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In the Closed Room-Frances Hodgson Burnett · Little Lord Fauntleroy

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  Speaker 1: Section one of In the Closed Room. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Reading by Linda Andras In the Closed Room by Francis
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  Speaker 1: Hodgson Burnett, Part one. In the fierce, airless heat of
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  Speaker 1: the small square room, the child Judith panted as she
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  Speaker 1: lay on her bed. Her father and mother slept near her,
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  Speaker 1: drowned in the heavy slumber of workers after their day's labor.
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  Speaker 1: Some people in the next flat were quarreling, irritated, probably
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  Speaker 1: by the appalling heat and their miserable helplessness against it.
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  Speaker 1: All the hot emanations of the sun baked city streets
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  Speaker 1: seemed to combine with the clamor and unrest and rise
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  Speaker 1: to the flat in which the child lay, gazing at
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  Speaker 1: the darkness. It was situated but a few feet from
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  Speaker 1: the track of the elevated railroad, and existence seemed to
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  Speaker 1: pulsate to the rush and roar of the demon, which
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  Speaker 1: swept past the windows every few minutes. No one knew
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  Speaker 1: that Judith held the thing in horror, but it was
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  Speaker 1: a truth that she did. She was only seven years old,
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  Speaker 1: and at that age it is not easy to explain
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  Speaker 1: one's self so that older people can understand. She could
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  Speaker 1: only have said, I hate it. It comes so fast,
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  Speaker 1: it is always coming. It makes a sound as if
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  Speaker 1: thunder was quite close. I can never get away from it.
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  Speaker 1: The children in the other flats rather liked it. They
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  Speaker 1: hung out of the window perilously to watch it thunder passed,
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  Speaker 1: and to see the people who crowded it, pressed close
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  Speaker 1: together in the seats, standing in the aisles, hanging on
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  Speaker 1: to their straps. Sometimes in the evening there were people
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  Speaker 1: in it who were going to the theater, and the
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  Speaker 1: women and girls were dressed in light colors and wore
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  Speaker 1: hats covered with white feathers and flowers. At such times,
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  Speaker 1: the children were delighted, and Judith used to hear the
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  Speaker 1: three in the next flat calling out to each other,
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  Speaker 1: that's my lady, that's my lady, that one's mine. Judith
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  Speaker 1: was not like the children in the other flats. She
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  Speaker 1: was a frail, curious creature with silent ways and a
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  Speaker 1: soft voice and eyes. She liked to play by herself
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  Speaker 1: in a corner of the room, and to talk to
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  Speaker 1: herself as she played. No one knew what she talked about,
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  Speaker 1: and in fact no one inquired. Her mother was always
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  Speaker 1: too busy. When she was not making men's coats by
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  Speaker 1: the score at the whizzing sewing machine, she was hurriedly
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  Speaker 1: preparing a meal which was always in danger of being late.
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  Speaker 1: There was the breakfast, which might not be ready in
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  Speaker 1: time for her husband to reach his shop when the
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  Speaker 1: whistle blew. There was this supper, which might not be
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  Speaker 1: made in time to be waiting for him when he
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  Speaker 1: returned in the evening. The midday meal was the trifling matter,
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  Speaker 1: needing no special preparation. One ate anything one could find
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  Speaker 1: left from supper or breakfast. Judith's relation to her father
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  Speaker 1: and mother was not a very intimate one. They were
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  Speaker 1: too hard worked to have time for domestic intimacies, and
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  Speaker 1: a feature of their acquaintance was that, though neither of
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  Speaker 1: them was sufficiently articulate to have found expression for the
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  Speaker 1: fact the young man and woman felt the child vaguely remote,
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  Speaker 1: their affection for her was tinged with something indefinitely like reverence.
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  Speaker 1: She had been a lovely baby, with a peculiar magnolia
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  Speaker 1: whiteness of skin, and very large, sweetly smiling eyes of
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  Speaker 1: dark blue fringed with quite black lashes. She had quite
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  Speaker 1: exquisite pointed fingers and slender feet, and though mister and
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  Speaker 1: Missus Foster were perhaps fortunately unaware of it, she had
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  Speaker 1: been not at all the baby one would have expected
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  Speaker 1: to come to life in a corner of the hive
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  Speaker 1: of a workman's flat, a few feet from the elevated railroad.
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  Speaker 1: Seemed sometimes as if somehow she couldn't be mine. Missus
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  Speaker 1: Foster said, at times, she ain't like me, and she
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  Speaker 1: ain't like Jim Foster. Lord knows, she ain't like none
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  Speaker 1: of either of our families. I've ever heard of Septin.
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  Speaker 1: It might be her aunt Hester, but she died long
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  Speaker 1: before I was born. I've only heard mother about her.
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  Speaker 1: She was an awful pretty girl. Mother said she had
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  Speaker 1: that kind of lily white complexion and long, slender fingers
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  Speaker 1: that was so supple she could curl em back like
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  Speaker 1: they was double jointed. Her eyes was big and had
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  Speaker 1: eyelashes that stood out round them, but they was brown.
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  Speaker 1: Mother said she wasn't like any other kind of girl,
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  Speaker 1: and she thinks Judith may turn out like her. She
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  Speaker 1: wasn't but fifteen when she died. She never was ill
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  Speaker 1: in her life. But one morning she didn't come down
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  Speaker 1: to breakfast, and when they went up to call her,
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  Speaker 1: there she was sitting at her window, resting her chin
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  Speaker 1: on her hand, with her face turned up, smiling as
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  Speaker 1: if she was talking to some one. The doctor said
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  Speaker 1: it had happened hours before, when she had come to
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  Speaker 1: the window to look at the stars. Easy way to go,
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  Speaker 1: wasn't it. Judith had heard of her aunt Hester, but
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  Speaker 1: she only knew that she herself had hands like her,
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  Speaker 1: and that her life had ended when she was quite young.
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  Speaker 1: Missus Foster was too much occupied by the strenuousness of
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  Speaker 1: life to dwell upon the passing of souls. To her,
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  Speaker 1: the girl Hester seemed too remote to appear quite real.
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  Speaker 1: The legends of her beauty and unlikeness to other girls
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  Speaker 1: seemed rather like a sort of romance. As she was
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  Speaker 1: not aware that Judith hated the elevated railroad, so she
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  Speaker 1: was not aware that she was fond of the far
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  Speaker 1: away aunt Hester with the long pointed fingers which could
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  Speaker 1: curl backwards. She did not know that when she was
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  Speaker 1: playing in her corner of the room, where it was
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  Speaker 1: her way to sit on her little chair with her
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  Speaker 1: face turned towards the wall. She often sat, curving her small,
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  Speaker 1: long fingers backward and talking to herself about aunt Hester.
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  Speaker 1: But this, as well as many other things, was true.
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  Speaker 1: It was not seek creativeness which caused the child to
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  Speaker 1: refrain from speaking of certain things. She herself could not
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  Speaker 1: have explained the reasons for her silence. Also, it had
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  Speaker 1: never occurred to her that explanation and reasons were necessary.
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  Speaker 1: Her mental attitude was that of a child who, knowing
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  Speaker 1: a certain language, does not speak it to those who
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  Speaker 1: have never heard and are wholly ignorant of it. She
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  Speaker 1: knew her aunt Hester as her mother did not. She
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  Speaker 1: had seen her often in her dreams, and had a
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  Speaker 1: secret fancy that she could dream of her when she
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  Speaker 1: wished to do so. She was very fond of dreaming
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  Speaker 1: of her. The places where she came upon aunt Hester
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  Speaker 1: were strange and lovely places where the air, when breathed,
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  Speaker 1: smelled like flowers, and everything was lovely in a new way,
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  Speaker 1: and when one moved, one felt so light that movement
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  Speaker 1: was delightful, And when when one wakened, one had not
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  Speaker 1: quite got over the lightness, and for a few moments
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  Speaker 1: felt as if one would float out of bed. The healthy,
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  Speaker 1: vigorous young couple who were the child's parents, were in
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  Speaker 1: a healthy, earthly way, very fond of each other. They
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  Speaker 1: had made a genuine love match and had found it satisfactory.
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  Speaker 1: The young mechanic Jem Foster, had met the young shop
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  Speaker 1: girl Jane Hardy at Coney Island one summer night and
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  Speaker 1: had become at once enamored of her shop girl good
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  Speaker 1: looks and high spirits. They had married as soon as
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  Speaker 1: Jem had had the rays which he was anticipating, and
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  Speaker 1: had from that time lived with much harmony in the
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  Speaker 1: flat building by which the elevated train rushed and roared
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  Speaker 1: every few minutes through the day and a greater part
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  Speaker 1: of the night. They themselves did not object to the
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  Speaker 1: elevated Jem was habituated to uproar in the machine shop
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  Speaker 1: in which she spent his days, and Jane was too
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  Speaker 1: much absorbed in the making of men's coats by the
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  Speaker 1: dozens to observe anything else. The pair had healthy appetites
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  Speaker 1: and slept well after their day's work, hearty supper, long
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  Speaker 1: cheerful talk, and loud laughter over simple common joking. She's
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  Speaker 1: a queer little fish, Judy, Jane said to her husband
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  Speaker 1: as they sat by the open window one night. Jem's
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  Speaker 1: arm curved comfortably around the young woman's waist as he
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  Speaker 1: smoked his pipe. What do you think she says to
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  Speaker 1: me to night after I put her to bed? Search me,
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  Speaker 1: said Jem oracularly. Jane laughed. Why she says, I wish
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  Speaker 1: the elevated train would stop? Why says I? I want
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  Speaker 1: to go to sleep, says she. I'm going to dream
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  Speaker 1: of aunt Hester. What does she know about her aunt Hester?
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  Speaker 1: Said Jem. Who's been talkin to her? Not me? Jane
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  Speaker 1: said she don't know nothin but what she's picked up
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  Speaker 1: by chance. I don't believe in talkin to young ones
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  Speaker 1: about dead folks tain't healthy, That's right, said Jem. Children
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  Speaker 1: that's got to hustle amongst the live folks for a livin.
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  Speaker 1: Best keep their minds out o cemeteries. But hully, gee,
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  Speaker 1: what a queer thing for a young one to say
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  Speaker 1: an that tain't all? Jane went on her giggle, half amused,
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  Speaker 1: half nervous. But I don't fall asleep when I see
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  Speaker 1: Aunt Hester, says she. I fall awake. It's more awake
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  Speaker 1: there than here where, says I, laughing a bit though
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  Speaker 1: it did make me feel queer, I don't know, she
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  Speaker 1: says in that soft, little quiet way of hers. There
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  Speaker 1: an not another thing could I get out of her.
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  Speaker 1: On the hot night through whose first hours, Judith lay
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  Speaker 1: panting in her corner of the room, tormented and kept
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  Speaker 1: awake by the constant roar and rush and flash of lights.
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  Speaker 1: She was trying to go to sleep, in the hope
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  Speaker 1: of leaving all the heat and noise and discomfort behind
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  Speaker 1: and reaching aunt Hester. If she could fall awake, she
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  Speaker 1: would feel and hear none of it. It would all
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  Speaker 1: be unreal, and she would know that the only the
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  Speaker 1: lightness and the air like flowers and the lovely brightness
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  Speaker 1: were true. Once, as she tossed on her cot bed,
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  Speaker 1: she broke into a low little laugh, to think how
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  Speaker 1: untrue things really were, and how strange it was that
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  Speaker 1: people did not understand that. Even she felt, as she
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  Speaker 1: lay in the darkness that she could not get away,
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  Speaker 1: and she could not get away unless the train would
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  Speaker 1: stop just long enough to let her fall asleep. If
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  Speaker 1: she could fall asleep between the trains, she would not awaken.
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  Speaker 1: But they came so quickly, one after the other. Her
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  Speaker 1: hair was damp as she pushed it from her forehead.
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  Speaker 1: Bed felt hot against her skin. The people in the
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  Speaker 1: next flat quarreled more angrily. Judith heard a loud slap,
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  Speaker 1: and then the woman began to cry. She was a
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  Speaker 1: young married woman, scarcely more than a girl. Her marriage
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  Speaker 1: had not been as successful as that of Judith's parents.
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  Speaker 1: Both husband and wife had irritable tempers. Through the thin wall,
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  Speaker 1: Judith could hear the girl sobbing angrily as the man
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  Speaker 1: flung himself out of bed, put on his clothes, and
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  Speaker 1: went out, banging the door after him. She doesn't know,
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  Speaker 1: the child whispered earily that it isn't real at all.
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  Speaker 1: There was in her strange little soul a secret no
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  Speaker 1: one knew the existence of. It was a vague belief
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  Speaker 1: that she herself was not quite real, or that she
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  Speaker 1: did not belong to the life she had been born into.
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  Speaker 1: Her mother and father loved her, and she loved them,
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  Speaker 1: but sometimes she was on the brink of telling them
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  Speaker 1: that she could not stay long, that some mistake had
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  Speaker 1: been made. What mistake, or where she was to go
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  Speaker 1: if she went, she did not know. She used to
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  Speaker 1: catch her breath and stop herself and feel frightened when
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  Speaker 1: she had been near, speaking of this fantastic thing. But
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  Speaker 1: the building full of workmen's flats, the hot room, the
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  Speaker 1: elevated railroad, the quarreling people were all a mistake. Just
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  Speaker 1: once or twice in her life she had seen places
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  Speaker 1: and things which did not seem so foreign. Once, when
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  Speaker 1: she had been taken to the park in the spring,
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  Speaker 1: she had wandered away from her mother to a sequestered
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  Speaker 1: place among shrubs and trees, all waving tender, new pale green,
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  Speaker 1: with the leaves a few early hot days had caused
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  Speaker 1: to rush out and tremble unfurled. There had been a
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  Speaker 1: stillness there, and sense and colors. She knew. A bird
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  Speaker 1: had come and swung upon a twig quite near her,
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  Speaker 1: looking at her with bright, soft, full eyes, had sung
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  Speaker 1: gently to her as if he were speaking. A squirrel
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  Speaker 1: had crept up on to her lap and had not
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  Speaker 1: moved when she stroked it. Its eyes had been full
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  Speaker 1: and soft also, and she knew it understood that she
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  Speaker 1: could not hurt it. There was no mistake in her
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  Speaker 1: being among the new fair greenness and the woodland things
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  Speaker 1: who spoke to her. They did not use words, but
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  Speaker 1: no words were needed. She knew what they were saying.
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  Speaker 1: When she had pushed her way through the greenness of
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  Speaker 1: the shrubbery to the driveway, she had found herself quite
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  Speaker 1: near to an open carriage, which had stopped because the
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  Speaker 1: lady who sat in it was speaking to a friend
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  Speaker 1: on the path. She was the young woman dressed in
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  Speaker 1: delicate spring colors, and the little girl at her side
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  Speaker 1: was dressed in white cloth. And it was at the
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  Speaker 1: little girl Judith found herself, gazing under her large white
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: hat and feathers. Her little face seemed like a white flower.
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  Speaker 1: She had a deep dimple near her mouth. Her hair
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  Speaker 1: was a rich coppery red, and hung heavy and long
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  Speaker 1: about her cheeks and shoulders. She lifted her head a
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  Speaker 1: little when the child in the common hat and frock
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  Speaker 1: pressed through the greenness of the bushes, and she looked
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  Speaker 1: at Judith, just as the bird and the squirrel had
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  Speaker 1: looked at her. They gazed as if they had known
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  Speaker 1: each other for ages of years and were separated by nothing.
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  Speaker 1: Each of them was quite happy at being near the other,
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  Speaker 1: and there was not in the mind of either any
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  Speaker 1: question of their not being near each other again. The
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  Speaker 1: question did not rise in Judith's mind, even when in
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  Speaker 1: a very few minutes, the carriage moved away and was
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: lost in the crowd of equipages rolling by. At the
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: hottest hours of the hot night, Judith recalled to herself
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: the cool of that day. She brought back the fresh,
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  Speaker 1: pale greenness of the nook among the bushes into which
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  Speaker 1: she had forced her way, the scent of the leaves
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  Speaker 1: and grass which she had drawn in as she breathed,
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  Speaker 1: the nearness in the eyes of the bird, the squirrel,
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  Speaker 1: and the child. She smiled as she thought of these things,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: and as she continued to remember yet other things. Bit
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  Speaker 1: by bit she felt less hot. She gradually forgot to
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  Speaker 1: listen for the roar of the train. She smiled still more.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: She lay quite still. She was cool. A tiny fresh
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: breeze fluttered through the window and played about her forehead.
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  Speaker 1: She was smiling in soft delight as her eyelids drooped
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  Speaker 1: and closed. I am falling awake, She was murmuring as
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  Speaker 1: her lashes touched her cheek. Perhaps when her eyes closed,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: the sultriness of the night had changed to the momentary
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: freshness of the turning dawn, and the next hour or
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: so really was cooler. She knew no more heat, but
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: slept softly, deeply long, or it seemed to her afterwards
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  Speaker 1: that she had slept long, as if she had drifted
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  Speaker 1: far away in dreamless peace. She remembered no dream, saw nothing,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: felt nothing, until, as it seemed to her in the
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: early morning, she opened her eyes. All was quite still
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: and clear. The air of the room was pure and sweet.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: There was no sound anywhere, and curiously enough, she was
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: not surprised by this, nor did she expect to hear
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: anything disturbing. She did not look round the room. Her
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: eyes remained resting upon what she first saw, and she
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: was not surprised by this either. A little girl about
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: her own age was standing, smiling at her. She had
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: large eyes, a deep dimple near her mouth, and coppery
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: red hair which fell about her cheeks and shoulders. Judith
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: knew her and smiled back at her. She lifted her hand,
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  Speaker 1: and it was a pure white little hand with long,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: tapering fingers. Come and play with me, she said, though
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Judith heard no voice while she knew what she was saying,
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  Speaker 1: Come and play with me. Then she was gone, and
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: in a few seconds Judith was awake. The air of
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: the room had changed, the noise and the clatter of
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: the streets came in at the window, and the elevated
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: train went thundering by. Judith did not ask herself how
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: the child had gone or how she had come. She
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: lay still, feeling undisturbed by everything, and smiling as she
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: had smiled in her sleep. While she sat at the
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: breakfast table, she saw her mother looking at her curiously.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: You look as if you'd slept cool instead of hot
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: last night, she said. You look better than you did yesterday.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: You pretty well, ain't you, Judy. Judith's smiled meant that
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: she was quite well, but she said nothing about her sleeping.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: The heat did not disturb her through the day, though
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: the hours grew hotter and hotter as they passed. Jane Foster,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: sweltering at her machine, was obliged to stop every few
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: minutes to wipe the beads from her face and neck.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Sometimes she could not remain seated, but got up, panting
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: to drink water and fan herself with a newspaper. I
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: can't stand much more of this, she kept saying. If
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: there don't come ath thunderstorm to cool things off, I
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: don't know what I'll do. This room's about five hundred,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: but the heat grew greater, and the elevated trains went
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: thundering by. When Jem came home from his work, his
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: supper was not ready. Jane was sitting helplessly by the window,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: almost livid in her pallor. The table was but half spread.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Hullo said, Jem, it's done you up, ain't it well?
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: I guess it has good naturedly certain of his sympathy.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: But I'll get over it presently, and then I can
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: get you a cold bite. I can't stand over the
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: stove and cook, hully Gee. A cold Bite's all a
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: man wants on a night like this, hot chops that
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: you'd give you, Jim JEMs. But I've got good news
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: for you. It's cheered me up myself. Jane lifted her
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: head from the chair back. What is it? Well, it
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: came through my boss. He's always been friendly to me.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: He asks a question or so every now and then
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: and seems to take an interest to day. He was
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: asking me if it wasn't pretty hot noisy down here,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: And after I told him how we stood it, he
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: said he believed he could get us a better place
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: to stay in through the summer. Someone he knows has
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: had n illness and trouble in his family, and he's
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: obliged to close his house and take his wife away
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: into the mountains. They've got a beautiful, big house in
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: one of them far up streets by the park, and
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: he wants to get caretakers in that can come well recommended.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: The boss said he could recommend us fast enough, and
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: there's a big light basement that'll be as cool as
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: the woods, and we can move in tomorrow. And all
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: we've got to do is to see that things are
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: safe and live happy. Oh, Jim Jane ejaculated, it sounds
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: too good to be true. Up by the park, a big,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: cool place to live. We've none of us ever been
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: in a house that's eyes of it. You know what
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: they look like outside, and they say they're bigger than
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: they look. It's your business to go over the rooms
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: every day or so to see nothin's going wrong in them.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Moth's are dirt. I suppose it's all left open, but
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: just one room they've left locked and don't want interfered with.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: I told the boss I thought the basement would seem
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: like the wall d'orf a storia to us. I tell you,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: I was so glad, I scarcely knew what to say.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Jane drew a long breath. A big house up there,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: she said, and only one closed room in it. It's
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: too good to be true. Well, whether it's true or not,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: we'll move out there tomorrow, jem answered, cheerfully. Tomorrow mornin
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: bright and early, the boss said, The sooner the better.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: A large house left deserted by those who have filled
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: its rooms with emotions and life, expresses a silence, a
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: quality all of its own. A house unfurnished and empty
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: seems less impressively silent. The fact of its devoidness of
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: sound is, upon the whole more natural. But carpets accustomed
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: to the pressure of constantly passing feet, chairs and sofas
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: which have held human warmth, draperies used to the touch
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: of hands drawing them aside to let in daylight, Pictures
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: which have smiled back at thinking eyes, Mirrors which have
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: reflected faces passing hourly and changing moods elate or dark
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: or longing, walls which have echoed back voices. All these things,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: when left alone, seem to be held in strange arrest,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: as if by some spell intensifying the effect of the
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: pause in their existence. The child Judith felt this deeply
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: throughout the entire day of her young being. How still
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: it is, she said to her mother the first time
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: they went over the place together. Well it seems still
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: up here and kind of dead. Jane Foster replied, with
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: her habitual sociable half left. But seems to me it
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: always feels that way in a house people's left. It's
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: cheerful enough. Down in that big basement with all the
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: windows open. We can sit in that room they've had
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: fixed to play billiards in. We shan't hurt nothin. We
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: can keep the table in, things covered up. Tell you, Judy,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: this'll be different from last summer. The park ain't but
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: a few steps away, and we can go and sit
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: there too when we feel like it. Talk about the country.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: I don't want no more country than this. You'll be
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: made over the months we stay there. Judith felt as
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: if this must veritably be a truth. The houses on
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: either side of the street were closed for the summer.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Their occupants had gone to the sea side or the mountains,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: and the windows and doors were boarded up. The street
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: was a quiet one at any time, and wore now
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: the aspect of a street in a city of the dead.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: The green trees of the park were to be seen,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: either gently stirring or motionless in the sun, at the
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: side of the avenue crossing the end of it. The
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: only token of the existence of the elevated railroad was
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: the remote, occasional hum suggestive of the flying past of
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: a giant bee. The thing seemed no longer a roaring demon,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: and Judith scarcely recognized that it was still the center
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: of the city's rushing, heated life. The owners of the
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: house had evidently deserted it. Suddenly, the windows had not
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: been boarded up, and the rooms had been left in
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: their ordinary condition. The furniture was not covered or the
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: hangings swathed. Jem Foster had been told that his wife
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: must put things in order. The house was beautiful and spacious.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Its decorations and appointments were not mere testimonies to freedom
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: of expenditure, but expressions of a dignified and cultivated thought.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Judith followed her mother from room to room in one
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: of her singular moods. The loftiness of the walls, the
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: breath and space about her, made her, at intervals draw
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: in her breath with pleasure. The pictures, the colors, the
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: rich and beautiful textures she saw brought to her the
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: free and at the same time soothed feeling she remembered
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: as the chief feature of the dreams in which she
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: fell awake. But beyond all other things, she rejoiced in
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: the height and space, the sweep of view through one
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: large room into another. She continually paused and stood with
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: her face lifted, looking up at the pictured things floating
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: on a ceiling above her. Once, when she had stood
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: doing this long enough to forget herself, she was startled
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: by her mother's laugh, which broke in upon the silence
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: about them, with a curiously earthy sound which was almost
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: a shock. Wake up, Judy, have you gone off in
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: a dream. You look all the time as if you
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: was walking and you sleep. It's so high, said Judy.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: The clouds make it look like the sky. I've got
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: to set these chairs straight, said Jane. Looks like they'd
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: been having a concert here, all these chairs together, and
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: that part of the room clear. She began to move
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: the chairs and re arrange them, bustling about cheerfully and
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: talking the while. Presently she stooped to pick something up
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: what's this, she said, and then uttered a startled exclamation mercy.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: They felt so kind of clammy. They made me jump.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: They have had a party. Here's some of the flowers
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: left fallen on the carpet. She held up a cluster
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: of wax white hyacinths and large, heavy rose buds faded
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: to discoloration. This is dropped out of some set piece.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: It felt like cold flesh when I first touched it.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: I don't like a lot of white things together. They
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: looked too kind of mournful. Just go and get the
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: waste paper basket in the library, Judy. We'll carry it
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: around to drop things into. Take that with you. Judith
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: carried the flowers into the library and bent to pick
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: up the basket as she dropped them into it. As
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: she raised her head, she found her eyes looking directly
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: into eyes which gazed at her from the wall. They
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: were smiling from the face of a child in a picture.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: As soon as she saw them, Judith drew in her
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: breath and stood still, smiling too in response. The picture
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: was that of a little girl in a floating white frock.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: She had a deep dimple at one corner of her mouth,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: her hair hanging was like burnished copper. She held up
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: a slender hand with pointed fingers, and Judith knew her, Oh,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: she knew her quite well. She had never felt so
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: near any one else throughout her whole life, Judy, Judy,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Jane Foster called up, come here with your basket. What
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: are you staying for? Judith returned to her. We've got
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: to get a move on, said Jane, or we shan't
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: get nothing done before supper time. What was y lookin at?
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: There's a picture in there, a little girl I know,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: said Judith. I don't know her name, but I saw
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: her in the park once and and I dreamed about her,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: dreamed about her. If that ain't queer, well, we've got
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: to hurry up. Here's some more of them dropped flowers.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Give me the basket. They went through the whole house together,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: from room to room, up the many stairs, from floor
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: to floor, and everywhere. Judith felt the curious stillness and silence.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: It cannot be doubted that Jane Foster felt it also.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: It is the stillest house I was ever in. She said.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: I'm glad I've got ye with me. Judy. If I
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: was soul alone, I believe it'd give me the creeps.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: These big places ought to have big families in them.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: It was on the fourth floor that they came upon
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: the closed room. Jane had found some of the doors
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: shut and some open, but a turn of the handle
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: gave entrance through all the unopened ones until they reached
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: this one at the back on the fourth floor. This
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: one won't open, Jane said, when she had tried the handle.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: Then she shook it once or twice. Now it's locked,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: she decided, after an effort or two. There, I've just
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: remembered there's one kept lock. Folks always has things they
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: want locked up. I'll make sure. Though she shook it,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: turned the handle, shook again, pressed her knee against the panel,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: The lock resisted all effort. Yes, this is the closed one,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: she made up her mind. It's locked, hard and fast.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: It's the closed one. It was logically proved to be
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: the closed one by the fact that she found no
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: other one locked. As she finished her rounds of the chambers.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: Judith was a little tired before they had done their work,
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: but her wandering pilgrimage through the large, silent, deserted house
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: had been a revelation of new emotions to her. She
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: was always a silent child. Her mind was so full
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: of strange thoughts that it seemed unnecessary to say many words.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: The things she thought as she followed her mother from
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: room to room, from floor to floor, until they reached
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: the locked door would have amazed and puzzled Jane Foster
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: if she had known of their existence. Most of all,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: perhaps she would have been puzzled by the effect the
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: closed door had upon the child. It puzzled and bewildered
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: Judith herself and made her feel a little weary. She
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: wanted so much to go into the room without in
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: the least understanding the feeling. She was quite shaken by it.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: It seemed as if the closing of all the other
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: rooms would have been a small matter in comparison with
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: the closing of this one. There was something inside which
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: she wanted to see. There was something something They was
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: something which wanted to see her. What a pity that
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: door was locked? Why had it been done? She sighed
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: unconsciously several times during the evening, and Jane Foster thought
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: she was tired. But you'll sleep cool enough to night, Judy,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: she said, and get a good rest. Them little breezes
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: that comes rustling through the trees in the park, come
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: right along the street to us. She and Jim Foster
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: slept well. They spent the evening in the highest spirits,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: and as it seemed to them, the most luxurious comfort
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: the space afforded them by the big basement, with its
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: kitchen and laundry and pantry, and above all, the specially
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: large room which had been used for billiard playing, supplied
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: actual vistas. For the sake of convenience and coolness, they
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: used the billiard room as a dormitory, sleeping on light cots,
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: and they slept with all their windows open, the little
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: breezes wandering from among the trees of the park to
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: fan them. How they laughed and enjoyed themselves over their supper,
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: and how they stretched themselves out with sighs of joy
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: in the darkness as they sank into the cool, untroubled
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: waters of deep sleep. This is about the top notch,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: jem murmured as he lost his hold on the world
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: of waking life and work. But though she was cool,
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: though she was undisturbed, though her body rested in absolute repose,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: Judith did not sleep for a long time. She lay
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: and listened to the quietness there was mystery in it.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: The footstep of a belated passer by in the street
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: woke strange echoes. A voice heard in the distance, in
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: a rioteous shout, suggested weird things. And as she lay
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: and listened, was if she were not only listening but
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: waiting for something. She did not know at all what
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: she was waiting for, but waiting she was. She lay
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: upon her cot with her arms flung out and her
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: eyes wide open. What was it she wanted that which
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: was in the closed room? Why had they locked the door?
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: If they had locked the doors of the big parlors,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: it would not have mattered if they had locked the
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: door of the library. Her mind paused, as if for
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: a moment something held it still. Then she remembered that
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: to have locked the doors of the library would have
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: been to lock in the picture of the child with
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: a greeting look in her eyes and the fine little
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: uplifted hand. She was glad the room had been left open.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: But the room upstairs, the one on the fourth floor,
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: that was the one that mattered most of all. She
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: knew that tomorrow she must go and stand at the
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: door and press her cheek against the wood, and wait
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: and listen, thinking this, and knowing that it must be so,
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: she fell at last asleep. End of Part one, Section
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: two of In the Closed Room. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. In
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: the Closed Room by Francis Hodgson Burnett, Section two, Part two.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: Judith climbed the basement stairs rather slowly. Her mother was
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: busy rearranging the disorder the hastily departing servants had left.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: Their departure had indeed been made in sufficient haste to
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: have left behind the air of its having been flight.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: There was a great deal to be done, and Jane Foster,
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: moving about with broom and pale and scrubbing brushes, did
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: not dislike the excitement of the work before her. Judith's
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: certainty that she would not be missed made all clear
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: before her. If her absence was observed, her mother would
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: realize that the whole house lay open to her, and
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: that she was an undisturbing element wheresoever she was led,
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: either by her fancy or by circumstance. If she went
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: into the parlors, she would probably sit and talk to herself,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: or play quietly with her shabby doll. In any case,
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: she would be finding pleasure of her own and would
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: touch nothing which could be harmed. When the child found
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: herself in the entrance hall, she stopped a few moments
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: to look about her. The stillness seemed to hold her,
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: and she paused to hear and feel it. In leaving
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: the basement behind, she had left the movement of living behind. Also,
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: no one was alive upon this floor, nor upon the next,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: nor the next. It was as if one had entered
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: a new world, a world in which something existed which
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: did not express itself in sound or in things which
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: one could see. Chairs held out their arms to emptiness.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: Cushions were not pressed by living things. Only the people
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: in the pictures were looking at something, but one could
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: not tell what they were looking at. But on the
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: fourth floor was the closed room, which she must go to,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: because she must go to it, That was all she knew.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: She began to mount the stairs which led to the
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: upper floors. Her shabby doll was held against her hip
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: by one arm. Her right hand touched the wall as
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: she went. She felt the height of the wall as
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: she looked upward. It was such a large house and
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: so empty. Where had the people gone? And why had
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: they left it all at once, as if they were afraid.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: Her father had only heard vaguely that they had gone
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: because they had had trouble. She passed the second floor,
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: the third, and climbed towards the fourth. She could see
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: the door of the closed room as she went up,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: step by step, and she found herself moving more quickly. Yes,
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: she must get to it, She must put her hand
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: on it. Her chest began to rise and fall with
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: the quickening of her breath, and her breath quickened because
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: her heart fluttered, as if with her haste. She began
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: to be glad, and if any one could have seen her,
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: they would have been struck by a curious, expectant smile
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: in her eyes. She reached the landing and crossed it,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: running the last few steps lightly. She did not wait
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: or stand still a moment. With a strange expectant smile
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: on her lips as well as in her eyes, she
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: put her hand upon the door, not upon the handle,
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: but upon the panel. Without any sound. It swung quietly open,
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: and without any sound, she stepped quietly inside the room
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: was rather large, and the light in it was dim.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: There were no shutters, but the blinds were drawn down.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: Judith went to one of the windows and drew its
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: blind up, so that the look of the place might
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: be clear to her. There were two windows, and they
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: opened upon the flat roof of an extension, which suggested
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: somehow that it had been used as a place to
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: walk about in. This, at least, was what Judah thought
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: of at once, that some one who had used the
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: room had been in the habit of going out upon
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: the roof and staying there, as if it had been
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: a sort of garden. There were rows of flower pots
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: with dead flowers in them. There were green tubs containing
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: large shrubs which were dead. Also against the low parapets,
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: certain of them held climbing plants which had been trained
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: upon it. Two had been climbing roses. Two were clematis,
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: but Judith did not know them by name. The ledge
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: of the window was so low that a mere step
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: took her outside, so taking it she stood among the dried,
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: withered things and looked in tender regret at them. I
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: wish they were not dead, she said softly to the silence.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: It would be like a garden if they were not dead.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: The sun was hot, but a cool little breeze seemed
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: straying up from among the trees of the park. It
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: even made the dried leaves of the flowers tremble and
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: rustle a little. Involuntarily, she lifted her face to the
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: blue sky and the floating white clouds. They seemed so
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: near that she felt almost as if she could touch
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: them with her hand. The street seemed so far, so
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: far below. The whole world seemed far below. If one
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: stepped off the parapet, it would surely take one a
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: long time to reach the earth. She knew now why
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: she had come up here. It was so that she
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: might feel like this, as if she was upheld far
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: away from things, as if she had left everything behind,
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: almost as if she had fallen awake again. There was
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: no perfume in the air, but all was still and
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: sweet and clear. Suddenly she turned and went into the
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: room again, realizing that she had scarcely seen it at all,
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: and that she must see and know it. It was
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: not like any other room she had seen. It looked
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: more simple, though it was a pretty place. The walls
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: were covered with roses, there were bright pictures and shelves
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: full of books. There was also a little writing desk,
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: and there were two or three low chairs and a
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: low table. A closet in a corner had its door.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: Ajar and Judith could see that inside toys were piled together.
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: In another corner, a large doll's house stood, looking as
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: if some one had just stopped playing with it. Some
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: toy furniture had been taken out and left near it
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: upon the carpet. It was a little girl's room. Judith said,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: why did they close it? Her eye was caught by
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: something lying on a sofa, something covered with a cloth.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: It looked almost like a child lying there asleep, so
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: fast asleep that it did not stir at all. Judith
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: moved across to the sofa and drew the cloth aside,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: with its head upon a cushion. Was lying there, a
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: very large doll, beautifully dressed in white lace, its eyes closed,
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: and a little wreath of dead flowers in its hair.
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: It looks almost as if it had died too, said Judith.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: She did not ask herself why, she said, as if
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: it had died too. Perhaps it was because the place
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: was so still, and everything so far away that the
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: flowers had died in the strange little deserted garden. On
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: the roof. She did not hear any footsteps. In fact,
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: no ghost of a sound stirred the side as she
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: stood looking at the doll's sleep. But quite quickly she
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: ceased to bend forward and turned round to look at
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: something which she knew was near her. There she was,
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: and it was quite natural she should be there, the
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: little girl with a face like a white flower, with
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: the quantity of burnished coppery hair, and the smile which
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: deepened the already deep dimple near her mouth. You have
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: come to play with me, she said, Yes, answered Judith,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: I wanted to come all night. I could not stay downstairs. No,
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: said the child, you can't stay downstairs. Lift up the doll.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: They began to play as if they had spent their
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: lives together. Neither asked the other any questions. Judith had
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: not played with other children, but with this one she
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: played in absolute and lovely delight. The little girl knew
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: where all the toys were, and there were a great
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: many beautiful ones. She told Judith where to find them
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: and how to arrange them for their games. She invented
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: wonderful things to do things which were so unlike anything
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: Judith had ever seen or heard or thought of that
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: it was not strange that she realized afterwards that all
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: her past life and its belongings had been so forgotten
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: as to be wholly blotted out. While she was in
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: the closed room, she did not know her playmate's name.
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: She did not remember that there were such things as names.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: Every moment was happiness. Every moment the little girl seemed
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: to grow more beautiful in the flower whiteness of her
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: face and hands, and the strange lightness and freedom of
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: her movements. There was an ecstasy in looking at her
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: and feeling her near. Not long before Judith went downstairs,
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: she found herself standing with her outside the window, in
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: among the withered flowers. It was my garden, the little
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: girl said. It has been so hot and no one
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: has been near to water them, so they could not live.
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: She went lightly to one of the brown rose bushes
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: and put her pointed fingered little hand quite near it.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: She did not touch it, but held her hand near,
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: and the leaves began to stir and uncurl and become
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: fresh and tender again, And roses were nodding blooming on
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: the stems, and she went in the same manner to
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: each flower and plant in turn, until all before the
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: dreary little garden was bright and full of leaves and flowers.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: It's life, she said to Judith. Judith nodded and smiled
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: back at her, understanding quite well, just as she had
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: understood the eyes of the bird who had swung on
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: the twigs so near her cheek that day she had
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: hidden among the bushes in the park. Now you must go,
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: the little girl said at last, and Judith went out
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: of the room at once, without waiting or looking back,
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: though she knew the white figure did not stir till
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: she was out of sight. It was not until she
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: had reached the second floor that the change came upon her.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: It was a great change, and a curious one. The
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: closed room became as far away as all the other
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: places and things had seemed when she had stood upon
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: the roof, feeling the nearness of the blueness and the
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: white clouds, as when she had looked round and found
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: herself face to face with the child in the closed room.
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: She suddenly realized things she had not known before. She
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: knew that she had heard no voice when the little
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: girl spoke to her. She knew that it had happened,
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: that it was she only who had lifted the doll,
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: who had taken out the toys, who had arranged the
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: low table for their feasts, putting all the small service
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: upon it. And though they had played with such rapturous
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: enjoyment and had laughed and feasted, what had they feasted on?
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: That she could not recall. And not once had she
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: touched or been touched by the light hand or white dress.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: And though they seemed to express their thoughts and intentions freely,
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: she had heard no voice at all. She was suddenly bewildered,
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: and stood rubbing her hand over her forehead and her eyes.
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: But she was happy, as happy as when she had
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: fallen awake in her sleep, and was no more troubled
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: or really curious than she would have been if she
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: had had the same experience every day of her life. Well,
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: you must have been having a good time playing upstairs,
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: Jane Foster said, when she entered the big kitchen. This
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: is going to do you good. Judy, looks like she'd
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: had a day in the country, don't she jem. Through
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: the weeks that followed her habit of playing upstairs was
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: accepted as a perfectly natural thing. No questions were asked,
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: and she knew it was not necessary to enter into
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: any explanations. Every day she went to the door of
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: the closed room, and, finding it closed, at a touch
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: of her hand upon the panel, it swung softly open.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: There she waited, sometimes for a longer, sometimes for a
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: shorter time, and the child with the coppery hair came
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: to her. The world below was gone as soon as
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: she entered the room, and through the hours they played
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: together joyously as happy children play. But their playing it
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: was always Judith who touched the toys, who held the doll,
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: who set the little table for their feast. Once, as
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: she went downstairs, she remembered that when she had that
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: day made a wreath of roses from the roof, and
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: had gone to put it upon her playmate's head, she
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: had drawn back with deepening dimple, and holding up her hand,
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: had said, laughing, no, do not touch me. But there
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: was no mystery in it. After all, Judith knew she
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: should presently understand. She was so happy that her happiness
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: lived in her face in a sort of delicate brilliance.
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: Jane Foster observed the change in her with exceeding comfort,
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: her view being that spacious quarter's fresh air and sounder
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: sleep had done great things for her. Them big eyes
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: of hers ain't like no other child's eyes I've ever seen,
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: she said to her husband, with cheerful self gratulation. And
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: her skins that fine and that thin and fair that
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: she can just see through it. She always looks to
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: me as if she was made out of different stuff
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: from me and you, Jim. I've always said it. She's
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: going to make a corking handsome girl, responded Jim with
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: a chuckle. They had been in the house two months
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: when one afternoon, as she was slicing potatoes for supper,
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: Jane looked round to see the child standing in the
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: kitchen doorway, looking with a puzzled expression at some wilted
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: flowers she held in her hand. Jane's impression was that
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: she had been coming into the room and had stopped
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: suddenly to look at what she held. What have you
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: got there, Judy, she asked. They're flowers, said Judith, her
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: eyes still more puzzled. Where'd you get em from? I
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: didn't know you'd been out. I thought you was up stairs.
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: I was said Judith quite simply in the closed room,
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: Jane Foster's knife dropped into her pan with a splash. Well,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: she gasped. Judith looked at her with quiet eyes the
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: closed room. Jane cried, what are you saying? You couldn't
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: get in? Yes, I can. Jane was conscious of experiencing
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: a shock. She said afterwards that suddenly something gave her
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: the creeps. You couldn't open the door, she persisted. I
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: tried it again yesterday as it passed by, turned the
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: handle and gave it a regular shove, and it wouldn't
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: give an inch. Yes, said the child, I heard you.
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: We were inside. Then, a few days later, when Jane
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: weepingly related the incident to awe stricken and sympathizing friends,
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: she described as graphically as her limited vocabulary would allow
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: her to do so. The look in Judith's face as
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: she came nearer to her, don't tell me there was
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: nothing happening, then, she said. She just came up to
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: me with them dead flowers in her hand and a
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: kind of look in her eyes, as if she was
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: half sorry for me and didn't know quite why the
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: door or opens for me. She says, that's where I play.
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: Every day, there's a little girl comes and plays with me.
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: She comes in at the window. I think she's like
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: the picture in the room where the books are. Her
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: hair hangs down and she has a dimple near her mouth.
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: I couldn't never tell any one what I felt like.
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: It was as if I'd got a queer fright that
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: I didn't understand. She must have come over the roof
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: from the next house. I says, they've got an extension too,
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: but I thought the people were gone away. There are
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: flowers on our roof. She said, I've got these there,
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: and that puzzled look came into her eyes again. They
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: were beautiful when I got them, but as I came downstairs,
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: they died. Well of all the queer things, I said.
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: She put out her hand and touched my arms, sort
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: of lovin'lyn timid, and wanted to tell you to day, mother,
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: She said, I had to tell you to day. You
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: don't mind if I go play with her? Do you
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: you don't mind? Perhaps it was because she touched me
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: that queer, little loving way, or was it the way
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: she'd look. It seemed like something came over me and
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: I just grabbed her and hugged her up now, I says,
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: so as you come back, so as you come back,
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: and to think, and Jane rocked herself sobbing. A point
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: she dwelt on with many tears was that the child
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: seemed in a wistful mood and remained near her side,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: bringing her little chair and sitting by her as she worked,
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: and rising to follow her from place to place, as
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: she moved from one room to the other. She wasn't
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: never one as kissed too much or hung about like
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: some children do. I always used to say. She was
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: the least bother of any child I ever knew. Seemed
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: as if she had company of her own when she
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: sat in her little chair in the corner, whispering to herself,
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: or just said and quiet. This was a thing Jane
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: always added during all the years in which she told
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: the story. That was what made me notice. She kept
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: by me, and she kept looking at me different from
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: anyway I'd seen her look before. Not pitiful exactly, but
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: something like. And once she came up and kissed me,
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: And once or twice she just kind of touched my
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: dress from a hand as it stood by her. She
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: knew no one need tell me she didn't this was
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: an error. The child was conscious only of a tender,
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: wistful feeling which caused her to look at the affectionate,
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: healthy young woman who had always been good to her
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: and whom she belonged to. Though she remotely wondered why,
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: the same tenderness impelled her to touch her arm, hand
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: and simple dress, and folding her arms round her neck
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: to kiss her softly. It was an expression of gratitude
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: for all the rough, casual affection of the past. All
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: her life had been spent at her side, All her
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: life on earth had sprung from her. When she went
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: upstairs to the closed room the next day, she told
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: her mother she was going before she left the kitchen,
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: I'm going up to play with the little girl. Mother,
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: she said, you don't mind, do you. Jane had had
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: an evening of comfortable domestic gossip and joking with Jem,
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: had slept, slept soundly, and eaten a hearty breakfast. Life
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: had reassumed its holy normal aspect. The sun was shining
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: hot and bright, and she was preparing to scrub the
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: kitchen floor. She believed that the child was mistaken as
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: to the room she had been in. That's all right,
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: she said, turning the hot water spigot over the sink
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: so that the boiling water poured forth at full flow
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: into her pail with clouds of steam. But when I've
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: done my screen, rub An, I'm comin up to see
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: if it is the closed room you play in. If
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: it is, I guess you'd better play somewhere else. And
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: I want to find out how you get that door open.
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: Run along if you like. Judith came back to her
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: from the door. Yes, she said, come and see. But
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: if she is there, putting her hand on Jane's hip gently,
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: you mustn't touch her. Jane turned off the hot water
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: and stared her, the little girl who plays I never
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: touch her, she says, I must not. Jane lifted her
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: pail from the sink, laughing out right, well, that sounds
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: as if she was a pretty airy young one. She said,
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: I guess you're a queer little pear. Run on, I
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: must get at this floor. Judith ran up the three
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: flights of stairs lightly. She was glad she had told
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: her mother, though she wondered vague whyat had never seemed
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: right to tell her until last night. And last night
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: it had seemed not so much necessary as imperative. Something
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: had obliged her to tell her the time had come
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: when she must know. The closed room door had always
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: shut itself gently after Judith had passed through it, and yesterday,
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: when her mother, passing by chance, had tried the handle
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: so vigorously, the two children inside the room had stood still,
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: gazing at each other. But neither had spoken, and Judith
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: had not thought of speaking. She was out of the
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: realm of speech, and without any sense of amazement, was
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: aware that she was out of it. People with voices
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: and words were in that faraway world below. The playing
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: to day was even a lovelier, happier thing than it
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: had ever been before. It seemed to be each minute
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: a thing farther and farther away from the world in
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: the streets where the elevated railroad went humming past like
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: a monster bee, and with the sense of greater distance
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: came a sense of greater lightness and freedom. Judith found
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: that she was moving about the room and the little
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: roof garden almost exactly as she had moved in the
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: waking dreams where she saw aunt Hester, almost as if
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: she was floating, and every movement was ecstasy. Once as
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: she thought this She looked at her playmate, and the
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: child smiled and answered her as she always did before.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: She spoke Yes, she said, I know her, She will come.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: She sent me. She had this day a special plan
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: with regard to the arranging of the closed room. She
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: wanted all the things in it, the doll, the chairs,
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: the toys, the little table and its service to be
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: placed in certain positions. She told Judith what to do.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: Various toys were put here or there. The little table
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: was set with certain dishes in a particular part of
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: the room. A book was left lying upon the sofa cushion.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: The large doll was put into a chair near the sofa,
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: with a smaller doll in its arms. On the small
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: writing desk a letter which Judith found in a drawer,
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: a half written letter was laid. The pen was left
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: in the ink. It was a strange game to play,
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: but somehow Judith felt it was very pretty. When it
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: was all done, and there were many curious things to do.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: The closed room looked quite different from the cold, dim
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: orderly place the door had first opened upon. Then it
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: had looked as if everything had been swept up and
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: set away, and covered and done with forever as if
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: the life in it had ended and would never be again.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: Now it looked as if some child who had lived
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: in it and loved and played with each of its
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: belongings had just stepped out from her play to some
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: other room, quite near, quite near, the big doll in
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: its chair seemed waiting, even listening to her voice as
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: it came from the room she had run into. The
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: child with a burnished hair, stood and looked at it
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: with her delicious smile. That is how it looked, she said.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: They came and hid and covered everything as if I
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: had gone, as if I was nowhere. I want her
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: to know I come here. I couldn't do it myself.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: You could do it for me. Go and bring some roses.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: The little garden was a wonder of strange beauty with
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: its masses of flowers. Judith brought some roses from the bush,
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: her playmate pointed out. She put them into a light bowl,
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: which was like a bubble of thin clear glass, and
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: stood on the desk near the letter. If they would
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: look like that, the little girl said she would see,
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: But no one seized them like that. When the life
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: goes away with me. After that, the game was finished,
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: and They went out on the roof garden and stood
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: and looked up into the blue above their heads. How blue,
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: how blue, how clear? How near and real, and how
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: far and unreal the streets and the sounds below. The
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: two children stood and looked up and laughed at the
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: sweetness of it. Then Judith felt a little tired. I
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: will go and lie down on the sofa. She said, yes,
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: The little girl answered, it's time for you to go
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: to sleep. They went into the closed room and Judith
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: lay down. As she did so, she saw that the
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: door was standing open, and remembered that her mother was
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: coming up to see her and her playmate. The little
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: girl sat down by her. She put out her pretty
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: fine hand and touched Judith for the first time. She
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: laid her little pointed fingers on her forehead, and Judith
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: fell asleep. It seemed only a few minutes before she
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: wakened again. The little girl was standing by her. Come,
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: she said. They went out together on to the roof
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: among the flowers. But a strange, a beautiful thing had happened.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: The garden did not end at the parapet, and the
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: streets and houses were not below. The little garden ended
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: in a broad green pathway, green with thick soft grass
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: and moss, covered with trembling white and blue bell like flowers.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: Trees fresh leaved as if spring had just awakened them,
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: shaded it and made it look smiling fair. Great white
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: blossoms tossed on their branches, and Judith felt the scent
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: and the air came from them. She forgot the city
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: was below, because it was millions and millions of miles away,
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: and this was where it was right to be. There
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: was no mistake. This was real. All the rest was unreal,
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: and millions and millions of miles away. They held each
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: other's slim pointed hands and stepped out upon the broad,
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: fresh green pathway. There was no boundary or end to
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: its beauty, and it was only another real thing that
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: coming towards them from under the white flowering trees was
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: aunt Ester. In the basement, Jane Foster was absorbed in
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: her labors, which were things whose accustomedness provided her with pleasure.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: She was fond of her scrubbing. She enjoyed the washing
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: of her dishes. She definitely entertained herself with the splash
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: and soapy foam of her wash tubs and the hearty
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: smack and swing of her ironing. In the days when
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: she had served at the ribbon counter in a department store,
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: she had not found life as agreeable as she had
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: found it, since the hours which were not spent at
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: her own private sewing machine were given to hearty domestic
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: duties providing cleanliness, savory meals, and comfort. For Jem She
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: was so busy this particular afternoon that it was inevitable
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: that she should forget all else but the work which
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: kept her on her knees scrubbing floors or on a chair,
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: polishing windows and afterwards hanging before them bits of clean
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: spotted muslin. She was doing this last when her attention
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: being attracted by wheels in the street. Stopping before the door,
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: she looked out to see a carriage door open, and
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: a young woman dressed in exceptionally deep mourning garb, step
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: on to the pavement, cross it, and ascend the front steps.
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: Who is she, Jane exclaimed, disturbedly. Does she think the
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: house is to let? Because it shut? A ring at
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: the front door, Bill called her down from her chair.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: Among the duties of a caretaker is naturally included that
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: of answering the questions of visitors. She turned down her sleeves,
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: put on a fresh apron, and ran upstairs to the
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: entrance hall. When she opened the door, the tall, young
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: woman in black stepped inside, as if there was no
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: reason for her remaining even for a moment on the threshold.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: I am Missus Halden, she said, I suppose you are
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: the caretaker. Halden was the name of the people to
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: whom the house belonged. Jem Foster had heard only the
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: vaguest thing of them, But Jane remembered that the name
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: was Helden, and remembered that they had gone away because
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: they had had trouble. She recognized at a glance what
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: sort of trouble it had been. Missus Halden was tall
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: and young, and to Jane Foster's mind, expressed from head
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: to foot the perfection of all that spoke for wealth
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: and fashion. Her garments were heavy and rich with crape.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: The long black veil which she had thrown back, swept
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: over her shoulder and hung behind her, serving to set
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: forth as it were, more pitifully. The white wornness of
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: her pretty face, and a sort of haunting eagerness in
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: her haggard eyes. She had been a smart, lovely, laughing
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: and lovely thing full of pleasure in the world. And
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: now she was so stricken and devastated that she seemed
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: set apart in an awful, lonely world of her own.
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: She had no sooner crossed the throat threshold. Then she
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: looked about her with a quick, smitten glance, and began
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: to tremble. Jane saw her look shut her away from
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: the open door of the front room, where the chairs
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: had seemed left as if set for some gathering, and
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: the wax white flowers had been scattered on the floor.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: She fell into one of the carved hall seats and
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: dropped her face into her hands, her elbows resting on
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: her knees. Oh no, no, she cried, I can't believe it.
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: I can't believe it. Jane Foster's eyes filled with good natured,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: ready tears of sympathy. Won't you come upstairs, ma'am? She said,
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: wouldn't you like to set in your own room? Perhaps? No, no,
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: was the answer. She was always there. She used to
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: come into my bed in the morning. She used to
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: watch me dress to go out. No, no, I'll open
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: the shutters in the library, said Jane. Oh no, no, no,
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: she would be sitting on the big sofa with her
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: fairy story book. She's everywhere everywhere? How could I come?
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: Why did I? But I couldn't keep away. I tried
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: to stay in the mountains, but I couldn't. Something dragged
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: me day and night. Nobody knows I'm here. She got
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: up and looked about her again. I have never been
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: in here since I went out with her. She said
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: they would not let me come back. They said it
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: would kill me. And now I've come, and everything is here,
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: all the things we lived with, and she is millions
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: and millions and millions and miles away. Who who was it?
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: Jane asked timidly in a low voice. It was my
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: little girl, The poor young beauty said, it was my
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: little Andrea. Her portrait is in the library. Jane began
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: to tremble, somewhat herself. That she began and ended. She
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: is dead. Missus Helden had dragged herself, almost as if unconsciously,
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: to the stairs. She leaned against the newel post, and
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: her face dropped upon her hand. Oh I don't know,
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: she cried. I cannot believe it. How could it be?
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: She was playing in a nursery laughing and playing. And
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: she ran into the next room to show me a flower.
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: And as she looked up at me laughing, I tell
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: you laughing, she sank slowly down on her knees, and
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: the flower fell out of her hand quietly, and everything
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: went out of her face. Everything was gone away from her,
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: and there was never anything more never. Jane Foster's hand
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: had crept up to her throat. She did not know
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: what made her cold. My little girl, she began. Her
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: name is Judith. Where is she said missus Halden, in
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: a breathless way. She is upstairs, Jane answered slowly. She
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: goes into that back room on the fourth floor. Missus
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: Halden turned upon her with white eyes. It is locked,
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: she said. They put everything away. I have the key.
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: The door opens for her, said Jane. She goes to
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: play with the little girl who comes to her. I
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: think she comes over the roof from the next house.
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: There is no child there. Missus Halden shuddered, but it
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: was not with horror. There was actually a wild, dawning
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: bliss in her face. What is she like? She has
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: like the picture? Jane scarcely knew her own monotonous voice.
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: The world of real things was being withdrawn from her,
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: and she was standing without its pail, alone with this
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: woman and her wild eyes. She began to shiver because
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: her warm blood was growing cold. She is a child
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: with red hair, and there is a deep dimple near
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: her mouth. Judith told me you must not touch her.
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: She heard a wild gasp. A flash of something at
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: once anguish and rapture blazed across the haggard young face,
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: and with a swerving, as if her slight body had
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: been swept round by a sudden great wind, Missus Haldon
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: turned and fled up the stairs. Jane Foster followed. The
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: great wind swept her upward too. She remembered no single
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: intake or outlet of breath until she was upon the
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: fourth floor. The door of the closed room stood wide open,
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: and Missus Helden was swept within. Jane Foster saw her
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: stand in the middle of the room a second, a tall,
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: swaying figure. She whirled to look about her, and flung
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: up her arms with an unearthly, rapturous whispered cry. It
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: is all as she left it when she ran to
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: me and fell. She has been here to show me.
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: It is not so far. She sank slowly upon her knees,
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: wild happiness in her face, wild tears pouring down it.
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: She has seen her, and she stretched forth, yearning arms
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: towards the little figure of Judith, who lay quiet upon
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: the sofa in the corner. Your little girl has seen her,
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: and I dare not waken her. She is asleep. Jane
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: stood by the sofa, looking down. When she bent and
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: touched the child, the stillness of the room seen to
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: have got into her blood. No, she said, quivering, but
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: with a strange simplicity. No, not asleep. It was this
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: way with her aunt Hester the end end of In
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: the Closed Room by Frances Hodgson Burnett