1: a roar. John's drunken fury might have lashed itself to rage,
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Speaker 1: but the younger and weaker man was fascinated and helpless
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Speaker 1: before the creeping approach of so monstrous a wrath. Ay
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Speaker 1: asked Gurlie softly. When John made no reply, I'm saying
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Speaker 1: you're at the outset to a great career, are you? No? Eh?
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Speaker 1: Soft As his a was an utterance, it was insinuating, pursuing,
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Speaker 1: it had to be answered, no, whimpered John. Well, well
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Speaker 1: you're maybe at the end of it. Have you been
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Speaker 1: studying hard? Yes, lied John. That's right, cried his father
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Speaker 1: with great heartiness. There's my brave fellow. Nothing like studying,
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Speaker 1: and no doubt he leaned over suavely, And no doubt
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Speaker 1: you've brought a ween prizes homely year as usual. Hey.
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Speaker 1: There was no answer, Hey, no, gulped the cower. Nay prizes,
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Speaker 1: cried Gurley, and his eyebrows went up and pretended surprise.
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Speaker 1: Nay Prizes, I man, hoow's that nah? Young Gurley was
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Speaker 1: being reduced to the condition of a beaten child, who,
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Speaker 1: when his mother asks if he has been a bad boy,
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Speaker 1: is made to sob yes her knee. Have you been
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Speaker 1: a good boy, she asks, No, he pants, and are
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Speaker 1: you sorry for being a bad boy? Yes, he sobs,
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Speaker 1: and will you be a good boy now then? Yes?
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Speaker 1: He almost shrieks in his desire to be at one
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Speaker 1: with his mother. Young Gurley was being equally beaten from
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Speaker 1: his own nature, equally battered under by another personality. Only
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Speaker 1: he was not asked to be a good boy. He
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Speaker 1: might gang to hell for anything. Old Gurley cared when
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Speaker 1: once he had buy with him. Even as he degraded
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Speaker 1: his son to this state of unnatural cowardice, Gurley felt
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Speaker 1: a vast disgust swell within him that a son of
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Speaker 1: his should be such a coward. Damn him, he thought,
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Speaker 1: glaring with big eyed contempt at the huddled creature. He
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Speaker 1: has not the pluck o'a pig. How can he stand
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Speaker 1: talk like this without showing he's a man? When I
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Speaker 1: was a child on a brisket, if a man had
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Speaker 1: used me as I'm using him, I would I flung
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Speaker 1: myself at him. He's a pretty looking object to carry
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Speaker 1: the name of John Gourla. My god, what a kio
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Speaker 1: of my life. I've made that old trollop for my wife,
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Speaker 1: that sump for my son, and that dying lassie for
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Speaker 1: my doctor. Was it I that bred him? That he
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Speaker 1: leaped to his feet in devilish merriment. Set out the spirits, Jenny,
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Speaker 1: he cried, set out the spirits, My son and I
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Speaker 1: must have a drink together to celebrate the occasion. Why
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Speaker 1: he sneered, drawing out the word with sharp, unfamiliar sound,
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Speaker 1: just to celebrate the occasion. The wild humor that seized
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Speaker 1: him was inevitable, born of a vicious effort to control
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Speaker 1: a rage that was constantly increasing, fed by the sight
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Speaker 1: of the offender. Every time he glanced across at the
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Speaker 1: thing sitting there, he was swept with fresh surgeries of
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Speaker 1: fury and disgust. But his vicious constraint curbed him under
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Speaker 1: and refused him a natural expression. They sought an unnatural
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Speaker 1: some vent they must have, and they found it in
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Speaker 1: a score of wild devilries he began to practice on
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Speaker 1: his son. Wrath fed and checked. In one brings the
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Speaker 1: hell on which man is built to the surface. Gurley
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Speaker 1: was transformed. He had a fluency of speech, a power
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Speaker 1: of banter, a readiness of tongue which he had never
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Speaker 1: shown before. He was beyond himself. Have you heard a
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Speaker 1: snarl with which a wild beast arrests the escaping prey,
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Speaker 1: which it has just let go in enjoying cruelty. Gurley
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Speaker 1: was that animal. For a moment he would cease to
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Speaker 1: torture his son feet is disgust with a glour. Then
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Speaker 1: the sight of him huddled there would wake a desire
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Speaker 1: to stamp on him. But his will would not allow that,
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Speaker 1: for it would spoil the sport he had set his
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Speaker 1: mind on. And so he played with the victim which
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Speaker 1: he would not kill. Set out the spirit's Jenny, he
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Speaker 1: bird when she wavered in fear, What are ye shaking for?
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Speaker 1: Set out the spirits? Just to celebrate the joyful occasion,
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Speaker 1: you know, ay, ay, just to celebrate the joyful occasion.
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Speaker 1: Janet brought a tray with glasses from the pantry. As
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Speaker 1: she walked, the rims of the glasses shivered and tinkled
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Speaker 1: against each other from her trembling. Then she set a
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Speaker 1: bottle on the table. Girlie sent it crashing to the floor.
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Speaker 1: A bottle, he roared, A bottle for us tour to hell.
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Speaker 1: The bottles the jar, Jenny, the jar, set out the jar, last,
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Speaker 1: set out the jar, for we mean to make a
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Speaker 1: night of it, this gentleman and me. Aye, he yawed,
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Speaker 1: with a vicious smile. We all make a knight, oat,
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Speaker 1: we two a knight that barbie all remember. Long have
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Speaker 1: ye skill O drink? He asked, turning to his son.
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Speaker 1: No wheez, John, No, cried his father. I thought, ye
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Speaker 1: learn everything at college. Your education's been neglected. But i'll
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Speaker 1: teach ye a lesson or this nighty Aye, by God,
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Speaker 1: he growled, I'll teach ye a lesson. Kerby's temper as
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Speaker 1: he might his own behavior was lashing it to frenzy
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Speaker 1: through the morning, intensity peculiar to his vicious rage. There
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Speaker 1: leapt at times a wild beast snarl. Every time they
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Speaker 1: heard it. It cut the veins of his listeners with
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Speaker 1: a start of fear. It leapt so suddenly, Hey, sir,
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Speaker 1: he cried. John raised his dull white face and looked
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Speaker 1: across at the bumper which his father poured him. But
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Speaker 1: he felt the limbs too weak beneath him to go
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Speaker 1: and take it. Bide where ye are, sneered his father.
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Speaker 1: Bide where ye are. I'll wait on ye. I'll wait
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Speaker 1: on ye man. I waited on ye the day that
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Speaker 1: ye were born. The heavens were hammering the world as
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Speaker 1: John Gourla rode through the storm for a doctor to
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Speaker 1: bring him his heir. The world was feared, but he
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Speaker 1: was afeared. He rode in titanic pride. He wasn'n afeared
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Speaker 1: no by God, for he never met what scored him.
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Speaker 1: Aye aye. He burned softly again Aye aye. Ye were
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Speaker 1: ushered loudly to the world, sir. Very appropriate for a
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Speaker 1: man who was destined to make such a name. Eh,
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Speaker 1: very appropriate, sir, very appropriate. And ye'll be ushered just
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Speaker 1: as loudly out it, Oh, young Girligh's death. Mun make
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Speaker 1: a spludge, you know, a splurge to attract folk's attention.
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Speaker 1: John's shaking hand was wet with the spilled whiskey. Take
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Speaker 1: it off, sneered his father, boring into him with a
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Speaker 1: vicious eye. Take it off, sir, take off your dram Stop.
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Speaker 1: Somebody wrote something about that, some poetry or other. Who
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Speaker 1: was it? And in a ken whimpered John, don't tell
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Speaker 1: lies now, you do, ken? I heard you mention it
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Speaker 1: to lour Ogie. Come on, now, who was it? It was? Burns?
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Speaker 1: Said John? Oh it was Burn's was it? And what
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Speaker 1: had mister Burns to say on the subject. Eh, freedom
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Speaker 1: and whiskey gang together, tack half your dram, stammered John.
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Speaker 1: A very wise remark, said gurlie gravely, Freedom and whiskey gang. Thegether.
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Speaker 1: He turned a quotation on his tongue as if he
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Speaker 1: were savoring a tit. Bit. That's very good, he approved.
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Speaker 1: You're a great admirer of burns. I hear eh, yes,
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Speaker 1: said John, do what he bid see, then take off
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Speaker 1: your dram. It'll show what a fine free fellow ye are.
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Speaker 1: It was a big old fashioned Scotch drinking glass containing
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Speaker 1: more than half a jill of whisky, and John drained
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Speaker 1: it to the bottom. To him, it had been a
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Speaker 1: deadly thing at first, Coming thus from his father's hand,
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Speaker 1: he had taken it into his own with a feeling
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Speaker 1: of aversion that was strangely blended of disgust and fear.
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Speaker 1: But the moment it touched his lips, desire leaped in
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Speaker 1: his throat to get at it good, roared his father
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Speaker 1: in mock admiration. God, ye have the where I was
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Speaker 1: your age that would have choked me. I must have
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Speaker 1: a look at that throat of yours. Stand up, Stand
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Speaker 1: up with a tolly John rose swaying to his feet.
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Speaker 1: Months of constant tippling culminating in a wild debauch had
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Speaker 1: shattered him. He stood in a reeling world, and the
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Speaker 1: fear weakening his limbs changed his drunken stupor to a
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Speaker 1: heart heaving sickness. He swayed to and fro with a
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Speaker 1: cold sweat oozing from his chalky face. What's a do
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Speaker 1: with a fellow, cried Gurley. Um, he's swinging like a swan.
16:37
Speaker 1: I must walk around this and have a look. John's
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Speaker 1: drunken submissiveness encouraged his father to new devilries. The ease
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Speaker 1: with which he tortured him provoked him to more torture.
16:50
Speaker 1: He went on more and more viciously, as if he
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Speaker 1: were conducting an experiment to see how much the creature
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Speaker 1: would bear. Before he turned, Gurley was enjoying the glutting
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Speaker 1: of his own wrath. He turned his son, ring with
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Speaker 1: a finger and thumb on his shoulder, an insolent inspection
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Speaker 1: as you turn an urchin ring to see him in
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Speaker 1: his new suit of clothes. Then he crouched before him,
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Speaker 1: his face thrust close to the other, and peered into
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Speaker 1: his eyes, his mouth distent with an infernal smile, My
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Speaker 1: boy Johnny, he said sweetly, my boy Johnny, and patted
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Speaker 1: him gently on the cheek. John raised dull eyes and
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Speaker 1: looked into his father's far Within him, a great wrath
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Speaker 1: was gathering through his fear. Another voice, another self, seemed
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Speaker 1: to whimper with dull iteration. I'll kill him. I'll kill him,
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Speaker 1: By God, I'll kill him if he does not stop this.
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Speaker 1: He keeps on like this at me, But his present
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Speaker 1: and material self was paralyzed with fear. Open your mouth,
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Speaker 1: came the snarl. Wider Dan, Ye wider humph, said Girlie,
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Speaker 1: with a critical drawl, pulling John's chin about to see
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Speaker 1: into him the deeper. Hmm, God, it's like a furnace.
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Speaker 1: What's the Latin for throat? Gutter? Said John? Gut Her
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Speaker 1: said his father, A very appropriate name. Yours stinks like
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Speaker 1: a cesspool. What have you been doing? Tilt? I'm afraid
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Speaker 1: ye aren't in very good health after all, eh, Missus Goula,
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Speaker 1: Missus Goula, He's in very bad case. This son of yours,
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Speaker 1: missus girla fine a ken what he needs though, set
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Speaker 1: out the brandy. Jenny set out the brandy. He roared,
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Speaker 1: whiskey's not worth a damn for him. Stop it was
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Speaker 1: ugay the last time. It's your turn now, old wife,
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Speaker 1: it's your turn now, gang for the brandy to hear.
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Speaker 1: Twad John Girla's we're a pair for a woman to
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Speaker 1: be proud of. He gazed after his wife as she
18:52
Speaker 1: tottered to the pantry. Your skirts on the gape, old wife,
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Speaker 1: He sang, your skirts on the gape as you's you are?
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Speaker 1: He drawled as you as you all. It was always
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Speaker 1: like that, and it always scunnered me, for I like
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Speaker 1: things tidy, though I never got them. However, I'm gonna
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Speaker 1: complain when you bore sick a brass sun to my name.
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Speaker 1: He's a great consolation, hm? He is that a great consolation?
19:20
Speaker 1: The brandy bottles slipped from the quivering fingers and was
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Speaker 1: smashed to pieces on the floor. Hurrah, yelled girly. He
19:28
Speaker 1: seemed wrapped and carried by his own devilry. The wreckoned
19:32
Speaker 1: ruins strewn about the floor consorted with the ruin of
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Speaker 1: his fortunes. Let all go smash. What was the use
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Speaker 1: of caring? Now? In his frenzy, he ordinarily so careful,
19:43
Speaker 1: seemed to delight in the smashings and the breakings. They
19:47
Speaker 1: suited his despair. He saw that his spirit of destruction
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Speaker 1: frightened them too, and that was another reason to indulge it.
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Speaker 1: To hell with everything, he yelled like a mock ba canal.
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Speaker 1: We are hearty fellows. We'll make a red night now
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Speaker 1: we're at it. And with that he took the heel
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Speaker 1: of a bottle in his toe and sent it flying
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Speaker 1: among the dishes on the dresser. A great plate fell
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Speaker 1: split in two. Poor fellow, he whined, turning to his son. Poo,
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Speaker 1: poor fellow, I fur he has lost his physic, for
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Speaker 1: that was the last bottle of brandy in my ocht,
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Speaker 1: the last John Gurley had, the last he'll ever buy?
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Speaker 1: What am I to do with ye? Now? Hey, I
20:29
Speaker 1: must do something. It's coming to the bit now, sir.
20:33
Speaker 1: As he stood in a heaving silence, the sobbing of
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Speaker 1: the two women was heard through the room. John was
20:39
Speaker 1: still swaying on the floor. Sometimes Gurley would run the
20:43
Speaker 1: full length of the kitchen and stand there glowering on
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Speaker 1: a stoop. Then he would come crouching up to his
20:48
Speaker 1: son on a vicious little trot, pattering in rage. The
20:52
Speaker 1: broken glass crunching and grinding beneath his feet. At any
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Speaker 1: moment he might spring. What do you think I mean
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Speaker 1: to do o ye now? He moaned? Eh, what do
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Speaker 1: ye think I mean to do with ye? Now? As
21:05
Speaker 1: he came grinning in rage, his lips ran out to
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Speaker 1: their full width, and the tense slit showed his teeth
21:11
Speaker 1: to their roots. The gums were white, the stricture of
21:15
Speaker 1: the lips had squeezed them bloodless. He went back to
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Speaker 1: the dresser once more and bent low beside it, glancing
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Speaker 1: at his son across his left shoulder, with his head
21:25
Speaker 1: flung back sideways, his right fist clenched low and ready
21:29
Speaker 1: from a curve of the elbow, it swung heavy as
21:32
Speaker 1: a mallet by his thigh. Janet got to her knees
21:35
Speaker 1: and came shuffling across the floor in them, though her
21:38
Speaker 1: dress was tripping her, clasping her outstretched hands and sobbing
21:41
Speaker 1: in appeal. Faither, faither o faither, for God's sake, faither,
21:46
Speaker 1: she clung to him. He unclenched his fist and lifted
21:50
Speaker 1: her away. Then he came crouching and quivering across the
21:53
Speaker 1: floor slowly, a gleaming devilry in the eyes that devoured
21:57
Speaker 1: his son. His hands were like outstretched laws and shivered
22:01
Speaker 1: with each shiver of the voice that moaned through set teeth.
22:05
Speaker 1: What do ye think I mean to do with ye? Now?
22:08
Speaker 1: What do ye think I mean to do with ye? Now?
22:10
Speaker 1: He damned sorrow and disgrace that ye are. What do
22:14
Speaker 1: ye think I mean to do ye? Now? Run? John,
22:17
Speaker 1: screamed missus Gurley, leaping to her feet with a hunted cry.
22:22
Speaker 1: Young Gurley sprang to the door. So great had been
22:25
Speaker 1: the fixity of Gurley's wrath, so tense had he been
22:28
Speaker 1: in one direction as he moved slowly on his prey,
22:32
Speaker 1: that he could not leap to prevent him. As John
22:34
Speaker 1: plunged into the cool, soft darkness, his mother's thank God
22:39
Speaker 1: rang past him on the night. His immediate feeling was
22:43
Speaker 1: of coolness and width and spaciousness, in contrast with the hot,
22:48
Speaker 1: grinding hostility that had bored so closely in on him
22:51
Speaker 1: for the last hour. He felt the benignness of the
22:54
Speaker 1: darkened heavens. A tag of some forgotten poem he had
22:59
Speaker 1: read came back to his mind. And come kindly night
23:03
Speaker 1: and cover me, he muttered, with shaking lips, and felt,
23:07
Speaker 1: how true it was, My God, What a relief to
23:10
Speaker 1: be free of his father's eyes. They had held him
23:13
Speaker 1: till his mother's voice broke the spell they seemed to
23:17
Speaker 1: burn him. Now, what a fool he had been to
23:20
Speaker 1: face his father when empty both of food and drink.
23:24
Speaker 1: Every man was downhearted when he was empty. If his
23:27
Speaker 1: mother had had time to get the tea, it would
23:30
Speaker 1: have been different. But the fire been out when he
23:32
Speaker 1: went in. He wouldn't have down me so easy if
23:35
Speaker 1: I had had anything in me. He muttered, and his
23:38
Speaker 1: anger grew as he thought of all he had been
23:40
Speaker 1: made to suffer, For he was still the swaggerer. Now
23:45
Speaker 1: that the incubus of his father's tyranny no longer pressed
23:48
Speaker 1: in him directly, a great hate rose within him for
23:51
Speaker 1: the tyrant. He would go back and have it out
23:54
Speaker 1: when he was primed. It's the only ham I have,
23:57
Speaker 1: he sobbed angrily to the darkness. I have no other
24:01
Speaker 1: place to gang. Tell yes, I'll go back and have
24:03
Speaker 1: it out with him when once I get something in me,
24:06
Speaker 1: so I will. It was no disgrace to suck courage
24:09
Speaker 1: from the bottle for that encounter with his father, For
24:12
Speaker 1: nobody could stand up to black Girlly. Nobody. Young Gurley
24:16
Speaker 1: was yielding to a peculiar fatalism of mind's diseased. All
24:20
Speaker 1: that affects them seems different from all that affects everybody else.
24:24
Speaker 1: They are even proud of their separate and peculiar doom.
24:28
Speaker 1: Young Gurley not thought, but felt it he was different
24:32
Speaker 1: from everybody else. The heavens had cursed nobody else with
24:36
Speaker 1: such a terrible sire. It was no cowardice to fill
24:39
Speaker 1: yourself with drink before you faced him. A drunkard will
24:43
Speaker 1: howl you in obscene chorus the moment after he has
24:46
Speaker 1: wept about his dead child. For a mind in the
24:49
Speaker 1: delirium of drink is no longer a coherent whole, but
24:52
Speaker 1: a heap of shattered bits, which it shows, one after
24:55
Speaker 1: the other to the world. Hence the many transformations of
24:59
Speaker 1: that semi madness and their quick variety. Young Girlie was
25:04
Speaker 1: showing them now. His had always been a wandering mind,
25:07
Speaker 1: deficient in application and control, and as he neared his
25:11
Speaker 1: final collapse, it became more and more variable, the prey
25:15
Speaker 1: of each momentary thought. In a short five minutes of
25:19
Speaker 1: time he had been alive to the beauty of the darkness,
25:22
Speaker 1: cowering before the memory of his father's eyes, sobbing in
25:26
Speaker 1: self pity and angry resolve, shaking in terror. Indeed he
25:30
Speaker 1: was shaking now, but his vanity came uppermost as he
25:35
Speaker 1: neared the Red Lion. He stopped suddenly, and the darkness
25:38
Speaker 1: seemed on fire against his cheeks. He would have to
25:42
Speaker 1: face curious eyes, he reflected. It was from the Red
25:45
Speaker 1: Lion he and Aird had started so grandly in the autumn.
25:49
Speaker 1: It would never do to come slinking back like a
25:52
Speaker 1: whipped cur He must carry it off bravely in case
25:55
Speaker 1: the usual busy bodies should be gathered round the bar. So,
25:59
Speaker 1: with his coat flapping lordly on either side of him,
26:02
Speaker 1: his hands deep in his trouser's pockets, and his hat
26:05
Speaker 1: on the back of his head, he drove at the
26:07
Speaker 1: swing doors with an outshot chest and entered with a bringe.
26:12
Speaker 1: But for all his swagger, he must have had a
26:14
Speaker 1: face like death, for there was a cry among the idlers.
26:18
Speaker 1: A man breathed, my God, what's the matter. With shaking knees,
26:22
Speaker 1: gurly advanced to the bar, and for God's sake, Aggie,
26:26
Speaker 1: he whispered, give me a kin blithement. It went at
26:30
Speaker 1: a gulp. Another he gasped, like a man dying of thirst,
26:35
Speaker 1: whom his first sip maddens for more another or another,
26:39
Speaker 1: He had tossed the other down his burning throat. When
26:42
Speaker 1: Deacon Allardyce came in. He knew his man the moment
26:46
Speaker 1: he set eyes on him. But standing at the door,
26:48
Speaker 1: he arched his hand above his brow, as you do
26:51
Speaker 1: in gazing at a dear unexpected friend whom you pretend
26:55
Speaker 1: not to be quite sure of. So surprised and pleased
26:58
Speaker 1: are you to see him? There is it John? He cried,
27:02
Speaker 1: It is John, and he toddled forward with outstretched hand.
27:07
Speaker 1: Man John, he said again, as if he could scarce
27:11
Speaker 1: believe the good news, and he waggled the other's hand
27:14
Speaker 1: up and down, with both his own clasped over it.
27:18
Speaker 1: I'm proud to see you, thir, I am that. And
27:21
Speaker 1: though your one hem aye humph, And how are ye
27:25
Speaker 1: tumbing on? Oh? I'm all right, deacon, said Gurley, with
27:29
Speaker 1: a silly laugh. Have a wet the whisky had begun
27:33
Speaker 1: to warm him. A what said the deacon, blinking in
27:37
Speaker 1: a puzzled fashion with his bleary old eyes. A dram
27:41
Speaker 1: A drink a drop of the old cook, said Gurley,
27:44
Speaker 1: with a stertorous laugh down through his nostrils. He he
27:48
Speaker 1: laughed the deacon in his best falsetto. Is that what
27:51
Speaker 1: ye call it up in Edinburgh? A wet aye? Ah? Well,
27:56
Speaker 1: maybe I will take a little drope. Seeing your solready
27:58
Speaker 1: away your offer they drank together, Aggie, fill me a
28:03
Speaker 1: mutchkin when you're at it, said Gurley to the pretty
28:06
Speaker 1: barmaid with the curly hair. He had spent many an
28:09
Speaker 1: hour with her last summer in the bar. The four
28:12
Speaker 1: big whiskies he had swallowed in the last half hour
28:15
Speaker 1: singing in him now, and he blinked at her drunkenly.
28:19
Speaker 1: There was a scarlet ribbon on her, dark curls, coquettish, vivid,
28:23
Speaker 1: and Gurley stared at it dreamily, partly in a drunken daze,
28:27
Speaker 1: and partly because a striking color always brought a musing
28:30
Speaker 1: and self forgetting Luke within his eyes. All his life
28:35
Speaker 1: he used to stare at things dreamily and come to
28:37
Speaker 1: himself with a start when spoken to. He forgot himself now, Aggie,
28:42
Speaker 1: he said, and put his hand out to hers clumsily,
28:45
Speaker 1: where it rested on the counter, Aggie, that ribbon's infernal
28:49
Speaker 1: bonny on your dark hair. She tossed her head and
28:53
Speaker 1: perked away from him on her little high heels. Him indeed,
28:56
Speaker 1: the drunkard. She wanted none of his compliments. There were
29:01
Speaker 1: half a dozen in the place by this time, and
29:03
Speaker 1: they all stared with greedy eyes. That's young girlie, him
29:06
Speaker 1: that was expelled, was heard the last and emphatic whisper,
29:10
Speaker 1: with round eyes of awe at the offense that must
29:13
Speaker 1: have merited such punishment. Expelled, mind ye, with the round
29:18
Speaker 1: shake of the head. Watch alard Ice will see fun.
29:22
Speaker 1: What's this expelled is now? Said John Toodle, with a
29:26
Speaker 1: very considering look and tone in his uplifted face. Properly speaking,
29:30
Speaker 1: that is, he added, implying that of course he knew
29:33
Speaker 1: the word in its ordinary sense, but was not sure
29:36
Speaker 1: of it properly speaking. Flung out, said drucken Webster, speaking
29:42
Speaker 1: from the fullness of his own experience. Wish said a third,
29:45
Speaker 1: here's Tam Brody. Watch what he does. The entrance of
29:50
Speaker 1: Brody spoiled sport for the deacon. He had nothing of
29:54
Speaker 1: that malicious finesse that made Alardyce a genius at nicking
29:58
Speaker 1: men on the raw. He went straight to his work,
30:01
Speaker 1: stabbing like an owl. Hal Lo, he cried, pausing with
30:05
Speaker 1: contempt in the middle of the word when he saw
30:08
Speaker 1: young Girly, hallo you here, brig o the mains miss,
30:14
Speaker 1: if you please, hi, man, God, you've been making a
30:19
Speaker 1: name up in embro I hear you stood up till him,
30:22
Speaker 1: guy will and he winked openly to those around. Young
30:27
Speaker 1: Girley's madden nature broke at the insult. Damn you, he screamed,
30:31
Speaker 1: Leave me alone, will you? I have done nothing to you,
30:35
Speaker 1: have I? Brody stared at him across his suspended whiskey glass,
30:40
Speaker 1: an easy and assured contempt, curling his lip. Don't greet
30:45
Speaker 1: ower it, my baurn, said he, And even as he spoke,
30:49
Speaker 1: John's glass shivered on his grinning teeth. Brody leapt on him,
30:54
Speaker 1: lifted him, and sent him flying. That's a game of
30:57
Speaker 1: your father's, you damned dog, he roared. But as merely
31:00
Speaker 1: and him can play the game, Cannie Ma freed th
31:04
Speaker 1: Canny piped Alardice, who was vexed at a fine chance
31:07
Speaker 1: for his peculiar craft being spoiled by a mere brutality
31:11
Speaker 1: of handling. All this was most inartistic. Brodie never had
31:15
Speaker 1: the fine stroke Gurli. Picked himself, bleeding from the floor,
31:20
Speaker 1: and holding a handkerchief to his mouth, plunged headlong from
31:23
Speaker 1: the room. He heard a derisive roar that came after
31:26
Speaker 1: him stop strangled by the sharp swing two of the door,
31:30
Speaker 1: but it seemed to echo in his burning ears as
31:33
Speaker 1: he strode madly on through the darkness. He uncorked his
31:37
Speaker 1: muchkin and drank it like water. His swollen lips smarted
31:41
Speaker 1: at first, but he drank till it was a mere
31:43
Speaker 1: dead lump to his tongue, and he could not feel
31:46
Speaker 1: the whisky on the wound. His mind, at first was
31:49
Speaker 1: a burning whirl through drink and rage, with nothing determined
31:53
Speaker 1: and nothing definite. But thought began to shape itself in
31:58
Speaker 1: a vast, vague circle of conscientiousness. His mind seemed to
32:01
Speaker 1: sit in the center and think with preternatural clearness, though
32:06
Speaker 1: all around was whirling and confused. Drink had endowed some
32:10
Speaker 1: inner eye of the brain with unnatural swift vividness. Far
32:14
Speaker 1: within the humming circle of his mind, he saw an
32:17
Speaker 1: instant and terrible revenge, and Brody acted it and lived it.
32:21
Speaker 1: Now his desires were murderers, and he let them slip,
32:25
Speaker 1: gloating in the cruelties that hot fancy reeked upon his enemy.
32:29
Speaker 1: Then he suddenly remembered his father. A rush of fiery
32:33
Speaker 1: blood seemed to drench all his body as he thought
32:36
Speaker 1: of what had passed between them. But by Heaven, he swore,
32:40
Speaker 1: as he threw away his empty bottle, he won't use
32:42
Speaker 1: me like that another time. I have blood in me. Now,
32:46
Speaker 1: his maddened fancy began building a new scene, with the
32:50
Speaker 1: same actors, the same conditions as the other, but an
32:53
Speaker 1: issue gloriously diverse. With vicious delight, he heard his father
32:58
Speaker 1: use the same sneer as, the same gibes, the same brutalities.
33:02
Speaker 1: Then he turned suddenly and had him underfoot, kicking, bludgeoning,
33:07
Speaker 1: stamping the life out. He would do it, By Heaven,
33:10
Speaker 1: he would do it. The memory of what had happened
33:13
Speaker 1: came fierly back and made the pressing darkness burn. His
33:18
Speaker 1: wrath was brimming on the edge, ready to burst, and
33:20
Speaker 1: he felt proudly that it would no longer ebb in fear.
33:23
Speaker 1: Whiskey had killed fear and left a hysterical madman, all
33:27
Speaker 1: the more dangerous because he was so weak. Let his
33:30
Speaker 1: father try it on. Now he was ready for him.
33:34
Speaker 1: And his father was ready for him, for he knew
33:37
Speaker 1: what had happened at the Inn. Missus Webster and her
33:40
Speaker 1: knightly hunt for the man she had sworn to honor
33:43
Speaker 1: and obey. Having drawn several public houses, Blank ran him
33:47
Speaker 1: to earth at last in the bar room of the
33:49
Speaker 1: Red Lion. Yes, yes, Kirsty, he cried, eager to prevent
33:54
Speaker 1: her tongue. I know I'm a black yard, but oh,
33:56
Speaker 1: a terrible thing that has happened. He so possessed her
34:00
Speaker 1: with his graphic tail that he was allowed to go
34:03
Speaker 1: chuckling back to his petitions while she ran hot foot
34:06
Speaker 1: to the Green shutters. Hey, poor missus Gurley, and oh
34:11
Speaker 1: you poor boy too, and nay that brute Tam Brodie.
34:16
Speaker 1: Even as she came through the door, the voluble clatter
34:19
Speaker 1: was shrilling out the big tidings. Before she was aware
34:22
Speaker 1: of Gurley's presence, she faltered beneath his black glower. Go on,
34:27
Speaker 1: he said, and ground it out of her. A damn sump,
34:31
Speaker 1: he growled. To let Brody hammer him for a moment.
34:35
Speaker 1: It is true his anger was divided stood in equipoise
34:39
Speaker 1: even dipped brodyword of an account to saddle with him.
34:43
Speaker 1: He thought, grimly, when I get my claw on his neck,
34:47
Speaker 1: I'll teach him better than to hit a girley. I wonder,
34:50
Speaker 1: he mused, with a pride in which was neither doubt
34:53
Speaker 1: nor wonder. I wonder will he fling the father as
34:56
Speaker 1: he flang the sun? But that was the inn instinct
35:00
Speaker 1: of his blood, not enough to make him pardon John.
35:03
Speaker 1: On the contrary, here was a new offense of his offspring.
35:07
Speaker 1: On the morrow, Barbie would be burning with another affront
35:11
Speaker 1: which he had put upon the name of Gurley. He
35:13
Speaker 1: would waste no time when he came back, be he
35:16
Speaker 1: drunk or be he sober, he would strip the flesh
35:19
Speaker 1: off him. Jenny, he said, bring me the step ladder.
35:23
Speaker 1: He would pass the time till the prodigal came back,
35:27
Speaker 1: and he was almost certain to come back, for where
35:30
Speaker 1: could he go in Barbie, he would pass the time
35:32
Speaker 1: by trying to improve the appearance of the house. He
35:36
Speaker 1: had spent money on his house till the last, and
35:39
Speaker 1: even now had the instinct to embellish it, not that
35:42
Speaker 1: it mattered to him. Now Still, he could carry out
35:45
Speaker 1: a small improvement he had planned before. The kitchen was
35:49
Speaker 1: sealed in dark timber, and on the rich brown rafters
35:53
Speaker 1: there were wooden pegs and bars for the hanging of
35:56
Speaker 1: gurley sticks and fishing rods. His gun was up there too,
36:01
Speaker 1: just above the hearth. It had occurred to him about
36:04
Speaker 1: a month ago, however, that a pair of curving steel
36:07
Speaker 1: rests that would catch the glint from the fire would
36:11
Speaker 1: look better beneath his gun than the dull pegs where
36:14
Speaker 1: it now lay against a joist. He might as well
36:17
Speaker 1: pass the time by putting them up. The bringing of
36:21
Speaker 1: the steps, like though they were, was too much for
36:23
Speaker 1: Janet's weak frame, and she stopped in a fit of coughing,
36:27
Speaker 1: clutching the ladder for support while it shook to her spasms. Tuts, Jenny,
36:32
Speaker 1: this'll never do, said Gurli, not unkindly. He took the
36:37
Speaker 1: ladder away from her and laid his hand on her shoulder.
36:40
Speaker 1: Away to your bed, lass, yeamanas sit so late. But
36:45
Speaker 1: Janet was anxious for her brother and wanted to sit
36:48
Speaker 1: up till he came home. She answered yes to her father,
36:53
Speaker 1: but idle discreetly to consume the time. Where's my hammer?
36:57
Speaker 1: Snarled gurlly, is it no by the clock, said his
37:01
Speaker 1: wife wearily. Oh I remember, I remember. I gad it
37:05
Speaker 1: to missus Webster to break some bree stone to rub
37:08
Speaker 1: the front door stepway. It'll be lying in the porch. Oh,
37:13
Speaker 1: as usual, said Gourley. As usual, John, she cried in alarm.
37:19
Speaker 1: You don't mean to take down the gun, do ye?
37:22
Speaker 1: Uts see, old fool, what ye're scurling for? D'ye think
37:25
Speaker 1: I mean to shoot the dog? Set back in your
37:28
Speaker 1: creepy and make less noise? Will ye ere? He had
37:32
Speaker 1: driven a nail in the rafter. John came in and
37:35
Speaker 1: sat down by the fire, taking up the great poker,
37:38
Speaker 1: as if to cover his nervousness. If Gourley had been
37:42
Speaker 1: on the floor, he would have grappled with him there
37:44
Speaker 1: and then, But the temptation to gloat over his victim
37:47
Speaker 1: from his present height was irresistible. He went up another
37:51
Speaker 1: step and sat down on the very summit of the ladder,
37:54
Speaker 1: his feet resting on one of the lower rounds. The
37:58
Speaker 1: hammer he had been using was lying his thigh, his
38:01
Speaker 1: hand clutched about its haft. Aye, man, you've been taking
38:05
Speaker 1: a bit walk, I hear. John made no reply, but
38:09
Speaker 1: played with the poker. It was so huge, owing to
38:14
Speaker 1: Gooley's swim, that when it slid through his fingers, it
38:17
Speaker 1: came down in the muffled hearthstone with a thud like
38:20
Speaker 1: a Pavier's hammer. I'm told you saw the deacon on
38:24
Speaker 1: your rounds? Did he compliment you on your return? That?
38:28
Speaker 1: The quiet, sneer lightning flash showed John that Alerdice had
38:32
Speaker 1: quizzed him too. For a moment he was conscious of
38:35
Speaker 1: a vast self pity. Damn them, they're all down in me, thought,
38:40
Speaker 1: Then a vindictive rage against them all took hold of him,
38:43
Speaker 1: tense quivering. Did you see Thomas Brody when you were out?
38:48
Speaker 1: Came the suave inquiry. I saw him, said John, raising
38:53
Speaker 1: fierce eyes to his father's. He was proud of the
38:56
Speaker 1: sudden firmness in his voice. There was no fear in it. Quivering,
39:01
Speaker 1: he was beyond caring what happened to the world or him.
39:04
Speaker 1: Oh you saw him, roared Gurley, as his anger leaped
39:08
Speaker 1: to meet the anger of his son. And what did
39:10
Speaker 1: he say to you? May I spear or maybe I
39:13
Speaker 1: should spear what he did? Eh? He grinned. By God,
39:17
Speaker 1: I'll kill ye, screamed John, springing to his feet with
39:21
Speaker 1: a poker in his hand. The hammer went whizzing past
39:24
Speaker 1: his ear. Missus Gurley screamed and tried to rise from
39:27
Speaker 1: her chair, her eyes goggling in terror. As Gurley leapt,
39:31
Speaker 1: John brought the huge poker with a crash on the
39:34
Speaker 1: descending brow. The fiercest joy of his life was a
39:38
Speaker 1: girl that went up his arm. As the steel thrilled
39:40
Speaker 1: to its own hard impact on the bone, Gurley thudded
39:44
Speaker 1: on the fender, his brow crashing on the rim. At
39:48
Speaker 1: the blow, there had been a cry as of animals
39:51
Speaker 1: from the two women. There followed an eternity of silence,
39:55
Speaker 1: it seemed, and a haze about the place, Yet not
39:58
Speaker 1: a haze, for everything was in intensely clear. Only it
40:01
Speaker 1: belonged to another world. One terrible fact had changed the universe.
40:07
Speaker 1: The air was different now, it was full of murder.
40:11
Speaker 1: Everything in the room had a new significance, a sinister meaning.
40:15
Speaker 1: The effect was that of an unholy spell, as through
40:18
Speaker 1: a dream. Missus Gurley's voice was heard crying on her God.
40:23
Speaker 1: John stood there, suddenly weakened his limbs, and stared, as
40:27
Speaker 1: if petrified, at the red poker in his hand. A
40:30
Speaker 1: little wisp of grizzled hair stuck to the square of it,
40:34
Speaker 1: severed as if by scissors, between the sharp edge and
40:37
Speaker 1: the bone. It was the sight of that bit of
40:40
Speaker 1: hair that roused him from his stupor. It seemed so
40:43
Speaker 1: monstrous and horrible, sticking all by itself to the poker.
40:47
Speaker 1: I did not strike him so hard, he pleaded, staring vaguely.
40:51
Speaker 1: I did not strike him so hard. Now that the
40:54
Speaker 1: frenzy had left him, he failed to realize the force
40:57
Speaker 1: of his own blow. Then, with a horror fear on him,
41:01
Speaker 1: Get up, faither, he entreated, Get up, faither, Oh man,
41:04
Speaker 1: ye micht get up. Janet, who had bent above the
41:08
Speaker 1: fallen man, raised an ashen face to her brother and
41:11
Speaker 1: whispered hoarsely. His heart has stopped, John, you have killed him.
41:16
Speaker 1: Steps were heard coming through the scullery. In the fear
41:20
Speaker 1: of discovery. Missus Gurley shook off the apathy that held
41:23
Speaker 1: her paralyzed. She sprang up, snatched the poker from her son,
41:27
Speaker 1: and thrust it in the embers. Run John, Run for
41:31
Speaker 1: the doctor. She screamed, Oh, missus Webster, Missus Webster, I'm
41:35
Speaker 1: glad to see mister Gurley fell from the top o
41:38
Speaker 1: the ladder and smashed his brow on the muckle fender
41:45
Speaker 1: end of chapter twenty five.