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The Country of the Blind and Other Stories - Miss Winchelsea's Heart · The H. G. Wells Library

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Speaker 1: Section twenty four of the Country of the Blind and
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Speaker 1: Other Stories by H. G. Wells. This LibriVox recording is
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Speaker 1: in the public domain. Read by Peter Yearsley. Miss Winchelsea's Heart.
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Speaker 1: Miss Winchelsea was going to Rome. The matter had filled
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Speaker 1: her mind for a month or more, and had overflowed
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Speaker 1: so abundantly into her conversation that quite a number of
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Speaker 1: people who were not going to Rome, and who were
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Speaker 1: not likely to go to Rome, had made it a
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Speaker 1: personal grievance against her. Some indeed, had attempted quite unavailingly
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Speaker 1: to convince her that Rome was not nearly such a
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Speaker 1: desirable place as it was reported to be, and others
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Speaker 1: had gone so far as to suggest behind her back
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Speaker 1: that she was dreadfully stuck up about that Rome of hers.
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Speaker 1: And Little Lily Hardhurst had told her friend mister Binns
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Speaker 1: that so far as she was concerned Miss Wintlesey, she
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Speaker 1: might go to her old Rome and stop there. She
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Speaker 1: Miss Lily Hardhurst wouldn't grieve. And the way in which
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Speaker 1: Miss Winchelsea put herself upon terms of personal tenderness with
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Speaker 1: Horace and Benvenuto Cellini and Raphael and Shelley and Keats.
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Speaker 1: If she had been Shelley's widow, she could not have
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Speaker 1: professed a keener interest in his grave was a matter
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Speaker 1: of universal astonishment. Her dress was a triumph of tactful discretion,
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Speaker 1: sensible but not too touristy. Miss Wintlesey had a great
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Speaker 1: dread of being touristy, and her bay decker was carried
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Speaker 1: in a cover of gray to hide its glaring red.
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Speaker 1: She made a prim and pleasant little figure on the
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Speaker 1: Charing Cross platform in spite of her swelling pride. When
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Speaker 1: at last the great day dawned and she could start
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Speaker 1: for Rome, the day was bright, the Channel passage would
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Speaker 1: be pleasant, and all the omens promised well, there was
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Speaker 1: the gayest sense of adventure in this unprecedented departure. She
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Speaker 1: was going with two friends who had been fellow students
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Speaker 1: with her at the training College. Nice honest girls, both,
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Speaker 1: though not so good at history and literature as Miss Winchelsey,
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Speaker 1: they both looked up to her immensely, though physically they
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Speaker 1: had to look down, and she anticipated some pleasant times
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Speaker 1: to be spent in stirring them up to her own
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Speaker 1: pitch of essetic and historical enthusiasm. They had secured seats
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Speaker 1: already and welcomed her effusively at the carriage door. In
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Speaker 1: the instant criticism of the encounter, she noted that Fanny
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Speaker 1: had a slightly touristy leather strap, and that Helen had
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Speaker 1: succumbed to a surge jacket with side pockets into which
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Speaker 1: her hands were thrust. But they were much too happy
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Speaker 1: with themselves and the expedition for their friends to attempt
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Speaker 1: any hint at the moment about these things. As soon
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Speaker 1: as the first ecstasies were over, Fanny's enthusiasm was a
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Speaker 1: little noisy and crude, and consisted mainly in emphatic repetitions
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Speaker 1: of just fancy, We're going to Rome, my dear Rome.
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Speaker 1: They gave their attention to their fellow travelers. Helen was
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Speaker 1: anxious to secure a compartment to themselves, and, in order
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Speaker 1: to discourage intruders, got out and planted herself firmly on
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Speaker 1: the step. Miss Winchelsey peeped out over her shoulder and
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Speaker 1: made sly little remarks about the accumulating people on the platform,
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Speaker 1: at which Fanny laughed gleefully. They were traveling with one
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Speaker 1: of mister Thomas Gunn's parties. Fourteen days in Rome for
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Speaker 1: fourteen pounds. They did not belong to the personally conducted party,
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Speaker 1: of course Miss Winchlsey had seen to that, but they
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Speaker 1: traveled with it because of the the convenience of that arrangement.
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Speaker 1: The people were the oddest mixture and wonderfully amusing. There
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Speaker 1: was a vociferous, red faced polyglot personal conductor in a
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Speaker 1: pepper and salt suit, very long in the arms and legs,
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Speaker 1: and very active. He shouted proclamations. When he wanted to
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Speaker 1: speak to people, he stretched out an arm and held
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Speaker 1: them until his purpose was accomplished. One hand was full
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Speaker 1: of papers, tickets, counterfoils of tourists. The people of the
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Speaker 1: personally conducted Party were, it seemed, of two sorts. People
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Speaker 1: the conductor wanted and could not find, and people he
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Speaker 1: did not want, and who followed him in a steadily
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Speaker 1: growing tail up and down the platform. These people seemed, indeed,
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Speaker 1: to think that their one chance of reaching Rome lay
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Speaker 1: in keeping close to him. Three little old ladies were
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Speaker 1: particularly energetic in his pursuit, and at last maddened him
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Speaker 1: to the pitch of flapping them into a carriage and
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Speaker 1: daring them to emerge again for the rest of the time, one,
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Speaker 1: two or three of their heads protruded from the window,
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Speaker 1: wailing inquiries about a little wicker work box. Whenever he
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Speaker 1: drew near. There was a very stout man with a
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Speaker 1: very stout wife in shiny black. There was a little
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Speaker 1: old man, like an aged hostler. What can not such
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Speaker 1: people want in Rome, asked Miss Winchelsey, What can it
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Speaker 1: mean to them? There was a very tall curate in
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Speaker 1: a very small straw hat, and a very short curate
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Speaker 1: encumbered by a long camera stand. The contrast amused Fanny
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Speaker 1: very much. Once they heard some one calling for Snooks.
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Speaker 1: I always thought that name was invented by novelists, said
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Speaker 1: Miss Winchelsey. Fancy Snooks, I wonder which is mister Snook's.
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Speaker 1: Finally they picked out a very stout and resolute little
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Speaker 1: man in a large check suit. If he isn't Snooks,
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Speaker 1: he ought to be, said Miss Winchelsea. Presently the conductor
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Speaker 1: discovered Helen's attempt at a corner in carriages room for five.
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Speaker 1: He bawled with a parallel translation on his fingers. A
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Speaker 1: party of four, together mother, father and two daughters, blundered in,
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Speaker 1: all greatly excited. It's all right, ma'a, you let me,
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Speaker 1: said one of the daughters, hitting her mother's bonnet with
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Speaker 1: a hand bag she struggled to put in the rack.
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Speaker 1: Miss Winchelsea detested people who banged about and called their
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Speaker 1: mother Ma. A young man traveling alone followed. He was
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Speaker 1: not at all touristy in his costume. Miss Winchelsey observed
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Speaker 1: his gladstone bag was of good, pleasant leather, with labels
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Speaker 1: reminiscent of Luxembourg and Ostend, and his boots, though brown,
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Speaker 1: were not vulgar. He carried an overcoat on his arm.
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Speaker 1: Before these people had properly settled in their places, came
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Speaker 1: an inspection of tickets and a slamming of doors, and
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Speaker 1: behold they were gliding out of Charing Cross Station on
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Speaker 1: their way to Rome. Fancy cried Fanny, we are going
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Speaker 1: to Rome, my dear Rome. I don't seem to believe
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Speaker 1: it even now. Miss Wincholsie suppressed Fanny's emotions with a
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Speaker 1: little smile, and the lady who was called Ma explained
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Speaker 1: to people in general why they had cut it so
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Speaker 1: close at the station. The two daughters called her Ma
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Speaker 1: several times, toned her down in a tactless effective way,
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Speaker 1: and drove her at last to the muttered inventory of
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Speaker 1: a basket of traveling requisites. Presently, she looked up long.
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Speaker 1: She said, I didn't bring them both. The daughters said,
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Speaker 1: oh ma, but what them was did not. Presently Fanny
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Speaker 1: produced Hare's Walks in Rome, a sort of mitigated guide
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Speaker 1: book very popular among Roman visitors, and the father of
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Speaker 1: the two daughters began to examine his books of tickets minutely,
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Speaker 1: apparently in a search after English words. When he had
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Speaker 1: looked at the tickets for a long time right way up,
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Speaker 1: he turned them upside down. Then he produced a fountain
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Speaker 1: pen and dated them with considerable care. The young man,
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Speaker 1: having completed an unostentatious survey of his fellow travelers, produced
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Speaker 1: a book and fell to reading. When Helen and Fanny
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Speaker 1: were looking out of the window at Chiselhurst. The place
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Speaker 1: interested Fanny because the poor dear Empress of the French
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Speaker 1: used to live there. Miss Winchelsea took the opportunity to
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Speaker 1: observe the book. The young man held it was not
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Speaker 1: a guide book, but a little thin volume of poetry bound.
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Speaker 1: She glanced his face. It seemed a refined, pleasant face.
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Speaker 1: To her hasty glance, he wore a little gilt pince nees.
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Speaker 1: Do you think she lives there? Now? Said Fanny, and
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Speaker 1: Miss Winchlesey's inspection came to an end. For the rest
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Speaker 1: of the journey, Miss Winchelsey talked little, and what she
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Speaker 1: said was as agreeable and as stamped with refinement as
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Speaker 1: she could make it. Her voice was always low and
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Speaker 1: clear and pleasant, and she took care that on this
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Speaker 1: occasion it was particularly low and clear and pleasant. As
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Speaker 1: they came under the White Cliffs, the young man put
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Speaker 1: his book of poetry away, and when at last the
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Speaker 1: train stopped beside the boat, he displayed a graceful alacrity
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Speaker 1: with the impedimenter of Miss Winchelsea and her friends. Miss
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Speaker 1: Winchelsey hated nonsense, but she was pleased to see the
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Speaker 1: young man perceived at once that they were ladies, and
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Speaker 1: helped them without any violent geniality, And how nicely he
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Speaker 1: showed that his civilities were to be no excuse for
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Speaker 1: further intrusions. None of her little party had been out
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Speaker 1: of England before, and they were all excited and a
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Speaker 1: little nervous. At the Channel passage. They stood in a
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Speaker 1: little group in a good place near the middle of
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Speaker 1: the boat. The young man had taken Miss Wintrelsey's carry
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Speaker 1: all there and had told her it was a good place.
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Speaker 1: And they watched the white shores of Albion recede, and
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Speaker 1: quoted Shakespeare and made quiet fun of their fellow travelers
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Speaker 1: in the English way. They were particularly amused at the
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Speaker 1: precautions the bigger sized people had taken against the little waves.
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Speaker 1: Cut lemons and flasks prevailed. One lady lay full length
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Speaker 1: in a deck chair with a handkerchief over her face,
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Speaker 1: and a very broad, resolute man in a bright brown
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Speaker 1: touristy suit walked all the way from England to Grants
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Speaker 1: along the deck with his legs as widely apart as
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Speaker 1: providence permitted. These were all excellent precautions, and nobody was ill.
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Speaker 1: The personally conducted party pursued the conductor about the deck
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Speaker 1: with inquiries in a manner that suggested to Helen's mind
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Speaker 1: the rather vulgar image of Hens with a piece of
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Speaker 1: bacon rind, until at last he went into hiding below,
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Speaker 1: and the young man with the thin volume of poetry
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Speaker 1: stood at the stern, watching England receding, looking rather lonely
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Speaker 1: and sad. To Miss Winchrelsey's eye, and then came Calais
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Speaker 1: and tumultuous novelties. And the young man had not forgotten
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Speaker 1: Miss Winchelsey's holdall and all the other little things. All
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Speaker 1: three girls, though they had passed government examinations in French
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Speaker 1: to any extent, were stricken with a dumb shame of
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Speaker 1: their accents. And the young man was very useful, and
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Speaker 1: he did not intrude. He put them in a comfortable
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Speaker 1: carriage and raised his hat and went away. Miss Winchlesey
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Speaker 1: thanked him in her best manner, a pleasing, cultivated manner,
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Speaker 1: and Fanny said he was nice. Almost before he was
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Speaker 1: out of ear shot. I wonder what he can be,
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Speaker 1: said Helen, He's going to Italy because I noticed green
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Speaker 1: tickets in his book. Miss Winchlsey almost told them of
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Speaker 1: the poetry, and decided not to do so. And presently
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Speaker 1: the carriage windows seized hold upon them, and the young
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Speaker 1: man was forgotten. It made them feel that they were
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Speaker 1: doing an educated sort of thing, to travel through a
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Speaker 1: country whose commonest advertisements were in idiomatic French. And Miss
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Speaker 1: Windlesey made unpatriotic comparisons because there were weedy, little sign
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Speaker 1: board advertisements by the rail side, instead of the broad
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Speaker 1: hoardings that defaced the landscape in our land. But the
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Speaker 1: north of France's really uninteresting country. And after a time
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Speaker 1: Fanny reverted to Hare's walks and Helen initiated lunch. Miss
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Speaker 1: Wintrelsey awoke out of a happy reverie she had been
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Speaker 1: trying to realize. She said that she was actually going
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Speaker 1: to Rome, but she perceived, at Helen's suggestion, that she
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Speaker 1: was hungry, and they lunched out of their baskets very cheerfully.
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Speaker 1: In the afternoon, they were tired and silent until Helen
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Speaker 1: made tea. Miss Winchrelsey might have dozed, only she knew
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Speaker 1: Fanny slept with her mouth open, And as their fellow
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Speaker 1: passengers were too rather nice, critical looking ladies of uncertain
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Speaker 1: age who knew French well enough to talk it, she
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Speaker 1: employed herself in keeping Fanny awake. The rhythm of the
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Speaker 1: train became insistent, and the streaming landscape outside became at
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Speaker 1: last quite painful to the eye. They were already dreadfully
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Speaker 1: tired of traveling before their nights stoppage came. The stoppage
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Speaker 1: for the night was brightened by the appearance of the
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Speaker 1: young man, and his manners were all that could be desired,
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Speaker 1: and his French quite serviceable. His coupons availed for the
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Speaker 1: same hotel as theirs, and by chance, as it seemed,
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Speaker 1: he sat next Miss Winchelsea at the Tarble Doot. In
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Speaker 1: spite of her enthusiasm for Rome. She had thought out
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Speaker 1: some such possibility very thoroughly, and when he ventured to
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Speaker 1: make a remark upon the tediousness of traveling, he let
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Speaker 1: the soup and fish go by before he did this.
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Speaker 1: She did not simply assent to his proposition, but responded
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Speaker 1: with another. They were soon comparing their journeys, and Helen
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Speaker 1: and Fanny were cruelly overlooked in the conversation. It was
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Speaker 1: to be the same journey they found one day for
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Speaker 1: the galleries at Florence. From what I hear, said the
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Speaker 1: young man, it is barely and the rest at Rome.
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Speaker 1: He talked of Rome very pleasantly. He was evidently quite
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Speaker 1: well read, and he quoted Horace about Sirracte. Miss Winchelsea
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Speaker 1: had done that book of Horace for her matriculation, and
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Speaker 1: was delighted to cap his quotation. It gave a sort
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Speaker 1: of tone to things. This incident a touch of refinement
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Speaker 1: to mere chatting. Fanny expressed a few emotions, and Helen
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Speaker 1: interpolated a few sensible remarks, but the bulk of the
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Speaker 1: talk on the girl's side naturally fell to Miss Winchelsea.
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Speaker 1: Before they reached Rome, this young man was tacitly of
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Speaker 1: their party. They did not know his name nor what
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Speaker 1: he was, but it seemed he taught, and Miss Winchlesey
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Speaker 1: had a shrewd idea he was an extension lecturer. At
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Speaker 1: any rate, he was something of that sort, something gentlemanly
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Speaker 1: and refined without being opulent and impossible. She tried once
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Speaker 1: or twice to ascertain whether he came from Oxford or Cambridge,
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Speaker 1: but he missed her timid opportunities. She tried to get
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Speaker 1: him to make remarks about those places, to see if
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Speaker 1: he would say, come up to them instead of go down.
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Speaker 1: She knew that was how you told a varsity man.
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Speaker 1: He used the word varsity, not university, in quite the
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Speaker 1: proper way. They saw as much of mister Ruskin's florence
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Speaker 1: as the brief time permitted. He met them in the
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Speaker 1: Pity Gallery and went round with them, chatting brightly and
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Speaker 1: evidently very grateful for their recognition. He knew a great
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Speaker 1: deal about art, and all four enjoyed the morning immensely.
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Speaker 1: It was fine to go around recognizing old favorites and
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Speaker 1: finding new beauties, especially while so many people fumbled helplessly
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Speaker 1: with Paydecker. Nor was he a bit of a prig,
16:59
Speaker 1: Miss wit Wnchelsey said, and indeed she detested Priggs. He
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Speaker 1: had a distinct undertone of humor, and was sunny, for example,
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Speaker 1: without being vulgar at the expense of the quaint work
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Speaker 1: of Beato Angelico. He had a grave seriousness beneath it all,
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Speaker 1: and was quick to seize the moral lessons of the pictures.
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Speaker 1: Fanny went softly among these masterpieces. She admitted she knew
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Speaker 1: so little about them, and she confessed that to her
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Speaker 1: they were all beautiful. Fanny's beautiful inclined to be a
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Speaker 1: little monotonous. Miss Winchelsey thought she had been quite glad
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Speaker 1: when the last sunny alp had vanished because of the
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Speaker 1: staccato of Fanny's admiration. Helene said little. But Miss Winchelsea
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Speaker 1: had found her a trifle wanting on the esthetic side
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Speaker 1: in the old days, and was not surprised. Sometimes she
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Speaker 1: laughed at the young man's hesitation in delicate jests, and
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Speaker 1: sometimes she didn't, and sometimes she seemed quite lost to
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Speaker 1: the art about them. In the contemplation of the dresses
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Speaker 1: of the other visitors at Rome, the young man was
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Speaker 1: with them intermittently, a rather touristy friend of his took
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Speaker 1: him away. At times. He complained comically to missus Winchelsea.
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Speaker 1: I have only two short weeks in Rome, he said,
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Speaker 1: and my friend Leonard wants to spend a whole day
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Speaker 1: at Tivoli looking at a waterfall. What is your friend,
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Speaker 1: Leonard asked Miss Winchelsea abruptly. He's the most enthusiastic pedestrian
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Speaker 1: I ever met. The young man replied amusingly, but a
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Speaker 1: little unsatisfactorily. Miss Winchelsey thought they had some glorious times,
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Speaker 1: and Fanny could not think what they would have done
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Speaker 1: without him. Miss Winchelsea's interest and Fanny's enormous capacity for
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Speaker 1: admir ration were insatiable. They never flagged through pictures and
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Speaker 1: sculpture galleries, immense crowded churches, ruins and museums, judas trees
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Speaker 1: and prickly pears, wine carts and palaces. They admired their
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Speaker 1: way unflinchingly. They never saw a stone pine or a eucalyptus,
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Speaker 1: but they named and admired it. They never glimpsed Suracti,
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Speaker 1: but they exclaimed their common ways were made wonderful by
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Speaker 1: imaginative play. Here Caesar may have walked, they would say,
19:36
Speaker 1: Rafael may have seen Suracte from this very point they
19:40
Speaker 1: happened on the tomb of Bibulous. Old Bibulous, said the
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Speaker 1: young man, the oldest monument of Republican Rome, said Miss Winchelsea.
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Speaker 1: I'm dreadfully stupid, said Fanny. But who was Bibulous? There
19:55
Speaker 1: was a curious little pause, wasn't he the person who
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Speaker 1: built the wall, said Helen. The young man glanced quickly
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Speaker 1: at her and laughed. That was balbus, he said Helen, reddened.
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Speaker 1: But neither he nor Miss Winchelsey threw any light upon
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Speaker 1: Fanny's ignorance about Bibulous. Helen was more taciturn than the
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Speaker 1: other three, but then she was always taciturn, and usually
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Speaker 1: she took care of the tram tickets and things like that,
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Speaker 1: or kept her eye on them if the young man
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Speaker 1: took them and told him where they were when he
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Speaker 1: wanted them. Glorious times they had, these young people in
20:36
Speaker 1: that pale, brown, cleanly city of memories that was once
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Speaker 1: the world. Their only sorrow was the shortness of the time.
20:44
Speaker 1: They said, indeed, that the electric trams and the seventy buildings,
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Speaker 1: and that criminal advertisement that glares upon the forum outraged
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Speaker 1: their ascetic feelings unspeakably, But that was only part of
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Speaker 1: the fun. And indeed Rome is such a wonderful place
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Speaker 1: that it made Miss Winchelsea forget some of her most
21:07
Speaker 1: carefully prepared enthusiasms at times, and Helen, taken unawares, would
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Speaker 1: suddenly admit the beauty of unexpected things. Yet Fanny and
21:17
Speaker 1: Helen would have liked a shop window or so in
21:20
Speaker 1: the English Quarter if Miss Winchelsey's uncompromising hostility to all
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Speaker 1: other English visitors had not rendered that district impossible. The
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Speaker 1: intellectual and esthetic fellowship of Miss Winchelsea and the scholarly
21:36
Speaker 1: young man passed insensibly towards a deeper feeling. The exuberant
21:42
Speaker 1: Fanny did her best to keep pace with their recondite
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Speaker 1: admiration by playing her beautiful with vigor and saying, oh,
21:51
Speaker 1: let's go with enormous appetite whenever a new place of
21:55
Speaker 1: interest was mentioned. But Helen developed a certain want of
21:59
Speaker 1: simple towards the end that disappointed Miss Winterlsey a little.
22:04
Speaker 1: She refused to see anything in the face of Pietrichichenchi
22:09
Speaker 1: Shelley's Pietri Chichenci in the Barberini Gallery, And one day,
22:15
Speaker 1: when they were deploring the electric trams, she said rather
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Speaker 1: snappishly that people must get about somehow, and it's better
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Speaker 1: than torturing horses up these horrid little hills. She spoke
22:27
Speaker 1: of the seven Hills of Rome as horrid little hills.
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Speaker 1: And the day they went on to the Palatine, though
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Speaker 1: Miss Winchelsey did not know of this, she remarked suddenly
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Speaker 1: to Fanny, don't hurry like that, my dear. They don't
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Speaker 1: want us to overtake them, and we don't say the
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Speaker 1: right things for them when we do get near. I
22:49
Speaker 1: wasn't trying to overtake them, said Fanny, slackening her excessive pace.
22:54
Speaker 1: I wasn't, indeed, And for a minute she was short
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Speaker 1: of breath. But Miss Vintrelcy had come upon happiness. It
23:02
Speaker 1: was only when she came to look back across an
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Speaker 1: intervening tragedy, that she quite realized how happy she had been,
23:09
Speaker 1: pacing among the cypress shadowed ruins and exchanging the very
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Speaker 1: highest class of information the human mind can possess, the
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Speaker 1: most refined impressions it is possible to convey Insensibly. Emotion
23:24
Speaker 1: crept into their intercourse, sunning itself openly and pleasantly. At last,
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Speaker 1: when Helen's modernity was not too near, Insensibly, their interest
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Speaker 1: drifted from the wonderful associations about them to their more
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Speaker 1: intimate and personal feelings. In a tentative way, information was supplied.
23:45
Speaker 1: She spoke elusively of her school, of her examination successes,
23:51
Speaker 1: of her gladness that the days of cram were over.
23:55
Speaker 1: He made it quite clear that he also was a teacher.
24:00
Speaker 1: They spoke of the greatness of their calling, of the
24:03
Speaker 1: necessity of sympathy to face its irksome details, of a
24:08
Speaker 1: certain loneliness they sometimes felt that was in the Colosseum,
24:13
Speaker 1: And it was as far as they got that day,
24:15
Speaker 1: because Helen returned with Fanny. She had taken her into
24:19
Speaker 1: the upper galleries. Yet the private dreams of Miss Pinchrelsey
24:24
Speaker 1: already vivid and concrete, enough became now realistic in the
24:29
Speaker 1: highest degree. She figured that pleasant young man lecturing in
24:34
Speaker 1: the most edifying way to his students, herself modestly prominent
24:39
Speaker 1: as his intellectual mate and helper. She figured a refined
24:44
Speaker 1: little home with two bureaus, with white shelves of high
24:48
Speaker 1: class books and autotypes of the pictures of Rosetti and
24:52
Speaker 1: Burne Jones, with Morris's wallpapers, and flowers in pots of
24:56
Speaker 1: beaten copper. Indeed, she figured many things on the pincio.
25:02
Speaker 1: The two had a few precious moments together while while
25:06
Speaker 1: Helen marched Fanny off to see the Mura Torto, and
25:10
Speaker 1: he spoke at once. Plainly, he said he hoped their
25:13
Speaker 1: friendship was only beginning, that he already found her company
25:17
Speaker 1: very precious to him, that indeed it was more than that.
25:21
Speaker 1: He became nervous, thrusting at his glasses with trembling fingers,
25:26
Speaker 1: as though he fancied his emotions made them unstable. I should,
25:30
Speaker 1: of course, he said, tell you things about myself. I
25:34
Speaker 1: know it is rather unusual my speaking to you like this.
25:38
Speaker 1: Only our meeting has been so accidental or providential, and
25:43
Speaker 1: I am snatching at things. I came to Rome, expecting
25:47
Speaker 1: a lonely tour. And I have been so very happy,
25:51
Speaker 1: so very happy. Quite recently I have found myself in
25:54
Speaker 1: a position I have dared to think. And he glanced
26:00
Speaker 1: over his shoulder and stopped. He said damn, quite distinctly,
26:05
Speaker 1: and she did not condemn him for that manly lapse
26:08
Speaker 1: into profanity. She looked and saw his friend, Leonard advancing.
26:13
Speaker 1: He drew nearer. He raised his hat to Miss Winchrelsey,
26:17
Speaker 1: and his smile was almost a grin. I've been looking
26:20
Speaker 1: for you everywhere, Snooks. He said, you promised to be
26:24
Speaker 1: on the piazza steps half an hour ago. Snooks. The
26:28
Speaker 1: name struck Miss Winchlsey like a blow in the face.
26:32
Speaker 1: She did not hear his reply. She thought afterwards that
26:35
Speaker 1: Leonard must have considered her the vaguest minded person. To
26:39
Speaker 1: this day, she is not sure whether she was introduced
26:42
Speaker 1: to Leonard or not, nor what she said to him.
26:46
Speaker 1: A sort of mental paralysis was upon her. Of all
26:50
Speaker 1: offensive surnames, Snooks, Helen and Fanny were returning. There were civilities,
26:58
Speaker 1: and the young men were by a great effort, she
27:02
Speaker 1: controlled herself to face the inquiring eyes of her friends.
27:06
Speaker 1: All that afternoon, She lived the life of a heroine
27:10
Speaker 1: under the indescribable outrage of that name, chatting, observing with
27:17
Speaker 1: snooks gnawing at her heart. From the moment that it
27:21
Speaker 1: first rang upon her ears, the dream of her happiness
27:25
Speaker 1: was prostrate in the dust. All the refinement she had
27:28
Speaker 1: figured was ruined and defaced by that cognomen's unavoidable vulgarity.
27:36
Speaker 1: What was that refined little home to her? Now? Spite
27:41
Speaker 1: of autotypes, Morris papers and bureaus athwart it in letters
27:46
Speaker 1: of fire ran an incredible inscription, Missus Snooks. That may
27:53
Speaker 1: seem a little thing to the reader, But consider the
27:57
Speaker 1: delicate refinement of miss Winchelsey's mind. Be as refined as
28:01
Speaker 1: you can, and then think of writing yourself down Snooks.
28:07
Speaker 1: She conceived herself being addressed as Missus Snooks by all
28:12
Speaker 1: the people she liked least conceived the patronymic touched with
28:16
Speaker 1: a vague quality of insult. She figured a card of
28:20
Speaker 1: gray and silver bearing Winchelsey, triumphantly effaced by an arrow
28:26
Speaker 1: Cupid's arrow in favor of snooks. Degrading confession of feminine weakness.
28:34
Speaker 1: She imagined the terrible rejoicings of certain girl friends, of
28:38
Speaker 1: certain grosser cousins from whom her growing refinement had long
28:43
Speaker 1: since estranged her. How they would make it sprawl across
28:47
Speaker 1: the envelope, that would bring their sarcastic congratulations. Would even
28:54
Speaker 1: his pleasant company compensate her for that? It is impossible,
28:59
Speaker 1: she muttered, impossible, Snooks. She was sorry for him, but
29:06
Speaker 1: not so sorry as she was for herself. For him,
29:09
Speaker 1: she had a touch of indignation, to be so nice,
29:13
Speaker 1: so refined, while all the time he was Snooks to
29:18
Speaker 1: hide under a pretentious gentility of demeanor. The badge sinister
29:23
Speaker 1: of his surname seemed a sort of treachery, to put
29:26
Speaker 1: it in the language of sentimental science, She felt he
29:30
Speaker 1: had led her on. There were, of course, moments of
29:34
Speaker 1: terrible vacillation, a period even when something almost like passion
29:40
Speaker 1: bid her throw refinement to the winds, And there was
29:44
Speaker 1: something in her, an unexpagated vestige of vulgarity, that made
29:49
Speaker 1: a strenuous attempt at proving that Snooks was not so
29:53
Speaker 1: very bad a name. After all, Any hovering hesitation flew
29:58
Speaker 1: before Fanny's manner. When Fanny came with an air of
30:02
Speaker 1: catastrophe to tell that she also knew the horror. Fanny's
30:07
Speaker 1: voice fell to a whisper when she said Snooks. Miss
30:11
Speaker 1: Wintlesey would not give him any answer. When at last
30:16
Speaker 1: in the borghese she could have a minute with him,
30:19
Speaker 1: but she promised him a note. She handed that note
30:23
Speaker 1: in the little Book of Poetry he had lent her,
30:26
Speaker 1: the little book that had first drawn them together. Her
30:30
Speaker 1: refusal was ambiguous, elusive. She could no more tell him
30:34
Speaker 1: why she rejected him. That she could have told a
30:37
Speaker 1: cripple of his hump. He too must feel something of
30:41
Speaker 1: the unspeakable quality of his name. Indeed, he had avoided
30:46
Speaker 1: a dozen chances of telling it, she now perceived. So
30:49
Speaker 1: she spoke of obstacles. She could not reveal reasons why
30:55
Speaker 1: the thing he spoke of was impossible. She addressed the
30:58
Speaker 1: note with a shiver. E k Snooks. Things were worse
31:05
Speaker 1: than she had dreaded. He asked her to explain. How
31:08
Speaker 1: could she explain? Those last two days in Rome were dreadful.
31:15
Speaker 1: She was haunted by his air of astonished perplexity. She
31:18
Speaker 1: knew she had given him intimate hopes. She had not
31:22
Speaker 1: the courage to examine her mind thoroughly, for the extent
31:26
Speaker 1: of her encouragement. She knew he must think her the
31:29
Speaker 1: most changeable of beings. Now that she was in full retreat,
31:33
Speaker 1: she would not even perceive his hints of a possible correspondence.
31:38
Speaker 1: But in that matter he did a thing that seemed
31:40
Speaker 1: to her at once delicate and romantic. He made a
31:44
Speaker 1: go between of Fanny. Fanny could not keep the secret,
31:49
Speaker 1: and came and told her that night. Under a transparent
31:52
Speaker 1: pretext of needing advice, Mister Snooks said, Fanny wants to
31:57
Speaker 1: write to me Fancy. I had no idea, but should
32:01
Speaker 1: I let him? They talked it over long and earnestly,
32:05
Speaker 1: and Miss Winchelsey was careful to keep the veil over
32:08
Speaker 1: her heart. She was already repenting his disregarded hints. Why
32:14
Speaker 1: should she not hear of him? Sometimes painful though his
32:18
Speaker 1: name must be to her? Miss Winchelsey decided that it
32:21
Speaker 1: might be permitted, and Fanny kissed her good night with
32:24
Speaker 1: unusual emotion. After she had gone, Miss Winchrelsey sat for
32:29
Speaker 1: a long time at the window of her little room.
32:32
Speaker 1: It was moonlight, and down the street a man sang
32:35
Speaker 1: Santa Lucia, with almost heart dissolving tenderness. She sat very still.
32:42
Speaker 1: She breathed a word, very softly to herself. The word
32:46
Speaker 1: was Snooks. Then she got up with a profound sigh
32:51
Speaker 1: and went to bed. The next morning he said to
32:55
Speaker 1: her meaningly, I shall hear of you through your friend.
32:59
Speaker 1: Mister Snooks saw them off from Rome with that pathetic
33:03
Speaker 1: interrogative perplexity still on his face, And if it had
33:08
Speaker 1: not been for Helen, he would have retained Miss Winchlesey's
33:11
Speaker 1: hold all in his hand as a sort of encyclopedic keepsake.
33:16
Speaker 1: On their way back to England, Miss Winchlesey, on six
33:19
Speaker 1: separate occasions, made Fanny promise to write to her the
33:23
Speaker 1: longest of long letters. Fanny, it seemed, would be quite
33:27
Speaker 1: near mister Snook's. Her new school she was always going
33:31
Speaker 1: to new schools, would be only five miles from steely Bank,
33:35
Speaker 1: And it was in the steely Bank Polytechnic and one
33:39
Speaker 1: or two first class schools that mister Snooks did his teaching.
33:43
Speaker 1: He might even see her at times. They could not
33:46
Speaker 1: talk much of him. She and Fanny always spoke of him,
33:51
Speaker 1: never of mister Snook's, because Helen was apt to say
33:55
Speaker 1: unsympathetic things about him her nature had coarsened very much
33:59
Speaker 1: Miss Winchley's. She perceived since the old training college days
34:03
Speaker 1: she had become hard and cynical. She thought he had
34:06
Speaker 1: a weak face, mistaking refinement for weakness, as people of
34:11
Speaker 1: her stamp are apt to do, and when she heard
34:14
Speaker 1: his name was Snooks, she said she had expected something
34:17
Speaker 1: of the sort. Miss Winchelsea was careful to spare her
34:21
Speaker 1: own feelings after that, but Fanny was less circumspect. The
34:26
Speaker 1: girls parted in London, and Miss Winchelsey returned with a
34:30
Speaker 1: new interest in life to the girl's high school, in
34:33
Speaker 1: which she had been an increasingly valuable assistant for the
34:36
Speaker 1: last three years. Her new interest in life was Fanny
34:40
Speaker 1: as a correspondent, and to give her a lead, she
34:44
Speaker 1: wrote her a lengthy descriptive letter within a fortnight of
34:47
Speaker 1: her return. Fanny answered very disappointingly. Fanny indeed had no
34:53
Speaker 1: literary gift, but it was new to Miss Winchlesey to
34:56
Speaker 1: find herself deploring the want of gifts in a friend.
35:00
Speaker 1: That letter was even criticized aloud in the safe solitude
35:04
Speaker 1: of Miss Winchlesey's study, and her criticism, spoken with great bitterness,
35:09
Speaker 1: was tortle. It was full of just the things Miss
35:13
Speaker 1: Winchlesey's letter had been full of particulars of the school
35:17
Speaker 1: and of mister Snook's, only this much. I have had
35:20
Speaker 1: a letter from mister Snook's and he has been over
35:23
Speaker 1: to see me on two Saturday afternoons running. He talked
35:26
Speaker 1: about Rome and you. We both talked about you. Your
35:29
Speaker 1: ears must have burnt, my dear. Miss Winchlesey repressed a
35:33
Speaker 1: desire to demand more explicit information and wrote the sweetest
35:38
Speaker 1: long letter again, tell me all about yourself, dear. That
35:42
Speaker 1: journey has quite refreshed our ancient friendship, and I do
35:46
Speaker 1: so want to keep in touch with you. About mister Snook's.
35:50
Speaker 1: She simply wrote on the fifth page that she was
35:54
Speaker 1: glad Fanny had seen him, and that if he should
35:58
Speaker 1: ask after her, she was to remembered to him very
36:01
Speaker 1: kindly underlined. And Fanny replied most obtusely in the key
36:07
Speaker 1: of that ancient friendship, reminding Miss Winchlesey of a dozen
36:12
Speaker 1: foolish things of those old schoolgirl days at the Training College,
36:16
Speaker 1: and saying not a word about mister Snook's. For nearly
36:21
Speaker 1: a week. Miss Minchlesey was so angry at the failure
36:24
Speaker 1: of Fanny as a go between, that she could not
36:28
Speaker 1: write to her. And then she wrote less effusively, and
36:32
Speaker 1: in her letter she asked, point blank, have you seen
36:35
Speaker 1: mister Snook's. Fanny's letter was unexpectedly satisfactory. I have seen
36:42
Speaker 1: mister Snooks, she wrote, and having once named him, she
36:46
Speaker 1: kept on about him. It was all snooks, snooks this,
36:49
Speaker 1: and snooks that he was to give a public lecture,
36:52
Speaker 1: said Fanny, among other things. Yet Miss Minchlsey, after the
36:57
Speaker 1: first glow of gratification, still found this letter a little unsatisfactory.
37:03
Speaker 1: Fanny did not report mister Snook's as saying anything about
37:07
Speaker 1: Miss Winchelsey, nor as looking a little white and worn
37:12
Speaker 1: as he ought to have been doing. And behold, before
37:15
Speaker 1: she had replied, came a second letter from Fanny on
37:18
Speaker 1: the same theme, quite a gushing letter, and covering six
37:22
Speaker 1: sheets with her loose feminine hand. And about this second
37:27
Speaker 1: letter was a rather odd little thing that Miss Winchlesey
37:30
Speaker 1: only noticed as she re read it the third time.
37:33
Speaker 1: Fanny's natural femininity had prevailed even against the round and
37:40
Speaker 1: clear traditions of the training college. She was one of
37:43
Speaker 1: those she creatures born, to make all her m's and n's,
37:48
Speaker 1: and u's and r's and ease alike, and to leave
37:54
Speaker 1: her o's and a's open and her eyes undotted, so
38:00
Speaker 1: that it was only after an elaborate comparison of word
38:03
Speaker 1: with word, that Miss Winchlesey felt assured mister Snooks was
38:07
Speaker 1: not really mister Snook's at all. In Fanny's first letter
38:11
Speaker 1: of gush, he was mister Snook's. In her second, the
38:15
Speaker 1: spelling was changed to mister Snox. Miss Winchlesey's hand positively
38:21
Speaker 1: trembled as she turned the sheet over. It meant so
38:24
Speaker 1: much to her, for it had already begun to seem
38:27
Speaker 1: to her that even the name of missus Snook's might
38:30
Speaker 1: be avoided at too great a price, and suddenly this possibility.
38:36
Speaker 1: She turned over the six sheets, all dappled with that
38:40
Speaker 1: critical name, and everywhere the first letter had the form
38:43
Speaker 1: of an e. For a time she walked the room
38:47
Speaker 1: with a hand pressed upon her heart. She spent a
38:50
Speaker 1: whole day pondering this change, weighing a letter of inquiry
38:54
Speaker 1: that should be at once discreet and effectual, Weighing too
38:59
Speaker 1: what action she should take. After the answer came, she
39:03
Speaker 1: was resolved that if this altered spelling was anything more
39:07
Speaker 1: than a quaint fancy of Fanny's, she should write forthwith
39:11
Speaker 1: the mister Snooks. She had now reached a stage when
39:14
Speaker 1: minor refinements of behavior disappear. Her excuse remained uninvented, but
39:20
Speaker 1: she had the subject of her letter clear in her mind,
39:23
Speaker 1: even to the hint that circumstances in my life have
39:27
Speaker 1: changed very greatly since we talked together. But she never
39:31
Speaker 1: gave that hint. There came a third letter from that
39:34
Speaker 1: fitful correspondent Fanny. The first line proclaimed her the happiest
39:39
Speaker 1: girl alive. Miss Winchelsey crushed the letter in her hand,
39:45
Speaker 1: the rest unread, and sat with her face suddenly very still.
39:50
Speaker 1: She had received it just before morning school, and had
39:53
Speaker 1: opened it when the junior mathematicians were well under way. Presently,
39:57
Speaker 1: she resumed reading with an appearance of great calm. But
40:02
Speaker 1: after the first sheet she went on reading the third
40:06
Speaker 1: without discovering the error. Told him, frankly, I did not
40:10
Speaker 1: like his name. The third sheet began, he told me
40:13
Speaker 1: that he did not like it himself. You know that
40:15
Speaker 1: sort of sudden frank way he has. Miss Winchelsey did
40:20
Speaker 1: know so I said, couldn't you change it? He didn't
40:24
Speaker 1: see it at first. Well, you know, dear, he had
40:27
Speaker 1: told me what it really meant. It means seven oaks,
40:31
Speaker 1: only it has got down to snooks. Both snooks and
40:34
Speaker 1: no oaks, dreadfully vulgar surnames, though they be, are really
40:38
Speaker 1: worn forms of seven oaks. So I said, even I
40:41
Speaker 1: have my bright ideas at times, if it got down
40:44
Speaker 1: from seven oaks to snooks, why not get it back
40:48
Speaker 1: from snooks to seven oaks and the long and the
40:51
Speaker 1: short of it. Dear, He couldn't refuse me, and he
40:54
Speaker 1: changed his spelling there and then to sennox for the
40:57
Speaker 1: bills of the new lecture. And afterwards, when we are married,
41:01
Speaker 1: we shall put in the apostrophe and make it set notakes.
41:06
Speaker 1: Would n it kind of him to mind that fancy
41:08
Speaker 1: of mine when many men would have taken offense. But
41:11
Speaker 1: it is just like him all over. He is as
41:14
Speaker 1: kind as he is clever, because he knew as well
41:17
Speaker 1: as I did that I would have had him in
41:19
Speaker 1: spite of it had he been ten times snooks. But
41:23
Speaker 1: he did it all the same. The class was startled
41:27
Speaker 1: by the sound of paper being viciously torn and looked
41:30
Speaker 1: up to see Miss Winchelsey white in the face and
41:33
Speaker 1: with some very small pieces of paper clenched in one hand.
41:38
Speaker 1: For a few seconds, they stared at her stare, and
41:41
Speaker 1: then her expression changed back to a more familiar one.
41:44
Speaker 1: Has any one finished number three? She asked, in an
41:48
Speaker 1: even tone. She remained calm after that, but impositions ruled
41:54
Speaker 1: high that day, and she spent two laborious evenings writing
41:59
Speaker 1: letters of sorts to Fanny before she found a decent
42:03
Speaker 1: congratulatory vein her reason struggled hopelessly against the persuasion that
42:09
Speaker 1: Fanny had behaved in an exceedingly treacherous manner. One may
42:15
Speaker 1: be extremely refined and still capable of a very sore heart.
42:21
Speaker 1: Certainly Miss Wintlesey's heart was very sore. She had moods
42:25
Speaker 1: of sexual hostility in which she generalized uncharitably about mankind.
42:32
Speaker 1: He forgot himself with me, she said, But Fanny is
42:35
Speaker 1: pink and pretty and soft and a fool, a very
42:39
Speaker 1: excellent match for a man. And by way of a
42:42
Speaker 1: wedding present, she sent Fanny a gracefully bound volume of
42:46
Speaker 1: poetry by George Meredith, and Fanny wrote back a grossly
42:50
Speaker 1: happy letter to say that it was all beautiful. Miss
42:55
Speaker 1: Winchlesey hoped that someday mister Sennox might take up that's
43:00
Speaker 1: limb book and think for a moment of the donor.
43:03
Speaker 1: Fanny wrote several times before and about her marriage, pursuing
43:08
Speaker 1: that fond legend of their ancient friendship and giving her
43:13
Speaker 1: happiness in the fullest detail. And Miss Winchlesey wrote to
43:17
Speaker 1: Helen for the first time after the Roman journey, saying
43:21
Speaker 1: nothing about the marriage, but expressing very cordial feelings. They
43:26
Speaker 1: had been in Rome at Easter, and Fanny was married
43:30
Speaker 1: in the August vacation. She wrote a garrulous letter to
43:34
Speaker 1: Miss Winchlesey describing her homecoming and the astonishing arrangements of
43:39
Speaker 1: their teeny weeny little house. Mister Sennox was now beginning
43:45
Speaker 1: to assume a refinement in Miss Winchlesey's memory out of
43:49
Speaker 1: all proportion to the facts of the case, and she
43:53
Speaker 1: tried in vain to imagine his cultured greatness in a
43:57
Speaker 1: teeny weeny little house and busy in nampling a cozy corner,
44:01
Speaker 1: said Fanny, sprawling to the end of her third sheet.
44:05
Speaker 1: So excuse more, Miss Winchelsea answered in her best style,
44:09
Speaker 1: gently poking fun at Fanny's arrangements, and hoping intensely that
44:14
Speaker 1: mister Sennox might see the letter. Only. This hope enabled
44:19
Speaker 1: her to write at all, answering not only that letter,
44:23
Speaker 1: but one in November and one at Christmas. The two
44:27
Speaker 1: latter communications contained urgent invitations for her to come to
44:32
Speaker 1: Steely Bank on a visit during the Christmas holidays. She
44:35
Speaker 1: tried to think that he had told her to ask that,
44:40
Speaker 1: but it was too much like Fanny's opulent good nature.
44:44
Speaker 1: She could not but believe that he must be sick
44:47
Speaker 1: of his blunder by this time, and she had more
44:50
Speaker 1: than a hope that he would presently write her a
44:52
Speaker 1: letter beginning Dear Friend. Something subtly tragic in the separation
44:58
Speaker 1: was a great support to her. A sad misunderstanding. To
45:02
Speaker 1: have been jilted would have been intolerable, But he never
45:06
Speaker 1: wrote that letter Beginning Dear Friend. For two years, Miss
45:11
Speaker 1: Winchelsey could not go to see her friends, in spite
45:15
Speaker 1: of the reiterated invitations of Missus Sevenoaks. It became full
45:20
Speaker 1: seven Oaks in the second year. Then one day, near
45:24
Speaker 1: the Easter rest, she felt lonely and without a soul
45:28
Speaker 1: to understand her in the world, and her mind ran
45:31
Speaker 1: once more on what is called platonic friendship. Fanny was
45:36
Speaker 1: clearly happy and busy in her new sphere of domesticity,
45:41
Speaker 1: but no doubt he had his lonely hours. Did he
45:45
Speaker 1: ever think of those days in Rome gone? Now beyond recalling,
45:50
Speaker 1: no one had understood her as he had done, no
45:54
Speaker 1: one in all the world. It would be a sort
45:57
Speaker 1: of melancholy pleasure to talk to him again, And what
46:00
Speaker 1: harm could it do? Why should she deny herself? That
46:04
Speaker 1: night she wrote a sonnet, all but the last two
46:07
Speaker 1: lines of the octave, which would not come, And the
46:10
Speaker 1: next day she composed a graceful little note to tell
46:14
Speaker 1: Fanny she was coming down. And so she saw him again.
46:19
Speaker 1: Even at the first encounter, it was evident he had changed.
46:24
Speaker 1: He seemed stouter and less nervous, and it speedily appeared
46:28
Speaker 1: that his conversation had already lost much of its old delicacy.
46:33
Speaker 1: There even seemed a justification for Helen's description of weakness
46:36
Speaker 1: in his face. In certain lights, it was weak. He
46:40
Speaker 1: seemed busy and preoccupied about his affairs, and almost under
46:44
Speaker 1: the impression that miss Winchelsey had come for the sake
46:47
Speaker 1: of Fanny. He discussed his dinner with Fanny in an
46:50
Speaker 1: intelligent way. They only had one good long talk together,
46:55
Speaker 1: and that came to nothing. He did not refer to Rome,
46:58
Speaker 1: and spent some time abusing a man who had stolen
47:02
Speaker 1: an idea he had had for a text book. It
47:05
Speaker 1: did not seem a very wonderful idea to Miss Winchlesey.
47:09
Speaker 1: She discovered he had forgotten the names of more than
47:11
Speaker 1: half the painters whose work they had rejoiced over in Florence.
47:16
Speaker 1: It was a sadly disappointing week, and Miss Winchlesey was
47:20
Speaker 1: glad when it came to an end. Under various excuses,
47:24
Speaker 1: she avoided visiting them again. After a time, the visitors
47:29
Speaker 1: room was occupied by their two little boys, and Fanny's
47:32
Speaker 1: invitations ceased. The intimacy of her letters had long since
47:38
Speaker 1: faded away. End of Section twenty four