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White People - Frances Hodgson Burnett · The Witch of Edmonton

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  Speaker 1: Dedication and the chapter one of The White People. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Read by Anne Fletcher. The White People
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  Speaker 1: by Francis Hodgson Burnett, A dedication to Lionel. The stars
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  Speaker 1: come nightly to the sky. The tidal wave, unto the sea,
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  Speaker 1: nor time, nor space, nor deep nor high, can keep
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  Speaker 1: my own away from me. Chapter one. Perhaps the things
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  Speaker 1: which happened could only have happened to me. I do
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  Speaker 1: not know. I never heard of things like them happening
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  Speaker 1: to any one else, But I'm not sorry that they
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  Speaker 1: did happen. I am, in secret, deeply and strangely glad.
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  Speaker 1: I have heard other people say things, and they were
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  Speaker 1: not always sad people either, which made me feel that
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  Speaker 1: if they knew what I know, it would seem to
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  Speaker 1: them as though some awesome heavy load they had always
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  Speaker 1: dragged about with them had fallen from their shoulders. To
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  Speaker 1: most people, everything is so uncertain that if they could
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  Speaker 1: only see or hear and know something clear, they would
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  Speaker 1: drop upon their knees and give thanks. That was what
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  Speaker 1: I felt myself before I found out so strangely, and
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  Speaker 1: I was only a girl. That is why I intend
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  Speaker 1: to write this down as well as I can. It
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  Speaker 1: will not be very well done, because I never was
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  Speaker 1: clever at all and always found it difficult to talk.
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  Speaker 1: I say that perhaps these things could only have happened
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  Speaker 1: to me, because as I look back over my life,
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  Speaker 1: I realize that it has always been a rather curious one.
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  Speaker 1: Even when those who took care of me did not
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  Speaker 1: know I was thinking at all, I had begun to
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  Speaker 1: wonder if I were not different from other children. That was,
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  Speaker 1: of course, largely because Mere Carrie Castle was in such
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  Speaker 1: a wild and remote part of Scotland that when my
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  Speaker 1: few relations felt they must pay me a visit as
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  Speaker 1: a mere matter of duty, their journey from London or
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  Speaker 1: their pleasant places in the south of England seemed to
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  Speaker 1: them like a pilgrimage to a sort of savage land.
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  Speaker 1: And when a conscientious one brought a child to play
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  Speaker 1: with me, the little civilized creature was as frightened of
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  Speaker 1: me as I was of it. My shyness and fear
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  Speaker 1: of its strangeness made us both dumb. No doubt, I
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  Speaker 1: seemed like a new breed of inoffensive little barbarian, knowing
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  Speaker 1: no tongue but its own. A certain clannish etiquette made
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  Speaker 1: it seem necessary that a relation should pay me a
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  Speaker 1: visit sometimes because I was in a way important. The huge,
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  Speaker 1: frowning feudal castle standing upon its battlemented rock was mine.
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  Speaker 1: I was a great heiress, and I was, so to speak,
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  Speaker 1: the chieftainess of the clan. But I was a plain,
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  Speaker 1: undersized little child, and had no attraction for any one
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  Speaker 1: but Jean Braidfoot, a distant cousin who took care of me,
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  Speaker 1: and Angus Macaya, who took care of the library and
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  Speaker 1: was a distant relative. Also, they were both like me
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  Speaker 1: in the fact that they were not given to speech,
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  Speaker 1: but sometimes we talked to one another, and I knew
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  Speaker 1: they were fond of me, as I was fond of them.
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  Speaker 1: They were really all I had when I was a
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  Speaker 1: little girl. I did not, of course, understand that I
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  Speaker 1: was an important person, and I could not have realized
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  Speaker 1: the significance of being an heiress. I had always lived
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  Speaker 1: in the castle and was used to its hugeness, of
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  Speaker 1: which I only knew corners until I was seven years old.
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  Speaker 1: I think I imagined all but very poor people lived in
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  Speaker 1: castles and were saluted by every one they passed. It
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  Speaker 1: seemed probable that all little girls had a piper who
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  Speaker 1: strode up and down the terrace and played on the
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  Speaker 1: bagpipes when guests were served in the dining hall. My
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  Speaker 1: piper's name was Fergus, and in time I found out
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  Speaker 1: that the guests from London could not endure the noise
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  Speaker 1: he made when he marched to and fro, proudly swinging
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  Speaker 1: his kilts and treading like a stag on a hillside.
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  Speaker 1: It was an insult to tell him to stop playing,
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  Speaker 1: because it was his religion to believe that the Mure
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  Speaker 1: carrie must be piped proudly to, and his ancestors had
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  Speaker 1: been pipers to the head of the clan for five generations.
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  Speaker 1: It was his duty to march round the dining hall
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  Speaker 1: and play while the guests feasted. But I was obliged
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  Speaker 1: in the end to make him believe that he could
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  Speaker 1: be heard better from the terrace, because when he was
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  Speaker 1: outside his music was not spoiled by the sound of talking.
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  Speaker 1: It was very difficult at first, but because I was
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  Speaker 1: his chieftainess and had learned how to give orders in
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  Speaker 1: a rather proud, stern little voice. He knew he must obey.
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  Speaker 1: Even this kind of thing may show that my life
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  Speaker 1: was a peculiar one. But the strangest part of it
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  Speaker 1: was that while I was at the head of so
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  Speaker 1: many people, I did not really belong to any one,
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  Speaker 1: and I did not know that this was unusual. One
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  Speaker 1: of my early memories is that I heard an under
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  Speaker 1: nursemaid say to another this curious thing. Both her father
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  Speaker 1: and mother were dead when she was born. I didn't
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  Speaker 1: even know that that was a remarkable thing to say
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  Speaker 1: until I was several years older, and Jean Braidfoot told
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  Speaker 1: me what had been meant. My father and mother had
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  Speaker 1: both been very young, and beautiful and wonderful. It was
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  Speaker 1: said that my father was the handsomest chieftain in Scotland,
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  Speaker 1: and that his wife was as beautiful as he was.
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  Speaker 1: They came to Mua Carry as soon as they were married,
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  Speaker 1: and lived a splendid year there together. Sometimes they were
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  Speaker 1: quite alone, and spent their days fishing or riding, or
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  Speaker 1: wandering on the moor together, or reading by the fire
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  Speaker 1: in the library the ancient books Angus Machaiah found for them.
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  Speaker 1: The library was a marvelous place, and Machaiah knew every
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  Speaker 1: volume in it. They used to sit and read like children,
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  Speaker 1: among fairy stories, and then they would persuade Makiah to
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  Speaker 1: tell them the ancient tales. He knew of the days
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  Speaker 1: when Agricola forced his way in among the men of
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  Speaker 1: the woods, who would die any savage death rather than
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  Speaker 1: be conquered. Machiah was a sort of heirloom himself, and
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  Speaker 1: he knew and believed them all. I don't know how
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  Speaker 1: it was that I myself seemed to see my young
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  Speaker 1: father and mother so clearly, and to know how radiant
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  Speaker 1: and wildly in love they were. Surely, Jean Bradfoot had
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  Speaker 1: not words to tell me, but I knew, so I
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  Speaker 1: understood in a way of my own what happened to
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  Speaker 1: my mother one brilliant late October afternoon when my father
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  Speaker 1: was brought home dead, followed by the guests who had
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  Speaker 1: gone out shooting with him. His foot had caught in
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  Speaker 1: a tuft of heather, and his gun in going off
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  Speaker 1: had killed him. One moment. He had been the handsomest
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  Speaker 1: young chieftain in Scotland, and when he was brought home
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  Speaker 1: they could not have let my mother see his face,
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  Speaker 1: but she never asked to see it. She was on
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  Speaker 1: the terrace, which juts over the rock the castle is
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  Speaker 1: built on, and which looks out over the purple world
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  Speaker 1: of climbing Moor. She saw from there the returning party
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  Speaker 1: of shooters and gillies, winding its way slowly through the heather,
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  Speaker 1: following a burden carried on a stretcher of fur boughs.
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  Speaker 1: Some of her women guests were with her, and one
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  Speaker 1: of them said afterward that when she first caught sight
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  Speaker 1: of the moving figures, she got up slowly and crept
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  Speaker 1: to the stone balustrade with a crouching movement, almost like
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  Speaker 1: a young leopardess preparing to spring. But she only watched,
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  Speaker 1: making neither sound nor movement, until the cortege was near
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  Speaker 1: enough for her to see that every man's head was
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  Speaker 1: bowed upon his breast, and not one was covered. Then
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  Speaker 1: she said, quite slowly, they have taken off their bonnets
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  Speaker 1: and fell upon the terrace like a dropped stone. It
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  Speaker 1: was because of this that the girl said that she
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  Speaker 1: was dead when I was born. It must have seemed
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  Speaker 1: almost as if she were not a living thing. She
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  Speaker 1: did not open her eyes or make a sound. She
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  Speaker 1: lay white and cold. The celebrated physicians who came from
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  Speaker 1: London talked of catalepsy, and afterward wrote scientific articles which
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  Speaker 1: tried to explain her condition. She didn't know when I
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  Speaker 1: was born. She died a few minutes after I uttered
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  Speaker 1: my first cry. I know only one thing more, and
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  Speaker 1: that Jean Brayfoot told me after I grew up. Jean
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  Speaker 1: had been my father's nursery governess when he wore his
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  Speaker 1: first kilts, and she loved my mother fondly. I knelt
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  Speaker 1: by her bed and held her hand and watched her
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  Speaker 1: face for three hours after they first laid her down,
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  Speaker 1: she said, and my eyes were so near her every
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  Speaker 1: moment that I saw a thing. The others did not
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  Speaker 1: know her well enough or love her wild enough to see.
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  Speaker 1: The first hour she was like a dead thing, I
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  Speaker 1: like a dead thing that had never lived. But when
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  Speaker 1: the hand of the clock passed the last second and
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  Speaker 1: the new hour began, I bent closer to her because
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  Speaker 1: I saw a change stealing over her. It was not color,
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  Speaker 1: It was not even a shadow of emotion. It was
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  Speaker 1: something else. If I had spoken what I felt, they
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  Speaker 1: would have said I was light headed with grief, and
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  Speaker 1: have sent me away. I have never told a man
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  Speaker 1: or a woman. It was my secret and hers I
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  Speaker 1: can tell you. Isabel. The chain I saw was as
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  Speaker 1: if she was beginning to listen to something. To listen,
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  Speaker 1: it was if to a sound far far away at first,
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  Speaker 1: but cold and white a stone. She lay content and listened.
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  Speaker 1: In the next hour, the far off sound had drawn nearer,
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  Speaker 1: and it had become something else, something She saw, something
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  Speaker 1: which saw her. First her young marble face had peace
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  Speaker 1: in it, and then it had joy. She waited in
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  Speaker 1: her young stone body until you were born and she
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  Speaker 1: could break forth. She waited no longer then, Isabel my bairn.
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  Speaker 1: What I knew was that he had not gone far
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  Speaker 1: from the body that had held him when he fell.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps he had felt lost for a bit when he
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  Speaker 1: found himself out of it, But soon he had begun
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  Speaker 1: to call to her, that like his own heart to him,
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  Speaker 1: and she had heard, and then, being half away from
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  Speaker 1: earth herself, she had seen him and known he was waiting,
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  Speaker 1: and that he would not leave for any far place
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  Speaker 1: without her. She was so still that the big doctors
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  Speaker 1: thought more than once that she had passed. But I
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  Speaker 1: knew better. It was long before I was old enough
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  Speaker 1: to be told anything like this, that I began to
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  Speaker 1: feel that the More was in secret my companion and friend,
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  Speaker 1: that it was not only the More to me, but
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  Speaker 1: something else. It was like a thing alive, a huge
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  Speaker 1: giant lying spread out in the sun, warming itself or
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  Speaker 1: covering itself with thick white mist, which sometimes writhed and
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  Speaker 1: twisted itself into wraiths. First I noticed and liked it
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  Speaker 1: some day, perhaps when it was purple and yellow, with
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  Speaker 1: gorse and heather and broom, and the honey scents drew
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  Speaker 1: bees and butterflies and birds. But soon I saw and
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  Speaker 1: was drawn by another thing. How young was I that
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  Speaker 1: afternoon when I sat in the deep window and watched
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  Speaker 1: the low, soft whiteness creeping out and hovering over the heather,
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  Speaker 1: as if the moor had breathed it. I do not remember.
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  Speaker 1: It was such a low little mist at first, and
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  Speaker 1: it crept and crept until its creeping grew into something
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  Speaker 1: heavier and whiter, and it began to hide the heather
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  Speaker 1: and gorse and broom, and then the low young fir trees.
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  Speaker 1: It mounted and mounted. Sometimes a breath of wind twisted
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  Speaker 1: it into weird shapes, almost like human creatures. It opened
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  Speaker 1: and closed again. And then it dragged and crept and
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  Speaker 1: grew thicker, And as I pressed my face against the
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  Speaker 1: window pane, it mounted still higher and got hold of
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  Speaker 1: the moor and hid it, hanging heavy and white and waiting.
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  Speaker 1: That was what came into my child mind, that it
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  Speaker 1: had done what the More had told it to do,
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  Speaker 1: had hidden things which wanted to be hidden, and then
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  Speaker 1: it waited. Strangers say that Mr. Carrymore is the most
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  Speaker 1: beautiful and the most desolate place in the world. But
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  Speaker 1: it never seemed desolate to me. From my first memory
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  Speaker 1: of it, I had a vague, half comforted feeling that
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  Speaker 1: there was some strange life on it one could not
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  Speaker 1: exactly see, but was always conscious of. I know now
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  Speaker 1: why I felt this, but I did not know then.
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  Speaker 1: If I had been older when I first began to
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  Speaker 1: see what I did see there, I should no doubt
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  Speaker 1: have read things in books which would have given rise
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  Speaker 1: in my mind to doubts and wonders. But I was
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  Speaker 1: only a little child who had lived the life quite
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  Speaker 1: apart from the rest of the world. I was too
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  Speaker 1: silent by nature to talk and ask questions. Even if
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  Speaker 1: I had had others to talk to, I had only
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  Speaker 1: Jean and Angus, and as I found out years later,
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  Speaker 1: they knew what I did not, and would have put
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  Speaker 1: me off with adroit explanations if I had been curious.
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  Speaker 1: But I was not curious. I accepted everything as it
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  Speaker 1: came and went. End of chapter one, Chapter two of
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  Speaker 1: the White People by Francis Hodgson Burnett. This LibriVox recording
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  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Read by Anne Fletcher, Chapter two.
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  Speaker 1: I was only six when Wee brown Elspeth was brought
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  Speaker 1: to me. Jean and Angus were as fond of each
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  Speaker 1: other in their silent way as they were of me,
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  Speaker 1: and they often went together with me. When I was
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  Speaker 1: taken out for my walks. I was kept in the
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  Speaker 1: open air a great deal, and Angus would walk by
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  Speaker 1: the side of my small shaggysh Etland pony and lead
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  Speaker 1: him over rough or steep places. Shelty. The pony was
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  Speaker 1: meant for use when we wished to fare farther than
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  Speaker 1: a child could walk, But I was trained to sturdy
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  Speaker 1: marching and climbing, even from my babyhood. Because I so
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  Speaker 1: loved the more, we nearly always rambled there. Often we
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  Speaker 1: set out early in the morning, and some simple food
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  Speaker 1: was carried, so that we need not return to the
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  Speaker 1: castle until we chose. I would ride Shelty and walk
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  Speaker 1: by turns until we found a place I liked. Then
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  Speaker 1: Jean and Angus would sit down among the heather. Shelty
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  Speaker 1: would be secured, and I would wander about and play
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  Speaker 1: in my own way. I do not think it was
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  Speaker 1: in a strange way. I think I must have played
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  Speaker 1: us almost any lonely little girl might have played. I
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  Speaker 1: used to find a corner among the bushes and pretend
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  Speaker 1: it was my house, and that I had little friends
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  Speaker 1: who came to play with me. I only remember one
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  Speaker 1: thing which was not like the ordinary playing of children.
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  Speaker 1: It was a habit I had of sitting quite still
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  Speaker 1: a long time and listening. That was what I called
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  Speaker 1: it listening. I was listening to hear if the life
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  Speaker 1: on the moor made any sound I could understand. I
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  Speaker 1: felt as if it might if I were very still
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  Speaker 1: and listened long enough. Angus and Jean and I were
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  Speaker 1: not afraid of rain and mist and change of weather.
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  Speaker 1: If we had been, we could have had little outdoor life.
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  Speaker 1: We always carried plaids enough to keep us warm and dry.
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  Speaker 1: So on this day I speak of we did not
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  Speaker 1: turn back. When we found ourselves in the midst of
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  Speaker 1: a sudden mist, we sat down in a sheltered place
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  Speaker 1: and waited, knowing it would lift in time. The sun
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  Speaker 1: had been shining when we set out. Angus and Jean
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  Speaker 1: were content to sit and guard me while I amused myself.
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  Speaker 1: They knew I would keep near them, run into no danger.
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  Speaker 1: I was not an adventurous child. I was, in fact,
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  Speaker 1: in a more than usually quiet mood that morning. The
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  Speaker 1: quiet had come upon me when the mist had begun
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  Speaker 1: to creep about and enclose us. I liked it. I
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  Speaker 1: liked the sense of being shut in by the soft
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  Speaker 1: whiteness I had so often watched from my nursery window
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  Speaker 1: in the castle. People might be walking about, I said
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  Speaker 1: to Angus when he lifted me from shelter's back. We
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  Speaker 1: couldn't see them. They might be walking. Nothing that would
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  Speaker 1: hurt you, Bernie. He answered, no, they wouldn't hurt me.
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  Speaker 1: I said, I had never been afraid that anything on
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  Speaker 1: the moor would hurt me. I played very little that day.
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  Speaker 1: The quiet and the mist held me still. Soon I
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  Speaker 1: sat down and began to listen. After a while, I
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  Speaker 1: knew that Jean and Angus were watching me, but it
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  Speaker 1: did not disturb me. They often watched me when they
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  Speaker 1: thought I didn't know they were doing it. I had
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  Speaker 1: sat listening for nearly half an hour when I heard
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  Speaker 1: the first muffled, slow trampling of horses hoofs. I knew
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  Speaker 1: what it was even before it drew near enough for
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  Speaker 1: me to be conscious of the other sounds, the jingling
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  Speaker 1: of arms and chains, and the creaking of leather. One
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  Speaker 1: notices as troopers passed by. Armed and mounted men were
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  Speaker 1: coming toward me. That was what the sounds meant, but
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  Speaker 1: they seemed faint and distant, though I knew they were
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  Speaker 1: really quite near. Jean and Angus didn't appear to hear them.
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  Speaker 1: I knew that I only heard them because I had
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  Speaker 1: been listening out of the mists. They rode a company
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  Speaker 1: of wild looking men, wearing garments such as I had
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  Speaker 1: never seen before. Most of them were savage and uncouth,
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  Speaker 1: and their clothes were disordered and stained, as if with
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  Speaker 1: hard travel and fight. I didn't know, or even ask
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  Speaker 1: myself why they did not frighten me, but they did not.
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  Speaker 1: Suddenly I seemed to know that they were brave men
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  Speaker 1: and had been doing some brave, hard thing. Here and
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  Speaker 1: there among them I caught sight of a broken and
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  Speaker 1: stained sword, or a dirk with only a hilt left.
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  Speaker 1: They were all pale, but their wild faces were joyous
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  Speaker 1: and triumphant. I saw it as they drew near. The
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  Speaker 1: man who seemed their chieftain was a lean giant who
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  Speaker 1: was darker. But under his darkness, paler than the rest.
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  Speaker 1: On his forehead was a queer star shaped scar. He
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  Speaker 1: rode a black horse, and before him he held close
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  Speaker 1: with his left arm, a pretty little girl dressed in strange,
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  Speaker 1: rich clothes. The big man's hand was pressed against her
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  Speaker 1: breast as ye held her, but though it was a
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  Speaker 1: large hand, it did not quite cover a dark red
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  Speaker 1: stain on the embroideries of her dress. Her dress was brown,
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  Speaker 1: and she had brown hair and soft brown eyes, like
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  Speaker 1: a little doze. The moment I saw her, I loved her.
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  Speaker 1: The black horse stopped before me. The wild troop drew
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: up and waited behind. The great lean rider looked at
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: me a moment, and then, lifting the little girl in
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: his long arms, bent down and set her gently on
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: her feet on the mossy earth in the mist beside me.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: I got up to greet her, and we stood smiling
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: at each other. And in that moment, as we stood,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the black horse moved forward, the muffled trampling began again.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: The wild company swept on its way, and the white
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: mist closed behind it, as if it had never passed.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Of course, I know how strange this will seem to
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: people who read it, but that cannot be helped and
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: doesn't really matter. It was in that way the thing happened,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: and it didn't even seem strange to me. Anything might
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: happen on the moor. Anything. And there was the fair
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: little girl with the eyes like a doze. I knew
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: she'd come to play with me, and we went together
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: to my house among the bushes of broom and gorse,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: and played happily. But before we began, I saw her
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: stand and look wonderingly at the dark red stain on
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: the embroideries on her childish breast. It was as if
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: she were asking herself how it came there, and could
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: not understand. Then she picked a fern and a bunch
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: of the thick growing bluebells and put them in her
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: girdle in such a way that they hid its ugliness.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: I did not really know how long she stayed. I
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: only knew that we were happy, and that though her
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: way of playing was in some ways different from mine,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: I loved it and her. Presently, the mist lifted and
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: the sun shone, and we were deep in a wonderful
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: game of being hidden in a room in a castle.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: Because something strange was going to happen, which we were
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: not told about. She ran behind a big gorse bush
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: and did not come back. When I ran to look
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: for her, she was nowhere. I could not find her,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: and I went back to Jean and Angus, feeling puzzled.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Where did she go? I asked them, turning my head
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: from side to side. They were looking at me strangely,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: and both of them were pale. Jean was trembling a little.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Who was She is a belle, she said, the little
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: girl the men brought to play with me, I answered,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: still looking about me. The big one on the black
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: horse put her down, the big one with the star here.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: I touched my forehead where the queer scar had been.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: For a minute. Angus forgot himself. Years later he told me,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Dark Malcolm of the glen, he broke out. Wee brown elspus,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: but she is white quite white, I said, where did
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: she go? Jean swept me in her warm shoes, aching
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: arms and hugged me close to her breast. She's one
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: of the fair ones, she said, kissing and patting me.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: She will come again, she'll come off, and I dare see.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: But she's gone now and we must go too. Get up,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: Angus man, we're for the castle. If we three had
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: been different, if we had ever had the habit of
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: talking and asking questions, we might surely have asked one
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: another questions as I rode on Shelter's back, with Angus
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: leading us. But they asked me nothing, and I said
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: very little, except that I once spoke of the wild
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: looking horsemen and their pale, joyous faces. They were glad,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: was all I said. And there was also one brief
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: query from Angus. Did she talk to you bear any?
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: He said. I hesitated and stared at him quite a
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: long time. Then I shook my head and answered slowly no,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: because I I realized then for the first time, that
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: we had said no words at all. But I had
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: known what she wanted me to understand, and she had
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: known what I might have said to her if I
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: had spoken, and no words were needed, and it was better.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: They took me home to the castle, and I was
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: given my supper and put to bed. Jean sat by
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: me until I fell asleep. She was obliged to sit
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: rather a long time, because I was so happy with
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: my memories of wee brown Elsbeth and the certainty that
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: she would come again. It was not Jean's words which
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: had made me sure. I knew she came many times
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: through all my childish years. I knew that she would
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: come and play with me every few days, though I
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: never saw the wild troopers again or the big lean
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: man with the scar. Children who play together are not
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: very curious about one another, and I simply accepted her
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: with delight. Somehow I knew that she lived happily in
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: a place not far away. She could come and go,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: it seemed, without trouble. Sometimes I found her, or she
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: found me upon the moor, and often she appeared in
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: my nursery in the castle. When we were together, Jean
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Braidfoot seemed to prefer that we should be alone, and
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: was inclined to keep the under nurse occupied in other
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: parts of the wing I lived in. I never asked
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: her to do this, but I was glad that it
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: was done. We Elsbeth was glad too. After our first meeting.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: She was dressed in soft blue or white, and the
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: red stain was gone. But she was always wee brown Elsbeth,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: with the dough like eyes and the fair, transparent face,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: the very fair little face. As I had noticed the strange,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: clear pallor of the rough troopers, so I noticed that
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: she was curiously fair. And as I occasionally saw other
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: persons with the same sort of fairness, I thought it
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: was a purity of complexion special to some, but not
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: to all. I was not fair like that, and neither
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: was any one else. Sign you. End of chapter two,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Chapter three of The White People by Francis Hodgson Burnett.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Anne Fletcher, Chapter three. It was when I was ten
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: years old that we Elsbeth ceased coming to me, And
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: though I missed her at first, it was not with
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: a sense of grief or final loss. She had only
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: gone somewhere. It was then that Angus Macaia began to
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: be my tutor. He had been a profound student and
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: had lived among books all his life. He had helped
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Jeanne in her training of me, and I had learned
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: more than as usually taught to children in their early years.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: When a grand governess was sent to meure Carry by
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: my guardian, she was amazed at the things I was
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: familiar with, but she abhorred the dark, frowning castle and
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: the loneliness of the place, and would not stay. In fact,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: no governess would stay, and so Angus became my tutor
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: and taught me old Gaelic and Latin and Greek, and
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: we read together and studied the ancient books in the library.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: It was a strange education for a girl, and no
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: doubt made me more than ever unlike others. But my
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: life was the life I loved. When my guardian decided
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: that I must live with him in London and be
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: educated as modern girls were, I tried to be obedient
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: and went to him. But before two months had passed,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: my wretchedness had made me so ill that the doctor
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: said I should go into a decline and die if
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: I were not sent back to meure Carry. It's not
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: only the London air that seek seems to poison her,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: he said, when jean talked to him about me. It
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: is something else. She will not live. That's all, sir
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Ian must send her home. As I have said before,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: I had been an unattractive child, and I was a plain,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: uninteresting sort of girl. I was shy and could not
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: talk to people, so of course I bored them. I
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: knew I did not look well when I wore beautiful clothes.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: I was little and unimportant, and like a reed for thinness.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Because I was rich and a sort of chieftainess. I
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: ought to have been tall and rather stately, or at
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: least I ought to have had a bearing, which would
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: have made it impossible for people to quite overlook me.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: But any one could overlook me an insignificant, thin girl
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: who slipped in and out of places, and sat and
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: stared and listened to other people instead of saying things herself.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: I liked to look on and be forgotten. It interested
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: me to watch people if they didn't notice me. Of course,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: my relatives did not really like me. How could they.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: They were busy in their big world and did not
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: know what to do with a girl who ought to
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: have been important and was not. I am sure that
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: in secret they were relieved when I was sent back
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: Tomure carry. After that, the life I loved went on quietly.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: I studied with Angus and made the book walled library
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: my own room. I walked and rode on the moor,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: and I knew the people who lived in the cottages
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: and farms on the estate. I think they liked me,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: but I'm not sure, because I was too shy to
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: seem very friendly. I was more at home with Fergus
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: the piper, and with some of the gardeners than I
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: was with any one else. I think I was lonely
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: without knowing, but I was never unhappy. Jean and Angus
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: were my nearest and dearest. Jean was of good blood
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: and a stanch gentlewoman, quite sufficiently educated to be my companion,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: as she had been my early governess. It was Jean
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: who told Angus that I was giving myself too entirely
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: to the study of ancient books and the history of
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: centuries gone by. She is living to day, and she
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: must not pass through this life without gathering anything from it.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: This life. She put it, as if I had passed
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: through others before and might pass through others again. That
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: was always her way of speaking, and she seemed quite
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: unconscious of any unusualness in it. You're a wise woman,
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: Jean Angus said, looking long at her grave face, A
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: wise woman. He wrote to the London bookshops for the
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: best modern books, and I began to read them. I
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: felt at first as if they plunged me into a
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: world I did not understand, and many of them I
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: could not endure. But I persevered and studied them as
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: I had studied the old ones, and in time I
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: began to feel as if perhaps they were true. My
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: chief weariness with them came from the way they had
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: of referring to the things I was so intimate with,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: as though they were only the unauthenticated history of a
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: life so long passed by that it could no longer
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: matter to any one. So often the greatest hours of
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: great lives were treated as possible legends. I knew why
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: men had died, or were killed, or had borne black horror.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: I knew because I had read old books and manuscripts,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: and had heard the stories which had come down through
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: centuries by word of mouth, passed from father to son.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: But there was one man who did not write as
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: if he believed the world had begun and would end
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: with him. He knew he was only one and part
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: of all the rest. The name I shall give him
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: is Hector mat Nene. He was a Scotchman, but he
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: had lived in many a land. The first time I
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: read a book he had written, I caught my breath
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: with joy. Again and again I knew I had found
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: a friend, even though there was no likelihood that I
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: should ever see his face. He was a great and
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: famous writer, and all the world honored him while I,
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: hidden away in my castle on a rock on the
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: edge of muyr Carry, was so far from being interesting
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: or clever that, even in my grandest evening dress and
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: tiara of jewels, I was as insignificant as a mouse.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: In fact, I always felt rather silly when I was
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: obliged to wear my diamonds on state occasions, as customs
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: sometimes demanded. Mister mac nairn wrote essays and poems and
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: marvelous stories which were always real, although they were called fiction.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: Whereesoever his story was placed, howsoever remote and unknown the scene,
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: It was a real place, and the people who lived
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: in it were real, as if he had some magic
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: power to call up human things to breathe and live
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: and set one's heart beating. I read everything he wrote.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: I read every word of his again and again. I
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: always kept some book of his near enough to be
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: able to touch it with my hand, and often I
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: sat by the fire in the library, holding one open
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: on my lap for an hour or more, only because
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: it meant a warm, close companionship. It seemed at those
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: times as if he sat near me in the dim glow,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: and we understood each other's thoughts without using words, as
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: we brown Elspeth and I had understood. Only this was
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: a deeper thing. I had felt near him in this
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: way for several years, and every year he had grown
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: more famous. When it happened that one June my guardian,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Sir Ian, required me to go to London to see
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: my lawyers and sign some important documents connected with the
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: management of the estate. I was to go to his
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: house to spend a week or more, attend a drawing room,
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: and show myself at a few great parties in a
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: proper manner, this being considered my duty towards my relatives.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: These I believe, were secretly afraid that if I were
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: never seen, their world would condemn my guardian for neglect
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: of his charge, or would decide that I was of
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: unsound mind and intentionally kept hidden away at mer Carry.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: He was an honorable man and his wife was a
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: well meaning woman. I did not wish to do them
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: an injustice, so I paid them yearly visits and tried
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: to behaved as they wished, much as I I disliked
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: to be dressed in fine frocks and to wear diamonds
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: on my little head and round my thin neck. It
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: was an odd thing that this time I found I
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: did not dread the visit to London as much as
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: I usually did. For some unknown reason, I became conscious
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: that I was not really reluctant to go. Usually, the
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: thought of the days before me made me restless and
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: low spirited. London always seemed so confused and crowded, and
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: made me feel as if I were being pushed and
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: jostled by a mob, always making a tiresome noise. But
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: this time I felt as if I should somehow find
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: a clear place to stand in where I could look
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: on and listen without being bewildered. It was a curious
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: feeling I could not help noticing and wondering about it.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: I knew afterward that it came to me because a
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: change was drawing near. I wished so much that I
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: could tell about it in a better way. But I
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: have only my own way, which I am afraid seems
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: very like a school girl's. Jean Braidfoot made the journey
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: with me as she always did, and it was like
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: every other journey. Only one incident made it different, And
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: when it occurred, there seemed nothing unusual in it. It
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: was only a bit of sad every day life which
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: touched me. There is nothing new in seeing a poor
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: woman in deep mourning. Jean and I had been alone
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: in our railway carriage for a great part of the journey,
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: But an hour or two before we reached London, a
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: man got in and took a seat in a corner.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: The train had stopped at a place where there is
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: a beautiful and well known cemetery. People bring their friends
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: from long distances to lay them there. When one passes
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: the station, one nearly always sees sad faces and people
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: in mourning on the platform. There was more than one
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: group there that day, and the man who sat in
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: the corner looked out at them with gentle eyes. He
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: had fine, deep eyes and a handsome mouth. When the
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: poor woman in mourning almost stumbled into the carriage, followed
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: by her child. He put out his hand to help
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: her and gave her his seat. She had stumbled because
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: her eyes were dim with dreadful crying, and she could
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: scarcely see. It made one's heart stand still to see
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: the wild grief of her and her unconsciousness of the
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: world about her. The world did not matter. There was
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: no world. I think there was nothing left anywhere but
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: the grave she had just staggered blindly away from. I
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: felt as if she had been lying sobbing and writhing
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: and beating the new turf on it with her poor hands,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: And I somehow knew that it had been a child's
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: grave she had been to visit and had felt she
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: left to utter loneliness when she turned away. It was
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: because I thought this that I wished she had not
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: seemed so unconscious and indifferent to the child who was
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: with her, and clung to her black dress as if
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: it could not bear to let her go. This one
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: was alive at least, even if she had lost the
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: other one, and its little face was so wistful it
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: didn't seem fair to forget and ignore it as if
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: it were not there. I felt as if she might
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: have left it behind on the platform, if it had
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: not so clung to her skirt that it was almost
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: dragged into the railway carriage with her. When she sank
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: into her seat. She didn't even lift the poor little
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: thing into the place beside her, but left it to
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: scramble up as best it could. She buried her swollen
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: face in her handkerchief and sobbed in a smothered way,
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: as if she neither saw, heard, nor felt any living
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: thing near her. How I wish she would remember the
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: poor child and let it comfort her. It really was
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: trying to do it in its innocent way. It pressed
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: close to her side, It looked up imploringly. It kissed
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: her arm and her crape veil over and over again,
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: and tried to attract her attention. It was a little,
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: lily fair creature, not more than five or six years old,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: and perhaps too young to express what it wanted to say.
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: It could only cling to her and kiss her black dress,
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: and seemed to beg her to remember that it at
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: least was a living thing. But she was too absorbed
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: in her anguish to know that it was in the world.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: She neither looked at it nor touched it, and at
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: last it sat with its cheek against her sleeve, softly
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: stroking her arm and now and then kissing it longingly.
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: I was obliged to turn my face away and look
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: out of the window, because I knew the man with
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: the kind face saw the tears well up into my eyes.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: The poor woman did not travel far with us. She
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: left the train after a few stations were past. Our
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: fellow traveler got her out before her to help her
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: onto the platform. He stood with bared head while he
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: assisted her, but she scarcely saw him, and even then
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: she seemed to forget the child. The poor thing was
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: dragged out by her dress as it had been dragged in.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: I put out my hand involuntarily as it went through
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: the door, because I was afraid it might fall, But
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: it did not. It turned its fair little face and
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: smiled at me. When the kind traveler returned to his
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: place in the carriage again and the train left the station,
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: the black draped woman was walking slowly down the platform,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: and the child was still clinging to her skirt. End
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: of chapter three, Chapter four of The White People by
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: Francis Hodgson Bennett. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: Read by Anne Fletcher, Chapter four. My guardian was a
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: man whose custom it was to give large and dignified parties.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Among his grand and fashionable guests, there was nearly always
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: a sprinkling of the more important members of the literary world.
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: The night after I arrived there was to be a
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: particularly notable dinner. I had come prepared to appear at it.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: Jean had brought fine array for me and a case
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: of jewels. I knew I must be dressed up and
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: look as important as I could. When I went upstairs
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: after tea, Jean was in my room, laying things out
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: on the bed. The man you like so much is
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: to dine here to night, Isabel, she said, mister Hector
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: mac nairn. I believe I even put my hands suddenly
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: to my heart as I stood and looked at her.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: I was so startled and so glad. You must tell
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: him how much you love his books, she said, she
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: had a quiet, motherly way. There will be so many
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: other people who will want to talk to him, I answered,
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: And I felt a little breathless with excitement as I
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: said it. And I should be too shy to know
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: how to say such things properly. Don't be afraid of him.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: Was her advice. The man will be like his books,
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: and they're the joy of your life. She made me
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: look as nice as she could in the new dress
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: she had brought. She made me wear themure carried diamonds,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: and sent me downstairs. It does not matter who the
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: guests were. I scarcely remember. I was taken in to
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: dinner by a stately elderly man who tried to make
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: me talk, and at last was absorbed by the clever
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: woman on his other side. I found myself looking between
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: the flowers for a man's face I could imagine was
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: Hector mac Nairn's. I looked up and down and saw
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: none I could believe belonged to him. There were handsome
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: faces and individual ones, but at first I saw no
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: Hector mac nie. Then, on bending forward a little to
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: glance behind an apern, I found a face which it
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: surprised and pleased me to see. It was the face
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: of the traveler who had helped the woman in mourning
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: out of the railway carriage, bearing his head before her grief.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: I could not help turning and speaking to my stately
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: elderly partner, Do you know who that is? The man
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: at the other side of the table, I asked, Old
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: Lord Armor looked across and answered with an amiable smile.
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: It is the author the world is talking of most
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: in these days, and the talking is no new thing.
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: It's mister Hector mac Nairn. No one but myself could
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: tell how glad I was. It seemed so right that
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: he should be the man who had understood the deeps
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: of a poor passing stranger woman's woe. I had so
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: loved that quiet bearing of his head. All at once
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: I knew I should not be afraid of him. He
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: would understand that I could not help being shy, that
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: it was only my nature, and that if I said
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: things awkwardly, my meanings were better than my words. Perhaps
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: I should be able to tell him something of what
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: his books had been to me. I glanced through the
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: flowers again, and he was looking at me. I could
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: scarcely believe it for a second, but he was. His eyes,
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: his wonderful eyes, met mine. I could not explain why
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: they were wonderful. I think it was the clearness and
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: understanding in them, and a sort of great interestedness. People
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: sometimes look at me from curiosity, but they do not
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: look because they're really interested. I could scarcely look away,
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: though I knew I must not be guilty of staring.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: A Footnam was presenting a dish at my side. I
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: took something from it without knowing what it was. Lord
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: Armore began to talk kindly. He was saying beautiful admiring
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: things of mister mac nairn and his work. I listened
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: gratefully and said a few words myself now and then
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: I was only too glad to be told of the
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: great people and the small ones who were moved and
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: uplifted by his thoughts. You admire him very much, I
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: can see, the amiable, elderly voice said. I could not
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: help turning and looking up. It's as if a great,
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: great genius were one's friend, as if he talked and
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: one listened. I said, He's like a splendid dream which
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: has come true. Old Lord Armore looked at me quite thoughtfully,
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: as if he saw something new in me. That is
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: a good way of putting it, Miss miur Carrey, he answered,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: mac Nairn would like that. You must tell him about
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: it yourself. I did not mean to glance through the
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: flowers again, but I did it involuntarily and I met
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: the other eyes, the wonderful interested ones, just as I
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: had met them before. It almost seemed as if he
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: had been watched me. It might be, I thought, because
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: he only vaguely remembered seeing me before and was trying
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: to recall where we had met. When my Guardian brought
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: his men guest to the drawing room after dinner, I
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: was looking over some old prince at a quiet, small table.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: There were a few minutes of smiling talk, and then
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: Sir Ian crossed the room towards me, bringing some one
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: with him. It was Hector mac nair he brought. Mister
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: mac Nairn tells me you travel together this afternoon without
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: knowing each other. He said, he has heard something of
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: mer Carry and would like to hear more. Isabel, she
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: lives like a little ghost, all alone in her feudal castle.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: Mister mac nairn, we can't persuade her to like London.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: I think he left us alone together because he realized
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: that we should get on better without a companion. Mister
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: mac nanne sat down near me and began to talk
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: about Mere Carry. There were very few places like it,
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: and he knew about each one of them. He knew
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: the kind of things Angus mackayre knew, the things most
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: people had either never heard of or had only thought
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: of as legends. He talked as he wrote, and I
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: scarcely knew when he led me into talking. Also afterwards,
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: I realized that he had asked me questions. I couldn't
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: help answering, because his eyes were drawing me on with
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: that quiet, deep interest. It seemed as if he saw
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: something in my face which made him curious. I think
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: I saw this expression first when we began to speak
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: of our meeting in the railway carriage, and I mentioned
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: the poor little fair child. My heart had ached so
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: for it was such a little thing, and it did
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: so want to comfort her. Its white little clinging hands
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: were so pathetic when they stroked and patted her, I said,
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: And she didn't even look at it. He did not start,
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: but he hesitated in a way which almost produced the effect
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: of a start. Long afterwards I remembered it child, He said, Ah, yes,
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: But I was sitting on the other side, and I
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: was so absorbed in the poor mother that I'm afraid
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: I scarcely saw it. Tell me about it. It was
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: not six years old, poor mite, I answered, it was
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: one of those very fair children one sees now and
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: then it was not like his mother. She was not
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: one of the white people. The white people, he repeated
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: quite slowly after me, You don't mean that she was
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: not a Caucasian. Perhaps I don't understand. That made me
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: feel a trifle shy. Again, of course, he could not
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: know what I meant. How silly of me to take
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: it for granted that he would. Oh, I beg pardon,
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: I forgot. I even stammered a little. It's only my
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: way of thinking of those fair people. One sees those
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: very fair ones, you know, the ones whose fairness looks
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: almost transparent. There are not many of them, of course,
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: but one can't help noticing them when they pass in
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: the street or come into a room. You must have
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: noticed them too. I always call them to myself the
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: white people, because they are different from the rest of us.
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: The poor mother wasn't one, but the child was. Perhaps
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: that was why I looked at it at first. It
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: was such a lovely little thing, and the whiteness made
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: it look delicate, and I could not help thinking. I
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: hesitated because it seemed almost unkind to finish. You thought
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: that if she had just lost one child, she ought
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: to take more care of the other. He ended for me.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: There was a deep thoughtfulness in his look, as if
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: he were watching me. I wondered why. I wish I
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: had paid more attention to the little creature, He said,
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: very gently. Did it cry? Oh? No, I answered, It
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: only clung to her and patted her black sleeve and
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: kissed it, as if it wanted to comfort her. I
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: kept expecting it to cry, but it didn't. It made
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: me cry because it seemed so sure that it could
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: comfort her if she would only remember that it was
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: alive and loved her. I wish, I wish death did
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: not make people feel as if it filled all the world,
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: as if when it happens, there is no life left anywhere.
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: The child who was alive by her side did not
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: seem a living thing to her. It didn't matter. I
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: had never said as much to any one before, but
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: his watching eyes made me forget my shy worldlessness. And
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: what do you feel about it? Death? He asked. The
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: low gentleness of his voice seemed something I had known always.
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: I never saw it, I answered, I have never even
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: seen any one dangerously ill. I it's as if I
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: can't believe it. You can't believe it. That is a
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: wonderful thing, he said, even more quietly than before. If
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: none of us believed, how wonderful, that would be beautiful too.
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: Oh how that poor mother believed it, I said, remembering
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: her swollen, distorted, sobbing face. She believed nothing else, Everything
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: else was gone. I wonder what would have happened if
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: you had spoken to her about the child, he said, slowly,
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: as if he were trying to imagine it. I'm a
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: very shy person. I should never have courage to speak
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: to a stranger. I answered, I'm afraid I'm a coward too.
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: She might have thought me interfering. She might not have understood,
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: he murmured. It was clinging to her dress when she
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: walked away down the platform. I went on, I dare
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: say you noticed it then, Ah, not as you did.
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: I wish I had noticed it more. Was his answer,
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: poor little white one that led us into our talk
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: about the white people. He said he didn't think he
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: was exactly an observant person in some respects, remembering his books,
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: which seemed to me the work of a man who
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: saw and understood everything in the world, I could not
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: comprehend his thinking that, and I told him so. But
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: he replied that what I had said about my white
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: people made him feel that he must be abstracted sometimes
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: and miss things he did not remember having noticed the
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: rare fairness I had seen. He smiled as he said it, because,
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: of course it was only a little thing that he
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: had not seen, that some people were so much fairer
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: than others. But it has not been a little thing
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: to you. Evidently, that is why I am even rather
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: curious about it, he explained. It is a difference, definite,
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: enough to make you speak almost as if they were
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: of a different race from ours. I sat silent a
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: few seconds thinking it over. Suddenly I realized what I
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: had never realized before. Do you know, I said, as
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: slowly as he himself had spoken. I did not know
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: that was true until you put it into words. I'm
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: so used to thinking of them ast different somehow, that
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: I suppose I do feel as if they were almost
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: like another race in a way. Perhaps one would feel
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: like that with a Native Indian or a Japanese. I
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: dare say that is a good simile, he reflected, Are
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: they different when you know them? Well, I've never known one,
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: but we brown Elsbeth, I answered, thinking it over. He
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: did start then in the strangest way, what he exclaimed?
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: What did you say? I was quite start on myself.
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: Suddenly he looked pale, and his breath caught itself. I said,
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: we Elsbeth, we brown Elsbeth. Or she was only a
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: child who played with me, I stammered, when I was little.
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: He pulled himself together almost instantly, though the color did
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: not come back to his face at once, and his
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: voice was not steady for a few seconds, but he
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: laughed outright at himself. I beg your pardon, he apologized.
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: I've been ill, and I'm rather nervous. I thought you
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: said something you could not possibly have said. I almost
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: frightened you. And you were only speaking of a little playmate.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: Oh please go on. I was only going to say
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: that she was fair like that, fairer than any one
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: I had ever seen. But when we played together, she
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: seemed like any other child. She was the first I
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: ever knew. I told him about the misty day on
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: the moor, and about the pale troopers and the big
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: lean leader who carried Elsbeth before him on his saddle.
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: I had never talked to any one about it before,
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: not even to Jean Braidfoot, But he seemed to be
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: so interested, as if the little story quite fascinated him.
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: It was only an episode, but it brought in the
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: weirdness of the moor, and my childish fancies about the
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: things hiding in the white mist, and the castle frowning
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: on its rock, and my baby face pressed against the
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: nursery window in the tower, and Angers and the library,
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: and Jean and her goodness and wise ways. It was
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: dreadful to talk so much about oneself, but he listened,
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: so his eyes never left my face. They watched and
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: held me as if he were enthralled. Sometimes he asked
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: a question. I wonder who they were? The horsemen, he pondered,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: Did you ever ask wee elspeth? Oh, we were both
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: too little to care. We only played, I answered him.
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: And they came and went so quickly that they were
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: only a sort of a dream. They seemed to have
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: been a strange lot. Wasn't Angers curious about them? He suggested.
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: Angus never was curious about anything I said. Perhaps he
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: knew something about them and would not tell me. When
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: I was a little thing, I always knew he and
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: Jean had secrets. I was too young to hear. They
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: hid sad and ugly things from me, or things that
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: might frighten a child. They were very good, Yes, they
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: were good, he said thoughtfully. I think any one would
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: have been pleased to find herself talking quietly to a
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: great genius, as quietly as if he were quite an
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: ordinary person. But to me the experience was wonderful. I
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: had thought about him so much and with such adoring reverence,
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: and he looked at me as if he truly liked me,
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: even as if I was something new, a sort of
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: discovery which interested him. I dare say that he had
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: never before seen a girl who had lived so much alone,
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: and in such a remote and wild place. I believe
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: Sir Ian and his wife were pleased too to see
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: that I was talking. They were glad that they guests
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: should see that I was intelligent enough to hold the
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: attention even of a clever man. If Hector mac Nairn
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: was interested in me, I couldn't be as silly and
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: dull as I looked. But on my part, I was
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: only full of wonder and happiness. I was a girl,
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: and he had been my only hero and it seemed
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: even as if he liked me and cared about my
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: queer life. He was not a man who had the
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: air of making confidences all talking about himself, But before
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: we parted I seemed to know him and his surroundings
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: as if he had described them. A mere phrase of
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: his would make a picture. Such a few words made
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: his mother quite clear to me. They loved each other
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: in an exquisite intimate way. She was a beautiful person.
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: Artists had always painted her. He and she were completely
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: happy when they were together. They lived in a house
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: in the country, and I could not at all tell
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: how I discovered that it was an old house house
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: with beautiful chimneys, and a very big garden with curious
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: high walls with corner towers round it. He only spoke
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: of it briefly, but I saw it as a picture,
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: and always afterwards when I thought of his mother, I
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: thought of her as sitting under a great and ancient
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: apple tree, with the long late afternoon shadows stretching on
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: the thick green grass. I suppose I saw that just
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: because he said, will you come to tea under the
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: big apple tree some afternoon when the late shadows are
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: like velvet on the grass. That is perhaps the loveliest time.
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: When we rose to go and join the rest of
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: the party, he stood a moment and glanced around the
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: room at our fellow guests. Are there any of your
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: white people here to night? He said, smiling, I shall
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: begin to look for them everywhere. I glanced over the
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: faces carelessly. There anon here to night, I answered, and
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: then I flushed because he had smiled. It was only
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: a childish name I gave them, I hesitated. I forgot.
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: You wouldn't understand. I dare say it sounds silly. He
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: looked at me so quickly. No, no, no, he exclaimed.
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: You mustn't think that. Certainly not silly. I do not think.
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: He knew that. He put out his hand and gently
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: touched my arm, as one might touch a child to
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: make it feel one wanted it to listen. You don't know,
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: he said, in his low, slow voice. How glad I
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: am that you have talked to me, sir Ian said,
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: you were not fond of talking to people, and I
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: wanted to know you. You care about places like mer Carry.
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: That is why I answered, feeling at once how much
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: he understood. I care for mere Carry more than for
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: all the rest of the world. And I suppose you
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: saw it in my face. I dare say that the
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: people who love that kind of life cannot help seeing
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: it there. Yes, he said, it is in your eyes.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: It was what I saw and found myself wondering about
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: when I watched you in the train. It was really
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: the more and the mist and the things you think
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: are hidden in it. Did you watch me, I asked.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: I couldn't help watching you a little, when you were
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: so kind to the poor woman. I was afraid you
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: would see me and think me rude. It was the
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: far look in your face I watched, he said, If
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: you will come to tea under the big apple tree,
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: I will tell you more about it. Indeed I will come,
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: I answered. And now we must go and sit among
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: the other people. Those who don't care about mer carry
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: at all. End of chapter four, Chapter five of the
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: White People by Francis Hodgson Bennett. This LibriVox recording is
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Read by Anne Fletcher, Chapter five.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: I went to tea under the big apple tree. It
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: was very big and old and wonderful. No wonder mister
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: mac Nan and his mother loved it. Its great branches
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: spread out farther than I had ever seen the branches
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: of an apple tree spread before. They were gnarled and
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: knotted and beautiful with age. Their shadows upon the grass
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: were velvet deep and soft. Such a tree could only
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: have lived its life in such a garden, at least
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: it seemed so to me. The high, dim colored walls,
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: with their curious low corner towers, and the leafage of
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: the wall fruits spread against their brick, enclosed it embracingly,
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: as if they were there to take care of it
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: and its beauty. But the tree itself seemed to have
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: grown there, in all its dignified loveliness of shadow, to
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: take care of Missus mac nan, who sat under it.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: I felt as if it loved and was proud of her.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: I have heard clever literary people speak of Missus mac
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: nairn as a survival of type. Sometimes clever people bewilder
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: me by the terms they use, but I thought I
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: understood what they meant. In her case. She was quite
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: unlike the modern elderly woman, and yet she was not
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: in the least old fashioned or day more day. She
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: was only exquisitely distinct when she rose from her chair
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: under the apple tree boughs, and came forward to meet
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: me that afternoon. The first things that struck me were
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: her height and slenderness, and her light step. Then I
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: saw that her clear profile seemed cut out of ivory,
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: and that her head was a beautiful shape and was
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: beautifully set. Its every turn and movement was exquisite. The
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: mere fact that both her long ivory hands enfolded mine
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: thrilled me. I wondered if it were possible that she
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: could be unaware of her loveliness. Beautiful people thrilling to me,
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: and missus mac Nan has always seemed more so than
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: any one else. This is what her son once said
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: of her. She is not merely beautiful. She is beauty.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: Beauty's very spirit moving about among us mortals, pure beauty.
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: She drew me to a chair under her tree, and
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: we sat down together. I felt as if she were
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: glad that I had come. The watching look I had
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: seen in her son's eyes was in hers also. They
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: watched me as we talked, and I found myself telling
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: her about my home as I had found myself telling him.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: He had evidently talked to her about it himself. I'd
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: never met any one who thought of mere carrier as
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: I did. But it seemed as if they, who were strangers,
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: were drawn by its wild, beautiful loneliness as I was.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: I was happy in my secret heart. I began to
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: ask myself if it could be true that they made
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: me feel a little as if I somehow belonged to
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: some one. I had always seemed so detached from everyone.
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: I had not been miserable about it, and I had
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: not complained to myself. I only accepted the detachment as
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: part of my kind of life. Mister mac Nairn came
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: into the garden later, and several other people came in
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: to tea. It was apparently a sort of daily custom
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: that people who evidently adored Missus mac nair dropped in
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: to see and talk to her every afternoon. She talked wonderfully,
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: and her friend's joy in her was wonderful too. It
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: evidently made people happy to be near her. All she
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: said and did was like her light step and the
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: movements of her delicate, fine head, gracious and soft and
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: arrestingly lovely. She did not let me drift away and
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: sit in a corner looking on, as I usually did
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: among strangers. She kept me near her, and in some subtle,
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: gentle way, made me a part of all that was happening.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: The talk, the charming circle, under the spreading boughs of
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: the apple tree, the charm of everything. Sometimes she would
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: put out her exquisite, long fingered hand and touch me
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: very lightly, and each time she did it I felt
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: as if she had given me new life. There was
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: an interesting elderly man who came among the rest of
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: the guests. I was interested in him even before she
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: spoke to me of him. He had a handsome, aquiline
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: face which looked very clever. His talk was brilliantly witty.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: When he spoke, people paused as if they could not
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: bear to lose a phrase or even a word. But
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: in the midst of the trills of laughter surrounding him,
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: his eyes were unchangingly sad. His face laughed or smiled,
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: but his eyes never He is the greatest artist in
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: England and the most brilliant man, Missus mac nane said
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: to me quietly. But he is the saddest too. He
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: had a lovely daughter who was killed instantly in his
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: presence by a fall. They had been inseparable companions, and
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: she was the delight of his life. That strange fixed
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: look has been in his eyes ever since. I know
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: you have noticed it. We were walking about among the
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: flower beds after tea, and mister mac nahan was showing
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: me a cloud of blue larkspurs in a corner when
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: I saw something which made me turn toward him rather quickly.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: There's one, I said, Oh, do look at her now,
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: you see what I mean? The girl standing with her
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: hand on mister le Breton's arm. Mister le Breton was
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: the brilliant man with the sad eyes. He was standing
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: looking at a mass of white and purple iris at
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: the other side of the garden. There were two or
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: three people with him, but it seemed as if for
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: a moment he had forgotten them, had forgotten where he was.
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: I wondered suddenly if his door had been fond of Viris's.
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: He was looking at them with such a tender, lost expression.
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: The girl, who was a lovely fair thing, was standing
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: quite close to him, with her hand on his arm,
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: and she was smiling too, such a smile, mister le Breton.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: Mister mac nair said, in a rather startled tone, the
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: girl with her hand in his arm. Yes, you see
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: how fair she is, I answered, and she has that
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: transparent look. Oh it's so lovely, don't you think so
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: she's one of the white people. He stood very still,
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: looking across the flowers at the group. There was a
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: singular interest and intensity in his expression. He watched the
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: pair silently for a whole minute. I think yes, he
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: said slowly at last, I do see what you mean,
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: and it is lovely. I don't seem to know her well.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: She must be a new friend of my mother's. So
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: she is one of the white people. She looks like
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: a white iris herself, doesn't she? I said, Now you know, Yes,
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: now I know, he answered. I asked Missus mac nan
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: later who the girl was, but she didn't seem to
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: recognize my description of her. Mister le Breton had gone
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: away by that time, and so had the girl herself,
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: the tall, very fair one in the misty, pale gray dress.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: I said, she was near mister le Breton when he
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: was looking at the iris bed. You were cutting some
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: roses only a few yards away from her, that very
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: fair girl. Missus mac nairn paused a moment and looked puzzled.
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: Mildred Keith is fair, she reflected, but she was not
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: there then. I don't recall seeing a girl. I was
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: cutting some buds for missus anstruther, I am. She paused
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: again and turned towards her son, who was standing watching us.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: I saw their eyes meet in a rather arrested way.
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: It was not Mildred Keith, he said, Miss muor Carrie
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: is inquiring because this girl was one of those she
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: calls the white people. She was not any one I
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: had seen here before. There was a second silence before
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: Missus mac nair smilingly gave me one of her light
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: thrilling touches on my arm. Ah. I remember, she said,
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: Hector told me about the white people. He rather fancied
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: I might be one. I am afraid. I rather stared
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: at her as I slowly shook my head. You see,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: she was almost one, but not quite. I was so
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: busy with my roses that I did not notice who
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: was standing near mister le Breton. She said, perhaps it
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: was Annabel Mere. She is a more transparent sort of
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: girl than Mildred, and she's more blonde, and you don't
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: know her, Hector, I dare say it was she. End
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: of chapter five, Chapter six of the White People by
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: Francis Hodgson Burnett. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: Read by Anne Fletcher, Chapter six. I remained in London
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: several weeks. I stayed because the mac Nairns were so
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: good to me. I could not have told any one
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: how I loved missus mac nan and how different everything
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: seemed when I was with her. I was never shy
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: when we were together. There seemed to be no such
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: thing as shyness in the world. I was not shy
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: with mister mac nair either. After I had sat under
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: the big apple tree boughs in the walled garden a
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: few times, I realized that I had begun to belong
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: to somebody. Those two marvelous people cared for me in
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: that way, in a way that made me feel as
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: if I were a real girl, not merely a queer,
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: little awkward ghost in a far away castle which nobody
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: wanted to visit because it was so dull and desolate
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: and far from London. They were so clever and knew
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: all the interesting things in the world, but their cleverness
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: and experience never bewildered or overwhelmed me. You were born,
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: her wonderful little creature and Angus Machaya has filled your
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: mind with strange, rich furnishings and marvelous color and form.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: Missus mac nair actually said to me one day when
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: we were sitting together and she was holding my hand
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: and softly, slowly patting it. She had a way of
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: doing that, and she had also a way of keeping
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: me very near her whenever she could. She said once
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: that she liked to touch me now and then to
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: make sure that I was quite real and would not
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: melt away. I did not know then why she said it,
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: but I understood afterward. Sometimes we sat under the apple
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: tree until the long twilight deepened into shadow, which closed
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: round us, and a nightingale that lived in the garden
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: began to sing. We all three loved the nightingale and
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: felt as though it knew that we were listening to it.
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: It is a wonderful thing to sit quite still listening
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: to a bird singing in the dark, and to dare
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: to feel that while it sings, it knows how your
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: soul adores it. It is like a kind of worship.
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: We had been sitting listening for quite a long time,
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: and the nightingale had just ceased and left the darkness,
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: an exquisite silence, which fell suddenly but softly as the
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: last note dropped. When Missus mac nan began to talk
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: for the first time of what she called the Fear,
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: I don't remember just how she began, and for a
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: few minutes I did not quite understand what she meant.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: But as she went on and mister mac nair joined
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: in the talk, their meaning became a clear thing to me,
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: and I knew that they were only talking, quite simply
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: of something they had often talked of before. They were
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: not as afraid of the fear as most people are,
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: because they had thought of and reasoned about it so much,
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: and always calmly and with clear and open minds. By
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: the fear, they meant that mysterious horror most people feel
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: at the thought of passing out of the world they
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: know into the one they don't know at all. How quiet,
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: how still it was inside the walls of the old
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: garden as we three sat under the boughs and talked
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: about it, And what sweet night scents of leaves and
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: sleeping flowers were in every breath we drew, and how
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: one's heart moved and lifted when the nightingale broke out again,
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: if one had seen or heard one little thing, if
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: one's mortal being could catch one glimpse of light in
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: the dark, Missus mac NaN's low voice said, out of
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: the shadow near me, the fear would be gone forever.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: Perhaps the whole mystery is as simple as this, said
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: her son's voice, As simple as this, that as there
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: are tones of music too fine to be registered by
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: the human ear, so there may be vibrations of light
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: not to be seen by the human eye, form and color,
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: as well as sounds just beyond earthly perception, and yet
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: as real as ourselves, as formed as ourselves, only existing
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: in that other dimension. There was an intenseness, which was
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: almost a note of anguish in Missus mac NaN's answer.
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: Even though her voice was very low, I involuntarily turned
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: my head to look at her, though of course it
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: was too dark to see her face. I felt, somehow,
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: as if her hands were wrung together in her lap. Oh,
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: she said, if only one had some shadow of a proof,
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: that the mystery is only that we cannot see, that
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: we cannot hear, though they are really quite near us
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: with us, the ones who seemed to have gone away,
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: and whom we feel we cannot live without. If once
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: we could be sure there would be no fear, there
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: would be none. Dearest. He often called her dearest, and
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: his voice had a wonderful sound in the darkness. It
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: was caress and strength, and seemed to speak to her
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: of things they knew which I did not. We have
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: vowed to each other that we will believe there is
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: no reason for the fear. It was a vow between us. Yes, yes,
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: she cried breathlessly. Oh but sometimes, hector, sometimes Miss Mulecarry
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: does not feel it. Oh, please say Isabel, I broke in.
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: Please do He went on, as quietly as if he
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: had not even paused. Isabel told me the first night
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: we met that it seemed as if she could not
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: believe in it. It never seemed real to me at all.
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: I said, perhaps that's because I can never forget what
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: Jean told me about my mother lying still upon her
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: bed and listening to some one calling her. I had
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: told them Jean's story a few days before. I knew
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: it was my father. Jean knew too. How did you know,
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: missus mac Nair's voice was almost a whisper. I couldn't
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: tell you that. I never asked myself how it was,
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: but I knew, we both knew. Perhaps I hesitated it
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: was because in the Highlands people often believe things like that.
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: One hears so many stories all one's life that in
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: the end they don't seem strange. I have always heard them,
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: those things you know about people who have the second sight,
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: and about the seals who change themselves into men and
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: come on shore and fall in love with girls and
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: marry them. They say they go away now and then,
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: and no one really knows where. But it is believed
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: that they go back to their own people and change
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: into seals again, because they must plunge and riot about
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: in the sea. Sometimes they come home, but sometimes they
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: do not. A beautiful young stranger with soft, dark eyes
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: appeared once not far from Yacari, and he married a
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: boatman's daughter. He was very restless one night and got
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: up and left her, and she never saw him again.
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: But a few days later a splendid dead seal covered
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: with wounds was washed up near his cottage. The Fishers
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: say that his people had wanted to keep him from
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: his land wife, and they had fought with him and
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: killed him. His wife had a son with strange velvet
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: eyes like his father's and she couldn't keep away from
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: the water. When he was old enough to swim, he
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: swam out one day because he thought he saw some
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: seals and wanted to get near them. He swam out
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: too far. Perhaps he never came back, and the fisherman
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: said his father's people had taken him. When one has
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: heard stories like that all one's life, nothing seems very strange.
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: Nothing really is strange, said Hector mac nan, again and again.
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: Through all the ages, We've been told the secrets of
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: the gods and the wonders of the law, and we
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: have revered and echoed, but never believed. When we believe
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: and know all is simple, we shall not be afraid.
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: You're not afraid, Isabel. Tell my mother that you're not.
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: I turned my face toward her again. In the darkness,
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: I felt as if something was going on between them,
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: which he somehow knew I could help them in. It
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: was as though he were calling on something in my
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: nature which I did not myself comprehend, but which his
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: profound mind saw and knew was stronger than I was.
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: Suddenly I felt as if I might trust to him
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: and to it, and that without being troubled or anxious,
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: I would just say the first thing which came into
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: my mind, because it would be put there for me
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: by some power which could dictate to me. I never
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: felt younger or less clever than I did at that moment.
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: I was only Isabel, meor Carrie, who knew almost nothing,
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: but that did not seem to matter. It was such
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: a simple, almost childish thing, I told her. It was
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: only about the dream. End of chapter six, Chapter seven
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: of The White People by Francis Hodgson Burnett. This librifox
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Read by Anne Fletcher,
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: Chapter seven. The feeling you call the fear has never
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: come to me, I said to her, And if it had,
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: I think it would have melted away because of a
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: dream I once had. I don't really believe it was
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: a dream, but I call it one. I think I
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: really went somewhere and came back. I often wonder why
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: I came back. It was only a short dream, so
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: simple that there's scarcely anything to tell. And perhaps it
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: will not convey anything to you, but it has been
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: part of my life. That time when I was out
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: on the hillside. That is what I call the dream
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: to myself out on the hill side, as if it
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: were a kind of unearthly poem. But it wasn't. It
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: was more real than anything I have ever felt. It
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: was real, real. I wish that I could tell it,
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: so that you would know how real it was. I
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: felt almost piteous in my longing to make her know.
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: I knew she was afraid of something, and if I
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: could make her know how real that one brief dream
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: had been, she would not be afraid any more. And
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: I loved her. I loved her so much. I was
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: asleep one night atmure Carry I went on and suddenly,
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: without any preparatory dreaming, I was standing out on a
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: hill side in moonlight, softer and more exquisite than any
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: I had ever seen or known before. Perhaps I was
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: still in my night gown, I don't know. My feet
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: were bare on the grass, and I wore something light
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: and white which did not seem to touch me. If
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: it touched me, I did not feel it. My bare
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: feet did not feel the grass. They only knew that
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: it was beneath them. It was a low hill I
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: stood on, and I was only on the side of it.
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: And in spite of the thrilling beauty of the moon,
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: all but the part I stood on, melted into soft,
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: beautiful shadow, all below me and above me. But I
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: did not turn to look at or ask myself about anything.
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: You see, the difficulty is that there are no earthly
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: words to tell it. All. My being was ecstasy, pure light, ecstasy. Oh,
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: poor words, But I know no others. If I said
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: that I was happy, happy, it would be nothing. I
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: was happiness itself. I was pure rapture. I did not
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: look at the beauty of the night, the sky, the
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: marvelous melting shadow. I was part of it, all one
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: with it. Nothing held me nothing. The beauty of the night,
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: the light, the air were what I was, and I
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: was only thrilling, ecstasy and wonder at the rapture of it.
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: I stopped and covered my face with my hands, and
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: tears wet my fingers. Oh, I cannot make it real.
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: I was only there such a short, short time. Even
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: if you had been with me, I couldn't have found
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: words for it. Even then, it was such a short time.
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: I only stood and lifted my face and felt the
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: joy of it, the pure marvel of joy. I only
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: heard myself murmuring over and over again, Oh, how beautiful
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: How beautiful, Oh, how beautiful? And then a marvel of
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: new joy swept through me. I said, very softly and
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: very slowly, as if my voice were trailing away into silence. Oh,
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: I can lie down on the grass and sleep all
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: through the night under this moonlight. I can sleep sleep.
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: I began to sink softly down, with the heavenliest feeling
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: of relaxation and repose, as if there existed only the
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: soul of beautiful rest. I sank so softly, and just
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: as my cheek almost touched the grass, the dream was over, Oh,
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: cried missus mac nan. Did you awaken? No? I came
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: back in my sleep. I suddenly found myself creeping into
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: my bed again, as if I had been away somewhere.
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: I was wondering why I was there, how I had
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: left the hillside, and when I had left it. That
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: part was a dream, but the other was not. I
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: was allowed to go somewhere outside and come back. I
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: caught at her hand in the dark. The words are
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: all wrong, I said. It's because we have no words
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: to describe that. But have I made you feel it
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: at all? Oh, missus mac Nan, Have I been able
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: to make you know that it was not a dream.
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: She lifted my hand and pressed it passionately against her cheek,
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: and her cheek too was wet, wet. No, it was
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: not a dream, she said. You came back, Thank God,
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: you came back, just to tell us that those who
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: do not come back stand awakened in that ecstasy, in
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: that ecstasy, and the fear is nothing. It is only
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: the dream. The awakening is out on the hill side,
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: Out on the hill side. Listen, she started, as she
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: said it. Listen, the nightingale is beginning again. He sent
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: forth in the dark a fountain, a rising, aspiring fountain
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: of golden notes, which seemed to reach to heaven itself.
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: The night was made radiant by them. He flung them upward,
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: like a shower of stars, into the sky. We sat
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: and listened, almost holding our breath. Oh, the nightingale, the nightingale,
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: he knows. Hector mac NaN's low voice said that it
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: was not a dream. When there was silence again, I
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: heard him leave his chair very quietly. Good night, good night,
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: he said, and went away. I felt somehow that he
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: had left us together for a purpose. But oh, I
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: did not even remotely dream what the purpose was. But
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: soon she told me almost in a whisper. We love
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: you very much, Isabel, she said, you know that I
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: love you both with all my heart. I answered, indeed,
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: I love you. We two have been more to each
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: other than mere mother and son. We have been sufficient
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: for each other. But he began to love you that
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: first day when he watched you in the railway carriage.
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: He says, it was the far look in your eyes
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: which drew him. I began to love him too, I said,
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: And I was not at all ashamed or shy in
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: saying it. Oh, we three might have spent our lives together,
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: she went on, It would have been a perfect thing.
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: But but she stood up, as if she could not
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: remain seated. Involuntarily. I stood up with her. She was trembling,
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: and she caught and held me in her arms. He
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: cannot stay, Isabel, she it. I could scarcely hear my
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: own voice when I echoed the words he cannot stay. Oh,
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: the time will come, she said, when people who love
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: each other will not be separated, When on this very
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: earth there will be no pain, no grief, no age,
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: no death, when all the world has learned the law
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: at last. But we have not learned it yet. And
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: here we stand. The greatest specialists have told us there
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: is some fatal flaw in his heart. At any moment,
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: when he is talking to us, when he is at
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: his work, when he is asleep, he may cease. It
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: will just be ceasing. At any moment he cannot stay.
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: My own heart stood still for a second. Then there
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: rose before me, slowly but clearly, a vision, the vision
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: which was not a dream. Out on the hill side,
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: I murmured, Out on the hill side. I clung to
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: her with both arms and held her tight. I understood
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: now why they had talked about the fear. These two
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: who were almost one soul, were trying to believe that
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: they were not really to be torn apart, not really.
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: They were trying to heap up for themselves, proof that
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: they might still be near each other. And above all,
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: his effort was to save her from the worst, worst woe.
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: And I understood too, why something wiser and stronger than
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: myself had led me to tell the dream which was
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: not a dream at all. But it was, as she said,
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: the world had not learned the secret yet. And there
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: we stood. We did not cry or talk, but we
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: clung to each other. We clung that is all human
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: creatures can do until the secret is known. And as
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: we clung the nightingale broke out again. Oh nightingale, Oh nightingale,
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: she said, in her low wonder of a voice, What
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: are you trying to tell us? End of chapter seven,
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: Chapter eight of The White People by Francis Hodgson Burnett.
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: This librivoked recording is in the public domain. Read by
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: Anne Fletcher, Chapter eight. What I feel sure I know
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: by this time is that all the things we think
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: happen by chance and accident are only part of the
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: weaving of the scheme of life. When you begin to
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: suspect this, and to watch closely, you also begin to
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: see how rifles connect themselves with one another and seem,
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: in the end to have led to a reason and
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: a meaning. Though we may not be clever enough to
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: see it clearly, nothing is an accident. We make everything
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: happen ourselves, the wrong things because we do not know
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: or care whether we are wrong or right, the right ones,
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: because we unconsciously or consciously choose the right, even in
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: the midst of our ignorance. I dare say it sounds
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: audacious for an ordinary girl to say such things in
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: an ordinary way. But perhaps I've said them in spite
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: of myself, because it is not a bad thing that
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: they should be said by an everyday sort of person,
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: in simple words which other every day people can understand.
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: I am only expressing what has gradually grown into belief
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: in my mind through reading with Angus ancient books and
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: modern ones, books about faiths and religions, books about philosophies
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 1: and magics, books about what the world calls marvels, but
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: which are not marvels at all, but only workings of
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: the law most people have not yet reasoned about or
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: even accepted. Angus had read and studied them all his
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: life before he began to read them with me, and
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: we talked them over together, sitting by the fire in
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: the library, fascinated and staring at each other, I in
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: one high backed chair and he in another, on the
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: opposite side of the hearth. Angus is wonderful, wonderful. He
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: knows there's no such thing as chance. He knows that
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: we ourselves are the working of the law, and that
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: we ourselves could work what now are stupidly called miracles,
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: if we could only remember always what the law is.
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: What I intended to say at first, was merely that
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: it was not by chance that I climbed to the
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: shelf in the library that afternoon and pushed aside the
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: books hiding the old manuscript which told the real story
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: of Dark Malcolm of the Glen and wee Brown Elspeth.
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: It seemed like chance when it happened, but it was
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: really the first step towards my finding out the strange,
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: beautiful thing I knew soon afterward. From the beginning of
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: my friendship with mac NaN's, I had hoped that they
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: would come and stay with me at mure Curry. When
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: they both seemed to feel such interest in all I
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: told them of it, and not to mind its wild remoteness,
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: I took courage and asked them if they would come
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: to me. Most people are bored by the prospect of
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: life in a feudal castle. However picturesquely, it is set
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: in a place where there are no neighbors to count on.
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: Its ancient stateliness is too dull. But the mac NaNs
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: were more allured by what Mure carry offer than they
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: were by other and more brilliant invitations. So when I
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: went back to the castle, I was only to be
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: alone a week before they followed me. Jeann and and
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: Angus were quite happy in their quiet way when I
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: told them whom I was expecting. They knew how glad
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: I was myself. Jean was full of silent pleasure as
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: she arranged the rooms I had chosen for my guests,
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: rooms which had the most sweeping view of the more.
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: Angus knew that mister mac Nairn would love the library,
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: and he hovered about consulting his catalogs and looking over
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: his shelves, taking down volumes here and there, holding them
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: tenderly in his long, bony old hand as he dipped
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: into them. He made notes of the manuscripts and books
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: he thought mister mac Nairn would feel the deepest interest in.
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: He loved his library with all his being, and I
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: knew he looked forward to talking to a man who
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: would care for it in the same way. He had
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: been going over one of the highest shelves one day,
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: and had left his step ladder leaning against it when
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: he went elsewhere. It was when I mounted the steps,
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: as I often did when he left them, that I
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: came upon the manuscript which related the old story of
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: Dark Malcolm and his child. It had been pushed behind
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: some volumes, and I took it out because it looked
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: so old and yellow, and I opened it at once
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: at the page where the tale began. At first I
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: stood reading, and then I sat down on the broad
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: top of the ladder and forgot everything. It was a
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: savage history of ferocious hate and barbarous reprisals. It had
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: been a feud waged between two clans for three generations.
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: The story of Dark Malcolm and Ian Redhound was only
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: part of it, but it was a gruesome thing. Pages
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: told of the bloody deeds they wrought on each other's houses.
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: The one human passion of Dark Malcolm's life was his
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: love for his little daughter. She had brown eyes and
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: brown hair, and those who most loved her called her
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: Wee Brown elspeth Ian Red Hand was richer and more
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: powerful than Malcolm of the Glen, and therefore could more
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: easily work his cruel will. He knew well of Malcolm's
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: worship of his child, and laid his plans to torture
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: him through her. Dark Malcolm, coming back to his rude
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: small castle one night after a raid in which he
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: had lost followers and weapons and strength, found that Wee
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: Brown Elspeth had been carried away, and unspeakable taunts and
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: threats left behind by Ian and his men. With unbound wounds,
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: broken dirks, and hacked swords, Dark Malcolm and the remnant
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: of his troop of fighting clansmen rushed forth into the night.
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: Neither men nor weapons have we to win her back,
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: screamed Dark Malcolm, raving mad. But we may die fighting
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: to get near enough to her to drive dirk into
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: her little breast and save her from worse. They were
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: a band of madmen in their black despair. How they
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 1: tore through the black night? What unguarded weak spot they
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: found in Ian's castle walls, How they fought their way
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: through it, leaving their dead bodies in the path. None
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: really ever knew. By what strange chance Dark Malcolm came
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: upon wee brown Elspeth craftily set to playing hide and
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: seek with a child of Ian's, so that she might
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: not cry out and betray her presence. How already wounded
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: to his death, he caught at and drove his dirk
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: into her child heart. The story only offers guesses at
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: but kill and save her he did, falling dead with
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: her body held against his breast. Her brown hair streaming
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 1: over it. Not one living man went back to the
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: small rude castle on the glen. Not one. I sat
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: and read and read until the room grew dark. When
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: I stopped, I found that Angus Makaya was standing in
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: the dimness at the foot of the ladder. He looked
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: up at me, and died down at him. For a
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: few moments we were both quite still. Is it the
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: tail of Ian red hand and dark Malcolm, you are reading,
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: he said at last, And we brown Elsbeth, who was
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 1: fought for and killed? I added slowly. Angus nodded his
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: head with a sad face. It was the only way
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: for a father, he said. A hound of hell was Ian.
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: Such men were savage beasts in those days, not human.
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 1: I touched the manuscript with my hand questioningly. Did this
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: fall at the back there by accident? I asked? Or
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: did you hide it? I did? He answered, It was
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: no tale for a young thing to read. I have
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: hidden many from you. You were always poking about in corners, Isabel.
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: Then I sat and thought over past memories for a while,
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 1: and the shadows in the room deepened. Why, I said, laggingly,
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: after the silence, Why did I call the child who
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: used to play with me. Wee brown Elspeth. It was
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: your own fancy, was his reply. I used to wonder myself,
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: but I made up my mind that you had heard
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: some of the maids talking, and the name had caught
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: your ear. That would be a child's way. I put
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: my forehead in my hands and thought again, so many
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 1: years had passed. I had been little more than a baby.
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: The whole thing seemed like a half forgotten dream when
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: I tried to recall it, But I seemed to dimly
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: remember strange things. Who were the wild men who brought
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: her to me first that day on the moor, I said,
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: I do remember. They had pale, savage, exultant faces, and
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: torn stained clothes, and broken dirks and swords, but they
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: were glad of something. Who were they? I did not
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: see them. The mist was too thick. He answered, They
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: were some wild hunters. Perhaps it gives me such a
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: strange feeling to try and remember Angus, I said, lifting
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: my forehead from my hands. Ah, don't try, he said,
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: Give me the manuscript and get down from the step ladder.
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: Come and look at the list of books I've made
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: for mister mac nair. I did as he told me,
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: but I felt as if I were walking in a dream.
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 1: My mind seemed to have left my body and gone
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: back to the day when I sat a little child
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: on the moor and heard the dull sound of horses
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: feet and the jingling metal, and the creak of leather
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: coming nearer in the thick mist. I felt as if
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: I were in a queer, half awake mood, too, as
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 1: if two sets of thoughts were working at the same
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: time in his mind, one his thoughts about Hector mac
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: nair and the books, the other some queer thoughts which
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: went on in spite of him. When I was going
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: to leave the library and go upstairs to dress for dinner,
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: he said a strange thing to me. And he said
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 1: it slowly and in a heavy voice. There is a
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: thing Jean and I have often talked of telling you,
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 1: he said, We have not known what it was best
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: to do. Times we have been troubled because we could
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: not make up our minds. This mister Hector mac Nairn
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: is no common man. He is one who is great
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: and wise enough to decide things plain people could not
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: be sure of. Jean and I are glad indeed that
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: he and his mother are coming. Jean can talk to her,
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: and I talk to him. Being a man body, they
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: will tell us whether we have been right or wrong,
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: and what we must do. They are wise enough to
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: tell you anything. I answered, It sounds as if you
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: and Jean had known some big secret all my life.
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: But I'm not frightened. You two would go to your
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: graves hiding it if it would hurt me. Hey barn,
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: he said, suddenly in a queer moved way, Hey Baron.
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: And he took hold of both my hands and kissed them,
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: pressing them quite long and emotionally to his lips. But
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: he said nothing else, And when he dropped them, I
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: went out of the room. End of chapter eight Chapter
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: nine of The White People by Francis Hodgson Burnett. This
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Anne Fletcher.
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: Chapter nine. It was wonderful when mister mac Naan and
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 1: his mother came. It was even more beautiful than I
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: had thought it would be. They arrived late in the afternoon,
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: and when I took them out upon the terrace, the
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: sun was reddening the moor, and even the rough gray
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: towers of the castle were stained rose color. There was
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: that lovely evening sound of birds twittering before they went
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: to sleep in the ivy. The glimpses of gardens below
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: seemed like glimpses of rich tapestries set with jewels. And
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: there was such stillness. When we drew our three chairs
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: in a little group together and looked out upon it all,
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: I felt as if we were almost in heaven. Yes, yes,
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: Hector said, looking round slowly, it is all here. Yes.
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: His mother added in her lovely, lovely voice, it is
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: what made you, Isabel. It was so angelic of them
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: to feel it all in that deep quiet way, and
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 1: to think that it was part of me, and I
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: a part of it. The climbing moon was trembling with beauty,
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 1: tender evening air quivered in the heather and fern, and
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 1: the late birds called like spirits. Ever since the night
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: when Missus mac nair had held me in her arms
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: under the apple tree while the nightingale sang, I had
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 1: felt toward her son as if he were an archangel
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 1: walking upon the earth. Perhaps my thoughts were exaggerated, but
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: it seemed so marvelous that he should be moving among us,
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: doing his work, seeing and talking to his friends. And
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: yet that he should know that at any moment, the
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: great change might come, and he might awaken somewhere else,
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: in quite another place. If he had been like other men,
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: and I had been like other girls, I supposed that
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: after that night, when I heard the truth, I should
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 1: have been plunged into the darkest woe and have almost
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: sobbed myself to death. Why did I not? I do
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: not know, except except that I felt that no darkness
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: could come between us, because no darkness could touch him.
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: He could never be anything but alive, alive. If I
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: couldn't see him, it would only be because my eyes
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 1: were not clear and strong enough. I seemed to be
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: waiting for something I wanted to keep near him. I
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: was full of this feeling as we sat together on
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: the terrace and watched the moon. I could scarcely look
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 1: away from him. He was rather pale that evening, but
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: there seemed to be a light behind his pallor, and
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: his eyes seemed to seep so much more than the
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: purple and yellow of the heather and gouze as they
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 1: rested on them. After I had watched him silently for
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 1: a little while, I leaned forward and pointed were part
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 1: of the moor, where there was an unbroken blaze of
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 1: gorse in full bloom, like a big patch of gold.
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 1: That is where I was sitting when we brown Elsweth
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: was first brought to me. I said. He sat upright
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: and looked. Is it? He answered? Will you take me
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: there to morrow? I have always wanted to see the place.
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: Would you like to go early in the morning. The
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: mist is more likely to be there then as it
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: was that day. It's so mysterious and beautiful. Would you
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: like to do that? I asked him, Better than anything else.
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: He said, yes, let us go in the morning. We
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 1: brown Elsbeth seems very near me. This evening, I said,
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: I feel as if I broke off and began again.
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 1: I have a puzzled feeling about her. This afternoon I
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 1: found some manuscript pushed behind a book on a high
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 1: shelf in the library. Anger said he had hidden it
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: there because it was a savage story he did not
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 1: wish me to read. It was the history of the
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: feud between Ian Red Hand and Dark Malcolm of the Glen.
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: Dark Malcolm's child was called Wee brown Elsbeth hundreds of
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: years ago, five hundred. I think it makes me feel
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 1: so bewildered when I remember the one I played with.
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: It was a bloody story, he said. I heard it
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: only a few days before we met at Sir Ian's
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: house in London. That made me recall something. Was that
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: why you started when I told you about Elsbeth? I asked, yes,
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: perhaps the one you played with was her little descendant
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 1: who had inherited her name. He answered a trifle hurriedly,
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: I confess I was startled. For a moment. I put
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 1: my hand up to my forehead and rubbed it unconsciously.
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 1: I couldn't help seeing a woesome picture ah poor little soul,
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: with the blood pouring from her heart and her brown
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 1: hair spread over her dead father's breast. I stopped because
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: a faint memory came back to me. Mine, I stammered, Mine,
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 1: how strange had a great stain on the embroideries of
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: her dress. She looked at it and looked. She looked
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 1: as if she didn't like it, as if she didn't
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: understand how it came there. She covered it with ferns
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: and bluebells. I felt as if I were being drawn
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 1: away into a dream. I made a sudden effort to
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: come back. I ceased rubbing my forehead and drop my hands.
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: Sitting upright. I must ask Angus and Jean to tell
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: me about her, I said, of course they must have known.
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: I wonder why I never thought of asking questions before.
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 1: It was a strange look I met when I involuntarily
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: turned toward him, Such an absorbed, strain tender look I knew.
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: He sat quite late in the library that night, talking
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 1: to Angus after his mother and I went to our rooms.
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: Just as I was falling asleep, I remembered there floated
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 1: through my mind a vague recollection of what Angus had
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 1: said to me, of asking his advice about something, And
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 1: I wondered if he would reach the subject in their talk,
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: or if they would spend all their time in poring
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: over manuscripts and books together. The More wore its most
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: mysterious look when I got up in the early morning.
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: It had hidden itself in its softest snows of white
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 1: swathing mist. Only here and there, dark fir trees showed
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 1: themselves above it, and now and then the whiteness thinned
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 1: or broke and drifted. It was as I had wanted
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: him to see it, just as I had wanted to
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 1: walk through it with him. We had met in the
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: hall as we had planned, and wrapped in our plaids
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 1: because they early morning air was cold, we tramped away together.
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: No one but myself could ever realize what it was like.
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 1: I had never known that there could be such a
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: feeling of companionship in the world. It would not have
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: been necessary for us to talk at all. If we
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: had felt silent, we should have been saying things to
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: each other without words. But we did talk as we walked,
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: in quiet voices which seemed made quieter by the mist,
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: and of quiet things which such voices seemed to belong to.
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 1: We crossed the park to a stile in a hedge,
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: where a path led at once on to the moor.
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 1: Part of the park itself had once been moorland, and
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 1: was dark, with slender furs and thick grown with heather
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 1: and broom. On the moor, the mist grew thicker, and
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 1: if I had not so well known the path, we
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: might have lost ourselves in it. Also, I knew by
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 1: heart certain that streams that rushed and made guiding sounds,
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: which were sometimes loud whispers and sometimes singing babbels, The damp,
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: sweet scent of fern and heather was in our nostrils.
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 1: As we climbed, we breathed its freshness. There is a
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: sort of unearthly loveliness in it all, Hector mac nair
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 1: said Toomey. His voice was rather like his mother's. It
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 1: always seemed to say so much more than his words.
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 1: We might be ghosts, I answered, We might be some
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 1: of those the mist hides because they liked to be hidden.
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 1: You would not be afraid if you met one of them,
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: He said, No, I think I'm sure of that. I
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 1: should feel that it was only like myself, and if
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 1: I could hear, might tell me things. I want to know.
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: What do you want to know, he asked me, very low.
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 1: You only what everybody wants to know. That it is
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: really awakening free, ready for wonderful new things, finding oneself
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 1: in the midst of wonders. I don't mean angels with
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 1: harps and crowns, but beauty such as we see now,
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 1: only seeing it without burdens of fears before and behind us,
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: and knowing there is no reason to be afraid. We've
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 1: all been so afraid. We don't know how afraid we
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 1: have been of everything. I stopped among the heather and
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: threw my arms out wide. I drew in a great,
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 1: joyous morning, breath free like that. It's the freeness, the light,
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: splendid freeness. I think of most, the freeness, he repeated, Yes,
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 1: the freeness. As for beauty, I almost whispered, in a
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: sort of reverence for visions, I remembered, I have stood
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 1: on this more a thousand times and seen loveliness which
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 1: made me tremble. One's soul could want no more in
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 1: any life. But out on the hill side, I knew
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 1: I was part of it. And it was ecstasy that
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 1: was the freeness. Yes, it was the freeness, he answered.
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 1: We brushed through the heather and the bracken, and flower
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 1: bells shook showers of radiant drops upon us. The mist
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 1: wavered and sometimes lifted before us, and opened up mystic
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 1: vistas to veil them again a few minutes later, the
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: sun tried to break through, and sometimes we walked in
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 1: a golden haze. We fell into silence now and then
• 1:53:49
  Speaker 1: I glanced sideways at my companion as we made our
• 1:53:52
  Speaker 1: soundless way over the thick moss. He looked so strong
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 1: and beautiful. His tall body was so fine, his shoulders
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 1: so broad and splendid. How could it be? How could
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 1: it be? As he tramped beside me, he was thinking deeply,
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 1: and he knew he need not talk to me. That
• 1:54:14
  Speaker 1: made me glad that he should know me so well
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 1: and feel me so near. That was what he felt
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 1: when he was with his mother, that she understood, and
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 1: that at times neither of them needed words. Until we
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 1: had reached the patch of Gorse, where we intended to
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 1: end our walk, we did not speak at all. He
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 1: was thinking of things which led him far. I knew that,
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 1: though I did not know what they were. When we
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 1: reached the golden blaze we had seen the evening before,
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 1: it was a flame of gold again, because it was
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 1: only for a few moments. The mist had blown apart,
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 1: and the sun was shining on it as we stood
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 1: in the midst of it together. Oh, how stray and
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 1: beautiful it was. Mister mac Nahin came back. That was
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 1: what it seemed to me that he came back. He
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 1: stood quite still a moment and looked about him, and
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 1: then he stretched out his arms as I had stretched
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 1: out mine. But he did it slowly, and a light
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: came into his face. If after it was over a
• 1:55:23
  Speaker 1: man awakened, as you said, and found himself the self
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 1: he knew, but light, free and splendid, remembering all the
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 1: ages of dark, unknowing dread of horror, of some black,
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: aimless plunge, and suddenly seeing all the childish uselessness of it,
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: How he would stand and smile, How he would stand
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 1: and smile. Never had I understood anything more clearly than
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: I understood then, Yes, Yes, that would be it, remembering
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 1: all the waste of fear, How he would stand and smile.
• 1:56:06
  Speaker 1: He was smiling himself, the golden gorse about him, already
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 1: losing its flame in the light, returning mistraiths closing again
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 1: over it. When I heard a sound, far away and
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 1: high upon the moor. It sounded like the playing of
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 1: a piper. He did not seem to notice it. We
• 1:56:25
  Speaker 1: shall be shut in again, he said, how mysterious it is,
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 1: this opening and closing. I like it more than anything else.
• 1:56:35
  Speaker 1: Let us sit down, Isabel. He spread the plaid we
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 1: had brought to sit on, and laid on it the
• 1:56:40
  Speaker 1: little strapped basket Jean had made ready for us. He
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 1: shook the mist drops from our own plaids, And as
• 1:56:47
  Speaker 1: I was about to sit down. I stopped a moment
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 1: to listen. That's a tune I never heard on the
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 1: pipes before. I said, what is a piper doing out
• 1:56:56
  Speaker 1: on the moor so early? He listened all so it
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 1: must be far away. I don't hear it. He said.
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 1: Perhaps it's a bird whistling. It is far away. I answered,
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 1: but it's not a bird. It's the pipes and playing
• 1:57:13
  Speaker 1: such a strange tune. Oh. There it stopped, but it
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 1: was not silent long. I heard the tune begin again,
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 1: much nearer, and the piper was plainly coming towards us.
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 1: I turned my head. The mist was clearing and floated about,
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 1: like a thin veil through which one could see objects.
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: At a short distance above us on the moor, I
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 1: saw something moving. It was a man who was playing
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 1: the pipes. It was the piper, and almost at once
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 1: I knew him, because it was actually my own Fergus,
• 1:57:49
  Speaker 1: stepping proudly through the heather, with his step like a
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 1: stag on the hills. His head was held high, and
• 1:57:56
  Speaker 1: his face had a sort of elated delight in it,
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 1: as if he were enjoying himself in the morning and
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 1: the music in a new way. I was so surprised
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 1: that I rose to my feet and called to him, Fergus,
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 1: I cried, what I knew he heard me, because he
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 1: turned and looked at me with the most extraordinary smile.
• 1:58:19
  Speaker 1: He was usually a rather grave faced man, but this
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 1: smile had a kind of startling triumph in it. He
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 1: certainly heard me, for he whipped off his bonnet in
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 1: a salute which was as triumphant as the smile. But
• 1:58:33
  Speaker 1: he did not answer, and actually passed in and out
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 1: of sight in the mist. When I rose, mister mac
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 1: nair had risen too. When I turned to speak, in
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 1: my surprise, he had fixed on me his watchful look.
• 1:58:48
  Speaker 1: Imagine it being Fergus at this hour, I exclaimed, And
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 1: why did he pass by in such a hurry without answering,
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 1: He must have been to a wedding and have been
• 1:58:59
  Speaker 1: up all night he looked. I stopped a second and laughed.
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 1: How did he look? Mister mac naan asked, oh, pale, Oh,
• 1:59:10
  Speaker 1: that won't do, though he certainly didn't look ill. I
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 1: laughed again. I'm laughing because he looked almost like one
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 1: of the white people. Are you sure it was Fergus?
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: He said, oh, quite sure. No one else is the
• 1:59:26
  Speaker 1: least like Fergus. Didn't you see him yourself? I don't
• 1:59:32
  Speaker 1: know him as well as you do. And there was
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 1: the mist was his answer. But he certainly was not
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 1: one of the white people. When I saw him last night,
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 1: I wondered why he looked as he did. When he
• 1:59:45
  Speaker 1: took my hand and drew me down to my place
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 1: on the plaid again, he did not let it go
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 1: when he sat down by my side. He held it
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 1: in his own, large, handsome one, looking down on it
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 1: a moment or so, and then he bent his head
• 1:59:59
  Speaker 1: and kissed it, long and slowly, two or three times.
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 1: Dear little Isabel, he said, beloved, strange, Little Isabel, am
• 2:00:10
  Speaker 1: I strange? I said softly, yes, Thank God, he answered.
• 2:00:17
  Speaker 1: I had known that some day, when we were at
• 2:00:19
  Speaker 1: Meyer Carrie together, he would tell me what his mother
• 2:00:22
  Speaker 1: had told me about what we three might have been
• 2:00:25
  Speaker 1: to one another. I trembled with happiness at the thought
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 1: of hearing him say it himself. I knew he was
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 1: going to say it. Now. He held my hand and
• 2:00:35
  Speaker 1: stroked it. My mother told you, Isabel, what I am
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 1: waiting for? He said, yes. Do you know I love you?
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 1: He said, very low, yes, I love you too. My
• 2:00:51
  Speaker 1: whole life would have been heaven if we could always
• 2:00:55
  Speaker 1: have been together, was my answer. He drew me up
• 2:00:59
  Speaker 1: into his eyes, arms, so that my cheek lay against
• 2:01:02
  Speaker 1: his breast, as I went on, holding fast to the
• 2:01:05
  Speaker 1: rough tweed of his jacket and whispering. I should have
• 2:01:09
  Speaker 1: belonged to you too, heart and body and soul. I
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: should never have been lonely again. I should have known
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 1: nothing whatsoever happened, but tender joy. Whatsoever happened, he murmured,
• 2:01:26
  Speaker 1: whatsoever happens now, Isabel, No, nothing but tender joy. I
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 1: think you can out on the hillside. Let us remember. Oh, yes, yes,
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 1: I said, out on the hillside, And our two faces,
• 2:01:46
  Speaker 1: damp with the sweet mist, were pressed together. End of
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 1: chapter nine, Chapter ten of the White People by Francis
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 1: Hodge and Barnett. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 1: Recorded by Anne Fletcher. Chapter ten. The mist had floated away,
• 2:02:11
  Speaker 1: and the moor was drenched with golden sunshine when we
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 1: went back to the castle. As we entered the hall,
• 2:02:18
  Speaker 1: I heard the sound of a dog howling, and spoke
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 1: of it to one of the men servants who had
• 2:02:23
  Speaker 1: opened the door. That sounds like Gellert. Is he shut
• 2:02:27
  Speaker 1: up somewhere. Gellert was a beautiful sheep dog who belonged
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 1: to Fergus and was his heart's friend. I allowed him
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 1: to be kept in the courtyard. The man hesitated before
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 1: he answered me with her curiously grave face. It is Gellert. Miss.
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 1: He is howling for his master. We were obliged to
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 1: shut him in the stables, but Fergus ought to have
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 1: reached here by this time I was beginning. I was
• 2:02:56
  Speaker 1: stopped because I found Angus Macaya almost at my elbow.
• 2:03:00
  Speaker 1: He had that moment come out of the library. He
• 2:03:03
  Speaker 1: put his hand on my arm. Will ye come with me,
• 2:03:07
  Speaker 1: he said, and led me back to the room he
• 2:03:09
  Speaker 1: had just left. He kept his hand on my arm
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 1: when we all stood together inside, Hector and I looking
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 1: at him in wondering question. He was going to tell
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 1: me something. We both saw that It is a sad
• 2:03:24
  Speaker 1: thing you have to hear, he said. He was a
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 1: fine man, Fergus, and a most faithful servant. He went
• 2:03:34
  Speaker 1: to see his mother last night and came back late
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 1: across the moor. There was a heavy mist, and he
• 2:03:41
  Speaker 1: must have lost his way. A shepherd found his body
• 2:03:45
  Speaker 1: in a tarn. At daybreak, they took him back to
• 2:03:48
  Speaker 1: his father's home. I looked at Hector mac nair and
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 1: again at Angus, but it couldn't be Fergus, I cried.
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 1: I saw him an hour ago he passed us playing
• 2:04:01
  Speaker 1: on his pipes. He was playing a new tune I
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 1: had never heard before, A wonderful, joyous thing. I both
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 1: heard and saw him. Angus stood still and watched me.
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 1: They both stood still and watched me, And even in
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 1: my excitement, I saw that each of them looked a
• 2:04:20
  Speaker 1: little pale. You said you didn't hear him at first,
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 1: but you surely saw him when he passed so near,
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 1: I protested. I called to him, and he took off
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 1: his bonnet, though he did not stop. He was going
• 2:04:34
  Speaker 1: so quickly that perhaps he did not hear me call
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 1: his name. What strange thing in Hector's look? Checked me?
• 2:04:41
  Speaker 1: Who knows? You did see him, didn't you? I asked
• 2:04:46
  Speaker 1: of him. Then he and Angus exchanged glances, as if
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 1: asking each other to decide some grave thing. It was
• 2:04:55
  Speaker 1: Hector mac nairn who decided it. No, he answered, very quietly.
• 2:05:01
  Speaker 1: I neither saw nor heard him even when he passed,
• 2:05:06
  Speaker 1: But you did, I did quite plainly. I went on
• 2:05:12
  Speaker 1: more and more, bewildered by the way in which they
• 2:05:14
  Speaker 1: kept a sort of tender, awed gaze fixed on me.
• 2:05:19
  Speaker 1: You remember, I even noticed that he looked pale. I laughed,
• 2:05:24
  Speaker 1: you know, when I said, he looked almost like one
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 1: of the white people. Just then my breath caught itself,
• 2:05:32
  Speaker 1: and I stopped. I began to remember things, hundreds of things.
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 1: Anger spoke to me again, as quietly as Hector had spoken.
• 2:05:43
  Speaker 1: Neither Jean nor I ever saw wee brown elspeth, he said,
• 2:05:49
  Speaker 1: neither Jean nor I. But you did. You have always
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 1: seen what the rest of us did not see. My
• 2:05:57
  Speaker 1: baren always, I stammered out a few words, half in
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 1: a whisper. I have always seen what you others could
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 1: not see. What have I seen? But I was not frightened.
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 1: I suppose I could never tell any one what strange, wide,
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 1: bright places seemed suddenly to open and shine before me,
• 2:06:21
  Speaker 1: not places to shrink back from. Oh no, no one
• 2:06:26
  Speaker 1: could be sure. Then, sure Fergus had lifted his bonnet
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: with that extraordinary triumph in his look, even Fergus, who
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 1: had been rather door. You called them the white people,
• 2:06:42
  Speaker 1: Hector mac Nairn, said, Angus and Jean had known all
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 1: my life a very old shepherd who had looked in
• 2:06:51
  Speaker 1: my face when I was a baby, had said I
• 2:06:54
  Speaker 1: had the eyes which saw. It was only the saying
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: of an old highlander, and my not have been remembered.
• 2:07:02
  Speaker 1: Later the two began to believe I had a sight
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 1: that they had not. The night before we brown Elspeth
• 2:07:09
  Speaker 1: had been brought to me. Angers had read for the
• 2:07:11
  Speaker 1: first time the story of Dark Malcolm, and as they
• 2:07:15
  Speaker 1: sat near me on the moor, they had been talking
• 2:07:17
  Speaker 1: about it. That was why he forgot himself when I
• 2:07:21
  Speaker 1: came to ask them where the child had gone, and
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 1: told him of the big dark man with the scar
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 1: on his forehead. After that, they were sure. They had
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 1: always hidden their knowledge from me because they were afraid
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 1: it might frighten me to be told I had not
• 2:07:37
  Speaker 1: been a strong child. They kept the secret from my
• 2:07:41
  Speaker 1: relatives because they knew they would dislike to hear it
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 1: and would not believe, and also would dislike me as
• 2:07:48
  Speaker 1: a queer, abnormal creature. Angers had fears of what they
• 2:07:53
  Speaker 1: might do with doctors and severe efforts to obliterate from
• 2:07:56
  Speaker 1: my mind my nonsense, as they would have been shut
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 1: ought to call it. The two wise souls had shielded
• 2:08:04
  Speaker 1: me on every side. It was better that you should
• 2:08:07
  Speaker 1: go on, thinking it only a simple natural thing, Angus said.
• 2:08:13
  Speaker 1: And as to natural, what is natural and what is not?
• 2:08:18
  Speaker 1: Man has not learned all the laws of nature. Yet
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 1: Nature's a grand, rich, endless thing, always unrolling her scroll
• 2:08:29
  Speaker 1: with writings that seem new on it. They're not new.
• 2:08:34
  Speaker 1: They were always written there, but they were not unrolled.
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 1: Never a law broken, never a new law, only laws
• 2:08:44
  Speaker 1: read with stronger eyes. Angus and I had always been
• 2:08:49
  Speaker 1: very fond of the Bible, the strange old temple of wonders,
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 1: full of all the poems and tragedies and histories of man,
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 1: his hates and battles and loves and follies, and of
• 2:09:02
  Speaker 1: the wisdom of the universe, and the promises of the
• 2:09:05
  Speaker 1: splendors of it, and which even those of us who
• 2:09:08
  Speaker 1: think ourselves the most believing, neither wholly believe nor will understand.
• 2:09:14
  Speaker 1: We had pored over and talked of it. We had
• 2:09:18
  Speaker 1: never thought of it as only a pious thing to do.
• 2:09:22
  Speaker 1: The book was to us one of the mystic or inspiring,
• 2:09:25
  Speaker 1: prophetic marvels of the world that was what made me
• 2:09:30
  Speaker 1: say half whispering. I have wondered and wondered what it
• 2:09:35
  Speaker 1: meant that verse in Isaiah. Behold, the former things are
• 2:09:39
  Speaker 1: come to pass, and new things do I declare before
• 2:09:43
  Speaker 1: they spring forth? I tell you of them? Perhaps it
• 2:09:47
  Speaker 1: means only the unrolling of the scroll. Ay Ay said Angus.
• 2:09:54
  Speaker 1: It is full of such deep sayings, and none of
• 2:09:58
  Speaker 1: us will listen to them. It has taken man eons
• 2:10:03
  Speaker 1: of time, Hector mac nair said, thinking it out as
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 1: he spoke, eons of time to reach the point where
• 2:10:10
  Speaker 1: he is beginning to know that in every stock and
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 1: stone in his path may lie hidden some power he
• 2:10:17
  Speaker 1: has not yet dreamed of. He has learned that lightning
• 2:10:22
  Speaker 1: may be commanded, distance conquered, motion, chained and utilized. But he,
• 2:10:29
  Speaker 1: the one conscious force, has never yet begun to suspect
• 2:10:34
  Speaker 1: that of all others, he may be the one as
• 2:10:37
  Speaker 1: yet the least explored. How do we know that there
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 1: does not lie in each of us a wholly natural,
• 2:10:45
  Speaker 1: but so far dormant power of sight, a power to
• 2:10:50
  Speaker 1: see what has been called the unseen through all the
• 2:10:53
  Speaker 1: ages whose sightlessness has made them dark. Who knows when
• 2:10:58
  Speaker 1: the shadow around us may begin to clear. Oh, we
• 2:11:02
  Speaker 1: are a dull lot, we human things with a queer
• 2:11:06
  Speaker 1: obstinate conceit of ourselves complete. We think we are angus
• 2:11:13
  Speaker 1: murmured heart to himself, finished creatures. And look at us,
• 2:11:19
  Speaker 1: how many of us in a million have beauty and
• 2:11:22
  Speaker 1: health and full power? And believing that the law is
• 2:11:26
  Speaker 1: that we must crumple and go to pieces hour by hour?
• 2:11:30
  Speaker 1: Who'd waste the time making a clock that went wrong
• 2:11:34
  Speaker 1: as often? Nay, nay, we shall learn better than this
• 2:11:39
  Speaker 1: as time goes on, and we'd better be beginning and
• 2:11:43
  Speaker 1: setting our minds to work on It tis for us
• 2:11:47
  Speaker 1: to do the minds of us, And what's the minds
• 2:11:52
  Speaker 1: of us? But the mind that made us simple and
• 2:11:56
  Speaker 1: straight enough? It is when once you begin to think
• 2:11:58
  Speaker 1: it out, the spirit of you sees clearer than we do.
• 2:12:03
  Speaker 1: That's all he said to me. When your mother brought
• 2:12:08
  Speaker 1: you into the world, she was listening to one outside
• 2:12:12
  Speaker 1: calling to her, and it opened the way for you.
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: At night, Hector mac Nan and his mother and I
• 2:12:21
  Speaker 1: sat on the terrace and the stars which seemed listening things,
• 2:12:25
  Speaker 1: and we three drew nearer to one another, and nearer
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 1: and nearer. When the poor mother stumbled into the train
• 2:12:34
  Speaker 1: that day was one of the things Hector told me.
• 2:12:37
  Speaker 1: I was thinking of the fear and of my own mother.
• 2:12:41
  Speaker 1: You looked so slight and small as you sat in
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 1: your corner that at first I thought you were almost
• 2:12:47
  Speaker 1: a child. Then a far look in your eyes made
• 2:12:51
  Speaker 1: me begin to watch you. You were so sorry for
• 2:12:55
  Speaker 1: the poor woman that you could not look away from her,
• 2:12:59
  Speaker 1: and some thing in your face touched and puzzled me.
• 2:13:03
  Speaker 1: You leaned forward suddenly and put out your hand protectingly
• 2:13:07
  Speaker 1: as she stepped down onto the platform. That night, when
• 2:13:11
  Speaker 1: you spoke quite naturally of the child, never doubting that
• 2:13:15
  Speaker 1: I had seen it, I suddenly began to suspect because
• 2:13:21
  Speaker 1: of the fear he hesitated. I had been reading and
• 2:13:26
  Speaker 1: thinking many things new to me. I did not know
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 1: what I believed. But you spoke so simply, and I
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 1: knew you were speaking the truth. Then you spoke just
• 2:13:40
  Speaker 1: as naturally of wee brown Elspeth. That startled me, because
• 2:13:45
  Speaker 1: not long before I had been told the tale in
• 2:13:48
  Speaker 1: the Highlands by a fine old story teller who is
• 2:13:52
  Speaker 1: the head of his clan. I saw you had never
• 2:13:55
  Speaker 1: heard the story before, and yet you were telling me
• 2:13:59
  Speaker 1: that you had played with the child. He came home
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 1: and told me about you. Missus mac Nan said. His
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 1: fear of the fear was more for me than for himself.
• 2:14:12
  Speaker 1: He knew that if he brought you to me, you
• 2:14:14
  Speaker 1: who are more complete than we are, clearer eyed, and
• 2:14:18
  Speaker 1: nearer nearer, I should begin to feel that he was
• 2:14:22
  Speaker 1: not going out. I should begin to feel a reality
• 2:14:26
  Speaker 1: and nearness myself. Oh Isabel, how we have clung to
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 1: you and loved you. And then that wonderful afternoon, I
• 2:14:38
  Speaker 1: saw no girl with her hand through mister le Breton's arm.
• 2:14:42
  Speaker 1: Hector saw non, But you saw her. She was there, Yes,
• 2:14:48
  Speaker 1: she was there, I answered, she was there, smiling up
• 2:14:53
  Speaker 1: at him. I wish he could have known. What does
• 2:14:58
  Speaker 1: it matter? If this seems a strange story to some?
• 2:15:02
  Speaker 1: It will mean something to some, It will mean nothing
• 2:15:06
  Speaker 1: to those it has a meaning for it will open
• 2:15:09
  Speaker 1: wide windows into the light and lift heavy loads. That
• 2:15:14
  Speaker 1: would be quite enough, even if the rest thought it
• 2:15:17
  Speaker 1: only the weird fancy of a queer girl who had
• 2:15:20
  Speaker 1: lived alone and given rein to her silliest imaginings. I
• 2:15:24
  Speaker 1: wanted to tell it, howsoever poorly and ineffectively it was done.
• 2:15:30
  Speaker 1: Since I knew I have dropped the load of ages,
• 2:15:34
  Speaker 1: the black burden out on the hill side. My feet
• 2:15:38
  Speaker 1: did not even feel the grass, and yet I was standing,
• 2:15:43
  Speaker 1: not floating. I had no wings or crown. I was
• 2:15:48
  Speaker 1: only Isabel out on the hill side free. This is
• 2:15:54
  Speaker 1: the way it all ended. For three weeks that were
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 1: like heaven, we three together at Mure Carrie. We saw
• 2:16:03
  Speaker 1: every beauty and shared every joy of sun and dew
• 2:16:07
  Speaker 1: and love and tender understanding. After one lovely day we
• 2:16:12
  Speaker 1: had spent on the moor in a quiet dream of joy,
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 1: almost strange in its perfectness, we came back to the castle,
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 1: and because the sunset was of such unearthly radiance and
• 2:16:24
  Speaker 1: changing wonder, we sat on the terrace until the last
• 2:16:27
  Speaker 1: soft touch of gold had died out and left the
• 2:16:31
  Speaker 1: pure still clear, long summer twilight. When Missus mac nair
• 2:16:37
  Speaker 1: and I went in to dress for dinner, Hector lingered
• 2:16:40
  Speaker 1: a little behind us because the silent beauty held him.
• 2:16:45
  Speaker 1: I came down before his mother did, and I went
• 2:16:47
  Speaker 1: out upon the terrace again because I saw he was
• 2:16:50
  Speaker 1: still sitting there. I went to the stone balustrade very
• 2:16:54
  Speaker 1: quietly and leaned against it. As I turned to look
• 2:16:58
  Speaker 1: at him and speak. Then I stood quite still and
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 1: looked long for some reason, not startled, not anguished, not
• 2:17:09
  Speaker 1: even feeling that he had gone. He was more beautiful
• 2:17:13
  Speaker 1: than any human creature I had ever seen before. But
• 2:17:18
  Speaker 1: it had happened as they said it would. He had
• 2:17:22
  Speaker 1: not ceased, but something else had, Something had ceased. It
• 2:17:28
  Speaker 1: was the next evening before I came out on the
• 2:17:31
  Speaker 1: terrace again. The day had been more exquisite, and the
• 2:17:35
  Speaker 1: sunset more wonderful than before. Missus mac Nan was sitting
• 2:17:39
  Speaker 1: by her son's side in the bedroom, whose windows looked
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 1: over the moor. I am not going to say one
• 2:17:45
  Speaker 1: word of what had come between the two sunsets. Missus
• 2:17:50
  Speaker 1: mac Nan and I had clung and clung. We had
• 2:17:54
  Speaker 1: promised never to part from each other. I did not
• 2:17:57
  Speaker 1: quite know why I went out on to the Perhaps
• 2:18:01
  Speaker 1: it was because I had always loved to sit or
• 2:18:03
  Speaker 1: stand there. This evening, I stood and leaned upon the balustrade,
• 2:18:09
  Speaker 1: looking out far, far far over the moor. I stood
• 2:18:15
  Speaker 1: and gazed and gazed. I was thinking about the secret
• 2:18:21
  Speaker 1: and the hill side. I was very quiet, as quiet
• 2:18:25
  Speaker 1: as the twilight self. And there came back to me
• 2:18:29
  Speaker 1: the memory of what Hector had said, as we stood
• 2:18:33
  Speaker 1: on the golden patch of Gorse, when the Mist had
• 2:18:36
  Speaker 1: for a moment or so blown aside what he had
• 2:18:39
  Speaker 1: said of man's awakening, and remembering all the ages of
• 2:18:43
  Speaker 1: childish useless dread, how he would stand. I did not
• 2:18:48
  Speaker 1: turn suddenly, but slowly. I was not startled in the
• 2:18:53
  Speaker 1: faintest degree. He stood there close to me, as he
• 2:18:57
  Speaker 1: had so often stood, and he stood and smiled. I
• 2:19:04
  Speaker 1: have seen him many times since, I shall see him
• 2:19:07
  Speaker 1: many times again. And when I see him, he always
• 2:19:12
  Speaker 1: stands and smiles. End of chapter ten, End of the
• 2:19:20
  Speaker 1: White People by Francis Hodgson Bennett