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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eight, Guy Fawkes, Part two. The woman had dragged
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  Speaker 1: Edred out of the room and by the stairs by
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  Speaker 1: this time. Elfrida following decided that her speech was the
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  Speaker 1: harshest part of her If she was really horrid, thought
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  Speaker 1: the girl, she wouldn't try to cheer him up with
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  Speaker 1: velvet and swords and diamond buckets. Can't I go? She
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  Speaker 1: said aloud. The woman turned and slept her not hard,
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  Speaker 1: but smartly. I told thee how it would be if
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  Speaker 1: thou wouldst not hold that dunning tongue. No, thou can't go.
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  Speaker 1: Little ladies stay at home and soothe their simplers. Thou'll
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  Speaker 1: go to court soon enough. I won't. So Frida sat
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  Speaker 1: and watched while Edred was partially washed. The soap got
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  Speaker 1: in his eyes just as it gets in yours nowadays.
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  Speaker 1: And dressed in the beautiful white pager's dress, white velvet,
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  Speaker 1: diamond buckles, little sword in all, you are splendid, she said.
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  Speaker 1: Oh I do wish I was a boy. She added,
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  Speaker 1: for perhaps the two thousand and thirty second time in
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  Speaker 1: her short life. It's not that thou'll be wishing when
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  Speaker 1: thy time comes to go to court, said the woman.
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  Speaker 1: There my little lord, give thy old nurse a kiss,
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  Speaker 1: and stand very cautious and perfect, not to say thy
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  Speaker 1: fine feathers. And when thou hearest thy mother's robes on
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  Speaker 1: the stairs, go out and make thy bow, like they
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  Speaker 1: tutor taught thee. It was not Edith's tutor who had
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  Speaker 1: taught him to bow, but when a rustling of silks
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  Speaker 1: sounded on the stairs, he was able to go out
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  Speaker 1: and make a very creditable obeisance to the stately magnificence
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  Speaker 1: that swept down towards him. Elfrida thought it best to
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  Speaker 1: curtsey beside. Her brother aunt Edith had taught them to
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  Speaker 1: dance the minuet, and somehow the bow and courtesy which
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  Speaker 1: belonged to that dance seemed the right thing now. And
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  Speaker 1: the lady on the stairs smiled well pleased. She was
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  Speaker 1: a wonderfully dressed lady. Her bodice was of yellow satin,
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  Speaker 1: richly embroidered, her petticoat of gold tissue with stripes, her
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  Speaker 1: robes of red velvet lined with yellow muslin with stripes
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  Speaker 1: of pure gold. She had a point lace apron and
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  Speaker 1: a color of white satin under a delicately worked rough.
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  Speaker 1: And she was a blaze of beautiful jewels. Thou art
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  Speaker 1: a fine page. Indeed, my son said the lady, stand aside,
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  Speaker 1: and take my train as I pass, And thou, dear daughter,
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  Speaker 1: so soon as thou art of an age for it,
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  Speaker 1: thou shalt have a train and a page to carry
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  Speaker 1: it for thee She swept on, and the children followed.
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  Speaker 1: Lord Arden was in the hall hardly less splendid than
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  Speaker 1: his wife, and they all went off in a coach
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  Speaker 1: that was very grand, if rather clumsy. Its shape reminded
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  Speaker 1: a freeder of the coach which the fairy god Mother
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  Speaker 1: made for Cinderella out of the pumpkin, and she herself,
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  Speaker 1: as she peeped through the crowd of liveried servants to
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  Speaker 1: seat start, felt as much like Cinderella as any one
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  Speaker 1: need wish to feel, and perhaps a little more. But
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  Speaker 1: she consoled herself by encouraging a secret feeling she had
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  Speaker 1: that something was bound to happen, And sure enough something did.
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  Speaker 1: And that is what I am going to tell you
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  Speaker 1: about I own that I should like to tell you.
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  Speaker 1: Also what happened to Edward. But his part of the
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  Speaker 1: adventure was not really an adventure at all, though it
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  Speaker 1: were the thing he will never forget as long as
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  Speaker 1: he remembers any magic happenings. We went to the King's house,
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  Speaker 1: he told Elfrida. Later, Whitehall is the name I should
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  Speaker 1: like to call my house Whitehall, if it wasn't called
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  Speaker 1: aden Castle, you know. And there were thousands of servants,
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  Speaker 1: I should think, all much finer than you could dream of,
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  Speaker 1: and lords and ladies, and lots of things to eat
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  Speaker 1: and bear, baiting and cock fighting in the garden cruel,
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  Speaker 1: said Elfrida. I hope you didn't look a little I did,
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  Speaker 1: said Edward. Boys have to be brave to bear sights
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  Speaker 1: of blood and horor, you know, in case of them
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  Speaker 1: growing up to be a soldier. But I liked the
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  Speaker 1: mask best. The Queen acted in it. There wasn't any talking,
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  Speaker 1: you know, only dressing up and dancing. It was something
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  Speaker 1: like the pantomime, but not so sparkly. And there was
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  Speaker 1: a sea with waves that moved all silvery and pennet scenes,
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  Speaker 1: and dolphins and fishy things, and a great shell that opened,
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  Speaker 1: and the queen and the ladies came out and danced,
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  Speaker 1: and I had a lot to eat such rummy things,
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  Speaker 1: And then I fell asleep, and when I woke up.
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  Speaker 1: The king himself was looking at me and saying, I
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  Speaker 1: had a bonny face. Bonnie means pretty. You'd think a
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  Speaker 1: king would know better, wouldn't you. This was all that
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  Speaker 1: Edred could find to tell. I could have told more,
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  Speaker 1: but one can't tell everything. And there's Elfrida's adventure to
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  Speaker 1: be told about. When the coach had disappeared in the
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  Speaker 1: mist and the mud, for the weather was anything but
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  Speaker 1: summer weather, Efrida went upstairs to the room where she
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  Speaker 1: had left the old nurse. She did not know where
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  Speaker 1: else to go. Sit thee down, said the nurse, Sue,
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  Speaker 1: on thy sampler. There was the sampler, very fine, indeed
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  Speaker 1: in a large polished wood frame. I wish I needn't,
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  Speaker 1: said Elfrida, looking anxiously at the fine silks. Tut tut,
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  Speaker 1: said the nurse. How will they grow to be? Lady?
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  Speaker 1: If thou dosn't mind they needle? I'd much rather talk
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  Speaker 1: to you, said Elfrida, coaxingly. Thou canst shutter as well
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  Speaker 1: as sue. The nurse said, as well, I know it
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  Speaker 1: to my cost, would that thy needle flew so fast
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  Speaker 1: as their tongue? Sit thee down? And if the little
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  Speaker 1: tree be done by dinner time, thou shalt have leave
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  Speaker 1: to see thy cousin Richard, I suppose, thought Elfrida, taking
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  Speaker 1: up the needle, that I am fond of my cousin Richard.
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  Speaker 1: The sewing was difficult and hurt her eyes, but she persevered. Presently,
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  Speaker 1: some one called the nurse, and Elfrida was left alone.
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  Speaker 1: Then she stopped persevering. Whatever is the good? She asked herself,
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  Speaker 1: of working at a simpler that you hadn't time to finish,
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  Speaker 1: and that would be worn out anyhow, years and years
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  Speaker 1: before you were born? Near Frida, who's doing that sampler?
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  Speaker 1: Is the same age as me and born the same day,
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  Speaker 1: she reflected, And then she wondered what the date was,
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  Speaker 1: and what was the year. She was still wondering and
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  Speaker 1: sticking the needle idly in and out of one hole,
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  Speaker 1: without letting it take the silk with it, when there
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  Speaker 1: was a sort of platter on the stairs. The door
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  Speaker 1: burst open, and in came a jolly boy of about
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  Speaker 1: her own age. That has done, He cried, mine, too,
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  Speaker 1: old parrot nose kept me heart at it. But I
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  Speaker 1: thought of thee and for once I did all his spiddings.
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  Speaker 1: So now we are free come play ball in the garden.
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  Speaker 1: This Ilfida concluded must be cousin Dick, and she decided
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  Speaker 1: at once that she was fond of him. There was
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  Speaker 1: a big and beautiful garden behind the house. The children
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  Speaker 1: played ball there, and they ran in the box alleys
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  Speaker 1: and played hide and seek among the cut trees and
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  Speaker 1: stone seats and statues and fountains. Old Parrot Knows who
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  Speaker 1: was cousin Richard's tutor, and was dressed in black and
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  Speaker 1: looked as though he had been eating lemons and vinegar,
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  Speaker 1: sat on a seat and watched them, or walked up
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  Speaker 1: and down the flag terrace with his thumb in a
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  Speaker 1: dull looking book. When they stopped their game to rest
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  Speaker 1: on a stone step leaning against the stone seat, old
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  Speaker 1: parrot Nose walked very softly up behind the seat and
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  Speaker 1: stood there where they could not see him, and listened.
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  Speaker 1: Listening is very as honorable, as we all know. But
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  Speaker 1: in those days tutors did not always think it necessary
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  Speaker 1: to behave honorably to their pupils. I always have thought,
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  Speaker 1: and I away shall think, that it was the eavesdropping
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  Speaker 1: of the tiresome old tutor, mister Parados or parrotns which
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  Speaker 1: caused all the maschief. But Ifrida has always believed and
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  Speaker 1: always will believe that the disaster was caused by her
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  Speaker 1: knowing too much history, that is why she is so
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  Speaker 1: careful to make sure that no misfortune shall ever happened
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  Speaker 1: on that account. Anyway, that is one of the reasons
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  Speaker 1: why she never takes a history price at school. You
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  Speaker 1: never know, she says, And in fact, when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to a question in an historical examination, she never does know.
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  Speaker 1: This was how it happened. Elfrida, now that she was
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  Speaker 1: no longer running about in the garden, remembered the question
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  Speaker 1: that she had been asking herself over the embroidery frame.
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  Speaker 1: And it now seemed sensible to ask the question of
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  Speaker 1: some one who could answer it. So she said, I say,
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  Speaker 1: cousin Richard, what day is it? Elfrida understood him to
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  Speaker 1: say that it was the fifth of November? Is it really?
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  Speaker 1: She said, then it is sky Fawx's day. Do you
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  Speaker 1: have fireworks? And in pure liteness of heart, began to hum,
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  Speaker 1: please to remember the fifths of November the gunpowder treason
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  Speaker 1: at Plot. I see no reason why gunpowder treason should
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  Speaker 1: ever be forgot. Tis not a merry song, cousin, said
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  Speaker 1: cousin Richard, nor a safe one. Tis best not to
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  Speaker 1: sing of treason. But it didn't come off, you know,
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  Speaker 1: And he's always burned in the end, said Elfrida. Are
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  Speaker 1: there more verses? Cousin Dick asked, No. I wonder what
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  Speaker 1: treason the Bella deals with, said the boy, don't you know?
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  Speaker 1: It was then that Elfrida made the mistake of showing
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  Speaker 1: off her historical knowledge. I know, and I know some
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  Speaker 1: of the names of the conspirators too, and who they
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  Speaker 1: wanted to kill in everything? Tell me, said cousin Richard. Idly.
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  Speaker 1: The king hadn't been feared to the Catholics, you know,
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  Speaker 1: said Elfrida, full of importance, So a lot of them
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  Speaker 1: decided to kill him and the houses of Parliament. They
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  Speaker 1: made a plot. There were a whole lot of them
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  Speaker 1: in it. They said Lord Arden was but he wasn't.
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  Speaker 1: And some of them were to pretend to be hunting
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  Speaker 1: and to seize the Princess Elizabeth and proclaim a queen,
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  Speaker 1: and the rest were to blow the houses of Parliament
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  Speaker 1: up when the king went to open them. I never
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  Speaker 1: heard this state from my t you, said cousin Richard, laughing,
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  Speaker 1: proceed cousin, Well, mister Pearcey took a house next the
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  Speaker 1: Parliament House, and they dug a secret passage to the
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  Speaker 1: walls under the Parliament houses, and they put three dozen
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  Speaker 1: calves of gunpowder there and covered them with faggots, and
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  Speaker 1: they would have been all blown up. Only mister Tresham
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  Speaker 1: brought to his relation, Lord Monteagle, that they were going
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  Speaker 1: to blow up the King and watch King, said Cousin Richard.
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  Speaker 1: King James the First, said Elfrida, Why what for? Cousin
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  Speaker 1: Richard had sprung to his feet, and old parrot nosed
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  Speaker 1: Elfrida by the wrist. He sat down on the seat
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  Speaker 1: and drew her gently till she stood in front of him. Gently.
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  Speaker 1: But it was like the hand of iron in the
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  Speaker 1: velvet love of which no doubt you have often read. Now,
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  Speaker 1: Mistress Arden, he said, softly, tear me over again this
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  Speaker 1: romans that you tell your cousin Elfrida told it. And
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  Speaker 1: where did you hear this pretty story? He asked? Where
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  Speaker 1: are we now, gasped Elfrida, who was beginning to understand
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  Speaker 1: here in the garden. Where else, said Cousin Richard, who
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  Speaker 1: seemed to understand nothing of the matter here in my custody,
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  Speaker 1: said the tutor, who thought he understood everything. Now tell
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  Speaker 1: me on every name, every particular, or it will be
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  Speaker 1: the worse for thee and thy father. Come, sir, said
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  Speaker 1: cousin Richard, you frighten my cousin. It is but a taye,
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  Speaker 1: she told. She is always merry and full of many inventions.
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  Speaker 1: It is a tay she shall tell again before those
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  Speaker 1: of higher power than I, said the tutor in a
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  Speaker 1: thoroughly disagreeable way, and his hand tightened on Afrea's wrist.
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  Speaker 1: But but it's history, cried Elfrida in despair. It's in
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  Speaker 1: all the books. Which books, he asked, keenly, I don't
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  Speaker 1: know all of them, she suddenly answered, suddenly, because she
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  Speaker 1: now really did understand just the sort of a venture
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  Speaker 1: in which her unusual knowledge of history, and to do
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  Speaker 1: her justice, her almost equally unusual desire to show off,
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  Speaker 1: had landed her. Now, said the hateful tutor, For such,
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  Speaker 1: Afriida felt him to be. Tell me the names of
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  Speaker 1: the conspirators. It can't do any harm, Efrida to it herself.
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  Speaker 1: This is James the first time, and I'm in it.
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  Speaker 1: But it's three hundred years ago, all the same, and
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  Speaker 1: it all has happened, and it can't make any difference
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  Speaker 1: what I say, So I'd better tell all the names
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  Speaker 1: I know. The hateful tutor shook her Yes, all right,
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  Speaker 1: she said, and to herself she added, it's only a
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  Speaker 1: sort of dream, I may as well tell. Yet, when
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  Speaker 1: she opened her mouth to tell all the names she
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  Speaker 1: could remember of the conspirators of the poor old gunpowder
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  Speaker 1: plot that didn't come off all those years ago, she
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  Speaker 1: found herself not telling those names at all. Instead, she
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  Speaker 1: found herself saying, I'm not going to tell. I don't
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  Speaker 1: care what you do to me. I'm sorry I said
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  Speaker 1: anything about it. It's all nonsense. I mean, it's only history.
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  Speaker 1: And you ought to be ashamed of yourself listening behind doors,
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  Speaker 1: I mean out of doors, behind stone seats, when people
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  Speaker 1: are talking nonsense to their own cousins. Efida does not
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  Speaker 1: remember very exactly what happened after this. She was furiously angry,
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  Speaker 1: and when you are furiously angry, things get mixed and
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  Speaker 1: tangled up in a sort of dreadful red mist. She
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  Speaker 1: only remembers that the tutor was very horrid and twisted
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  Speaker 1: her wrists to make her tell, and she screamed and
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  Speaker 1: tried to kick him. That cousin Richard, who did not scream, did,
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  Speaker 1: on the other hand, succeed in kicking the tutor. That
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  Speaker 1: she was dragged indoors and shut up in her room
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  Speaker 1: without a window, so that it was quite dark. If
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  Speaker 1: only I'd got Edward here, she said to herself, with
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  Speaker 1: tears of rage and mortification. I try to make some
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  Speaker 1: poetry and get the moldy warp to come and fetch
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  Speaker 1: us away. But it's no use till he comes home.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: When he did come home, after the bear baiting and
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  Speaker 1: the cock fighting and the banquet and the mask, Lord
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  Speaker 1: and Lady Arden came with him, of course, and they
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  Speaker 1: found their house occupied by an armed guard, and in
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  Speaker 1: the dark little room a pale child, exhausted with weeping,
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  Speaker 1: who showed them again and again that it was all nonsense.
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  Speaker 1: It was only history, and she hadn't meant to tell
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  Speaker 1: indeed she hadn't. Lady Arden took her in her arms
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  Speaker 1: and held her clothes and tenderly, in spite of the
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  Speaker 1: grand red velvet and the jewels. Thou'st done no harm,
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  Speaker 1: said Lord Aarden, a pack of silly tales. To morrow,
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  Speaker 1: I'd see my Lord Salisbury, and prick the silly bubble.
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  Speaker 1: Go thou to bed, sweetheart, he said to his wife,
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  Speaker 1: and let the little maid lie with thee. She's all
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  Speaker 1: a tremble with tears and terrors. To morrow, my Lord's
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  Speaker 1: secretary shall teach these popinjays their place, and Aden House
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  Speaker 1: shall be empty of them, and we shall laugh at
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  Speaker 1: this fine piece of work that a solemn marplot has
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  Speaker 1: made out of a neime or two and the young
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  Speaker 1: child's fancies. But to morrow night all will be well,
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  Speaker 1: and we shall lie down in peace. But when tomorrow
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  Speaker 1: night came, it had as all night self the day's
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  Speaker 1: work behind it. Lord Arden and his lady and the
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  Speaker 1: little children lay not in Aden House in sorrow, not
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  Speaker 1: in Aden Castle on the downs by the sea, but
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  Speaker 1: in the Tower of London, charged with high treason and
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  Speaker 1: awaiting their trial. For my Lord Salisbury had gone to
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  Speaker 1: those words under the houses of Parliament and had found
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  Speaker 1: that Bold's soldier of fortune, Guy Fawkes, with his dark eyes,
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  Speaker 1: his dark lantern, and his dark intent, and the names
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  Speaker 1: of those in the conspiracy had been given up, and
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  Speaker 1: King James was saved, and the parliaments, but the Catholic
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  Speaker 1: gentleman whom he had deceived and who had turned against him,
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  Speaker 1: and his deceits were face to face with the rag
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  Speaker 1: and the scaffold. And I can't explain it all, because,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: of course Afrida knew as well as I do, that
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  Speaker 1: it all happens three hundred years ago, or if you
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  Speaker 1: prefer to put it that way, that it had never happened,
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  Speaker 1: and that anyway, it was mister Tresham's letter to Lord Monteagle,
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  Speaker 1: and not Elfrida's singing of that silly rhyme that had
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  Speaker 1: brought the Ardens and all these other gentlemen to the
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  Speaker 1: tower and to the shadow of death. And yet she
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  Speaker 1: felt that it was she who had betrayed them. She
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  Speaker 1: felt also that if she had betrayed a base plot,
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  Speaker 1: she ought to be glad, And she was not glad.
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  Speaker 1: She had taken advantage of having been born so much
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  Speaker 1: later than all these people, and of having been rather
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  Speaker 1: good at history, to give away the lives of all
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  Speaker 1: these nobles and gentlemen, that they were traitors to King
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  Speaker 1: and Parliament made no manner of difference. It was she,
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  Speaker 1: as she felt, but too bitterly, who was the traitor.
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  Speaker 1: And in the thick walled room in the tower, where
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  Speaker 1: the name of Rawley was still fresh in its carving.
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  Speaker 1: Elfrida lay awake long after Lady Arden and Edward were
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  Speaker 1: sleeping peacefully, and hated herself, calling herself a traitor, a coward,
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  Speaker 1: and an uttered duffer. End of Section eleven.