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047 - Hollingford Gossips · Wives and Daughters

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Speaker 1: Chapter forty six of Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell.
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Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter forty six.
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Speaker 2: Hollingford gossips, my dear Molly, why didn't you come and
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Speaker 2: dine with us? I said to sister, I would come
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Speaker 2: and scold you. Well, oh, mister Osborne Hamley, is.
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Speaker 1: That you and a look of mistaken intelligence at the
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Speaker 1: tete a tete she had disturbed came so perceptibly over
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Speaker 1: Miss Phoebe's face that Molly caught Osborne's sympathetic eye, and
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Speaker 1: both smiled at the notion.
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Speaker 2: I'm sure, I well, one must sometimes I see our
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Speaker 2: dinner would have been.
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Speaker 1: Then she recovered herself into a connected sentence.
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Speaker 2: We only just heard of missus Gibson's having a fly
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Speaker 2: from the George because sister sent our Nancy to pay
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Speaker 2: for a couple of rabbits Tom Ostler had snared. I
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Speaker 2: hope we sha'n't be taken up for poachers, mister Osborne.
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Speaker 2: Snaring doesn't to require a license, I believe. And she
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Speaker 2: heard he was gone off with the fly to the
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Speaker 2: towers with your dear Mamma. For Cox, who drives the
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Speaker 2: fly in general had sprained his ankle. We had just
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Speaker 2: finished dinner. But when Nancy said Tom Ostler would not
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Speaker 2: be back till night, I said, why there's that poor
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Speaker 2: dear girl left all alone by herself and her mother,
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Speaker 2: Such a friend of ours when she was alive. I mean,
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Speaker 2: but I'm sure, I'm glad I was mistaken, Osborne said.
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Speaker 3: I came to speak to mister Gibson, not known he
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Speaker 3: had gone to London, and Miss Gibson kindly gave me
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Speaker 3: some of her lunch.
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Speaker 2: I must go.
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Speaker 1: Now, Oh dear, I am so sorry, fluttered out Miss Phoebe.
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Speaker 2: I disturbed you, but it was with the best intentions.
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Speaker 2: I always was malapropos from a child.
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Speaker 1: But Osborne was gone before she had finished her apologies.
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Speaker 1: As he left, his eyes met Molly's with a strange
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Speaker 1: look of yearning farewell that struck her at the time,
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Speaker 1: and that she remembered strongly afterwards.
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Speaker 2: Such a nice, suitable thing. And I came in the
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Speaker 2: midst and spoiled it all. I am sure you are
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Speaker 2: very kind, my dear, considering.
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Speaker 4: Considering what my dear Miss Phoebe, if you are conjecturing
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Speaker 4: a love affair between mister Osborn Hamley and me. You
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Speaker 4: never were more mistaken in your life. I think I
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Speaker 4: told you so once before. Please do believe me.
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Speaker 2: Oh yes, I remember. And somehow sister got it into
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Speaker 2: her head. It was mister Preston, I recollect.
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Speaker 1: One guess is just as wrong as the other, said Molly,
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Speaker 1: smiling and trying to look perfectly indifferent, but going extremely
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Speaker 1: red at the mention of mister Preston's name. It was
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Speaker 1: very difficult for her to keep up any conversation, for
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Speaker 1: her heart was full of Osborne, his changed appearance, his
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Speaker 1: melancholy words of foreboding, and his confidences about his wife
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Speaker 1: freend Catholic servant. Molly could not help trying to piece
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Speaker 1: these strange facts together by imaginations of her own, and
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Speaker 1: found it very hard work to attend to kind Miss
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Speaker 1: Phoebe's unceasing patter. She came up to the point, however,
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Speaker 1: when the voice ceased, and could recall in a mechanical manner,
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Speaker 1: the echo of the last words, which both from Miss
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Speaker 1: Phoebe's look and the dying accent that lingered in Molly's ear,
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Speaker 1: she perceived to be a question. Miss Phoebe was asking
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Speaker 1: her if she would go out with her. She was
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Speaker 1: going to Grinstead's. The bookseller of Hollingford, who, in addition
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Speaker 1: to his regular business, was the agent for the Hollingford
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Speaker 1: Book Society, received their subscriptions, kept their accounts, ordered their
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Speaker 1: books from London, and on payment of a small salary,
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Speaker 1: allowed the society to keep their volumes on shelves in
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Speaker 1: his shop. It was the center of news and the club,
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Speaker 1: as it were, of the little town. Everybody who pretended
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Speaker 1: to gentility in the place belonged to it. It was
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Speaker 1: a test of gentility, indeed, rather than of education or
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Speaker 1: a love of literature. No shopkeeper would have thought of
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Speaker 1: offering himself as a member, however great his general intelligence
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Speaker 1: and love of reading. While it boasted on his list
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Speaker 1: of subscribers most of the county families in the neighborhood,
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Speaker 1: some of whom subscribed to it as a sort of duty,
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Speaker 1: belonging to their station, without often using their privilege of
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Speaker 1: reading the books. While there were residents in the little town,
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Speaker 1: such as missus Goodenough, who privately thought reading a great
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Speaker 1: waste of time that might be much better employed in
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Speaker 1: sewing and knitting and pastry making, but who nevertheless belonged
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Speaker 1: to it as a mark of station, just as these
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Speaker 1: good motherly women would have thought it a terrible come
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Speaker 1: down in the world if they had not had a
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Speaker 1: pretty young servant maid to fetch them home from the
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Speaker 1: tea parties at night. At any rate, Gwinstead's was a
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Speaker 1: very convenient place for a lounge in that view of
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Speaker 1: the book society. Every one agreed. Molly went upstairs to
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Speaker 1: get ready to accompany miss Phoebe, and on opening one
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Speaker 1: of her drawers, she saw Cynthia's envelope containing the money
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Speaker 1: she owed to mister Preston, carefully sealed up like a letter.
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Speaker 1: This was what Molly, he had so unwillingly promised to
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Speaker 1: deliver the last final stroke to the affair. Molly took
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Speaker 1: it up, hating it. For a time she had forgotten it,
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Speaker 1: and now it was here facing her, and she must
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Speaker 1: try to get rid of it. She put it into
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Speaker 1: her pocket for the chances of the walk and the day,
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Speaker 1: and fortune for once seemed to befriend her. For on
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Speaker 1: their entering Grinstead's shop, in which two or three people
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Speaker 1: were now as always congregated, making play of examining the books,
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Speaker 1: or business of writing down the titles of new works
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Speaker 1: in the Auder book there was mister Preston. He bowed
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Speaker 1: as they came in. He could not help that. But
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Speaker 1: at the sight of Molly he looked as ill tempered
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Speaker 1: and out of humor as a man well could do.
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Speaker 1: She was connected in his mind with defeat and mortification,
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Speaker 1: and besides the sight of her called up what he
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Speaker 1: desired now above all things to forget, namely the deep
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Speaker 1: conviction received through Molly's simple earnestness of Cynthia's dislike to him.
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Speaker 1: If Miss Phoebe had seen the scowl upon his handsome face,
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Speaker 1: she might have undeceived her in her suppositions about him
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Speaker 1: and Molly. But Miss Phoebe, who did not consider it
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Speaker 1: quite maidenly to go and stand close to mister Preston
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Speaker 1: and survey the shelves of books in such close proximity
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Speaker 1: to a gentleman, found herself an errand at the other
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Speaker 1: end of the shop, and occupied herself in buying writing paper.
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Speaker 1: Molly fingered her valuable letter as it lay in her pocket.
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Speaker 4: Did she dare to cross over to mister Preston and
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Speaker 4: give it to him or not?
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Speaker 1: While she was still undecided, shrinking always just at the
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Speaker 1: moment when she thought she had got her courage up
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Speaker 1: for action. Miss Phoebe, having finished her purchase, turned round, and,
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Speaker 1: after looking a little pathetically at mister Preston's back, said
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Speaker 1: to Molly in a whisper, I.
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Speaker 2: Think we'll go to Johnson's now and come back for
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Speaker 2: the books in a little while.
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Speaker 1: So across the street to Johnson's they went. But no
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Speaker 1: sooner had they entered the Draper's shop than Molly's conscience
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Speaker 1: smote her for her cowardice and loss of a good opportunity.
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Speaker 1: I'll be back directly, said she, as soon as Miss
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Speaker 1: Phoebe was engaged with her perchain, and Molly ran across
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Speaker 1: to Grinstead's without looking either to the left or to
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Speaker 1: the right. She had been watching the door, and she
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Speaker 1: knew that no mister Preston had issued forth she ran in.
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Speaker 1: He was at the counter now talking to Grinstead himself.
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Speaker 1: Molly put the letter into his hand, to his surprise
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Speaker 1: and almost against his will, and turned around to go
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Speaker 1: back to Miss Phoebe. At the door of the shop
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Speaker 1: stood missus Goodenough, arrested in the act of entering, staring
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Speaker 1: with her round eyes made still rounder and more owl
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Speaker 1: like by spectacles to see Molly Gibson, giving mister Preston
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Speaker 1: a letter which he conscious of being watched and favoring
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Speaker 1: underhand practices, habitually put quickly into his pocket unopened. Perhaps
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Speaker 1: if he had had time for reflection, he would not
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Speaker 1: have scrupled to put Molly to open shame by rejecting
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Speaker 1: what she so eagerly forced upon him. There was another
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Speaker 1: long evening to be got through with Missus Gibson, But
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Speaker 1: on this occasion there was the pleasant occupation of dinner,
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Speaker 1: which took up at least an hour, for it was
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Speaker 1: one of Missus Gibson's fancies, one which Molly chink to
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Speaker 1: have every ceremonial gone through in the same stately manner
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Speaker 1: for two as for twenty. So although Molly knew full well,
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Speaker 1: and her stepmother knew full well, and Maria knew full well,
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Speaker 1: that neither Missus Gibson nor Molly touched dessert, it was
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Speaker 1: set on the table with as much form as if
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Speaker 1: Cynthia had been at home, who delighted in almonds and raisins,
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Speaker 1: or mister Gibson had been there, who could never resist dates.
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Speaker 1: Although he always protested against.
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Speaker 5: Persons in their station of life having a formal dessert
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Speaker 5: set out before them every day.
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Speaker 1: And Missus Gibson herself apologized, as it were, to Molly
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Speaker 1: to day, in the same words she had often used
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Speaker 1: to mister Gibson.
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Speaker 5: It's no extravagance, for we need not eat it. I
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Speaker 5: never do, but it looks well and makes Maria understand
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Speaker 5: what is required in the daily life of every family
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Speaker 5: of position.
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Speaker 1: All through the evening, Molly's thoughts wandered far and wide,
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Speaker 1: though she managed to keep up a show of attention
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Speaker 1: to what Missus Gibson was saying. She was thinking of
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Speaker 1: Osborne and.
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Speaker 4: His abrupt, half finished confidence and his ill looks. She
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Speaker 4: was wondering when Roger would come home, and longing for
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Speaker 4: his return as much, she said to herself, for Osborne's
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Speaker 4: sake as for her own. And then she checked herself,
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Speaker 4: what had she to do with Roger? Why should she
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Speaker 4: long for his return? It was Cynthia who was doing
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Speaker 4: this only somehow, he was such a true friend to
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Speaker 4: Molly that she could not help thinking of him as
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Speaker 4: a staff and a stay in the troublous times which
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Speaker 4: appeared to lie not far ahead this evening. Then, mister
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Speaker 4: Preston and her little adventure with him came uppermost. How
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Speaker 4: angry he looked, how could Cynthia have liked him even
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Speaker 4: enough to get into this abominable scrape, which was, however,
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Speaker 4: all over now?
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Speaker 1: And so she ran on in her fancies and imaginations,
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Speaker 1: little dreaming that that very night much talk was going
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Speaker 1: on not half a mile from where she sat sewing.
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Speaker 1: That would prove that the scrape, as she called it
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Speaker 1: in her girlish phraseology, was not all over. Scandal sleeps
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Speaker 1: in the summer. Comparatively speaking, its nature is the reverse
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Speaker 1: of that of the dormouse, warm ambient air, loiterings abroad, gardenings,
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Speaker 1: flowers to talk about, and preserves to make soothed the
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Speaker 1: wicked imp to slumber in the parish of Hollingford in
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Speaker 1: the summer time. But when the evenings grew short and
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Speaker 1: people gathered around the fires and put their feet in
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Speaker 1: a circle, not on the fenders, that was not allowed.
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Speaker 1: Then was the time for confidential conversation, or in the pores,
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Speaker 1: is allowed for the tea trays to circulate among the
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Speaker 1: card tables. When those who were peaceably inclined tried to
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Speaker 1: stop the warm discussions about the odd trick and the
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Speaker 1: rather wearisome feminine way of shouldering the crutch and showing
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Speaker 1: how fields were won. Small crumbs and scraps of daily
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Speaker 1: news came up to the surface, such.
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Speaker 6: As Martindale has raised the price of his best joints
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Speaker 6: a halfpenny in the pound.
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Speaker 3: Or it's a shame of Sir Harry to order in
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Speaker 3: another book on Ferreary into the book Society, Phoebe and
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Speaker 3: I tried to read it, but really there is no
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Speaker 3: general interest in it.
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Speaker 7: Or I wonder what mister Ashton will do now Nancy
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Speaker 7: is going to be married. Why she's been with him
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Speaker 7: these seventeen years. It's a very foolish thing for a
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Speaker 7: woman of her rage to be thinking of matrimony. And
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Speaker 7: so I told her when I met her in the
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Speaker 7: market place this morning, So.
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Speaker 1: Said miss Browning on the night in question, her hand
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Speaker 1: of cards lying by her on the puce baise covered table,
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Speaker 1: while she munched the rich poundcake of a certain Missus
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Speaker 1: Dawes lately come to inhabit Hollingford.
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Speaker 5: Matrimony's not so bad as you think, for Miss Browning.
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Speaker 1: Said missus goodenough, standing up for the holy estate into
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Speaker 1: which she had twice entered.
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Speaker 5: If i'd a seen Nancy, I should have given her
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Speaker 5: my mind very different. It's a great thing to be
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Speaker 5: able to settle what you'll have for dinner without never
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Speaker 5: a one interfering with you.
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Speaker 1: If that's all said, miss Browning, drawing herself up.
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Speaker 7: I can do that, and perhaps better than a woman
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Speaker 7: who has a husband to please.
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Speaker 5: No one can say as I didn't please my husband.
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Speaker 5: Both on them, though Jeremy was tickler in his taste
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Speaker 5: than poor Harry Beaver. But as I used to say
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Speaker 5: to him, leave the victual to me, it's better for
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Speaker 5: you than knowing what's to come beforehand. The stomach likes
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Speaker 5: to be taken by surprise, and neither of them ever
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Speaker 5: repented them of their confidence. You may take my word
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Speaker 5: for it. Beans and bacon will taste better, And mister
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Speaker 5: Ashton's Nancy in her own house than all the sweetbreads
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Speaker 5: and spring chickens she's been a doing for him these
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Speaker 5: seventeen years. But if I chose, I could tell you
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Speaker 5: of something as would interest you all a deal more
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Speaker 5: than old Nancy's marriage to a widower with nine children.
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Speaker 5: Only as the young folks themselves is meeting in private,
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Speaker 5: clandestine like it's perhaps not for me to tell their secrets.
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Speaker 7: I'm sure I don't want to hear of clandestine meetings
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Speaker 7: between young men and young women.
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Speaker 1: Said Miss Browning, throwing up her head.
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Speaker 7: It's disgrace to the people themselves. I consider if they
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Speaker 7: enter on a love affair without the proper sanction of parents.
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Speaker 7: I know public opinion has changed on the subject. But
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Speaker 7: when poor Gracia was married to mister Bierley, he wrote
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Speaker 7: to my father without ever having so much as paid
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Speaker 7: her a compliment or said more than the most trivial
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Speaker 7: and commonplace things to her, And my father and mother
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Speaker 7: sent for her into my father's study, and she said
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Speaker 7: she was never so much frightened in her life. And
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Speaker 7: they said it was a very good offer, and mister
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Speaker 7: Byerley was a very worthy man, and they hoped she
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Speaker 7: would behave properly to him when he came to supper
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Speaker 7: that night, and after that he was allowed to come
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Speaker 7: twice a week till they were married. My mother and
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Speaker 7: I sat at our work in the bow window of
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Speaker 7: the rectory drawing room, and Gracia and mister Byerley at
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Speaker 7: the other end, And my mother always called my attention
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Speaker 7: to some flower or plant in the garden when it
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Speaker 7: struck nine, for that was his time for going without
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Speaker 7: offense to the present company. I'm rather inclined to look
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Speaker 7: upon matrimony as a weakness to which some very worthy
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Speaker 7: people are prone. But if they must be married, let
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Speaker 7: them make the best of it and go through the
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Speaker 7: affair with dignity and propriety. Or if there are misdoings
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Speaker 7: in clandestine meetings and such things, at any rate, never
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Speaker 7: let me hear about them. I think it's you to play,
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Speaker 7: missus Dawes. You'll excuse my frankness on the subject of matrimony.
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Speaker 7: Missus Goodenough there can tell you. I'm a very outspoken person.
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Speaker 5: It's not the art speaking, it's what you say that
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Speaker 5: goes against me, Miss Browning.
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Speaker 1: Said Missus Goodnoff, affronted, yet ready to play her card
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Speaker 1: as soon as needed. And as for Missus Dawes, she
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Speaker 1: was too anxious to get into the genteelest of all
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Speaker 1: Hollingford society to object to whatever. Miss Browning, who in
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Speaker 1: right of being a deceased rector's daughter, rather represented the
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Speaker 1: selector's circle of the little town, advocated whether celibacy, marriage,
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Speaker 1: bigamy or polygamy. So the remainder of the evening passed
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Speaker 1: over without any further reference to the secret missus Goodenough
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Speaker 1: was burning to disclose unless a remark made a propos
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Speaker 1: de rhea by Miss Browning during the silence of the
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Speaker 1: deal could be supposed to have connection with the previous conversation.
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Speaker 1: She said, suddenly and abruptly.
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Speaker 7: I don't know what I have done that any man
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Speaker 7: should make me his slave.
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Speaker 1: If she was referring to any prospect of matrimonial danger
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Speaker 1: she saw opening before her fancy, she might have been comforted.
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Speaker 1: But it was a remark of which no one took
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Speaker 1: any notice, all being far too much engaged in the rubber.
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Speaker 1: Only when Miss Browning took her early leave for Miss
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Speaker 1: Phoebe had a cold and was an invalid at home,
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Speaker 1: missus Goodenough burst out with.
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Speaker 5: Well, now I may speak out my mind and say,
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Speaker 5: as how if there was a slave, but weeen us
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Speaker 5: two when good Enough was alive, it wasn't me. And
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Speaker 5: I don't think as it was pretty in Miss Browning
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Speaker 5: to give herself such airs on her virginity when there
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Speaker 5: was four windows in the room, who had six honest
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Speaker 5: men amongst em for husbands no offense.
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Speaker 1: Miss Ayry, addressing an unfortunate little spinster who found herself
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Speaker 1: the sole representative of celibacy. Now that Miss Browning was gone, I.
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Speaker 5: Could tell her of a girl as she's very fond of,
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Speaker 5: who's on the high road to matrimony, and in as
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Speaker 5: cunning away as I ever heard, on going out at
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Speaker 5: dusk to meet her sweetheart, just as if she was
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Speaker 5: my Sally or your Jenny. And her name is Molly too, which,
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Speaker 5: as I have often thought, shows a law taste in
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Speaker 5: them as first called her, so she might as well
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Speaker 5: be a scullery maid at once, not that she's picked
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Speaker 5: up anybody common. She's looked about her for a handsome
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Speaker 5: fellow and a smart young man.
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Speaker 3: Enough.
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Speaker 1: Everyone around the table looked curious and intent on the
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Speaker 1: disclosures being made, except the hostess, Missus Dawes, who smiled
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Speaker 1: intelligence with her eyes and knowingly pursed up her mouth
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Speaker 1: until Missus Goodenough had finished her tale.
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Speaker 6: Then she said, demurely, I suppose you mean mister Preston
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Speaker 6: and miss Gibson.
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Speaker 5: Whah, who told you?
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Speaker 1: Said, Missus Goodenough, turning round upon her in surprise, You.
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Speaker 5: Can't say, as I did, there's many a Molly in
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Speaker 5: Hollingford besides her, though none perhaps in such a genteel
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Speaker 5: situation in life, I never named her.
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Speaker 6: I'm sure no, but I know I can tell my
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Speaker 6: tale too.
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Speaker 1: Continued Missus Dawes. No, could you really, said, missus goodenough,
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Speaker 1: very curious and a little jealous.
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Speaker 6: Yes, my uncle Sheepshanks came upon them in the park Avenue.
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Speaker 6: You startled him a good deal, he said, and when
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Speaker 6: he tacks mister Preston with being with a sweetheart, he
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Speaker 6: didn't deny it.
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Speaker 5: Well, now so much has come out. I'll tell you
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Speaker 5: what I know only, ladies. I wouldn't wish to do
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Speaker 5: the girl an unkind turn, so you must keep what
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Speaker 5: I've got to tell you a secret.
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Speaker 1: Of course, they promised that was easy.
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Speaker 5: My Hannah as married tom Oaks and lives in Pearson's Lane.
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Speaker 5: Was a gathering of Danson's only a week ago, and
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Speaker 5: Molly Gibson was a walking fast down the lane, quite
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Speaker 5: in a hurry, like to meet someone, and Hannah's little
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Speaker 5: Anna Maria, fell down, and Molly, who's the kind hearted
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Speaker 5: last enough, picked her up. So if Hannah had had
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Speaker 5: her doubts before, she'd had none then.
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Speaker 3: But there was no one with her.
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Speaker 1: Was there, asked one of the ladies, anxiously, as Missus
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Speaker 1: Goodenough stopped to finish her piece of cake just at
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Speaker 1: this crisis.
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Speaker 5: No, I said, she looked as if she was going
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Speaker 5: to meet someone. And by and by comes mister Preston,
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Speaker 5: running out of the wood just beyond Hannah's and says
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Speaker 5: he a cup of water, please, good woman, for a
18:30
Speaker 5: lady has fainted or hysterical or something. Now though he
18:35
Speaker 5: didn't know Hannah, Hannah knew him. More folks know Tom
18:39
Speaker 5: full than Tom Full nose asking mister Preston's pardon, for
18:44
Speaker 5: he's no fool whatever he be, And I could tell
18:47
Speaker 5: you more, and what I've seed with my own eyes,
18:51
Speaker 5: I seed her give him a letter in Grinstead shop
18:54
Speaker 5: only yesterday, And he looked as black as thunder at her,
18:59
Speaker 5: for heeds me if she didn't.
19:02
Speaker 3: It's a resuitable kind of thing, said miss Ari. Why
19:07
Speaker 3: do they make such a mystery of it?
19:09
Speaker 1: Some folks like it, said Missus Dawes.
19:11
Speaker 6: It adds zest to it all to do their courtning underhand.
19:15
Speaker 1: Ah, it's like salt to their victual put in Missus Goodenough.
19:20
Speaker 5: But I didn't think Molly Gibson was one of that sort.
19:23
Speaker 6: I didn't the Gibsons hold themselves very.
19:26
Speaker 1: High, cried Missus Dawes. More as an inquiry than an assertion.
19:30
Speaker 6: Missus Gibson has called upon me, Ah, you'll like to
19:33
Speaker 6: be the patient of the doctors.
19:35
Speaker 1: Put in Missus Goodenough.
19:37
Speaker 6: She seemed to me very affable. Though she's so intimate
19:40
Speaker 6: with the Countess and the family at the towers. Is
19:42
Speaker 6: quite the lady herself, dines late. I've heard and everything
19:45
Speaker 6: in style.
19:47
Speaker 5: Style, very different style to what Bob Gibson, her husband
19:51
Speaker 5: was used to when he first came here, glad of
19:54
Speaker 5: a mutton shop. Any surgery, for I dealt eat to
19:57
Speaker 5: fire anywhere else we called him Bob Gibson, but none
20:01
Speaker 5: on us day bob him. Now I'd as soon think
20:03
Speaker 5: of calling him sweep.
20:05
Speaker 3: I think it looks very bad for miss Gibson.
20:08
Speaker 1: Said one lady, rather anxious to bring back the conversation
20:11
Speaker 1: to the more interesting present time. But as soon as
20:14
Speaker 1: Missus Goodenough heard this natural comment on the disclosures she
20:17
Speaker 1: had made, she fired round on the speaker.
20:20
Speaker 5: Not at all bad, And I'll trouble you not to
20:23
Speaker 5: use such a word as that about Molly Gibson, as
20:26
Speaker 5: I've known all her life. It's odd, if you will.
20:31
Speaker 5: I was odd myself as a girl. I never could
20:33
Speaker 5: abide a plate of gathered gooseberries. But I must needs
20:37
Speaker 5: go and skulk behind a bush and gatherum for myself.
20:41
Speaker 5: It's some folk's taste, though it mayn't be miss Brownings,
20:46
Speaker 5: who'd have all the courting done under the nose of
20:49
Speaker 5: the family. All, as ever I said was that I
20:53
Speaker 5: was surprised at it in Molly Gibson, and that i'd
20:56
Speaker 5: a thought it was like her, that pretty piece of
20:59
Speaker 5: a synth fear as they call her. Indeed, at one
21:02
Speaker 5: time I was ready to swear as it was er
21:06
Speaker 5: mister Preston was after And now, ladies, I'll wish you
21:11
Speaker 5: a very good night. I cannot abide waste, and I'll
21:14
Speaker 5: venture for it. Sally's letting the candle in the lantern
21:17
Speaker 5: run all to Greece instead of putting it out as
21:20
Speaker 5: I've told her to do. If ever, she's got to
21:22
Speaker 5: wait for me.
21:24
Speaker 1: So with formal dipping curtsies, the ladies separated, but not
21:27
Speaker 1: without thanking Missus Dawes for the pleasant evening. They had
21:30
Speaker 1: had a piece of old fashioned courtesy always gone through
21:33
Speaker 1: in those days. End of chapter forty six,