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The Sea Lady Chapter 5 · The H. G. Wells Library

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Speaker 1: The Sea Lady, Chapter five. This LibriVox recording is in
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Speaker 1: the public domain recording by Thomas Copeland. The Sea Lady
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Speaker 1: by H. G. Wells, Chapter the fifth, The Absence and
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Speaker 1: Return of Mister Harry Chatteris. These digressions about Parker and
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Speaker 1: the journalists have certainly led me astray from the story
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Speaker 1: a little. You will, however, understand that while the rising
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Speaker 1: young journalist was still in pursuit of information, Hope and Banghurst,
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Speaker 1: and Parker merely a budding perfection, the carriage not even
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Speaker 1: thought of, things were already developing in that bright little
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Speaker 1: establishment beneath the evergreen oaks on the Folkeston Viera. So
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Speaker 1: soon as the minds of the bunting ceased to be
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Speaker 1: altogether focused upon this new and amazing social edition, lay
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Speaker 1: of all people had most indisputably discovered, it became, at
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Speaker 1: first faintly and then very clearly evident that their own
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Speaker 1: simile pleasure in the possession of a guest so beautiful
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Speaker 1: as Miss Waters, so solidly wealthy, and in a manner
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Speaker 1: so distinguished, was not entirely shared by the two young
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Speaker 1: ladies who were to have been their principal guests for
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Speaker 1: the season. This little rift was perceptible. The very first
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Speaker 1: time Missus Bunting had an opportunity of talking over her
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Speaker 1: new arrangements with miss Glendower. And is she really going
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Speaker 1: to stay with you all the summer? Said Adeline. Surely, dear,
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Speaker 1: you don't mind. It takes me a little by surprise,
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Speaker 1: She's asked me, My dear, I'm thinking of Harry if
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Speaker 1: the general election comes on in September, and everyone seems
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Speaker 1: to think it will you promised you would let us
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Speaker 1: inundate you with electioneering. But do you think she she
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Speaker 1: will be dreadfully in the way, She added after an interval.
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Speaker 1: She stops my working. But my dear, she's out of harmony,
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Speaker 1: said Adeline. Missus Bunting looked out of a window at
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Speaker 1: the tamarisk in the sea. I'm sure I wouldn't do
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Speaker 1: anything to hurt Harry's prospects. You know how enthusiastic we
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Speaker 1: all are. Randolph would do anything. But are you sure
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Speaker 1: she will be in the way? What else can she be?
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Speaker 1: She might help even oh, hell, she might canvas. She's
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Speaker 1: very attractive, you know, dear. Now to me, said missus Glendore,
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Speaker 1: I don't trust her, But to some people, and as
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Speaker 1: Harry says at election times, every one who can do
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Speaker 1: anything must be let do it, cut them do anything afterwards.
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Speaker 1: But at the time, you know he talked of it,
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Speaker 1: when mister Fison and he were here. If you left
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Speaker 1: electioneering only to the really nice people, it was mister
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Speaker 1: Fison said that, not Harry. And besides, she wouldn't help.
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Speaker 1: I think you misjudge her there, dear. She has been
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Speaker 1: asking to help, yes, and all about it, said missus
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Speaker 1: Bunting with a trangent pink. She keeps asking questions about
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Speaker 1: why we are having the election, and what it is
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Speaker 1: all about, and why Harry is a candidate, and all that.
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Speaker 1: She wants to go into it quite deeply. I can't
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Speaker 1: answer half the thing she asks. And that's why she
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Speaker 1: keeps up those long conversations with mister Melville, I suppose,
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Speaker 1: and why Fred goes about neglecting Mabel, my dear, said
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Speaker 1: missus Bunting. I wouldn't have her canvassing with us for anything,
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Speaker 1: said Miss Glintower. She'd spoil everything. She is frivolous and satirical.
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Speaker 1: She looks at you with incredulous eyes. She seems to
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Speaker 1: blight all one's earnestness. I don't think you quite understand,
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Speaker 1: dear missus Bunting, what this election and my studies mean
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Speaker 1: to me and Harry. She comes across all that like
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Speaker 1: a contradiction. Surely, my dear, I've never heard her contradict. Oh,
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Speaker 1: she doesn't contradt Dick, but she there is something about her.
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Speaker 1: One feels that things that are most important and vital
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Speaker 1: are nothing to her. Don't you feel it? She comes
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Speaker 1: from another world to us. Missus Bunting remained judicial. Adeline
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Speaker 1: dropped to a lower key again. I think she said, anyhow,
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Speaker 1: that we're taking her very easily. How do we know
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Speaker 1: what she is down there? Out there? She may be anything.
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Speaker 1: She may have had excellent reasons for coming to land,
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Speaker 1: my dear, cried Missus Bunty. Is that charity? How do
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Speaker 1: they live? If she hadn't lived nicely? I'm sure she
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Speaker 1: couldn't behave so nicely. Besides, coming here, she had no invitation.
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Speaker 1: I've invited her now, said Missus Bunting gently. You could
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Speaker 1: hardly help yourself. I only hope you kindness. It's not
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Speaker 1: a kindness, said Missus Bunting. It's a duty. If she
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Speaker 1: were only half as charming as she is. You seem
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Speaker 1: to forget her voice dropped what it is she comes full?
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Speaker 1: That's what I want to know. I'm sure in these
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Speaker 1: days with so much materialism about and such wickedness everywhere,
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Speaker 1: when everybody who has a soul seems trying to lose it,
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Speaker 1: to find any one who hadn't a soul, and who
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Speaker 1: is trying to find one? But is she trying to
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Speaker 1: get one? Mister Flange comes twice every week. He would
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Speaker 1: come oftener, as you know, if there wasn't so much
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Speaker 1: confirmation about. And when he comes, he sits and touches
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Speaker 1: her hand if he can, and he talks in his
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Speaker 1: lowest voice, and she sits and smiles. She almost laughs
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Speaker 1: outright at the things he says. Because he has to
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Speaker 1: win his way with her. Surely mister Flange may do
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Speaker 1: what he can to make religion attractive. I don't believe
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Speaker 1: she believes she will get a soul. I don't believe
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Speaker 1: she wants one a bit. She turned towards the door,
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Speaker 1: as if she had done. Missus Bunding's pink was now permanent.
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Speaker 1: She had brought up a son and two daughters, and
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Speaker 1: besides she had brought down a husband to my dear,
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Speaker 1: how was I to know and when it was necessary
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Speaker 1: to be firm? Even with Adeline Glendowers, she knew how
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Speaker 1: to be firm just as well as anybody, My dear,
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Speaker 1: She began, in her very firmest, quiet manner. I am
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Speaker 1: positive you misjudge Miss Waters trivial. She may be on
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Speaker 1: the surface at any rate, perhaps she laughs and makes
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Speaker 1: fun a little. There are different ways of looking at things,
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Speaker 1: but I am sure that at bottom she is just
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Speaker 1: as serious, just as grave as any one. You judge
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Speaker 1: her hastily. I am sure if you knew her better
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Speaker 1: as I do. Missus Bundle left an eloquent pause. Miss
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Speaker 1: Glendower had two little pink flushes in her cheeks. She
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Speaker 1: turned with her hand on the door. At any rate,
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Speaker 1: she said, I am sure that Harry will agree with
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Speaker 1: me that she can be no help to our cause.
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Speaker 1: We have our work to do, and it is something
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Speaker 1: more than just vulgar electioneering. We have to develop and
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Speaker 1: establish ideas. Harry has views that our new and wide reaching.
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Speaker 1: We want to put our whole strength into this work now,
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Speaker 1: especially and her presence. She paused for a moment. It
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Speaker 1: is a digression, she divides things. She puts it all wrong.
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Speaker 1: She has a way of concentrating attention about herself. She
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Speaker 1: alters the values of things. She prevents my being single minded.
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Speaker 1: She will prevent Harry being single minded. I think, my dear,
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Speaker 1: that you might trust my judgment a little, said Missus Bunting,
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Speaker 1: and paused. Miss Glendower opened her mouth and shut it
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Speaker 1: again without speaking. It became evident, finality was attained. Nothing
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Speaker 1: remained to be said but the regrettable. The door opened
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Speaker 1: and closed smartly, and Missus Bunting was alone. Within an
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Speaker 1: hour they all met at the luncheon table, and Adeline's
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Speaker 1: behavior to the Sea Lady and to Missus Bunting was
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Speaker 1: as pleasant and alert as any highly earnest and intellectual
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Speaker 1: young ladies could be. And all that Missus Bunting said
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Speaker 1: and did tended with what people call infinite tact, which really,
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Speaker 1: you know, means a great deal more tact than is
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Speaker 1: comfortable to develop and expose the more serious aspect of
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Speaker 1: the Sea Lady's mind. Mister Bunting was unusually talkative and
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Speaker 1: told them all about a glorious project he had just
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Speaker 1: heard of to cut out the rather shrubby and weedy
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Speaker 1: front of the LEAs and stick in something between our
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Speaker 1: wine vault and the crystal palace as a winter garden,
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Speaker 1: which seemed to him a very excellent idea. Indeed, Two,
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Speaker 1: it is time now to give some impression of the
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Speaker 1: imminent Chatteris, who, for all his late appearance, is really
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Speaker 1: the chief human being in my cousin Melville's story. It
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Speaker 1: happens that I met him with some frequency in my
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Speaker 1: university days, and afterwards, Ever and again I came upon him.
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Speaker 1: He was rather a brilliant man at the university, smart
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Speaker 1: without being vulgar, and clever. For all that he was
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Speaker 1: remarkably good looking from the very onset of his manhood,
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Speaker 1: and without being in any way a showy spendthrift, was
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Speaker 1: quite magnificently extravagant. There was trouble in his last year,
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Speaker 1: something hushed up about a girl or woman in London,
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Speaker 1: but his family had it all over with him, and
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Speaker 1: his uncle, the Earl of Beechcraft, settled some of his bills,
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Speaker 1: not all, for the family is commendably free from sentimental excesses,
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Speaker 1: but enough to make him comfortable again. The family is
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Speaker 1: not a rich one, and it further abounds in an
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Speaker 1: extraordinary quantity of rather frowsy, loose tongued ants. I never
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Speaker 1: knew a family quite so rich in old ants. But
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Speaker 1: Chatteris was so good looking, easy mannered, and clever that
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Speaker 1: they seemed to agree, almost without discussion, to pull him through.
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Speaker 1: They hunted about for something that would be really remunerative
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Speaker 1: without being laborious or too commercial. And meanwhile, after the
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Speaker 1: extraordinary craving of his aunt lady pointing mallow to see
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Speaker 1: him acting, had been overcome by the united efforts of
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Speaker 1: the more religious section of his aunts, Chatteris set himself
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Speaker 1: seriously to the higher journalism, that is to say, the
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Speaker 1: journalism that dines anywhere gets political tips after dinner and
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Speaker 1: is always accept if only to avoid thirteen articles in
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Speaker 1: a half crown review. In addition, he wrote some very
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Speaker 1: passable verse and edited Jane Austen for the only publisher
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Speaker 1: who had not already reprinted the works of that classic lady.
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Speaker 1: His verse, like himself, was shapely and handsome, and like
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Speaker 1: his face, it suggested to the penetrating eye certain reservations
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Speaker 1: and indecisions. There was just that touch of refinement that
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Speaker 1: is weakness in the public man. But as yet he
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Speaker 1: was not a public man, he was known to be energetic,
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Speaker 1: and his work was gathering attention. As always capable and
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Speaker 1: occasionally brilliant. His aunts declared he was ripening, that any
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Speaker 1: defect in vigor he displayed was the incompleteness of the process,
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Speaker 1: and decided he should go to America, where vigor and
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Speaker 1: vigorous opportunities abound, and there I gather he came upon
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Speaker 1: something like a failure. Something happened, indeed, quite a lot happened.
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Speaker 1: He came back unmarried and via the South Seas, Australasia
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Speaker 1: and India, and Lady Pointing Mallow publicly told him he
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Speaker 1: was a fool when he got back. What happened in America,
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Speaker 1: even if one does not consult contemporary American papers, is
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Speaker 1: still very difficult to determine. There appear to have been
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Speaker 1: the daughter of a millionaire and something like an engagement
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Speaker 1: in the story. According to the New York Yell, one
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Speaker 1: of the smartest, crispest, and altogether most representative papers in America,
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Speaker 1: there was also the daughter of some one else whom
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Speaker 1: the Yell interviewed or professed to interview, under the heading
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Speaker 1: an aristocratic British er trifles with a pure American girl
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Speaker 1: interview with the victim of his heartless levity. But this
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Speaker 1: some one else was I am inclined to think, in
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Speaker 1: spite of her excellently executed portrait, merely a brilliant stroke
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Speaker 1: of modern journalism. The yell having got wind of the
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Speaker 1: sudden retreat of Chatteris, and inventing a reason in preference
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Speaker 1: to discovering one. Wensleydale tells me that the true impetus
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Speaker 1: to Bolt was the merest trifle. The daughter of the millionaire,
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Speaker 1: being a bright and spirited girl, had undergone interviewing on
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Speaker 1: the subject of her approaching marriage, on marriage in general,
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Speaker 1: on social questions of various sorts, and on the relations
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Speaker 1: of the British and American peoples. And he seems to
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Speaker 1: have found the thing in his morning paper. It took
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Speaker 1: him suddenly, and he lost his head, and once he
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Speaker 1: started he seems to have lacked the power of mind
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Speaker 1: to turn about and come back. The affair was a mess.
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Speaker 1: The family paid some more of his bills and shirt others,
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Speaker 1: and Chatteris turned up in London again after a time,
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Speaker 1: with somewhat diminished glory, and a series of letters on
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Speaker 1: imperial affairs, each headed with the quotation what do they
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Speaker 1: know of England? Who only England know? Of course, people
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Speaker 1: of England learnt nothing of the real circumstances of the case.
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Speaker 1: But it was very obvious that he had gone to
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Speaker 1: America and come back empty handed. And that was how,
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Speaker 1: in the course of some years he came to Adeline Glendower,
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Speaker 1: of whose special gifts as his helper and inspiration you
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Speaker 1: have already heard from Missus Bunting. When he became engaged
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Speaker 1: to her. The family, which had long crave to forgive
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Speaker 1: him Lady pointing Mallow, as a matter of fact, had
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Speaker 1: done so, frightened wonderfully, and after considerable obscure activities, he
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Speaker 1: declared himself a philanthropic liberal, with open spaces in his platform,
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Speaker 1: and in a position and ready as a beginning to
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Speaker 1: try the quality of the conservative South. He was away
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Speaker 1: making certain decisive arrangements in Paris and elsewhere at the
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Speaker 1: time of the landing of the Sea Lady. Before the
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Speaker 1: matter was finally settled, it was necessary that something should
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Speaker 1: be said to a certain great public character, and then
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Speaker 1: he was to return and tell Adeline. And everyone was
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Speaker 1: expecting him daily, including it is now indisputable the Sea
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Speaker 1: Lady three. The meeting of Miss Glendower and her affianced
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Speaker 1: Lover on his return from Paris was one of those
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Speaker 1: scenes in this story for which I have scarcely an
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Speaker 1: inkling of the true details. He came to Folkeston and
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Speaker 1: stopped at the Metropole, the bunting house being full of
15:37
Speaker 1: the Metropole being the nearest hotel to Sandgate, and he
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Speaker 1: walked down in the afternoon and asked for Adeline, which
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Speaker 1: was pretty rather than correct. I gathered that they met
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Speaker 1: in the drawing room, and as chatteris closed the door
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Speaker 1: behind him. I imagine there was something in the nature
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Speaker 1: of a caress I must confess. I envy the freedom
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Speaker 1: of the novelist, who can take you behind such a
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Speaker 1: locked door as this, and give you all that such
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Speaker 1: persons say and do, but with the strongest will in
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Speaker 1: the world to blend the little scraps of fact I
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Speaker 1: have into a continuous sequence of events. I falter at
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Speaker 1: this occasion. After all, I never saw Adeline at all
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Speaker 1: until after all these things were over. And what is
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Speaker 1: she now? A rather tall, a rather restless and active woman,
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Speaker 1: very keen and obvious in public affairs, with something gone
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Speaker 1: out of her. Melville once saw a gleam of that.
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Speaker 1: But for the most part Melville never liked her. She
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Speaker 1: had a wider grasp of things than he, and he
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Speaker 1: was a little afraid of her. She was, in some
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Speaker 1: inexplicable way, neither a pretty woman, nor a dear lady,
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Speaker 1: nor a grandame, nor totally insignificant and a heretic. Therefore,
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Speaker 1: in Melville's scheme of things, he gives me small material
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Speaker 1: for that earlier Adeline she posed. She says she was political,
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Speaker 1: and she was always reading Missus Humphrey Ward, the last
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Speaker 1: Melville regarded as the most heinous offense. It is not
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Speaker 1: the least of my cousin's weaknesses that he regards this
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Speaker 1: great novelist as an extremely corrupting influence for intelligent girls.
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Speaker 1: She makes them good and serious in the wrong way,
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Speaker 1: he says. Adeline, he asserts, was absolutely built on her.
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Speaker 1: She was always attempting to be the incarnation of Marcella.
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Speaker 1: It was he who had perverted Missus Bunting's mind to
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Speaker 1: adopt this fancy. But I don't believe for a moment
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Speaker 1: in this idea of girls building themselves on heroines in fiction.
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Speaker 1: These are matters of elective affinity. And unless some bullying
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Speaker 1: critic or preacher sends us astray, we take each to
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Speaker 1: our own novelist, as the souls in the Swedenborgian system
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Speaker 1: take to their hells. Adeline took to the imaginary Marcella.
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Speaker 1: There was, Melville, says, the strongest likeness in their mental atmosphere.
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Speaker 1: They had the same defects, a bias with superiority, to
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Speaker 1: use his expressive phrase, the same disposition towards arrogant benevolence,
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Speaker 1: that same obtuseness to little shades of feeling that leads
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Speaker 1: people to speak habitually of the lower classes, and to
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Speaker 1: think in the vein of that phrase. They certainly had
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Speaker 1: the same virtues, a conscious and conscientious integrity, a hard
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Speaker 1: nobility without one touch of magic, an industrious thoroughness. More
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Speaker 1: than in anything else, Adeline delighted in her novelist's thoroughness,
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Speaker 1: her freedom from impressionism, the patient resolution with which she
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Speaker 1: went into the corners and swept under the mat of
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Speaker 1: every incident. And it would be easy to argue from
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Speaker 1: that Adeline behaved as missus Ward's most characteristic heroine behaved
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Speaker 1: on an analogous occasion, Marcella. We know at least, after
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Speaker 1: her heart was changed, would have clung to him. There
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Speaker 1: would have been a moment of high emotion in which
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Speaker 1: thoughts of the highest class mingled with the natural ambition
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Speaker 1: of two people in the prime of life and power.
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Speaker 1: Then she would have receded with a quick movement and listened,
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Speaker 1: with her beautiful hand pensive against her cheek, while Chatteris
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Speaker 1: began to sum up the forces against him, to speculate
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Speaker 1: on the action of this group, and that something infinitely
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Speaker 1: tender and maternal would have spoken in her, pledging her
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Speaker 1: to the utmost help that love and a woman can give.
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Speaker 1: She would have reduced in Chatteris that exquisite mingled impression
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Speaker 1: of grace, passion, self yielding, which, in all its infinite
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Speaker 1: variations and repetitions, made up for him the constant poem
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Speaker 1: of her beauty. But that is the dream and not
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Speaker 1: the reality. So Adeline might have dreamt of behaving, but
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Speaker 1: she was not Marcella and only wanting to be And
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Speaker 1: he was not only not Maxwell, but he had no
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Speaker 1: intention of being Maxwell. Anyhow, if he had had an
20:24
Speaker 1: opportunity of becoming Maxwell, he would probably have rejected it
20:28
Speaker 1: with extreme incivility. So they met like two unheeric human
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Speaker 1: beings with shy and clumsy movements, and I suppose, fairly
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Speaker 1: honest eyes. Something there was in the nature of a caress,
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Speaker 1: I believe, And then I inclined to fancy She said, well,
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Speaker 1: and I think he must have answered it's all right
20:51
Speaker 1: after that, and rather elusively, with a backward jerk of
20:55
Speaker 1: the head at intervals, as it were, towards the great
20:58
Speaker 1: personage Ratteris must have told her particulars. He must have
21:03
Speaker 1: told her that he was going to contest hythe and
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Speaker 1: that the little difficulty with the Glasgow commission agent who
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Speaker 1: wanted to run the Radical ticket as a man of Kent,
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Speaker 1: had been settled without injury to the party. Such as
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Speaker 1: it is assuredly they talked politics, because soon after when
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Speaker 1: they came into the garden side by side to where
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Speaker 1: Missus Bunting and the Sea Lady sat watching the girl's
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Speaker 1: play croquet, Adeline was in full possession of all these facts.
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Speaker 1: I fancy that for such a couple as they were,
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Speaker 1: such intimation of success, such earnest topics replaced, to a
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Speaker 1: certain extent, at any rate, the vain repetition of vulgar endearments.
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Speaker 1: The sea Lady appears to have been the first to
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Speaker 1: see them. Here he is, she said abruptly, whom said
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Speaker 1: Missus Bunting, glancing up at eyes that were suddenly eager,
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Speaker 1: and then, following their glance toward chatteris your other son,
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Speaker 1: said the sea lady, jesting unheeded. It's Harry, and Adeline,
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Speaker 1: cried Missus Bunting. Don't they make a handsome couple? But
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Speaker 1: the sea Lady made no reply and leaned back, scrutinizing
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Speaker 1: their advance. Certainly they made a handsome pair. Coming out
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Speaker 1: of the verandah into the blaze of the sun, and
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Speaker 1: across the trim lawn towards the shadow of the ilex trees,
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Speaker 1: they were lit, as it were, with a more glorious limelight,
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Speaker 1: and displayed like actors on a stage more spacious than
22:38
Speaker 1: the stage of any theater. The figure of Chatteris must
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Speaker 1: have come out tall and fair and broad, a little sunburnt.
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Speaker 1: And I gather even then a little preoccupied, as indeed
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Speaker 1: he always seemed to be in those latter days. And
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Speaker 1: beside him Adeline, glancing now up at him, and now
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Speaker 1: towards the audience under the trees, dark and a little
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Speaker 1: flush rather tall, though not so tall as Marcella seems
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Speaker 1: to have been. And you know, without any instructions from
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Speaker 1: any novel writer in the world, glad Chatteris did not
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Speaker 1: discover that there was any one but Buntings under the
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Speaker 1: tree until he was close at hand. Then, the abrupt
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Speaker 1: discovery of this stranger seems to have checked whatever he
23:28
Speaker 1: was prepared to say for his debut, and Adeline took
23:32
Speaker 1: the center of the stage. Missus Bunting was standing up,
23:36
Speaker 1: and all the croquet players except Mabel, who was winning,
23:39
Speaker 1: converged on Chatteris with cries of welcome. Mabel remained in
23:43
Speaker 1: the midst of what I understand is called a tea party,
23:46
Speaker 1: loudly demanding that they should see her play it out.
23:51
Speaker 1: No doubt, if everything had gone well, she would have
23:54
Speaker 1: given a most edifying exhibition of what procai can sometimes be.
23:59
Speaker 1: Adeline swam forward to Missus Bunting and cried, with a
24:03
Speaker 1: note of triumph in her voice, it is all settled.
24:06
Speaker 1: Everything is settled. He has won them all, and he
24:09
Speaker 1: is to contest hythe quite involuntarily. Her eyes must have
24:14
Speaker 1: met the sea. Ladies. It is, of course quite impossible
24:19
Speaker 1: to say what she found there, or indeed what there
24:22
Speaker 1: was to find there. Then for a moment they faced riddles,
24:28
Speaker 1: and then the Sea Lady turned her eyes with a
24:30
Speaker 1: long deferred scrutiny to the man's face, which she probably
24:35
Speaker 1: saw now closely for the first time. One wonders whether
24:39
Speaker 1: it is just possible that there may have been something,
24:44
Speaker 1: if it were no more than a gleam of surprise
24:46
Speaker 1: or inquiry in that meeting of their eyes. Just for
24:51
Speaker 1: a moment she held his regard, and then it shifted
24:55
Speaker 1: inquiringly to missus Bunting. That lady intervened a few with it. Oh,
25:01
Speaker 1: I forgot and introduced them. I think they went through
25:05
Speaker 1: that without another meeting of the foils of their regard.
25:09
Speaker 1: You back, said Fred Chatteris, touching his arm, and Chatteris
25:14
Speaker 1: confirmed this happy guess. The Bunting girls seemed to welcome
25:19
Speaker 1: Adelaine's enviable situation rather than Chatteris as an individual, and
25:25
Speaker 1: Mabel's voice could be heard approaching. Aren't they to see
25:28
Speaker 1: me play it out? Mister Chatteris. Hullo, my boy, cried
25:32
Speaker 1: mister Bunting, who was cultivating a bluff manner. How's Paris,
25:37
Speaker 1: how's the fishing? Said Harry, and so they came into
25:41
Speaker 1: a vague circle about this lively person who had won
25:45
Speaker 1: them all except Parker, of course, who remained in her
25:48
Speaker 1: own proper place and was I am certain never to
25:52
Speaker 1: be won by anybody. There was a handing and shifting
25:57
Speaker 1: of garden chairs. No one seemed to take the slightest
26:01
Speaker 1: notice of Adeline's dramatic announcement. The Buntings were not good
26:05
Speaker 1: at thinking of things to say. She stood in the
26:08
Speaker 1: midst of the group, like a leading lady when the
26:11
Speaker 1: other actors have forgotten their parts. Then everyone woke up
26:15
Speaker 1: to this as at work, and they went off in
26:17
Speaker 1: a volley. So it's really all settled, says missus Bunting.
26:21
Speaker 1: And Betty Bunting said there is to be an election then,
26:26
Speaker 1: and Nettie said, what fun. Mister Bunting remarked with a
26:30
Speaker 1: knowing air. So you saw it then, and Fred flung
26:34
Speaker 1: hooray into the tangle of sounds. The Sea Lady, of course,
26:39
Speaker 1: said nothing. We'll give him a jolly good fight for it, anyhow,
26:43
Speaker 1: said mister Bunting. Well, I hope we shall do that,
26:47
Speaker 1: said chatteris. We shall do more than that, said Adeline.
26:52
Speaker 1: Oh yes, said Betty Bunting. We shall I knew they
26:56
Speaker 1: would let him, said Adeline, if they had any so
27:00
Speaker 1: said mister Bunting. Then came a pause, and mister Bunting
27:05
Speaker 1: was emboldened to lift up his voice and utter politics.
27:09
Speaker 1: They're getting sense, he said. They're learning that a party
27:12
Speaker 1: must have men, men of birth and training, money and
27:17
Speaker 1: the mob. They've tried to keep things going by playing
27:20
Speaker 1: to fads and class jealousies and the Irish, and they've
27:25
Speaker 1: had their lesson. How why we've stood aside. We've left
27:30
Speaker 1: em de faddest and fomentors and the Irish, and here
27:34
Speaker 1: they are. It's a revolution in the party. We've let
27:38
Speaker 1: it down, now we must pick it up again. He
27:41
Speaker 1: made a gesture with his fat little hand, one of
27:43
Speaker 1: those fat, pink little hands that appeared to have neither
27:47
Speaker 1: flesh nor bones inside them, but only sawdust or horsehair.
27:52
Speaker 1: Missus Bunting leaned back in her chair and smiled at
27:55
Speaker 1: him indulgently. It is no common election, said mister Bunting.
28:00
Speaker 1: It is a great issue. The sea lady had been
28:03
Speaker 1: regarding him thoughtfully. What is a great issue? She asked,
28:08
Speaker 1: I don't quite understand, mister Bunting. Spread himself to explain
28:13
Speaker 1: to her this, he said, to begin with. Adeline listened
28:18
Speaker 1: with a mingling of interest and impatience, attempting ever and
28:23
Speaker 1: again to suppress him and to involve Chatteris by a
28:27
Speaker 1: tactful interposition. But Chatteris appeared disinclined to be involved. He seemed,
28:33
Speaker 1: indeed quite interested in mister Bunting's view of the case. Presently,
28:37
Speaker 1: the croquet quotet went back, at Mabel's suggestion, to their game,
28:42
Speaker 1: and the others continued their political talk. It became more
28:46
Speaker 1: personal at last, dealing soon quite specifically with all that
28:50
Speaker 1: Chatteris was doing, and more particularly all that Chatteris was
28:54
Speaker 1: to do. Missus Bunting suddenly suppressed mister Bunting as he
28:59
Speaker 1: was offering advice, and Adeline took the burden of the
29:02
Speaker 1: talk again. She indicated vast purposes. This election is merely
29:07
Speaker 1: the opening of a door, she said. When Chatteris made
29:11
Speaker 1: modest disavowals, she smiled with a proud and happy consciousness
29:15
Speaker 1: of what she meant to make of him, and Missus
29:19
Speaker 1: Bunding supplied footnotes to make it all clear to the
29:22
Speaker 1: sea lady. He's so modest, she said. At one point,
29:26
Speaker 1: and Chatteris pretended not to hear, and went rather pink. Ever,
29:31
Speaker 1: and again he attempted to deflect the talk towards the
29:34
Speaker 1: sea Lady and away from himself, but he was hampered
29:37
Speaker 1: by his ignorance of her position. And the Sea Lady
29:41
Speaker 1: said scarcely anything but watched Chatteris and Adeline, and more
29:46
Speaker 1: particularly Chatteris in relation to Adelaine. End of Chapter five
29:54
Speaker 1: recording by Thomas Copeland,