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10 - The House of Arden - E Nesbit · Classic Science Fiction Books

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Speaker 1: Chapter eight, Guy Fox, Part one three days because there
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Speaker 1: had been a quarrel. But days pass quickly when the
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Speaker 1: sun shines, and it is holiday time, and you have
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Speaker 1: a big ruined castle to explore and examine, a castle
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Speaker 1: that is your own or your brothers. After all, said Elfrida, Sensibly,
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Speaker 1: we might quite likely find the treasure ourselves without any
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Speaker 1: magic MOLDI warpin us at all. We look thoroughly, we
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Speaker 1: won't leave a stone unturned. We shall have to leave
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Speaker 1: a good many stones unturned, said Edred, looked at the
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Speaker 1: great gray mass of the keep that tw tall and
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Speaker 1: frowning above them. Well, you know what I mean, said Efreida.
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Speaker 1: Come on, and they went. They climbed the steep worn
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Speaker 1: stairs that went round and round in the darkness, stairs
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Speaker 1: littered with dead leaves and moat and dropped feathers, and
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Speaker 1: the dry, deserted nests of owls and jack doors, Stairs
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Speaker 1: that ended suddenly in daylight, and a steep last step,
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Speaker 1: and the top of a broad, ivy grown wall, from
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Speaker 1: which you could look down down, down, past the holes
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Speaker 1: in the walls where the big beams used to be,
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Speaker 1: past the old fireplace, still black with the smoke of fires,
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Speaker 1: long since burnt out, past the doors and windows of
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Speaker 1: rooms whose floor fell away long ago, down down to
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Speaker 1: where ferns and grass and brambles grew green at the
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Speaker 1: very bottom of the tower. Then there were arch doors
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Speaker 1: that led to colonnades with strong little pillars and narrow windows,
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Speaker 1: wonderful little unexpected chambers and corners, the best place in
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Speaker 1: the whole white world for serious and energetic hide and seek.
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Speaker 1: How glorious, said Elfrida, as they rested, scarlet and panting
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Speaker 1: after a swilling game of I Spy. If all these
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Speaker 1: broken bits were mended so that you couldn't see where
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Speaker 1: the new bits were stuck on, and if it could
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Speaker 1: all be exactly like it was when it was brand new,
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Speaker 1: there wasn't the house when he was brand new, the
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Speaker 1: house like it is now, I mean, said Edred. I
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Speaker 1: don't suppose there was any attic with chests in when
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Speaker 1: the castle was new. There couldn't be, not with all
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Speaker 1: the chests, said Elfrida. Of course not, because some of
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Speaker 1: the clothes in the chest weren't made till long after
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Speaker 1: the castle was built. I believe grown ups can tell
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Speaker 1: what a broken thing was like when it was new.
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Speaker 1: I know they can with bones, masdons and things, and
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Speaker 1: they made out what Hercules was like out of one
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Speaker 1: foot of him that they found, I believe, she added hastily.
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Speaker 1: I've got an idea, said Edred. If he could get
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Speaker 1: back to where the castle was all perfect like a
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Speaker 1: model and rare pictures of every part, then when we
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Speaker 1: found the treasure, we should know exactly what to build
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Speaker 1: it up like, shouldn't we, Yes, said Elfrida very gently.
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Speaker 1: We certainly should. But then we should have to know
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Speaker 1: how to draw first, shouldn't we. Of course we should
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Speaker 1: eat it, agreed, But that wouldn't take long if we
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Speaker 1: really tried. I never do try at school. I don't
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Speaker 1: like it, but it's jolly easy. I know that Bumslammy
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Speaker 1: always takes the drawing price, and you know what it doffer.
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Speaker 1: He is. We might begin to learn, now, don't you think.
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Speaker 1: Efrida sat down on a fallen stone in the middle
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Speaker 1: of the castle yard and looked at the intricate, wonderful
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Speaker 1: arches and pillars, the cranulated battlements of the towers, the
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Speaker 1: splendid stoutness of the walls, and she sighed yes, she said,
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Speaker 1: let's begin now, and you'll have to lend me one
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Speaker 1: of your pencils, said he, because I broke mine alt
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Speaker 1: bids trying to get the parlor door open the day
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Speaker 1: you'd got the key in your pocket quite a long
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Speaker 1: when it was You'll have to lend me along one alf.
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Speaker 1: I can't draw with those little indie bits that get
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Speaker 1: inside your hand and prick you with the other end.
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Speaker 1: I don't mind, said she, so long as you don't
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Speaker 1: put it in your mouth. So they got large sheets
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Speaker 1: of writing paper and brown calf bound books for the
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Speaker 1: paper to lie flat on, and they started to draw
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Speaker 1: arden Castle. And as Elfrida tried to draw everything she
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Speaker 1: knew was there, as well as everything she could see,
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Speaker 1: her drawing soon became almost entirely covered with black lad
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Speaker 1: They had no India rubber, and if you drew anything wrong,
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Speaker 1: it had to stay drawn. When you first begin to draw,
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Speaker 1: you draw a good many things wrong, don't you. I
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Speaker 1: assure you that nobody would have known that the black
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Speaker 1: and gray muddle on Elfrida's paper was meant to be
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Speaker 1: a picture for Castle. Edwards was much more easily recognized,
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Speaker 1: even before he printed Arden Castle under it in large,
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Speaker 1: uneven letters. He never once raised his eyes from his
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Speaker 1: paper and just drew what he thought the front of
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Speaker 1: the castle looked like from the outside. Also, he sucked
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Speaker 1: his pencil earnestly, Elfrida's pencil, I mean, and this made
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Speaker 1: the lines of his drawing very black. There, he said,
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Speaker 1: at last, it's ever much lighter than yours. Yes, said Elfrida.
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Speaker 1: But there's more in mine. It doesn't matter how much
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Speaker 1: there is in a picture if you can't tell what
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Speaker 1: it's meant for, said Edred, with some truce. Now in
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Speaker 1: mine you can see the towers and the big gate,
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Speaker 1: and the windows, and the twiddly in and outness on top. Yes,
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Speaker 1: said Elfrida. But well, let's do something else. I don't
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Speaker 1: believe we should either of us learn to draw well
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Speaker 1: enough to rebuild Arden by not before we found the treasure.
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Speaker 1: I mean, perhaps we might meet a real artist like
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Speaker 1: the one we saw drawing the castle yesterday in the past,
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Speaker 1: I mean, and get him to draw it for us,
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Speaker 1: and bring the picture back with us. And oh, cried Edred,
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Speaker 1: jumping up and dropping his masterpiece and the calf bound
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Speaker 1: volume and the pencil. I know, the brownie, the brownie. Yes,
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Speaker 1: take it with us. Then we could photograph the castle
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Speaker 1: all perfect, But we can't take it with us, can't
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Speaker 1: we said Edred? That's all you know. Now I'll tell
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Speaker 1: you something that first time, A bit of plaster was
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Speaker 1: in my shoe when we changed, And it was in
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Speaker 1: my shoe when we got there, and I took it
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Speaker 1: out when we were learning about Dog's Delight, and I
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Speaker 1: flipped it out of the window. And when we got
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Speaker 1: back and had changed in everything, there was that bit
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Speaker 1: of plaster on my own shoe. If we can take plaster,
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Speaker 1: we can take photographs, cameras. I mean this close and
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Speaker 1: intelligent reasoning, commanded Elfrida's respect, and she wished she had
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Speaker 1: thought of it herself, But then she had not had
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Speaker 1: any plaster on her shoe, so she said, you're getting
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Speaker 1: quite clever, aren't you, aha, said Edred. You'd like to
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Speaker 1: have thought of that yourself, wouldn't you. I can be
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Speaker 1: clever sometimes, same as you can. It is very annoying
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Speaker 1: to have our thoughts re at. Efrida said, swiftly, not often,
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Speaker 1: you can't, and then stopped short for a moment. The
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Speaker 1: children stood looking at each other with a very peculiar expression.
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Speaker 1: Then a sigh of relief broke from each feel it,
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Speaker 1: said Edred. Just in time, said Elfrida. It wasn't a quarrel.
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Speaker 1: Nobody could say it was a quarrel. Come on, let's
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Speaker 1: go and look at the cottages like the witch showed
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Speaker 1: us to. They went. They made it two of inspecting
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Speaker 1: that day and the next and the next, and they
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Speaker 1: saw a great many things that a grown up inspector
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Speaker 1: would never have seen. Poor people are very friendly and
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Speaker 1: kind to you when you are a child. They will
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Speaker 1: let you come into their houses and talk to you
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Speaker 1: and show you things in a way that they would
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Speaker 1: never condescend to do with your grown upulations. This is,
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Speaker 1: of course, if you are a really nice child and
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Speaker 1: treat them in a respectful and friendly way. Edred and
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Speaker 1: Elfrida very soon knew more about the insights of the
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Speaker 1: cottages rond Arden than any grown up could have learned
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Speaker 1: in a year. They knew what wages the master of
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Speaker 1: the house gout, what there was for dinner, and what
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Speaker 1: oftener there wasn't, how many children were still living and
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Speaker 1: how many had failed to live. They knew exactly where
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Speaker 1: the rain came through the wotten thatch and bad weather,
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Speaker 1: and where the boards didn't fit, and so led the
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Speaker 1: drafts in, and how some of the doors wouldn't shut
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Speaker 1: somewhat open, and how the bedroom windows were as often
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Speaker 1: as not not made to open at all. And when
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Speaker 1: they weren't visiting the cottages or exploring the castle, they
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Speaker 1: found a joyous way of passing the time in the
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Speaker 1: reading aloud of the history of Arden. They took it
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Speaker 1: in turns to read aloud. Elfrida looked carefully for some
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Speaker 1: mention of Sir Edward Talbot and his pretending to be
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Speaker 1: the Chevalier Saint George. There was none, but as Sir
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Speaker 1: Edward Talbot had been accused with the Lord Arden of
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Speaker 1: the time of flotting against his Most Christian Majesty, King
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Speaker 1: James the First, I wonder if he was like mine,
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Speaker 1: Edward Talbot, said Elfrida. I would like to see him again.
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Speaker 1: I wish I told him about his having been born
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Speaker 1: so many years after he died, But it would have
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Speaker 1: been difficult to explain, wouldn't it. Let's look in Green's
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Speaker 1: history book and see what they looked like when it
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Speaker 1: was his most Christian Majesty, King James the First. Perhaps
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Speaker 1: it was this which decided the children, when the three
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Speaker 1: days were over, to put on the clothes, which most
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Speaker 1: resembled the ones in the pictures of James the first's
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Speaker 1: time in Green's history. Edred had full breeches pulled out
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Speaker 1: little balloons, and a steeper crowned head, and a sort
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Speaker 1: of tune neck of crimson velvet, and a big starred
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Speaker 1: ruff from his little neck, more uncomfortable even than your
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Speaker 1: eaton collar is after you've been wearing flannels for days
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Speaker 1: and days. And Elfrida had long tid stays with a
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Speaker 1: large flat shaped piece of wood down the front, and
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Speaker 1: very full long skirts over a very abrupt hoop. When
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Speaker 1: the three days were over, the door of the attic, which,
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Speaker 1: as usual after quarrel, had been quite invisible and impossible
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Speaker 1: to find, had become as plain as the nose on
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Speaker 1: the face of the plainest person you know. And the
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Speaker 1: children had walked in and looked in the chests till
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Speaker 1: they found what they wanted. And now they put on
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Speaker 1: ruffs and all the rest of it to the accompaniment, or,
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Speaker 1: as it always seemed, with the help of soft pigeon noises.
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Speaker 1: While they were dressing, Elfrida had the Brownie camera tightly
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Speaker 1: in one hand or the other. This made dressing rather
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Speaker 1: slow and difficult, but the children had agreed that if
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Speaker 1: it were not done, the brownie would be, as Edred
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Speaker 1: put it, liable to manish, as everything else belonging to
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Speaker 1: their own time always did, except their clothes. I can't
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Speaker 1: explain to you just now how it was that their
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Speaker 1: clothes didn't vanish. It would take too long, But it
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Speaker 1: was all part of the magic of white feathers, which are,
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Speaker 1: as you know, the clothes of white pigeons. And now
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Speaker 1: a very odd thing happened as Edred put on a
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Speaker 1: second shoe, which was the last touch to the united toilets.
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Speaker 1: The walls seemed to tremble and shake and go crooked
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Speaker 1: like a house of cards at the way instant before
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Speaker 1: topples down. The floor slap entered to that degree that
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Speaker 1: standing on it was so difficult as to be at
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Speaker 1: last impossible. The rafters all seemed to get crooked and mixed,
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Speaker 1: like a box of matches when you spill them on
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Speaker 1: the floor. The tight roof that showed blue daylight through
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Speaker 1: seemed to spin like a top, and you could not
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Speaker 1: tell at all which way up you were. All this
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Speaker 1: happened with dreadful suddenness, but almost as soon as it
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Speaker 1: had begun, it stopped with a jerk like that of
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Speaker 1: a clockwork engine that has gone wrong. And the attic
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Speaker 1: was gone, and the chests and the blue chink ties
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Speaker 1: of the roof, and the walls and the rafters, and
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Speaker 1: the room had shrunk to less than half its old size,
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Speaker 1: and it was higher, and it was not an attic
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Speaker 1: any more, but a round room with narrow windows, and
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Speaker 1: just such a fireplace with a stone hood as the
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Speaker 1: ones the children had seen when they looked down from
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Speaker 1: the tops of the towers. You must have often heard
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Speaker 1: of events that take people's breath away. The sudden change
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Speaker 1: did really take away the breast of Edred and Elfrida,
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Speaker 1: so that for a few moments they could only stare
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Speaker 1: at each other like eye Fox's masts. As Elfrida later said,
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Speaker 1: I see, said Edred, when breath enough for speech had
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Speaker 1: returned to him. This is the place where the attic
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Speaker 1: was after the tower fell to pieces. But there isn't
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Speaker 1: any attic, really, said Elfrida. You know we can't find
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Speaker 1: it if we quarreled, and missus Sunnyset doesn't ever find it.
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Speaker 1: It isn't anywhere, Yes, it is, said Edred, we couldn't
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Speaker 1: find it if it wasn't well, said Elfrida gloomily. I
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Speaker 1: only hope we may find it. That's all I suppose.
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Speaker 1: We may as well go out. It's no use dicking
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Speaker 1: in the sorid little room. Her hand was on the door.
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Speaker 1: But even as she fumbled with the latch, which was
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Speaker 1: of iron and of a shape to which he was
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Speaker 1: wholly unaccustomed, something else happened, even more disconcerting than the
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Speaker 1: turnover change in which the attic and the chests had disappeared.
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Speaker 1: It is very difficult to describe. Perhaps you happen to
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Speaker 1: dislike tracking in trains with your back to the engine.
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Speaker 1: If you do dislike it, you dislike it very much. Indeed,
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Speaker 1: it makes your headache and gives you a queer feeling
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Speaker 1: at the back of your neck, and makes you turn
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Speaker 1: so pale that the grown up people with whom you
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Speaker 1: are traveling will ask you what is the matter, and
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Speaker 1: sometimes heartlessly insist that the bunds you had at the junction,
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Speaker 1: or the chocolate creams pressed into your hand at the
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Speaker 1: parting hour by Uncle Fred or Aunt Imogen, are the
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Speaker 1: cause of your sufferings. The worst feeling of all is
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Speaker 1: that terrible sensation, as though your heart and lungs and
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Speaker 1: the front part of your basket were being drawn slowly
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Speaker 1: but surely through your backbone. Eric shaking a very long
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Speaker 1: way off. The sensations which now held Edred and Efrida
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Speaker 1: were exactly like those which, if you don't like traveling backwards,
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Speaker 1: you know only too well. And the sensations were so
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Speaker 1: acute that both children shut their eyes. The whirling feeling
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Speaker 1: and the withdrawing waistcoat feeling, and the headache and the
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Speaker 1: back of the neck feeling stopped as suddenly as they
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Speaker 1: had begun, and the two children opened their eyes. In
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Speaker 1: a room which Edward at least had never seen before.
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Speaker 1: To Elfrida, it seemed strange. She had familiar the shape
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Speaker 1: of the room, the position of doors and windows, the
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Speaker 1: metal piece with its curious carvings. These she knew, and
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Speaker 1: some of the furniture too. Yet the room seemed bare,
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Speaker 1: baarer than it should have been. But why should it
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Speaker 1: look bare barer than it should have been, unless she
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Speaker 1: knew how much less bare it once was, unless in
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Speaker 1: fact she had seen it before. Oh, I know, she cried,
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Speaker 1: standing in her stiff skirts and heavy shoes in the
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Speaker 1: middle of the room. I know this is Lord Arden's
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Speaker 1: town house. This is where it was with cousin Buddy,
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Speaker 1: only there aren't such nice chairs and things, and it
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Speaker 1: was full of people. Then Edward remained silent, his mouth
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Speaker 1: half open and his eyes half shut, in a sort
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Speaker 1: of trance of astonishment. This was very different from the
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Speaker 1: last venture in which he had taken part. For then
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Speaker 1: he had only gone to the house in Adden Castle
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Speaker 1: as it was in Bonney's time, and he had gone
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Speaker 1: to it by the simple means of walking down a
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Speaker 1: staircase with which he was already familiar. But now he
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Speaker 1: had been transported in a most violent and unpleasing manner,
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Speaker 1: not only from his own times two times much earlier,
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Speaker 1: but also from ann Castle, which he knew, to Aarden
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Speaker 1: house which he did not know. So he was silent,
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Speaker 1: and when he did speak, it was with discontent, working
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Speaker 1: on disgust. I don't like it, he began, Let's go back.
15:35
Speaker 1: I don't like it. And we didn't take the photograph,
15:39
Speaker 1: and I don't like it, and my clothes are hurried.
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Speaker 1: I feel something between a balloon and a blue coat. Boy,
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Speaker 1: And you've no idea how silly you look like missus
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Speaker 1: Noah out of the ark, only Tubby, and I don't
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Speaker 1: know who we are supposed to be. And I don't
15:54
Speaker 1: suppose this is arden house, and if it is, you
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Speaker 1: don't know when. Suppose it's inquisition times and they put
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Speaker 1: us on the stake. Let's go back. I don't like it,
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Speaker 1: he ended. Now you just listen, said Elfrida, knitting her
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Speaker 1: brows under the queer cap. She wore, I know inside
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Speaker 1: me what I mean, but you won't unless you jolly
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Speaker 1: well attend fire ahead. Well then even if it was
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Speaker 1: inquisition times, it would be all right for us. How
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Speaker 1: do you know? I don't know how I know, but
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Speaker 1: I know I do know, said Elfrida firmly. You see
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Speaker 1: I've been here before. It's not real, you see it is,
16:35
Speaker 1: said Edred, kicking the leg of the table. Yes, of course,
16:39
Speaker 1: but look here. You remember the water shoot at Earl's
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Speaker 1: Court and you were so frightened. I wasn't, Yes you were,
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Speaker 1: and I didn't half like it myself. I wished we
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Speaker 1: hadn't rather, And when it started and we knew we'd
16:53
Speaker 1: got to go on with it, oh horrible. And when
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Speaker 1: it was over we wanted to go again, and we did,
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Speaker 1: and it it's been so jolly to remember. This is
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Speaker 1: like that. See, I don't, said Edid I understand a
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Speaker 1: single word you say. This isn't a bit like the
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Speaker 1: water shooter anything, now, is it? Efrida frowned. Afterwards, she
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Speaker 1: was glad that she had done no more than frown.
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Speaker 1: It is dangerous, as you know, to crawl in a boat,
17:20
Speaker 1: but far more dangerous to quarrel in a century that
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Speaker 1: is not your own. She frowned and opened her mouth,
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Speaker 1: And just as her mouth opened, the door of the
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Speaker 1: room followed its example, and a short, dark, cross looking
17:34
Speaker 1: woman in a brown skirt and strange cap came hurrying in.
17:38
Speaker 1: So it's here you've hidden yourselves, she cried, And I
17:41
Speaker 1: looking high and low to change your dress? What for,
17:45
Speaker 1: said Edred, For it was his arm, which he had
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Speaker 1: quite ungently caught. For what she said, as she dragged
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Speaker 1: him out of the room, Why to tend my lord,
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Speaker 1: your father and your lady mother at the masket whitehall?
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Speaker 1: Had you forgot already and thou so desirous to tend
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Speaker 1: them in their new white velvet broidered with the orange tawney,
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Speaker 1: and their lady mother's diamond buckles and the second cloak,
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Speaker 1: and the shoe roses and the copper blonde started rough,
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Speaker 1: and the Little Soudan all end of section ten. Recording
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Speaker 1: by Sogna