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041 - Ch 41 - The Journey's End · North and South (version 2)

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  Speaker 1: Chapter forty one of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the Public Domean Read by Mirianne,
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  Speaker 1: chapter forty one, The Journey's End. I see my way
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  Speaker 1: as birds their trackless way. I shall arrive, What time?
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  Speaker 1: What circuit? First? I ask not? But unless God send
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  Speaker 1: his hail or blinding fire balls, sleet or stifling snow
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  Speaker 1: in some time his good time, I shall arrive. He
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: guides me and the bird in his good time. Browning's
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  Speaker 1: paclesis so. The winter was getting on, and the days
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  Speaker 1: were beginning to lengthen, without bringing with them any of
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  Speaker 1: the brightness of hope which usually accompanies the rays of
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  Speaker 1: a February sun. Missus Thornton had, of course entirely ceased
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  Speaker 1: to come to the house. Mister Thorn Trenton came occasionally,
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  Speaker 1: but his visits were addressed to her father and were
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  Speaker 1: confined to the study. Mister Hale spoke of him as
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  Speaker 1: always the same. Indeed, the very rarity of their intercourse
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  Speaker 1: seemed to make mister Hale set only the higher value
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  Speaker 1: on it. And from what Margaret could gather of what
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  Speaker 1: mister Thornton had said, there was nothing in the cessation
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  Speaker 1: of his visits, which could arise from any umbrage or vexation.
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  Speaker 1: His business affairs had become complicated during the strike and
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  Speaker 1: required closer attention than he had given them last winter. Nay,
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  Speaker 1: Margaret could even discover that he spoke from time to
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  Speaker 1: time of her, and always as far as she could learn,
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  Speaker 1: in the same calm, friendly way, never avoiding and never
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  Speaker 1: seeking any mention of her name. She was not in
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  Speaker 1: spirits to raise her father's tone of mind. The dreary
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  Speaker 1: peacefulness of the present time had been preceded by so
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  Speaker 1: long a period of anxiety and care, even intermixed with storms,
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  Speaker 1: that her mind had lof foust It's elasticity. She tried
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  Speaker 1: to find herself occupation in teaching the two younger Boucher children,
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  Speaker 1: and worked hard at goodness, hard, I say most truly,
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  Speaker 1: for her heart seemed dead to the end of all
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  Speaker 1: her efforts, and though she made them punctually and painfully,
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  Speaker 1: yet she stood as far off as ever from any cheerfulness.
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  Speaker 1: Her life seemed bleak and dreary. The only thing she
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  Speaker 1: did well was what she did out of unconscious piety,
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  Speaker 1: the silent comforting and consoling of her father not a
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  Speaker 1: mood of his, But what found a ready sympathizer in Margaret,
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  Speaker 1: not a wish of his that she did not strive
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  Speaker 1: to forecast and to fulfill. They were quiet wishes, to
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  Speaker 1: be sure, and hardly named without hesitation and apology. All
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  Speaker 1: the more complete and beautiful was her meek spirit of obedience.
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  Speaker 1: March brought news of Frederick's marriage. He and Dolores wrote,
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  Speaker 1: she in space Danish English, as was but natural, and
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  Speaker 1: he with little turns and inversions of words, which proved
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  Speaker 1: how far the idioms of his bride's country were infecting him.
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  Speaker 1: On the receipt of Henry Lennox's letter announcing how little
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  Speaker 1: hope there was of his ever clearing himself at a
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  Speaker 1: court martial in the absence of the missing witnesses, Frederick
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  Speaker 1: had written to Margaret a pretty vehement letter containing his
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  Speaker 1: renunciation of England as his country. He wished he could
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  Speaker 1: unnative himself, and declared that he would not take his
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  Speaker 1: pardon if it were offered, nor live in the country
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  Speaker 1: if he had permission to do so, all of which
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  Speaker 1: made Margaret cry sorely. So unnatural did it seem to
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  Speaker 1: her at the first opening. But on consideration. She saw
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  Speaker 1: rather in such expressions the poignancy of the disappointment which
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  Speaker 1: had thus crushed his hopes, and she felt that there
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  Speaker 1: was nothing for it but patience. In the next letter,
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  Speaker 1: Frederick spoke so joyfully of the future that he had
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  Speaker 1: no thought for the past, and Margaret found a use
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  Speaker 1: in herself for the patience she had been craving for him.
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  Speaker 1: She would only have to be patient. But the pretty, timid,
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  Speaker 1: girlish letters of Dolores were beginning to have a charm
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  Speaker 1: for both Margaret and her father. The young Spaniard was
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  Speaker 1: so evidently anxious to make a favorable impression upon her
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  Speaker 1: lover's English relations that her feminine care peeped out at
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  Speaker 1: every erasure, and the letters announcing the marriage were accompanied
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  Speaker 1: by a splendid black lace mantilla, chosen by Dolores herself
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  Speaker 1: for her unseen sister in law, whom Frederick had represented
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  Speaker 1: as a paragon of beauty, wisdom, and virtue. Frederick's worldly
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  Speaker 1: position was raised by this marriage on to as high
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  Speaker 1: a level as they could desire. Barbara and Co was
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  Speaker 1: one of the most extensive Spanish houses, and into it
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  Speaker 1: he was received as a junior partner Margaret smiled a little,
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  Speaker 1: and then sighed as she remembered afresh her old tirades
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  Speaker 1: against trade. Here was her bruchevalier of a brother turned
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  Speaker 1: merchant trader. But then she rebelled against herself and protested
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  Speaker 1: silently against the confusion implied between a Spanish merchant and
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  Speaker 1: a Milton mill owner. Well trade or no trade. Frederick
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  Speaker 1: was very very happy. Dolores must be charming, and the
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  Speaker 1: mantilla was exquisite, and then she returned to the present life.
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  Speaker 1: Her father had occasionally experienced a difficulty in breathing this spring,
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  Speaker 1: which had for the time distressed him exceedingly. Margaret was
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  Speaker 1: less alarmed, and this difficulty went off completely in the intervals.
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  Speaker 1: But she still was so desirous of his shaking off
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  Speaker 1: the liability altogether as to make her very urgent that
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  Speaker 1: he should accept mister Bell's invitation to visit him at
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  Speaker 1: Oxford this April. Mister Bell's invitation included Margaret nay More.
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  Speaker 1: He wrote a special letter commanding her to come, but
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  Speaker 1: she felt as if it would be a great relief
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  Speaker 1: to her to remain quietly at home, entirely free from
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  Speaker 1: any responsibility whatever, and so to rest her mind and
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  Speaker 1: heart in a manner which she had not been able
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  Speaker 1: to do for more than two years past. When her
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  Speaker 1: father had driven off on his way to the railroad,
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  Speaker 1: Margaret felt how great and long had been the pressure
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  Speaker 1: on her time and her spirits. It was astonishing, almost stunning,
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  Speaker 1: to feel herself so much at liberty, no one depending
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  Speaker 1: on her for cheering care. If not for positive happiness,
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  Speaker 1: no invalid to plan and think for, she might be
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  Speaker 1: idle and silent and forgetful. And what seemed worth more
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  Speaker 1: than all the other privileges, she might be unhappy if
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  Speaker 1: she liked. For months past, all her own personal cares
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  Speaker 1: and troubles had had to be stuffed away into a
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  Speaker 1: dark cupboard. But now she had leisure to take them
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  Speaker 1: out and mourn over them, and study their nature, and
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  Speaker 1: seek the true method of subduing them into the elements
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  Speaker 1: of peace. All these weeks conscious of their existence in
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  Speaker 1: a dull kind of way, though they were hidden out
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  Speaker 1: of sight. Now once for all, she would consider them
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  Speaker 1: and appoint to each of them its right work in
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  Speaker 1: her life. So she sat almost motionless for hours in
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  Speaker 1: the drawing room, going over the bitterness of every remembrance
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  Speaker 1: with an unwincing resolution. Only once she cried aloud at
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  Speaker 1: the stinging thought of the faithlessness which gave birth to
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  Speaker 1: that abasing falsehood. She now would not even acknowledge the
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  Speaker 1: force of the temptation. Her plans for Frederick had all failed,
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  Speaker 1: and the temptation lay there a dead mockery, a mockery
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  Speaker 1: which had never had life in it, the lie that
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  Speaker 1: had been so despicably foolish seen by the light of
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  Speaker 1: the ensuing events, and faith in the power of truth
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  Speaker 1: so infinitely the greater wisdom. In her nervous agitation, she
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  Speaker 1: unconsciously opened a book of her father's that lay upon
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  Speaker 1: the table. The words that caught her eye in it
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  Speaker 1: seemed almost made for her present state of acute self abasement.
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  Speaker 1: Jiuenou vaudois parram pedro, monsieur monce sort mesdnte a veges empidonte,
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  Speaker 1: tres tres d'est royal, a ton dieu esambable, chose meije
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  Speaker 1: voudoir la corge, pour vois de compassion or souse montpav
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  Speaker 1: roqueur nouvo la tombe de la foce, la cayennu xavillance
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  Speaker 1: temprasso lu de champei real vneus equitoon la poujonmee recremond
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  Speaker 1: de misrecord de de dieu esperon elqunaud a sisterra pou
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  Speaker 1: de surmee estre prifeme a retomneux or chamaine les humilitae.
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  Speaker 1: Courage soyon mousui so no garde due nus e doir
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  Speaker 1: the way of humility. Ah, thought Margaret, that is what
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  Speaker 1: I have missed. But courage, little heart, we will turn back,
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  Speaker 1: and by God's way we may find the lost path.
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  Speaker 1: She rose up and determined at once to set to
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  Speaker 1: on some work which should take her out of herself.
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  Speaker 1: To begin with, she called Martha as she passed the
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  Speaker 1: drawing room door in going upstairs, and tried to find
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  Speaker 1: out what was below the grave respectful servant like manner
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  Speaker 1: which crusted over her individual character with an obedience that
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  Speaker 1: was almost mechanical. She found it difficult to induce Martha
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  Speaker 1: to speak of any of her personal interests. But at
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  Speaker 1: last she touched the right chord in naming missus Thornton.
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  Speaker 1: Martha's whole face brightened, and, on a little encouragement, out
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  Speaker 1: came a long story of how her father had been
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  Speaker 1: in early life connected with Missus Thornton's husband, Nay had
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  Speaker 1: even been in a position to show him some kindness
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  Speaker 1: what Martha hardly knew, for it happened when she was
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  Speaker 1: quite a little child, and circumstances had intervened to separate
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  Speaker 1: the two families until Martha was nearly grown up. When
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  Speaker 1: her father having sunk lower and lower from his original
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  Speaker 1: occupation as a clerk in a warehouse, and her mother
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  Speaker 1: being dead, she and her sister, to use Martha's own expression,
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  Speaker 1: would have been lost but for Missus Thornton, who sought
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  Speaker 1: them out and thought for them and cared for them.
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  Speaker 1: I had had a fever and was but delicate. But
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  Speaker 1: Missus Thornton and mister Thornton too, they never rested till
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  Speaker 1: they had nursed me up in their own house and
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  Speaker 1: sent me to the sea. And all the doctor say
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  Speaker 1: the fever was catching, but they cared none for that
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  Speaker 1: only miss Fanny, and she went to visiting these folks
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  Speaker 1: that she is going to marry into. So though she
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  Speaker 1: was afraid at the time, it has all ended well.
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  Speaker 1: Miss Fanny is going to be married, exclaimed Margaret. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: and to a rich gentleman too, Only he's a deal
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  Speaker 1: older than she is. His name is Watson, and his
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  Speaker 1: mills are somewhere out beyond Hayley. It's a very good marriage,
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  Speaker 1: for all he's got such gray hair. At this piece
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  Speaker 1: of information, Margaret was silent long enough for Martha to
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  Speaker 1: recover her propriety and with it her habitual shortness of answer.
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  Speaker 1: She swept up the hearth, asked at what time she
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  Speaker 1: should prepare tea, and quitted the room with the same
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  Speaker 1: wooden face with which she had entered it. Margaret had
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  Speaker 1: to pull herself up from indulging in a bad trick
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  Speaker 1: which she had lately fallen into, of trying to imagine
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  Speaker 1: how every event that she heard of in relation to
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  Speaker 1: mister Thornton would affect him, whether he would like it
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  Speaker 1: or dislike it. Next day, she had the little Boucher
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  Speaker 1: children for their lessons and took a long walk and
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  Speaker 1: ended by a visit to Mary Higgins. Somewhat to Margaret's surprise,
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  Speaker 1: she found Nicholas already come home from his work. The
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  Speaker 1: lengthening light had deceived her as to the lateness of
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  Speaker 1: the evening. He too, seemed by his manners to have
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  Speaker 1: entered a little more on the way of humility. He
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  Speaker 1: was quieter and less self asserting. So taw gentlemen is
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  Speaker 1: away on his travels is he said he little uns
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  Speaker 1: telled me so ay, but they are sharp uns, they are.
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  Speaker 1: I amost think they beat my own wenches for sharpness,
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  Speaker 1: though mappen it's wrong to say so. And one on
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  Speaker 1: em in her grave. There's summit in the weather. I
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  Speaker 1: reckon a sets folks O wanderin' my measter him at
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  Speaker 1: the shop yonder is spinnin' bout the world somewhere. Is
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  Speaker 1: that the reason your home so soon to night? Asked
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  Speaker 1: Margaret innocently. Thou know'st nought about it, That's all, said
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  Speaker 1: he contemptuously. I'm not We two faces, one for my
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  Speaker 1: measter an t'other for his back. I counted ay the
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  Speaker 1: clocks in town strikin afore i'd leave my work. No, Yon,
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  Speaker 1: Thornton's good enough for to fight we but too good
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  Speaker 1: for to be cheated. It were you as gettin me
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  Speaker 1: the place, and I thank you for it. Thornton's is
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  Speaker 1: not a bad mill as times go. Stand down, lad
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  Speaker 1: An say, y're pretty hymn to miss Margaret. That's right,
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  Speaker 1: steady on their legs and right arm out as straight
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  Speaker 1: as the shore. One to stop, two to stay, three
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  Speaker 1: make ready, and four away. The little fellow repeated a
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  Speaker 1: Methodist hymn far above his comprehension in point of language,
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  Speaker 1: but of which the swinging rhythm had caught his ear,
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  Speaker 1: and which he repeated with all the developed cadence of
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  Speaker 1: a member of Parliament. When Margaret had duly applauded, Nicholas
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  Speaker 1: called for another and yet another, much to her surprise,
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  Speaker 1: as she found him thus oddly and unconsciously led to
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  Speaker 1: take an interest in the sacred things which he had
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  Speaker 1: formerly scouted. It was past the usual tea time when
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  Speaker 1: she reached home, but she had the comfort of feeling
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  Speaker 1: that no one had been kept waiting for her, and
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  Speaker 1: of thinking her own thoughts while she rested, instead of
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: anxiously watching another person to learn whether to be grave
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  Speaker 1: or gay. After tea, she resolved to examine a large
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: packet of letters and pick out those that were to
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: be destroyed. Among them, she came to four or five
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  Speaker 1: of mister Henry Lennox's relating to Frederick's affairs, and she
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: carefully read them over again with the sole intention. When
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  Speaker 1: she began to askin exactly on how fine a chance
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: the justification of her brother hung. But when she had
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: finished the last and weighed the pros and cons, the
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: little personal revelation of character contained in them forced itself
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: on her notice. It was evident enough from the stiffness
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: of the wording that mister Lennox had never forgotten his
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: relation to her in any interest he might feel in
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  Speaker 1: the subject of the correspondence. They were clever letters, Margaret
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  Speaker 1: saw that in a twinkling, but she missed out of
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: them all hearty and genial atmosphere. They were to be preserved, however,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: as valuable, so she laid them carefully on one side.
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  Speaker 1: When this little piece of business was ended, she fell
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: into a reverie, and the thought of her absent father
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: ran strangely in Margaret's head. This night she almost blamed
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: herself for having felt her solitude and consequently his absence
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: as a relief. But these two days had set her
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: up afresh with new strength and brighter hope. Plans which
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: had lately appeared to her in the guise of tasks,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: now appeared like pleasures. The morbid scales had fallen from
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: her eyes, and she saw her position and her work
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: more truly, if only mister Thornton would restore her the
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: lost friendship. Nay, if he would only come from time
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: to time to cheer her father as in former days,
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  Speaker 1: though she should never see him, she felt as if
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  Speaker 1: the course of her future life, though not brilliant in prospect,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: might lie clear, and even before her she sighed as
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: she rose up to go to bed. In spite of
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: the one steps enough for me, in spite of the
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: one plain duty of devotion to her father, there lay
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: at her heart an anxiety and a pang of sorrow.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: And mister Hale thought of Margaret that April evening, just
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: as strangely and persistently as she was thinking of him.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: He had been fatigued by going out among his old
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: friends and old familiar places. He had had exaggerated ideas
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: of the change which his altered opinion might make in
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: his friend's reception of him. But although some of them
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: might have felt shocked or grieved or indignant at his
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: falling off in the abstract, as soon as they saw
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: the face of the man whom they had once loved,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: they forgot his opinions in himself, or only remembered them
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: enough to give an additional tender gravity to their manner.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: For mister Hale had not been known to many. He
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: had belonged to one of the smaller colleges and had
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: always been shy and reserved. But those who in youth
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: had cared to penetrate the delicacy of thought and feeling
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: that lay below his silence and indecision took him to
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: their hearts with something of the protecting kindness which they
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: would have shown to a woman. And the renewal of
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: this kindness, after the lapse of years and an interval
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: of so much change, overpowered him more than any roughness
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: or expression of disapproval could have done. I'm afraid we've
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: done too much, said mister Bell, your suffering now from
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: having lived so long in the Milton Air. I am tired,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: said mister Hale. But it's not Milton Air. I'm fifty
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: five years of age, and that little fact of itself
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: accounts for any loss of strength. Nonsense. I'm upwards of
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: sixty and feel no loss of strength, either bodily or mental.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Don't let me hear you talking so fifty five. Why
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: you're quite a young man, mister Hale shook his head.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: These last few years, said he. But after a minute's pause,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: he raised himself from his half recumbent position in one
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: of mister Bell's luxurious easy chairs and said, with a
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: kind of trembling earnestness, Bell, You're not to think that
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: if I could have foreseen all that would come of
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: my change of opinion and my resignation of my living. No,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: not even if I could have known how she would
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: have suffered, that I would undo it the act of
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: open acknowledgment that I no longer held the same faith
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: as the church in which I was a priest. As
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: I think now, even if I could have foreseen that
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: cruelest martyrdom of suffering through the sufferings of one whom
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: I loved, I would have done just the same as
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: far as that step of openly leaving the church went.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: I might have done differently and acted more wisely in
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: all that I subsequently did for my family, But I
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: don't thank God endued me with over much wisdom or strength,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: he added, Falling back into his old position. Mister Bell
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: blew his nose ostentatiously before answering. Then, he said, he
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: gave you strength to do what your conscience told you
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: was right, And I don't see that we need any
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: higher or holier strength than that, or wisdom either. I
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: know I have not that much, and yet men set
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: me down in their fool's books as a wise man,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: an independent character, strong minded and all that kint the
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: veriest idiot who obeys his own simple laws of right,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: if it be, but in wiping his shoes on a
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: door mat he is wiser and stronger than I. But
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: what gulls men are? There was a pause. Mister Hale
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: spoke first in continuation of his thought about Margaret, Well,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: about Margaret, what then if I die? Nonsense? What will
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: become of her? I often think, I suppose the Lennoxes
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: will ask her to live with them. I try to
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: think they will. Her Aunt Shaw loved her well in
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: her own quiet way, but she forgets to love the absent,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: a very common fault. What sort of people are the Lennoxes?
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: He handsome, fluent and agreeable, Edith a little spoiled beauty.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Margaret loves her with all her heart, and Edith with
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: as much of her heart as she can spare. Now, Hale,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: you know that girl of yours has got pretty nearly
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: all my heart. I told you that before, of course,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: as your daughter, as my god daughter. I took great
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: interest in her before I saw her the last time.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: But this visit that I paid to you at Milton
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: made me her slave. I went a willing old victim
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: following the car of the conqueror. For indeed she looks
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: as grand and serene as one who has struggled and
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: may be struggling, and yet has the victory secure in sight. Yes,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: in spite of all her present anxieties. That was the
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: look on her face. And so all I have is
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: at her service if she needs it, and will be hers,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: whether she will or no. When I die. Moreover, I
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: myself will be her preux chevalier sixty and gouty. Though
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: I be seriously old friend, your daughter shall be my
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: principal charge in life, and all the help that either
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: my wit, or my wisdom or my willing heart can
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: give shall be hers. I don't choose her out as
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: a subject for fretting something I know of old you
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: must have to worry yourself about, or you wouldn't be happy.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: But you're going to outlive me by many a long year.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: You spare thin. Men are always tempting and always cheating. Death.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: It's the stout, florid fellows like me that always go
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: off first. If mister Bell had had a prophetic eye,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: he might have seen the torch all but inverted, and
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: the angel with the grave and composed face, standing very nigh.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Beckoning to his friend. That night, mister Hale laid his
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: head down on the pillow on which it never more
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: should stir with life. The servant who entered his room
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: in the morning received no answer to his speech, drew
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: near the bed and saw the calm, beautiful face lying
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: white and cold under the ineffaceable seal of death. The
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: attitude was exquisitely easy. There had been no pain, no struggle.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: The action of the heart must have ceased as he
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: lay down. Mister Bell was stunned by the shock, and
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: only recovered when the time came for being angry at
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: every suggestion of his man's a corner's inquest, Pooh, you
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: don't think I poisoned him? Doctor Forbes says, it's just
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: the natural end of a heart complaint, Poor old Hale,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: you wore out that tender heart of yours before its time,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Poor old friend, how he talked of his wallace pack
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: up a carpet bag for me. In five minutes here
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: I have been talking. Pack it up, I say, I
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: must go to Milton by the next train. The bag
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: was packed, the cab ordered, the railway reached in twenty minutes.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: From the moment of this decision, the London train by
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: drew back some yards and in mister Bell was hurried
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: by the impatient guard. He threw himself back in his
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: seat to try, with closed eyes to understand how one
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: in life yesterday could be dead to day, and shortly
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: tears stole out between his grizzled eye lashes at the
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: feeling of which he opened his keen eyes and looked
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: as severely cheerful as his set determination could make him.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: He was not going to blubber before a set of strangers,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: not he There was no set of strangers, only one
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: sitting far from him on the same side by and
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: by mister Bell peered at him to discover what manner
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: of man it was that might have been observing his emotion,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: And behind the great sheet of the outspread times, he
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: recognized mister Thornton. Why Thornton is that you? He said,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: removing hastily to a closer proximity He shook mister Thornton
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: vehemently by the hand until the grip ended in a
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: sudden relaxation, for the hand was wanted to wipe away tears.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: He had last seen mister Thornton in his friend Hale's company.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: I'm going to Milton bound on a melancholy errand going
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: to break to Hale's daughter the news of his sudden
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: death death. Mister Hale dead. Aye. I keep saying it
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: to myself, Hale is dead, but it doesn't make it
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: any the more real. Hale is dead for all that
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: he went to bed well to all appearance last night,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: and was quite cold this morning. When my servant went
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: to call him where I don't understand, at Oxford. He
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: came to stay with me. Hadn't been in Oxford these
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: seventeen years. And this is the end of it. Not
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: a word was spoken for above a quarter of an hour.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Then mister Thornton said, and she and stopped full short, Margaret,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: you mean yes, I am going to tell her, poor fellow,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: how full his thoughts were of her all last night,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: good God, last night only, and how immeasurably distant he
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: is now. But I take Margaret as my child for
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: his sake, I said last night, I would take her
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: for her own sake. Well, I take her for both.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: Mister Thornton made one or two fruitless attempts to speak
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: before he could get out the words what will become
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: of her? I rather fancy there will be two people
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: waiting for her, myself, for one, I would take a
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: live dragon into my house to live if by hiring
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: such a chaperone and setting up an establishment of my own,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: I could make my old age happy with having Margaret
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: for daughter. But there are those Lennoxes. Who are they
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: asked mister Thornton with interest, O smart London people who
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: very likely will think they've the best right to her.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Captain Lennox married her cousin, a girl. She was brought
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: up with good enough people, I dare say. And there's
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: her aunt, missus Shaw. There might be a way open,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: perhaps by my offering to marry that worthy lady, but
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: that would be quite a pisellers. And then there's that brother.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: What brother a brother of her aunt's? No, No, a
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: clever Lennox. The Captain's a fool. You must understand a
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: young barrister who will be setting his cap at Margaret.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: I know he has had her in mind this five
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: years or more. One of his chums told me as much,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: and he was only kept back by her want of fortune.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Now that will be done away with, how, asked mister Thornton,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: too earnestly curious to be aware of the impertinence of
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: his question. Why she'll have my money at my death?
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: And if this Henry Lennox is half good enough for
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: her and she likes him, well, I might find another
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: way of getting a home through a marriage. I'm dreadfully
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: afraid of being tempted at an unguarded moment by the aunt.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Neither mister Bell nor mister Thornton was in a laughing humor,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: so the oddity of any of the speeches which the
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: former made was unnoticed by them. Mister Bell whistled without
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: emitting any sound beyond a long hissing breath, changed his
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: seat without finding comfort or rest, while mister Thornton sat
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: immovably still, his eyes fixed on one spot in the newspaper,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: which he had taken up in order to give himself
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: leisure to think. Where have you been? Asked mister Bell
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: at length. Dehalvre, trying to detect the secret of the
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: great rise in the price of cotton, ugh cotton and speculations,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: and smoke, well cleansed and well cared for machinery, an
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: unwashed and neglected, Poor old Hale, Poor old Hale. If
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: you could have known the change which it was to
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: him from Helstone? Do you know the new forest at all? Yes,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: very shortly? Then you can fancy the difference between it
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: and Milton. What part were you in? Were you ever
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: at Helstone? A little picturesque village, something like the odenwaldt
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: you know Helstone? I have seen it. It was a
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: great change to leave it and come to Milton. He
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: took up his newspaper with a determined air, as if
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: resolved to avoid further conversation, and mister Bell was fain
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: to resort to his former occupation of trying to find
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: out how he could best break the news to Margaret.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: She was at an upstairs window. She saw him alight.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: She guessed the truth with an instinctive flash. She stood
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the drawing room, as if arrested
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: in her first impulse to rush downstairs, and as if
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: by the same restraining thought she had been turned to Stone,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: so white and immovable, was she? Oh, don't tell me.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: I know it from your face. You would have sent
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: you would not have left him if he were alive. Oh, Papa, Papa.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: End of chapter forty one.