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The Shuttle Chapter 45 - The Passing Bell · The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library

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Speaker 1: CHAPTER XLV. THE PASSING BELL The following morning Sir Nigel
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Speaker 1: did not appear at the breakfast-table. He breakfasted in his
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Speaker 1: own room, and it became known throughout the household that
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Speaker 1: he had suddenly decided to go away, and his man
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Speaker 1: was packing for the journey. What the journey, or the
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Speaker 1: reason for its being taken, happened to be, were things
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Speaker 1: not explained to any one but Lady Anstruthers, at the
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Speaker 1: door of whose dressing-room he appeared without warning just as
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Speaker 1: she was leaving it. Rosalie started when she found herself
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Speaker 1: confronting him. His eyes looked hot and hollow, with feverish sleeplessness.'
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Speaker 1: You look ill,' she exclaimed involuntarily.' You look as if
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Speaker 1: you had not slept.'' Thank you. You always encourage a man.
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Speaker 1: I'm not in the habit of sleeping much,' he answered.'
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Speaker 1: I' m going away for my health. It is as well
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Speaker 1: you should know.' I'm going to look up old Broadmorelands.
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Speaker 1: I want to know exactly where he is, in case
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Speaker 1: it becomes necessary for me to see him. I also
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Speaker 1: require some trifling data connected with Folliott. If your father
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Speaker 1: is coming, it will be as well to be able
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Speaker 1: to lay my hands on things. You can explain to Betty.
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Speaker 1: Good morning. He waited for no reply, but wheeled about
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Speaker 1: and left her. Betty herself wore a changed face when
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Speaker 1: she came down. A cloud had passed over her blooming,
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Speaker 1: as clouds pass over a morning sky and dim it.
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Speaker 1: Rosalie asked herself if she had not noticed something like
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Speaker 1: this before. She began to think she had. Yes, she
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Speaker 1: was sure that at intervals there had been moments when
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Speaker 1: she had glanced at the brilliant face with an uneasy
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Speaker 1: and yet half-unrealising sense of looking at a glowing light
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Speaker 1: temporarily waning. The feeling had been unrealisable because it was
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Speaker 1: not to be explained. Betty was never ill, she was
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Speaker 1: never low-spirited, she was never out of humour or afraid
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Speaker 1: of things. That was why it was so wonderful to
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Speaker 1: live with her. But Yes, it was true. There had
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Speaker 1: been days when the strong, fine light of her had waned.
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Speaker 1: Lady Anstruthers' comprehension of it arose now from her memory
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Speaker 1: of the look she had seen the night before in
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Speaker 1: the eyes which suddenly had gazed straight before her as
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Speaker 1: into an unknown place.' Yes, I know, I know, I know.'
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Speaker 1: And the tone in the girl's voice had been one
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Speaker 1: Rosie had not heard before.' Slight wonder, if you knew.'
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Speaker 1: at any outward change which showed itself, though in your
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Speaker 1: own most desperate despite. It would be so even with Betty,
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Speaker 1: who in her sister's eyes was unlike any other creature.
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Speaker 1: But perhaps it would be better to make no comment.
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Speaker 1: To make comment would be almost like asking the question
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Speaker 1: she had been forbidden to ask. While the servants were
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Speaker 1: in the room during breakfast, they talked of common things,
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Speaker 1: resorting even to the weather and the news of the village.
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Speaker 1: Afterwards they passed into the morning room together, and Betty
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Speaker 1: put her arm around Rosalie and kissed her. Nigel has
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Speaker 1: suddenly gone away, I hear, she said. Do you know
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Speaker 1: where he has gone? He came to my dressing-room to
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Speaker 1: tell me. Betty felt the whole slim body stiffen itself
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Speaker 1: with the determination to seem calm. He said he was
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Speaker 1: going to find out where the old Duke of Broadmorelands
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Speaker 1: was staying at present. There is some forethought in that,
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Speaker 1: was Betty's answer. He is not on such terms with
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Speaker 1: the Duke that he can expect to be received as
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Speaker 1: a casual visitor. It will require apt contrivance to arrange
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Speaker 1: an interview. I wonder if he will be able to
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Speaker 1: accomplish it.'' Yes, he will,' said Lady Anstruthers.' I think
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Speaker 1: he can always contrive things like that.' She hesitated a moment,
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Speaker 1: and then added,' He said also that he wished to
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Speaker 1: find out certain things about Mr. Folliott— trifling data, he called
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Speaker 1: it— that he might be able to lay his hands on
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Speaker 1: things if father came. He told me to explain to you.''
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Speaker 1: That was intended for a taunt, but it's a warning,'
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Speaker 1: Betty said, thinking the thing over.' We are rather like
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Speaker 1: ladies left alone to defend a besieged castle. He wished
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Speaker 1: us to feel that.' She tightened her enclosing arm.' But
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Speaker 1: we stand together, together. We shall not fail each other.
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Speaker 1: We can face siege until father comes.'' You wrote to
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Speaker 1: him last night?'' A long letter, which I wish him
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Speaker 1: to receive before he sails.' He might decide to act
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Speaker 1: upon it before leaving New York, to advise with some
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Speaker 1: legal authority he knows and trusts, to prepare our mother
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Speaker 1: in some way, to do some wise thing we cannot
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Speaker 1: foresee the value of. He has known the outline of
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Speaker 1: the story, but not exact details, particularly recent ones. I
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Speaker 1: have held back nothing it was necessary he should know.
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Speaker 1: I am going out to post the letter myself. I
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Speaker 1: shall send a cable asking him to prepare to come
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Speaker 1: to us after he has reflected on what I have written.
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Speaker 1: Rosalie was very quiet, but when, having left the room
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Speaker 1: to prepare to go to the village, Betty came back
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Speaker 1: to say a last word, her sister came to her
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Speaker 1: and laid her hand on her arm.' I have been
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Speaker 1: so weak and trodden upon for years that it would
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Speaker 1: not be natural for you to quite trust me,' she said.'
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Speaker 1: But I won't fail you, Betty, I won't.' The winter
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Speaker 1: was drawing in. The last autumn days were short and
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Speaker 1: often grey and dreary. The wind had swept the leaves
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Speaker 1: from the trees and scattered them over parklands and lanes—
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Speaker 1: where they lay a mellow-hued rustling carpet, shifting with each
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Speaker 1: chill breeze that blew. The buried briny garlands clung to
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Speaker 1: the bared hedges, and here and there flared scarlet, still
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Speaker 1: holding their red defiantly until hard frost should come to
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Speaker 1: shrivel and blacken them. The rare hours of sunshine were
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Speaker 1: amber hours instead of golden. As she passed through the
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Speaker 1: park gate, Betty was thinking of the first morning on
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Speaker 1: which she had walked down the village street between the
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Speaker 1: irregular rows of red-tiled cottages, and the ragged little enclosing gardens.
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Speaker 1: Then the air and sunshine had been of the just-awakening spring,
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Speaker 1: now the sky was brightly cold, and through the small
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Speaker 1: paned window she caught glimpses of fire-glow. A bent old man,
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Speaker 1: walking very slowly, leaning upon two sticks, had a red-brown
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Speaker 1: woolen muffler wrapped around his neck. Seeing her, he stopped
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Speaker 1: and shuffled the two sticks into one hand, that he
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Speaker 1: might leave the other free to touch his wrinkled forehead stiffly,
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Speaker 1: his face stretching into a slow smile as she stopped
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Speaker 1: to speak to him.' Good morning, Marlow,' she said.' How
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Speaker 1: is the rheumatism to-day?' He was a deaf old man,
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Speaker 1: whose conversation was carried on principally by guesswork, and it
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Speaker 1: was easy for him to gather that when her ladyship's
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Speaker 1: handsome young sister had given him greeting, she had not
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Speaker 1: forgotten to inquire, respecting the rheumatics which formed the greater
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Speaker 1: part of existence.' Morning, miss, morning,' he answered in the high,
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Speaker 1: cracked voice of rural ancientry.' Winter be nigh, and they
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Speaker 1: damp days be full of rheumatiz.' Tint easy to get
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Speaker 1: about on my old legs,' but I be main thankful
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Speaker 1: for they warm things you sent, miss.' This here,' fumbling
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Speaker 1: at his red-brown muffler proudly, 'tis a comfort on windy days,
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Speaker 1: so tis,' and warmth be a good thing to a
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Speaker 1: man when he be going downhill in years.'' All of
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Speaker 1: you who are not able to earn your own fire
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Speaker 1: shall be warm this winter,'' a ladyship's handsome sister said,
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Speaker 1: speaking closer to his ear.' You shall all be warmed.
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Speaker 1: Do not be afraid of the cold days coming.' He
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Speaker 1: shuffled his sticks and touched his forehead again, looking up
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Speaker 1: at her admiringly and chuckling.' T' will be a new tale
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Speaker 1: for Starnham Village,' he cackled.' T' will be a new tale.
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Speaker 1: Thank ye, miss, thank ye.' As she nodded smilingly and
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Speaker 1: passed on, she heard him cackling still under his breath
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Speaker 1: as he hobbled on his slow way, comforted and elate.'
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Speaker 1: How almost shamefully easy it was!' A few loads of
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Speaker 1: coal and faggots here and there, a few blankets and
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Speaker 1: warm garments, whose cost counted for so little when one's
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Speaker 1: hands were full, could change a gruesome village winter into
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Speaker 1: a season during which labour stiffened and broken old things,
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Speaker 1: closing their cottage doors, could draw their chairs round the
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Speaker 1: hearth and hover luxuriously over the red glow, which in
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Speaker 1: its comforting fashion of seeming to have understanding of the
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Speaker 1: dull dreams of old eyes, was more to be loved
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Speaker 1: than any human friend. but she had not needed her
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Speaker 1: passing speech with Marlowe to stimulate realisation of how much
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Speaker 1: she had learned to care for the mere living among
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Speaker 1: these people, to whom she seemed to have begun to belong,
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Speaker 1: and whose comfortably lighting faces, when they met her, showed
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Speaker 1: that they knew her to be one who might be
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Speaker 1: turned to in any hour of trouble or dismay. The
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Speaker 1: centuries which had trained them to depend upon their betters,
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Speaker 1: had taught the slowest of them to judge with keen
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Speaker 1: sight those who were to be trusted, not alone as
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Speaker 1: power and wealth-holders, but as creatures humanly upright and merciful
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Speaker 1: with their kind.' Workin' folk allus knows gentry,' old Dobie
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Speaker 1: had once shrilled to her.' Gentry' s gentry and us knows
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Speaker 1: em wheresoever they be. Better'n they know theirselves, so us do.' Yes,
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Speaker 1: they knew, and though they accepted many things as being
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Speaker 1: merely their natural rights, they gave an unsentimental affection and
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Speaker 1: appreciation in return. The patriarchal note in the life was
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Speaker 1: lovable to her, Each creature she passed was a sort
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Speaker 1: of friend who seemed almost of her own blood. It
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Speaker 1: had come to that. This particular existence was more satisfying
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Speaker 1: to her than any other, more heart-filling and warmly complete.
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Speaker 1: Though I am only an imposter, she thought, I was
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Speaker 1: born in Fifth Avenue. Yet since I have known this
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Speaker 1: I shall be quite happy in no other place than
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Speaker 1: an English village, with a Norman church tower looking down
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Speaker 1: upon it, and rows of little gardens with spears of
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Speaker 1: white and blue lupins, and Canterbury Bell standing guard before
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Speaker 1: cottage doors. And Rosalie, on the evening of that first
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Speaker 1: strange day when she had come upon her piteous figure
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Speaker 1: among the heather under the trees near the lake. Rosalie
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Speaker 1: had held her arm with a hot little hand, and
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Speaker 1: had said feverishly, If I could hear the roar of
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Speaker 1: Broadway again! Do the stages rattle as they used to, Betty?
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Speaker 1: I can't help hoping that they do. She carried her
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Speaker 1: letter to the post, and stopped to talk a few
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Speaker 1: minutes with the postmaster, who transacted his official business in
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Speaker 1: a small shop, where sides of bacon and hams hung
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Speaker 1: suspended from the ceiling, while groceries, flannels, dress-prints, and glass
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Speaker 1: bottles of sweet-stuff filled the shelves. Mr. Tewson's was the
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Speaker 1: central point of Stornham in a commercial sense.' The establishment
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Speaker 1: had also certain social qualifications. Mr. Tewson knew the secrets
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Speaker 1: of all hearts within the village radius, also the secrets
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Speaker 1: of all constitutions. He knew by some occult means who
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Speaker 1: had been taken bad, or who had taken a turn,
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Speaker 1: and was aware at once when any one was sinking fast.
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Speaker 1: With such differences of opinion as occasionally arose between the
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Speaker 1: vicar and his churchwardens, he was immediately familiar. The history
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Speaker 1: of the fever among the hop-pickers at Dunstan village he
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Speaker 1: had been able to relate in detail from the moment
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Speaker 1: of its outbreak. It was he who had first dramatically
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Speaker 1: revealed the truth of the action Miss Vanderpool had taken
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Speaker 1: in the matter, which revelation had aroused such enthusiasm as
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Speaker 1: had filled the clock into overflowing, and given an impetus
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Speaker 1: to the sale of beer. Tread, it was said, had
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Speaker 1: even made a speech, which he had ended with vague
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Speaker 1: but excellent intentions, by proposing the joint healths of her
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Speaker 1: ladyship's sister and the President of America. Mr. Tewson was
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Speaker 1: always glad to see Miss Vanderpool cross his threshold. This
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Speaker 1: was not alone because she represented the custom of the court, which,
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Speaker 1: since her arrival, had meant large regular orders and large
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Speaker 1: bills promptly paid, but that she brought with her an
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Speaker 1: exotic atmosphere of interest and excitement. He had mentioned to
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Speaker 1: friends that somehow a talk with her made him feel
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Speaker 1: set up for the day. Betty was not at all
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Speaker 1: sure that he did not prepare and hoard up choice
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Speaker 1: remarks or bits of information as openings to conversation. This
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Speaker 1: morning he had thrilling news for her, and began with
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Speaker 1: it at once.' Dr. Fenwick at Stornham is very low, Miss,'
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Speaker 1: he said.' He' s very low. You'll be sorry to hear.
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Speaker 1: The worry about the fever upset him terrible, and his
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Speaker 1: bronchitis took him bad. He's an old man, you know.'
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Speaker 1: Miss Vanderpool was very sorry to hear it. It was
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Speaker 1: quite in the natural order of things that she should
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Speaker 1: ask other questions about Dunstan Village and the Mount, and
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Speaker 1: she asked several.' The fever was dying out, and pale
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Speaker 1: convalescents were sometimes seen in the village or strolling about
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Speaker 1: the park. His Lordship was taking care of the people
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Speaker 1: and doing the best for them until they should be
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Speaker 1: strong enough to return to their homes.' But he's very
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Speaker 1: strict about making it plain that it's you, Miss, they
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Speaker 1: have to thank for what he does.'' That is not
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Speaker 1: quite just,' said Miss Vanderpool.' He and Mr. Penzance fought
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Speaker 1: on the field. I only supplied some of the ammunition.''
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Speaker 1: The county doesn't think of him as it did even
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Speaker 1: a year ago, Miss,' said Tewson rather smugly.' He was
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Speaker 1: very ill thought of then among the gentry.' It' s wonderful
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Speaker 1: the change that's come about.' If he should fall ill,
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Speaker 1: there'll be a deal of sympathy.'' I hope there's no
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Speaker 1: question of his falling ill,' said Miss Vanderpool.' Mr. Tewson
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Speaker 1: lowered his voice confidentially.' This was really his most valuable
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Speaker 1: item of news.' Well, Miss,' he admitted,' I have heard
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Speaker 1: he's been looking very bad for a good bit,' and
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Speaker 1: it was told me quite private, because the doctors and
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Speaker 1: the vicar don't want the people to be upset by
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Speaker 1: hearing it, that for a week he's not been well
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Speaker 1: enough to make his rounds.'' Oh!' the exclamation was a
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Speaker 1: faint one, but it was an exclamation.' I hope that
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Speaker 1: means nothing really serious,' Miss Vanderpool added.' Everyone will hope so.'' Yes, miss,'
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Speaker 1: said Mr. Tewson, deftly twisting the string around the package
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Speaker 1: he was tying up for her. A sad reward it
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Speaker 1: would be if he lost his life after doing all
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Speaker 1: he's done. A sad reward. But there'd be a good
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Speaker 1: deal of sympathy. The small package contained trifles of sewing
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Speaker 1: and knitting material she was going to take to Mrs. Weldon,
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Speaker 1: and she held out her hand for it. She knew
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Speaker 1: she did not smile quite naturally as she said her
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Speaker 1: good morning to Tewson. She went out into the pale
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Speaker 1: amber sunshine and stood a few moments glad to find
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Speaker 1: herself bathed in it again. She suddenly needed air and light.
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Speaker 1: A sad reward. Sometimes people were not rewarded. Brave men
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Speaker 1: were shot dead on the battlefield when they were doing
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Speaker 1: brave things. Brave physicians and nurses died of the plagues
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Speaker 1: they faithfully wrestled with. Here were dread and pain confronting her,
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Speaker 1: Betty Vanderpool, and while almost everyone else seemed to have
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Speaker 1: faced them, she was wholly unused to their appalling clutch.
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Speaker 1: What a life hers had been! that in looking back
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Speaker 1: over it she should realise that she had never been
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Speaker 1: touched by anything like this before there came back to
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Speaker 1: her the look of almost awed wonder in g selden's
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Speaker 1: honest eyes when he said what it must be to
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Speaker 1: be you just you he had been thinking only of
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Speaker 1: the millions and of the freedom from all everyday anxieties
14:51
Speaker 1: the millions gave she smiled faintly as the thought crossed
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Speaker 1: her brain the millions the rolling up of them year
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Speaker 1: by year because millions were breeders the newspaper stories of them,
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Speaker 1: the wonder at and belief in their power. It was
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Speaker 1: all going on just as before, and yet here stood
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Speaker 1: a Vanderpool in an English village street of no more
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Speaker 1: worth as far as power to aid herself went than
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Speaker 1: Joe Buttle's girl with the thick waist and round red cheeks.
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Speaker 1: Jenny Buttle would have believed that her ladyship's rich American
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Speaker 1: sister could do anything she chose, open any door, command
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Speaker 1: any presents, sweep aside any obstacle with a wave of
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Speaker 1: her hand. but of the two Jenny Buttle's path would
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Speaker 1: have laid straighter before her. If she had had a
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Speaker 1: young man who had fallen ill, she would have been free,
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Speaker 1: if his mother had cherished no objection to their walking out,
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Speaker 1: to spend all her spare hours in his cottage, making
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Speaker 1: gruel and poultices, crying until her nose and eyes were red,
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Speaker 1: and pouring forth her hopes and fears to any neighbour
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Speaker 1: who came in or out, or hung over the dividing
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Speaker 1: garden hedge. If the patient died, the deeper her mourning
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Speaker 1: and the louder her sobs at his funeral would the
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Speaker 1: more respectable and deserving of sympathy and admiration would Jenny
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Speaker 1: Buttle have been counted. Her ladyship's rich American sister had
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Speaker 1: no young man. She had not at any time been
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Speaker 1: asked to walk out. Even in the dark days of
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Speaker 1: the fever, each of which had carried thought and action
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Speaker 1: of hers to the scene of the trouble, there had
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Speaker 1: reigned unbroken silence, except for the vicar's notes of warm
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Speaker 1: and appreciative gratitude.' You are very obstinate, Fergus,' Mr. Benzance
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Speaker 1: had said. and Mount Dunstan had shaken his head fiercely
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Speaker 1: and answered,' Don' t speak to me about it. Only obstinacy
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Speaker 1: will save me from behaving like other blackguards.' Mr. Penzance,
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Speaker 1: carefully polishing his eyeglasses as he watched him, was not
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Speaker 1: sparing in his comment.' This is pure folly,' he said,'
16:48
Speaker 1: pure bull-necked stubborn folly, charging with its head down. Before
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Speaker 1: it has done with you it will have made you
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Speaker 1: suffer quite enough.'' Be sure of that.' Mount Dunstan had said,
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Speaker 1: setting his teeth, as he sat in his chair, clasping
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Speaker 1: his hands behind his head and glowering into space. Mr. Penzance, quietly, speculatively,
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Speaker 1: looked him over, and reflected aloud, or so it sounded.
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Speaker 1: It is a big-boned and big-muscled characteristic, but there are
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Speaker 1: things which are stronger. Some one minute will arrive, just
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Speaker 1: one minute, which will be stronger. One of those moments
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Speaker 1: when the mysteries of the universe are at work. Don't
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Speaker 1: speak to me like that, I tell you, Mount Dunstan
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Speaker 1: broke out passionately, and he sprang up and marched out
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Speaker 1: of the room like an angry man. Miss Vanderpool did
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Speaker 1: not go to Mrs. Weldon's cottage at once, but walked
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Speaker 1: past its door down the lane, where there were no
17:41
Speaker 1: more cottages, but only hedges and fields on either side
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Speaker 1: of her. Not well enough to make his rounds might
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Speaker 1: mean much or little. It might mean a temporary breakdown
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Speaker 1: from over-fatigue, or a sickening for deadly illness. She looked
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Speaker 1: at a group of cropping sheep in a field and
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Speaker 1: at a flock of rooks which had just alighted near
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Speaker 1: it with cawing and flapping of wings. She kept her
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Speaker 1: eyes on them merely to steady herself. The thoughts she
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Speaker 1: had brought out with her had grown heavier and were
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Speaker 1: horribly difficult to control. One must not allow oneself to
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Speaker 1: believe the worst will come. One must not allow it.
18:16
Speaker 1: She always held this rule before herself and now she
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Speaker 1: was not holding it steadily. There was nothing to do.
18:22
Speaker 1: She could write a mere note of inquiry to Mr. Penzance,
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Speaker 1: but that was all. She could only walk up and
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Speaker 1: down the lanes and think, whether he lay dying or not.
18:32
Speaker 1: She could do nothing, even if a day came when
18:35
Speaker 1: she knew that a pit had been dug in the
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Speaker 1: clay and he had been lowered into it with creaking ropes,
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Speaker 1: and the clods shoveled back upon him where he lay still,
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Speaker 1: never having told her that he was glad that her
18:45
Speaker 1: being had turned to him and her heart cried aloud
18:48
Speaker 1: his name. She recalled with curious distinctness the effect of
18:52
Speaker 1: the steady toll of the church bell, the passing bell.
18:56
Speaker 1: She could hear it as she had heard it the
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Speaker 1: first time it fell upon her ear and she had
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Speaker 1: inquired what it meant. Why did they call it the
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Speaker 1: passing bell? All had passed before it began to toll.
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Speaker 1: All had passed. If it tolled at Dunstan and the
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Speaker 1: pit was dug in the churchyard before her father came,
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Speaker 1: would he see the moment they met that something had
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Speaker 1: befallen her? that the Betty he had known was changed, gone. Yes,
19:21
Speaker 1: he would see. Affection such as his always saw. Then
19:26
Speaker 1: he would sit alone with her in some quiet room
19:28
Speaker 1: and talk to her, and she would tell him the
19:30
Speaker 1: strange thing that had happened. He would understand, perhaps better
19:35
Speaker 1: than she. She stopped abruptly in her walk and stood still,
19:39
Speaker 1: the hand holding her package was quite cold. This is
19:42
Speaker 1: what one must not allow oneself. But how the thoughts
19:46
Speaker 1: had raced through her brain! She turned and hastened her
19:49
Speaker 1: steps towards Mrs. Weldon's cottage. In Mrs. Weldon's tiny back
19:53
Speaker 1: yard there stood a coal lodge suited to the size
19:55
Speaker 1: of the domicile, and already stacked with a full winter
19:58
Speaker 1: supply of coal. Therefore the well-polished and cleanly little grate
20:02
Speaker 1: in the living room was bright with fire. Old Dobie,
20:05
Speaker 1: who had tottered around the corner to pay his fellow-gossip
20:08
Speaker 1: a visit, was sitting by it, and old Mrs. Weldon,
20:11
Speaker 1: clean as to cap and apron and small purple shoulder-shawl,
20:14
Speaker 1: had evidently been allaying his natural anxiety as to the
20:17
Speaker 1: conduct of foreign sovereigns by reading in a loud voice
20:20
Speaker 1: the print under the pictures in an illustrated paper. This
20:24
Speaker 1: occupation had, however, been interrupted a few moments before Miss
20:28
Speaker 1: Vanderpool's arrival. Mrs. Bester, the neighbour in the next cottage,
20:32
Speaker 1: had stepped in with her youngest on her hip and
20:34
Speaker 1: was talking breathlessly. She paused to drop her curtsy as
20:38
Speaker 1: Betty entered, and old Dobie stood up and made his
20:40
Speaker 1: salute with a trembling hand.' She' ll know,' he said.' Gentry
20:45
Speaker 1: knows the ins and outs of gentry fast. She'll know
20:47
Speaker 1: the rights.'' What has happened?' Mrs. Bester unexpectedly burst into tears.
20:54
Speaker 1: There was an element in the female villager's temperament which
20:57
Speaker 1: Betty had found was frequently unexpected in its breaking forth.
21:01
Speaker 1: he's done miss she said he's done with it cruel
21:04
Speaker 1: bad there'll be no savin of him none betty laid
21:08
Speaker 1: her package of sewing-cotton and knitting-wall quietly on the blue
21:11
Speaker 1: and white checked table-cloth who is he she asked he's
21:17
Speaker 1: lordship and him just saved all dunstan parish from death
21:21
Speaker 1: to go like this in stornham village and in all
21:24
Speaker 1: others of the neighbourhood the feminine attitude toward mount dunstan
21:28
Speaker 1: had been one of strongly emotional admiration The thwarted female
21:32
Speaker 1: longing for romance, the desire for drama and a hero,
21:35
Speaker 1: had been fed by him. A fine big young man,
21:38
Speaker 1: one that had been spoke ill of, and regarded as
21:41
Speaker 1: an outcast, had suddenly turned the tables on fortune, and
21:44
Speaker 1: made himself the central figure of the county. The talk
21:47
Speaker 1: of gentry in their grand houses, of cottage women on
21:50
Speaker 1: the doorsteps, and labourers stopping to speak to each other
21:53
Speaker 1: by the roadside. Magic stories had been told of him,
21:57
Speaker 1: beflowered with dramatic detail. no incident could have been related
22:01
Speaker 1: to his credit which would not have been believed and
22:03
Speaker 1: improved upon shut up in his village working among his
22:06
Speaker 1: people and unseen by outsiders he had become a popular
22:10
Speaker 1: idol any scrap of news of him any rumour true
22:14
Speaker 1: or untrue was seized upon and excitedly spread abroad therefore
22:18
Speaker 1: mrs bester wept as she talked and if the truth
22:21
Speaker 1: must be told enjoyed the situation she was the first
22:24
Speaker 1: to tell the story to her ladyship's sister herself' as
22:27
Speaker 1: well as to Mrs. Weldon and old Dobie.' It' s Tom
22:31
Speaker 1: who's brought it in,' she said.' He' s me brother, miss,
22:34
Speaker 1: and he's one of the ringers.' He heard it from
22:36
Speaker 1: Jem Wescott, and he heard it at Toomey's farm.' They' ve
22:40
Speaker 1: been keeping it hid at the mount' because the people
22:42
Speaker 1: at Sill hangs on his lordship 'so that the doctors
22:45
Speaker 1: don't let them know the truth.' They' ve been told he
22:48
Speaker 1: had to go to London and may come back any day.'
22:50
Speaker 1: What Tom was saying, miss, is that we'd all know
22:54
Speaker 1: when it was over, for we'd hear the church bell
22:56
Speaker 1: toll here, same as it'll toll at Dunstan, because they
23:00
Speaker 1: ringers have talked it over, and they're going to talk
23:02
Speaker 1: it over to-day with the other parishes, Yangford and Meltham
23:06
Speaker 1: and Dunham and them. Tom says Stornham ringers met just
23:09
Speaker 1: now at the clock, and said that for a man
23:11
Speaker 1: that stood by labouring folk like he has, toll they will,
23:15
Speaker 1: and so ought the other parishes, same as if he
23:17
Speaker 1: was royalty, for he's made himself nearer.' They' ll toll the
23:21
Speaker 1: minute they hear it, miss.' Lord help us!' with a
23:24
Speaker 1: fresh outburst of crying.' It don't seem like it's fair
23:28
Speaker 1: it should be.' When we hear the bell toll, miss—'' Don' t,'
23:32
Speaker 1: said her ladyship's handsome sister suddenly.' Please don't say it again.'
23:38
Speaker 1: She sat down by the table, and resting her elbows
23:40
Speaker 1: on the blue-and-white checked cloth, covered her face with her hands.
23:44
Speaker 1: She did not speak at all. In this tiny room,
23:47
Speaker 1: with these two old souls who loved her, she need
23:50
Speaker 1: not explain. She sat quite still, and Mrs. Weldon, after
23:54
Speaker 1: looking at her for a few seconds, was prompted by
23:57
Speaker 1: some sublimely simple intuition, and gently sidled Mrs. Bester and
24:01
Speaker 1: her youngest into the little kitchen where the copper was.'
24:03
Speaker 1: Her helping him like that makes it come near,' she whispered.'
24:07
Speaker 1: Dare say it seems as if he was almost like
24:10
Speaker 1: a relation.' Old Dobie sat and looked at his goddess,
24:14
Speaker 1: in his slowly moving old brain stirred far-off memories like
24:18
Speaker 1: long-dead things striving to come to life. He did not
24:21
Speaker 1: know what they were, but they wakened his dim eyes
24:24
Speaker 1: to a new seeing of the slim young shape leaning
24:26
Speaker 1: a little forward, the soft cloud of hair, the fair
24:30
Speaker 1: beauty of the cheek. He had not seen anything like
24:33
Speaker 1: it in his youth, but it was youth itself, and
24:36
Speaker 1: so was that which the ringers were soon to toll for,
24:39
Speaker 1: and for some remote and unformed reason, to his scores
24:42
Speaker 1: of years, they were pitiful and should be cheered. He
24:46
Speaker 1: bent forward himself and put out his ancient, feigned and knotted,
24:49
Speaker 1: gnarled and trembling hand, to timorously touch the arm of
24:52
Speaker 1: her he worshipped and adored.' God bless ye!' he said,
24:57
Speaker 1: his high, cracked voice even more shrill and thin than usual.'
25:00
Speaker 1: God bless ye!' And as she let her hand slip down,
25:04
Speaker 1: and turning, gently looked at him, he nodded to her speakingly,
25:08
Speaker 1: because out of the dimness of his being some part
25:11
Speaker 1: of nature's working had strangely answered and understood. End of
25:16
Speaker 1: chapter 45