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The Shuttle Chapter 40 - Don't Go on With This · The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library

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  Speaker 1: CHAPTER XL. DON'T GO ON WITH THIS Of these things,
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  Speaker 1: as of others, she had come to her solitude to think.
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  Speaker 1: She looked out over the marshes, scarcely seeing the wandering
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  Speaker 1: or resting sheep, scarcely hearing the crying plover, because so
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  Speaker 1: much seemed to confront her, and she must look it
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  Speaker 1: all well in the face. She had fulfilled the promise
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  Speaker 1: she had made to herself as a child— She had
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  Speaker 1: come in search of Rosie. She had found her as
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  Speaker 1: simple and loving of heart as she had ever been.
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  Speaker 1: The most painful discoveries she had made had been concealed
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  Speaker 1: from her mother until their aspect was modified. Mrs. Vanderpool
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  Speaker 1: need now feel no shock at the sight of the
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  Speaker 1: restored Rosie. Lady Anstruthers had been still young enough to
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  Speaker 1: respond both physically and mentally to love, companionship, agreeable luxuries,
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  Speaker 1: and stimulating interests. But for Nigel's antagonism, there was now
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  Speaker 1: no reason why she should not be taken home for
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  Speaker 1: a visit to her family, and her long yearned for
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  Speaker 1: New York, no reason why her father and mother should
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  Speaker 1: not come to Stornham and thus establish the customary social
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  Speaker 1: relations between their daughter's home and their own. That this
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  Speaker 1: seemed out of the question was owing to the fact
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  Speaker 1: that at the outset of his married life Sir Nigel
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  Speaker 1: had allowed himself to commit errors in tactics. A perverse egotism,
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  Speaker 1: not wholly normal in its rancour, had led him into
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  Speaker 1: deeds which he had begun to suspect of having cost
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  Speaker 1: him too much, even before Betty herself had pointed out
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  Speaker 1: to him their unbusinesslike indiscretion. He had done things he
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  Speaker 1: could not undo, and now to his mind his only
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  Speaker 1: resource was to treat them boldly as having been the
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  Speaker 1: proper results of decision founded on sound judgment which he
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  Speaker 1: had no desire to excuse. A sufficiently arrogant loftiness of
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  Speaker 1: bearing would, he hoped, carry him through the matter. This
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  Speaker 1: Betty herself had guessed. but she had not realised that
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  Speaker 1: this loftiness of attitude was in danger of losing some
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  Speaker 1: of its effectiveness through his being increasingly stung and spurred
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  Speaker 1: by circumstances and feelings connected with herself, which were at
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  Speaker 1: once exasperating and at times almost overpowering. When, in his
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  Speaker 1: mingled dislike and admiration, he had begun to study his sister-in-law,
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  Speaker 1: and the half-amused weaving of the small plots which would
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  Speaker 1: make things sufficiently unpleasant to be used as factors in
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  Speaker 1: her removal from the scene if necessary— He had not calculated,
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  Speaker 1: ever so remotely, on the chance of that madness besetting
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  Speaker 1: him which usually besets men only in their youth. He
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  Speaker 1: had imagined no other results to himself than a subtly
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  Speaker 1: exciting private entertainment, such as would give spice to the
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  Speaker 1: dullness of virtuous life in the country. But despite himself
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  Speaker 1: and his intentions, he had found the situation altered. His
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  Speaker 1: first uncertainty of himself had risen at the Dunham Ball,
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  Speaker 1: when he had suddenly realised that he was detesting men who,
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  Speaker 1: being young and free, were at liberty to pay gallant
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  Speaker 1: court to the new beauty. Perhaps the most disturbing thing
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  Speaker 1: to him had been his consciousness of his sudden leap
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  Speaker 1: of antagonism toward Mount Dunstan, who, despite his obvious lack
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  Speaker 1: of chance, somehow especially roused in him the rage of
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  Speaker 1: warring male instinct. There had been admissions he had been
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  Speaker 1: forced at length to make to himself— You could not,
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  Speaker 1: it appeared, live in the house with a splendid creature
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  Speaker 1: like this one, with her brilliant eyes, her beauty of
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  Speaker 1: line and movement, before you every hour, her bloom, her
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  Speaker 1: proud fineness, holding themselves wholly in their own keeping, without
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  Speaker 1: there being the devil to pay. Lately he had sometimes
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  Speaker 1: gone hot and cold in realising that, having once told
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  Speaker 1: himself that he might choose to decide to get rid
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  Speaker 1: of her, he now knew that the mere thought of
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  Speaker 1: her sailing away of her own choice was maddening to him.
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  Speaker 1: There was the devil to pay. It sometimes brought back
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  Speaker 1: to him that hideous shakiness of nerve which had been
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  Speaker 1: a feature of his illness when he had been on
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  Speaker 1: the Riviera with Teresita. Of all this, Betty knew only
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  Speaker 1: the outward signs which, taken at their exterior significance, were
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  Speaker 1: detestable enough, and drove her hard as she mentally dwelt
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  Speaker 1: on them in connection with other things. How easy, if
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  Speaker 1: she stood alone to defy his evil insolence, to do
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  Speaker 1: its worst, and leaving the place at an hour's notice
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  Speaker 1: to stale away to protection— or, if she chose to
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  Speaker 1: remain in England, to surround herself with the bodyguard of
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  Speaker 1: the people in whose eyes his disrepute relegated a man
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  Speaker 1: such as Nigel Anstruthers to powerless nonentity. Alone she could
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  Speaker 1: have smiled and turned her back upon him. But she
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  Speaker 1: was here to take care of Rosie. She occupied a
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  Speaker 1: position something like that of a woman who remains with
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  Speaker 1: a man and endures outrage because she cannot leave her child.
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  Speaker 1: That thought in itself brought Uhtred to her mind. there
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  Speaker 1: was Uhtred to be considered as well as his mother.
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  Speaker 1: Uhtred's love for and faith in her were deep and
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  Speaker 1: passionate things. He fed on her tenderness for him, and
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  Speaker 1: had grown stronger because he spent hours of each day talking, reading,
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  Speaker 1: and driving with her. The simple truth was that neither
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  Speaker 1: she nor Rosalie could desert Uhtred, and so long as
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  Speaker 1: Nigel managed cleverly enough, the law would give the boy
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  Speaker 1: to his father. You are obliged to prove things, you know,
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  Speaker 1: in a court of law, he had said, as if
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  Speaker 1: with casual amiability on a certain occasion. Proving things is
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  Speaker 1: the devil. People lose their tempers and rush into rows
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  Speaker 1: which end in lawsuits and then find they can prove nothing.
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  Speaker 1: If I were a villain, slightly showing his teeth in
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  Speaker 1: an agreeable smile, instead of a man of blameless life,
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  Speaker 1: I should go in only for that branch of my
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  Speaker 1: profession which could be exercised without leaving stupid evidence behind.
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  Speaker 1: Since his return to Stornham, the outward decorum of his
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  Speaker 1: own conduct had entertained him, and he had kept it
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  Speaker 1: up with an increasing appreciation of its usefulness in the
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  Speaker 1: present situation. Whatsoever happened in the end, it was part
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  Speaker 1: of discretion to present to the rural world about him
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  Speaker 1: an appearance of upright behaviour. He had even found it
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  Speaker 1: amusing to go to church, and also to occasionally make
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  Speaker 1: amiable calls at the vicarage. It was not difficult at
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  Speaker 1: such times to refer delicately to his regret, that domestic
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  Speaker 1: discomfort had led him into the error of remaining much
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  Speaker 1: away from Stornham. He knew that he had been even
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  Speaker 1: rather touching in his expression of interest in the future
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  Speaker 1: of his son, and the necessity of the boys being
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  Speaker 1: protected from uncontrolled hysteric influences. And in the years of
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  Speaker 1: Rosalie's unprotected wretchedness, he had taken excellent care that no
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  Speaker 1: stupid evidence should be exposed to view. Of all this,
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  Speaker 1: Betty was thinking and summing up definitely point after point,
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  Speaker 1: Where was the wise and practical course of defence? The
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  Speaker 1: most unthinkable thing was that one could find oneself in
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  Speaker 1: a position in which action seemed inhibited. What could one do?
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  Speaker 1: To send for her father would surely end the matter,
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  Speaker 1: but at what cost to Rosie, to Utrecht, to Folliott,
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  Speaker 1: before whom the fair path to dignified security had so
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  Speaker 1: newly opened itself? What would be the effect of sudden confusion, anguish,
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  Speaker 1: and public humiliation upon Rosalie's carefully rebuilt health and strength?
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  Speaker 1: upon her mother's new hope and happiness. At moments it
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  Speaker 1: seemed as if almost all that had been done might
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  Speaker 1: be undone. She was beset by such a moment now,
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  Speaker 1: and felt for the time at least like a creature
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  Speaker 1: tied hand and foot while in full strength. Certainly she
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  Speaker 1: was not prepared for the event which happened. Roland stiffened
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  Speaker 1: his ears, and beginning a rumbling growl, ended it suddenly,
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  Speaker 1: realising it an unnecessary precaution. He knew the man walking
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  Speaker 1: up the incline of the mound from the side behind them,
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  Speaker 1: So did Betty know him. It was Sir Nigel, looking
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  Speaker 1: rather glowering and pale and walking slowly. He had discovered
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  Speaker 1: where she had meant to take refuge, and had probably
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  Speaker 1: ridden to some point where he could leave his horse
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  Speaker 1: and follow her at the expense of taking a short
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  Speaker 1: cut which saved walking. As he climbed the mound to
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  Speaker 1: join her, Betty rose to her feet.' My dear girl,'
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  Speaker 1: he said, 'don't get up as if you meant to
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  Speaker 1: go away. It has cost me some exertion to find you.'
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  Speaker 1: It will not cost you any exertion to lose me,'
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  Speaker 1: was her light answer.' I am going away.' He had
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  Speaker 1: reached her and stood still before her with scarcely a
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  Speaker 1: yard's distance between them. He was slightly out of breath
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  Speaker 1: and even a trifle livid. He leaned on his stick,
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  Speaker 1: and his look at her combined leaping bad temper with
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  Speaker 1: something deeper.' Look here,' he broke out,' why do you
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  Speaker 1: make such a point of treating me like the devil?'
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Betty felt her heart give a hastened beat, not of
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  Speaker 1: fear but of repulsion. This was the mood and manner
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  Speaker 1: which subjugated Rosalie. He had so raised his voice that
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  Speaker 1: two men in the distance, who might be either labourers
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  Speaker 1: or sportsmen, hearing its high tone, glanced curiously towards them.'
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  Speaker 1: Why do you ask me a question which is totally absurd?'
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  Speaker 1: she said.' It is not absurd,' he answered.' I am
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  Speaker 1: speaking of facts, and I intend to come to some
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  Speaker 1: understanding about them.' For reply, after meeting his look a
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  Speaker 1: few seconds, she simply turned her back and began to
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  Speaker 1: walk away. He followed and overtook her.' I shall go
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  Speaker 1: with you, and I shall say what I want to say,'
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  Speaker 1: he persisted.' If you hasten your pace, I shall hasten mine.
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  Speaker 1: I cannot exactly see you running away from me across
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  Speaker 1: the marsh, screaming. You wouldn't care to be rescued by
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  Speaker 1: those men over there who are watching us. I should
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  Speaker 1: explain myself to them in terms neither you nor Rosalie
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  Speaker 1: would enjoy. There, I knew Rosalie's name would pull you up.
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  Speaker 1: Good God, I wish I were a weak fool with
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  Speaker 1: a magnificent creature protecting me at all risks.' If she
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  Speaker 1: had not had blood and fire in her veins she
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  Speaker 1: might have found it easy to answer calmly. But she
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  Speaker 1: had both, and both leapt and beat furiously for a
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  Speaker 1: few seconds. It was only human that it should be so.
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  Speaker 1: But she was more than a passionate girl of high
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  Speaker 1: entrenchment spirit, and she had learned, even in the days
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  Speaker 1: at the French school, what he had never been able
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  Speaker 1: to learn in his life— self- control. She held herself in as
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  Speaker 1: she would have held in a horse of too great
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  Speaker 1: fire and action. She was actually able to look, as
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  Speaker 1: the first Reuben Vanderpool would have looked, at her capital
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  Speaker 1: of resource. but it meant taut holding of the reins.'
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  Speaker 1: Will you tell me,' she said, stopping,' what it is
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  Speaker 1: you want?'' I want to talk to you. I want
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  Speaker 1: to tell you truths you would rather be told here
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  Speaker 1: than on the high road where people are passing, or
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  Speaker 1: at Stornham where the servants would overhear, and Rosalie be
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  Speaker 1: thrown into hysterics.' You will not run screaming across the marsh,
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  Speaker 1: because I should run screaming after you, and we should
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  Speaker 1: both look silly. Here is a rather scraggy tree. Will
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  Speaker 1: you sit on the mound near it, for Rosalie's sake?''
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  Speaker 1: I will not sit down,' replied Betty,' but I will listen,
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  Speaker 1: because it is not a bad idea that I should
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  Speaker 1: understand you. But to begin with, I will tell you something.'
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: She stopped beneath the tree and stood with her back
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  Speaker 1: against its trunk.' I pick up things by noticing people closely.'
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  Speaker 1: and I have realised that all your life you have
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  Speaker 1: counted upon getting your own way, because you saw that people,
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  Speaker 1: especially women, have a horror of public scenes, and will
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  Speaker 1: submit to almost anything to avoid them. That is true
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  Speaker 1: very often, but not always.' Her eyes, which were well opened,
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  Speaker 1: were quite the blue of steel, and rested directly upon him.' I,
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  Speaker 1: for instance, would let you make a scene with me
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  Speaker 1: anywhere you chose— in Barn Street, in Piccadilly, on the steps
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  Speaker 1: of Buckingham Palace as I was getting out of my
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  Speaker 1: carriage to attend a drawing-room, and you would gain nothing
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  Speaker 1: you wanted by it, nothing. You may place entire confidence
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  Speaker 1: in that statement. He stared back at her, momentarily half-magnetized,
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  Speaker 1: and then broke forth into a harsh half-laugh.' You are
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  Speaker 1: so damned handsome that nothing else matters. I'm hanged if
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  Speaker 1: it does!' And the words were an exclamation. He drew
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  Speaker 1: still nearer to her, speaking with a sort of savagery.'
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  Speaker 1: Cannot you see that you could do what you pleased
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  Speaker 1: with me?' You are too magnificent a thing for a
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  Speaker 1: man to withstand.' I have lost my head and gone
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  Speaker 1: to the devil through you.' That' s what I came to say.'
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  Speaker 1: In the few seconds of silence that followed, his breath
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  Speaker 1: came quickly again, and he was even paler than before.'
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  Speaker 1: You came to me to say that?' asked Betty.' Yes,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: to say it before you drove me to other things.'
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Her gaze was for the moment even slightly wandering. He
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  Speaker 1: presented the curious picture of a cynical man of the world,
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  Speaker 1: for the time being ruled and impelled only by the
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  Speaker 1: most primitive instincts. To a clear-headed modern young woman of
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  Speaker 1: the most powerful class, he, her sister's husband, was making
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  Speaker 1: threatening love as if he were a savage chief and
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  Speaker 1: sheer savage beauty of his tribe. All that concerned him
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: was that he should speak and she should hear, that
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  Speaker 1: he should show her he was the stronger of the two.'
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  Speaker 1: Are you quite mad?' she said. Not quite, he answered,
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  Speaker 1: only three parts, but I am beyond my own control.
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  Speaker 1: That is the best proof of what has happened to me.
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  Speaker 1: You are an arrogant piece, and you would defy me
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  Speaker 1: if you stood alone, but you don't. And by the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: I have reached a point where I will make use
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  Speaker 1: of every lever I can lay my hand on— yourself, Rosalie, Uhtred, Folliott,
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  Speaker 1: the whole lot of you. The thing which was hardest
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  Speaker 1: upon her was her knowledge of her own strength, of
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  Speaker 1: what she might have allowed herself of flaming words and
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  Speaker 1: instant action, but for the memory of Rosie's ghastly little face,
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  Speaker 1: as it had looked when she cried out,' You must
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: not think of me, Betty. Go home! Go home!' She
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: held the white desperation of it before her mental vision,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: and answered him, even with a certain interested deliberateness.' Do
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  Speaker 1: you know,' she inquired,' that you are talking to me
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: as though you were the villain in the melodrama?'' There
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: is an advantage in that,' he answered, with an unholy smile.'
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  Speaker 1: If you repeat what I say—' people will only think
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  Speaker 1: you are indulging in hysterical exaggeration they don't believe in
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: the existence of melodrama in these days the cynical absolute
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: knowledge of this revealed so much that nerve was required
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  Speaker 1: to face it with steadiness true she commented now i
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  Speaker 1: think i understand no you don't he burst forth you
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: have spent your life standing on a golden pedestal being
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  Speaker 1: kowtowed to and you imagine yourself immune from difficulties because
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  Speaker 1: you think you can pay your way out of anything
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  Speaker 1: but you will find that you cannot pay your way
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  Speaker 1: out of this, or rather you cannot pay Rosalie's way
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  Speaker 1: out of it.'' I shall not try. Go on,' said
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  Speaker 1: the girl.' What I do not understand you must explain
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  Speaker 1: to me. Don't leave anything unsaid.'' Good God, what a
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  Speaker 1: woman you are!' he cried out bitterly. He had never
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: seen such beauty in his life as he saw in
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: her as she stood with her straight young body flat
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: against the tree.' It was not a matter of deep
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: colour of eye, or high spirit of profile, but of
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  Speaker 1: something which burned him. Still as she was, she looked
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: like a flame. She made him feel old and body-worn,
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  Speaker 1: and all the more senselessly furious.' I believe you hate me,'
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: he raged,' and I may thank my wife for that.'
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Then he lost himself entirely.' Why can't you behave well
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  Speaker 1: to me?' If you will behave well to me, Rosalie
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: shall go her own way,' if you even looked at
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: me as you look at other men.'' but you do not.'
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  Speaker 1: There is always something under your lashes' which watches me
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  Speaker 1: as if I were a wild beast you were studying.'
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Don' t fancy yourself a dompteur's.' I am not your man.'
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: I swear to you that you don't know what you're
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: dealing with.' I swear to you that if you play
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  Speaker 1: this game with me' I will drag you two down
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: if I drag myself with you.' I have nothing much
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: to lose.' You and your sister have everything.'' Go on,'
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: Betty said briefly.'' Go on. Yes, I will go on.
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  Speaker 1: Rosalie and Folliott I hold in the hollow of my hand.
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  Speaker 1: As for you, do you know that people are beginning
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: to discuss you? Gossip is easily stirred in the country
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: where people are so bored that they chatter in self-defence.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: I have been considered a bad lot. I have become
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: curiously attached to my sister-in-law. I am seen hanging about her,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: hanging over her as we ride or walk alone together.'
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: An American young woman is not like an English girl.
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  Speaker 1: She's used to seeing the marriage ceremony juggled with. There's
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: a trifle of prejudice against such young women when they
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: are too rich and too handsome.'' Don' t look at me
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  Speaker 1: like that,' he burst forth with maddened sharpness.' I won't
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  Speaker 1: have it!' The girl was regarding him with the expression
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  Speaker 1: he most resented, the reflection of a normal person watching
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: an abnormal one, and studying his abnormality.' Do you know
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  Speaker 1: that you are raving?' she said with quiet curiosity.'' Raving?'
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Suddenly he sat down on the low mound near him,
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  Speaker 1: and as he touched his forehead with his handkerchief she
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: saw that his hand actually shook.' Yes,' he answered, panting,'
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: but where, my ravings? They mean what they say. You
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: do yourself an injury when you give way to them, steadily,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: even with a touch of slow significance. A physical injury.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: I have noticed that more than once.' He sprang to
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: his feet again. Every drop of blood left his face.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: For a second he looked as if he would strike
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  Speaker 1: her— his arm actually flung itself out— and fell.' You devil!' he gasped.'
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: You count on that! You she-devil!' She left her tree
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  Speaker 1: and stood before him.' Listen to me,' she said.' You
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: intimate that you have been laying melodramatic plots against me
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: which will injure my good name. That is rubbish. Let
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: us leave it at that. You threaten that you will
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: break Rosie's heart and take her child from her, You
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  Speaker 1: say also that you will wound and hurt my mother
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  Speaker 1: to her death, and do your worst to ruin an
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: honest man.'' And by God I will!' he raged.' And
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: you cannot stop me if—'' I do not know whether
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: I can stop you or not, though you may be
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: sure I will try,' she interrupted him.' But that is
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: not what I was going to say.' She drew a
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: step nearer, and there was something in the intensity of
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: her look which fascinated and held him for a moment.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: She was curiously grave. Nigel, I believe in certain things
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: you do not believe in. I believe black thoughts breed
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: black ills in those who think them. It is not
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: a new idea. There is an old oriental proverb which says,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Curses like chickens come home to roost. I believe also
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: that the worst, the very worst, cannot be done to
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: those who think steadily, steadily, only of the best. To
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: you that is merely superstition to be laughed at. That
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: is a matter of opinion. But— Don't go on with
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: this thing. Don't go on with it. Stop and think
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: it over.' He stared at her furiously, tried to laugh outright,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: and failed because the look in her eyes was so
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: odd in its strength and stillness.' You think you can
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: lay some weird spell upon me?' he jeered sardonically.' No,
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: I don't,' she answered.' I could not, if I would.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: It's no affair of mine. It's your affair only, and
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: there's nothing weird about it. Don't go on, I tell you.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Think better of it. She turned about without further speech,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: and walked away from him with light swiftness over the marsh.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Oddly enough, he did not even attempt to follow her.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: He felt a little weak, perhaps because a certain thing
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: she had said had brought back to him a familiar
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: touch of the horrors. She had the eyes of a
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: falcon under the odd soft shade of the extraordinary lashes.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: She had seen what he thought no one but himself
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: had realised— Having watched her retreating figure for a few seconds,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: he sat down, as suddenly as before, on the mound
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: near the tree.' Oh, damn her!' he said, his damp
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: forehead on his hands.' Damn the whole universe!' When Betty
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: and Roland reached Stornham, the wicker-work pony-chaise from the vicarage
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: stood before the stone entrance steps. The drawing-room door was open,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: and Mrs. Brent was standing near it, saying some last
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: words to Lady Anstruthers before leaving the house, after a
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: visit evidently made with an object. This Betty gathered from
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: the solemnity of her manner.' Betty,' said Lady Anstruthers, catching
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: sight of her, 'do come in for a moment.' When
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Betty entered, both her sister and Mrs. Brent looked at
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: her questioningly.' You look a little pale and tired, Miss Vanderpool,' Mrs.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Brent said, rather as if in haste to be the
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: first to speak. I hope you're not at all unwell.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: We need all our strength just now. I have brought
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: the most painful news. Malignant typhoid fever has broken out
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: among the hop-pickers on the Mount Dunstan estate. Some poor
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: creature was evidently sickening for it when he came from London.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Three people died last night. End of chapter 40