Latest / Audiobooks & Scary Stories / The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim.

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The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim. · Audiobooks & Scary Stories

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  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this reading, which comes from a
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  Speaker 1: work in the public domain, The Enchanted April by Elizabeth
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Vaughan Arnim, Chapter one. It began in a woman's club
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  Speaker 1: in London on a February afternoon, an uncomfortable club and
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  Speaker 1: a miserable afternoon, when Missus Wilkins, who had come down
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  Speaker 1: from Hampstead to shop and had lunched at her club,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: took up The Times from the table in the smoking room,
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  Speaker 1: and running her listlessly down the agony column saw this
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  Speaker 1: to those who appreciate whisteria and sunshine. Small medieval Italian
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  Speaker 1: castle on the shores of the Mediterranean, to be let
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  Speaker 1: furnished for the month of April, necessary servants remain z
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  Speaker 1: box one thousand the Times. That was its conception, Yet,
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  Speaker 1: as in the case of many another, the conceiver was
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  Speaker 1: unaware of it at the moment. So entirely unaware was
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins that her April for that year had then
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  Speaker 1: and there been settled for her, that she dropped the
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  Speaker 1: newspaper with a gesture that was both herd and resigned,
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  Speaker 1: and went over to the window and stared drearily out
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  Speaker 1: at the dripping street. Not for her were medieval castles,
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  Speaker 1: even those that are specially described as small. Not for
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  Speaker 1: her the shores in april of the Mediterranean, and the
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  Speaker 1: wistaria and sunshine. Such delights were only for the rich.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Yet the advertisement had been addressed to persons who appreciate
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: these things, so that it had been anyhow addressed too
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  Speaker 1: to her, For she certainly appreciated them more than anybody knew,
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  Speaker 1: more than she had ever told. But she was poor
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: in the whole world. She possessed of her very own
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  Speaker 1: only ninety pounds saved from year to year, put by carefully,
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  Speaker 1: pound by pound, out of her dress allowance. She had
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: scraped this sum together at the suggestion of her husband,
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  Speaker 1: as a shield and refuge against a rainy day. Her
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  Speaker 1: dress allowance, given her by her father was one hundred
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  Speaker 1: pounds a year, so that missus Wilkins's clothes were what
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  Speaker 1: her husband, urging her to save, called modest and becoming.
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  Speaker 1: And her acquaintance to each other when they spoke of
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  Speaker 1: her at all, which was seldom, for she was very negligible,
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  Speaker 1: called a perfect sight. Mister Wilkins, a solicitor, encouraged thrift,
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  Speaker 1: except that branch of it which got into his food.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: He did not call that thrift, He called it bad housekeeping.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: But for the thrift, which like moth penetrated into Missus
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  Speaker 1: Wilkins's clothes and spoilt them, he had much praise. You
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: never know, he said, when there will be a rainy day,
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  Speaker 1: and you may be very glad to find you have
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  Speaker 1: a nest egg. Indeed we both may Looking out of
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: the club window into Shaftesbury Avenue, hers was an economical club,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: but convenient for Hampstead, where she lived, and for Sholbred's
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: where she shopped. Missus Wilkins, having stood there some time
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  Speaker 1: very drearily, her mind's eye on the Mediterranean in April,
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  Speaker 1: and the Wistaria and the enviable opportunities of the rich,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: while her bodily I watched the really extremely horrible sooty
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: rainfall falling steadily on the hurrying umbrellas and splashing omnibuses.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Suddenly wondered whether perhaps this was not the rainy day
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  Speaker 1: Mellish Melish was mister Wilkins had so often encouraged her
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  Speaker 1: to prepare for, and whether to get out of such
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  Speaker 1: a climate and into the small medieval castle wasn't Perhaps
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  Speaker 1: what providence had all along intended her to do with
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: her savings. Part of her savings, of course, perhaps quite
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  Speaker 1: a small part. The castle, being medieval, might also be dilapidated,
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  Speaker 1: and dilapidations were surely cheap. She wouldn't in the least
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: mind a few of them, because you didn't pay for
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: dilapidations which were already there. On the contrary, by reducing
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  Speaker 1: the price you had to pay, they really paid you.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: But what nonsense to think of it. She turned away
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  Speaker 1: from the window with the same gesture of mingled irritation
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  Speaker 1: and resignation with which she had laid down the times,
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  Speaker 1: and crossed the room towards the door, with the intention
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  Speaker 1: of getting her macintosh and umbrella and fighting her way
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  Speaker 1: into one of the overcrowded omnibuses, and going to showbreads
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  Speaker 1: on her way home, and buying some saws for Melish's dinner.
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  Speaker 1: Melish was difficult with fish, and liked only souls except salmon.
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  Speaker 1: When she beheld missus Arbuthnet, a woman she knew by
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  Speaker 1: sight as also living in Hampstead and belonging to the club,
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  Speaker 1: sitting at the table in the middle of the room
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  Speaker 1: on which the newspapers and magazines were kept absorbed in
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  Speaker 1: her turn in the first page of the Times. Missus
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  Speaker 1: Wilkins had never yet spoken to Missus Arbuthnet, who belonged
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  Speaker 1: to one of the various church sets, and who analyzed, classified,
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  Speaker 1: divided and registered the poor. Whereas she and Mellersh, when
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: they did go out, went to the parties of Impressionist painters,
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  Speaker 1: of whom in Hampstead there were many. Melish had a
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  Speaker 1: sister who had married one of them, and lived up
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  Speaker 1: on the heath. And because of this alliance, Missus Wilkins
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: was drawn into a circle which was highly unnatural to her.
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  Speaker 1: And she had learned to dread pictures. She had to
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  Speaker 1: say things about them, and she didn't know what to say.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: She used to murmur marvelous and feel that it was not.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: But nobody minded, nobody listened, nobody took any notice of
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins. She was the kind of person who is
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: not noticed at parties. Her clothes, infested by thrift, made
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: her practically invisible. Her face was non arresting, her conversation
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: was reluctant. She was shy. And if one's clothes and
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: face and conversation are all negligible, thought Missus Wilkins, who
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: recognized her disabilities. What at parties is their left of one? Also,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: she was always with Wilkins, that clean shaven, fine looking
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  Speaker 1: man who gave a party merely by coming to it
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: a great air. Wilkins was very respectable. He was known
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: to be highly thought of by his senior partners. His
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  Speaker 1: sister's circle admired him. He pronounced adequately intelligent judgments on
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: art and artists. He was pithy, he was prudent. He
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  Speaker 1: never said a word too much, nor, on the other hand,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: did he ever say a word too little. He produced
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: the impression of keeping copies of everything he said. And
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: he was so obviously reliable that it often happened that
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: people who met him at these parties became discontented with
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  Speaker 1: their own solicitors, and, after a period of restlessness, extricated
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: themselves and went to Wilkins. Naturally, missus Wilkins was blotted out.
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  Speaker 1: She said, his sister, with something herself of the judicial,
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  Speaker 1: the digested, and the final in her manner, should stay
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  Speaker 1: at home. But Wilkins could not leave his wife at home.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: He was a family solicitor, and all such have wives
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: and show them with his in the week he went
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  Speaker 1: to parties, and with his on Sundays he went to church,
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  Speaker 1: being still fairly young. He was thirty nine and ambitious
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  Speaker 1: of old ladies, of whom he had not yet acquired
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  Speaker 1: in his practice, a sufficient number he could not afford
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  Speaker 1: to miss church. And it was there that Missus Wilkins
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: became familiar, though never through words, with Missus Arbuthnet. She
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  Speaker 1: saw marshaling the children of the poor into pews. She
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: would come in at the head of the procession from
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  Speaker 1: the Sunday school exactly five minutes before the choir and
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  Speaker 1: get her boys and girls neatly fitted into their allotted seats,
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  Speaker 1: and down on their little knees in their preliminary prayer,
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  Speaker 1: and up again on their feet, just as to the
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  Speaker 1: swelling organ. The vestry door opened, and the choir and clergy,
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  Speaker 1: big with the litanys and commandments they were presently to
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  Speaker 1: roll out, emerged. She had a sad face, yet she
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: was evidently efficient. The combination used to make Missus Wilkins wonder,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: for she had been told by Mellersh on days when
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: she had only been able to get place, that if
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: one were efficient, one wouldn't be depressed, and that if
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: one does one's job well, one becomes automatically bright and brisk.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: About Missus Arbuthnet, there was nothing bright and brisk, though
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  Speaker 1: much in her way with the Sunday school children. That
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  Speaker 1: was automatic. But when Missus Wilkins, turning from the window,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: caught sight of her in the club, she was not
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  Speaker 1: being automatic at all, but was looking fixedly at one
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  Speaker 1: portion of the first page of the Times, holding the
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  Speaker 1: paper quite still, her eyes not moving. She was just staring,
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  Speaker 1: and her face, as usual, was the face of a
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  Speaker 1: patient and disappointed madonna obeying an impulse she wondered at
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  Speaker 1: even while obeying it, Missus Wilkins, the shy and the reluctant,
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  Speaker 1: instead of proceeding as she had intended to the cloak
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  Speaker 1: room and from thence to Skulbreads in search of Melosha's fish,
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  Speaker 1: stopped at the table and sat down exactly opposite Missus Arbuthnet,
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  Speaker 1: to whom she had never yet spoken in her life.
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  Speaker 1: It was one of those long, narrow refectory tables, so
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  Speaker 1: that they were quite close to each other. Missus Arbuthnet, however,
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  Speaker 1: did not look up. She continued to gaze with eyes
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  Speaker 1: that seemed to be dreaming at one spot only of
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  Speaker 1: the times. Missus Wilkins watched her a minute, trying to
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  Speaker 1: screw up courage to speak to her. She wanted to
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  Speaker 1: ask her if she had seen the advertisement. She did
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  Speaker 1: not know why she wanted to ask her this, but
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  Speaker 1: she wanted to. How stupid not to be able to
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  Speaker 1: speak to her. She looked so kind, she looked so unhappy.
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  Speaker 1: Why couldn't two unhappy people refresh each other on their
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  Speaker 1: way through this dusty business of life by a little talk,
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  Speaker 1: real natural talk about what they felt, what they would
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  Speaker 1: have liked, what they still tried to hope? And she
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: could not help thinking that Missus Arbuthnet too was reading
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  Speaker 1: that very same advertisement. Her eyes were on the very
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  Speaker 1: part of the paper. Was she too picturing what it
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  Speaker 1: would be like? The color, the fragrance, the light, the
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  Speaker 1: soft lapping of the sea among little hot rocks, color, fragrance, light, sea,
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  Speaker 1: instead of Shaftesbury Avenue and the wet omnibuses and the
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  Speaker 1: fish department at Shorebred's and the tube to Hampstead and
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: dinner and tomorrow the same, in the day after, the same,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: and always the same. Suddenly Missus Wilkins found herself leaning
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  Speaker 1: across the table. Are you reading about the media evil
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: castle and the Wisteria? She heard herself asking. Naturally, Missus
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Arbuthnet was surprised, But she was not half so much
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: surprised as Missus Wilkins was at herself for asking. Missus
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Arbuthnet had not yet, to her knowledge, set eyes on
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  Speaker 1: the shabby, lank, loosely put together figure sitting opposite her,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: with its small, freckled face and big gray eyes almost
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: disappearing under a smashed down wet weather hat. And she
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: gazed at her a moment without answering. She was reading
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: about the medieval castle and the wisteria, or rather had
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  Speaker 1: read about it ten minutes before, and since then had
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: been lost in dreams of light, of color, of fragrance,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: of the soft lapping of the sea among little hot rocks.
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  Speaker 1: Why do you ask me, that, she said in her
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  Speaker 1: grave voice, for her training of and by the poor
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: had made her grave impatient. Missus Wilkins flushed and looked
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  Speaker 1: excessively shy and frightened. Oh, only because I saw it too,
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  Speaker 1: and I thought, perhaps, I thought somehow, she stammered, whereupon
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet, her mind being used to getting people into
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: lists and divisions from habit considered as she gazed thoughtfully
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: at Missus Wilkins under what heading, Supposing she had to
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: classify her, she could most properly be put and I
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: know you by sight when on Missus Wilkins, who like
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: all the shy once she was started, plunged on, frightening
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  Speaker 1: herself to more and more speech by the sheer sound
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  Speaker 1: of what she had said last in her ears every Sunday,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: I see you every sunday in church. In church, echoed
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet. And this seems such a wonderful thing, this
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: advertisement about the wistaria. And Missus Wilkins, who must have
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: been at least thirty, broke off and wriggled in her
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: chair with the movement of an awkward and embarrassed schoolgirl.
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  Speaker 1: It seems so wonderful, she went on, in a kind
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  Speaker 1: of burst. And it is such a miserable day. And
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: then she sat looking at Missus Arbuthnet with the eyes
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: of an imprisoned dog. This poor thing, thought Missus Arbuthnet,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: whose life was spent in helping and alleviating needs advice,
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  Speaker 1: she accordingly prepared herself patiently to give it. If you
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: see me in church, she said, kindly and attentively. I
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: suppose you live in Hampstead too. Oh yes, said Missus Wilkins,
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  Speaker 1: and she repeated, her head on its long, thin neck,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: drooping a little as if the recollection of Hampstead bowed her.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yes, Where asked Missus Arbuthnet, who, when advice was needed,
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  Speaker 1: naturally first proceeded to collect the facts. But Missus Wilkins,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: laying her hands softly and caressingly on the part of
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: the Times where the advertisement was, as though the mere
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: printed words of it were precious, only said, perhaps that's
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: why this seems so wonderful. No, I think that's wonderful anyhow,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: said Missus Arbuthnet, forgetting facts, and faintly sighing. Then you
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: were reading it, Yes, said Missus Arbuthnet, her eyes going
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: dreamy again. Wouldn't it be wonderful? Murmured Missus Wilkins. Wonderful,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: said Missus Arbuthnet, her face, which had lit up, faded
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: into patience again. Very wonderful, she said. But it's no
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: use wasting one's time thinking of such things. Oh but
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: it is, was Missus wilkins as quick surprising reply. Surprising
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: because it was so much unlike the rest of her,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: the characterless coat and skirt, the crumpled hat, the undecided
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: wisp of hair straggling out, and just the considering of
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: them is worth while in itself, such a change from Hampstead.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: And sometimes I believe, I really do believe if one
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: considers hard enough, one gets things. Missus Arbuthnet observed her patiently.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: In what category would she supposing she had to put her? Perhaps,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: she said, leaning forward a little, you will tell me
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  Speaker 1: your name if we are to be friends. She smiled,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: her grave smile, as I hope we are. We had
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: better begin at the beginning. Oh yes, how kind of you.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: I'm missus Wilkins, said Missus Wilkins. I don't expect she added, flushing,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: as Missus Arbuthnet said, nothing that it conveys anything to you.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it it doesn't seem to convey anything to me either.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: But she looked round with a movement of seeking help.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: I am Missus Wilkins. She did not like her name.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: It was a mean, small name, with a kind of
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: facetious twist. She thought about its end, like the upward
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: curve of a pugdog's tail. There it was, However, there
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: was no doing anything with it. Wilkins she was, and
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: Wilkins she would remain. And though her husband encouraged her
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: to give it on all occasions as Missus Mellersh Wilkins,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: she only did that when he was within earshot, for
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: she thought Mellersh made Wilkins worse, emphasizing it in the
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: way Chatsworth on the gate posts of a villa emphasizes
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: the villa. When first he suggested she should add Mellersh,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: she had objected for the above reason, and after a
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: pause Mellish was much too prudent to speak, except after
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: a pause during which presumably he was taking a careful
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: mental copy of his coming observation. He said, much displeased,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: but I am not a villa, and looked at her
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: as he looks, who hopes for perhaps the hundredth time,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: that he may not have married a fool. Of course,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: he was not a villa. Missus Wilkins assured him she
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: had never supposed he was. She had not dreamed of meaning,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: she was only just thinking. The more she explained, the
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: more earnest became Melosh's hope familiar to him by this time,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: for he had then been a husband for two years
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: that he might not, by any chance, have married a fool.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: And they had a prolonged quarrel, if that can be
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: called a quarrel which is conducted with dignified silence on
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: one side and earnest apology on the other. As to
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: whether or no Missus Wilkins had intended to suggest that
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: mister Wilkins was a villa, I believe she had thought
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: when it was at last over, it took a long
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: while that anybody would quarrel about anything when they've not
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: left off being together for a single day for two
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: whole years. What we both need is a holiday. My
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: husband went on Missus Wilkins to Missus Arbuthnet, trying to
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: throw some light on herself, is a solicitor. He She
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: cast about for something she could say elucidatory of mellersh
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: and found he's very handsome. Well, said Missus Arbuthnet, kindly,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: that must be a great pleasure to you, Why, asked
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins, Because, said Missus Arbuthnet, a little taken aback
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: for constant intercourse with the poor, had accustomed her to
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: have her pronouncements accepted without question. Because beauty handsomeness is
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: a gift like any other, and if it is properly used.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: She trailed off into silence. Missus Wilkins's great gray eyes
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: were fixed on her, and it seemed suddenly to Missus
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Arbuthnet that perhaps she was becoming crystallized into a habit
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: of exposition, and of exposition after the manner of nursemaids,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: through having an audience that couldn't but agree, that would
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: be afraid if it wished to interrupt, that didn't know,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: that was in fact at her mercy. But Missus Wilkins
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: was not listening for just then, absurd as it seemed,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: a picture had flashed across her brain, and there were
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: two figures in it, sitting together under a great trailing
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: wisteria that stretched across the branches of a tree. She
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: didn't know, and it was herself and Missus Arbuthnet. She
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: saw them, she saw them, and behind them, bright in sunshine,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: were old gray walls the medieval castle. She saw it,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: they were there. She therefore stared at Missus Arbuthnet and
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: did not hear a word she said, And Missus Arbuthnet
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: stared too at Missus Wilkins, harrested by the expression on
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: her face, which was swept by the excitement of what
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: she saw, and was as luminous and tremulous under it
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: as water in sunlight when it is ruffled by a
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: gust of wind. At this moment, if she had been
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: at a party, Missus Wilkins would have been looked at
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: with interest. They stared at each other, Missus Arbuthnet surprised,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: inquiringly Missus Wilkins, with the eyes of some one who
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: has had a revelation. Of course, that was how it
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: could be done. She herself, she by herself couldn't afford it,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: and wouldn't be able even if she could afford it,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: to go there all alone. But she and Missus are
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Buthnet together. She leaned across the table. Why don't we
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: try and get it, she whispered. Missus Arbuthnet became even
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: more wide eyed. Get it, she repeated, Yes, said Missus Wilkins,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: still as though she were afraid of being overheard. Not
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: just sit here and say how wonderful, and then go
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: home to Hampstead without having put out a finger, Go
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: home just as usual and see about the dinner and
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: the fish, just as we've been doing for years and years,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: and will go on doing for years and years in fact,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: said Missus Wilkins, flushing to the roots of her hair,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: for the sound of what she was saying, of what
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: was coming poor out frightened her. And yet she couldn't stop.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: I see no end to it. There is no end
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: to it, so that there ought to be a break,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: There ought to be intervals in everybody's interests. Why it
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: would really be being unselfish to go away and be
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: happy for a little, because we would come back so
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: much nicer. You see, after a bit, everybody needs a holiday.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: But how do you mean get it, asked Missus Arbuthnet.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Take it, said Missus Wilkins. Take it, rent it, hire it,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: have it? But do you mean you and I? Yes,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: between us share then it would only cost half. And
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: you look so you look exactly as if you wanted it,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: just as much as I do, as if you ought
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: to have a rest, have something happy happen to you.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Why but we don't know each other, But just think
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: how well we would if we went away together for
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: a month. And I've saved for a rainy day, and
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: I expect so have you, and this is the rainy day.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Look at it. She is unbalanced, thought Missus Arbuthnet. Yet
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: she felt strangely stirred think of getting away for a
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: whole month from everything to heaven. She shouldn't say things
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: like that, thought Missus Arbuthnet, the Vicar. Yet she felt
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: strangely stirred. It would indeed be wonderful to have a
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: rest a cessation habit. However, steadied her again, and years
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: of intercourse with the poor made her say, with the
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: slight though sympathetic superiority of the explainer. But then, you see,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Heaven isn't somewhere else, It is here, and now we
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: are told. So. She became very earnest, just as she
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: did when trying patiently to help and enlighten the poor.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Heaven is within us, she said, in her gentle, low voice.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: We are told that on the very highest authority. And
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: you know the lines about the kindred points, don't Oh, yes,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: I know them, interrupted missus Wilkins, impatiently. The kindred points
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: of heaven and home, continued Missus Arbuthnet, who was used
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: to finishing her sentences. Heaven is in our home, it isn't,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: said Missus Wilkins again. Surprisingly, Missus Arbuthnet was taken aback.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Then she said, gently, oh, but it is. It is
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: there if we choose, if we make it. I do choose,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: and I do make it, and it isn't, said missus Wilkins.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Then Missus Arbuthnet was silent, for she too sometimes had
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: doubts about Holmes. She sat and looked uneasily at missus Wilkins,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: feeling more and more the urgent need to getting her classified.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: If she could only classify Missus Wilkins, get her safely
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: under her proper heading, she felt that she herself would
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: regain her balance, which did seem very strangely to be
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: slipping all to one side, for neither had she had
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: a holiday for years, and the advertisement when she saw it,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: had set her dreaming, and Missus Wilkins's excitement about it
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: was infectious, and she had the sensation as she listened
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: to her impetuous odd talk and watched her lit up face,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: that she was being stirred out of sleep. Clearly, Missus
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Wilkins was unbalanced. But Missus Arbuthnet had met the unbalanced before, indeed,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: she was always meeting them, and they had no effect
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: on her own stability at all, whereas this one was
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: making her feel quite wobbly, quite as though, to be
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: off and away away from her compass points of God, Husband, Home,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: and duty. She didn't feel as if missus Wilkins intended
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: mister Wilkins to come too and just for once be happy,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: would be both good and desirable, which of course it wasn't,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: which certainly, of course it wasn't. She also had a
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: nest egg invested gradually in the Post Office savings bank.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: But to suppose that she would ever forget her duty
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: to the extent of drawing it out and spending it
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: on herself was surely absurd. Surely she couldn't, She wouldn't
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: do such a thing. Surely she wouldn't. She couldn't ever
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: forget her poor, forget misery and sickness as completely as that,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: No doubt, a trip to Italy would be extraordinarily delightful.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: But there were many delightful things one would like to do,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: and what was strength given to one for except to
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: help one not to do them? Steadfast as the points
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: of the compass to missus Arbuthnet were the great four
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: facts of life, God, Husband, Home, Duty. She had gone
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: to sleep on these facts years ago after a period
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: of much misery, Her head resting on them as on
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: a pillow, and she had a great dread of being
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: awakened out of so simple and untroublesome a condition. Therefore
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: it was that she searched with earnestness for a heading
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: under which to put Missus Wilkins, and in this way
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: illumine and steady her own mind. And sitting there looking
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: at her uneasily after her last remark, and feeling herself
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: becoming more and more unbalanced and infected, she decided pro tem,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: as the vicar said at meetings, to put her under
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: the heading nerves. It was just possible that she ought
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: to go straight into the category hysteria, which was often
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: only the antechamber to lunacy. But Missus Arbuthnet had learned
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: not to hurry people into their final categories, having on
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: more than one occasion discovered with dismay that she had
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: made a mistake, and how difficult it had been to
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: get them out again, and how crushed she had been
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: with the most terrible remorse. Yes, nerves. Probably she had
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: no regular work for others, thought Missus Arbuthnet, no work
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: that would take her outside herself. Evidently she was rudderless
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: blown about by gusts by impulses nerves was almost certainly
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: her category, or would be quite soon if no one
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: helped her. Poor little thing, thought Missus Arbuthnet, her own balance,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: returning hand in hand with her compassion, and unable because
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: of the table to see the length of Missus Wilkins's legs,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: all she saw was her small, eager, shy face, and
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: her thin shoulders, and the look of childish longing in
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: her eyes for something that she was sure was going
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: to make her happy. No, such things didn't make people happy,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Such fleeting things, missus Arbuthnet had learned in her long
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: life with Frederick. He was her husband, and she had
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: married him at twenty and was now thirty three. Where
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: alone true joys are to be found, they are to
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: be found, she now knew. Only in daily, in hourly living,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: for others they are to be found. Only hadn't she,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: over and over again taken her disappointments and discouragements there
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: and come away comforted at the feet of God. Frederick
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: had been the kind of husband whose wife betakes herself
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: early to the feet of God. From him to them
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: had been a short, though painful step. It seemed short
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: to her in retrospect, but It had really taken the
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: whole of the first year of their marriage, and every
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: inch of the way had been a struggle, and every
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: inch of it was stained, she felt at the time,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: with her heart's blood. All that was over. Now she
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: had long since found peace, and Frederick, from her passionately
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: loved bridegroom, from her worshiped young husband, had become second
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: only to God on her list of duties and forbearances.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: There he hung the second in importance, a bloodless thing
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: bled white by her prayers. For years she had been
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: able to be happy only by forgetting happiness. She wanted
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: to stay like that. She wanted to shut out everything
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: that would remind her of beautiful things that might set
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: her off again. Longing desiring, I'd like so much to
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: be friends, she said earnestly. Won't you come and see me,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: or let me come to you sometimes, whenever you feel
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: as if you wanted to talk, I'll give you my address.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: She searched in her hand bag, and then you won't forget,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: And she found a card and held it out. Missus
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Wilkins ignored the card. It's so funny, said missus Wilkins,
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: just as if she had not heard her, but I
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: see us, both you and me this April in the
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: medieval castle, Missus Arbuthnet relapsed into uneasiness. Do you, she said,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: making an effort to stay balanced under the visionary gaze
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: of the shining gray eyes. Do you don't you ever
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: see things in a kind of flash before they happen,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: asked Missus Wilkins, Never, said Missus Arbuthnet. She tried to smile.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: She tried to smile, the sympathetic, yet wise and tolerant
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: smile with which she was accustomed to listen to the
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: necessarily biased and incomplete views of the poor. She didn't succeed.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: The smile trembled out, of course, she said, in a
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: low voice, almost as if she were afraid the vicar
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: and the savings bank were listening. It would be most beautiful,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: most beautiful, even if it were wrong, said missus Wilkins.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: It would only be for a month, that began, Missus
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Arbuthnet quite clear as to the reprehensibleness of such a
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: point of view. But Missus Wilkins stopped her before she
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: could finish. Anyhow, said Missus Wilkins, stopping her, I'm sure
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: it's wrong to go on being good for too long
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: till one gets miserable. And I can see you've been
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: good for years and years, because you look so unhappy.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet opened her mouth to protest. And I I've
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: done nothing but duties things for other people ever since
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: I was a girl. And I don't believe anybody loves
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: me a bit, a bit to be better. And I long, oh,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: I long for something else, something else? Was she going
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: to cry? Missus Arbuthnet became acutely uncomfortable and sympathetic. She
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: hoped she wasn't going to cry, not there, not in
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: that unfriendly room with strangers coming and going. But missus Wilkins,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: after tugging agitatedly at a handkerchief that wouldn't come out
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: of her pocket, did succeed at last, and merely, apparently
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: blowing her nose with it, and then blinking her eyes
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: very quickly once or twice, looked at missus Arbuthnet with
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: a quivering air of half humble, half frightened apology, and smiled.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Will you believe, she whispered, trying to steady her mouth,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: evidently dreadfully ashamed of herself, that I've never spoken to
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: any one before in my life like this. I can't think.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: I simply don't know what has come over me. It's
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: the advertisement, said missus Arbuthnet, nodding gravely. Yes, said Missus Wilkins,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: dabbing furtively at her eyes and us both being so,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: she blew her nose again, a little miserable. Chapter two.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Of course, Missus Arbuthnet was not miserable. How could she be,
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: she asked herself, when God was taking care of her,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: But she let that pass for the moment, unrepudiated, because
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: of her conviction that here was another fellow creature in
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: urgent need of her help, and not just boots and
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: blankets and better sanitary arrangements this time, but the more
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: delicate help of comprehension, of finding the exact right words.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: The exact right words she presently discovered after trying various
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: ones about living for others and prayer and the peace
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: to be found in placing oneself unreservedly in God's hands.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: To meet all these words, Missus Wilkins had other words incoherent,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: and yet for the moment, at least till one had
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: had more time difficult to answer, the exact right words
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: were a suggestion that it would do no harm to
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: answer the advertisement, noncommittal, mere inquiry. And what disturbed Missus
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: Arbuthnet about this suggestion was that she did not make
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: it solely to comfort Missus Wilkins. She made it because
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: of her own strange longing for the medieval castle. This
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: was very disturbing. There she was accustomed to direct, to lead,
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: to advise, to support, Except Frederick. She long since had
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: learned to leave Frederick to God. Being led herself, being
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: influenced and thrown off her feet by just an advertisement,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: by just an incoherent stranger. It was indeed disturbing. She
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: failed to understand her sudden longing for what was after
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: all self and indulgence, when for years no such desire
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: had entered her heart. There's no harm in simply asking,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: she said, in a low voice, as if the vicar
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: and the savings Bank and all her waiting, independent poor
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: were listening and condemning. It isn't as if it committed
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: us to anything, said Missus Wilkins, also in a low voice,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: but her voice shook. They got up simultaneously. Missus Arbuthnet
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: had a sensation of surprise that Missus Wilkins should be
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: so tall, and went to a writing table, and Missus
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Arbuthnet wrote to z Box one thousand the times for particulars.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: She asked for all particulars, but the only one they
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: really wanted was the one about the rent. They both
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: felt that it was Missus Arbuthnett who ought to write
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: the letter and do the business part. Not only was
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: she used to organizing in being practical, but she also
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: was older and certainly calmer, And she herself had no
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: doubt too that she was wiser. Neither had Missus Wilkins
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: any doubt of this. The very way Missus Arbuthnet parted
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: her hair suggested a great calm that could only proceed
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: from wisdom. But if she was wiser, older, and calmer,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet's new friend nevertheless seemed to her to be
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: the one who impelled. Incoherent she yet impelled. She appeared
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: to have, apart from her need of help, an upsetting
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: kind of character. She had a curious infectiousness. She led
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: one on, and the way her unsteady mind leaped at conclusions,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: wrong ones, of course, witnessed the one that she, Missus Arbuthnet,
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: was miserable. The way she leaped at conclusions was disconcerting.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Whatever she was, however, and whatever her unsteadiness, Missus Arbuthnet
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: found herself sharing her excitement and her longing. And when
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: the letter had been posted in the letter box in
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: the hall and actually was beyond getting back again, both
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: she and missus Wilkins felt the same sense of guilt.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: It only shows, said Missus Wilkins in a whisper, as
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: they turned away from the letter box. How immaculately good
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: we in all our lives. The very first time we
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: do anything our husbands don't know about, we feel guilty.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: I'm afraid I can't say I've been immaculately good, gently
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: protested Missus Arbuthnet, a little uncomfortable at this fresh example
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: of successful leaping at conclusions, for she had not said
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: a word about her feeling of guilt. Oh but I'm
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: sure you have. I see you being good, and that's
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: why you're not happy. She shouldn't say things like that,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: thought Missus Arbuthnet. I must try and help her not
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: to aloud. She said, gravely, I don't know why you
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: insist that I'm not happy. When you know me better,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: I think you'll find that I am. And I'm sure
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: you don't mean really that goodness if one could attain
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: it makes one unhappy. Yes, I do, said Missus Wilkins.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: Our sort of goodness does. We have attained it, and
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: we are unhappy. There are miserable sorts of goodness and
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: happy sorts. The sort will have at the medieval castle,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: for instance, is the happy sort that is supposing we
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: go there, said Missus Arbuthnet restrainingly. She felt that Missus
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: Wilkins needed holding on to. After all, we've only written
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: just to ask anybody may do that. I think it
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: quite likely we shall find the conditions impossible, and even
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: if they were not, probably by tomorrow we shall not
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: want to go. I see us there was Missus Wilkins's
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: answer to that. All this was very unbalancing. Missus Arbuthnet,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: as she presently splashed through the dripping streets on her
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: way to a meeting she was to speak at, was
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: in an unusually disturbed condition of mind. She had she hoped,
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: shown herself very calm to Missus Wilkins, very practical and sober,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: concealing her own excitement. But she was really extraordinarily moved,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: and she felt happy, and she felt guilty, and she
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: felt afraid, and she had all the feelings, though this
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: she did not know of a woman who has come
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: away from a secret meeting with her lover. That indeed
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: was what she looked like when she arrived late on
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: her platform. She the open browed, looked almost furtive as
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: her eyes fell on the staring wooden faces waiting to
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: hear her try and persuade them to contribute to the
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: alleviation of the urgent needs of the Hampstead poor, each
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: one convinced that they needed contributions themselves. She looked as
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: though she were hiding something discreditable but delightful. Certainly, her
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: customary clear expression of candor was not there, and its
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: place was taken by a kind of suppressed and frightened
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: pleasedness which would have led a more worldly minded audience
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: to the instant conviction of recent and probably impassioned love making. Beauty, beauty, beauty.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: The words kept ringing in her ears as she stood
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: on the platform, talking of sad things to the sparsely
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: attended meeting. She had never been to Italy. Was that
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: really what her nest egg was to be spent on?
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: After all? Though she couldn't approve of the way missus
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: Wilkins was introducing the idea of predestination in it to
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: her immediate future. Just as if she had no choice,
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: just as if to struggle or even to reflect were useless,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: it yet influenced her. Missus Wilkins's eyes had been the
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: eyes of a seer. Some people were like that. Missus
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: Arbuthnet knew, and if Missus Wilkins had actually seen her
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: at the medieval castle, it did seem probable that struggling
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: would be a waste of time. Still to spend her
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: nest egg on self indulgence. The origin of this egg
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: had been corrupt, but she had at least supposed its
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: end was to be creditable. Was she to deflect it
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: from its intended destination, which alone had appeared to justify
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: her keeping it, and spend it on giving herself pleasure.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet spoke on and on, so much practiced in
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: the kind of speech that she could have said it
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: all in her sleep, And at the end of the meeting,
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: her eyes dazzled by her secret visions, she hardly noticed
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: that nobody was moved in any way whatever, least of
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: all in the way of contributions. But the vicar noticed.
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: The vicar was disappointed. Usually, his good friend and supporter,
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: missus Arbuthnet, succeeded better than this. And what was even
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: more unusual she appeared, he observed, not even to mind.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: I can't imagine, he said to her, as they parted,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: speaking irritably, for he was irritated both by the audience
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: and by her. What these people are coming to? Nothing
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: seems to move them. Perhaps they need a holiday, suggested
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: missus Arbuthnet. An unsatisfactory a queer reply, the vicar thought
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: in February, he called after her, sarcastically, Oh no, not
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: till April, said missus Arbuthnet over her shoulder. Very odd,
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: thought the vicar, very odd, indeed, and he went home
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: and was not perhaps quite Christian to his wife. That night,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: in her prayers, missus Arbuthnet asked for guidance. She felt
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: she ought really to ask straight out and roundly, that
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: the medieval castle should already have been taken by some
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: one else, and the whole thing thus be settled. But
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: her courage failed her. Suppose her prayer were to be answered, no,
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: she couldn't ask it, she couldn't risk it, and after all,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: she almost pointed this out to God. If she spent
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: her present nest egg on a holiday, she could quite
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: soon accumulate another. Frederick pressed money on her, and it
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: would only mean while she rolled up a second egg,
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: that for a time her contributions to the parish charities
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: would be less, And then it could be the next
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: nest egg, whose original corruption would be purged away by
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: the use to which it was finally put for. Missus Arbuthnet,
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: who had no money of her own, was obliged to
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: live on the proceeds of Frederick's activities, and her very
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: nest egg was the fruit posthumously ripened of ancient sin.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: The way Frederick made his living was one of the
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: standing distresses of her life. He wrote immensely popular memoirs
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: regularly every year of the mistresses of kings. There were
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: in history numerous care kings who had mistresses, and there
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: were still more numerous mistresses who had had kings, so
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: that he had been able to publish a book of
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: memoirs during each year of his married life, and even
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: so there were great further piles of these ladies waiting
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: to be dealt with. Missus Arbuthnet was helpless. Whether she
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: liked it or not, she was obliged to live on
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: the proceeds. He gave her a dreadful sofa once after
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: the success of his du Barre memoir, with swollen cushions
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: and soft, receptive lap, and it seemed to her a
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: miserable thing that there in her very home should flaunt
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: this reincarnation of a dead old French sinner. Simply good
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: convinced that morality is the basis of happiness. The fact
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: that she and Frederick should draw their sustenance from guilt,
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: however much purged by the passage of centuries, was one
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: of the secret reasons of her sadness. The more the
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: memoired lady had forgotten herself, the more his book about
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: her was read, and the more free handed he was
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: to his wife, And all that he gave her was spent,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: after adding slightly to her nest, For she did hope
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: and believe that some day people would cease to want
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: to read of wickedness, and then Frederick would need supporting
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: on helping the poor. The parish flourished because to take
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: a handful at random of the ill behavior of the
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: ladies Dubari, Monte spin Pompadour, Ninon de Lanclo and even
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: of learned Maintenan. The poor were the filter through which
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: the money was passed to come out. Missus Arbuthnet hoped, purified,
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: she could do no more. She had tried in days
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: gone by to think the situation out, to discover the
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: exact right course for her to take, but had found it,
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: as she had found Frederick, too difficult, and had left
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: it as she had left Frederick to God. Nothing of
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: this money was spent on her house or dress. Those
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: remained except for the great soft sofa austere. It was
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: the poor who profited their very. Boots were stout with sins.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: But how difficult it had been. Missus Arbufat, groping for guidance,
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: prayed about it to exhaustion. Ought she perhaps to refuse
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: to touch the money, to avoid it, as she would
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: have avoided the sins which were its source. But then
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: what about the parish's boots? She asked the vicar what
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: he thought, and through much delicate language, evasive and cautious,
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: it did finally appear that he was for the boots.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: At least she had persuaded Frederick when first he began
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: his terrible successful career. He only began it after their marriage.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: When she married him, he had been a blameless official
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: attached to the library of the British Museum to publish
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: the memoirs under another name, so that she was not
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: publicly branded. Hampstead read the books with glee and had
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: no idea that their writer lived in its midst. Frederick
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: was almost unknown even by sight in Hampstead. He never
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: went to any of its gatherings. Whatever it was he
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: did in the way of recreation was done in London,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: but he never spoke of what he did or whom
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: he saw. He might have been perfectly friendless for any
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: mention he ever made of friends to his wife. Only
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: the vicar knew where the money for the parish came from,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: and he regarded it. He told Missus Arbuthnet as a
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: matter of honor not to mention it, and at least
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: her little house was not haunted by the loose lived ladies.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: For Frederick did his work away from home. He had
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: two rooms near the British Museum, which was the scene
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: of his exhumations, and there he went every morning, and
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: he came back long after his wife was asleep. Sometimes
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: he did not come back at all. Sometimes she did
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: not see him for several days together. Then he would
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: suddenly appear at breakfast, having let himself in with his
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: latch key the night before, very jovial and good natured,
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: and free handed, and glad if she would allow him
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: to give her something. A well fed man contented with
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: the world, a jolly, full blooded, satisfied man, and she
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: was always gentle and anxious that his coffee should be
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: as he liked it. He seemed very happy life, she
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: often thought, however much one tabulated, was yet a mystery.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: There were always some people it was impossible to place.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: Frederick was one of them. He didn't seem to bear
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: the remotest resemblance to the original Frederick. He didn't seem
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: to have the least need of any of the things
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: he used to say were so important and beautiful. Love, home,
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: complete communion of thoughts, complete immersion in each other's interests.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: After those early painful attempts to hold him up to
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: the point from which they had hand in hand so
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: splendidly started attempts in which she herself had got terribly hurt,
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: and the Frederick she supposed she had married was mangled
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: out of recognition. She hung him up finally by her
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: bedside as the chief subject of her prayers, and left
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: him except for those entirely to God. She had loved
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: Frederick too deeply to be able now to do anything
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: but pray for him. He had no idea that he
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: never went out of the house without her blessing going
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: with him, too, hovering like a little echo of finished
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: love round at once dear head. She didn't dare think
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: of him as he used to be, as he had
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: seemed to her to be in those marvelous first days
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: of their love making, of their marriage. Her child had died,
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: She had nothing, nobody of her own to lavish herself on.
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: The poor became her children, and God the object of
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: her love. What could be happier than such a life,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: she sometimes asked herself. But her face, and particularly her eyes,
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: continued sad. Perhaps when we're old, Perhaps when we are
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: both quite old, she would think wistfully. Chapter three. The
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: owner of the medieval castle was an Englishman, a mister Briggs,
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: who was in London at the moment, and wrote that
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: it had beds enough for eight people exclusive of servants,
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: three sitting rooms, battlements, dungeons, and electric light. The rent
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: was sixty pounds for the month. The servants wages were extra,
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: and he wanted references. He wanted assurances that the second
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: half of his rent would be paid, the first half
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: being paid in advance. And he wanted assurances of respec
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: fectability from a solicitor or a doctor or a clergyman.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: He was very polite in his letter, explaining that his
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: desire for references was what was usual and should be
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: regarded as a mere formality. Missus Arbuthnet and Missus Wilkins
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: had not thought of references, and they had not dreamed
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: a rent could be so high. In their minds had
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: floated sums like three guineas a week or less. Seeing
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: that the place was small and old. Sixty pounds for
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: a single month it staggered them Before Missus Arbuthnet's eyes
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: rose up boots, endless vistas, all the stout boots that
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: sixty pounds would buy. And besides the rent, there would
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: be the servants wagesk and the food, and the railway
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: journeys out and home. While as for references, these did
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: indeed seem a stumbling block. It did seem impossible to
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: give any without making their plan more public than they
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: had intended. They had both even Missus Arbuthnet, lured for
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: once away from perfect candor by the realization of the
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: great saale of trouble and criticism and imperfect explanation would produce.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: They had both thought it would be a good plan
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: to give out each to her own circle, their circles
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: being luckily distinct, that each was going to stay with
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: a friend who had a house in Italy. It would
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: be true as far as it went. Missus Wilkins asserted
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: that it would be quite true, but Missus Arbuthnet thought
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: it wouldn't be quite and it was the only way,
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins said to keep Mellersh even approximately quiet. To
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: spend any of her money just on the mirror getting
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: to Italy would cause him indignation. What he would say
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: if he knew she was renting part of a medieval
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: castle on her own account. Missus Wilkins preferred not to think.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: It would take him days to say it all. And
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: this although it was her very own money, and not
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: a penny of it had ever been his. But I expect,
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: she said, your husband is just the same. I expect
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: all husbands are alike in the long run, Missus Arbuthnet
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: said nothing, because her reason for not wanting Frederick to
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: know was the exactly opposite one. For Frederick would be
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: only too pleased for her to go. He would not
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: mind it in the very least. Indeed, he would hail
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: such a manifestation of self indulgence and worldliness with an
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: amusement that would hurt and urge her to have a
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: good time, and not to hurry home with a crushing detachment.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: Far better, she thought, to be missed by Melish than
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: to be sped by Frederick. To be missed, to be
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: needed from whatever motive was, she thought, better than the
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: complete loneliness of not being missed or needed at all.
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: She therefore said nothing and allowed Missus Wilkins to leap
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: at her conclusions unchecked. But they did, both of them,
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: for a whole day feel that the only thing to
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: be done was to renounce the medieval castle. And it
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: was in arriving at this bitter decision that they really
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: realized how acute had been their longing for it. Then
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet, whose mind was trained in the finding of
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: ways out of difficulties, found a way out of the
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: reference difficulty, and simultaneously Missus Wilkins had a vision revealing
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: to her how to reduce the rent. Missus Arbuthnet's plan
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: was simple and completely successful. She took the whole of
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: the rent in person to the owner, drawing it out
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: of her savings bank. Again, she looked furtive and apologetic,
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: as if the clerk must know the money was wanted
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: for purposes of self indulgence, and going up with the
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: six ten pound notes in her hand bag to the
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: address near the Brompton Oratory where the owner lived, presented
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: them to him, waiving her right to pay only half.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: And when he saw her and her parted hair and
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: soft dark eyes and sober apparel, and heard her grave voice,
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: he told her not to bother about riding round for
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: those references. It'll be all right, he said, scribbling a
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: receipt for the rent. Do sit down, won't you? Nasty day,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: isn't it? You'll find the old castle has lots of sunshine,
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: whatever else it hasn't got, husband going missus Arbuthnet and
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: used to anything, but candor looked troubled at this question
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: and began to murmur inarticulate, and the owner at once
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: concluded that she was a widow a war one, of course,
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: four other widows were old, and that he had been
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: a fool not to guess it. Oh, I'm sorry, he said,
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: turning red right up to his fair hair. I didn't
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: mean hum, hum hum. He ran his eye over the
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: receipt he had written. Yes, I think that's all right,
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: he said, getting up and giving it to her now,
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: he added, taking the six notes she held out, and
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: smiling for missus Arbuthnet was agreeable to look at I'm
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: richer and you're happier. I've got money and you've got
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: san salvator. I wonder which is best? I think, you know,
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: said missus Arbuthnet with her sweet smile. He laughed and
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: opened the door for her. It was a pity the
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: interview was over. He would have liked to ask her
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: to lunch with him. She made him think of his mother,
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: of his nurse, of all things kind and comforting, besides
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: having the attraction of not being his mother or his nurse.
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: I hope you'll like the old place, he said, holding
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: her hand a minute at the door. The very feel
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: of her hand, even through its glove, was reassuring. It
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: was the sort of hand he thought that children would
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: like to hold in the dark in April. You know,
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: it's simply a mass of flowers. And then there's the sea.
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: You must wear white. You'll fit in very well. There
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: are several portraits of you there, portraits Madonna's. You know,
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: there's one on the stairs, really exactly like you. Missus
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: Arbuthnett smiled and said good bye and thanked him without
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: the least trouble, and at once she had got him
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: placed in his proper category. He was an artist and
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: of an effervescent temperament. She shook hands and left, and
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: he wished she hadn't. After she was gone, he supposed
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: that he ought to have asked for those references, if
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: only because she would think him so unbusinesslike not to
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: But he could as soon have insisted on references from
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: a saint in a nimbus as from that grave. Sweet
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: Lady Rose Arbuthnet, her letter making the appointment lay on
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: the table, pretty name. That difficulty then was overcome, But
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: there still remained the other one, the really annihilating effect
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: of the expense on the nest eggs, and especially on
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkinses, which was in size compared with Missus Arbuthnet's.
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: As the egg of the plover to that of the duck,
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: and this, in its turn, was overcome by the vision
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: vouchsafed to Missus Wilkins, revealing to her the steps to
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: be taken for its overcoming. Having got San Salvatore, the beautiful,
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: the religious name fascinated them, they in their turn would
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: advertise in the Agony column of the Times, and would
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: inquire after two more ladies of similar desires to their own,
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: to join them and share the expenses at once. The
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: strain of the nest eggs would be reduced from half
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: to a quarter. Missus Wilkins was prepared to flit her
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: entire egg into the adventure, but she realized that if
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: it were to cost even sixpence over her ninety pounds
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: per position would be terrible. Imagine going to Mellerschen saying
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: I owe It would be awful enough if some day
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: circumstances forced her to say, I have no nest egg.
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: But at least she would be supported in such a
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: case by the knowledge that the egg had been her own.
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: She therefore, though prepared to fling her last penny into
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: the adventure, was not prepared to fling into it a
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: single farthing that was not demonstrably her own, and she
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: felt that if her share of the rent was reduced
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: to fifteen pounds only, she would have a safe margin
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: for the other expenses. Also, they might economize very much
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: on food, gather olives off their own trees and eat them,
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: for instance, and perhaps catch fish. Of course, as they
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: pointed out to each other, they could reduce the rent
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: to an almost negligible sum by increasing the number of sharers.
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: They could have six more ladies instead of two if
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: they wanted to, seeing that there were eight beds. But
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: suppose using the eight beds were distributed in couples in
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: four rooms, it would not be altogether what they wanted
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: to find themselves shut up at night with a stranger. Besides,
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: they thought that perhaps having so many would not be
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: quite so peaceful. After all, they were going to San
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: Salvator for peace and rest and joy, and six more ladies,
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: especially if they got into one's bedroom, might a little
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: interfere with that. However, there seemed to be only two
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: ladies in England at that moment who had any wish
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: to join them, for they had only two answers to
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: their advertisement. Well we only want two, said missus, Wilkins,
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: quickly recovering for she had imagined a great rush. I
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: think a choice would have been a good thing, said
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet. You mean because then we needn't have had
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: Lady Caroline Dester. I didn't say that, gently protested Missus Arbuthnet.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: We needn't have her, said Missus Wilkins. Just one more
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: person would help us a great deal with the rent.
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: You're not obliged to have two, But why should we
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: not have her? She seems really quite what we want. Yes,
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: she does from her letter, said Missus Wilkins. Doubtfully, she
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: felt she would be terribly shy of Lady Caroline. Incredible
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: as it may seem, seeing how they get into everything,
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins had never come across any members of the aristocracy.
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: They interviewed Lady Caroline, and they interviewed the other applicant,
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: a Missus Fisher. Lady Caroline came to the club in
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: Shaftesbury Avenue and appeared to be wholly taken up by
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: one great longing, a longing to get away from everybody
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: she had ever known. When she saw the club and
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet and Missus Wilkins, she was sure that here
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: was exactly what she wanted. She would be in Italy,
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: a place she adored. She would not be in hotels
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: places she loathed, She would not be staying with friends
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: persons she disliked, and she would be in the company
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: of strangers who would never mention a single she knew,
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: for the simple reason that they had not could not have,
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: and would not come across them. She asked a few
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: questions about the fourth woman and was satisfied with the answers.
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: Missus Fisher of Prince of Wales's Terrace a widow, she too,
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: would be unacquainted with any of her friends. Lady Caroline
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: did not even know where Prince of Wales's Terrace was.
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: It's in London, said Missus Arbuthnet. Is it, said Lady Caroline.
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: It all seemed most RESTful. Missus Fisher was unable to
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: come to the club because she explained by letter she
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: could not walk without a stick. Therefore, Missus Arbuthnet and
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins went to her. But if she can't come
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: to the club, how can she go to Italy, wondered
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins. Aloud, we shall hear that from her own lips,
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: said Missus Arbuthnet from Missus Fisher's lips, they merely heard
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: in reply to delicate questioning that sitting in trains was
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: not walking about, and they knew that already. Except for
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: the stick, however, she appeared to be a most desirable fourth, quiet, educated, elderly.
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: She was much older than they were, Lady Caroline. Lady
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: Caroline had informed them she was twenty eight, but not
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: so old as to have ceased to be active minded.
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: She was very respectable, indeed, and still wore a complete
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: suit of black. Though her husband had died, she told
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: them eleven years before. Her house was full of signed
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: photographs of illustrious Victorian dead, all of whom she said
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: she had known when she was little. Her father had
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: been an eminent critic, and in his house she had
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: seen practically everybody who was anybody in letters and art.
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: Carlyle had scowled at her. Matthew Arnold had held her
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: on his knee, Tennyson had sonorously rallied her on the
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: length of her pigtail. She animatedly showed them the photographs
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: hung everywhere on her walls, pointing out the signatures with
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: her stick, and she neither gave any information about her
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: own husband, nor asked for any about the husbands of
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: her visitors, which was the greatest comfort. Indeed, she seemed
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: to think that they also were widows, for on inquiring
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: who the fourth lady was to be, and being told
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: it was a lady Caroline Dester, she said, is she
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: a widow too, And on their explaining that she was
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: not because she had not yet been married, observed with
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: abstracted amiability. All in good time, but Missus Fisher's very abstractedness,
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: and she seemed to be absorbed, chiefly in the interesting
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: people she used to know, and in their memorial photographs,
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: And quite a good part of the interview was taken
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: up by reminiscent anecdote of Carlyle Meredith, Matthew Arnold Tennyson,
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: and a host of others. Her very abstractedness was a recommendation.
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: She only asked, she said, to be allowed to sit
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: quiet in the sun, and remember, that was all Missus
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: Arbuthnet and Missus Wilkins asked of their sharers. It was
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: their idea of a perfect share that she should sit
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: quiet in the sun, and remember rousing herself on Saturday
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: evening sufficiently to pay her share. Missus Fisher was very
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: fond too, she said, of flowers. And once, when she
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: was spending a week end with her father at box Hill,
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: who lived at box Hill, interrupted missus Wilkins, who hung
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: on missus Fisher's reminiscences intensely excited by meeting somebody who
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: had actually been familiar with all the really and truly
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: and undoubtedly great, actually seen them, heard them talking, touched them.
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: Missus Fisher looked at her over the top of her
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: glasses in some surprise. Missus Wilkins, in her eagerness to
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: tear the heart out quickly of missus Fisher's reminiscences, afraid
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: that at any moment Missus Arbuthnet would take her away
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: and she wouldn't have heard half, had already interrupted several
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: times with questions which appeared ignorant to missus Fisher. Meredith,
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: of course, said missus Fisher rather shortly. I remember a
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: particular weekend, she continued. My father often took me, but
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: I always remember this week end particularly. Did you know Keats,
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: eagerly interrupted missus Wilkins. Missus Fisher, after a pause, said
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: with subacid reserve that she had been unacquainted with both
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: Keats and Shakespeare. Oh, of course, how ridiculous of me,
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: cried Missus Wilkins, flushing scarlet. It's because she floundered. It's
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: because the immortals somehow still seem alive, don't they as
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: if they were here going to walk into the room
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: in another minute, and one forgets they are dead. In fact,
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: one knows perfectly well that they're not dead, not nearly
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: so dead as you and I even now, she assured
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: Missus Fisher, who observed her over the top of her glasses.
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: I thought I saw Keats the other day. Missus Wilkins
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: incoherently proceeded, driven on by Missus Fisher's look over the
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: top of her glasses in Hampstead, crossing the road in
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: front of that house, you know, the house where he lived.
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet said they must be going. Missus Fisher did
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: nothing to prevent them. I really, he thought, I saw him,
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: protested Missus Wilkins, appealing for belief, first to one and
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: then to the other, while waves of color passed over
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: her face, and totally unable to stop because of Missus
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: Fisher's glasses and the steady eyes looking at her over
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: their tops I believe I did see him. He was
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: dressed in a even Missus Arbuthnet looked at her now
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: and in her gentlest voice, said they would be late
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: for lunch. It was at this point that Missus Fisher
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: asked for references. She had no wish to find herself
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: shut up for four weeks with somebody who saw things.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: It is true that there were three sitting rooms besides
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: the garden and the battlements at San Salvatore, so that
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: there would be opportunities of withdrawal from Missus Wilkins, But
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: it would be disagreeable to Missus Fisher. For instance, if
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins were suddenly to assert that she saw mister Fisher,
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: mister Fisher was dead, let him remain. So she had
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: no wish to be told he was walking about the garden.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: The only reference she really wanted, for she was much
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: too old, old and firmly seated in her place in
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: the world for questionable associates to matter to her, was
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: one with regard to Missus Wilkins's health. Was her health
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: quite normal? Was she in ordinary, every day sensible woman.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: Missus Fisher felt that if she were given even one address,
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: she would be able to find out what she needed,
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: so she asked for references, and her visitors appeared to
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: be so much taken aback. Missus Wilkins indeed was instantly
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: sobered that she added, it is usual Missus Wilkins found
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: her speech first, but she said, aren't we the ones
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: who ought to ask for some from you? And this
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: seemed to Missus Arbuthnet to the right attitude. Surely it
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: was they who were taking Missus Fisher into their party,
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: and not Missus Fisher who was taking them into it.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: For answer, Missus Fisher, leaning on her stick, went to
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: the writing table and in a firm hand wrote down
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: three names and offered them to Missus Wilkins. And the
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: names were so respectable more, they were so much momentus.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: They were so nearly August that just to read them
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: was enough. The President of the Royal Academy, the Archbishop
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: of Canterbury, and the Governor of the Bank of England,
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: who would dare disturb such personages in their meditations with
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: inquiries as to whether a female friend of theirs was
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: all she should be? They have known me since I
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: was little, said Missus Fisher. Everybody seemed to have known
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: missus Fisher since or when she was little. I don't
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: think references are nice things at all between between ordinary
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: decent women, burst out Missus Wilkins, made courageous by being
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: as she felt at Bay, for she very well knew
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: that the only reference she could give without getting into
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: trouble was Shulbred, and she had little confidence in that,
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: as it would be entirely based on Mellersh's fish. We're
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: not business people. We needn't distrust each other. And Missus
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: Arbuthnet said with a dignity that yet was sweet. I'm
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: afraid references do bring an atmosphere into our holiday plan
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: that isn't quite what we want. And I don't think
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: we'll take your up or give you any ourselves, so
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: that I suppose you won't wish to join us, And
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: she held out her hand in good bye. Then Missus Fisher,
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: her gaze diverted to Missus Arbuthnet, who inspired trust and
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: liking even in Tube officials felt that she would be
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: idiotic to lose the opportunity of being in Italy in
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: the particular conditions offered, and that she and this com
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: browed woman between them would certainly be able to curb
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: the other one when she had her attacks, so she said,
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: taking Missus Arbuthnet's offered hand very well, I wave references.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: She waved references. The two as they walked to the
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: station in Kensington High Street could not help thinking that
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: this way of putting it was lofty. Even Missus Arbuthnet,
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: spendthrift of excuses for lapses, thought Missus Fisher might have
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: used other words, and Missus Wilkins, by the time she
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: got to the station and the walk and the struggle
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: on the crowded pavement with other people's umbrellas had warmed
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: her blood actually suggested waves, Missus Fisher. If there is
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: any waving to be done, do let us be the
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: ones who wave? She said eagerly, But Missus Arbuthnet, as usual,
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: held on to Missus Wilkins, and, presently having cooled down
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: in the train, Missus Wilkins announced that at San Salvator
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: Missus Fisher would find her level. I see her finding
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: her level there, she said, her eyes very bright. Whereupon
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet, sitting with her quiet, hands folded, turned over
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: in her mind how best she could help Missus Wilkins
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: not to see quite so much or at least if
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: she must see to see. In Silence, Chapter four, it
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: had been arranged that Missus Arbuthnet and Missus Wilkins, traveling together,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: should arrive at San Salvator on the evening of March
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: thirty first. The owner who told them how to get there,
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: appreciated their disinclination to begin their time in it on
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: April first, and Lady Caroline and Missus Fisher, as yet
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: unacquainted and therefore under no obligations to bore each other
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: on the journey, for only towards the end would they
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: find out, by a process of sifting who they were,
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: were to arrive on the morning of April second. In
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: this way everything would be got nicely ready for the
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: two who seemed, in spite of the equality of the sharing,
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: yet to have something about them of guests. There were
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: disagreeable incidents towards the end of March, when Missus Wilkins,
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: her heart in her mouth and her face a mixture
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: of guilt, terror and determination, told her husband that she
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: had been invited to Italy, and he declined to believe it.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: Of course, he declined to believe it. Nobody had ever
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: invited his wife to Italy. Before, there was no precedent.
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: He required proofs. The only proof was Missus Arbuthnet, and
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins had produced her. But after what entreaties, what
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: passionate persuading Missus Arbuthnet had not imagined she would have
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: to face mister Wilkins and say things to him that
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: were short of the truth. And it brought home to
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: her what she had for some time suspected that she
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: was slipping more and more away from God. Indeed, the
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: whole of March was filled with unpleasant, anxious moments. It
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: was an uneasy month. Missus Arbuthnet's conscience, made super sensitive
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: by years of pampering, could not reconcile what she was
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: doing with its own high standard of what was right.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: It gave her little peace, It nudged her at her prayers.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: It punctuated her entreaties for divine guidance with disconcerting questions
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: such as, are you not a hypocrite? Do you really
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: mean that? Would you not frankly be disappointed if that
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: prayer were granted. The prolonged wet raw weather was on
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: the side too, of her conscience, producing far more sickness
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: than usual among the poor. They had bronchitis, they had fevers.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: There was no end to the distress. And here she
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: was going off, spending precious money, on going off simply
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: and solely to be happy, one woman, one woman being happy,
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: and these piteous multitudes. She was unable to look the
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: vicar in the face. He did not know. Nobody knew
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: what she was going to do, and from the very
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: beginning she was unable to look anybody in the face.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: She excused herself from making speeches appealing for money. How
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: could she stand up and ask people for money when
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: she herself was spending so much on her own selfish pleasure.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: Nor did it help her or quiet her that Having
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: actually told Frederick, in her desire to make up for
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: what she was squandering, that she would be grateful if
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: you would let her have some money, he instantly gave
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: her a check for one hundred pounds. He asked no questions.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: She was scarlet. He looked at her a moment and
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: then looked away. It was a relief to Frederick that
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: she should take some money. She gave it all immediately
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: to the organization she worked with, and found herself more
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: tangled in doubts than ever. Missus Wilkins, on the contrary,
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: had no doubts. She was quite certain that it was
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: a most proper thing to have a holiday, and altogether
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: right and beautiful to spend one's own heart collected savings
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: on being happy. Think how much nicer we shall be
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: when we come back, she said to Missus Arbuthnet, encouraging
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: that pale lady. No, Missus Wilkins had no doubts, but
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: she had fears, and March was for her too, an
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: anxious month, with the unconscious mister Wilkins coming back daily
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: to his dinner and eating his fish in the silence
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: of imagined security. Also, things happened so awkwardly. It really
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: is astonishing how awkwardly they happen. Missus Wilkins, who was
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: very careful all this month to give Melish only the
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: food he liked, buying it and hovering over its cooking
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: with a zeal more than common, succeeded so well that
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: mellersh was pleased, definitely pleased, so much pleased that he
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: began to think that he might, after all have married
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: the right wife, instead of, as he had frequently suspected,
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: the wrong one. The result was that on the third
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: Sunday in the month. Missus Wilkins had made up her
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: trembling mind that on the fourth Sunday, there being five
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: in that March, and it being on the fifth of them,
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: that she and Missus Arbuthnet were to start, she would
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: tell Mellish of her invitation. On the third Sunday. Then,
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: after a very well cooked lunch in which the Yorkshire
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: pudding had melted in his mouth and the apricot tart
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: had been so perfect that he ate it all, Mellish,
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: smoking his cigar by the brightly burning fire, the while
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: hail gusts banged on the window, said I am thinking
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: of taking you to Italy for Easter, and paused for
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: her astounded and grateful ecstasy. None came. The silence in
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: the room, except for the hail hitting the windows and
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: the gay roar of the fire, was complete. Missus Wilkins
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: could not speak. She was dumbfounded. The next Sunday was
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: the day she had meant to break her news to him,
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: and she had not yet even prepared the form of
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: words in which she would break it. Mister Wilkins, who
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: had not been abroad since before the war, and was
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: noticing with increasing disgust as weak falls. A week of
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: wind and rain, the peculiar, persistent vileness of the weather
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: had slowly conceived a desire to get away from England
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: for Easter. He was doing very well in his business.
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: He could afford a trip. Switzerland was useless. In April.
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: There was a familiar sound about Easter in Italy. To
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: Italy he would go, and as it would cause comment
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: if he did not take his wife, take her he must. Besides,
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: she would be useful. A second person was always useful
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: in a country whose language one did not speak, For
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: holding things, for waiting with the luggage. He had expected
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: an explosion of gratitude and excitement. The absence of it
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: was incredible. She could not, he concluded, have heard. Probably
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: she was absorbed in some foolish day dream. It was
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: regrettable how childish she remained. He turned his head, their
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: chairs were in front of the fire, and looked at her.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: She was staring straight into the fire, and it was
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: no doubt the fire that made her face so red.
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: I am thinking, he repeated, raising his clear, cultivated voice
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: and speaking with acerbity, for inattention at such a moment
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: was deplorable. Of taking you to Italy for Easter? Did
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: you not hear me? Yes, she had heard him, and
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: she had been wondering at the extraordinary coincidence, really most extraordinary.
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: She was just going to tell him how how she
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: had been invited. A friend had invited her Easter too.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: Easter was in April, wasn't it? Her friend had a
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: house there. In fact, Missus Wilkins, driven by terror, guilt,
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: and surprise, had been more incoherent, if possible, than usual.
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: It was a dreadful afternoon. Mellersh profoundly indignant, besides having
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: his intended treat coming back on him like a blessing
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: to roost Cross, examined her with the utmost severity. He
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: demanded that she refuse the invitation. He demanded that since
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: she had so outrageously accepted it without consulting him, she
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: should write and cancel her acceptance. Finding himself up against
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: an unsuspected, shocking rock of obstinacy in her, he then
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: declined to believe she had been invited to Italy at all.
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: He declined to believe in this Missus arbuthnet of whom
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: till that moment he had never heard. And it was
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: only when the gentle creature was brought round with such difficulty,
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: with such a desire on her part to throw the
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: whole thing up rather than tell mister Wilkins less than
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: the truth, and herself endorsed his wife's statements that he
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: was able to give them credence. He could not but
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: believe Missus Arbuthnet. She produced the precise effect on him
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: that she did on Tube officials. She hardly needed to
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: say anything, but that made no difference to her conscience,
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: which knew and would not let her forget, that she
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: had given him an incomplete impression. Do you asked her
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: conscience see any real difference between an incomplete impression and
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: a completely stated lie? God sees none. The remainder of
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: March was a confused dream. Both Missus Arbuthnet and Missus
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: Wilkins were shattered, try as they would not do, both
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: felt extraordinarily guilty, and when, on the morning of the
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: thirtieth they did finally get off, there was no exhilaration
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: about the departure, no holiday feeling at all. We've been
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: too good, much too good, Missus Wilkins kept on murmuring
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: as they walked up and down the platform at Victoria
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: having arrived there an hour before they need have. And
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: that's why we feel as though we're doing wrong, we're browbeaten.
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: We're not any longer real human beings. Real human beings
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: aren't ever as good as we've been. Oh, she clenched
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: her thin hands, to think that we ought to be
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: so happy now here on the very station actually starting,
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: and we're not. And it's being spoilt for us, just
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: simply because we've spoilt them. What have we done? What
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: have we done? I should like to know, she inquired
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: of Missus Arbuthnet indignantly, except for once want to go
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: away by ourselves and have a little rest from them.
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet, patiently pacing, did not ask who she meant
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: by them, because she knew Missus Wilkins meant their husband's
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: persisting in her assumption that Frederick was as indignant as
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: Mellish over the departure of his wife. Whereas Frederick did
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: not even know his wife had gone, Missus Arbuthnet, always
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: silent about him, had said nothing of this to Missus Wilkins.
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: Frederick went too deep into her heart for her to
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: talk about him. He was having an extra bout of
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: work finishing another of those dreadful books, and had been
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: away practically continually the last few weeks, and was away
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: when she left. Why should she tell him beforehand? Sure,
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: as she so miserably was, that he would have no
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: objection to anything she did. She merely wrote him a
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: note and put it on the hall table, ready for
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: him if and when he should come home. She said
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: she was going for a month's holiday, as she needed
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: a rest and she had not had one for so long,
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: and that Gladys, the efficient parlor maid, had orders to
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: see to his comforts. She did not say where she
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: was going. There was no reason why she should. He
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: would not be interested, he would not care. The day
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: was wretched, blustering and wet. The crossing was atrocious, and
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: they were very sick. But after having been very sick,
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: just to arrive at Calais and not be sick was happiness.
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: And it was there that the real splendor of what
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: they were doing first began to warm their benumbed spirits.
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: It got hold of Missus Wilkins first and spread from
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: her like a rose colored flame over her pale companion Melerch.
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: At Calais, where they restored themselves with Sauls because of
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins's desire to eat a soul. Melish wasn't having
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: Melerch at Calais had already begun to dwindle and seemed
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: less important. None of the French porters knew him, not
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: a single official that Calais cared a fig for Mellersh.
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: In Paris, there was no time to think of him,
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: because their train was late, and they only just caught
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: the torrent train at the ger Delions. And by the
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: afternoon of the next day when they got into Italy England,
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: Frederick Melersh, the vicar, the poor hampstead, the club, sholbred,
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: everybody in everything, the whole in flame, sore, dreariness had
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: faded to the dimness of a dream. Chapter five. It
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: was cloudy in Italy, which surprised them. They had expected
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: brilliant sunshine, but never mind, it was Italy, and the
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: very clouds looked fat. Neither of them had ever been
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: there before. Both gazed out of the windows with rapt faces.
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: The hours flew as long as it was daylight, and
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: after that there was the excitement of getting nearer, getting
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: quite near, getting there. At Genoa, it had begun to
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: rain Genoa. Imagine actually being at Genoa, seeing its name
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: written up in the station just like any other name.
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: At Nervy, it was pouring. And when at last, towards
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: midnight for again the train was late, they got to Misago,
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: the rain was coming down in what seemed solid sheets.
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: But it was Italy. Nothing it did could be bad.
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: The very rain was different, straight rain falling properly on
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: to one's umbrella, not that violently blowing English stuff that
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: got in everywhere. And it did leave off, and when
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: it did behold, the earth would be strewn with roses.
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: Mister Briggs, San Salvatore's owner had said, you get out
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: at Misago and then you drive, but he had forgotten
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: what he amply knew that trains in Italy are sometimes late,
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: and he had imagined his tenants arriving at Misago at
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: eight o'clock and finding a string of flies to choose
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: from the train was four hours late, and when Missus
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: Arbuthnet and Missus Wilkins scrambled down the ladder like high
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: steps of their carriage into the black downpour, their skirts
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: sweeping off great pools of sooty wet because their hands
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: were full of suit cases. If it had not been
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: for the vigilance of Domenico, the gardener at San Salvator,
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: they would have found nothing for them to drive in.
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: All ordinary flies had long since gone home. Domenico, foreseeing this,
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: had sent his aunt's fly, driven by her son. His cousin,
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: and his aunt and her fly lived in Castagnito, the
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: village crouching at the feet of San Salvatore, and therefore,
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: however late the train was, the fly would not dare
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: come home without containing that which it had been sent
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: to fetch. Domenico's cousin's name was Beppo, and he presently
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: emerged out of the dark where Missus Arbuthnet and Missus
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: Wilkins stood, uncertain what to do next after the train
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: had gone on, for they could see no porter, and
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: they thought from the feel of it that they were
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: standing not so much on a platform as in the
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: middle of the permanent way. Beppo, who had been searching
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: for them, emerged from the dark with a kind of pounce,
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: and talked Italian to them vociferously. Beppo was a most
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: respectable young man, but he did not look as if
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: he were especially not in the dark, and he had
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: a dripping hat slouched over one eye. They did not
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: like the way he seized their suit cases. He could
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: not be, they thought a porter. However, they presently, from
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: out of his streaming talk, discerted the word San Salvatore,
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: and after that they kept on saying them to him,
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: for it was the only Italian they knew. As they
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: hurried after him, unwilling to lose sight of their suit cases,
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: stumbling across rails and threw puddles out to where in
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: the road a small high fly stood. Its hood was up,
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: and its horse was in an attitude of thought. They
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: climbed in, and the minute they were in, Missus Wilkins
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: indeed could hardly be called in. The horse awoke with
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: a start from its reverie and immediately began going home
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: rapidly without Beppo, without the suit cases. Beppo darted after him,
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: making the night rain with his shouts, and caught the
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: hanging reins just in time. He explained proudly, and as
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: it seemed to him with perfect clearness, that the horse
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: always did that, being a fine animal, full of corn
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: and blood, and cared for by him Beppo as if
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: he were his own son, and the ladies must not
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: be alarmed. He had noticed they were clutching each other,
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: but clear and loud and profuse of words though he
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: he was, they only looked at him blankly. He went
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: on talking, however, while he piled the suit cases up
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: round them, sure that sooner or later they must understand him,
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: especially as he was careful to talk very loud and
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: illustrate everything he said with the simplest elucidatory gestures. But
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: they both continued only to look at him. They both,
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: he noticed sympathetically, had white faces, fatigued faces, and they
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: both had big eyes, fatigued eyes. They were beautiful ladies,
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: he thought, and their eyes looking at him over the
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: tops of the suit cases, watching his every movement. There
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: were no trunks, only numbers of suitcases were like the
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: eyes of the Mother of God. The only thing the
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: ladies said, and they repeated it at regular intervals, even
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: after they had started gently prodding him as he sat
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: on his box to call his attention to it was
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: San Salvator, and each time he answered vociferously, encouragingly, see
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: see San Salvator. We don't know, of course, if he's
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: taking us there, said missus Arbuthnet at last, in a
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: low voice, after they had been driving, as it seemed
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: to them, a long while, and had got off the
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: paving stones of the sleep shrouded town and were out
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: on a winding road with what they could just see
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: was a low wall on their left, beyond which was
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: a great black emptiness, and the sound of the sea
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: on their right was something close and steep and high,
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: and black rocks, they whispered to each other, huge rocks.
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: No we don't know, agreed Missus Wilkins, a slight coldness
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: passing down her spine. They felt very uncomfortable. It was
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: so late, it was so dark, the road was so lonely.
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: Suppose O will came off. Suppose they met Fashisti, or
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: the opposite of FASHISTI. How sorry they were now that
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: they had not slept at Genoa and come on the
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: next morning in daylight. But that would have been the
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: first of April, said Missus Wilkins in a low voice.
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: It is that now, said Missus Arbuthnet, beneath her breath.
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: So it is, murmured Missus Wilkins. They were silent. Beppo
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: turned round on his box, a disquieting habit already noticed,
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: for surely his horse ought to be carefully watched, and
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: again addressed them with what he was convinced was lucidity,
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: no patois, and the clearest explanatory movements. How much they
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: wished their mothers had made them learn Italian when they
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: were little, If only now they could have said, please
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: sit round the right way and look after the horse.
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: They did not even know what horse was in Italian.
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: It was contemptible to be so ignorant in their anxiety.
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: For the road twisted round great jutting rocks, and on
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: their left was only the low wall to keep them
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: out of the sea should anything happen. They too began
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: to gesticulate, waving their hands at Beppo, pointing ahead. They
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: wanted him to turn round again and face his horse.
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: That was all he thought. They wanted him to drive faster,
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: and there followed a terrifying ten minutes, during which, as
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: he supposed, he was gratifying them. He was proud of
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: his horse, and it could go very fast. He rose
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: in his seat, the whip cracked, the horse rushed forward,
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: the rocks leaped towards them, the little flies swayed, the
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: suit cases heaved Missus Arbuthnet and Missus Wilkins clung in
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: this way. They continued swaying, heaving, clattering, clinging, till at
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: a point near Castagnito there was a rise in the road,
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: And on reaching the foot of the rise, the horse,
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: who knew every inch of the way, stopped, suddenly, throwing
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: everything in the fly into a heap, and then proceeded
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: up at the slowest of walks. Beppo twisted himself round
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: to receive their admiration, laughing with pride in his horse.
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: There was no answering laugh from the beautiful ladies. Their
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: eyes fixed on him seemed bigger than ever, and their faces,
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: against the black of the night, showed milky. But here,
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: at least, once they were up the slope were houses.
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: The rocks left off, and there were houses. The low
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: wall left off, and there were houses. The sea shrunk away,
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: and the sound of it ceased, and the loneliness of
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: the road was finished. No lights anywhere, of course, nobody
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: to see them pass. And yet Beppo, when the houses began,
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: after looking over his shoulder and shouting Castagnito at the ladies,
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: once more stood up and cracked his whip, and once
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: more made his horse dash forward. We shall be there
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: in a minute, Missus Arbuthnet said to herself, holding on.
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: We shall soon stop now, Missus Wilkins said to herself,
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: holding on. They said nothing aloud, because nothing would have
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: been heard above the whip cracking and the wheel clattering,
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: and the boisterous, inciting noises Beppo was making it his horse. Anxiously,
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: they strained their eyes for any sight of the beginning
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: of San Salvator. They had supposed and hoped that after
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: a reasonable amount of village, a medieval archway would loom
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: upon them, and through it they would drive into a
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: garden and draw up at an open while, with light
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: streaming from it, and those servants standing in it, who,
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: according to the advertisement, remained instead. The flies suddenly stopped
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: peering out. They could see they were still in the
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: village street, with small dark houses each side, and Beppo,
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: throwing the reins over the horse's back, as if completely
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: confident this time that he would not go any farther,
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: got down off his box. At the same moment, springing
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: as it seemed, out of nothing, a man and several
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: half grown boys appeared on each side of the fly
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: and began dragging out the suit cases. No, no, San Salvator,
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: San Salvator, exclaimed Missus Wilkins, trying to hold on to
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: what suit cases she could see. See San Salvator, They
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: all shouted, pulling. This can't be San Salvator, said Missus Wilkins,
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: turning to Missus Arbuthnet, who sat quite still watching her
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: suit cases being taken from her with the same patience
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: she applied to lesser evils. She knew she could do
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: nothing if these men were wicked men determined to have
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: her suit cases. I don't think it can be, she admitted,
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: and could not refrain from a moment's wonder at the
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: ways of God. Had she really been brought here she
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: and poor Missus Wilkins, after so much trouble in arranging it,
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: so much difficulty and worry, along such devious paths of
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: prevarication and deceit only to be She checked her thoughts
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: and gently said to Missus Wilkins, while the ragged youths
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: disappeared with the suit cases into the night, and the
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: man with the lantern helped Beppo pull the rug off her,
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: that they were both in God's hands, and for the
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: first time, on hearing this, Missus Wilkins was afraid. There
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: was nothing for it but to get out, Useless to
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: try to go on sitting in the fly, repeating San
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: salvatore every time they said it, and their voices each
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: time were fainter. Beppo and the other man merely echoed
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: it in a series of loud shouts. If only they
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: had learned Italian when they were little, if only they
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: could have said, we wished to be driven to the door.
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: But they did not even know what door was in Italian.
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: Such ignorance was not only contemptible, it was they now
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: saw definitely dangerous, useless, however, to lament it, now useless,
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: to put off whatever it was that was going to
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: happen to them by trying to go on sitting in
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: the fly. They therefore got out. The two men opened
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: their umbrellas for them and handed them to them. From
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: this they received a feint encouragement, because they could not
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: believe that if these men were wicked, they would pause
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: to open umbrellas. The man with the lantern then made
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: signs to them to follow him, talking loud and quickly,
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: and Beppo, they noticed, remained behind, ought they to pay him. Not,
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: they thought if they were going to be robbed and
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: perhaps murdered. Surely on such an occasion one did not pay. Besides,
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: he had not, after all, brought them to San Salvatore.
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: Where they had got to was evidently somewhere else. Also,
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: he did not show the least wish to be paid.
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: He let them go away into the night with no
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: clamor at all. This they could not help thinking was
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: a bad sign. He asked for nothing, because presently he
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: was to get so much. They came to some steps.
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: The road ended abruptly in a church and some descending steps.
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: The man held the lantern low for them to see
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: the steps. San Salvator, said Missus Wilkins, once again, very faintly,
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: before committing herself to the steps. It was useless to
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: mention it now, of course, but she could not go
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: down steps in complete silence. No medieval castle, she was sure,
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: was ever built at the bottom of steps. Again, however,
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: came the echoing shout, see see San Salvator. They descended gingerly,
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: holding up their skirts, just as if they would be
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: wanting them another time, and had not, in all probability
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: finished with skirts forever. The steps ended in a steeply
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: sloping path with flat stone slabs down the middle. They
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: slipped a good deal on these wet slabs, and the
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: man with the lantern, talking loud and quickly held them up.
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: His way of holding them up was polite, perhaps, said
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins in a low voice to Missus Arbuthnet. It
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 1: is all right, after all, we're in God's hands, said
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet, again and again. Missus Wilkins was afraid. They
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: reached the bottom of the sloping path and the light
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: of the lantern flickered over an open space with houses
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: round three sides. The sea was the fourth side, lazily
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: washing backwards and forwards on pebbles. San Salvator, said the man,
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: pointing with his lantern to a black mass curved round
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: the water like an arm flung about it. They strained
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: their eyes. They saw the black mass and on the
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: top of it alight, San Salvator, They both repeated incredulously,
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: for where were the suit cases, and why had they
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: been forced to get out of the fly see see
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: San Salvator. They went along what seemed to be a
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: quay right on the edge of the water. There was
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: not even a low wall here, nothing to prevent the
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: man with the lantern tipping them in if he wanted to.
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: He did, not, however, tip them in. Perhaps it was
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: all right after all. Missus Wilkins again suggested to Missus
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: arbuthnet On, noticing this, who this time was herself beginning
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: to think that it might be, and said no more
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: about God's hands. The flicker of the lantern danced along,
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: reflected in the wet pavement of the quay, out to
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: the left in the darkness, and evidently at the end
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: of a jetty was a red light. They came to
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: an archway with a heavy iron gate. The man with
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: the lantern pushed the gate open. This time they went
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: up steps instead of down, and at the top of
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: them was a little path that wound upwards among flowers.
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: They could not see the flowers, but the whole place
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: was evidently full of them. It here dawned on Missus
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: Wilkins that perhaps the reason why the fly had not
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: driven them up to the door was that there was
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: no road, only a footpath. That also would explain the
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: disappearance of the suit cases. She began to feel confident
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: that they would find their suit cases waiting for them
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: when they got up to the top San Salvator was,
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: it seemed, on the top of a hill, as a
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: medieval castle should be. At a turn of the path
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: they saw above them, much nearer now and shining more
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: brightly the light they had seen from the quay. She
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: told Missus Arbuthnet of her dawning belief, and Missus Arbuthnet
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: agreed that it was very likely a true one. Once more,
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: but this time in a tone of real hopefulness, Missus
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: Wilkins said, pointing upwards at the black outline against the
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: only slightly less black sky San Salvator. And once more,
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: but this time comfortingly, encouragingly, came back the assurance see
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: see San Salvator. They crossed a little bridge over what
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: was apparently a ravine, and then came a flat bit
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: with long grass at the sides and more flowers. They
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: felt the grass flicking wet against their stockings, and the
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: invisible flowers were everywhere. Then up again through trees along
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: a zigzag path, with the smell all the way of
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: the flowers they could not see. The warm rain was
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: bringing out all the sweetness. Higher and higher they went
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: in this sweet darkness, and the red light on the
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: jetty dropped farther and farther below them. The path wound
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: round to the other side of what appeared to be
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: a little peninsula. The jetty and the red light disappeared
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: across the emptiness. On their left were distant lights. Miss Ago,
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: said the man waving his lantern at the lights. See see,
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: they answered, for they had by now learned sea see,
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: upon which the man congratulated them in a great flow
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: of polite words, not one of which they understood. On
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: their magnificent Italian. For this was Domenico, the vig gilant
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: and accomplished gardener of San Salvatore, the prop and stay
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: of the establishment, the resourceful, the gifted, the eloquent, the courteous,
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: the intelligent Domenico. Only they did not know that yet,
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: And he did, in the dark, and even sometimes in
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: the light, look with his knife, sharp swarthy features and
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: swift panther movements, very like somebody wicked. They passed along
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: another flat bit of path, with a black shape like
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: a high wall towering above them on their right. And
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: then the path went up again under trellises and trailing
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: sprays of scented things caught at them and shook rain
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: drops on them, and the light of the lantern flickered
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: over lilies. And then came a flight of ancient steps
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: worn with centuries, and then another iron gate, and then
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: they were inside, though still climbing, a twisting flight of
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: stone steps, with old walls on either side, like the
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: walls of dungeons, and with a vaulted roof. At the
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: top was a wrought iron door, and through it shone
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: a flood of electric light. Echo, said Domenico lively, run
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: up the last few steps ahead and pushing the door open.
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: And there they were arrived, and it was San Salvator,
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: and their suit cases were waiting for them, and they
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: had not been murdered. They looked at each other's white
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: faces and blinking eyes, very solemnly. It was a great,
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: a wonderful moment. Here they were in their medieval castle.
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 1: At last their feet touched its stones. Missus Wilkins put
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: her arm round Missus Arbuthnet's neck and kissed her. The
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: first thing to happen in this house, she said, softly, solemnly,
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: shall be a kiss. Dear Lottie, said Missus Arbuthnet. Dear Rose,
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: said Missus Wilkins, her eyes brimming with gladness. Domenico was delighted.
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: He liked to see beautiful ladies kiss. He made them
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: a most appreciative speech of welcome, and they stood arm
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: in arm, holding each other up, for they were very tired,
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: blinking smilingly at him and not understanding. Chapter six. When
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: missus Wilkins woke next morning, she lay in bed a
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: few minutes before getting up and opening the shutters. What
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: would she see out of her window? A shining world
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: or a world of rain? But it would be beautiful.
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: Whatever it was would be beautiful. She was in a
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: little bedroom with bare white walls and a stone floor,
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: and sparse oled furniture. The beds, there were two, were
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: made of iron, enameled black, and painted with bunches of
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: gay flowers. She lay, putting off the great moment of
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: going to the window, as one puts off opening a
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: precious letter, gloating over it. She had no idea what
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: time it was. She had forgotten to wind up her
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: watch ever since centuries ago she last went to bed
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 1: in Hampstead. No sounds were to be heard in the house,
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: so she supposed it was very early. Yet she felt
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: as if she had slept a long while so completely rested,
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: so perfectly content. She lay with her arms clasped round
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: her head, thinking how happy she was, her lips curved
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: upwards in a delighted smile, in bed by herself adorable condition.
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: She had not been in a bed without melish once,
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: now for five whole years. And the cool roominess of it,
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: the freedom of one's movements, the sense of recklessness, of
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: audacity in giving the blankets a pull if one wanted to,
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: or twitching the pillows more comfortably. It was like the
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: discovery of an entirely new joy. Missus Wilkins longed to
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: get up and open the shutters, but where she was really,
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: so very delicious. She gave a sigh of contentment and
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: went on lying there, looking round her, taking in everything
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: in her room, her own little room, her very own
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: to arrange just as she pleased for this one blest month,
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: her room bought with her own savings, the fruit of
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: her careful denials, whose doors she could bolt if she
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 1: wanted to, and nobody had the right to come in.
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: It was such a strange little room, so different from
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: any she had known, and so sweet. It was like
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: a cell, except for the two beds. It suggested a
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 1: happy austerity, and the name of the chamber, she thought,
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: quoting and smiling round at it was peace. Well, this
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: was delicious to lie there, thinking how happy she was.
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: But outside those shutters it was more delicious still. She
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: jumped up, pulled on her slippers, for there was nothing
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: on the stone floor but one small rug, ran to
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: the window and threw open the shutters. Oh, cried missus Wilkins.
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: All the radiance of April in Italy lay gathered together
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: at her feet. The sun poured in on her. The
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: sea lay asleep in it, hardly stirring across the bay.
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: The lovely mountains, exquisitely different in color, were asleep too
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: in the light. And underneath her window, at the bottom
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: of the flower starred grass slope, from which the wall
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: of the castle rose up, was a great cypress, cutting
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: through the delicate blues and violets and rose colors of
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: the mountains and the sea, like a great black sword.
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: She stared, such beauty, and she there to see it,
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: Such beauty, and she alive to feel it. Her face
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: was bathed in light. Lovely scents came up to the
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: window and caressed her. A tiny breeze gently lifted her hair.
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: Far out in the bay, a cluster of almost motionless
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 1: fishing boats hovered like a flock of white birds on
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: the tranquil. See how beautiful, how beautiful not to have
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: died before this, to have been allowed to see, breathe,
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: feel this, She stared, Her lips parted, happy, poor, ordinary,
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: every day word. But what could one say, how could
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: one describe it? It was as though she could hardly
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: stay inside herself. It was as though she were too
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: small to hold so much of joy. It was as
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: though she were washed through with light. And how astonishing
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: to feel this? Sheer bliss, For here she was not
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 1: doing and not going to do a single unselfish thing,
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: not going to do a thing she didn't want to do.
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 1: According to everybody she had ever come across, she ought
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: at least to have twinges. She had not one twinge.
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: Something was wrong somewhere, wonderful that at home she should
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: have been so good, so terribly good, and merely felt tormented.
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: Twinges of every sort had there been her portion, aches, hurts, discouragements,
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: and she the whole time being steadily unselfish. Now she
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: had taken off all her goodness and left it behind
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: her like a heap of rain sodden clothes, and she
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: only felt joy. She was naked of goodness, and was
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 1: rejoicing in being naked. She was stripped and exulting. And
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: there away in the dim mugginess of Hampstead, was Melish,
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: being angry. She tried to visualize Melish. She tried to
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: see him having breakfast and thinking bitter things about her,
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: and lo Melish himself began to shimmer, became rose, color,
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: became delicate, violet became an enchanting blue, became formless, became iridescent. Actually, Mellersh,
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: after quivering a minute, was lost in light, Well thought
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 1: missus Wilkins, staring as it were after him. How extraordinary
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: not to be able to visualize Melersh, And she who
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 1: used to know every feature, every expression of his by heart,
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: she simply could not see him as he was. She
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: could only see him resolved into beauty, melted into harmony
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: with everything else. The familiar words of the General Thanksgiving
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: came quite naturally into her mind, and she found herself
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: blessing God for her creation, preservation, and all the blessings
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: of this life, but above all for his inestimable love
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: out loud in a burst of acknowledgment. While Melish, at
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: that moment, angrily pulling on his boots before going out
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: into the dripping streets, was indeed thinking bitter things about her.
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: She began to dress, choosing clean white clothes in honor
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: of the summer's day. Unpass backing her suit cases, tidying
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: her adorable little room, she moved about with quick, purposeful steps,
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: her long, thin body held up straight, her small face
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: so much puckered at home. With effort and fear smoothed
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: out all she had been done before this morning. All
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: she had felt and worried about was gone. Each of
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: her worries behaved as the image of Melish had behaved,
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 1: and dissolved into color and light. And she noticed things
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: she had not noticed for years. When she was doing
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: her hair in front of the glass, she noticed it
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 1: and thought, why, what pretty stuff? For years she had
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 1: forgotten she had such a thing as hair, plaiting it
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: in the evening and unplaiting it in the morning, with
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: the same hurry and indifference with which she laced and
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: unlaced her shoes. Now she suddenly saw it, and she
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: twisted it round her fingers before the glass, and was
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: glad it was so pretty. Mellersh couldn't have seen it either,
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: for he had never said a word about it. Well,
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: when she got home, she would draw his attention to it, Mellersh,
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: she would say, look at my hair. Aren't you pleased?
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 1: You've got a wife with hair like curly? Honey? She laughed.
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: She had never said anything like that to Mellersh yet,
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: and the idea of it amused her. But why had
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: she not? Oh? Yes, she used to be afraid of him.
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: Funny to be afraid of anybody, and especially of one's husband,
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: whom one saw in his more simplified moments, such as
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: asleep and not breathing properly through his nose. When she
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: was ready, she opened her door to go across to
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: see if Rose, who had been put the night before
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: by a sleepy maidservant into a cell opposite, were awake.
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: She would say good morning to her, and then she
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: would run down and stay with that cypress tree till
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: breakfast was ready, and after breakfast she wouldn't so much
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: as look out of a window till she had helped
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: Rose get everything ready for Lady Caroline and Missus Fisher.
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: There was much to be done that day, settling in
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: arranging the rooms. She mustn't leave Rose to do it alone.
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: They would make it all so lovely for the two
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: to come, have such an entrancing vision ready for them,
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 1: of little cells bright with flowers. She remembered she had
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: wanted Lady Caroline not to come fancy, wanting to shut
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: some one out of heaven, because she thought she would
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: be shy of her, and as though it mattered if
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: she were, and as though she would be anything so
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: self conscious as shy. Besides, what a reason she could
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: not accuse herself of goodness over that. And she remembered
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: she had wanted not to have Missus Fisher either, because
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: she had seemed lofty. How funny of her, so funny
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: to worry about such little things, making them important. The
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: bedrooms and two of the sitting rooms at San Salvator
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 1: were on the top floor and opened into a roomy
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: hall with a wide glass window at the north end.
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: San Salvator was rich in small gardens in different parts
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: and on different levels. The garden this window looked down
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: on was made on the highest part of the walls
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 1: and could only be reached through the corresponding spacious hall
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: on the floor below. When Missus Wilkins came out of
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 1: her room, this window stood wide open, and beyond it
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: in the sun was a Judas tree in full flower.
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: There was no sign of anybody, no sound of voices
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 1: or feet. Tubs of aarum lily stood about on the
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: stone floor, and on a table flamed the huge bunch
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: of fierce nastirshams, spacious, flowery, silent, with the wide window
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: at the end opening into the garden, and the Judas
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: tree absurdly beautiful in the sunshine, it seemed to Missus Wilkins,
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 1: or rested on her way across to Missus Arbuthnet, too
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: good to be true? Was she really going to live
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: in this for a whole month? Up to now she
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: had had to take what beauty she could as she
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: went along, snatching at little bits of it when she
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: came across it. A patch of daisies on a fine
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: day in a Hampstead field, a flash of sunset between
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: two chimney pots. She had never been, indefinitely completely beautiful
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: places she had never been, even in a venerable house,
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: and such a thing as a profusion of flowers in
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: her rooms was unattainable to her. Sometimes in the spring
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 1: she had bought six tulips at Shorebred's, unable to resist them,
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 1: conscious that Melish, if he knew what they had caused,
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: would think it inexcusable. But they had soon died, and
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 1: then there were no more. As for the Judas tree,
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: she hadn't an idea what it was, and gazed at
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: it out there against the sky with the rapt expression
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: of one who sees a heavenly vision. Missus Arbuthnet, coming
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: out of her room, found her there like that, standing
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the hall, staring. Now what does
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: she think she sees? Now, thought Missus Arbuthnet. We are
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: in God's hands, said Missus Wilkins, turning to her, speaking
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: with extreme conviction. Oh, said Missus Arbuthnet, quickly, her face,
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: which had been covered with smiles when she came out
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: of her room, falling. Why what has happened? For Missus
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: Arbuthnet had woken up with such a delightful feeling of security,
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: of relief, and she did not want to find she
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: had not, after all, escaped from the need of refuge.
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 1: She had not even dreamed of Frederick, for the first
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 1: time for years, she had been spared the nightly dream
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: that he was with her, that they were heart to heart,
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 1: and its miserable awakening. She had slept like a baby
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: and had woken up confident she had found There was
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: nothing she wished to say in her morning prayer except
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: thank you. It was disconcerting to be told she was,
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 1: after all, in God's hands. I hope nothing has happened,
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 1: she asked anxiously. Missus Wilkins looked at her a moment
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 1: and laughed. How funny, she said, kissing her. What is funny,
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: asked Missus Arbuthnet, her face clearing because Missus Wilkins laughed,
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: we are. This is everything. It's all so wonderful. It's
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: so funny and so adorable that we should be in it.
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: I dare say, when we finally reach heaven, the one
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: they talk about so much much, we shan't find it
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: a bit more beautiful. Missus Arbuthnet relaxed to smiling. Security again,
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: isn't it divine? She said? Were you ever ever in
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: your life so happy? Asked Missus Wilkins, catching her by
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 1: the arm, No, said Missus Arbuthnet. Nor had she been
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: not ever, not even in her first love days with Frederick,
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: because always pain had been close at hand in that
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: other happiness, ready to torture with doubts, to torture even
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 1: with the very excess of her love. While this was
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 1: the simple happiness of complete harmony with her surroundings, the
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: happiness that asks for nothing, that just accepts, just breathes,
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 1: just is. Let's go and look at that tree close,
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 1: said missus Wilkins. I don't believe it can only be
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: a tree. An arm in arm, they went along the hall,
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 1: and their husbands would not have known them. Their faces
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: were so young with eagerness. And together they stood at
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 1: the open window. And when their eyes, having feasted on
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 1: the marvelous pink thing, wandered farther among the beauties of
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 1: the garden, they saw sitting on the low wall at
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 1: the east edge of it, gazing out over the bay,
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: her feet in Lili's Lady Caroline. They were astonished. They
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 1: said nothing in their astonishment, but stood quite still, arm
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: in arm, staring down at her. She too had on
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: a white frock, and her head was bare. They had
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: had no idea that day in London, when her hat
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 1: was down to her nose and her furs were up
• 1:48:30
  Speaker 1: to her ears that she was so pretty. They had
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: merely thought her different from the other women in the club,
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: and so had the other women themselves, and so had
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 1: all the waitresses eyeing her sideways and eyeing her again
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: as they passed the corner where she sat talking. But
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: they had had no idea she was so pretty. She
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 1: was exceedingly pretty. Everything about her was very much that
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 1: which it was. Her fair hair was very fair, Her
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: lovely gray eyes were very lovely and gray. Her dark
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 1: eyelashes were very dark. Her white skin was very white.
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: Her red mouth was very red. She was extravagantly slender,
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: the merest thread of a girl, though not without little
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: curves beneath her thin frock where little curves should be.
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: She was looking out across the bay, and was sharply
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: defined against the background of empty blue. She was full
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: in the sun. Her feet dangled among the leaves and
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 1: flowers of the lilies, just as if it did not
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: matter that they should be bent or bruised. She ought
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 1: to have a headache, whispered Missus Arbuthnet. At last, sitting
• 1:49:32
  Speaker 1: there in the sun like that, she ought to have
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 1: a hat, whispered Missus wilkins. She's treading on lilies, but
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: they're hers as much as ours, only one fourth of them.
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 1: Lady Caroline turned her head. She looked up at them
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 1: a moment, surprised to see them so much younger than
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: they had seen that day at the club, and so
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: much less unattractive. Indeed, they were really almost quite attractive,
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 1: if anyone could ever be really quite attractive in the
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 1: wrong clothes. Her eyes, swiftly glancing over them, took in
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: every inch of each of them in a half second
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 1: before she smiled and waved her hand and called out
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: good morning. There was nothing she saw at once to
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: be hoped for in the way of interest from their clothes.
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 1: She did not consciously think this, for she was having
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 1: a violent reaction against beautiful clothes and the slavery they
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: impose on one. Her experience being that the instant one
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 1: had got them. They took one in hand and gave
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 1: one no peace till they had been everywhere and been
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: seen by everybody. You didn't take your clothes to parties,
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 1: they took you. It was quite a mistake to think
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 1: that a woman, a really well dressed woman, wore out
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: her clothes. It was the clothes that wore out, the
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: woman dragging her about at all hours of the day
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: and night. No wonder men stayed young longer. Just new
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 1: trousers couldn't excite them. She couldn't suppose that even the
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 1: newest trousers ever behaved like that, taking the bit between
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 1: their teeth. Her images were disorderly, but she thought as
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: she chose. She used what images she liked. As she
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 1: got off the wall and came towards the window, it
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 1: seemed a RESTful thing to know she was going to
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: spend an entire month with people in dresses made, as
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 1: she dimly remembered, dresses used to be made five summers ago.
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 1: I got here yesterday morning, she said, looking up at
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 1: them and smiling. She really was bewitching. She had everything,
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 1: even a dimple. It's a great pity, said missus Arbuthnet,
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 1: smiling back, because we were going to choose the nicest
• 1:51:34
  Speaker 1: room for you. Oh but I've done that, said Lady Caroline.
• 1:51:39
  Speaker 1: At least I think it's the nicest. It looks two ways.
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: I adore a room that looks two ways, don't you.
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 1: Over the sea to the west, and over this Judas
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 1: tree to the north, And we had meant to make
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 1: it pretty for you with flowers, said Missus Wilkins. Oh,
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: Domenico did that. I told him to directly. I got here.
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: He's the gardener. He's wonderful. It's a good thing, of course,
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 1: said missus Arbuthnet, a little hesitatingly, to be independent and
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 1: to know exactly what one wants. Yes, it saves trouble,
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 1: agreed Lady Caroline. But one shouldn't be so independent, said
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins, as to leave no opportunity for other people
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 1: to exercise their benevolences on one. Lady Caroline, who had
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 1: been looking at Missus Arbuthnet, now looked at Missus Wilkins.
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: That day at that queer club, she had had merely
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 1: a blurred impression of Missus Wilkins, for it was the
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 1: other one who did all the talking, and her impression
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: had been of somebody so shy, so awkward, that it
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 1: was best to take no notice of her. She had
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 1: not even been able to say goodbye, properly, doing it
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: in an agony, turning red, turning damp. Therefore, she now
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 1: looked at her in some surprise, and she was still
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 1: more surprised when Missus Wilkins added, gazing at her with
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 1: the most obvious sincere admiration, speaking indeed with a conviction
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 1: that refused to remain unuttered. I didn't realize you were
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 1: so pretty, she stared at missus Wilkins. She was not
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 1: usually told this quite so immediately and roundly abundantly, as
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: she was used to it impossible not to be after
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: twenty eight solid years, it surprised her to be told
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 1: it with such bluntness, and by a woman. It's very
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: kind of you to think so, she said. Why you're lovely,
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: said missus Wilkins. Quite quite lovely, I hope, said Missus Arbuthnet, pleasantly.
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 1: You make the most of it. Lady Caroline then stared
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: at missus Arbuthnet. Oh, yes, she said, I make the
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 1: most of it. I've been doing that ever since I
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 1: can remember, Because said Missus Arbuthnet, smiling and raising a
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 1: warning forefinger. It won't last. Then, Lady Caroline began to
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 1: be afraid. These two were as if so she would
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 1: be bored. Nothing bored her so much as people who
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 1: insisted on being original, who came and buttonholed her and
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 1: kept her waiting while they were being original, And the
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: one who admired her. It would be tiresome if she
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 1: dogged her about in order to look at her. What
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 1: she wanted of this holiday was complete escape from all
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 1: she had had before. She wanted the rest of complete contrast.
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 1: Being admired. Being dogged was in contrast, it was repetition.
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 1: And as for originals, to find herself shut up with
• 1:54:32
  Speaker 1: two on the top of a precipitous hill in a
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 1: medieval castle built for the express purpose of preventing easy
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: goings out and in, would not, she was afraid, be
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 1: especially RESTful. Perhaps she had better be a little less encouraging.
• 1:54:46
  Speaker 1: They had seen such timid creatures, even the dark one.
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 1: She couldn't remember their names that day at the club,
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 1: that she had felt it quite safe to be very
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 1: friendly here they had come out of their shells already. Indeed,
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 1: at once there was no sign of timidity about either
• 1:55:03
  Speaker 1: of them here. If they had got out of their
• 1:55:06
  Speaker 1: shells so immediately at the very first contact, unless she
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 1: checked them, they would soon begin to press upon her,
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 1: and then good bye to her dream of thirty RESTful,
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 1: silent days, lying unmolested in the sun, getting her feathers
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: smooth again, not being spoken to, not waited on, not
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: grabbed at and monopolized, but just recovering from the fatigue,
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 1: the deep and melancholy fatigue of the too much. Besides,
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 1: there was Missus Fisher, she too must be checked. Lady
• 1:55:36
  Speaker 1: Caroline had started two days earlier than had been arranged
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 1: for two reasons, First because she wished to arrive before
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: the others in order to pick out the room or
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 1: rooms she preferred, and second because she judged it likely
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 1: that otherwise she would have to travel with missus Fisher.
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 1: She did not want to travel with missus Fisher. She
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 1: did not want to arrive with missus Fisher. She saw
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 1: no reason whatever why, for a single moment she should
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 1: have to have anything at all to do with missus Fisher.
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 1: But unfortunately, Missus Fisher also was filled with a desire
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 1: to get to San Salvator first and pick out the
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 1: room or rooms she preferred, And she and Lady Caroline had,
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 1: after all, traveled together as early as Calais. They began
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 1: to suspect it in Paris. They feared it at Modane,
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 1: they knew it at Misago. They concealed it driving out
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 1: to Castagnito. In two separate flies, the nose of the
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 1: one almost touching the back of the other the whole way.
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 1: But when the road suddenly left off at the church
• 1:56:32
  Speaker 1: and the steps, further evasion was impossible. And faced by
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 1: this abrupt and difficult finish to their journey, there was
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 1: nothing for it but to amalgamate. Because of missus Fisher's stick,
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 1: Lady Caroline had to see about everything. Missus Fisher's intentions,
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 1: she explained from her fly when the situation had become
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 1: plain to her, were active, but her stick prevented their
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 1: being carried out. The two drivers told Lady Caroline boys
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 1: would have to carry the luggage up to the castle,
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 1: and she went in search of some while missus Fisher
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 1: waited in the fly. Because of her stick, missus Fisher
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 1: could speak Italian, but only she explained the Italian of Dante,
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 1: which Matthew Arnold used to read with her when she
• 1:57:13
  Speaker 1: was a girl, and she thought this might be above
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: the heads of boys. Therefore, Lady Caroline, who spoke ordinary
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 1: Italian very well, was obviously the one to go and
• 1:57:23
  Speaker 1: do things. I am in your hands, said missus Fisher,
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 1: sitting firmly in her fly. You must please regard me
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 1: as merely an old woman, with a stick, and presently
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: down the steps and cobbles to the piazza, and along
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 1: the quay and up the zigzag path. Lady Caroline found
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 1: herself as much obliged to walk slowly with missus Fisher
• 1:57:44
  Speaker 1: as if she were her own grandmother. It's my stick,
• 1:57:48
  Speaker 1: missus Fisher complacently remarked at intervals, and when they rested
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 1: at those bends of the zigzag path where seats were.
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 1: And Lady Caroline, who would have liked to run on
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 1: and get to the top quickly, was for first in
• 1:58:00
  Speaker 1: common humanity to remain with Missus Fisher because of her stick.
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 1: Missus Fisher told her how she had been on a
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 1: zigzag path once with Tennyson. Isn't his cricket wonderful? Said
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 1: Lady Caroline absently the Tennyson, said Missus Fisher, turning her
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 1: head and observing her a moment over her spectacles, isn't he?
• 1:58:20
  Speaker 1: Said Lady Caroline. I am speaking, said Missus Fisher. Of Alfred, Oh,
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 1: said Lady Caroline. And it was a path too. Missus
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 1: Fisher went on severely curiously like this, no eucalyptus tree,
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 1: of course, but otherwise curiously like this, and at one
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 1: of the bends he turned and said to me, I
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 1: see him now turning and saying to me, yes, Missus
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 1: Fisher would have to be checked, and so would these
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 1: two up at the window. She had better begin at once.
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 1: She was sorry she had got off the wall. All
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 1: she need have done was to have waved her hand
• 1:58:59
  Speaker 1: and waited to They came down and out into the
• 1:59:01
  Speaker 1: garden to her. So she ignored Missus Arbuthnet's remark and
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 1: raised forefinger and said, with marked coldness, at least she
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 1: tried to make it sound marked, that she supposed they
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 1: would be going to breakfast, and that she had had hers.
• 1:59:15
  Speaker 1: But it was her fate that, however coldly she sent
• 1:59:17
  Speaker 1: forth her words, they came out sounding quite warm and agreeable.
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 1: That was because she had a sympathetic and delightful voice,
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 1: due entirely to some special formation of her throat and
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: the roof of her mouth, and having nothing whatever to
• 1:59:30
  Speaker 1: do with what she was feeling. Nobody, in consequence ever
• 1:59:33
  Speaker 1: believed they were being snubbed. It was most tiresome, And
• 1:59:38
  Speaker 1: if she stared icily, it did not look icy at all,
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 1: because her eyes, lovely to begin with, had the added
• 1:59:44
  Speaker 1: loveliness of very long, soft, dark eyelashes. No icy stare
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 1: could come out of eyes like that. It got caught
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 1: and lost in the soft eyelashes, and the persons stared
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 1: at merely thought they were being regarded with a flattering
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 1: and exquisite attentiveness. And if ever she was out of
• 2:00:01
  Speaker 1: humor or definitely cross, and who would not be. Sometimes
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 1: in such a world she only looked so pathetic that
• 2:00:09
  Speaker 1: people all rushed to comfort her, if possible by means
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 1: of kissing. It was more than tiresome, it was maddening.
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 1: Nature was determined that she should look in sound angelic.
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 1: She could never be disagreeable or rude without being completely misunderstood.
• 2:00:25
  Speaker 1: I had my breakfast in my room, she said, trying
• 2:00:28
  Speaker 1: her utmost to sound curt Perhaps I'll see you later,
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 1: and she nodded and went back to where she had
• 2:00:35
  Speaker 1: been sitting on the wall, with the lilies being nice
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 1: and cool round her feet. Chapter seven. Their eyes followed
• 2:00:41
  Speaker 1: her admiringly. They had no idea they had been snubbed.
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 1: It was a disappointment, of course, to find she had
• 2:00:49
  Speaker 1: forestalled them, and that they were not to have the
• 2:00:51
  Speaker 1: happiness of preparing for her, of watching her face when
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 1: she arrived and first saw everything, but there was still
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 1: Missus Fisher. They would constant trade on Missus Fisher and
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 1: would watch her face instead, only like everybody else, they
• 2:01:05
  Speaker 1: would have preferred to watch Lady Caroline's. Perhaps, then, as
• 2:01:10
  Speaker 1: Lady Caroline had talked of breakfast, they had better begin
• 2:01:13
  Speaker 1: by going and having it, for there was too much
• 2:01:15
  Speaker 1: to be done that day to spend any more time
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 1: gazing at the scenery, servants to be interviewed, the house
• 2:01:20
  Speaker 1: to be gone through and examined, and finally Missus Fisher's
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 1: room to be got ready and adorned. They waved their
• 2:01:27
  Speaker 1: hands gaily at Lady Caroline, who seemed absorbed in what
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 1: she saw and took no notice, and turning away found
• 2:01:33
  Speaker 1: the maid servant of the night before had come up
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 1: silently behind them in cloth slippers with string sauls. She
• 2:01:39
  Speaker 1: was Francesca, the elderly parlor maid who had been with
• 2:01:42
  Speaker 1: the owner, he had said, for years, and whose presence
• 2:01:46
  Speaker 1: made inventories unnecessary. And after wishing them good morning and
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 1: hoping they had slept well, she told them breakfast was
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 1: ready in the dining room on the floor below, and
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 1: if they would follow her, she would lead They did
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 1: not understand a single word of the very many in
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 1: which Francesca succeeded in clothing this simple information, but they
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 1: followed her for it at least was clear that they
• 2:02:06
  Speaker 1: were to follow, And going down the stairs and along
• 2:02:09
  Speaker 1: the broad hall like the one above, except for glass
• 2:02:11
  Speaker 1: doors at the end instead of a window opening into
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: the garden, they were shown into the dining room, where
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 1: sitting at the head of the table having her breakfast,
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 1: was Missus Fisher. This time, they exclaimed, even Missus Arbuthnet exclaimed,
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 1: though her exclamation was only oh. Missus Wilkins exclaimed at
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 1: greater length. Why but it's like having the bread taken
• 2:02:35
  Speaker 1: out of one's mouth, exclaimed Missus Wilkins. How do you do,
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 1: said Missus Fisher. I can't get up because of my stick,
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 1: and she stretched out her hand across the table. They
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 1: advanced and shook it. We had no idea you were here,
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 1: said Missus Arbuthnet. Yes, said Missus Fisher, resuming her breakfast. Yes,
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 1: I here, and with composure she removed the top of
• 2:03:03
  Speaker 1: her egg. It's a great disappointment, said Missus Wilkins. We
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 1: had meant to give you such a welcome. This was
• 2:03:11
  Speaker 1: the one Missus Fisher remembered, briefly glancing at her, who,
• 2:03:15
  Speaker 1: when she came to Prince of Wales's terrace, said she
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 1: had seen keats. She must be careful with this one,
• 2:03:21
  Speaker 1: curb her from the beginning. She therefore ignored Missus Wilkins
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 1: and said, gravely, with a downward face of impenetrable calm,
• 2:03:29
  Speaker 1: bent on her egg. Yes, I arrived yesterday with Lady Caroline.
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 1: It's really dreadful, said Missus Wilkins, exactly as if she
• 2:03:38
  Speaker 1: had not been ignored. There's nobody left to get anything
• 2:03:42
  Speaker 1: ready for now. I feel thwarted. I feel as if
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 1: the bread had been taken out of my mouth, just
• 2:03:48
  Speaker 1: when I was going to be happy swallowing it. Where
• 2:03:51
  Speaker 1: will you sit? Asked Missus Fisher of Missus Arbuthnet, markedly
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 1: of Missus Arbuthnet, the comparison with the bread seemed to
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 1: her most unpleasant. Oh, thank you, said Missus Arbuthnet, sitting
• 2:04:03
  Speaker 1: down rather suddenly next to her. There were only two
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 1: places she could sit down in the places laid on
• 2:04:10
  Speaker 1: either side of Missus Fisher. She therefore sat down in one,
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 1: and Missus Wilkins sat down opposite her in the other.
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 1: Missus Fisher was at the head of the table. Round
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 1: her was grouped the coffee and the tea. Of course,
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 1: they were all sharing San Salvatore equally, but it was she,
• 2:04:28
  Speaker 1: herself and Lottie. Missus Arbuthnet mildly reflected who had found it,
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 1: who had had the work of getting it, who had
• 2:04:34
  Speaker 1: chosen to admit missus Fisher into it? Without them, She
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 1: could not help thinking missus Fisher would not have been
• 2:04:41
  Speaker 1: there morally. Missus Fisher was a guest. There was no
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 1: hostess in this party. But supposing there had been a hostess,
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 1: it would not have been missus Fisher nor Lady Caroline.
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 1: It would have been either herself or Lottie. Missus Arbuthnet
• 2:04:55
  Speaker 1: could not help feeling this as she sat down and
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: missus Fisher, the hand which Truskin had rung suspended over
• 2:05:01
  Speaker 1: the pots before her inquired tea or coffee. She could
• 2:05:06
  Speaker 1: not help feeling it even more definitely when missus Fisher
• 2:05:09
  Speaker 1: touched a small gong on the table beside her, as
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 1: though she had been used to that gong and that
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: table ever since she was little, and on Francesca's appearing,
• 2:05:16
  Speaker 1: bade her in the language of Dante bring more milk.
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 1: There was a curious air about Missus Fisher, thought Missus
• 2:05:23
  Speaker 1: Arbuthnet of being in possession, and if she herself had
• 2:05:26
  Speaker 1: not been so happy, she would have perhaps minded. Missus
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 1: Wilkins noticed it too, but it only made her discursive
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 1: brain think of cuckoos. She would no doubt immediately have
• 2:05:37
  Speaker 1: begun to talk of cuckoos incoherently, unrestrainably and deplorably if
• 2:05:41
  Speaker 1: she had been in the condition of nerves and shyness
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 1: she was in last time she saw Missus Fisher. But
• 2:05:47
  Speaker 1: happiness had done away with shyness. She was very serene.
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 1: She could control her conversation. She did not have horrified
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 1: to listen to herself saying things she had no idea
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 1: of saying. When she began, she was quite at her
• 2:06:00
  Speaker 1: ease and completely natural. The disappointment of not going to
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 1: be able to prepare a welcome for Missus Fisher had
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 1: evaporated at once, for it was impossible to go on
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 1: being disappointed in heaven. Nor did she mind her behaving
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 1: as hostess. What did it matter? You did not mind
• 2:06:18
  Speaker 1: things in heaven. She and Missus Arbuthnet therefore sat down
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: more willingly than they otherwise would have done, one on
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 1: either side of Missus Fisher, and the sun pouring through
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 1: the two windows facing east across the bay, flooded the room,
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: and there was an open door leading into the garden,
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 1: and the garden was full of many lovely things, especially frisias.
• 2:06:39
  Speaker 1: The delicate and delicious fragrance of the frisias came in
• 2:06:42
  Speaker 1: through the door and floated round Missus Wilkins as in
• 2:06:45
  Speaker 1: raptured nostrils. Frisia's in London were quite beyond her. Occasionally
• 2:06:51
  Speaker 1: she went into a shop and asked what they cost,
• 2:06:53
  Speaker 1: so as just to have an excuse for lifting up
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 1: a bunch and smelling them, while knowing that it was
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: something awful like a shilling for about three flowers. Here
• 2:07:01
  Speaker 1: they were everywhere, bursting out of every corner and carpeting
• 2:07:04
  Speaker 1: the rose beds. Imagine it, having freezi as to pick
• 2:07:09
  Speaker 1: an armsful if you wanted to, and with glorious sunshine
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 1: flooding the room, and in your summer frock, and its
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 1: being only the first of April. I suppose you realize,
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 1: don't you, that we've got to heaven, she said, beaming
• 2:07:22
  Speaker 1: at Missus Fisher with all the familiarity of a fellow angel.
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 1: They are considerably younger than I had supposed thought, Missus Fisher,
• 2:07:30
  Speaker 1: and not nearly so plain. And she mused a moment
• 2:07:33
  Speaker 1: while she took no notice of Missus Wilkins's exuberance on
• 2:07:37
  Speaker 1: their instant and agitated refusal that day a Prince of
• 2:07:40
  Speaker 1: Wales's terrace to have anything to do with the giving
• 2:07:42
  Speaker 1: or the taking of references. Nothing could affect her, of course,
• 2:07:47
  Speaker 1: nothing that anybody did. She was far too solidly seated
• 2:07:51
  Speaker 1: in respectability. At her back stood massively in a tremendous row.
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 1: Those three great names she had offered, and they were
• 2:07:58
  Speaker 1: not the only ones she could turn to for support
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 1: and countenance. Even if these young women she had no
• 2:08:04
  Speaker 1: grounds for believing the one out in the garden to
• 2:08:06
  Speaker 1: be really Lady Caroline Dester, she had merely been told
• 2:08:09
  Speaker 1: she was. Even if these young women should all turn
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 1: out to be what Browning used to call, how well
• 2:08:15
  Speaker 1: she remembered his amusing and delightful way of putting things
• 2:08:18
  Speaker 1: fly by nights. What could it possibly or in any
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 1: way matter to her let them fly by night if
• 2:08:25
  Speaker 1: they wished? One was not sixty five for nothing? In
• 2:08:30
  Speaker 1: any case, there would only be four weeks of it,
• 2:08:32
  Speaker 1: at the end of which she would see no more
• 2:08:34
  Speaker 1: of them. And in the meanwhile there were plenty of
• 2:08:37
  Speaker 1: places where she could sit quietly away from them. And
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 1: remember also there was her own sitting room, a charming room,
• 2:08:44
  Speaker 1: all honey colored furniture and pictures, with windows to the
• 2:08:47
  Speaker 1: sea towards Genoa, and a door opening on to the battlements.
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 1: The house possessed two sitting rooms, and she had explained
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 1: to that pretty creature, Lady Caroline, certainly a pretty creature,
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 1: whatever else she was, Tennyson would have enjoyed taking her
• 2:09:01
  Speaker 1: for blows on the downs, who had seemed inclined to
• 2:09:04
  Speaker 1: appropriate the honey colored one, that she needed some little
• 2:09:08
  Speaker 1: refuge entirely to herself because of her stick. Nobody wants
• 2:09:12
  Speaker 1: to see an old woman hobbling about everywhere. She had said,
• 2:09:16
  Speaker 1: I shall be quite content to spend much of my
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 1: time by myself in here, or sitting out on these
• 2:09:21
  Speaker 1: convenient battlements. And she had a very nice bedroom too.
• 2:09:26
  Speaker 1: It looked two ways across the bay to the morning
• 2:09:28
  Speaker 1: sun she liked the morning sun, and on to the garden.
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 1: There were only two of these bedrooms with cross views
• 2:09:35
  Speaker 1: in the house she and Lady Caroline had discovered, and
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 1: they were by far the ariast. They each had two
• 2:09:42
  Speaker 1: beds in them, and she and Lady Caroline had had
• 2:09:45
  Speaker 1: the extra beds taken out at once and put into
• 2:09:47
  Speaker 1: two of the other rooms. In this way there was
• 2:09:50
  Speaker 1: much more space and comfort. Lady Caroline indeed had turned
• 2:09:55
  Speaker 1: hers into a bed sitting room, with the sofa out
• 2:09:58
  Speaker 1: of the bigger drawing room and the writing table and
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: the most comfortable chair, but she herself had not had
• 2:10:03
  Speaker 1: to do that because she had her own sitting room
• 2:10:05
  Speaker 1: equipped with what was necessary. Lady Caroline had thought at
• 2:10:09
  Speaker 1: first of taking the bigger sitting room entirely for her own,
• 2:10:12
  Speaker 1: because the dining room on the floor below could quite
• 2:10:15
  Speaker 1: well be used between meals to sit in by the
• 2:10:17
  Speaker 1: two others, and was a very pleasant room with nice chairs.
• 2:10:20
  Speaker 1: But she had not liked the bigger sitting rooms shape.
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 1: It was a round room in the tower, with deep
• 2:10:26
  Speaker 1: slit windows pierced through the massive walls, and a domed
• 2:10:29
  Speaker 1: and ribbed ceiling arranged to look like an open umbrella,
• 2:10:32
  Speaker 1: and it seemed a little dark. Undoubtedly, Lady Caroline had
• 2:10:36
  Speaker 1: cast covetous glances at the honey colored room, and if she,
• 2:10:40
  Speaker 1: missus Fisher, had been less firm, would have installed herself
• 2:10:43
  Speaker 1: in it, which would have been absurd, I hope, said
• 2:10:47
  Speaker 1: missus Arbuthnet, smilingly, making an attempt to convey to missus
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 1: Fisher that though she, Missus Fisher, might not be exactly
• 2:10:54
  Speaker 1: a guess, she certainly was not in the very least
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 1: a hostess. Your room is comfortable, quite, said missus Fisher.
• 2:11:02
  Speaker 1: Will you have some more coffee? No? Thank you? Will you? No?
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 1: Thank you? There were two beds in my bedroom, filling
• 2:11:12
  Speaker 1: it up unnecessarily, and I had one taken out. It
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 1: has made it much more convenient. Oh that's why I've
• 2:11:19
  Speaker 1: got two beds in my room, exclaimed missus Wilkins, illuminated.
• 2:11:24
  Speaker 1: The second bed in her little cell had seemed an
• 2:11:26
  Speaker 1: unnatural and inappropriate object from the moment she saw it.
• 2:11:30
  Speaker 1: I gave no directions, said missus Fisher, addressing missus Arbuthnet.
• 2:11:34
  Speaker 1: I merely asked Francesca to remove it. I have two
• 2:11:38
  Speaker 1: in my room as well, said Missus Arbuthnet. Your second
• 2:11:42
  Speaker 1: one must be Lady Caroline's. She had hers removed too,
• 2:11:46
  Speaker 1: said missus Fisher. It seems foolish to have more beds
• 2:11:50
  Speaker 1: in a room than there are occupiers. But we haven't
• 2:11:53
  Speaker 1: got any husbands here either, said missus Wilkins. And I
• 2:11:56
  Speaker 1: don't see any use in extra beds in one's room
• 2:11:59
  Speaker 1: if one hasn't got husbands to put in them, can't
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 1: we have them taken away too? Beds, said missus Fisher coldly,
• 2:12:07
  Speaker 1: cannot be removed from one room after another. They must
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 1: remain somewhere. Missus Wilkins's remarks seemed to Missus Fisher persistently unfortunate.
• 2:12:17
  Speaker 1: Each time she opened her mouth she said something best
• 2:12:20
  Speaker 1: left unsaid. Loose talk about husbands had never in missus
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 1: Fisher's circle been encouraged. In the eighties, when she chiefly flourished,
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 1: Husbands were taken seriously as the only real obstacles to sin.
• 2:12:34
  Speaker 1: Beds too, if they had to be mentioned, were approached
• 2:12:37
  Speaker 1: with caution, and a decent reserve prevented them and husbands
• 2:12:41
  Speaker 1: ever being spoken of In the same breath. She turned
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 1: more markedly than ever to missus Arbuthnet. Do let me
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 1: give you a little more coffee? She said, no, thank you,
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 1: But won't you have some more? No? Indeed, I never
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 1: have more than two cups at breakfast? Would you like
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 1: an orange? No? Thank you? Would you No? I don't
• 2:13:06
  Speaker 1: eat fruit at breakfast. It is an American fashion which
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 1: I am too old now to adopt. Have you had
• 2:13:13
  Speaker 1: all you want? Quite? Have you? Missus Fisher paused before replying,
• 2:13:21
  Speaker 1: Was this a habit? This trick of answering a simple
• 2:13:24
  Speaker 1: question with the same question. If so, it must be curved,
• 2:13:28
  Speaker 1: For no one could live for four weeks in any
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 1: real comfort with somebody who had a habit. She glanced
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 1: at missus Arbuthnet, and her parted hair and gentle brow
• 2:13:36
  Speaker 1: reassured her. No, it was accident, not habit that had
• 2:13:41
  Speaker 1: produced those echoes. She could as soon imagine a dove
• 2:13:45
  Speaker 1: having tiresome habits as Missus Arbuthnet. Considering her, she thought,
• 2:13:50
  Speaker 1: what a splendid wife she would have been for poor Carlyle,
• 2:13:53
  Speaker 1: So much better than that horrid, clever Jane. She would
• 2:13:57
  Speaker 1: have soothed him. Then shall we go? She suggested? Let
• 2:14:02
  Speaker 1: me help you up, said missus Arbuthnet all consideration. Oh,
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 1: thank you, I can manage perfectly. It's only sometimes that
• 2:14:11
  Speaker 1: my stick prevents me. Missus Fisher got up quite easily.
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet had hovered over her for nothing. I'm going
• 2:14:18
  Speaker 1: to have one of these gorgeous oranges, said missus Wilkins,
• 2:14:22
  Speaker 1: staying where she was and reaching across to a black
• 2:14:24
  Speaker 1: bowl piled with them rose. How can you resist them? Look?
• 2:14:30
  Speaker 1: Have this one? Do have this beauty? And she held
• 2:14:33
  Speaker 1: out a big one. No, I'm going to see to
• 2:14:37
  Speaker 1: my duties, said missus Arbuthnet, moving towards the door. You'll
• 2:14:41
  Speaker 1: forgive me for leaving you, won't you, she added politely
• 2:14:45
  Speaker 1: to missus Fisher. Missus Fisher moved towards the door too,
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 1: quite easily, almost quickly. Her stick did not hinder her
• 2:14:53
  Speaker 1: at all. She had no intention of being left with
• 2:14:56
  Speaker 1: missus Wilkins. What time would you like to have lunch,
• 2:15:01
  Speaker 1: missus Arbuthnet asked her, trying to keep her head as
• 2:15:03
  Speaker 1: at least a non guest, if not precisely a hostess
• 2:15:07
  Speaker 1: above water. Lunch, said missus Fisher, is at half past twelve.
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 1: You shall have it at half past twelve, then, said
• 2:15:15
  Speaker 1: missus Arbuthnet. I'll tell the cook. It will be a
• 2:15:19
  Speaker 1: great struggle, she continued, smiling. But I've brought a little dictionary.
• 2:15:24
  Speaker 1: The cook, said missus Fisher. Knows, Oh, said missus Arbuthnet.
• 2:15:30
  Speaker 1: Lady Caroline has already told her, said Missus Fisher. Oh,
• 2:15:35
  Speaker 1: said Missus Arbuthnet again. Yes, Lady Caroline speaks the kind
• 2:15:40
  Speaker 1: of Italian cooks. Understand I am prevented going into the
• 2:15:44
  Speaker 1: kitchen because of my stick, And even if I were
• 2:15:48
  Speaker 1: able to go, I fear I shouldn't be understood, but
• 2:15:52
  Speaker 1: began Missus Arbuthnet. But it's too wonderful, Missus Wilkins finished
• 2:15:56
  Speaker 1: for her from the table, delighted with these unexpected simplifess
• 2:16:00
  Speaker 1: in her and roses lives. Why we've got positively nothing
• 2:16:05
  Speaker 1: to do here, either of us, except just be happy.
• 2:16:08
  Speaker 1: You wouldn't believe, she said, turning her head and speaking
• 2:16:12
  Speaker 1: straight to missus Fisher, portions of orange in either hand.
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 1: How terribly good Rose and I have been for years
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 1: without stopping, and how much now we need a perfect rest.
• 2:16:21
  Speaker 1: And Missus Fisher, going without answering her out of the room,
• 2:16:25
  Speaker 1: said to herself she must she shall be curved. Chapter eight. Presently,
• 2:16:30
  Speaker 1: when Missus Wilkins and Missus Arbuthnet, unhampered by any duties,
• 2:16:34
  Speaker 1: wandered out and down the worn stone steps, and under
• 2:16:37
  Speaker 1: the pergole into the lower garden, Missus Wilkins said to
• 2:16:40
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet, who seemed pensive. Don't you see that if
• 2:16:44
  Speaker 1: somebody else does the ordering, it frees us. Missus Arbuthnet
• 2:16:48
  Speaker 1: said she did see, but nevertheless she thought it rather
• 2:16:51
  Speaker 1: silly to have everything taken out of their hands. I
• 2:16:54
  Speaker 1: love things to be taken out of my hands, said
• 2:16:57
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins. But we found San Salvatore, said Missus Arbuthnet.
• 2:17:02
  Speaker 1: And it is rather silly that Missus Fisher should behave
• 2:17:05
  Speaker 1: as if it belonged only to her. What is rather silly,
• 2:17:09
  Speaker 1: said Missus Wilkins, with much serenity, is to mind. I
• 2:17:13
  Speaker 1: can't see the least point in being in authority at
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 1: the price of one's liberty. Missus Arbuthnet said nothing to that,
• 2:17:20
  Speaker 1: for two reasons. First because she was struck by the
• 2:17:23
  Speaker 1: remarkable and growing calm of the hitherto incoherent and excited Lottie,
• 2:17:27
  Speaker 1: and secondly, because what she was looking at was so
• 2:17:29
  Speaker 1: very beautiful. All down the stone steps on either side
• 2:17:33
  Speaker 1: were periwinkles in full flower, and she could now see
• 2:17:36
  Speaker 1: what it was that had caught at her the night
• 2:17:38
  Speaker 1: before and brushed wet and scented across her face. It
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 1: was wisteria. Wisteria and sunshine, she remembered. The advertisement here, indeed,
• 2:17:49
  Speaker 1: were both in profusion. The wisteria was tumbling over itself
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 1: in its excess of life, its prodigality of flowering. And
• 2:17:56
  Speaker 1: where the pergola ended, the sun blazed on scarlet geraniums,
• 2:18:00
  Speaker 1: bushes of them, and nestertiums in great heaps, and marigold
• 2:18:03
  Speaker 1: so brilliant that they seemed to be burning, and red
• 2:18:06
  Speaker 1: and pink snap dragons, all outdoing each other in bright,
• 2:18:09
  Speaker 1: fierce color. The ground behind these flaming things dropped away
• 2:18:14
  Speaker 1: in terraces to the sea. Each terrace a little orchard,
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 1: where among the olives grew vines on trellises, and fig trees,
• 2:18:21
  Speaker 1: and peach trees and cherry trees. The cherry trees and
• 2:18:25
  Speaker 1: peach trees were in blossom, lovely showers of white and
• 2:18:28
  Speaker 1: deep rose color among the trembling delicacy of the olives.
• 2:18:31
  Speaker 1: The fig leaves were just big enough to smell of figs.
• 2:18:34
  Speaker 1: The vine buds were only beginning to show, and beneath
• 2:18:38
  Speaker 1: these trees were groups of blue and purple irises, and
• 2:18:41
  Speaker 1: bushes of lavender and gray, sharp cactuses, and the grass
• 2:18:45
  Speaker 1: was thick with dandelions and daisies, and right down at
• 2:18:48
  Speaker 1: the bottom was the sea. Color seemed flung down anyhow, anywhere,
• 2:18:53
  Speaker 1: every sort of color piled up in heaps, pouring along
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 1: in rivers. The periwinkles looked exactly as if they were
• 2:18:59
  Speaker 1: being poured down each side of the steps. And flowers
• 2:19:02
  Speaker 1: that grow only in borders in England, proud flowers keeping
• 2:19:06
  Speaker 1: themselves to themselves over there, such as the great blue
• 2:19:09
  Speaker 1: irises and the lavender, were being jostled by small, shining,
• 2:19:13
  Speaker 1: common things like dandelions and daisies, and the white bells
• 2:19:16
  Speaker 1: of the wild onion, and only seemed the better and
• 2:19:19
  Speaker 1: the more exuberant for it. They stood looking at this
• 2:19:22
  Speaker 1: crowd of loveliness, this happy jumble, in silence. No, it
• 2:19:27
  Speaker 1: didn't matter what Missus Fisher did not here, not in
• 2:19:31
  Speaker 1: such beauty. Missus Arbuthnet's discomposure melted out of her in
• 2:19:36
  Speaker 1: the warmth and light of what she was looking at,
• 2:19:38
  Speaker 1: of what to her was a manifestation an entirely new
• 2:19:42
  Speaker 1: side of God. How could one be discomposed? If only
• 2:19:46
  Speaker 1: Frederick were with her seeing it too, seeing as he
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 1: would have seen it when first they were lovers in
• 2:19:51
  Speaker 1: the days when he saw what she saw and loved
• 2:19:53
  Speaker 1: what she loved. She sighed. You mustn't sigh in heaven,
• 2:19:58
  Speaker 1: said Missus Wilkins. One doesn't. I was thinking how one
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 1: longs to share this with those one loves, said Missus Arbuthnet.
• 2:20:07
  Speaker 1: You mustn't long in heaven, said Missus Wilkins. You're supposed
• 2:20:12
  Speaker 1: to be quite complete there, and it is heaven, isn't it.
• 2:20:16
  Speaker 1: Rose See how everything has been let in together, the
• 2:20:19
  Speaker 1: dandelions and the irises, the vulgar and the superior, Me
• 2:20:23
  Speaker 1: and Missus Fisher, all welcome, all mixed up anyhow, and
• 2:20:27
  Speaker 1: all so visibly happy and enjoying ourselves. Missus Fisher doesn't
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 1: seem happy, not visibly anyhow, said Missus Arbuthnet, smiling. She'll
• 2:20:38
  Speaker 1: begin soon, you'll see. Missus Arbuthnet said she didn't believe
• 2:20:43
  Speaker 1: that after a certain age people began anything. Missus Wilkins
• 2:20:47
  Speaker 1: said she was sure no one, however old and tough,
• 2:20:50
  Speaker 1: could resist the effects of perfect beauty. Before many days,
• 2:20:54
  Speaker 1: perhaps only hours, they would see Missus Fisher bursting out
• 2:20:58
  Speaker 1: into every kind of exuberance. I'm quite sure, said Missus
• 2:21:02
  Speaker 1: Wilkins that we've got to heaven. And once Missus Fisher
• 2:21:05
  Speaker 1: realizes that that's where she is, she's bound to be different.
• 2:21:09
  Speaker 1: You'll see, she'll leave off being ossified and go all
• 2:21:14
  Speaker 1: soft and able to stretch. And we shall get quite
• 2:21:17
  Speaker 1: why I shouldn't be surprised if we get quite fond
• 2:21:19
  Speaker 1: of her. The idea of Missus Fisher bursting out into anything,
• 2:21:24
  Speaker 1: she who seemed so particularly firmly fixed inside her buttons,
• 2:21:27
  Speaker 1: made Missus Arbuthnett laugh. She condoned Lotty's loose way of
• 2:21:32
  Speaker 1: talking of heaven, because in such a place, on such
• 2:21:35
  Speaker 1: a morning, condonation was in the very air. Besides, what
• 2:21:39
  Speaker 1: an excuse there was. And Lady Caroline, sitting where they
• 2:21:44
  Speaker 1: had left her before breakfast on the wall, peeped over
• 2:21:46
  Speaker 1: when she heard laughter and saw them standing on the
• 2:21:49
  Speaker 1: path below, and thought, what a mercy it was they
• 2:21:51
  Speaker 1: were laughing down there and had not come up and
• 2:21:53
  Speaker 1: done it round her. She disliked jokes at all times,
• 2:21:57
  Speaker 1: but in the morning she hated them, especially close up,
• 2:22:00
  Speaker 1: especially crowding in her ears. She hoped the Originals were
• 2:22:04
  Speaker 1: on their way out for a walk, and not on
• 2:22:07
  Speaker 1: their way back from one. They were laughing more and more,
• 2:22:11
  Speaker 1: what could they possibly find to laugh at? She looked
• 2:22:15
  Speaker 1: down on the tops of their heads with a very
• 2:22:17
  Speaker 1: serious face, for the thought of spending a month with
• 2:22:19
  Speaker 1: laughers was a grave one, and they, as though they
• 2:22:22
  Speaker 1: felt her eyes turned suddenly and looked up the dreadful
• 2:22:26
  Speaker 1: geniality of those women. She shrank away from their smiles
• 2:22:30
  Speaker 1: and wavings, but she could not shrink out of sight
• 2:22:33
  Speaker 1: without falling into the lilies. She neither smiled nor waved back, and,
• 2:22:38
  Speaker 1: turning her eyes to the more distant mountains, surveyed them
• 2:22:40
  Speaker 1: carefully till the two tired of waving, moved away along
• 2:22:44
  Speaker 1: the path and turned the corner and disappeared. This time
• 2:22:48
  Speaker 1: they both did notice that they had been met with
• 2:22:50
  Speaker 1: at least unresponsiveness. If we weren't in heaven, said Missus
• 2:22:55
  Speaker 1: Wilkins serenely. I should say we had been snubbed, But
• 2:22:58
  Speaker 1: as nobody snubs anybody there, of course we can't have been.
• 2:23:02
  Speaker 1: Perhaps she is unhappy, said missus Arbuthnet. Whatever it is
• 2:23:06
  Speaker 1: she is, she'll get over it. Here, said Missus Wilkins,
• 2:23:09
  Speaker 1: with conviction. We must try and help her, said Missus Arbuthnet. Oh,
• 2:23:15
  Speaker 1: but nobody helps anybody in heaven that's finished with you.
• 2:23:20
  Speaker 1: Don't try to be or do you simply are? Well?
• 2:23:24
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet wouldn't go into that, not here, not today.
• 2:23:29
  Speaker 1: The vicar, she knew, would have called Lottie's talk levity,
• 2:23:33
  Speaker 1: if not profanity. How old he seemed from here, an
• 2:23:37
  Speaker 1: old old vicar. They left the path and clambered down
• 2:23:41
  Speaker 1: the olive terraces, down and down to wear at the
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 1: bottom the warm, sleepy sea heaved gently among the rocks.
• 2:23:48
  Speaker 1: There a pine tree grew close to the water, and
• 2:23:51
  Speaker 1: they sat under it, and a few yards away was
• 2:23:53
  Speaker 1: a fishing boat, lying motionless and green bellied on the water.
• 2:23:57
  Speaker 1: The ripples of the sea made little gurgling noises at
• 2:23:59
  Speaker 1: the feet. They screwed up their eyes to be able
• 2:24:03
  Speaker 1: to look into the blaze of light beyond the shade
• 2:24:05
  Speaker 1: of their tree. The hot smell from the pine needles
• 2:24:08
  Speaker 1: and from the cushions of wild thyme that patted the
• 2:24:11
  Speaker 1: spaces between the rocks, and sometimes a smell of pure
• 2:24:14
  Speaker 1: honey from a clump of warm irises up behind them
• 2:24:16
  Speaker 1: in the sun, puffed across their faces. Very soon Missus
• 2:24:20
  Speaker 1: Wilkins took her shoes and stockings off and let her
• 2:24:23
  Speaker 1: feet hang in the water. After watching her a minute,
• 2:24:26
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet did the same. Their happiness was then complete.
• 2:24:32
  Speaker 1: Their husbands would not have known them. They left off talking,
• 2:24:36
  Speaker 1: they ceased to mention heaven. They were just cups of acceptance. Meanwhile,
• 2:24:42
  Speaker 1: Lady Caroline, on her wall was considering her position. The
• 2:24:47
  Speaker 1: garden on the top of the wall was a delicious garden,
• 2:24:49
  Speaker 1: but its situation made it insecure and exposed to interruptions.
• 2:24:54
  Speaker 1: At any moment, the others might come and want to
• 2:24:56
  Speaker 1: use it. Because both the hall and the dining room
• 2:24:59
  Speaker 1: had doors opening stre right into it, Perhaps, thought Lady Caroline,
• 2:25:03
  Speaker 1: she could arrange that it should be solely hers. Missus
• 2:25:07
  Speaker 1: Fisher had the battlements delightful, with flowers and a watch
• 2:25:11
  Speaker 1: tower all to herself. Besides having snatched the one really
• 2:25:14
  Speaker 1: nice room in the house, there were plenty of places
• 2:25:17
  Speaker 1: the Originals could go to. She had herself seen at
• 2:25:20
  Speaker 1: least two other little gardens. While the hill the castle
• 2:25:23
  Speaker 1: stood on was itself a garden with walks and seats.
• 2:25:27
  Speaker 1: Why should not this one spot be kept exclusively for her?
• 2:25:31
  Speaker 1: She liked it. She liked it best of all. It
• 2:25:34
  Speaker 1: had the Judas tree and an umbrella pine. It had
• 2:25:37
  Speaker 1: the frisias and the lilies. It had a tamarus beginning
• 2:25:40
  Speaker 1: to flush pink. It had the convenient low wall to
• 2:25:43
  Speaker 1: sit on. It had from each of its three sides
• 2:25:46
  Speaker 1: the most amazing views. To the east, the bay and mountains.
• 2:25:50
  Speaker 1: To the north, the village across the tranquil, clear green
• 2:25:52
  Speaker 1: water of the little Harbor, and the hills dotted with
• 2:25:55
  Speaker 1: white houses and orange groves. And to the west was
• 2:25:57
  Speaker 1: the thin thread of land by which San Salvae was
• 2:26:00
  Speaker 1: tied to the mainland, and then the open sea and
• 2:26:04
  Speaker 1: the coast line beyond Genoa, reaching away into the blue
• 2:26:07
  Speaker 1: dimness of France. Yes, she would say, she wanted to
• 2:26:10
  Speaker 1: have this entirely to herself. How obviously sensible. If each
• 2:26:15
  Speaker 1: of them had their own special place to sit in
• 2:26:17
  Speaker 1: a part. It was essential to her comfort that she
• 2:26:20
  Speaker 1: should be able to be a part, left alone, not
• 2:26:23
  Speaker 1: talked to the others ought to like it best too.
• 2:26:27
  Speaker 1: Why heard one had enough of that in England? With
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 1: one's relations and friends, Oh, the numbers of them pressing
• 2:26:34
  Speaker 1: on one continually, having successfully escaped them for four weeks,
• 2:26:39
  Speaker 1: Why continue? And with persons having no earthly claim on
• 2:26:42
  Speaker 1: one to herd. She lit a cigarette. She began to
• 2:26:47
  Speaker 1: feel secure. Those two had gone for a walk. There
• 2:26:52
  Speaker 1: was no sign of missus Fisher. How very pleasant this was.
• 2:26:57
  Speaker 1: Somebody came out through the glass doors just as she
• 2:27:00
  Speaker 1: was drawing a deep breath of security. Surely it couldn't
• 2:27:03
  Speaker 1: be missus Fisher, wanting to sit with her. Missus Fisher
• 2:27:07
  Speaker 1: had her battlements. She ought to stay on them, having
• 2:27:11
  Speaker 1: snatched them. It would be too tiresome if she wouldn't,
• 2:27:15
  Speaker 1: and wanted not only to have them in her sitting room,
• 2:27:17
  Speaker 1: but to establish herself in this garden as well. No,
• 2:27:21
  Speaker 1: it wasn't missus Fisher. It was the cook, She frowned.
• 2:27:26
  Speaker 1: Was she going to have to go on ordering the food?
• 2:27:29
  Speaker 1: Surely one or other of those two waving women would
• 2:27:32
  Speaker 1: do that. Now, the cook, who had been waiting in
• 2:27:35
  Speaker 1: increasing agitation in the kitchen, watching the clock getting nearer
• 2:27:38
  Speaker 1: to lunch time, while she still was without knowledge of
• 2:27:41
  Speaker 1: what lunch was to consist of, had gone at last
• 2:27:43
  Speaker 1: to Missus Fisher, who had immediately waved her away. She
• 2:27:48
  Speaker 1: then wandered about the house, seeking a mistress, any mistress
• 2:27:51
  Speaker 1: who would tell her what to cook, and finding none,
• 2:27:54
  Speaker 1: and at last directed by Francesca, who always knew where
• 2:27:57
  Speaker 1: everybody was, came out to Lady Caroline. Domenico had provided
• 2:28:02
  Speaker 1: this cook She was Costanza, the sister of that one
• 2:28:06
  Speaker 1: of his cousins, who kept a restaurant down on the Piazza.
• 2:28:09
  Speaker 1: She helped her brother in his cooking when she had
• 2:28:11
  Speaker 1: no other job, and knew every sort of fat, mysterious
• 2:28:15
  Speaker 1: Italian dish, such as the workmen of Castagnito, who crowded
• 2:28:18
  Speaker 1: the restaurant at midday, and the inhabitants of Misago when
• 2:28:21
  Speaker 1: they came over on Sundays loved to eat. She was
• 2:28:25
  Speaker 1: a fleshless spinster of fifty, gray haired, nimble, rich of speech,
• 2:28:29
  Speaker 1: and thought Lady Caroline more beautiful than any one she
• 2:28:32
  Speaker 1: had ever seen. And so did Domenico, and so did
• 2:28:35
  Speaker 1: the boy Giuseppe, who helped Domenico and was besides his nephew,
• 2:28:40
  Speaker 1: And so did the girl Angela, who helped Francesca and
• 2:28:43
  Speaker 1: was besides Domenico's niece, and so did Francesca herself. Domenico
• 2:28:49
  Speaker 1: and Francesca, the only two who had seen them, thought
• 2:28:52
  Speaker 1: the two ladies who arrived last very beautiful, but compared
• 2:28:56
  Speaker 1: to the fair, young lady who arrived. First, they were
• 2:28:58
  Speaker 1: as candles to the electric light that had lately been installed,
• 2:29:02
  Speaker 1: and as the tin tubs in the bedrooms to the
• 2:29:04
  Speaker 1: wonderful new bathroom their master had had arranged on his
• 2:29:07
  Speaker 1: last visit. Lady Caroline scowled at the cook. The scowl,
• 2:29:12
  Speaker 1: as usual, was transformed on the way into what appeared
• 2:29:15
  Speaker 1: to be an intent and beautiful gravity, and Costanza threw
• 2:29:18
  Speaker 1: up her hands and took the saints aloud to witness
• 2:29:21
  Speaker 1: that here was the very picture of the Mother of God.
• 2:29:24
  Speaker 1: Lady Caroline asked her crossly what she wanted, and Costanza's
• 2:29:28
  Speaker 1: head went on one side with delight at the sheer
• 2:29:30
  Speaker 1: music of her voice. She said, after waiting a moment
• 2:29:34
  Speaker 1: in case the music was going to continue, for she
• 2:29:36
  Speaker 1: didn't wish to miss any of it, that she wanted
• 2:29:39
  Speaker 1: orders she had been to the Signorina's mother, but in vain,
• 2:29:43
  Speaker 1: she is not my mother, repudiated Lady Caroline angrily, and
• 2:29:47
  Speaker 1: her anger sounded like the regretful wail of a melodious orphan.
• 2:29:51
  Speaker 1: Costanza poured forth pity. She too, she explained, had no mother.
• 2:29:56
  Speaker 1: Lady Caroline interrupted with the curt information that her mother
• 2:29:59
  Speaker 1: was a live and in London. Costanza praised God and
• 2:30:03
  Speaker 1: the Saints that the young lady did not yet know
• 2:30:05
  Speaker 1: what it was like to be without a mother. Quickly
• 2:30:08
  Speaker 1: enough did misfortunes overtake one. No doubt, the young lady
• 2:30:12
  Speaker 1: already had a husband. No, said Lady Caroline icily, worse
• 2:30:17
  Speaker 1: than jokes in the morning. Did she hate the idea
• 2:30:19
  Speaker 1: of husbands? And everybody was always trying to press them
• 2:30:23
  Speaker 1: on her, all her relations, all her friends, all the
• 2:30:27
  Speaker 1: evening papers. After all, she could only marry one anyhow,
• 2:30:32
  Speaker 1: But you would think, from the way everybody talked, and
• 2:30:34
  Speaker 1: especially those persons who wanted to be husbands, that she
• 2:30:37
  Speaker 1: could marry at least a dozen. Her soft, pathetic no,
• 2:30:41
  Speaker 1: made Costanza, who was standing close to her well with sympathy.
• 2:30:46
  Speaker 1: Poor little one, said Costanza moved actually to pat her
• 2:30:50
  Speaker 1: encouragingly on the shoulder. Take hope, there is still time
• 2:30:55
  Speaker 1: for lunch, said Lady Caroline, freezingly, marveling as she spoke.
• 2:30:59
  Speaker 1: That she should be padded, she who had taken so
• 2:31:01
  Speaker 1: much trouble to come to a place remote and hidden
• 2:31:04
  Speaker 1: where she could be sure that, among other things of
• 2:31:06
  Speaker 1: a like oppressive nature, paddings also were not we will have.
• 2:31:10
  Speaker 1: Costanza became business like. She interrupted with suggestions, and her
• 2:31:15
  Speaker 1: suggestions were all admirable and all expensive. Lady Caroline did
• 2:31:19
  Speaker 1: not know they were expensive, and fell in with them
• 2:31:22
  Speaker 1: at once. They sounded very nice. Every sort of young
• 2:31:27
  Speaker 1: vegetables and fruits came into them, and much butter, and
• 2:31:30
  Speaker 1: a great deal of cream, and incredible numbers of eggs,
• 2:31:34
  Speaker 1: Costanza said enthusiastically at the end, as a tribute to
• 2:31:37
  Speaker 1: this acquiescence, that of the many ladies and gentlemen she
• 2:31:40
  Speaker 1: had worked for on temporary jobs such as this, she
• 2:31:42
  Speaker 1: preferred the English ladies and gentlemen, she more than preferred them.
• 2:31:47
  Speaker 1: They roused devotion in her, for they knew what to order,
• 2:31:51
  Speaker 1: They did not skimp, they refrained from grinding down the
• 2:31:54
  Speaker 1: faces of the poor. From this, Lady Caroline concluded that
• 2:31:58
  Speaker 1: she had been extravagant, and promptly countermanded the cream. Costanza's
• 2:32:02
  Speaker 1: face fell, for she had a cousin who had a cow,
• 2:32:05
  Speaker 1: and the cream was to have come from them both.
• 2:32:08
  Speaker 1: And perhaps we had better not have chickens, said Lady Caroline.
• 2:32:13
  Speaker 1: Costanza's face fell more, for her brother at the restaurant
• 2:32:16
  Speaker 1: kept chickens in his back yard, and many of them
• 2:32:18
  Speaker 1: were ready for killing. Also, do not order strawberries till
• 2:32:22
  Speaker 1: I have consulted with the other ladies, said Lady Caroline,
• 2:32:26
  Speaker 1: remembering that it was only the first of April, and
• 2:32:28
  Speaker 1: that perhaps people who lived in Hampstead might be poor,
• 2:32:31
  Speaker 1: indeed must be poor. Or why live in Hampstead? It
• 2:32:35
  Speaker 1: is not I who am mistress here? Is it? The
• 2:32:38
  Speaker 1: old one? Asked Costanza, her face very long. No, said
• 2:32:43
  Speaker 1: Lady Caroline. Which of the other two ladies is it? Neither,
• 2:32:48
  Speaker 1: said Lady Caroline. Then Costanza's smiles returned, for the young
• 2:32:53
  Speaker 1: lady was having fun with her and making jokes. She
• 2:32:57
  Speaker 1: told her so in her friendly Italian way, and was
• 2:33:00
  Speaker 1: genuinely delighted. I never make jokes, said Lady Caroline. Briefly,
• 2:33:06
  Speaker 1: you had better go, or lunch will certainly not be
• 2:33:08
  Speaker 1: ready by half past twelve. And these curt words came
• 2:33:12
  Speaker 1: out sounding so sweet that Costanza felt as if kind
• 2:33:15
  Speaker 1: compliments were being paid her, and forgot her disappointment about
• 2:33:18
  Speaker 1: the cream and the chickens, and went away all gratitude
• 2:33:22
  Speaker 1: and smiles. This thought, Lady Caroline will never do. I
• 2:33:27
  Speaker 1: haven't come here to housekeep and I won't she called
• 2:33:31
  Speaker 1: Costanza back. Costanza came running the sound of her name
• 2:33:36
  Speaker 1: in that voice enchanted her. I have ordered the lunch
• 2:33:40
  Speaker 1: for to day, said Lady Caroline, with the serious angel
• 2:33:43
  Speaker 1: face that was hers when she was annoyed. And I
• 2:33:45
  Speaker 1: have also ordered the dinner. But from now on you
• 2:33:47
  Speaker 1: will go to one of the other ladies for orders.
• 2:33:50
  Speaker 1: I give no more. The idea that she would go
• 2:33:54
  Speaker 1: on giving orders was too absurd. She never gave orders
• 2:33:57
  Speaker 1: at home. Nobody there dreamed of asking her to do anything.
• 2:34:02
  Speaker 1: That such a very tiresome activity should be thrust upon
• 2:34:05
  Speaker 1: her here simply because she happened to be able to
• 2:34:08
  Speaker 1: talk Italian was ridiculous. Let the originals give orders if
• 2:34:12
  Speaker 1: missus Fisher refused to. Missus Fisher, of course, was the
• 2:34:17
  Speaker 1: one nature intended for such a purpose. She had the
• 2:34:21
  Speaker 1: very air of a competent housekeeper. Her clothes were the
• 2:34:24
  Speaker 1: clothes of a housekeeper, and so was the way she
• 2:34:27
  Speaker 1: did her hair. Having delivered herself of her ultimatum with
• 2:34:31
  Speaker 1: an acerbity that turned sweet on the way, and accompanied
• 2:34:34
  Speaker 1: it by a peremptory gesture of dismissal that had the
• 2:34:36
  Speaker 1: grace and loving kindness of a benediction. It was annoying
• 2:34:39
  Speaker 1: that Costanza should only stand still with her head on
• 2:34:42
  Speaker 1: one side, gazing at her an obvious delight. Oh go away,
• 2:34:47
  Speaker 1: exclaimed Lady Caroline in English, suddenly exasperated. There had been
• 2:34:52
  Speaker 1: a fly in her bedroom that morning which had stuck,
• 2:34:55
  Speaker 1: just as Costanzo was sticking. Only one, but it might
• 2:34:58
  Speaker 1: have been a myriad. It was so tiresome from daylight on.
• 2:35:01
  Speaker 1: It was determined to settle on her face, and she
• 2:35:04
  Speaker 1: was determined it should not. Its persistence was uncanny. It
• 2:35:09
  Speaker 1: woke her and would not let her go to sleep again.
• 2:35:13
  Speaker 1: She hit at it, and it eluded her without fuss
• 2:35:15
  Speaker 1: or effort, and with an almost visible blandness, and she
• 2:35:18
  Speaker 1: had only hit herself. It came back again instantly, and
• 2:35:22
  Speaker 1: with a loud buzz, alighted on her cheek. She hid
• 2:35:25
  Speaker 1: at it again and hurt herself while it skimmed gracefully away.
• 2:35:30
  Speaker 1: She lost her temper and sat up in bed and waited,
• 2:35:33
  Speaker 1: watching to hit at it and kill it. She kept
• 2:35:36
  Speaker 1: on hitting at it at last, with fury and with
• 2:35:38
  Speaker 1: all her strength, as if it were a real enemy,
• 2:35:40
  Speaker 1: deliberately trying to madden her, and it elegantly skimmed in
• 2:35:43
  Speaker 1: and out of her blows, not even angry to be
• 2:35:46
  Speaker 1: back again the next instant. It succeeded every time in
• 2:35:50
  Speaker 1: getting on to her face, and was quite indifferent how
• 2:35:53
  Speaker 1: often it was driven away. That was why she had
• 2:35:56
  Speaker 1: dressed and come out so early. Francesca had already been
• 2:36:00
  Speaker 1: told to put a net over her bed, for she
• 2:36:02
  Speaker 1: was not going to allow herself to be annoyed twice
• 2:36:04
  Speaker 1: like that. People were exactly like flies. She wished there
• 2:36:09
  Speaker 1: were nets for keeping them off too. She hit at
• 2:36:13
  Speaker 1: them with words and frowns, and like the fly, they
• 2:36:15
  Speaker 1: slipped between her blows and were untouched. Worse than the fly,
• 2:36:20
  Speaker 1: they seemed unaware that she had even tried to hit them.
• 2:36:23
  Speaker 1: The fly at least did for a moment go away.
• 2:36:27
  Speaker 1: With human beings, the only way to get rid of
• 2:36:29
  Speaker 1: them was to go away herself. That was what so
• 2:36:33
  Speaker 1: tired she had done this April, And having got here,
• 2:36:36
  Speaker 1: having got close up to the details of life at
• 2:36:38
  Speaker 1: San Salvator, it appeared that here too, she was not
• 2:36:42
  Speaker 1: to be let alone. Viewed from London, there had seemed
• 2:36:45
  Speaker 1: to be no details San Salvator. From there seemed to
• 2:36:49
  Speaker 1: be an empty, a delicious blank yet after only twenty
• 2:36:53
  Speaker 1: four hours of it, she was discovering that it was
• 2:36:56
  Speaker 1: not a blank at all, and that she was having
• 2:36:58
  Speaker 1: to ward off as actively as ever. Already she had
• 2:37:01
  Speaker 1: been much stuck to missus Fisher, had stuck nearly the
• 2:37:05
  Speaker 1: whole of the day before, and this morning there had
• 2:37:07
  Speaker 1: been no peace, not ten minutes uninterruptedly alone. Costanza, of course,
• 2:37:12
  Speaker 1: had finally to go because she had to cook, But
• 2:37:15
  Speaker 1: hardly had she gone before Domenico came. He came to
• 2:37:19
  Speaker 1: water and tie up. That was natural, since he was
• 2:37:22
  Speaker 1: the gardener, but he watered and tied up all the
• 2:37:25
  Speaker 1: things that were nearest to her. He hovered closer and closer.
• 2:37:28
  Speaker 1: He watered to excess, He tied plants that were as
• 2:37:31
  Speaker 1: straight and steady as arrows. Well, at least he was
• 2:37:35
  Speaker 1: a man, and therefore not quite so annoying, and his
• 2:37:38
  Speaker 1: smiling good morning was received with an answering smile, upon
• 2:37:41
  Speaker 1: which Domenico forgot his family, his wife, his mother, his
• 2:37:45
  Speaker 1: grown up children, and all his duties, and only wanted
• 2:37:48
  Speaker 1: to kiss the young lady's feet. He could not do that, unfortunately,
• 2:37:52
  Speaker 1: but he could talk while he worked, and talk he did, voluminously,
• 2:37:56
  Speaker 1: pouring out every kind of information, illustrating what he said
• 2:37:59
  Speaker 1: with gestures so lively that he had to put down
• 2:38:02
  Speaker 1: the watering pot and thus delay the end of the watering.
• 2:38:05
  Speaker 1: Lady Caroline bore it for a time, but presently was
• 2:38:08
  Speaker 1: unable to bear it. And as he would not go,
• 2:38:11
  Speaker 1: and she could not tell him to, seeing that he
• 2:38:13
  Speaker 1: was engaged in his proper work, once again it was
• 2:38:16
  Speaker 1: she who had to. She got off the wall and
• 2:38:19
  Speaker 1: moved to the other side of the garden, wherein a
• 2:38:21
  Speaker 1: wooden shed were some comfortable, low cane chairs. All she
• 2:38:25
  Speaker 1: wanted was to turn one of these round, with its
• 2:38:27
  Speaker 1: back to Domenico and its front to the sea towards Genoa.
• 2:38:31
  Speaker 1: Such a little thing to want, one would have thought
• 2:38:34
  Speaker 1: she might have been allowed to do that unmolested, But
• 2:38:37
  Speaker 1: he who watched her every movement, when he saw her
• 2:38:40
  Speaker 1: approaching the chairs, darted after her and seized one and
• 2:38:43
  Speaker 1: asked to be told where to put it. Would she
• 2:38:46
  Speaker 1: never get away from being waited, on, being made comfortable,
• 2:38:49
  Speaker 1: being asked where she wanted things put, having to say
• 2:38:52
  Speaker 1: thank you. She was short with Domenico, who instantly concluded
• 2:38:56
  Speaker 1: the sun had given her a headache, and ran in
• 2:38:59
  Speaker 1: and fetched her a son shot, and a cushion and
• 2:39:01
  Speaker 1: a footstool, and was skillful, and was wonderful, and was
• 2:39:04
  Speaker 1: one of nature's gentlemen. She shut her eyes in a
• 2:39:07
  Speaker 1: heavy resignation. She could not be unkind to Domenico. She
• 2:39:13
  Speaker 1: could not get up and walk indoors, as she would
• 2:39:15
  Speaker 1: have done if it had been one of the others.
• 2:39:17
  Speaker 1: Domenico was intelligent and very competent. She had at once
• 2:39:22
  Speaker 1: discovered that it was he who really ran the house,
• 2:39:24
  Speaker 1: who really did everything, and his manners were definitely delightful,
• 2:39:29
  Speaker 1: and he undoubtedly was a charming person. It was only
• 2:39:32
  Speaker 1: that she did so much long to be let alone.
• 2:39:36
  Speaker 1: If only only she could be left quite quiet for
• 2:39:38
  Speaker 1: this one month, she felt that she might perhaps make
• 2:39:41
  Speaker 1: something of herself. After all, she kept her eyes shut
• 2:39:45
  Speaker 1: because then he would think she wanted to sleep and
• 2:39:47
  Speaker 1: would go away. Domenico's romantic Italian soul melted within him
• 2:39:52
  Speaker 1: at the sight, for having her eyes shut was extraordinarily
• 2:39:55
  Speaker 1: becoming to her. He stood entranced quite still, and she
• 2:39:59
  Speaker 1: thought he he had stolen away, so she opened them again. No,
• 2:40:04
  Speaker 1: there he was staring at her. Even he there was
• 2:40:08
  Speaker 1: no getting away from being stared at I have a headache,
• 2:40:12
  Speaker 1: she said, shutting them again. It is the sun, said Domenico,
• 2:40:17
  Speaker 1: and sitting on the wall without a hat. I wished
• 2:40:20
  Speaker 1: to sleep. See Signorina, he said sympathetically, and went softly away.
• 2:40:27
  Speaker 1: She opened her eyes with a sigh of relief. The
• 2:40:30
  Speaker 1: gentle closing of the glass doors showed her that he
• 2:40:33
  Speaker 1: had not only gone quite away, but had shut her
• 2:40:35
  Speaker 1: out in the garden so that she should be undisturbed.
• 2:40:38
  Speaker 1: Now perhaps she would be alone till lunch time. It
• 2:40:42
  Speaker 1: was very curious, and no one in the world could
• 2:40:44
  Speaker 1: have been more surprised than she herself. But she wanted
• 2:40:47
  Speaker 1: to think. She had never wanted to do that before.
• 2:40:52
  Speaker 1: Everything else that it is possible to do without too
• 2:40:54
  Speaker 1: much inconvenience, she had either wanted to do or had
• 2:40:56
  Speaker 1: done at one period or another of her life, But
• 2:40:59
  Speaker 1: not before had she wanted to think. She had come
• 2:41:02
  Speaker 1: to San Salvatore with the single intention of lying comatose
• 2:41:05
  Speaker 1: for four weeks in the sun, somewhere where her parents
• 2:41:08
  Speaker 1: and friends were not laped in forgetfulness, stirring herself only
• 2:41:12
  Speaker 1: to be fed, and she had not been there more
• 2:41:14
  Speaker 1: than a few hours when this strange new desire took
• 2:41:16
  Speaker 1: hold of her. There had been wonderful stars the evening before,
• 2:41:21
  Speaker 1: and she had gone out into the top garden after dinner,
• 2:41:23
  Speaker 1: leaving Missus Fisher alone over her nuts and wine, and
• 2:41:27
  Speaker 1: sitting on the wall at the place where the lilies
• 2:41:29
  Speaker 1: crowded their ghost heads. She had looked out into the
• 2:41:31
  Speaker 1: gulf of the night, and it had suddenly seemed as
• 2:41:35
  Speaker 1: if her life had been a noise all about nothing.
• 2:41:38
  Speaker 1: She had been intensely surprised. She knew stars and darkness
• 2:41:42
  Speaker 1: did produce unusual emotions because in others she had seen
• 2:41:46
  Speaker 1: them being produced, but they had not before done it
• 2:41:48
  Speaker 1: in herself. A noise all about nothing? Could she be
• 2:41:53
  Speaker 1: quite well? She had wondered. For a long while past.
• 2:41:58
  Speaker 1: She had been aware that her life was annoyed, but
• 2:42:00
  Speaker 1: it had seemed to be very much about something, a noise,
• 2:42:03
  Speaker 1: indeed about so much that she felt she must get
• 2:42:06
  Speaker 1: out of earshot for a little or she would be
• 2:42:08
  Speaker 1: completely and perhaps permanently deafened. But suppose it was only
• 2:42:13
  Speaker 1: a noise about nothing. She had not had a question
• 2:42:16
  Speaker 1: like that in her mind before. It had made her
• 2:42:19
  Speaker 1: feel lonely. She wanted to be alone, but not lonely.
• 2:42:24
  Speaker 1: That was very different. That was something that ached and
• 2:42:27
  Speaker 1: heard dreadfully right inside one. It was what one dreaded most.
• 2:42:32
  Speaker 1: It was what made one go to so many parties,
• 2:42:35
  Speaker 1: and lately even the parties had seemed once or twice
• 2:42:38
  Speaker 1: not to be a perfectly certain protection. Was it possible
• 2:42:41
  Speaker 1: that loneliness had nothing to do with circumstances, but only
• 2:42:45
  Speaker 1: with the way one met them. Perhaps she had thought
• 2:42:48
  Speaker 1: she had better go to bed. She couldn't be very well.
• 2:42:53
  Speaker 1: She went to bed, and in the morning, after she
• 2:42:55
  Speaker 1: had escaped the fly and had her breakfast and got
• 2:42:58
  Speaker 1: out again into the garden, there was this same feeling again,
• 2:43:01
  Speaker 1: and in broad daylight once more she had that really
• 2:43:05
  Speaker 1: rather disgusting suspicion that her life till now had not
• 2:43:08
  Speaker 1: only been loud but empty. Well, if that were so,
• 2:43:12
  Speaker 1: and if her first twenty eight years the best ones
• 2:43:15
  Speaker 1: had gone just in meaningless noise, she had better stop
• 2:43:18
  Speaker 1: a moment and look round her pause, as they said
• 2:43:21
  Speaker 1: in tiresome novels, and consider she hadn't got many sets
• 2:43:25
  Speaker 1: of twenty eight years. One more would see her growing
• 2:43:28
  Speaker 1: very like missus Fisher. Two more, she averted her eyes.
• 2:43:34
  Speaker 1: Her mother would have been concerned. If she had known
• 2:43:37
  Speaker 1: her mother doted, her father would have been concerned too,
• 2:43:41
  Speaker 1: for he also doted. Everybody doted, and when melodiously obstinate,
• 2:43:47
  Speaker 1: she had insisted on going off to entomb herself in
• 2:43:50
  Speaker 1: Italy for a whole month with queer people. She had
• 2:43:52
  Speaker 1: got out of an advertisement, refusing even to take her maid.
• 2:43:55
  Speaker 1: The only explanation her friends could imagine was that poor
• 2:43:58
  Speaker 1: Scrap such was name among them, had overdone it and
• 2:44:02
  Speaker 1: was feeling a little nervy. Her mother had been distressed
• 2:44:05
  Speaker 1: at her departure. It was such an odd thing to do,
• 2:44:09
  Speaker 1: such a sign of disappointment. She encouraged the general idea
• 2:44:13
  Speaker 1: of the verge of a nervous breakdown. If she could
• 2:44:16
  Speaker 1: have seen her adored scrap, more delightful to look upon
• 2:44:19
  Speaker 1: than any other mother's daughter had ever yet been the
• 2:44:22
  Speaker 1: object of her utmost pride, the source of all her
• 2:44:25
  Speaker 1: fondest hopes. Sitting staring at the empty noonday Mediterranean, considering
• 2:44:29
  Speaker 1: her three possible sets of twenty eight years, she would
• 2:44:32
  Speaker 1: have been miserable. To go away alone. Was bad to
• 2:44:36
  Speaker 1: think was worse. No good could come out of the
• 2:44:39
  Speaker 1: thinking of a beautiful young woman. Complications could come out
• 2:44:43
  Speaker 1: of it in profusion, but no good. The thinking of
• 2:44:46
  Speaker 1: the beautiful was bound to result in hesitations, in reluctances,
• 2:44:50
  Speaker 1: in unhappiness all round. And here, if she could have
• 2:44:54
  Speaker 1: seen her sat her scrap thinking quite hard, and such things,
• 2:45:00
  Speaker 1: such old things, things nobody ever began to think till
• 2:45:04
  Speaker 1: they were at least forty. Chapter nine that one of
• 2:45:07
  Speaker 1: the two sitting rooms which missus Fisher had taken for
• 2:45:09
  Speaker 1: her own, was a room of charm and character. She
• 2:45:13
  Speaker 1: surveyed it with satisfaction on going into it after breakfast,
• 2:45:16
  Speaker 1: and was glad it was hers. It had a tiled
• 2:45:19
  Speaker 1: floor and walls the color of pale honey, and inlaid
• 2:45:22
  Speaker 1: furniture the color of amber, and mellow books, many in
• 2:45:26
  Speaker 1: ivory or lemon colored covers. There was a big window
• 2:45:29
  Speaker 1: overlooking the sea towards Genoa, and a glass door through
• 2:45:33
  Speaker 1: which she could proceed out on to the battlements, and
• 2:45:35
  Speaker 1: walk along past the quaint and attractive watch tower, in
• 2:45:38
  Speaker 1: itself a room with chairs and a writing table, to
• 2:45:41
  Speaker 1: where on the other side of the tower the battlements
• 2:45:43
  Speaker 1: ended in a marble seat, and one could see the
• 2:45:46
  Speaker 1: western bay and the point round which began the Gulf
• 2:45:49
  Speaker 1: of Spezzia. Her south view. Between these two stretches of
• 2:45:53
  Speaker 1: sea was another hill higher than San Salvatore, the last
• 2:45:57
  Speaker 1: of the little peninsula, with the bland turrets of a
• 2:45:59
  Speaker 1: small and uninhabited castle on the top, on which the
• 2:46:04
  Speaker 1: setting sun still shone when everything else was sunk in shadow. Yes,
• 2:46:08
  Speaker 1: she was very comfortably established here and receptacles. Missus Fisher
• 2:46:13
  Speaker 1: did not examine their nature closely, but they seemed to
• 2:46:16
  Speaker 1: be small stone troughs, or perhaps little sarcophagi, ringed round
• 2:46:19
  Speaker 1: the battlements with flowers. These battlements, she thought, considering them,
• 2:46:25
  Speaker 1: would have been a perfect place for her to pace
• 2:46:27
  Speaker 1: up and down gently in moments when she least felt
• 2:46:29
  Speaker 1: the need of her stick, or to sit in on
• 2:46:31
  Speaker 1: the marble seat, having first put a cushion on it,
• 2:46:34
  Speaker 1: if there had not, unfortunately, been a second glass door
• 2:46:36
  Speaker 1: opening on to them, destroying their complete privacy, spoiling her
• 2:46:41
  Speaker 1: feeling that the place was only for her. The second
• 2:46:44
  Speaker 1: door belonged to the round drawing room, which both she
• 2:46:47
  Speaker 1: and Lady Caroline had rejected as too dark. That room
• 2:46:51
  Speaker 1: would probably be sat in by the women from Hampstead,
• 2:46:54
  Speaker 1: and she was afraid they would not confine themselves to
• 2:46:57
  Speaker 1: sitting in it, but would come out through the glass
• 2:46:59
  Speaker 1: door and invade her battlements. This would ruin the battlements,
• 2:47:04
  Speaker 1: It would ruin them, as far as she was concerned,
• 2:47:06
  Speaker 1: if they were to be overrun, or even if not
• 2:47:09
  Speaker 1: actually overrun, they were liable to be raked by the
• 2:47:12
  Speaker 1: eyes of persons inside the room. No one could be
• 2:47:15
  Speaker 1: perfectly at ease if they were being watched and knew it.
• 2:47:18
  Speaker 1: What she wanted, what she surely had a right to,
• 2:47:21
  Speaker 1: was privacy. She had no wish to intrude on the others,
• 2:47:25
  Speaker 1: Why then, should they intrude on her? And she could
• 2:47:28
  Speaker 1: always relax her privacy if when she became better acquainted
• 2:47:32
  Speaker 1: with her companions she should think it worth while. But
• 2:47:35
  Speaker 1: she doubted whether any of the three would so develop
• 2:47:37
  Speaker 1: as to make her think it worth while. Hardly anything
• 2:47:41
  Speaker 1: was really worth while, reflected missus Fisher, except the past.
• 2:47:46
  Speaker 1: It was astonishing. It was simply amazing the superiority of
• 2:47:49
  Speaker 1: the past to the present. Those friends of hers in London,
• 2:47:53
  Speaker 1: solid persons of her own age, knew the same past
• 2:47:56
  Speaker 1: that she knew, could talk about it with her, could
• 2:47:59
  Speaker 1: compare it as she did with the tinkling present, And
• 2:48:01
  Speaker 1: in remembering great men, forget for a moment the trivial
• 2:48:04
  Speaker 1: and barren young people who, still, in spite of the war,
• 2:48:07
  Speaker 1: seemed to litter the world in such numbers. She had
• 2:48:11
  Speaker 1: not come away from these friends, these conversable, ripe friends,
• 2:48:15
  Speaker 1: in order to spend her time in Italy chatting with
• 2:48:17
  Speaker 1: three persons of another generation and defective experience. She had
• 2:48:21
  Speaker 1: come away merely to avoid the treacheries of a London april.
• 2:48:25
  Speaker 1: It was true what she had told the two who
• 2:48:27
  Speaker 1: came to Prince of Wales's terrace, that all she wished
• 2:48:29
  Speaker 1: to do at San Salvatore was to sit by herself
• 2:48:32
  Speaker 1: in the sun. And remember, they knew this, for she
• 2:48:35
  Speaker 1: had told them. It had been plainly expressed and clearly understood. Therefore,
• 2:48:41
  Speaker 1: she had a right to expect them to stay inside
• 2:48:43
  Speaker 1: the round drawing room and not to emerge interruptingly on
• 2:48:46
  Speaker 1: to her battlements. But would they The doubts spoilt her mourning.
• 2:48:52
  Speaker 1: It was only towards lunch time that she saw a
• 2:48:54
  Speaker 1: way to be quite safe and ringing for Francesca bade her,
• 2:48:58
  Speaker 1: in slow and majestic at Pallion, shut the shutters of
• 2:49:01
  Speaker 1: the glass door of the round drawing room, and then
• 2:49:04
  Speaker 1: going with her into the room, which had become darker
• 2:49:06
  Speaker 1: than ever in consequence, but also missus Fisher observed to Francesca,
• 2:49:12
  Speaker 1: who was being voluble, would because of this very darkness,
• 2:49:15
  Speaker 1: remain agreeably cool, And after all, there were the numerous
• 2:49:17
  Speaker 1: slit windows in the walls to let in light, and
• 2:49:20
  Speaker 1: it was nothing to do with her if they did
• 2:49:21
  Speaker 1: not let it in. She directed the placing of a
• 2:49:24
  Speaker 1: cabinet of curios across the door on its inside. This
• 2:49:27
  Speaker 1: would discourage egress. Then she rang for Domenico and caused
• 2:49:32
  Speaker 1: him to move one of the flower filled sarcophagia across
• 2:49:35
  Speaker 1: the door on its outside. This would discourage ingress. No
• 2:49:40
  Speaker 1: one said Domenico, hesitating, will be able to use the door?
• 2:49:45
  Speaker 1: No one said missus Fisher, firmly, will wish to. She
• 2:49:49
  Speaker 1: then retired to her sitting room, and, from a chair
• 2:49:52
  Speaker 1: placed where she could look straight on to them, gazed
• 2:49:54
  Speaker 1: at her battlements secured to her now completely with calm pleasure.
• 2:49:59
  Speaker 1: Being here, she reflected, placidly was much cheaper than being
• 2:50:03
  Speaker 1: in an hotel, and if she could keep off the others,
• 2:50:06
  Speaker 1: immeasurably more agreeable she was paying for her rooms, extremely
• 2:50:11
  Speaker 1: pleasant rooms, now that she was arranged in them pound
• 2:50:14
  Speaker 1: three a week, which came to about eight shillings a day. Battlements,
• 2:50:18
  Speaker 1: watch tower, and all where else abroad. Could she live
• 2:50:22
  Speaker 1: as well for so little and have as many baths
• 2:50:24
  Speaker 1: as she liked for eight shillings a day. Of course,
• 2:50:28
  Speaker 1: she did not yet know what her food would cost,
• 2:50:31
  Speaker 1: but she would insist on carefulness over that, though she
• 2:50:33
  Speaker 1: would also insist on its being carefulness combined with excellence.
• 2:50:38
  Speaker 1: The two were perfectly compatible. If the caterer took pains,
• 2:50:42
  Speaker 1: the servants wages she had ascertained were negligible owing to
• 2:50:46
  Speaker 1: the advantageous exchange, so that there was only the food
• 2:50:49
  Speaker 1: to cause her anxiety. If she saw signs of extravagance,
• 2:50:53
  Speaker 1: she would propose that they each hand over a reasonable
• 2:50:55
  Speaker 1: sum every week to Lady Caroline, which should cover the bills,
• 2:50:59
  Speaker 1: any of it that was not used to be returned,
• 2:51:01
  Speaker 1: and if it were exceeded, the loss to be borne
• 2:51:03
  Speaker 1: by the caterer. Missus Fisher was well off and had
• 2:51:06
  Speaker 1: the desire for comforts proper to her age, but she
• 2:51:09
  Speaker 1: disliked expenses. So well off was she that had she
• 2:51:13
  Speaker 1: so chosen, she could have lived in an opulent part
• 2:51:16
  Speaker 1: of London, and driven from it and to it in
• 2:51:18
  Speaker 1: a rolls Royce. She had no such wish. It needed
• 2:51:23
  Speaker 1: more vitality than went with true comfort to deal with
• 2:51:25
  Speaker 1: a house in an opulent spot and a rolls Royce.
• 2:51:29
  Speaker 1: Worries attended such possessions, worries of every kind, crowned by bills.
• 2:51:34
  Speaker 1: In the sober gloom of Prince of Wales's terrace, she
• 2:51:37
  Speaker 1: could obscurely enjoy inexpensive yet real comfort without being snatched
• 2:51:41
  Speaker 1: it by predatory men, servants or collectors for charities, and
• 2:51:44
  Speaker 1: a taxi stand was at the end of the road.
• 2:51:47
  Speaker 1: Her annual outlay was small. The house was inherited death
• 2:51:53
  Speaker 1: had furnished it for her. She trod in the dining
• 2:51:56
  Speaker 1: room on the turkey carpet of her father's. She regulated
• 2:51:59
  Speaker 1: her day by the excellent black marble clock on the mantelpiece,
• 2:52:02
  Speaker 1: which she remembered from childhood. Her walls were entirely covered
• 2:52:05
  Speaker 1: by the photographs her illustrious deceased friends had given either
• 2:52:08
  Speaker 1: herself or her father, with their own handwriting across the
• 2:52:12
  Speaker 1: lower parts of their bodies, and the windows shrouded by
• 2:52:16
  Speaker 1: the maroon curtains of all her life were decorated besides
• 2:52:19
  Speaker 1: with the self same aquariums to which she owed her
• 2:52:21
  Speaker 1: first lessons in sea lore, and in which still swam
• 2:52:24
  Speaker 1: slowly the goldfishes of her youth. Were they the same goldfish?
• 2:52:29
  Speaker 1: She did not know. Perhaps, like carp they outlived everybody. Perhaps,
• 2:52:36
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, behind the deep sea vegetation provided
• 2:52:39
  Speaker 1: for them at the bottom they had, from time to time,
• 2:52:42
  Speaker 1: as the years went by, withdrawn and replaced themselves. Were
• 2:52:46
  Speaker 1: they or were they not? She sometimes wondered, contemplating them
• 2:52:49
  Speaker 1: between the courses of her solitary meals, the same goldfish
• 2:52:52
  Speaker 1: that had that day been there when Carlyle, how well
• 2:52:55
  Speaker 1: she remembered it, angrily strode up to them in the
• 2:52:57
  Speaker 1: middle of some argument with her father, that had grown heated,
• 2:53:01
  Speaker 1: and striking the glass smartly with his fist, had put
• 2:53:04
  Speaker 1: them to flight, shouting as they fled. Ak, Ye deaf devils,
• 2:53:08
  Speaker 1: och ye lucky deaf devils. Ye can't hear anything of
• 2:53:12
  Speaker 1: the blasted, blathering, doddering glake a fool stuff yomaster talks,
• 2:53:17
  Speaker 1: can ye or words to that effect, Dear great souled Carlyle,
• 2:53:24
  Speaker 1: Such natural gushings forth such true freshness, such real grandeur, rugged,
• 2:53:30
  Speaker 1: if you will, yes, undoubtedly sometimes rugged and startling in
• 2:53:34
  Speaker 1: a drawing room. But magnificent who was there now to
• 2:53:38
  Speaker 1: put beside him? Who was there to mention in the
• 2:53:41
  Speaker 1: same breath her father than whom no one had had
• 2:53:44
  Speaker 1: more flare, said Thomas is immortal. And here was this generation,
• 2:53:50
  Speaker 1: this generation of pooniness, raising its little voice in doubts,
• 2:53:53
  Speaker 1: or still worse, not giving itself the trouble to raise
• 2:53:57
  Speaker 1: it at all. Not it was incredible, but it had
• 2:53:59
  Speaker 1: been thus reported to her. Even reading him, missus Fisher
• 2:54:04
  Speaker 1: did not read him either, But that was different. She
• 2:54:07
  Speaker 1: had read him. She had certainly read him. Of course
• 2:54:11
  Speaker 1: she had read him. There was Tuffulsdroc. She quite well
• 2:54:15
  Speaker 1: remembered a tailor called Tuffulsdroc, so like Carlyle to call
• 2:54:19
  Speaker 1: him that. Yes, she must have read him, though naturally
• 2:54:23
  Speaker 1: details escaped her. The gong sounded lost in reminiscence. Missus
• 2:54:29
  Speaker 1: Fisher had forgotten time and hastened to her bedroom to
• 2:54:32
  Speaker 1: wash her hands and smooth her hair. She did not
• 2:54:35
  Speaker 1: wish to be late and set a bad example, and
• 2:54:37
  Speaker 1: perhaps find her seat at the head of the table.
• 2:54:40
  Speaker 1: Taken one could put no trust in the manners of
• 2:54:43
  Speaker 1: the younger generation, especially not in those of that missus Wilkins.
• 2:54:48
  Speaker 1: She was, however, the first to arrive in the dining room. Francesca,
• 2:54:53
  Speaker 1: in a white apron, stood ready with an enormous dish
• 2:54:55
  Speaker 1: of smoking, hot, glistening macaroni, but nobody was there to
• 2:54:59
  Speaker 1: eat it. Missus Fisher sat down, looking stern. Lax, lax.
• 2:55:06
  Speaker 1: Serve me, she said to Francesca, who showed a disposition
• 2:55:09
  Speaker 1: to wait for the others. Francesca served her. Of the party,
• 2:55:14
  Speaker 1: she liked missus Fisher least in fact, she did not
• 2:55:17
  Speaker 1: like her at all. She was the only one of
• 2:55:20
  Speaker 1: the four ladies who had not yet smiled. True, she
• 2:55:24
  Speaker 1: was old, True, she was unbautiful. True, she therefore had
• 2:55:27
  Speaker 1: no reason to smile. But kind ladies smiled reason or no,
• 2:55:32
  Speaker 1: they smiled not because they were happy, but because they
• 2:55:35
  Speaker 1: wished to make happy. This one of the four ladies
• 2:55:38
  Speaker 1: could not. Then, Francesca decided be kind, so she handed
• 2:55:42
  Speaker 1: her the macaroni, being unable to hide any of her feelings. Morosely.
• 2:55:47
  Speaker 1: It was very well cooked, But missus Fisher had never
• 2:55:50
  Speaker 1: cared for macaroni, especially not this long worm shaped variety.
• 2:55:56
  Speaker 1: She found it difficult to eat, slippery, wriggling off her fork,
• 2:56:00
  Speaker 1: making her look She felt undignified when having got it
• 2:56:03
  Speaker 1: as she supposed into her mouth, ends of it yet
• 2:56:06
  Speaker 1: hung out always too. When she ate it, she was
• 2:56:10
  Speaker 1: reminded of mister Fisher. He had, during their married life
• 2:56:13
  Speaker 1: behaved very much like macaroni. He had slipped, he had wriggled,
• 2:56:18
  Speaker 1: he had made her feel undignified, and when at last
• 2:56:21
  Speaker 1: she had got him safe as she thought, there had
• 2:56:24
  Speaker 1: invariably been little bits of him that still as it
• 2:56:26
  Speaker 1: were hung out. Francesca, from the sideboard, watched missus Fisher's
• 2:56:31
  Speaker 1: way with macaroni gloomily, and her gloom deepened when she
• 2:56:34
  Speaker 1: saw her at last take her knife to it and
• 2:56:36
  Speaker 1: chop it small. Missus Fisher really did not know how
• 2:56:40
  Speaker 1: else to get hold of the stuff. She was aware
• 2:56:43
  Speaker 1: that knives in this connection were improper, but one did
• 2:56:46
  Speaker 1: finally lose patience. Macaroni was never allowed to appear on
• 2:56:50
  Speaker 1: her table in London. Apart from its tiresomeness, she did
• 2:56:54
  Speaker 1: not even like it, and she would tell Lady Caroline
• 2:56:57
  Speaker 1: not to order it again. Years of practice, reflected Missus Fisher,
• 2:57:01
  Speaker 1: chopping it up. Years of actual living in Italy would
• 2:57:05
  Speaker 1: be necessary to learn the exact trick. Browning managed macaroni wonderfully.
• 2:57:11
  Speaker 1: She remembered watching him one day when he came to
• 2:57:13
  Speaker 1: lunch with her father and a dish of it had
• 2:57:15
  Speaker 1: been ordered as a compliment to his connection with Italy.
• 2:57:19
  Speaker 1: Fascinating the way it went in, No chasing round the plate,
• 2:57:23
  Speaker 1: no slidings off the fork, no subsequent protrusions of loose ends.
• 2:57:28
  Speaker 1: Just one dig, one whisk, one thrust, one gulp, and low,
• 2:57:32
  Speaker 1: Yet another poet had been nourished. Shall I go and
• 2:57:36
  Speaker 1: seek the young lady asked Francesca, unable any longer to
• 2:57:39
  Speaker 1: look on a good macaroni being cut with a knife,
• 2:57:43
  Speaker 1: missus Fisher came out of her reminiscent reflections with difficulty.
• 2:57:47
  Speaker 1: She knows lunch is at half past twelve, she said.
• 2:57:51
  Speaker 1: They all know. She may be asleep, said Francesca. The
• 2:57:56
  Speaker 1: other ladies are further away, but this one is not
• 2:57:59
  Speaker 1: far away. Beat the gong again, then, said missus Fisher.
• 2:58:04
  Speaker 1: What manners? She thought, what what manners? It was not
• 2:58:08
  Speaker 1: an hotel and considerations were due. She must say. She
• 2:58:13
  Speaker 1: was surprised at missus Arbuthnet who had not looked like
• 2:58:16
  Speaker 1: somebody unpunctual. Lady Caroline too, she had seemed amiable and courteous,
• 2:58:22
  Speaker 1: whatever else she might be from the other one, of course,
• 2:58:26
  Speaker 1: she expected nothing. Francesca fetched the gong and took it
• 2:58:30
  Speaker 1: out into the garden and advanced, beating it. As she
• 2:58:33
  Speaker 1: advanced close up to Lady Caroline, who still stretched in
• 2:58:37
  Speaker 1: her low chair, waited till she had done, and then
• 2:58:39
  Speaker 1: turned her head, and in the sweetest tones, poured forth
• 2:58:42
  Speaker 1: what appeared to be music, but was really invective. Francesca
• 2:58:46
  Speaker 1: did not recognize the liquid flow as invective. How was
• 2:58:49
  Speaker 1: she to when it came out sounding like that? And
• 2:58:53
  Speaker 1: with her face all smiles, for she could not but
• 2:58:55
  Speaker 1: smile when she looked at this young lady. She told
• 2:58:58
  Speaker 1: her the macaroni was getting caught. When I do not
• 2:59:02
  Speaker 1: come to meals, it is because I do not wish
• 2:59:04
  Speaker 1: to come to meals, said the irritated scrap. And you
• 2:59:06
  Speaker 1: will not in future disturb me, is she ill asked Francesca,
• 2:59:11
  Speaker 1: sympathetic but unable to stop smiling. Never never had she
• 2:59:16
  Speaker 1: seen hair so beautiful, like pure flax, like the hair
• 2:59:20
  Speaker 1: of northern babes on such a little head. Only blessing
• 2:59:24
  Speaker 1: could rest on such a little head the nimbus of
• 2:59:26
  Speaker 1: the holiest saints could fitly be placed. Scrap shut her
• 2:59:30
  Speaker 1: eyes and refused to answer. In this she was injudicious,
• 2:59:34
  Speaker 1: for its effect was to convince Francesca, who hurried away
• 2:59:38
  Speaker 1: full of concern, to tell Missus Fisher that she was indisposed,
• 2:59:42
  Speaker 1: and Missus Fisher being prevented, she explained from going out
• 2:59:46
  Speaker 1: to Lady Caroline herself because of her stick, sent the
• 2:59:49
  Speaker 1: two others instead, who had come in at that moment,
• 2:59:52
  Speaker 1: heated and breathless and full of excuses, while she herself
• 2:59:55
  Speaker 1: proceeded to the next course, which was a very well
• 2:59:58
  Speaker 1: made omelet, bursting most agreeably at both its ends with
• 3:00:02
  Speaker 1: young green peas. Serve me, she directed Francesca, who again
• 3:00:07
  Speaker 1: showed a disposition to wait for the others. Oh why
• 3:00:11
  Speaker 1: won't they leave me alone? Oh? Why won't they leave
• 3:00:13
  Speaker 1: me alone? Scrap asked herself, when she heard more scrunchings
• 3:00:18
  Speaker 1: on the little pebbles, which took the place of grass,
• 3:00:20
  Speaker 1: and therefore knew some one else was approaching. She kept
• 3:00:24
  Speaker 1: her eyes tight shut this time. Why should she go
• 3:00:27
  Speaker 1: into lunch if she didn't want to This wasn't a
• 3:00:30
  Speaker 1: private house. She was in no way tangled up in
• 3:00:33
  Speaker 1: duties towards a tiresome hostess. For all practical purposes, San
• 3:00:38
  Speaker 1: Salvatore was an hotel, and she ought to be let
• 3:00:40
  Speaker 1: alone to eat or not to eat, exactly as if
• 3:00:42
  Speaker 1: she really had been in an hotel. But the unfortunate
• 3:00:46
  Speaker 1: Scrap could not just sit still and close her eyes
• 3:00:48
  Speaker 1: without rousing the desire to stroke and pet in her beholders,
• 3:00:52
  Speaker 1: with which she was only too familiar. Even the cook
• 3:00:55
  Speaker 1: had patted her, and now a gentle hand how well
• 3:00:59
  Speaker 1: she knew and how much she dreaded gentle hands, was
• 3:01:02
  Speaker 1: placed on her forehead. I'm afraid you're not well, said
• 3:01:05
  Speaker 1: a voice that was not Missus Fisher's, and therefore must
• 3:01:08
  Speaker 1: belong to one of the originals. I have a headache,
• 3:01:12
  Speaker 1: murmured Scrap. Perhaps it was best to say that, perhaps
• 3:01:16
  Speaker 1: it was the shortest cut to peace. I'm so sorry,
• 3:01:20
  Speaker 1: said Missus Arbuthnet softly, for it was her hand being gentle,
• 3:01:24
  Speaker 1: And I said Scrap to herself, who thought if I
• 3:01:27
  Speaker 1: came here I would escape? Mothers? Don't you think some
• 3:01:30
  Speaker 1: tea would do you good? Asked Missus Arbuthnet tenderly tea.
• 3:01:35
  Speaker 1: The idea was abhorrent to Scrap in this heat to
• 3:01:39
  Speaker 1: be drinking tea in the middle of the day. No,
• 3:01:42
  Speaker 1: she murmured, I expect what would really be best for her,
• 3:01:46
  Speaker 1: said another voice, is to be left quiet, How sensible,
• 3:01:51
  Speaker 1: thought Scrap, and raised the eyelashes of one I just
• 3:01:54
  Speaker 1: enough to peep through and see who was speaking. It
• 3:01:57
  Speaker 1: was the freckled original. That dark one, then was the
• 3:02:01
  Speaker 1: one with the hand. The freckled one rose in her esteem.
• 3:02:06
  Speaker 1: But I can't bear to think of you with a
• 3:02:08
  Speaker 1: headache and nothing being done for it, said missus Arbuthnet.
• 3:02:12
  Speaker 1: What a cup of strong black coffee. Scrap said no more.
• 3:02:17
  Speaker 1: She waited, motionless and dumb till missus Arbuthnet should remove
• 3:02:21
  Speaker 1: her hand. After all, she couldn't stand there all day,
• 3:02:25
  Speaker 1: and when she went away she would have to take
• 3:02:27
  Speaker 1: her hand with her. I do think, said the freckled one,
• 3:02:31
  Speaker 1: that she wants nothing except quiet, And perhaps the freckled
• 3:02:35
  Speaker 1: one pulled the one with the hand by the sleeve
• 3:02:38
  Speaker 1: for the hold on Scrap's forehead relaxed, and after a
• 3:02:40
  Speaker 1: minute's silence, during which no doubt she was being contemplated,
• 3:02:44
  Speaker 1: she was always being contemplated. The footsteps began to scrunch
• 3:02:48
  Speaker 1: the pebbles again, and grew fainter, and were gone. Lady
• 3:02:52
  Speaker 1: Caroline has a headache, said Missus Arbuthnet, re entering the
• 3:02:56
  Speaker 1: dining room and sitting down in her place next to
• 3:02:58
  Speaker 1: missus Fisher. I can't persuade her to have even a
• 3:03:01
  Speaker 1: little tea or some black coffee. Do you know what
• 3:03:05
  Speaker 1: aspirin is in Italian? The proper remedy for headaches, said
• 3:03:09
  Speaker 1: missus Fisher, firmly is cast or oil. But she hasn't
• 3:03:13
  Speaker 1: got a headache, said Missus Wilkins Carlyle. Said Missus Fisher,
• 3:03:18
  Speaker 1: who had finished her omelet and had leisure while she
• 3:03:21
  Speaker 1: waited for the next course to talk, suffered at one
• 3:03:24
  Speaker 1: period terribly from headaches, and he constantly took cast or
• 3:03:27
  Speaker 1: oil as a remedy. He took it, I should say,
• 3:03:31
  Speaker 1: almost to excess, and called it, I remember, in his
• 3:03:35
  Speaker 1: interesting way, the oil of sorrow. My father said it
• 3:03:38
  Speaker 1: colored for a time his whole attitude to life, his
• 3:03:41
  Speaker 1: whole philosophy. But that was because he took too much.
• 3:03:45
  Speaker 1: What lady Caroline wants is one dose and one only.
• 3:03:50
  Speaker 1: It is a mistake to keep on taking castor oil?
• 3:03:53
  Speaker 1: Do you know the Italian for it, asked Missus Arbuthnet.
• 3:03:57
  Speaker 1: Ah that I'm afraid I don't. However, she would know.
• 3:04:02
  Speaker 1: You can ask her. But she hasn't got a headache,
• 3:04:06
  Speaker 1: repeated Missus Wilkins, who was struggling with the macaroni. She
• 3:04:10
  Speaker 1: only wants to be let alone. They both looked at her.
• 3:04:15
  Speaker 1: The word shovel crossed Missus Fisher's mind in connection with
• 3:04:18
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins's actions at that moment. Then why should she
• 3:04:22
  Speaker 1: say she has, asked Missus Arbuthnet, because she is still
• 3:04:26
  Speaker 1: trying to be polite. Soon she won't try. When the
• 3:04:30
  Speaker 1: place has got more into her, she'll really be it
• 3:04:33
  Speaker 1: without trying, naturally, Lotti you see, explained Missus Arbuthnet, smiling
• 3:04:40
  Speaker 1: to Missus Fisher, who sat waiting with a stony patience
• 3:04:43
  Speaker 1: for her next course, delayed because Missus Wilkins would go
• 3:04:47
  Speaker 1: on trying to eat the macaroni, which must be less
• 3:04:49
  Speaker 1: worth eating than ever, now that it was cold. Lottie,
• 3:04:52
  Speaker 1: you see, has a theory about this place, But Missus
• 3:04:56
  Speaker 1: Fisher had no wish to hear any theory of Missus Wilkins's.
• 3:05:00
  Speaker 1: I am sure, I don't know, she interrupted, looking severely
• 3:05:03
  Speaker 1: at Missus Wilkins. Why you should assume lady Caroline is
• 3:05:07
  Speaker 1: not telling the truth. I don't assume I know, said
• 3:05:11
  Speaker 1: missus Wilkins. And pray, how do you know, asked missus
• 3:05:15
  Speaker 1: Fisher icily. For Missus Wilkins was actually helping herself to
• 3:05:19
  Speaker 1: more macaroni, offered her officiously and unnecessarily a second time
• 3:05:23
  Speaker 1: by Francesca. When I was out there just now I
• 3:05:26
  Speaker 1: saw inside her well, Missus Fisher wasn't going to say
• 3:05:30
  Speaker 1: anything to that. She wasn't going to trouble to reply
• 3:05:33
  Speaker 1: to downright idiocy. Instead, she sharply wrapped the little table
• 3:05:38
  Speaker 1: gong by her side, though there was Francesca standing at
• 3:05:41
  Speaker 1: the sideboard, and said for she would wait no longer
• 3:05:44
  Speaker 1: for her next course. Serve me and Francesca, it must
• 3:05:48
  Speaker 1: have been wilful, offered her the macaroni again. Chapter ten.
• 3:05:52
  Speaker 1: There was no way of getting into or out of
• 3:05:54
  Speaker 1: the top garden at San Salvator except through the two
• 3:05:57
  Speaker 1: glass doors. Unfortunately, side by of the dining room and
• 3:06:01
  Speaker 1: the hall. A person in the garden who wished to
• 3:06:04
  Speaker 1: escape unseen could not. For the person to be escaped
• 3:06:07
  Speaker 1: from would be met on the way. It was a
• 3:06:10
  Speaker 1: small oblong garden, and concealment was impossible. What trees there were,
• 3:06:15
  Speaker 1: the Judas tree, the tamarisk, the umbrella pine grew close
• 3:06:19
  Speaker 1: to the low parapets, rose bushes gave no real cover
• 3:06:24
  Speaker 1: one step to right or left of them, and the
• 3:06:26
  Speaker 1: person wishing to be private was discovered only. The northwest
• 3:06:30
  Speaker 1: corner was a little place jutting out from the great wall,
• 3:06:33
  Speaker 1: a kind of excrescence or loop, no doubt used in
• 3:06:35
  Speaker 1: the old distrustful days for observation, where it was possible
• 3:06:39
  Speaker 1: to sit really unseen, because between it and the house
• 3:06:42
  Speaker 1: was a thick clump of daphne scrap. After glancing round
• 3:06:46
  Speaker 1: to see that no one was looking, got up and
• 3:06:48
  Speaker 1: carried her chair into this place, stealing away as carefully
• 3:06:52
  Speaker 1: on tiptoe as those steel whose purpose is sin. There
• 3:06:56
  Speaker 1: was another excrescence on the walls, just like it at
• 3:06:58
  Speaker 1: the northeast corner, but this though the view from it
• 3:07:01
  Speaker 1: was almost more beautiful, for from it you could see
• 3:07:03
  Speaker 1: the bay and the lovely mountains behind. Misago was exposed.
• 3:07:08
  Speaker 1: No bushes grew near it, nor had it any shade.
• 3:07:11
  Speaker 1: The northwest loop then was where she would sit, and
• 3:07:14
  Speaker 1: she settled into it, and nestling her head in her cushion,
• 3:07:17
  Speaker 1: and putting her feet comfortably on the parapet. From whence
• 3:07:20
  Speaker 1: they appeared to the villagers on the piazza below as
• 3:07:22
  Speaker 1: two white doves. Thought that now indeed she would be safe.
• 3:07:26
  Speaker 1: Missus Fisher found her there, guided by the smell of
• 3:07:29
  Speaker 1: her cigarette. The incautious scrap had not thought of that.
• 3:07:34
  Speaker 1: Missus Fisher did not smoke herself, and all the more
• 3:07:37
  Speaker 1: distinctly could she smell the smoke of others. The virile
• 3:07:41
  Speaker 1: smell met her directly. She went out into the garden
• 3:07:43
  Speaker 1: from the dining room after lunch, in order to have
• 3:07:45
  Speaker 1: her coffee she had bidden. Francesca set the coffee in
• 3:07:49
  Speaker 1: the shade of the house, just outside the glass door,
• 3:07:52
  Speaker 1: and when Missus Wilkins, seeing a table being carried there,
• 3:07:55
  Speaker 1: reminded her very officiously and tactlessly, missus Fisher considered that
• 3:07:59
  Speaker 1: Lady Caroline wanted to be alone, She retorted, and with
• 3:08:03
  Speaker 1: what propriety, that the garden was for everybody into it.
• 3:08:07
  Speaker 1: Accordingly she went, and was immediately aware that Lady Caroline
• 3:08:11
  Speaker 1: was smoking. She said to herself, these modern young women
• 3:08:15
  Speaker 1: and proceeded to find her her stick. Now that lunch
• 3:08:18
  Speaker 1: was over, being no longer the hindrance to action that
• 3:08:21
  Speaker 1: it was before, her meal had been securely as Browning
• 3:08:23
  Speaker 1: once said, surely it was Browning. Yes, she remembered how
• 3:08:28
  Speaker 1: much diverted she had been roped in. Nobody diverted her now,
• 3:08:33
  Speaker 1: reflected Missus Fisher, making straight for the clump of daphne.
• 3:08:36
  Speaker 1: The world had grown very dull and had entirely lost
• 3:08:39
  Speaker 1: its sense of humor. Probably they still had their jokes,
• 3:08:43
  Speaker 1: these people, in fact, she knew they did, for punch
• 3:08:47
  Speaker 1: still went on, but how differently it went on? And
• 3:08:50
  Speaker 1: what jokes Thackeray, in his inimitable way, would have made
• 3:08:54
  Speaker 1: mincemeat of this generation? Of how much it needed the
• 3:08:57
  Speaker 1: tonic properties of that astringent Penn were, of course unaware
• 3:09:02
  Speaker 1: it no longer even held him, at least so she
• 3:09:04
  Speaker 1: had been informed in any particular esteem. Well, she could
• 3:09:09
  Speaker 1: not give it eyes to see and ears to hear,
• 3:09:11
  Speaker 1: in a heart to understand, but she could and would
• 3:09:14
  Speaker 1: give it, represented and united in the form of Lady Caroline,
• 3:09:17
  Speaker 1: a good dose of honest medicine. I hear you are
• 3:09:20
  Speaker 1: not well, she said, standing in a narrow entrance of
• 3:09:24
  Speaker 1: the loop, and looking down with the inflexible face of
• 3:09:26
  Speaker 1: one who is determined to do good at the motionless
• 3:09:28
  Speaker 1: and apparently sleeping scrap. Missus Fisher had a deep voice,
• 3:09:33
  Speaker 1: very like a man's, for she had been overtaken by
• 3:09:36
  Speaker 1: that strange masculinity that sometimes pursues a woman during the
• 3:09:39
  Speaker 1: last lapse of her life. Scrap tried to pretend that
• 3:09:42
  Speaker 1: she was asleep, but if she had been, her cigarette
• 3:09:45
  Speaker 1: would not have been held in her fingers, but would
• 3:09:47
  Speaker 1: have been lying on the ground. She forgot this, Missus
• 3:09:51
  Speaker 1: Fisher did not, and coming inside the loop, sat down
• 3:09:55
  Speaker 1: on a narrow stone seat built out of the wall
• 3:09:58
  Speaker 1: for a little. She could sit on it for a
• 3:10:00
  Speaker 1: little till the chill began to penetrate. She contemplated the
• 3:10:04
  Speaker 1: figure before her, undoubtedly a pretty creature, and one that
• 3:10:08
  Speaker 1: would have had a success at faring for it. Strange
• 3:10:12
  Speaker 1: how easily even the greatest men were moved by exteriors
• 3:10:16
  Speaker 1: she had seen with her own eyes tennys and turn
• 3:10:18
  Speaker 1: away from everybody, turn positively his back on a crowd
• 3:10:22
  Speaker 1: of eminent people assembled to do him honor, and withdraw
• 3:10:25
  Speaker 1: to the window with a young person nobody had ever
• 3:10:27
  Speaker 1: heard of who had been brought there by accident, and
• 3:10:30
  Speaker 1: whose one and only merit, if it be a merit,
• 3:10:33
  Speaker 1: that which is conferred by chance, was beauty. Beauty all
• 3:10:38
  Speaker 1: over before you can turn round an affair, one might
• 3:10:42
  Speaker 1: almost say of minutes. Well, while it lasted, it did
• 3:10:46
  Speaker 1: seem able to do what it liked with men. Even
• 3:10:49
  Speaker 1: husbands were not immune. There had been passages in the
• 3:10:53
  Speaker 1: life of mister Fisher. I expect the journey has upset you,
• 3:10:57
  Speaker 1: she said in her deep voice. What you want is
• 3:11:00
  Speaker 1: a good dose of some simple medicine. I shall ask
• 3:11:04
  Speaker 1: Domenico if there is such a thing in the village
• 3:11:06
  Speaker 1: as castor oil. Scrap opened her eyes and looked straight
• 3:11:10
  Speaker 1: at Missus Fisher. Ah said, Missus Fisher, I knew you
• 3:11:14
  Speaker 1: were not asleep. If you had been, you would have
• 3:11:17
  Speaker 1: let your cigarette fall to the ground. Scrap through the
• 3:11:20
  Speaker 1: cigarette over the parapet. Waiste said Missus Fisher. I don't
• 3:11:26
  Speaker 1: like smoking for women, but I still less like Waiste,
• 3:11:30
  Speaker 1: What does one do with people like this? Scrap asked herself.
• 3:11:34
  Speaker 1: Her eyes fixed on Missus Fisher, and what fell to
• 3:11:36
  Speaker 1: her an indignant stare, but appeared to missus Fisher as
• 3:11:39
  Speaker 1: really charming docility. Now you'll take my advice, said Missus Fisher, touched,
• 3:11:45
  Speaker 1: and not neglect what may very well turn into an illness.
• 3:11:49
  Speaker 1: We are in Italy, you know, and one has to
• 3:11:51
  Speaker 1: be careful. You ought to begin with to go to bed.
• 3:11:56
  Speaker 1: I never go to bed, snapped Scrap. And it sounded
• 3:11:59
  Speaker 1: as moving as forlorn as that line spoken years and
• 3:12:03
  Speaker 1: years ago by an actress playing the part of Poor
• 3:12:05
  Speaker 1: Joe and dramatized version of Bleak House. I'm always moving on,
• 3:12:09
  Speaker 1: said poor Joe in this play, burged to do so
• 3:12:11
  Speaker 1: by a policeman and Missus Fisher. Then a girl had
• 3:12:16
  Speaker 1: laid her head on the red velvet parapet of the
• 3:12:18
  Speaker 1: front row of the dress circle and wept aloud. It
• 3:12:21
  Speaker 1: was wonderful Scrap's voice. It had given her, in the
• 3:12:25
  Speaker 1: ten years since she came out, all the triumphs that
• 3:12:28
  Speaker 1: intelligence and wit can have, because it made whatever she
• 3:12:31
  Speaker 1: said seem memorable. She ought, with a throat formation like that,
• 3:12:36
  Speaker 1: to have been a singer. But in every kind of music,
• 3:12:38
  Speaker 1: Scrap was dumb, except this one, music of the speaking voice.
• 3:12:41
  Speaker 1: And what a fascination, what a spell lay in that
• 3:12:45
  Speaker 1: Such was the loveliness of her face and the beauty
• 3:12:48
  Speaker 1: of her coloring, that there was not a man into
• 3:12:49
  Speaker 1: whose eyes at the sight of her there did not
• 3:12:51
  Speaker 1: leap a flame of intensest interest. But when he heard
• 3:12:54
  Speaker 1: her voice, the flame in that man's eyes was caught
• 3:12:57
  Speaker 1: and fixed. It was the same with theirs, every man,
• 3:13:00
  Speaker 1: educated and uneducated, old, young, desirable themselves or undesirable, men
• 3:13:06
  Speaker 1: of her own world, and bust conductors, generals and Tommies.
• 3:13:09
  Speaker 1: During the war, she had had a perplexing time bishops
• 3:13:12
  Speaker 1: equally with vergures round about her confirmation startling occurrences had
• 3:13:16
  Speaker 1: taken place, wholesome and unwholesome, rich and penniless, brilliant or idiotic,
• 3:13:23
  Speaker 1: and it made no difference at all what they were,
• 3:13:25
  Speaker 1: or how long and securely married. Into the eyes of
• 3:13:28
  Speaker 1: every one of them, when they saw her leapt this flame,
• 3:13:31
  Speaker 1: and when they heard her it stayed there. Scrap had
• 3:13:34
  Speaker 1: had enough of this look. It only led to difficulties.
• 3:13:39
  Speaker 1: At first, it had delighted her. She had been excited, triumphant,
• 3:13:44
  Speaker 1: to be apparently incapable of doing or saying the wrong thing,
• 3:13:47
  Speaker 1: to be applauded, listened to, petted, adored wherever she went,
• 3:13:51
  Speaker 1: and when she came home to find nothing there either
• 3:13:54
  Speaker 1: but the most indulgent, proud fondness. Why how extremely pleasant
• 3:13:59
  Speaker 1: and so easy too. No preparation necessary for this achievement,
• 3:14:04
  Speaker 1: no hard work, nothing to learn. She need take no trouble.
• 3:14:09
  Speaker 1: She had only to appear and presently say something. But
• 3:14:13
  Speaker 1: gradually experiences gathered round her. After all, she had to
• 3:14:18
  Speaker 1: take trouble, She had to make efforts, because she discovered,
• 3:14:22
  Speaker 1: with astonishment and rage, she had to defend herself that look,
• 3:14:27
  Speaker 1: that leaping look, meant that she was going to be
• 3:14:29
  Speaker 1: grabbed at. Some of those who had it were more
• 3:14:32
  Speaker 1: humble than others, especially if they were young, But they all,
• 3:14:36
  Speaker 1: according to their several ability, grabbed. And she, who had
• 3:14:39
  Speaker 1: entered the world so jauntily with her head in the
• 3:14:42
  Speaker 1: air and the completest confidence in anybody whose hair was gray,
• 3:14:46
  Speaker 1: began to distrust, and then to dislike, and soon to
• 3:14:49
  Speaker 1: shrink away from, and presently to be indignant. Sometimes it
• 3:14:53
  Speaker 1: was just as if she didn't belong to herself, wasn't
• 3:14:56
  Speaker 1: her own at all, but was regarded as a universal thing,
• 3:14:59
  Speaker 1: a sort of beauty of all work really men, And
• 3:15:03
  Speaker 1: she found herself involved in vague quarrels, being curiously hated
• 3:15:09
  Speaker 1: really women. And when the war came and she flung
• 3:15:12
  Speaker 1: herself into it along with everybody else, it finished her
• 3:15:16
  Speaker 1: really generals. The war finished scrap. It killed the one
• 3:15:22
  Speaker 1: man she felt safe with whom she would have married,
• 3:15:25
  Speaker 1: and it finally disgusted her with love. Since then she
• 3:15:28
  Speaker 1: had been embittered. She was struggling as angrily in the
• 3:15:32
  Speaker 1: sweet stuff of life as a wasp got caught in honey,
• 3:15:36
  Speaker 1: just as desperately did she try to unstick her wings.
• 3:15:39
  Speaker 1: It gave her no pleasure to outdo other women. She
• 3:15:42
  Speaker 1: didn't want their tiresome men. What could one do with
• 3:15:45
  Speaker 1: men when one had got them? None of them would
• 3:15:48
  Speaker 1: talk to her of anything but the things of love,
• 3:15:51
  Speaker 1: And how foolish and fatiguing that became. After a bit.
• 3:15:55
  Speaker 1: It was as though a healthy person with a normal
• 3:15:57
  Speaker 1: hunger was given nothing whatever to eat but sugar. Love. Love.
• 3:16:02
  Speaker 1: The very word made her want to slap somebody. Why
• 3:16:05
  Speaker 1: should I love you? Why should I? She would ask, amazed,
• 3:16:09
  Speaker 1: sometimes when somebody was trying. Somebody was always trying to
• 3:16:12
  Speaker 1: propose to her, but she never got a real answer,
• 3:16:16
  Speaker 1: only further incoherence, A deep cynicism took hold of the
• 3:16:20
  Speaker 1: unhappy scrap. Her inside grew hoary with disillusionment, while her
• 3:16:25
  Speaker 1: gracious and charming outside continued to make the world more beautiful.
• 3:16:30
  Speaker 1: What had the future in it for her? She would
• 3:16:33
  Speaker 1: not be able, after such a preparation, to take hold
• 3:16:36
  Speaker 1: of it. She was fit for nothing. She had wasted
• 3:16:39
  Speaker 1: all this time being beautiful. Presently she wouldn't be beautiful.
• 3:16:44
  Speaker 1: And what then, Scrap didn't know, what then? It appalled
• 3:16:47
  Speaker 1: her to wonder. Even tired as she was of being conspicuous,
• 3:16:51
  Speaker 1: she was at least used to that. She had never
• 3:16:54
  Speaker 1: known anything else, and to become inconspicuous, to fade, to
• 3:16:58
  Speaker 1: grow shabby and dim, would probably be most painful. And
• 3:17:02
  Speaker 1: once she began, what years and years of it there
• 3:17:04
  Speaker 1: would be? Imagine thought, scrap having most of one's life
• 3:17:09
  Speaker 1: at the wrong end. Imagine being old for two or
• 3:17:13
  Speaker 1: three times as long as being young, stupid, stupid, Everything
• 3:17:18
  Speaker 1: was stupid. There wasn't a thing she wanted to do.
• 3:17:22
  Speaker 1: There were thousands of things she didn't want to do. Avoidance, silence, invisibility,
• 3:17:28
  Speaker 1: if possible, unconsciousness. These negations were all she asked for
• 3:17:32
  Speaker 1: at the moment, and here even here she was not
• 3:17:35
  Speaker 1: allowed a minute's peace. And this absurd woman must come
• 3:17:38
  Speaker 1: pretending merely because she wanted to exercise power and make
• 3:17:41
  Speaker 1: her go to bed and make her hideous drink castor oil.
• 3:17:46
  Speaker 1: That she thought she was ill, I'm sure, said missus Fisher,
• 3:17:50
  Speaker 1: who felt the cold of the stone beginning to come through,
• 3:17:53
  Speaker 1: and knew she could not sit much longer. You'll do
• 3:17:55
  Speaker 1: what is reasonable. Your mother would wish. Have you a mother?
• 3:18:00
  Speaker 1: A faint wonder came into Scrap's eyes, Have you a mother?
• 3:18:05
  Speaker 1: If ever anybody had a mother, it was Scrap. It
• 3:18:08
  Speaker 1: had not occurred to her that there could be people
• 3:18:10
  Speaker 1: who had never heard of her mother. She was one
• 3:18:13
  Speaker 1: of the major marchionesses there being as no one knew
• 3:18:16
  Speaker 1: better than Scrap marchionesses and marchionesses, and had held high
• 3:18:20
  Speaker 1: positions at court. Her father, too, in his day, had
• 3:18:24
  Speaker 1: been most prominent. His day was a little over, poor dear,
• 3:18:29
  Speaker 1: because in the war he had made some important mistakes,
• 3:18:32
  Speaker 1: and besides he was now grown old. Still there he
• 3:18:35
  Speaker 1: was an excessively well known person. How RESTful, how extraordinarily RESTful,
• 3:18:41
  Speaker 1: to have found some one who had never heard of
• 3:18:43
  Speaker 1: any of her lot or at least had not yet
• 3:18:45
  Speaker 1: connected her with them. She began to like Missus Fisher.
• 3:18:49
  Speaker 1: Perhaps the Originals didn't know anything about her either. When
• 3:18:53
  Speaker 1: she first wrote to them and signed her name, that
• 3:18:56
  Speaker 1: great name of Dester, which twisted in and out of
• 3:18:58
  Speaker 1: English history like a blood thread, for its bearers constantly killed,
• 3:19:02
  Speaker 1: she had taken it for granted that they would know
• 3:19:04
  Speaker 1: who she was, And at the interview in Shaftesbury Avenue,
• 3:19:08
  Speaker 1: she was sure they did know, because they hadn't asked,
• 3:19:11
  Speaker 1: as they otherwise would have for references. Scrap began to
• 3:19:16
  Speaker 1: cheer up. If nobody at San Salvator had ever heard
• 3:19:20
  Speaker 1: of her, If for a whole month she could shed herself,
• 3:19:22
  Speaker 1: get right away from everything connected with herself, be allowed
• 3:19:25
  Speaker 1: really to forget the clinging and the clogging and all
• 3:19:28
  Speaker 1: the noise, why perhaps she might make something of herself
• 3:19:31
  Speaker 1: after all, She might really think, really clear up her mind,
• 3:19:36
  Speaker 1: really come to some conclusion. What I want to do here,
• 3:19:40
  Speaker 1: she said, leaning forward in her chair and clasping her
• 3:19:42
  Speaker 1: hands round her knees, and looking up at Missus Fisher,
• 3:19:45
  Speaker 1: whose seat was higher than hers, almost with animation. So
• 3:19:49
  Speaker 1: much pleased was she that Missus Fisher knew nothing about her.
• 3:19:53
  Speaker 1: Is to come to a conclusion, that's all. It isn't
• 3:19:57
  Speaker 1: much to want, Is it just that she gazed at
• 3:20:01
  Speaker 1: missus Fisher and thought that almost any conclusion would do.
• 3:20:05
  Speaker 1: The great thing was to get hold of something, catch
• 3:20:07
  Speaker 1: something tight. Ceased to drift. Missus Fisher's little eyes surveyed her.
• 3:20:13
  Speaker 1: I should say, she said that what a young woman
• 3:20:16
  Speaker 1: like you wants is a husband and children. Well, that's
• 3:20:20
  Speaker 1: one of the things I'm going to consider, said Scrap amiably,
• 3:20:24
  Speaker 1: But I don't think it would be a conclusion. And meanwhile,
• 3:20:27
  Speaker 1: said missus Fisher, getting up for the cold of the
• 3:20:30
  Speaker 1: stone was now through. I shouldn't trouble my head if
• 3:20:33
  Speaker 1: I were you with considerings and conclusions. Women's heads weren't
• 3:20:37
  Speaker 1: made for thinking. I assure you, I should go to
• 3:20:40
  Speaker 1: bed and get well. I am well, said Scrap. Then
• 3:20:45
  Speaker 1: why did you send a message that you were ill?
• 3:20:48
  Speaker 1: I didn't. Then I've had all the trouble of coming
• 3:20:51
  Speaker 1: out here for nothing. But wouldn't you prefer coming out
• 3:20:55
  Speaker 1: and finding me well? Then coming out and finding me,
• 3:20:57
  Speaker 1: ill asked Scrap, smiling. Even missus Fisher was caught by
• 3:21:02
  Speaker 1: the smile. Well, you're a pretty creature, she said forgivingly.
• 3:21:07
  Speaker 1: It's a pity you weren't born fifty years ago. My
• 3:21:11
  Speaker 1: friends would have liked looking at you. I'm very glad
• 3:21:14
  Speaker 1: I wasn't, said Scrap. I dislike being looked at absurd,
• 3:21:20
  Speaker 1: said missus Fisher, growing stern again, that's what you are
• 3:21:24
  Speaker 1: made for, young women like you. For what else? Pray?
• 3:21:29
  Speaker 1: And I assure you that if my friends had looked
• 3:21:31
  Speaker 1: at you, you would have been looked at by some
• 3:21:33
  Speaker 1: very great people. I dislike very great people, said Scrap, frowning.
• 3:21:39
  Speaker 1: There had been an incident quite recently really potentates what
• 3:21:43
  Speaker 1: I dislike, said missus Fisher. Now, as cold as the
• 3:21:47
  Speaker 1: stone she had got up from. Is the pose of
• 3:21:49
  Speaker 1: the modern young woman. It seems to me pitiful, positively
• 3:21:53
  Speaker 1: pitiful in its silliness, and her stick crunching the pebbles,
• 3:21:58
  Speaker 1: she walked away. That's all right, Scrap said to herself,
• 3:22:02
  Speaker 1: dropping back into her comfortable position with her head and
• 3:22:05
  Speaker 1: the cushion and her feet on the parapet. If only
• 3:22:07
  Speaker 1: people would go away, she didn't in the least mind
• 3:22:10
  Speaker 1: why they went. Don't you think, darling, Scrap is growing
• 3:22:13
  Speaker 1: a little, just a little peculiar her mother had asked
• 3:22:16
  Speaker 1: her father a short time before that latest peculiarity of
• 3:22:19
  Speaker 1: the flight to San Salvator, uncomfortably struck by the very
• 3:22:23
  Speaker 1: odd thing, Scrap said, and the way she had taken
• 3:22:26
  Speaker 1: to slinking out of reach whenever she could, and avoiding
• 3:22:28
  Speaker 1: everybody except such a sign of age, quite young men,
• 3:22:32
  Speaker 1: almost boys. Eh, what peculiar? Well, let her be peculiar.
• 3:22:39
  Speaker 1: If she likes a woman with her looks, can be
• 3:22:43
  Speaker 1: any damned thing she pleases, was the infatuated answer. I
• 3:22:47
  Speaker 1: do let her, said her mother meekly. And indeed if
• 3:22:50
  Speaker 1: she did not, what difference would it make? Missus Fisher
• 3:22:54
  Speaker 1: was sorry she had bothered about Lady Caroline. She went
• 3:22:58
  Speaker 1: along the hall towards her private sitting room, and her stick,
• 3:23:01
  Speaker 1: as she went, struck the stone floor with a vigor.
• 3:23:03
  Speaker 1: In harmony with her feelings, sheer silliness these poses. She
• 3:23:09
  Speaker 1: had no patience with them. Unable to be or do
• 3:23:12
  Speaker 1: anything of themselves, the young of the present generation tried
• 3:23:15
  Speaker 1: to achieve a reputation for cleverness by decrying all that
• 3:23:18
  Speaker 1: was obviously great and obviously good, and by praising everything
• 3:23:22
  Speaker 1: however obviously bad, that was different, apes thought missus Fisher
• 3:23:27
  Speaker 1: roused apes, apes, and in her sitting room she found
• 3:23:33
  Speaker 1: more apes, or what seemed to her in her present
• 3:23:35
  Speaker 1: mood more, For there was Missus Arbuthnet placidly drinking coffee
• 3:23:39
  Speaker 1: while at the writing table, the writing table she already
• 3:23:42
  Speaker 1: looked upon as sacred. Using her pen, her own pen
• 3:23:45
  Speaker 1: brought for her hand alone from Prince of Wales's terrace,
• 3:23:48
  Speaker 1: sat Missus Wilkins writing at the table in her room
• 3:23:52
  Speaker 1: with her pen. Isn't this a delightful place? Said Missus Arbuthnet, cordially,
• 3:23:59
  Speaker 1: We have just discovered it. I'm writing to Mellersh, said
• 3:24:02
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins, turning her head, and also cordially, as though
• 3:24:06
  Speaker 1: Missus Fisher thought she cared a straw who she was
• 3:24:09
  Speaker 1: writing to, and anyhow knew who the person she called
• 3:24:11
  Speaker 1: Mellersh was. Hill want to know, said Missus Wilkins, optimism
• 3:24:16
  Speaker 1: induced by her surroundings, that I've got here safely. Chapter eleven.
• 3:24:21
  Speaker 1: The sweet smells that were everywhere in San Salvatore were
• 3:24:24
  Speaker 1: alone enough to produce concord. They came into the sitting
• 3:24:28
  Speaker 1: room from the flowers on the battlements and met the
• 3:24:30
  Speaker 1: ones from the flowers inside the room, and almost thought
• 3:24:34
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins could be seen greeting each other with a
• 3:24:36
  Speaker 1: holy kiss. Who could be angry in the middle of
• 3:24:39
  Speaker 1: such gentlenesses? Who could be acquisitive selfish in the old
• 3:24:44
  Speaker 1: rasped London way in the presence of this bounteous beauty?
• 3:24:48
  Speaker 1: Yet Missus Fisher seemed to be all three of these things.
• 3:24:52
  Speaker 1: There was so much beauty, so much more than enough
• 3:24:55
  Speaker 1: for every one, that it did appear to be a
• 3:24:57
  Speaker 1: vain activity to try and make a corner in it.
• 3:25:01
  Speaker 1: Yet Missus Fisher was trying to make a corner in it,
• 3:25:03
  Speaker 1: and had railed off a portion for her exclusive use. Well,
• 3:25:07
  Speaker 1: she would get over that. Presently, she would get over
• 3:25:10
  Speaker 1: it inevitably, Missus Wilkins was sure, after a day or
• 3:25:13
  Speaker 1: two in the extraordinary atmosphere of peace in that place. Meanwhile,
• 3:25:18
  Speaker 1: she obviously hadn't even begun to get over it. She
• 3:25:21
  Speaker 1: stood looking at her and rose with an expression that
• 3:25:24
  Speaker 1: appeared to be one of anger, anger, fancy, silly, old
• 3:25:30
  Speaker 1: nerve racked London feelings, thought Missus Wilkins, whose eyes saw
• 3:25:33
  Speaker 1: the room full of kisses and everybody in it being
• 3:25:36
  Speaker 1: kissed Missus Fisher as copiously as she herself and rose.
• 3:25:41
  Speaker 1: You don't like us being in here, said Missus Wilkins,
• 3:25:44
  Speaker 1: getting up and at once after her manner, fixing on
• 3:25:47
  Speaker 1: the truth. Why I should have thought, said missus Fisher,
• 3:25:52
  Speaker 1: leaning on her stick. You could have seen that it
• 3:25:54
  Speaker 1: is my room, you mean, because of the photographs, said
• 3:25:57
  Speaker 1: missus Wilkins. Missus Arbuthnet, who was a little red and surprised,
• 3:26:03
  Speaker 1: got up too. And the notepaper, said missus Fisher, note
• 3:26:08
  Speaker 1: paper with my London address on it. That pen, she pointed,
• 3:26:13
  Speaker 1: it was still in Missus Wilkins's hand, is yours. I'm
• 3:26:18
  Speaker 1: very sorry, said Missus Wilkins, laying it on the table,
• 3:26:22
  Speaker 1: and she added smiling that it had just been writing
• 3:26:25
  Speaker 1: some very amiable things. But why, asked Missus Arbuthnet, who
• 3:26:30
  Speaker 1: found herself unable to acquiesce in Missus Fisher's arrangements without
• 3:26:34
  Speaker 1: at least a gentle struggle. Ought we not to be here?
• 3:26:37
  Speaker 1: It's a sitting room. There is another one, said missus Fisher.
• 3:26:42
  Speaker 1: You and your friend cannot sit in two rooms at once,
• 3:26:45
  Speaker 1: And if I have no wish to disturb you in yours,
• 3:26:47
  Speaker 1: I am unable to see why you should wish to
• 3:26:49
  Speaker 1: disturb me in mine. But why, began missus Arbuthnet again,
• 3:26:55
  Speaker 1: It's quite natural, missus Wilkins interrupted, for Rose was looking stubborn,
• 3:26:59
  Speaker 1: and turning to missus Fisher, she said that although sharing
• 3:27:02
  Speaker 1: things with friends was pleasant, she could understand that Missus Fisher,
• 3:27:05
  Speaker 1: still steeped in the Prince of Wales's terrace attitude to life,
• 3:27:09
  Speaker 1: did not yet want to, but that she would get
• 3:27:12
  Speaker 1: rid of that after a bit and feel quite different soon.
• 3:27:15
  Speaker 1: You'll want us to share, said Missus Wilkins, reassuringly. Why
• 3:27:20
  Speaker 1: you may even get so far as asking me to
• 3:27:22
  Speaker 1: use your pen if you knew I hadn't got one.
• 3:27:25
  Speaker 1: Missus Fisher was moved almost beyond control by this speech.
• 3:27:29
  Speaker 1: To have a ramshackle young woman from Hampstead patting her
• 3:27:32
  Speaker 1: on the back, as it were, in breezy certitude that
• 3:27:35
  Speaker 1: quite soon she would improve stirred her more deeply than
• 3:27:38
  Speaker 1: anything had stirred her since her first discovery that mister
• 3:27:41
  Speaker 1: Fisher was not what he seemed. Missus Wilkins must certainly
• 3:27:45
  Speaker 1: be curbed, but how there was a curious imperviousness about
• 3:27:50
  Speaker 1: her at that moment. For instance, she was smiling as
• 3:27:54
  Speaker 1: pleasantly and with as unclouded a face, as if she
• 3:27:56
  Speaker 1: were saying nothing in the least impertinent, which we know
• 3:28:00
  Speaker 1: she was being curbed. If she didn't know, if she
• 3:28:03
  Speaker 1: were too tough to feel it, then what nothing except avoidance,
• 3:28:08
  Speaker 1: except precisely one's own private sitting room. I'm an old woman,
• 3:28:14
  Speaker 1: said Missus Fisher, and I need a room to myself.
• 3:28:17
  Speaker 1: I cannot get about because of my stick. As I
• 3:28:21
  Speaker 1: cannot get about, I have to sit. Why should I
• 3:28:24
  Speaker 1: not sit quietly and undisturbed? As I told you in
• 3:28:27
  Speaker 1: London I intended to. If people are to come in
• 3:28:30
  Speaker 1: and out all day long, chattering and leaving doors open,
• 3:28:34
  Speaker 1: you will have broken the agreement, which was that I
• 3:28:36
  Speaker 1: was to be quiet. But we haven't the least wish,
• 3:28:40
  Speaker 1: began Missus Arbuthnet, who was again cut short by Missus Wilkins.
• 3:28:45
  Speaker 1: We're only too glad, said Missus Wilkins, for you to
• 3:28:48
  Speaker 1: have this room, if it makes you happy. We didn't
• 3:28:51
  Speaker 1: know about it, that's all. We wouldn't have come in
• 3:28:54
  Speaker 1: if we had not till you invited us. Anyhow, I
• 3:28:58
  Speaker 1: expect she finish wish, looking down cheerfully at Missus Fisher,
• 3:29:02
  Speaker 1: you soon will, and picking up her letter, she took
• 3:29:05
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet's hand and drew her towards the door. Missus
• 3:29:09
  Speaker 1: Arbuthnet did not want to go. She, the mildest of women,
• 3:29:14
  Speaker 1: was filled with a curious and surely unchristian desire to
• 3:29:17
  Speaker 1: stay and fight, not, of course, really, nor even with
• 3:29:22
  Speaker 1: any definitely aggressive words. No, she only wanted to reason
• 3:29:26
  Speaker 1: with Missus Fisher, and to reason patiently. But she did
• 3:29:30
  Speaker 1: feel that something ought to be said, and that she
• 3:29:33
  Speaker 1: ought not to allow herself to be rated and turned
• 3:29:35
  Speaker 1: out as if she were a schoolgirl caught in her
• 3:29:37
  Speaker 1: behavior by authority. Missus Wilkins, however, drew her firmly to
• 3:29:42
  Speaker 1: and through the door, and once again Rose wondered at Lottie,
• 3:29:45
  Speaker 1: at her balance, her sweet and equable temper, she who
• 3:29:48
  Speaker 1: in England had been such a thing of gusts from
• 3:29:52
  Speaker 1: the moment they got into Italy. It was Lottie who
• 3:29:54
  Speaker 1: seemed the elder. She certainly was very happy, blissful. In fact,
• 3:30:00
  Speaker 1: did happiness so completely protect one? Did it make one
• 3:30:04
  Speaker 1: so untouchable? So wise Rose was happy herself, but not
• 3:30:09
  Speaker 1: anything like so happy, evidently not, for not only did
• 3:30:13
  Speaker 1: she want to fight Missus Fisher, but she wanted something else,
• 3:30:16
  Speaker 1: something more than this lovely place, something to complete it.
• 3:30:19
  Speaker 1: She wanted Frederick. For the first time in her life,
• 3:30:23
  Speaker 1: she was surrounded by perfect beauty, and her one thought
• 3:30:26
  Speaker 1: was to show it to him, to share it with him.
• 3:30:29
  Speaker 1: She wanted Frederick. She yearned for Frederick. Ah, if only
• 3:30:34
  Speaker 1: only Frederick, poor old thing, said Missus Wilkins, shutting the
• 3:30:39
  Speaker 1: door gently on Missus Fisher and her triumph fancy on
• 3:30:43
  Speaker 1: a day like this, She's a very rude old thing,
• 3:30:47
  Speaker 1: said Missus Arbuthnet. She'll get over that. I'm sorry. We
• 3:30:52
  Speaker 1: chose just her room to go and sit in. It's
• 3:30:55
  Speaker 1: much the nicest, said Missus Arbuthnet. And it isn't hers. Oh,
• 3:31:00
  Speaker 1: but there are lots of other places, and she's such
• 3:31:03
  Speaker 1: a poor old thing. Let her have the room. Whatever
• 3:31:07
  Speaker 1: does it matter? And Missus Wilkins said she was going
• 3:31:11
  Speaker 1: down to the village to find out where the post
• 3:31:13
  Speaker 1: office was and post her letter to Mellersh. And would
• 3:31:15
  Speaker 1: Rose go too. I've been thinking about Mellersh, said Missus Wilkins,
• 3:31:20
  Speaker 1: as they walked one behind the other down the narrow
• 3:31:23
  Speaker 1: zigzag path up which they had climbed in the rain
• 3:31:25
  Speaker 1: the night before. She went first, Missus Arbuthnet, quite naturally
• 3:31:31
  Speaker 1: now followed. In England, it had been the other way
• 3:31:35
  Speaker 1: about Lottie, timid, hesitating, except when she burst out so awkwardly,
• 3:31:40
  Speaker 1: getting behind the calm and reasonable Rose whenever she could.
• 3:31:43
  Speaker 1: I've been thinking about Melish, repeated Missus Wilkins over her shoulder,
• 3:31:48
  Speaker 1: as Rose seemed not to have heard, have you, said Rose,
• 3:31:53
  Speaker 1: a faint distaste in her voice, For her experiences with
• 3:31:56
  Speaker 1: Melsh had not been of a kind to make her
• 3:31:58
  Speaker 1: enjoy remembering him. She had deceived Mellersh. Therefore she didn't
• 3:32:03
  Speaker 1: like him. She was unconscious that this was the reason
• 3:32:06
  Speaker 1: of her dislike, and thought it was that there didn't
• 3:32:08
  Speaker 1: seem to be much, if any, of the grace of
• 3:32:11
  Speaker 1: God about him. And yet how wrong to feel that
• 3:32:14
  Speaker 1: she rebuked herself, and how presumptuous. No doubt, Lotty's husband
• 3:32:19
  Speaker 1: was far far nearer to God than she herself was
• 3:32:22
  Speaker 1: ever likely to be. Still she didn't like him. I've
• 3:32:27
  Speaker 1: been a mean dog, said Missus Wilkins. A what asked
• 3:32:31
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet, incredulous of her hearing all this, coming away
• 3:32:36
  Speaker 1: and leaving him in that dreary place. While irolic in heaven.
• 3:32:39
  Speaker 1: He had planned to take me to Italy for Easter himself.
• 3:32:43
  Speaker 1: Did I tell you no, said Missus Arbuthnet. And indeed
• 3:32:47
  Speaker 1: she had discouraged talk about husbands. Whenever Lotty had begun
• 3:32:52
  Speaker 1: to blurt out things, she had swiftly changed the conversation.
• 3:32:56
  Speaker 1: One husband led to another. In conversation as well as
• 3:32:59
  Speaker 1: in life, she felt, and she could not. She would
• 3:33:02
  Speaker 1: not talk of Frederick beyond the bare fact that he
• 3:33:06
  Speaker 1: was there. He had not been mentioned. Melish had had
• 3:33:09
  Speaker 1: to be mentioned because of his obstructiveness, but she had
• 3:33:13
  Speaker 1: carefully kept him from overflowing outside the limits of necessity.
• 3:33:17
  Speaker 1: Well he did, said Missus Wilkins. He had never done
• 3:33:21
  Speaker 1: such a thing in his life before, and I was
• 3:33:23
  Speaker 1: horrified fancy, just as I had planned to come to
• 3:33:27
  Speaker 1: it myself. She paused on the path and looked up
• 3:33:31
  Speaker 1: at Rose. Yes, said Rose, trying to think of something
• 3:33:35
  Speaker 1: else to talk about. Now, you see why I say
• 3:33:39
  Speaker 1: I've been a mean dog. He had planned a holiday
• 3:33:42
  Speaker 1: in Italy with me, and I had planned a holiday
• 3:33:44
  Speaker 1: in Italy, leaving him at home, I think, she went on,
• 3:33:48
  Speaker 1: her eyes fixed on Rose's face. Melish has every reason
• 3:33:52
  Speaker 1: to be both angry and hurt. Missus Arbuthnet was astonished
• 3:33:57
  Speaker 1: the extraordinary quickness with which, hour by hour, under her
• 3:34:01
  Speaker 1: very eyes Lottie became more selfless, disconcerted her she was
• 3:34:06
  Speaker 1: turning into something surprisingly like a saint. Here she was
• 3:34:10
  Speaker 1: now being affectionate about melersh Melish, who, only that morning,
• 3:34:14
  Speaker 1: while they hung their feet into the sea, had seen
• 3:34:17
  Speaker 1: the mere iridescence. Lottie had told her a thing of gauze.
• 3:34:21
  Speaker 1: That was only that morning. And by the time they
• 3:34:24
  Speaker 1: had had lunch, Lottie had developed so far as to
• 3:34:26
  Speaker 1: have got him solid enough again to write to, and
• 3:34:28
  Speaker 1: to write to at length. And now a few minutes
• 3:34:32
  Speaker 1: later she was announcing that he had every reason to
• 3:34:34
  Speaker 1: be angry with her and hurt, and that she herself
• 3:34:37
  Speaker 1: had been The language was unusual, but it did express
• 3:34:40
  Speaker 1: real penitence. A mean dog Rose stared at her, astonished.
• 3:34:46
  Speaker 1: If she went on like this, soon a nimbus might
• 3:34:48
  Speaker 1: be expected round her head. Was there already if one
• 3:34:52
  Speaker 1: didn't know. It was the sun through the tree trunks,
• 3:34:54
  Speaker 1: catching her sandy hair. A great desire to love and
• 3:34:57
  Speaker 1: be friends, to love everybody, to be friends with everybody,
• 3:35:01
  Speaker 1: seemed to be invading Lotti a desire for sheer goodness.
• 3:35:05
  Speaker 1: Rose's own experience was that goodness, the state of being good,
• 3:35:09
  Speaker 1: was only reached with difficulty and pain. It took a
• 3:35:13
  Speaker 1: long time to get to it. In fact, one never
• 3:35:15
  Speaker 1: did get to it, or if for a flashing instant
• 3:35:18
  Speaker 1: one did, it was only for a flashing instant. Desperate
• 3:35:22
  Speaker 1: perseverance was needed to struggle along its path, and all
• 3:35:25
  Speaker 1: the way was dotted with doubts. Lottie simply flew along.
• 3:35:30
  Speaker 1: She had, certainly thought, Rose not got rid of her impetuousness.
• 3:35:35
  Speaker 1: It had merely taken another direction. She was now impetuously
• 3:35:40
  Speaker 1: becoming a saint. Could one really attain goodness so violently?
• 3:35:45
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't there be an equally violent reaction? I shouldn't, said Rose,
• 3:35:49
  Speaker 1: with caution, looking down into Lotti's bright eyes. The path
• 3:35:53
  Speaker 1: was steep, so that Lottie was well below her. I
• 3:35:56
  Speaker 1: shouldn't be sure of that too quickly, But I am
• 3:35:59
  Speaker 1: sure of it, and I've written and told him so.
• 3:36:02
  Speaker 1: Rose stared, Why, but only this morning? She began? It's
• 3:36:08
  Speaker 1: all in this, interrupted Lottie, tapping the envelope and looking pleased.
• 3:36:13
  Speaker 1: What everything you mean about the advertisement and my savings
• 3:36:17
  Speaker 1: being spent? Oh, no, not yet, but I'll tell him
• 3:36:22
  Speaker 1: all that when he comes. When he comes, repeated Rose,
• 3:36:27
  Speaker 1: I've invited him to come and stay with us. Rose
• 3:36:30
  Speaker 1: could only go on staring. It's the least I could
• 3:36:34
  Speaker 1: do besides look at this, Lotti waved her hand, disgusting
• 3:36:40
  Speaker 1: not to share it. I was a mean dog to
• 3:36:43
  Speaker 1: go off and leave him. But no dog I've ever
• 3:36:46
  Speaker 1: heard of was ever as mean as I'd be if
• 3:36:47
  Speaker 1: I didn't try and persuade Melish to come out and
• 3:36:49
  Speaker 1: enjoy this too. It's barrest decency that he should have
• 3:36:53
  Speaker 1: some of the fun out of my nest egg. After all,
• 3:36:57
  Speaker 1: he has housed me and fed me for years. One
• 3:37:00
  Speaker 1: shouldn't be churlish. But do you think he'll come? Oh?
• 3:37:05
  Speaker 1: I hope, so said Lottie with the utmost earnestness, and added,
• 3:37:09
  Speaker 1: poor lamb. At that, Rose felt she would like to
• 3:37:12
  Speaker 1: sit down Melish, a poor lamb, that same Melish who
• 3:37:17
  Speaker 1: a few hours before was mere shimmer. There was a
• 3:37:20
  Speaker 1: seat at the bend of the path, and Rose went
• 3:37:22
  Speaker 1: to it and sat down. She wished to get her
• 3:37:25
  Speaker 1: breath gain time. If she had time, she might perhaps
• 3:37:29
  Speaker 1: be able to catch up the leaping Lottie and perhaps
• 3:37:32
  Speaker 1: be able to stop her before she committed herself to
• 3:37:34
  Speaker 1: what she probably presently would be sorry for Melish at
• 3:37:38
  Speaker 1: San Salvatore Melersh, from whom Lotty had taken such pains
• 3:37:43
  Speaker 1: so recently to escape. I see him here, said Lottie,
• 3:37:47
  Speaker 1: as if in answer to her thoughts. Rose looked at
• 3:37:50
  Speaker 1: her with real concern. For every time Lotty said in
• 3:37:53
  Speaker 1: that convinced voice, I see what she saw came true,
• 3:37:58
  Speaker 1: then it was to be supposed that mister Wilkins too
• 3:38:00
  Speaker 1: would presently come true. I wish, said Rose anxiously. I understood.
• 3:38:05
  Speaker 1: You don't try, said Lottie, smiling, But I must because
• 3:38:11
  Speaker 1: I love you, dear Rose, said Lottie, swiftly, bending down
• 3:38:16
  Speaker 1: and kissing her. You're so quick, said Rose. I can't
• 3:38:21
  Speaker 1: follow your developments. I can't keep touch. It was what
• 3:38:26
  Speaker 1: happened with Frieder. She broke off and looked frightened. The
• 3:38:30
  Speaker 1: whole idea of our coming here, she went on again,
• 3:38:33
  Speaker 1: as Lottie didn't seem to have noticed, was to get away,
• 3:38:36
  Speaker 1: wasn't it. Well we've got away, and now, after only
• 3:38:41
  Speaker 1: a single day of it, you want to write to
• 3:38:43
  Speaker 1: the very people she stopped the very people we were
• 3:38:47
  Speaker 1: getting away from. Finished, Lottie, It's quite true. It seems
• 3:38:52
  Speaker 1: idiotically illogical. But I'm so happy, I'm so well, I
• 3:38:57
  Speaker 1: feel so fearfully wholesome. This place why it makes me
• 3:39:02
  Speaker 1: feel flooded with love? And she stared down at Rose
• 3:39:05
  Speaker 1: in a kind of radiant surprise. Rose was silent a moment.
• 3:39:10
  Speaker 1: Then she said, and do you think it will have
• 3:39:12
  Speaker 1: the same effect on mister Wilkins. Lottie laughed. I don't know,
• 3:39:18
  Speaker 1: she said, But even if it doesn't, there's enough love
• 3:39:22
  Speaker 1: about to flood fifty mister wilkinses as you call him.
• 3:39:26
  Speaker 1: The great thing is to have lots of love about.
• 3:39:29
  Speaker 1: I don't see, she went on. At least I don't
• 3:39:32
  Speaker 1: see here, though I did at home, that it matters
• 3:39:34
  Speaker 1: who loves as long as somebody does. I was a
• 3:39:38
  Speaker 1: stingy beast at home, and used to measure and count.
• 3:39:42
  Speaker 1: I had a queer obsession about justice, as though justice mattered,
• 3:39:47
  Speaker 1: as though justice can really be distinguished from vengeance. It's
• 3:39:51
  Speaker 1: only love that's any good. At home, I wouldn't love
• 3:39:54
  Speaker 1: Mellersh unless he loved me back exactly as much absolute fairness.
• 3:40:00
  Speaker 1: Did you ever, and as he didn't, neither did I.
• 3:40:04
  Speaker 1: And the aridity of that house, the aridity, Rose said nothing.
• 3:40:10
  Speaker 1: She was bewildered by Lottie. One odd effect of San
• 3:40:14
  Speaker 1: Salvatore on her rapidly developing friend was her sudden free
• 3:40:17
  Speaker 1: use of robust words. She had not used them in Hampstead.
• 3:40:22
  Speaker 1: Beast and dog were more robust than Hampstead cared about
• 3:40:26
  Speaker 1: in words too. Lotty had come unchained. But how she wished,
• 3:40:31
  Speaker 1: Oh how Rose wished that she too could write to
• 3:40:34
  Speaker 1: her husband and say, come the Wilkins manage. However pompous
• 3:40:38
  Speaker 1: Melish might be, and he had seen to Rose pompous
• 3:40:42
  Speaker 1: was on a healthier, more natural footing than hers. Lotty
• 3:40:46
  Speaker 1: could write to Melish and would get an answer. She
• 3:40:49
  Speaker 1: couldn't write to Frederick, for only too well did she
• 3:40:52
  Speaker 1: know he wouldn't answer. At least, he might answer a
• 3:40:56
  Speaker 1: hurried scribble showing how much bored he was at doing it,
• 3:40:59
  Speaker 1: with punctory thanks for her letter, But that would be
• 3:41:03
  Speaker 1: worse than no answer at all. For his handwriting her
• 3:41:06
  Speaker 1: name on an envelope addressed by him stabbed her heart
• 3:41:10
  Speaker 1: too acutely. Did it bring back the letters of their
• 3:41:12
  Speaker 1: beginnings together, the letters from him, so desolate with separation,
• 3:41:16
  Speaker 1: so aching with love and longing to see Apparently one
• 3:41:20
  Speaker 1: of these very same letters. Arrive and open it and
• 3:41:22
  Speaker 1: find dear Rose, Thanks for letter. Glad you're having a
• 3:41:27
  Speaker 1: good time. Don't hurry back, say if you want any money.
• 3:41:32
  Speaker 1: Everything going splendidly here dot yours Frederick. No, it couldn't
• 3:41:38
  Speaker 1: be borne. I don't think I'll come down to the
• 3:41:41
  Speaker 1: village with you to day, she said, looking up at
• 3:41:43
  Speaker 1: Lottie with eyes suddenly gone dim. I think I want
• 3:41:47
  Speaker 1: to think, all right, said Lottie at once, starting off
• 3:41:51
  Speaker 1: briskly down the path. But don't think too long, she
• 3:41:55
  Speaker 1: called back over her shoulder. Write and invite him at once,
• 3:42:00
  Speaker 1: invite whom asked Rose startled your husband Chapter twelve. At
• 3:42:06
  Speaker 1: the evening meal, which was the first time the whole
• 3:42:09
  Speaker 1: four sat round the dining room table together, scrap appeared.
• 3:42:13
  Speaker 1: She appeared, quite punctually, and in one of those wrappers
• 3:42:16
  Speaker 1: or tea gowns which are sometimes described as ravishing. This
• 3:42:20
  Speaker 1: one really was ravishing. It certainly ravished Missus Wilkins, who
• 3:42:25
  Speaker 1: could not take her eyes off the enchanting figure opposite.
• 3:42:28
  Speaker 1: It was a shell pink garment and clung to the
• 3:42:31
  Speaker 1: adorable scrap as though it too loved her. What a
• 3:42:35
  Speaker 1: beautiful dress, exclaimed missus Wilkins, eagerly. What this old rag,
• 3:42:40
  Speaker 1: said Scrap, glancing down at it as if to see
• 3:42:43
  Speaker 1: which one she had got on. I've had it a
• 3:42:46
  Speaker 1: hundred years. And she concentrated on her soup. You must
• 3:42:51
  Speaker 1: be very cold in it, said missus Fisher, thin lipped,
• 3:42:54
  Speaker 1: for it showed a great deal of scrap, the whole
• 3:42:57
  Speaker 1: of her arms, for instance, and even where it covered
• 3:42:59
  Speaker 1: her up, it was so thin that you still saw her.
• 3:43:03
  Speaker 1: Who me, said Scrap, looking up a moment. Oh no,
• 3:43:09
  Speaker 1: and she continued her soup. You mustn't catch a chill,
• 3:43:12
  Speaker 1: you know, said Missus Arbuthnet, feeling that such loveliness must,
• 3:43:16
  Speaker 1: at all costs be preserved unharmed. There's a great difference
• 3:43:20
  Speaker 1: here when the sun goes down. I'm quite warm, said Scrap, industriously,
• 3:43:26
  Speaker 1: eating her soup. You look as if you had nothing
• 3:43:29
  Speaker 1: at all on underneath, said missus Fisher. I haven't, at
• 3:43:34
  Speaker 1: least hardly anything, said Scrap, finishing her soup. How very imprudent,
• 3:43:40
  Speaker 1: said missus Fisher, and how highly improper whereupon scrap stared
• 3:43:45
  Speaker 1: at her. Missus Fisher had arrived at dinner feeling friendly
• 3:43:49
  Speaker 1: towards Lady Caroline. She at least had not intruded into
• 3:43:53
  Speaker 1: her room and sat at her table and written with
• 3:43:55
  Speaker 1: her pen. She did. Missus Fisher had supposed know how
• 3:44:00
  Speaker 1: to behave. Now it appeared that she did not know.
• 3:44:03
  Speaker 1: For was this behaving to come dressed, no undressed? Like
• 3:44:08
  Speaker 1: that to a meal? Such behavior was not only exceedingly improper,
• 3:44:12
  Speaker 1: but also most inconsiderate, for the indelicate creature would certainly
• 3:44:16
  Speaker 1: catch a chill and then infect the entire party. Missus
• 3:44:20
  Speaker 1: Fisher had a great objection to other people's chills. They
• 3:44:24
  Speaker 1: were always the fruit of folly, and then they were
• 3:44:26
  Speaker 1: handed on to her, who had done nothing at all
• 3:44:29
  Speaker 1: to deserve them. Bird brained, thought missus Fisher, sternly contemplating
• 3:44:34
  Speaker 1: Lady Caroline. Not an idea in her head except vanity.
• 3:44:39
  Speaker 1: But there are no men here, said missus Wilkins, So
• 3:44:42
  Speaker 1: how can it be improper? Have you noticed? She inquired
• 3:44:45
  Speaker 1: of missus Fisher, who endeavored to pretend she did not hear.
• 3:44:49
  Speaker 1: How difficult it is to be improper without men? Missus
• 3:44:52
  Speaker 1: Fisher neither answered her nor looked at her. But Scrap
• 3:44:55
  Speaker 1: looked at her and did that with her mouth, which
• 3:44:58
  Speaker 1: in any other mouth would have been a faint grin.
• 3:45:01
  Speaker 1: Seen from without across the bowl of nastershams, it was
• 3:45:04
  Speaker 1: the most beautiful of brief and dimpled smiles. She had
• 3:45:08
  Speaker 1: a very alive sort of face that one thought, Scrap,
• 3:45:12
  Speaker 1: observing Missus Wilkins with a dawn of interest, it was
• 3:45:16
  Speaker 1: rather like a field of corn swept by lights and shadows.
• 3:45:20
  Speaker 1: Both she and the dark one Scrap noticed had changed
• 3:45:23
  Speaker 1: their clothes, but only in order to put on silk jumpers.
• 3:45:27
  Speaker 1: The same amount of trouble would have been enough to
• 3:45:29
  Speaker 1: dress them properly, reflected Scrap. Naturally, they looked like nothing
• 3:45:34
  Speaker 1: on earth in the jumpers. It didn't matter what Missus
• 3:45:38
  Speaker 1: Fisher wore. Indeed, the only thing for her, short of
• 3:45:41
  Speaker 1: plumes in ermine, was what she did wear. But these
• 3:45:45
  Speaker 1: others were quite young still, and quite attractive. They really
• 3:45:49
  Speaker 1: definitely had faces. How different life would be for them
• 3:45:53
  Speaker 1: if they made the most of themselves instead of the least.
• 3:45:56
  Speaker 1: And yet Scrap was suddenly bored and turned away her
• 3:46:00
  Speaker 1: thoughts and absently ate toast. What did it matter if
• 3:46:04
  Speaker 1: you did make the best of yourself, you only collected
• 3:46:07
  Speaker 1: people round you who ended by wanting to grab I've
• 3:46:10
  Speaker 1: had the most wonderful day, began Missus Wilkins, her eyes shining.
• 3:46:16
  Speaker 1: Scrap lowered hers. Oh, she thought she's going to gush
• 3:46:21
  Speaker 1: as though anybody were interested in her day, thought Missus Fisher,
• 3:46:25
  Speaker 1: lowering hers also. In fact, whenever missus Wilkins spoke, Missus
• 3:46:30
  Speaker 1: Fisher deliberately cast down her eyes. Thus would she mark
• 3:46:34
  Speaker 1: her disapproval. Besides, it seemed the only safe thing to
• 3:46:38
  Speaker 1: do with her eyes, for no one could tell what
• 3:46:40
  Speaker 1: the uncurbed creature would say next that which she had
• 3:46:44
  Speaker 1: just said, for instance, about men addressed too to her.
• 3:46:48
  Speaker 1: What could she mean better not conjecture, thought missus Fisher,
• 3:46:53
  Speaker 1: and her eyes, though cast down, yet saw Lady Caroline
• 3:46:56
  Speaker 1: stretch out her hand to the key ante flask and
• 3:46:59
  Speaker 1: fill her glass again again. She had done it once already,
• 3:47:04
  Speaker 1: and the fish was only just going out of the room.
• 3:47:07
  Speaker 1: Missus Fisher could see that the other respectable member of
• 3:47:10
  Speaker 1: the party, Missus Arbuthnet, was noticing it too. Missus Arbuthnet was,
• 3:47:15
  Speaker 1: she hoped and believed, respectable and well meaning. It is true,
• 3:47:20
  Speaker 1: she also had invaded her sitting room, but no doubt
• 3:47:23
  Speaker 1: she had been dragged there by the other one. And
• 3:47:25
  Speaker 1: Missus Fisher had little, if anything against Missus Arbuthnet, and
• 3:47:28
  Speaker 1: observed with approval that she only drank water. That was
• 3:47:32
  Speaker 1: as it should be, So indeed to give her her
• 3:47:36
  Speaker 1: dues did the freckled one, and very right at their age.
• 3:47:40
  Speaker 1: She herself drank wine, but with what moderation one meal,
• 3:47:44
  Speaker 1: one glass, and she was sixty five and might properly
• 3:47:49
  Speaker 1: and even beneficially have had at least two. That she
• 3:47:53
  Speaker 1: said to Lady Caroline, cutting right across what Missus Wilkins
• 3:47:56
  Speaker 1: was telling them about her wonderful day, in indicating the
• 3:47:59
  Speaker 1: wineglass is very bad for you. Lady Caroline, however, could
• 3:48:04
  Speaker 1: not have heard, for she continued to sip her elbow
• 3:48:07
  Speaker 1: on the table and listened to what Missus Wilkins was saying.
• 3:48:11
  Speaker 1: And what was it she was saying? She had invited
• 3:48:14
  Speaker 1: somebody to come and stay, a man. Missus Fisher could
• 3:48:19
  Speaker 1: not credit her ears, yet it evidently was a man,
• 3:48:23
  Speaker 1: for she spoke of the person as he suddenly and
• 3:48:26
  Speaker 1: for the first time. But then this was most important.
• 3:48:29
  Speaker 1: Missus Fisher addressed Missus Wilkins directly. She was sixty five
• 3:48:34
  Speaker 1: and cared very little what sorts of women she happened
• 3:48:37
  Speaker 1: to be with for a month. But if the women
• 3:48:39
  Speaker 1: were to be mixed with men, it was a different proposition. Altogether.
• 3:48:43
  Speaker 1: She was not going to be made a cat's baw of.
• 3:48:46
  Speaker 1: She had not come out there to sanction by her
• 3:48:48
  Speaker 1: presence what used in her day to be called fast behavior.
• 3:48:52
  Speaker 1: Nothing had been said at the interview in London about men.
• 3:48:55
  Speaker 1: If there had been, she would have declined, of course,
• 3:48:58
  Speaker 1: to come. What is his name? Asked Missus Fisher, abruptly interposing,
• 3:49:04
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins turned to her with a slight surprise Wilkins,
• 3:49:08
  Speaker 1: She said, Wilkins, Yes, your name and his a relation,
• 3:49:18
  Speaker 1: not blood, a connection a husband. Missus Fisher once more
• 3:49:24
  Speaker 1: cast down her eyes. She could not talk to Missus Wilkins.
• 3:49:29
  Speaker 1: There was something about the things she said, a husband,
• 3:49:33
  Speaker 1: suggesting one of many, always that unseemly twist to everything.
• 3:49:39
  Speaker 1: Why could she not say my husband? Besides, Missus Fisher,
• 3:49:43
  Speaker 1: had she herself knew not for what reason? Taken both
• 3:49:47
  Speaker 1: the Hampstead young women for widows war ones. There had
• 3:49:52
  Speaker 1: been an absence of mention of husbands at the interview,
• 3:49:54
  Speaker 1: which would not, she considered, be natural, if such persons did,
• 3:49:58
  Speaker 1: after all exist, And if a husband was not a relation,
• 3:50:02
  Speaker 1: who was not blood? What a way to talk? Why
• 3:50:08
  Speaker 1: a husband was the first of all relations? How well
• 3:50:12
  Speaker 1: she remembered Ruskin? No, it was not Ruskin. It was
• 3:50:15
  Speaker 1: the Bible that said a man should leave his father
• 3:50:17
  Speaker 1: and mother and cleave only to his wife, showing that
• 3:50:20
  Speaker 1: she became by marriage and even more than blood relation.
• 3:50:24
  Speaker 1: And if the husband's father and mother were to be
• 3:50:26
  Speaker 1: nothing to him compared to his wife, how much less
• 3:50:28
  Speaker 1: than nothing ut the wife's father and mother be to
• 3:50:31
  Speaker 1: her compared to her husband. She herself had been unable
• 3:50:34
  Speaker 1: to leave her father and mother in order to cleave
• 3:50:36
  Speaker 1: to mister Fisher because they were no longer when she
• 3:50:39
  Speaker 1: married alive. But she certainly would have left them if
• 3:50:42
  Speaker 1: they had been there to leave not blood. Indeed, silly talk.
• 3:50:48
  Speaker 1: The dinner was very good, succulent succeeded succulence. Costenza had
• 3:50:54
  Speaker 1: determined to do as she chose in the matter of
• 3:50:56
  Speaker 1: cream and eggs the first week and see what happened
• 3:50:59
  Speaker 1: at the end of it when the bills had to
• 3:51:01
  Speaker 1: be paid. Her experience of the English was that they
• 3:51:04
  Speaker 1: were quiet about bills. They were shy of words, they
• 3:51:09
  Speaker 1: believed readily. Besides, who was the mistress here? In the
• 3:51:14
  Speaker 1: absence of a definite one, It occurred to Costanza that
• 3:51:17
  Speaker 1: she might as well be the mistress herself. So she
• 3:51:20
  Speaker 1: did as she chose about the dinner, and it was
• 3:51:23
  Speaker 1: very good. The four, however, were so much preoccupied by
• 3:51:27
  Speaker 1: their own conversation that they ate it without noticing how
• 3:51:30
  Speaker 1: good it was. Even Missus Fisher, she who in such
• 3:51:34
  Speaker 1: matters was manly, did not notice the entire excellent cooking
• 3:51:38
  Speaker 1: was to her as though it were not, which shows
• 3:51:40
  Speaker 1: how much she must have been stirred. She was stirred.
• 3:51:45
  Speaker 1: It was that Missus Wilkins. She was enough to stir anybody,
• 3:51:50
  Speaker 1: and she was undoubtedly encouraged by Lady Caroline, who in
• 3:51:54
  Speaker 1: her turn, was no doubt influenced by the kiante. Missus
• 3:51:58
  Speaker 1: Fisher was very glad there were no men present, for
• 3:52:01
  Speaker 1: they certainly would have been foolish about Lady Caroline. She
• 3:52:05
  Speaker 1: was precisely the sort of young woman to unbalance them,
• 3:52:08
  Speaker 1: especially Missus Fisher recognized at that moment. Perhaps it was
• 3:52:13
  Speaker 1: the chy Ante momentarily intensifying her personality, but she was
• 3:52:16
  Speaker 1: undeniably most attractive, and there were few things Missus Fisher
• 3:52:20
  Speaker 1: disliked more than having to look on while sensible, intelligent men,
• 3:52:23
  Speaker 1: who the moment before were talking seriously and interestingly about
• 3:52:27
  Speaker 1: real matters became merely foolish and simpering. She had seen
• 3:52:31
  Speaker 1: them actually simpering just because in walked a bit of
• 3:52:34
  Speaker 1: bird brained beauty. Even mister Gladstone, that great wise statesman
• 3:52:39
  Speaker 1: whose hand had once rested for an unforgettable moment solemnly
• 3:52:42
  Speaker 1: on her head, would have, she felt on perceiving, Lady
• 3:52:46
  Speaker 1: Caroline left off talking sense and horribly embarked on badinage.
• 3:52:50
  Speaker 1: You see, missus Wilkins, said, a silly trick that with
• 3:52:54
  Speaker 1: which she mostly began her sentences. Missus Fisher each time
• 3:52:57
  Speaker 1: wished to say, pardon me, I do not see, I hear?
• 3:53:01
  Speaker 1: But why trouble you see? Said Missus Wilkins, leaning across
• 3:53:05
  Speaker 1: towards Lady Caroline. We arranged, didn't we in London, that
• 3:53:09
  Speaker 1: if any of us wanted to, we could each invite
• 3:53:11
  Speaker 1: one guest. So now I'm doing it. I don't remember that,
• 3:53:16
  Speaker 1: said Missus Fisher, her eyes on her plate. Oh, yes,
• 3:53:20
  Speaker 1: we did, didn't we rose? Yes, I remember, said Lady Caroline.
• 3:53:27
  Speaker 1: Only it seemed so incredible that one could ever want
• 3:53:29
  Speaker 1: to one's whole idea was to get away from one's
• 3:53:33
  Speaker 1: friends and one's husband's Again, that unseemly plural, But how
• 3:53:39
  Speaker 1: altogether unseemly, thought Missus Fisher. Such implications. Missus Arbuthnet clearly
• 3:53:47
  Speaker 1: thought so too, for she had turned red. And family affection,
• 3:53:51
  Speaker 1: said Lady Caroline. Or was it the key ante speaking?
• 3:53:55
  Speaker 1: Surely it was the key ante, and the want of
• 3:53:58
  Speaker 1: family affection, said Missus Wilkins. What a light she was
• 3:54:02
  Speaker 1: throwing on her home life and real character. That wouldn't
• 3:54:05
  Speaker 1: be so bad, said Lady Caroline. I'd stay with that.
• 3:54:10
  Speaker 1: It would give one room. Oh no, no, it's dreadful,
• 3:54:15
  Speaker 1: cried Missus Wilkins. It's as if one had no clothes on.
• 3:54:20
  Speaker 1: But I like that, said Lady Caroline. Really, said Missus Fisher.
• 3:54:26
  Speaker 1: It's a divine feeling getting rid of things, said Lady Caroline,
• 3:54:30
  Speaker 1: who was talking altogether to Missus Wilkins and paid no
• 3:54:33
  Speaker 1: attention to the other two. Oh but in a bitter
• 3:54:36
  Speaker 1: wind to have nothing on and know there never will
• 3:54:39
  Speaker 1: be anything on and You're going to get colder and
• 3:54:41
  Speaker 1: colder till at last you die of it. That's what
• 3:54:43
  Speaker 1: it was like living with somebody who didn't love one
• 3:54:46
  Speaker 1: these confidences, thought missus Fisher. And no excuse whatever for
• 3:54:51
  Speaker 1: missus Wilkins, who was making them entirely on plain water.
• 3:54:56
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet, judging from her face, quite shared Missus Fisher's disapproval.
• 3:55:01
  Speaker 1: She was fidgeting, but didn't he ask Lady Caroline every
• 3:55:05
  Speaker 1: bit as shamelessly unreticent as Missus Wilkins. Mellersh, he showed
• 3:55:11
  Speaker 1: no signs of it. Delicious, murmured Lady Caroline, really, said
• 3:55:17
  Speaker 1: missus Fisher. I didn't think it was at all delicious.
• 3:55:22
  Speaker 1: I was miserable, and now since I've been here, I
• 3:55:26
  Speaker 1: simply stare at myself being miserable, as miserable as that.
• 3:55:31
  Speaker 1: And about Mellersh, you mean he wasn't worth it, really,
• 3:55:36
  Speaker 1: said missus Fisher. No, I don't. I mean I've suddenly
• 3:55:41
  Speaker 1: got well, Lady Caroline, slowly twisting the stem of her
• 3:55:46
  Speaker 1: glass in her fingers, scrutinized the lid up face opposite.
• 3:55:50
  Speaker 1: And now I'm well. I find I can't sit here
• 3:55:52
  Speaker 1: and gloat all to myself. I can't be happy shutting
• 3:55:56
  Speaker 1: him out. I must share. I am understand exactly what
• 3:56:01
  Speaker 1: the blessed Damosel felt like. What was the blessed Damosel asked? Scrap, really,
• 3:56:07
  Speaker 1: said missus Fisher, and with such emphasis this time that
• 3:56:10
  Speaker 1: Lady Caroline turned to her. Ought I to know? She asked,
• 3:56:16
  Speaker 1: I don't know any natural history. It sounds like a bird.
• 3:56:20
  Speaker 1: It is a poem, said missus Fisher, with extraordinary frost, Oh,
• 3:56:25
  Speaker 1: said Scrap. I'll lend it to you, said missus Wilkins,
• 3:56:29
  Speaker 1: over whose face laughter rippled. No, said Scrap. And its author,
• 3:56:35
  Speaker 1: said missus Fisher icily, though not perhaps quite what one
• 3:56:39
  Speaker 1: would have wished him to be. Was frequently at my
• 3:56:41
  Speaker 1: father's table. What a bore for you, said Scrap. That's
• 3:56:46
  Speaker 1: what mother's always doing, inviting authors. I hate authors. I
• 3:56:52
  Speaker 1: wouldn't mind them so much if they didn't write books.
• 3:56:55
  Speaker 1: Go on about mellersh, she said, turning to missus Wilkins, really,
• 3:57:00
  Speaker 1: said missus Fisher. All those empty beds, said Missus Wilkins.
• 3:57:06
  Speaker 1: What empty beds, asked Scrap. The ones in this house, why,
• 3:57:12
  Speaker 1: of course they each ought to have somebody happy inside
• 3:57:15
  Speaker 1: them eight beds and only four people. It's dreadful, dreadful
• 3:57:20
  Speaker 1: to be so greedy and keep everything just for oneself.
• 3:57:24
  Speaker 1: I want Rose to ask her husband out too. You
• 3:57:27
  Speaker 1: and missus Fisher haven't got husbands, But why not give
• 3:57:30
  Speaker 1: some friend a glorious time? Rose bit her lip. She
• 3:57:35
  Speaker 1: turned red, she turned pale. If only Lotty would keep quiet,
• 3:57:40
  Speaker 1: She thought. It was all very well to have suddenly
• 3:57:43
  Speaker 1: become a saint and want to love everybody, But need
• 3:57:46
  Speaker 1: she be so tactless? Rose felt that all her poor,
• 3:57:50
  Speaker 1: sore places were being danced on. If only Lotty would
• 3:57:53
  Speaker 1: keep quiet, and missus Fisher with even greater frostiness than
• 3:57:58
  Speaker 1: that with which she had received Lady care Marline's ignorance
• 3:58:00
  Speaker 1: of the blessed Damosel said there is only one unoccupied
• 3:58:04
  Speaker 1: bedroom in this house, Only one, echoed missus Wilkins, astonished,
• 3:58:10
  Speaker 1: Then who are in all the others? We are, said
• 3:58:13
  Speaker 1: missus Fisher. But we're not in all the bedrooms. There
• 3:58:18
  Speaker 1: must be at least six. That leaves two over. And
• 3:58:22
  Speaker 1: the owner told us there were eight beds, didn't he Rose?
• 3:58:26
  Speaker 1: There are six bedrooms, said missus Fisher, For both she
• 3:58:29
  Speaker 1: and Lady Caroline had thoroughly searched the house on arriving
• 3:58:32
  Speaker 1: in order to see which part of it they would
• 3:58:34
  Speaker 1: be most comfortable in, and they both knew that there
• 3:58:37
  Speaker 1: were six bedrooms, two of which were very small, and
• 3:58:41
  Speaker 1: in one of these small ones, Francesca slept in the
• 3:58:43
  Speaker 1: company of a chair and a chest of drawers, and
• 3:58:46
  Speaker 1: the other, similarly furnished, was empty. Missus Wilkins and Missus
• 3:58:51
  Speaker 1: Arbuthnet had hardly looked at the house, having spent most
• 3:58:54
  Speaker 1: of their time out of doors gaping at the scenery,
• 3:58:56
  Speaker 1: and had in the agitated inattentiveness of their minds when
• 3:58:59
  Speaker 1: first they began negotiating for San Salvator, got into their
• 3:59:03
  Speaker 1: heads that the eight beds of which the owner spoke
• 3:59:05
  Speaker 1: were the same as eight bedrooms, which they were not.
• 3:59:10
  Speaker 1: There were indeed eight beds, but four of them were
• 3:59:12
  Speaker 1: in Missus Wilkins's and Missus are Buthnet's rooms. There are
• 3:59:16
  Speaker 1: six bedrooms, repeated Missus Fisher, we have four, Francesca has
• 3:59:22
  Speaker 1: the fifth, and the sixth is empty. So that said scrap.
• 3:59:26
  Speaker 1: However kind we feel we would be if we could,
• 3:59:29
  Speaker 1: we can't. Isn't it fortunate? But then there's only room
• 3:59:33
  Speaker 1: for one, said missus Wilkins, looking round at the three faces. Yes,
• 3:59:39
  Speaker 1: and you've got him, said scrap. Missus Wilkins was taken aback.
• 3:59:44
  Speaker 1: This question of the beds was unexpected. In inviting Mellers,
• 3:59:48
  Speaker 1: she had intended to put him in one of the
• 3:59:50
  Speaker 1: four spare rooms that she imagined were there. When there
• 3:59:53
  Speaker 1: were plenty of rooms and enough servants. There was no
• 3:59:56
  Speaker 1: reason why they should, as they did in their small
• 3:59:59
  Speaker 1: two servant houses at home, share the same one. Love,
• 4:00:03
  Speaker 1: even universal love, the kind of love with which she
• 4:00:06
  Speaker 1: felt herself flooded, should not be tried. Much patience and
• 4:00:10
  Speaker 1: self effacement were needed for successful married sleep. Placidity a
• 4:00:15
  Speaker 1: steady faith. These two were needed. She was sure she
• 4:00:19
  Speaker 1: would be much fonder of mellersh and he not mind
• 4:00:21
  Speaker 1: her nearly so much if they were not shut up
• 4:00:24
  Speaker 1: together at night, if in the morning they could meet
• 4:00:26
  Speaker 1: with the cheery affection of friends between whom lies no
• 4:00:29
  Speaker 1: shadow of differences about the window or the washing arrangements,
• 4:00:33
  Speaker 1: or of absurd, little, choked down resentments at something that
• 4:00:36
  Speaker 1: had seemed to one of them unfair. Her happiness, she felt,
• 4:00:40
  Speaker 1: and her ability to be friends with everybody, was the
• 4:00:43
  Speaker 1: result of her sudden new freedom and its peace. Would
• 4:00:46
  Speaker 1: there be that sense of freedom, that peace after a
• 4:00:49
  Speaker 1: night shut up with mellersh Would she be able in
• 4:00:53
  Speaker 1: the morning to be full towards him as she was
• 4:00:55
  Speaker 1: at that moment, full of nothing at all but loving kindness.
• 4:00:59
  Speaker 1: After all, she hadn't been very long in heaven. Suppose
• 4:01:03
  Speaker 1: she hadn't been in it long enough for her to
• 4:01:05
  Speaker 1: have become fixed in blandness, and only that morning. What
• 4:01:09
  Speaker 1: an extraordinary joy it had been to find herself alone
• 4:01:11
  Speaker 1: when she woke, and able to pull the bedclothes any
• 4:01:14
  Speaker 1: way she liked. Francesca had to nudge her. She was
• 4:01:19
  Speaker 1: so much absorbed that she did not notice the pudding.
• 4:01:22
  Speaker 1: If thought Missus Wilkins, distractedly helping herself, I share my
• 4:01:27
  Speaker 1: room with Melish, I risk losing all I now feel
• 4:01:29
  Speaker 1: about him. If, on the other hand, I put him
• 4:01:32
  Speaker 1: in the one spare room, I prevent Missus Fisher and
• 4:01:35
  Speaker 1: Lady Caroline from giving somebody a treat. True, they don't
• 4:01:38
  Speaker 1: seem to want to at present, but at any moment
• 4:01:41
  Speaker 1: in this place, one or the other of them may
• 4:01:43
  Speaker 1: be seized with a desire to make somebody happy, and
• 4:01:45
  Speaker 1: then they wouldn't be able to because of Mellersh. What
• 4:01:49
  Speaker 1: a problem, she said aloud, her eyebrows puckered. What is
• 4:01:53
  Speaker 1: ask Scrap? Where to put Melersh? Scrap stared? Why isn't
• 4:02:00
  Speaker 1: one room enough for him? She asked, Oh, yes, quite,
• 4:02:05
  Speaker 1: But then there won't be any room left at all,
• 4:02:08
  Speaker 1: any room for somebody you may want to invite. I
• 4:02:11
  Speaker 1: shan't want to, said Scrap, or you, said missus Wilkins
• 4:02:15
  Speaker 1: to missus Fisher. Rose, of course doesn't count. I'm sure
• 4:02:21
  Speaker 1: she would like sharing her room with her husband. It's
• 4:02:24
  Speaker 1: written all over her really, said missus Fisher. Really what,
• 4:02:30
  Speaker 1: asked missus Wilkins, turning hopefully to her For she thought
• 4:02:33
  Speaker 1: the word this time was the preliminary to a helpful suggestion.
• 4:02:37
  Speaker 1: It was not. It stood by itself. It was as
• 4:02:42
  Speaker 1: before Mere Frost challenged. However, Missus Fisher did fasten it
• 4:02:48
  Speaker 1: on to a sentence. Really, am I to understand? She asked,
• 4:02:52
  Speaker 1: that you propose to reserve the one spare room for
• 4:02:55
  Speaker 1: the exclusive use of your own family. He isn't my
• 4:02:58
  Speaker 1: own family, said missus will Wilkins. He's my husband. You see,
• 4:03:04
  Speaker 1: I see nothing. Missus Fisher could not this time refrain
• 4:03:07
  Speaker 1: from interrupting, for what an intolerable trick at the most
• 4:03:11
  Speaker 1: I hear, and that reluctantly. But Missus Wilkins, as impervious
• 4:03:16
  Speaker 1: to rebuke as Missus Fisher had feared, immediately repeated the
• 4:03:19
  Speaker 1: tiresome formula and launched out into a long and excessively
• 4:03:23
  Speaker 1: indelicate speech about the best place for the person she
• 4:03:25
  Speaker 1: called Melersh to sleep in Melersh. Missus Fisher, remembering the
• 4:03:30
  Speaker 1: Thomas's and John's, and Alfred's and Roberts of her day,
• 4:03:33
  Speaker 1: plain names that yet had all become glorious, thought its
• 4:03:36
  Speaker 1: sheer affectation to be Christ and Melersh was, it seemed,
• 4:03:40
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins's husband, and therefore his place was clearly indicated.
• 4:03:45
  Speaker 1: Why this talk, she herself, as if foreseeing his arrival,
• 4:03:49
  Speaker 1: had had a second bed put in Missus Wilkins's room.
• 4:03:53
  Speaker 1: There were certain things in life which were never talked about,
• 4:03:56
  Speaker 1: but only done. Most things connected with husbands were not
• 4:04:00
  Speaker 1: talked about, and to have a whole dinner table taken
• 4:04:02
  Speaker 1: up with a discussion as to where one of them
• 4:04:04
  Speaker 1: should sleep was an affront to the decencies. How and
• 4:04:07
  Speaker 1: where husbands slept should be known only to their wives.
• 4:04:11
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it was not known to them, and then the
• 4:04:14
  Speaker 1: marriage had less happy moments, but these moments were not
• 4:04:17
  Speaker 1: talked about either. The decencies continued to be preserved. At
• 4:04:21
  Speaker 1: least it was so in her day. To have to
• 4:04:24
  Speaker 1: hear whether mister Wilkins should or should not sleep with
• 4:04:27
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins, and the reasons why he should and the
• 4:04:30
  Speaker 1: reasons why he shouldn't was both uninteresting and indelicate. She
• 4:04:34
  Speaker 1: might have succeeded in imposing propriety and changing the conversation
• 4:04:38
  Speaker 1: if it had not been for Lady Caroline. Lady Caroline
• 4:04:42
  Speaker 1: encouraged Missus Wilkins and threw herself into the discussion with
• 4:04:45
  Speaker 1: every bit as much unreserved as Missus Wilkins herself. No
• 4:04:49
  Speaker 1: doubt she was impelled on this occasion by Keyante, but
• 4:04:52
  Speaker 1: whatever the reason, there it was, and characteristically Lady Caroline
• 4:04:57
  Speaker 1: was all for mister Wilkins being given the song military
• 4:05:00
  Speaker 1: spare room. She took that for granted. Any other arrangement
• 4:05:05
  Speaker 1: would be impossible. She said, her expression was barbarous. Had
• 4:05:10
  Speaker 1: she never read her bible. Missus Fisher was tempted to inquire,
• 4:05:14
  Speaker 1: and they too shall be one flesh. Clearly also then
• 4:05:18
  Speaker 1: one room, but missus Fisher did not inquire. She did
• 4:05:23
  Speaker 1: not care even to allude to such texts to some
• 4:05:25
  Speaker 1: one unmarried. However, there was one way she could force
• 4:05:29
  Speaker 1: mister Wilkins into his proper place and save the situation.
• 4:05:33
  Speaker 1: She could say she herself intended to invite a friend.
• 4:05:36
  Speaker 1: It was her right, they had all said so. Apart
• 4:05:41
  Speaker 1: from propriety, it was monstrous that missus Wilkins should want
• 4:05:44
  Speaker 1: to monopolize the one spare room, when in her own
• 4:05:47
  Speaker 1: room was everything necessary for her husband. Perhaps she really
• 4:05:51
  Speaker 1: would invite somebody, not invite, but suggest coming. There was
• 4:05:55
  Speaker 1: Kate Lumly, for instance. Kate could perfectly afford to come
• 4:06:00
  Speaker 1: and pay her share, and she was of her own
• 4:06:02
  Speaker 1: period anew and had known most of the people she
• 4:06:05
  Speaker 1: herself knew and had known. Kate, of course, had only
• 4:06:09
  Speaker 1: been on the fringe. She used to be asked only
• 4:06:12
  Speaker 1: to the big parties, not to the small ones, and
• 4:06:15
  Speaker 1: she still was only on the fringe. There were some
• 4:06:18
  Speaker 1: people who never got off the fringe, and Kate was one.
• 4:06:22
  Speaker 1: Often However, such people were more permanently agreeable to be
• 4:06:25
  Speaker 1: with than the others, in that they remained grateful. Yes,
• 4:06:30
  Speaker 1: she might really consider Kate, the poor soul had never married,
• 4:06:34
  Speaker 1: but then everybody could not expect to marry, and she
• 4:06:37
  Speaker 1: was quite comfortably off, not too comfortably, but just comfortably
• 4:06:41
  Speaker 1: enough to pay her own expenses. If she came and
• 4:06:43
  Speaker 1: yet be grateful. Yes, Kate was the solution. If she came,
• 4:06:49
  Speaker 1: at one stroke, Missus Fisher saw, would the wilkins As
• 4:06:52
  Speaker 1: be regularized and Missus Wilkins be prevented from having more
• 4:06:55
  Speaker 1: than her share of the rooms. Also, Missus Fisher would
• 4:06:59
  Speaker 1: save her from isolation spiritual isolation. She desired physical isolation
• 4:07:05
  Speaker 1: between meals, but she disliked that isolation, which is of
• 4:07:09
  Speaker 1: the spirit. Such isolation would, she feared, certainly, be hers
• 4:07:14
  Speaker 1: with these three alien minded young women. Even Missus Arbuthnet was,
• 4:07:18
  Speaker 1: owing to her friendship with Missus Wilkins, necessarily alien minded
• 4:07:23
  Speaker 1: in Kate. She would have a support Kate without intruding
• 4:07:27
  Speaker 1: on her sitting room, for Kate was tractable, would be
• 4:07:30
  Speaker 1: there at meals to support her. Missus Fisher said nothing
• 4:07:34
  Speaker 1: at the moment, but presently in the drawing room, when
• 4:07:37
  Speaker 1: they were gathered round the wood fire, she had discovered
• 4:07:40
  Speaker 1: there was no fireplace in her own sitting room, and
• 4:07:42
  Speaker 1: therefore she would, after all be forced, so long as
• 4:07:45
  Speaker 1: the evenings remained cool, to spend them in the other room. Presently,
• 4:07:50
  Speaker 1: while Francesca was handing coffee round and Lady Caroline was
• 4:07:53
  Speaker 1: poisoning the air with smoke, Missus Wilkins, looking relieved and pleased, said, well,
• 4:07:58
  Speaker 1: if nobody really wanted that room and wouldn't use it anyhow,
• 4:08:02
  Speaker 1: I shall be very glad if mellersh may have it.
• 4:08:05
  Speaker 1: Of course he must have it, said Lady Caroline. Then
• 4:08:09
  Speaker 1: missus Fisher spoke, I have a friend, she said in
• 4:08:13
  Speaker 1: her deep voice, and sudden silence fell upon the others.
• 4:08:17
  Speaker 1: Kate Lumley, said Missus Fisher. Nobody spoke, perhaps, continued Missus Fisher,
• 4:08:24
  Speaker 1: addressing Lady Caroline. You know her? No, Lady Caroline did
• 4:08:29
  Speaker 1: not know. Kate Lumley and Missus Fisher without asking the
• 4:08:32
  Speaker 1: others if they did, for she was sure they knew,
• 4:08:35
  Speaker 1: no one proceeded. I wish to invite her to join me,
• 4:08:38
  Speaker 1: said Missus Fisher. Complete silence. Then Scrap said, turning to
• 4:08:44
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins, that settles Melish. Then it settles the question
• 4:08:49
  Speaker 1: of mister Wilkins, said Missus fisher, although I am unable
• 4:08:53
  Speaker 1: to understand that there should ever have been a question
• 4:08:55
  Speaker 1: in the only way that is right. I'm afraid you're
• 4:08:58
  Speaker 1: in for it, then said Lady Caroline again to missus Wilkins, unless,
• 4:09:04
  Speaker 1: she added, he can't come. But Missus Wilkins, her brow perturbed,
• 4:09:09
  Speaker 1: for suppose, after all, she were not yet quite stable
• 4:09:12
  Speaker 1: in heaven, could only say, a little uneasily, I see
• 4:09:16
  Speaker 1: him here. Chapter thirteen. The uneventful days only outwardly uneventful,
• 4:09:22
  Speaker 1: slipped by in floods of sunshine, and the servants watching
• 4:09:25
  Speaker 1: the four ladies came to the conclusion there was very
• 4:09:28
  Speaker 1: little life in them. To the servant, San Salvator seemed asleep.
• 4:09:33
  Speaker 1: No one came to tea, nor did the ladies go
• 4:09:36
  Speaker 1: anywhere to tea. Other tenants in other springs had been
• 4:09:39
  Speaker 1: far more active. There had been stir and enterprise. The
• 4:09:43
  Speaker 1: boat had been used, excursions had been made, Beppo's fly
• 4:09:47
  Speaker 1: was ordered. People from Misago came over and spent the day.
• 4:09:50
  Speaker 1: The house rang with voices. Even sometimes Champagne had been drunk.
• 4:09:55
  Speaker 1: Life was varied, life was interesting, But this, what was this?
• 4:10:02
  Speaker 1: The servants were not even scolded. They were left completely
• 4:10:05
  Speaker 1: to themselves, they yawned. Perplexing too was the entire absence
• 4:10:12
  Speaker 1: of gentlemen. How could gentlemen keep away from so much beauty?
• 4:10:17
  Speaker 1: For added up, and even after the subtraction of the
• 4:10:19
  Speaker 1: old one, the three younger ladies produced a formidable total
• 4:10:23
  Speaker 1: of that which gentlemen usually sought. Also, the evident desire
• 4:10:27
  Speaker 1: of each lady to spend long hours separated from the
• 4:10:30
  Speaker 1: other ladies puzzled the servants. The result was a deathly
• 4:10:34
  Speaker 1: stillness in the house. Except at meal times, it might
• 4:10:38
  Speaker 1: have been as empty as it had been all the winter.
• 4:10:40
  Speaker 1: For any sounds of life there were. The old lady
• 4:10:43
  Speaker 1: sat in her room alone. The dark eyed lady wandered
• 4:10:47
  Speaker 1: off alone, loitering, so Domenico told them who sometimes came
• 4:10:51
  Speaker 1: across her in the course of his duties, incomprehensibly among
• 4:10:54
  Speaker 1: the rocks, the very beautiful fair lady lay in her
• 4:10:57
  Speaker 1: low chair in the top garden alone. The less but
• 4:11:01
  Speaker 1: still beautiful fair lady went up the hills and stayed
• 4:11:04
  Speaker 1: up them for hours alone. And every day the sun
• 4:11:07
  Speaker 1: blazed slowly round the house and disappeared at evening into
• 4:11:10
  Speaker 1: the sea, and nothing at all had happened. The servants yawned.
• 4:11:15
  Speaker 1: Yet the four visitors, while their bodies sat that was
• 4:11:18
  Speaker 1: Missus Fisher's, or lay that was Lady Caroline's, or loitered
• 4:11:23
  Speaker 1: that was Missus Arbuthnet's, or went in solitude up into
• 4:11:26
  Speaker 1: the hills that was Missus Wilkins's, or anything but torpid. Really,
• 4:11:31
  Speaker 1: their minds were unusually busy, even at night. Their minds
• 4:11:35
  Speaker 1: were busy, and the dreams they had were clear, thin,
• 4:11:39
  Speaker 1: quick things entirely different from the heavy dreams of home.
• 4:11:43
  Speaker 1: There was that in the atmosphere of San Salvator, which
• 4:11:46
  Speaker 1: produced active mindedness in all except the natives. They as before,
• 4:11:51
  Speaker 1: whatever the beauty around them, whatever the prodigal seasons, did,
• 4:11:55
  Speaker 1: remained immune from thoughts other than those they were accustomed to.
• 4:11:59
  Speaker 1: All their lives, they had seen year by year the amazing,
• 4:12:02
  Speaker 1: recurrent spectacle of April in the gardens, and custom had
• 4:12:05
  Speaker 1: made it invisible to them. They were as blind to it,
• 4:12:09
  Speaker 1: as unconscious of it as Domenico's dog asleep in the sun.
• 4:12:13
  Speaker 1: The visitors could not be blind to it. It was
• 4:12:16
  Speaker 1: too arresting after London, in a particularly wet and gloomy march,
• 4:12:20
  Speaker 1: suddenly to be transported to that place, where the air
• 4:12:23
  Speaker 1: was so still that it held its breath, where the
• 4:12:25
  Speaker 1: light was so golden that the most ordinary things were transfigured.
• 4:12:29
  Speaker 1: To be transported into that delicate warmth, that caressing fragrance,
• 4:12:33
  Speaker 1: and to have the old gray castle as the setting,
• 4:12:35
  Speaker 1: and in the distance the serene, clear hills of Peragini's
• 4:12:40
  Speaker 1: backgrounds was an astonishing contrast. Even Lady Caroline, used all
• 4:12:45
  Speaker 1: her life to beauty, who had been everywhere and seen everything,
• 4:12:49
  Speaker 1: felt the surprise of it. It was that year a
• 4:12:52
  Speaker 1: particularly wonderful spring, And of all the months at San Salvatore, April,
• 4:12:57
  Speaker 1: if the weather was fine, was best. May scorched and withered.
• 4:13:01
  Speaker 1: March was restless and could be hard and cold in
• 4:13:04
  Speaker 1: its brightness. But April came along softly, like a blessing.
• 4:13:08
  Speaker 1: And if it were a fine April, it was so
• 4:13:10
  Speaker 1: beautiful that it was impossible not to feel different, not
• 4:13:12
  Speaker 1: to feel stirred and touched. Missus Wilkins we have seen,
• 4:13:17
  Speaker 1: responded to it instantly. She so to speak at once,
• 4:13:22
  Speaker 1: flung off all her garments, and dived straight into glory, unhesitatingly,
• 4:13:26
  Speaker 1: with a cry of rapture. Missus Arbuthnet was stirred and touched,
• 4:13:31
  Speaker 1: but differently she had odd sensations presently to be described.
• 4:13:37
  Speaker 1: Missus Fisher, being old, was of a closer, more impermeable texture,
• 4:13:41
  Speaker 1: and offered more resistance, but she too had odd sensations
• 4:13:45
  Speaker 1: also in their place to be described, Lady Caroline, already
• 4:13:50
  Speaker 1: amply acquainted with beautiful houses and climates to whom they
• 4:13:53
  Speaker 1: could not come quite with the same surprise, yet was
• 4:13:56
  Speaker 1: very nearly as quick to react as Missus Wilkins. The
• 4:14:00
  Speaker 1: place had an almost instantaneous influence on her as well,
• 4:14:03
  Speaker 1: and of one part of this influence she was aware.
• 4:14:05
  Speaker 1: It had made her, beginning on the very first evening,
• 4:14:08
  Speaker 1: want to think and acted on her curiously like a conscience.
• 4:14:12
  Speaker 1: What this conscience seemed to press upon her notice with
• 4:14:15
  Speaker 1: an insistence that startled her. Lady Caroline hesitated to accept
• 4:14:19
  Speaker 1: the word, but it would keep on coming into her head.
• 4:14:21
  Speaker 1: Was that she was tawdry, tawdrey. She fancy she must
• 4:14:28
  Speaker 1: think that out. The morning after the first dinner together,
• 4:14:32
  Speaker 1: she woke up in a condition of regret that she
• 4:14:34
  Speaker 1: should have been so talkative to Missus Wilkins the night before.
• 4:14:38
  Speaker 1: What had made her be she wondered? Now, of course,
• 4:14:43
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins would want to grab She would want to
• 4:14:45
  Speaker 1: be inseparable, and the thought of a grabbing and an
• 4:14:48
  Speaker 1: inseparableness that should last four weeks made Scrap's spirit swoon
• 4:14:51
  Speaker 1: within her. No doubt the encouraged missus Wilkins would be
• 4:14:55
  Speaker 1: lurking in the top garden waiting to waylay her when
• 4:14:58
  Speaker 1: she went out, and would hail her with mourning cheerfulness.
• 4:15:02
  Speaker 1: How much she hated being hailed with mourning cheerfulness, or
• 4:15:05
  Speaker 1: indeed hailed at all. She oughtn't to have encouraged missus
• 4:15:09
  Speaker 1: Wilkins the night before fatal to encourage. It was bad
• 4:15:14
  Speaker 1: enough not to encourage, for just sitting there and saying
• 4:15:17
  Speaker 1: nothing seemed usually to involve her. But actively to encourage
• 4:15:21
  Speaker 1: was suicidal. What on earth had made her? Now? She
• 4:15:25
  Speaker 1: would have to waste all the precious time, the precious
• 4:15:28
  Speaker 1: lovely time for thinking, in for getting square with herself.
• 4:15:32
  Speaker 1: In shaking Missus Wilkins off with great caution and on
• 4:15:36
  Speaker 1: the tips of her toes, balancing herself carefully lest the
• 4:15:39
  Speaker 1: pebbles should scrunch. She stole out when she was dressed,
• 4:15:42
  Speaker 1: to her corner, but the garden was empty. No shaking
• 4:15:46
  Speaker 1: off was necessary, Neither Missus Wilkins nor anybody else was
• 4:15:50
  Speaker 1: to be seen. She had it entirely to herself, except
• 4:15:55
  Speaker 1: for Domenico, who presently came and hovered watering his plants again,
• 4:15:59
  Speaker 1: especially all the plants that were nearest her. No one
• 4:16:02
  Speaker 1: came out at all. And when after a long while
• 4:16:05
  Speaker 1: of following up thoughts which seemed to escape her just
• 4:16:07
  Speaker 1: as she had got them, and dropping off exhausted to
• 4:16:10
  Speaker 1: sleep in the intervals of this chase, she felt hungry
• 4:16:13
  Speaker 1: and looked at her watch and saw that it was
• 4:16:15
  Speaker 1: past three. She realized that nobody had even bothered to
• 4:16:18
  Speaker 1: call her into lunch, so that Scrap could not but
• 4:16:22
  Speaker 1: remark if any one was shaken off, it was she herself. Well,
• 4:16:27
  Speaker 1: But how delightful, and how very new now she would
• 4:16:31
  Speaker 1: really be able to think uninterruptedly delicious to be forgotten. Still,
• 4:16:37
  Speaker 1: she was hungry, and Missus Wilkins, after that excessive friendliness
• 4:16:41
  Speaker 1: the night before, might at least have told her lunch
• 4:16:44
  Speaker 1: was ready, And she had really been excessively friendly, so
• 4:16:48
  Speaker 1: nice about Melchia's sleeping arrangements, wanting him to have the
• 4:16:51
  Speaker 1: spare room. In all, she wasn't usually interested in arrangements.
• 4:16:56
  Speaker 1: In fact, she wasn't ever interested in them, so that
• 4:16:58
  Speaker 1: Scrap considered she might be, she said, almost to have
• 4:17:00
  Speaker 1: gone out of her way to be agreeable to Missus Wilkins,
• 4:17:04
  Speaker 1: and in return, Missus Wilkins didn't even bother whether or
• 4:17:07
  Speaker 1: not she had any lunch. Fortunately, though she was hungry,
• 4:17:12
  Speaker 1: she didn't mind missing a meal. Life was full of meals.
• 4:17:17
  Speaker 1: They took up an enormous proportion of one's time, and
• 4:17:20
  Speaker 1: Missus Fisher was she was afraid one of those persons
• 4:17:23
  Speaker 1: who at meals linger. Twice now had she dined with
• 4:17:27
  Speaker 1: Missus Fisher, and each time she had been difficult at
• 4:17:29
  Speaker 1: the end to dislodge, lingering on slowly cracking innumerable nuts
• 4:17:33
  Speaker 1: and slowly drinking a glass of wine that seemed as
• 4:17:35
  Speaker 1: if it would never be finished. Probably it would be
• 4:17:39
  Speaker 1: a good thing to make a habit of missing lunch,
• 4:17:41
  Speaker 1: And as it was quite easy to have tea brought
• 4:17:43
  Speaker 1: out to her, and as she breakfasted in her room,
• 4:17:46
  Speaker 1: only once a day would she have to sit at
• 4:17:48
  Speaker 1: the dining room table and endure the nuts. Scrap burrowed
• 4:17:52
  Speaker 1: her head comfortably in the cushions, and with her feet
• 4:17:54
  Speaker 1: crossed on the low parapet gave herself up to more thought.
• 4:17:58
  Speaker 1: She said to herself, as she had said at intervals
• 4:18:01
  Speaker 1: throughout the morning, now I'm going to think. But never
• 4:18:05
  Speaker 1: having thought out anything in her life, it was difficult.
• 4:18:09
  Speaker 1: Extraordinary how one's attention wouldn't stay fixed, Extraordinary, how one's
• 4:18:13
  Speaker 1: mind slipped sideways, settling herself down to a review of
• 4:18:17
  Speaker 1: her past as a preliminary to the consideration of her future,
• 4:18:20
  Speaker 1: and hunting in it to begin with, for any justification
• 4:18:23
  Speaker 1: of that distressing word tawdry. The next thing she knew
• 4:18:27
  Speaker 1: was that she wasn't thinking about this at all, but
• 4:18:29
  Speaker 1: had somehow switched on to mister Wilkins. Well, mister Wilkins
• 4:18:34
  Speaker 1: was quite easy to think about, though not pleasant, She
• 4:18:38
  Speaker 1: viewed his approach with misgivings, for not only was it
• 4:18:41
  Speaker 1: a profound and unexpected bore to have a man added
• 4:18:44
  Speaker 1: to the party, and a man too, of the kind
• 4:18:47
  Speaker 1: she was sure mister Wilkins must be. But she was afraid,
• 4:18:50
  Speaker 1: and her fear was the result of a drearily unvarying experience,
• 4:18:54
  Speaker 1: that he might wish to hang about her. This possibility
• 4:18:58
  Speaker 1: had evidently not yet occurred to missus Wi Wilkins, and
• 4:19:00
  Speaker 1: it was not one to which she could very well
• 4:19:02
  Speaker 1: draw her attention, not that is, without being too fatuous
• 4:19:06
  Speaker 1: to live. She tried to hope that mister Wilkins would
• 4:19:10
  Speaker 1: be a wonderful exception to the dreadful rule. If only
• 4:19:14
  Speaker 1: he were, she would be so much obliged to him
• 4:19:16
  Speaker 1: that she believed she might really quite like him. But
• 4:19:20
  Speaker 1: she had misgivings. Suppose he hung about her so that
• 4:19:24
  Speaker 1: she was driven from her lovely top garden. Suppose the
• 4:19:26
  Speaker 1: light in missus Wilkins's funny, flickering face was blown out.
• 4:19:31
  Speaker 1: Scrap felt she would particularly dislike this to happen to
• 4:19:34
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins's face. Yet she had never, in her life
• 4:19:37
  Speaker 1: met any wives, not any at all, who had been
• 4:19:40
  Speaker 1: able to understand that she didn't in the least want
• 4:19:42
  Speaker 1: their husbands. Often she had met wives who didn't want
• 4:19:45
  Speaker 1: their husbands either, but that made them none the less
• 4:19:48
  Speaker 1: indignant if they thought somebody else did, and none the
• 4:19:51
  Speaker 1: less sure when they saw them hanging round Scrap that
• 4:19:54
  Speaker 1: she was trying to get them, trying to get them
• 4:19:58
  Speaker 1: the bear thought. The bare recollection of these situations filled
• 4:20:01
  Speaker 1: her with a boredom so extreme that It instantly sent
• 4:20:04
  Speaker 1: her to sleep again. When she woke up, she went
• 4:20:07
  Speaker 1: on with mister Wilkins. Now, if thought Scrap mister Wilkins
• 4:20:12
  Speaker 1: were not an exception and behaved in the usual way,
• 4:20:14
  Speaker 1: would Missus Wilkins understand or would it just simply spoil
• 4:20:18
  Speaker 1: her holiday? She seemed quick, but would she be quick
• 4:20:22
  Speaker 1: about just this? She seemed to understand and see inside one.
• 4:20:26
  Speaker 1: But would she understand and see inside one when it
• 4:20:29
  Speaker 1: came to mister Wilkins. The experienced Scrap was full of doubts.
• 4:20:34
  Speaker 1: She shifted her feet on the parapet. She jerked a
• 4:20:37
  Speaker 1: cushion straight. Perhaps she had better try and explain to
• 4:20:40
  Speaker 1: missus Wilkins during the days still remaining before the arrival,
• 4:20:44
  Speaker 1: explain in a general way, rather vague in talking at large,
• 4:20:48
  Speaker 1: her attitude towards such things. She might also expound to
• 4:20:52
  Speaker 1: her her peculiar dislike of people's husbands and her profound
• 4:20:56
  Speaker 1: craving to be at least for this one month let alone.
• 4:21:00
  Speaker 1: But Scrap had her doubts about this too. Such talk
• 4:21:04
  Speaker 1: meant a certain familiarity, meant embarking on a friendship with
• 4:21:07
  Speaker 1: missus Wilkins. And if after having embarked on it and
• 4:21:10
  Speaker 1: faced the peril it contained of too much Missus Wilkins.
• 4:21:14
  Speaker 1: Mister Wilkins should turn out to be artful, and people
• 4:21:17
  Speaker 1: did get very artful when they were set on anything,
• 4:21:20
  Speaker 1: and manage, after all, to slip through into the top garden.
• 4:21:23
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins might easily believe she had been taken in
• 4:21:26
  Speaker 1: and that she Scrap was deceitful, deceitful, and about mister
• 4:21:31
  Speaker 1: Wilkins wives were really pathetic. At half past four, she
• 4:21:37
  Speaker 1: heard sounds of saucers on the other side of the
• 4:21:39
  Speaker 1: Daphne bushes. Was Tea being sent out to her? No,
• 4:21:44
  Speaker 1: the sounds came no closer. They stopped near the house.
• 4:21:48
  Speaker 1: Tea was to be in the garden, in her garden,
• 4:21:51
  Speaker 1: Scrap considered she might at least have been asked if
• 4:21:54
  Speaker 1: she minded being disturbed. They all knew she sat there.
• 4:21:59
  Speaker 1: Perhaps some one would bring hers to her in her corner.
• 4:22:02
  Speaker 1: No nobody brought anything. Well, she was too hungry not
• 4:22:07
  Speaker 1: to go and have it with the others to day,
• 4:22:09
  Speaker 1: but she would give Francesca strict orders for the future.
• 4:22:13
  Speaker 1: She got up and walked with that slow grace, which
• 4:22:15
  Speaker 1: was another of her outrageous number of attractions. Towards the
• 4:22:18
  Speaker 1: sounds of tea. She was conscious not only of being
• 4:22:22
  Speaker 1: very hungry, but of wanting to talk to Missus Wilkins again.
• 4:22:26
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilkins had not grabbed. She had left her quite
• 4:22:29
  Speaker 1: free all day, in spite of the rapprochemond the night before.
• 4:22:33
  Speaker 1: Of course, she was an original and put on a
• 4:22:35
  Speaker 1: silk jumper for dinner. But she hadn't grabbed. This was
• 4:22:39
  Speaker 1: a great thing. Scrap went towards the tea table quite
• 4:22:43
  Speaker 1: looking forward to Missus Wilkins, and when she came in
• 4:22:45
  Speaker 1: sight of it, she saw only Missus Fisher and Missus Arbuthnet.
• 4:22:50
  Speaker 1: Missus Fisher was pouring out the tea, and Missus Arbuthnet
• 4:22:53
  Speaker 1: was offering Missus Fisher macaroons. Every time Missus Fisher offered
• 4:22:58
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet anything her cup or milk or sugar, Missus
• 4:23:02
  Speaker 1: Arbuthnet offered her macaroons, pressed them on her with an
• 4:23:05
  Speaker 1: odd assiduousness, almost with obstinacy. Was it a game, Scrap wondered,
• 4:23:12
  Speaker 1: sitting down and seizing a macaroon. Where is missus Wilkins,
• 4:23:16
  Speaker 1: asked Scrap. They did not know, at least missus Arbuthnet,
• 4:23:22
  Speaker 1: on Scrap's inquiry, did not know. Missus Fisher's face at
• 4:23:26
  Speaker 1: the name became elaborately uninterested. It appeared that Missus Wilkins
• 4:23:31
  Speaker 1: had not been seen since breakfast. Missus Arbuthnet thought she
• 4:23:35
  Speaker 1: had probably gone for a picnic. Scrap missed her. She
• 4:23:40
  Speaker 1: ate the enormous macaroons, the best and biggest she had
• 4:23:43
  Speaker 1: ever come across, in silence tea without Missus Wilkins was dull,
• 4:23:48
  Speaker 1: and Missus Arbuthnet had that fatal flavor of motherliness about her,
• 4:23:52
  Speaker 1: of wanting to pet one, to make one very comfortable,
• 4:23:55
  Speaker 1: coaxing one to eat, coaxing her who was already so
• 4:23:58
  Speaker 1: frankly so even excessively eating, That seemed to have dogged
• 4:24:03
  Speaker 1: Scrap steps through life. Couldn't people leave one alone? She
• 4:24:08
  Speaker 1: was perfectly able to eat what she wanted. Uninsided, She
• 4:24:12
  Speaker 1: tried to quench Missus Arbuthnet's seal by being short with
• 4:24:15
  Speaker 1: her useless. The shortness was not apparent. It remained as
• 4:24:22
  Speaker 1: all Scrap's evil feelings remained covered up by the impenetrable
• 4:24:25
  Speaker 1: veil of her loveliness. Missus Fisher sat monumentally and took
• 4:24:30
  Speaker 1: no notice of either of them. She had had a
• 4:24:33
  Speaker 1: curious day and was a little worried. She had been
• 4:24:37
  Speaker 1: quite alone, for none of the three had come to lunch,
• 4:24:40
  Speaker 1: and none of them had taken the trouble to let
• 4:24:42
  Speaker 1: her know they were not coming, and Missus Arbuthnet, drifting
• 4:24:45
  Speaker 1: casually into tea, had behaved oddly till Lady Caroline joined
• 4:24:49
  Speaker 1: them and distracted her attention. Missus Fisher was prepared not
• 4:24:53
  Speaker 1: to dislike Missus Arbuthnet, whose parted hair and mild expression
• 4:24:56
  Speaker 1: seemed very decent and womanly, but she certainly had habited
• 4:25:00
  Speaker 1: that were difficult to like. Her habit of instantly echoing
• 4:25:03
  Speaker 1: any offer made her of food or drink, of throwing
• 4:25:06
  Speaker 1: the offer back on one as it were, was not, somehow,
• 4:25:09
  Speaker 1: what one expected of her. Will you have some more
• 4:25:12
  Speaker 1: tea was surely a question to which the answer was
• 4:25:15
  Speaker 1: simply yes or no. But Missus Arbuthnet persisted in a
• 4:25:18
  Speaker 1: trick she had exhibited the day before at breakfast, of
• 4:25:21
  Speaker 1: adding to her yes or know the words will you.
• 4:25:24
  Speaker 1: She had done it again that morning at breakfast, and
• 4:25:27
  Speaker 1: here she was doing it at tea. The two meals
• 4:25:29
  Speaker 1: at which Missus Fisher presided and poured out why did
• 4:25:33
  Speaker 1: she do it? Missus Fisher failed to understand. But this
• 4:25:37
  Speaker 1: was not what was worrying her. This was merely, by
• 4:25:40
  Speaker 1: the way. What was worrying her was that she had
• 4:25:43
  Speaker 1: been quite unable that day to settle to anything, and
• 4:25:46
  Speaker 1: had done nothing but wander restlessly from her sitting room
• 4:25:49
  Speaker 1: to her battlements and back again. It had been a
• 4:25:52
  Speaker 1: wasted day, and how much she disliked waste. She had
• 4:25:56
  Speaker 1: tried to read, and she had tried to write to
• 4:25:58
  Speaker 1: Kate Lumley, but none. Oh, a few words read, a
• 4:26:01
  Speaker 1: few lines written, and up she got again and went
• 4:26:04
  Speaker 1: out on to the battlements and stared at the sea.
• 4:26:07
  Speaker 1: It did not matter that the letter to Kate Lumley
• 4:26:09
  Speaker 1: should not be written. There was time enough for that.
• 4:26:13
  Speaker 1: Let the others suppose her coming was definitely fixed, all
• 4:26:17
  Speaker 1: the better. So would mister Wilkins be kept out of
• 4:26:21
  Speaker 1: the spare room and put where he belonged. Kate would
• 4:26:24
  Speaker 1: keep she could be held in reserve. Kate in reserve
• 4:26:28
  Speaker 1: was just as potent as Kate in actuality. And there
• 4:26:31
  Speaker 1: were points about Kate in reserve which might be missing
• 4:26:34
  Speaker 1: from Kate in actuality. For instance, if missus Fisher were
• 4:26:38
  Speaker 1: going to be restless. She would rather Kate were not
• 4:26:41
  Speaker 1: there to see. There was a want of dignity about restlessness,
• 4:26:45
  Speaker 1: about trotting backwards and forwards. But it did matter that
• 4:26:49
  Speaker 1: she could not read a sentence of any of her
• 4:26:51
  Speaker 1: great dead friend's writings. No, not even of Brownings, who
• 4:26:54
  Speaker 1: had been so much in Italy, nor of Ruskins, whose
• 4:26:57
  Speaker 1: Stones of Venice she had brought with her to re
• 4:26:59
  Speaker 1: read so nearly on the very spot, nor even a
• 4:27:03
  Speaker 1: sentence of a really interesting book like the one she
• 4:27:05
  Speaker 1: had found in her sitting room about the home life
• 4:27:07
  Speaker 1: of the German Emperor poor Man, written in the nineties,
• 4:27:11
  Speaker 1: when he had not yet begun to be more sinned
• 4:27:13
  Speaker 1: against than sinning, which was she was firmly convinced what
• 4:27:16
  Speaker 1: was the matter with him now? And full of exciting
• 4:27:20
  Speaker 1: things about his birth in his right arm and a
• 4:27:22
  Speaker 1: cotures without having to put it down and go and
• 4:27:24
  Speaker 1: stare at the sea. Reading was very important. The proper
• 4:27:28
  Speaker 1: exercise and development of one's mind was a paramount duty.
• 4:27:33
  Speaker 1: How could one read if one were constantly trotting in
• 4:27:35
  Speaker 1: and out curious this restlessness? Was she going to be ill? No?
• 4:27:42
  Speaker 1: She felt well, indeed unusually well, and she went in
• 4:27:46
  Speaker 1: and out quite quickly, trotted in fact, and without her stick.
• 4:27:51
  Speaker 1: Very odd that she shouldn't be able to sit still,
• 4:27:54
  Speaker 1: she thought, frowning across the tops of some purple hyacinths
• 4:27:57
  Speaker 1: at the Gulf of Spetzia, glittering beyond a headland. Very
• 4:28:00
  Speaker 1: odd that she, who walked so slowly, with such dependence
• 4:28:04
  Speaker 1: on her stick, should suddenly trot. It would be interesting
• 4:28:07
  Speaker 1: to talk to someone about it, she felt, Not to
• 4:28:11
  Speaker 1: Kate to a stranger. Kate would only look at her
• 4:28:14
  Speaker 1: and suggest a cup of tea. Kate always suggested cups
• 4:28:19
  Speaker 1: of tea. Besides, Kate had a flat face that Missus Wilkins,
• 4:28:25
  Speaker 1: now annoying as she was loose, dunged as she was, impertinent, objectionable,
• 4:28:30
  Speaker 1: would probably understand and perhaps know what was making her
• 4:28:33
  Speaker 1: be like this. But she could say nothing to Missus Wilkins.
• 4:28:38
  Speaker 1: She was the last person to whom one would admit
• 4:28:41
  Speaker 1: sensations dignity alone, forbade it confide in Missus Wilkins never
• 4:28:48
  Speaker 1: and Missus Arbuthnet. While she wistfully mothered the obstructive scrap
• 4:28:52
  Speaker 1: at tea, felt too that she had had a curious
• 4:28:55
  Speaker 1: day like Missus Fisher's. It had been active, but unlike
• 4:28:59
  Speaker 1: men Fisher's only active in mind. Her body had been
• 4:29:04
  Speaker 1: quite still. Her mind had not been still at all.
• 4:29:07
  Speaker 1: It had been excessively active. For years. She had taken
• 4:29:10
  Speaker 1: care to have no time to think. Her scheduled life
• 4:29:14
  Speaker 1: in the parish had prevented memories and desires from intruding
• 4:29:17
  Speaker 1: on her. That day they had crowded. She went back
• 4:29:21
  Speaker 1: to tea feeling dejected, And that she should feel dejected
• 4:29:24
  Speaker 1: in such a place, with everything about her to make
• 4:29:26
  Speaker 1: her rejoice, only dejected her the more. But how could
• 4:29:30
  Speaker 1: she rejoice alone? How could anybody rejoice and enjoy and appreciate,
• 4:29:35
  Speaker 1: really appreciate alone except Lottie. Lottie seemed able to. She
• 4:29:42
  Speaker 1: had gone off down the hill directly after breakfast, alone,
• 4:29:45
  Speaker 1: yet obviously rejoicing, for she had not suggested that Rose
• 4:29:49
  Speaker 1: should go too, and she was singing as she went.
• 4:29:52
  Speaker 1: Rose had spent the day by herself, sitting with her
• 4:29:55
  Speaker 1: hands clasping her knees, staring straight in front of her.
• 4:29:59
  Speaker 1: What she was staring at were the gray swords of
• 4:30:01
  Speaker 1: the Agavies, and on their tall stalks the pale irises
• 4:30:05
  Speaker 1: that grew in the remote place she had found. While
• 4:30:08
  Speaker 1: beyond them, between the gray leaves and the blue flowers,
• 4:30:11
  Speaker 1: she saw the sea. The place she had found was
• 4:30:14
  Speaker 1: a hidden corner where the sun baked stones were padded
• 4:30:17
  Speaker 1: with time, and nobody was likely to come. It was
• 4:30:20
  Speaker 1: out of sight and sound of the house. It was
• 4:30:22
  Speaker 1: off any path. It was near the end of the promontory.
• 4:30:26
  Speaker 1: She sat so quiet that presently lizards darted over her feet,
• 4:30:30
  Speaker 1: and some tiny birds like finches, frightened away at first,
• 4:30:34
  Speaker 1: came back again and flitted among the bushes round her,
• 4:30:36
  Speaker 1: just as if she hadn't been there. How beautiful it was,
• 4:30:41
  Speaker 1: and what was the good of it? With no one there,
• 4:30:43
  Speaker 1: no one who loved being, with one who belonged to
• 4:30:46
  Speaker 1: one to whom one could say look, And wouldn't one
• 4:30:50
  Speaker 1: say look dearest? Yes, one would say dearest, And the
• 4:30:54
  Speaker 1: sweet word, just to say it to somebody who loved
• 4:30:57
  Speaker 1: one would make one happy. She she sat quite still,
• 4:31:01
  Speaker 1: staring straight in front of her, strange that in this
• 4:31:04
  Speaker 1: place she did not want to pray. She who had
• 4:31:07
  Speaker 1: prayed so constantly at home, didn't seem able to do
• 4:31:10
  Speaker 1: it here at all. The first morning, she had merely
• 4:31:13
  Speaker 1: thrown up a brief thank you to Heaven on getting
• 4:31:15
  Speaker 1: out of bed, and had gone straight to the window
• 4:31:18
  Speaker 1: to see what everything looked like, thrown up to thank
• 4:31:20
  Speaker 1: you as carelessly as a ball, and thought no more
• 4:31:23
  Speaker 1: about it. That morning, remembering this and ashamed, she had
• 4:31:27
  Speaker 1: knelt down with determination. But perhaps determination was bad for prayers,
• 4:31:32
  Speaker 1: for she had been unable to think of a thing
• 4:31:34
  Speaker 1: to say. And as for her bedtime prayers, on neither
• 4:31:37
  Speaker 1: of the nights had she said a single one. She
• 4:31:40
  Speaker 1: had forgotten them. She had been so much absorbed in
• 4:31:44
  Speaker 1: other thoughts that she had forgotten them. And once in
• 4:31:47
  Speaker 1: bed she was asleep and whirling along among bright, thin,
• 4:31:50
  Speaker 1: swift dreams. Before she had so much time as to
• 4:31:53
  Speaker 1: stretch herself out. What had come over her? Why had
• 4:31:57
  Speaker 1: she let go the anchor of prayer? And she had
• 4:32:00
  Speaker 1: difficulty too in remembering her poor, in remembering even that
• 4:32:04
  Speaker 1: there were such things as poor. Holidays, of course were good,
• 4:32:09
  Speaker 1: and were recognized by everybody as good. But ought they
• 4:32:12
  Speaker 1: so completely to blot out, to make such havoc of
• 4:32:15
  Speaker 1: the realities. Perhaps it was healthy to forget her poor
• 4:32:19
  Speaker 1: with all the greater gusto which she go back to them.
• 4:32:22
  Speaker 1: But it couldn't be healthy to forget her prayers, and
• 4:32:25
  Speaker 1: still less could it be healthy not to mind? Rose
• 4:32:29
  Speaker 1: did not mind. She knew she did not mind, and
• 4:32:33
  Speaker 1: even worse, she knew she did not mind not minding.
• 4:32:37
  Speaker 1: In this place, she was indifferent to both the things
• 4:32:40
  Speaker 1: that had filled her life and made it seem as
• 4:32:41
  Speaker 1: if it were happy for years. Well, if only she
• 4:32:45
  Speaker 1: could rejoice in her wonderful new surroundings, have that much
• 4:32:48
  Speaker 1: at least to set against the indifference, the letting go.
• 4:32:51
  Speaker 1: But she could not. She had no work, She did
• 4:32:54
  Speaker 1: not pray. She was left empty. Lottie had spoilt her
• 4:32:59
  Speaker 1: day that day, as she had spoilt her day the
• 4:33:01
  Speaker 1: day before, Lottie with her invitation to her husband, with
• 4:33:04
  Speaker 1: her suggestion that she too should invite hers. Having flung
• 4:33:08
  Speaker 1: Frederick into her mind again the day before, Lottie had
• 4:33:11
  Speaker 1: left her for the whole afternoon. She had left her
• 4:33:14
  Speaker 1: alone with her thoughts. Since then they had been all
• 4:33:17
  Speaker 1: of Frederick. Where at Hampstead he came to her only
• 4:33:21
  Speaker 1: in her dreams. Here he left her dreams free and
• 4:33:23
  Speaker 1: was with her during the day instead. And again that morning,
• 4:33:27
  Speaker 1: as she was struggling not to think of him, Lottie
• 4:33:30
  Speaker 1: had asked her, just before disappearing, singing down the path,
• 4:33:33
  Speaker 1: if she had written yet and invited him? And again
• 4:33:35
  Speaker 1: he was flung into her mind and she wasn't able
• 4:33:38
  Speaker 1: to get him out. How could she invite him? It
• 4:33:41
  Speaker 1: had gone on so long, their estrangement, such years, she
• 4:33:45
  Speaker 1: would hardly know what words to use. And besides, he
• 4:33:49
  Speaker 1: would not come. Why should he come? He didn't care
• 4:33:53
  Speaker 1: about being with her. What could they talk about between them?
• 4:33:57
  Speaker 1: Was the barrier of his work and her religion? She
• 4:34:01
  Speaker 1: could not. How could she, believing as she did, in purity,
• 4:34:04
  Speaker 1: in responsibility for the effect of one's actions on others,
• 4:34:08
  Speaker 1: bear his work, bear living by it. And he, she knew,
• 4:34:12
  Speaker 1: had at first resented and then been merely bored by
• 4:34:14
  Speaker 1: her religion. He had let her slip away, He had
• 4:34:18
  Speaker 1: given her up. He no longer minded, He accepted her
• 4:34:21
  Speaker 1: religion indifferently, as a settled fact. Both it and she
• 4:34:26
  Speaker 1: rose's mind becoming more luminous in the clear light of
• 4:34:29
  Speaker 1: April at San Salvatore suddenly saw the truth bored him. Naturally.
• 4:34:34
  Speaker 1: When she saw this, when that morning it flashed upon
• 4:34:37
  Speaker 1: her for the first time, she did not like it.
• 4:34:39
  Speaker 1: She liked it so little that for a space the
• 4:34:41
  Speaker 1: whole beauty of Italy was blotted out? What was to
• 4:34:45
  Speaker 1: be done about it? She could not give up believing
• 4:34:48
  Speaker 1: in good and not liking evil. And it must be
• 4:34:50
  Speaker 1: evil to live entirely on the proceeds of adulteries, however
• 4:34:54
  Speaker 1: dead and distinguished they were. Besides, if she did, if
• 4:34:58
  Speaker 1: she sacrificed her whole pasth her bringing up her work
• 4:35:02
  Speaker 1: for the last ten years, which she bore him less,
• 4:35:05
  Speaker 1: Rose felt right down at her very roots, that if
• 4:35:08
  Speaker 1: you have once thoroughly bored somebody, it is next to
• 4:35:10
  Speaker 1: impossible to unbore him. Once a bore, always a bore. Certainly,
• 4:35:15
  Speaker 1: she thought to the person originally bored. Then thought she,
• 4:35:19
  Speaker 1: looking out to see through eyes grown misty. Better cling
• 4:35:22
  Speaker 1: to her religion. It was better, she hardly noticed the
• 4:35:26
  Speaker 1: reprehensibleness of her thought, than nothing. But oh, she wanted
• 4:35:31
  Speaker 1: to cling to something tangible, to love, something living, something
• 4:35:34
  Speaker 1: that one could hold against one's heart, that one could
• 4:35:37
  Speaker 1: see and touch and do things for if her poor
• 4:35:40
  Speaker 1: baby hadn't died. Babies didn't get bored with one It
• 4:35:44
  Speaker 1: took them a long while to grow up and find
• 4:35:47
  Speaker 1: one out. And perhaps one's baby never did find one out,
• 4:35:51
  Speaker 1: perhaps one would always be to it, however old and bearded.
• 4:35:54
  Speaker 1: It grew somebody special, somebody different from every one else,
• 4:35:58
  Speaker 1: and if for no other reason, prayercious and that one
• 4:36:00
  Speaker 1: could never be repeated. Sitting with dim eyes looking out
• 4:36:04
  Speaker 1: to see, she felt an extraordinary yearning to hold something
• 4:36:07
  Speaker 1: of her very own tight to her. Bosom. Rose was
• 4:36:10
  Speaker 1: slender and as reserved in figure as in character, yet
• 4:36:13
  Speaker 1: she felt a queer sensation of how could she describe it? Bosom?
• 4:36:18
  Speaker 1: There was something about San Salvatore that made her feel
• 4:36:21
  Speaker 1: all bosom. She wanted to gather to her bosom to
• 4:36:25
  Speaker 1: comfort and protect, soothing the dear head that should lie
• 4:36:28
  Speaker 1: on it with softest strokings and murmurs of love. Frederick,
• 4:36:32
  Speaker 1: Frederick's child come to her, pillowed on her because they
• 4:36:36
  Speaker 1: were unhappy, because they had been hurt. They would need her. Then,
• 4:36:40
  Speaker 1: if they had been hurt, they would let themselves be loved.
• 4:36:43
  Speaker 1: Then if they were unhappy, well, the child was gone.
• 4:36:48
  Speaker 1: Would never come now, but perhaps Frederick some day when
• 4:36:51
  Speaker 1: he was old and tired. Such were Missus Arbuthnet's reflections
• 4:36:56
  Speaker 1: and emotions that first day at San Salvatore by herself
• 4:37:00
  Speaker 1: She went back to Tea dejected as she had not
• 4:37:02
  Speaker 1: been for years. San Salvatorre had taken her carefully built
• 4:37:07
  Speaker 1: up semblance of happiness away from her and given her
• 4:37:09
  Speaker 1: nothing in exchange. Yes, it had given her yearnings in exchange,
• 4:37:14
  Speaker 1: this ache and longing, this queer feeling of bosom. But
• 4:37:18
  Speaker 1: that was worse than nothing. And she who had learned balance,
• 4:37:22
  Speaker 1: who never at home, was irritated but always able to
• 4:37:24
  Speaker 1: be kind, could not, even in her dejection that afternoon,
• 4:37:28
  Speaker 1: endure missus Fisher's assumption of the position as hostess at Tea.
• 4:37:32
  Speaker 1: One would have supposed that such a little thing would
• 4:37:34
  Speaker 1: not have touched her, but it did. Was her nature changing?
• 4:37:39
  Speaker 1: Was she to be not only thrown back on long
• 4:37:42
  Speaker 1: stifled yearnings after Frederick, but also turned into somebody who
• 4:37:45
  Speaker 1: wanted to fight over little things? After Tea, when both
• 4:37:49
  Speaker 1: missus Fisher and Lady Caroline had disappeared again, it was
• 4:37:53
  Speaker 1: quite evident that nobody wanted her. She was more dejected
• 4:37:56
  Speaker 1: than ever, overwhelmed by the discrepancy between the splendor outside her,
• 4:38:00
  Speaker 1: the warm, teeming beauty and self sufficiency of nature, and
• 4:38:03
  Speaker 1: the blank emptiness of her heart. Then came Lottie back
• 4:38:07
  Speaker 1: to dinner, incredibly more freckled, exuding the sunshine she had
• 4:38:11
  Speaker 1: been collecting all day, talking, laughing, being tactless, being unwise,
• 4:38:16
  Speaker 1: being without reticence, And Lady Caroline, so quiet at tea,
• 4:38:20
  Speaker 1: woke up to animation, and missus Fisher was not so noticeable,
• 4:38:24
  Speaker 1: And Rose was beginning to revive a little. For Lottie's
• 4:38:28
  Speaker 1: spirits were contagious as she described the delights of her day,
• 4:38:31
  Speaker 1: a day which might easily to any one else have
• 4:38:33
  Speaker 1: had nothing in it but a very long and very
• 4:38:35
  Speaker 1: hot walk and sandwiches. When she suddenly said, catching Rose's eye,
• 4:38:39
  Speaker 1: let her gone. Rose flushed this tactlessness, what letter asked?
• 4:38:46
  Speaker 1: Scrap interested? Both her elbows were on the table and
• 4:38:50
  Speaker 1: her chin was supported in her hands, for the nut
• 4:38:52
  Speaker 1: stage had been reached, and there was nothing for it
• 4:38:55
  Speaker 1: but to wait in as comfortable as position as possible
• 4:38:57
  Speaker 1: till missus Fisher had finished cracking. Asking her husband here,
• 4:39:02
  Speaker 1: said Lottie. Missus Fisher looked up another husband. Was there
• 4:39:08
  Speaker 1: to be no end to them, nor was this one
• 4:39:11
  Speaker 1: then a widow either, But her husband was no doubt
• 4:39:14
  Speaker 1: a decent, respectable man. Following a decent respectable calling, she
• 4:39:20
  Speaker 1: had little hope of mister Wilkins, so little that she
• 4:39:23
  Speaker 1: had refrained from inquiring what he did. Has it persisted
• 4:39:27
  Speaker 1: Lottie as Rose said nothing? No, said Rose, Oh well tomorrow, then,
• 4:39:34
  Speaker 1: said Lottie. Rose wanted to say no again to this.
• 4:39:39
  Speaker 1: Lotti would have in her place, and would besides have
• 4:39:42
  Speaker 1: expounded all her reasons. But she could not turn herself
• 4:39:46
  Speaker 1: inside out like that and invite any and everybody to
• 4:39:49
  Speaker 1: come and look. How was it that Lotty who saw
• 4:39:52
  Speaker 1: so many things didn't see stuck on her heart and
• 4:39:55
  Speaker 1: seeing keep quiet about it? The sore place? That was Frederick?
• 4:40:00
  Speaker 1: Who is your husband? Asked missus Fisher, carefully adjusting another
• 4:40:03
  Speaker 1: nut between the crackers. Who should he be? Said Rose, quickly,
• 4:40:08
  Speaker 1: roused at once by missus Fisher to irritation, except mister Arbuthnet.
• 4:40:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, of course, what is mister Arbuthnet? And Rose
• 4:40:17
  Speaker 1: gone painfully read at this, said, after a tiny pause,
• 4:40:21
  Speaker 1: my husband. Naturally, missus Fisher was incensed. She couldn't have
• 4:40:27
  Speaker 1: believed it of this one, with her decent hair and
• 4:40:29
  Speaker 1: gentle voice, that she too should be impertinent. Chapter fourteen.
• 4:40:34
  Speaker 1: That first week, the wistaria began to fade and the
• 4:40:36
  Speaker 1: flowers of the judas tree and peach trees fell off
• 4:40:39
  Speaker 1: and carpeted the ground with rose color. Then all the
• 4:40:42
  Speaker 1: friezias disappeared, and the irises grew scarce. And then while
• 4:40:47
  Speaker 1: these were clearing themselves away, the double banksy of roses
• 4:40:51
  Speaker 1: came out, and the big summer roses suddenly flaunted gorgeously
• 4:40:54
  Speaker 1: on the walls and trellises. Fortune's yellow was one of them,
• 4:40:58
  Speaker 1: a very beautiful roe. Presently, the tamarisk and the daphnes
• 4:41:03
  Speaker 1: were at their best, and the lilies at their tallest.
• 4:41:06
  Speaker 1: By the end of the week, the fig trees were
• 4:41:08
  Speaker 1: giving shade, the plum blossom was out among the olives,
• 4:41:11
  Speaker 1: the modest wagilias appeared in their fresh pink clothes, and
• 4:41:14
  Speaker 1: on the rock sprawled masses of thick leaved, star shaped flowers,
• 4:41:18
  Speaker 1: some vivid purple and some a clear pale lemon. By
• 4:41:22
  Speaker 1: the end of the week, too, mister Wilkins arrived, even
• 4:41:26
  Speaker 1: as his wife had foreseen he would, so he did,
• 4:41:29
  Speaker 1: and there were signs almost of eagerness about his acceptance
• 4:41:32
  Speaker 1: of her suggestion, for he had not waited to write
• 4:41:34
  Speaker 1: a letter in answer to hers, but had telegraphed that
• 4:41:39
  Speaker 1: surely was eager. It showed Scrap thought a definite wish
• 4:41:44
  Speaker 1: for reunion, and watching his wife's happy face, and aware
• 4:41:47
  Speaker 1: of her desire that Meller should enjoy his holiday, she
• 4:41:50
  Speaker 1: told herself that he would be a very unusual fool
• 4:41:53
  Speaker 1: should he waste his time bothering about anybody else. If
• 4:41:56
  Speaker 1: he isn't nice to her, Scrap thought, he shall be
• 4:41:59
  Speaker 1: taken to the battlements and tipped over for By the
• 4:42:03
  Speaker 1: end of the week, she and Missus Wilkins had become
• 4:42:05
  Speaker 1: Caroline and Lottie to each other and were friends. Missus
• 4:42:09
  Speaker 1: Wilkins had always been friends, but Scrap had struggled not
• 4:42:13
  Speaker 1: to be. She had tried hard to be cautious, but
• 4:42:16
  Speaker 1: how difficult was caution With Missus Wilkins free herself from
• 4:42:21
  Speaker 1: every vestige of it. She was so entirely unreserved, so
• 4:42:24
  Speaker 1: completely expansive, that soon Scrap, almost before she knew what
• 4:42:29
  Speaker 1: she was doing, was being unreserved too. And nobody could
• 4:42:33
  Speaker 1: be more unreserved than Scrap once she let herself go.
• 4:42:37
  Speaker 1: The only difficulty about Lottie was that she was nearly
• 4:42:40
  Speaker 1: always somewhere else. You couldn't catch her, you couldn't pin
• 4:42:44
  Speaker 1: her down to come and talk. Scrap's fears that she
• 4:42:47
  Speaker 1: would grab seemed grotesque in retrospect. Why there was no
• 4:42:51
  Speaker 1: grab in her At dinner and after dinner were the
• 4:42:55
  Speaker 1: only times one really saw her. All day long, she
• 4:42:59
  Speaker 1: was invisible and would come back in the late afternoon
• 4:43:01
  Speaker 1: looking a perfect sight, her hair full of bits of moss,
• 4:43:05
  Speaker 1: and her freckles worse than ever. Perhaps she was making
• 4:43:08
  Speaker 1: the most of her time before Mellersh arrived to do
• 4:43:11
  Speaker 1: all the things she wanted to do, and meant to
• 4:43:13
  Speaker 1: devote herself afterwards to going about with him, tidy and
• 4:43:16
  Speaker 1: in her best clothes. Scrap watched her, interested in spite
• 4:43:20
  Speaker 1: of herself, because it seemed so extraordinary to be as
• 4:43:23
  Speaker 1: happy as all that on so little San Salvatore was beautiful,
• 4:43:28
  Speaker 1: and the weather was divine. But scenery and weather had
• 4:43:31
  Speaker 1: never been enough for Scrap, and how could they be
• 4:43:33
  Speaker 1: enough for somebody who would have to leave them quite
• 4:43:35
  Speaker 1: soon and go back to life in Hempstead. Also there
• 4:43:39
  Speaker 1: was the imminence of Mellersh, of that Mellersh from whom
• 4:43:41
  Speaker 1: Lottie had so lately run. It was all very well
• 4:43:45
  Speaker 1: to feel one ought to share and to make a
• 4:43:47
  Speaker 1: bow jest and do it. But the bow's jest, scrap
• 4:43:50
  Speaker 1: had known hadn't made anybody happy. Nobody really liked being
• 4:43:54
  Speaker 1: the object of one, and it always meant an effort
• 4:43:56
  Speaker 1: on the part of the maker. Still, she had to
• 4:44:00
  Speaker 1: admit there was no effort about Lottie. It was quite
• 4:44:02
  Speaker 1: plain that everything she did and said was effortless, and
• 4:44:05
  Speaker 1: that she was just simply completely happy. And so missus
• 4:44:09
  Speaker 1: Wilkins was for her doubts as to whether she had
• 4:44:12
  Speaker 1: had time to become steady enough in serenity to go
• 4:44:15
  Speaker 1: on being serene in Melish's company when she had it
• 4:44:17
  Speaker 1: uninterruptedly right round the clock had gone by the middle
• 4:44:20
  Speaker 1: of the week, and she felt that nothing now could
• 4:44:23
  Speaker 1: shake her. She was ready for anything. She was firmly grafted, rooted,
• 4:44:29
  Speaker 1: built into heaven. Whatever mellersh said or did, she would
• 4:44:33
  Speaker 1: not budge an inch out of heaven, would not rouse
• 4:44:35
  Speaker 1: herself a single instant to come outside it and be cross.
• 4:44:39
  Speaker 1: On the contrary, she was going to pull him up
• 4:44:42
  Speaker 1: into it beside her, and they would sit comfortably together,
• 4:44:45
  Speaker 1: suffused in light, and laugh at how much afraid of
• 4:44:47
  Speaker 1: him she used to be in Hampstead, and at how
• 4:44:50
  Speaker 1: deceitful her afraidness had made her. But he wouldn't need
• 4:44:53
  Speaker 1: much pulling. He would come in quite naturally after a
• 4:44:57
  Speaker 1: day or two, irresistibly wafted on the scent of breezes,
• 4:45:00
  Speaker 1: of that divine air, and there he would sit, arrayed
• 4:45:03
  Speaker 1: in stars, thought missus Wilkins, in whose mind, among much
• 4:45:06
  Speaker 1: other debris, floated occasional bright shreds of poetry. She laughed
• 4:45:11
  Speaker 1: to herself a little at the picture of mellersh That
• 4:45:14
  Speaker 1: top had it black coated, respectable family solicitor borayed in stars.
• 4:45:19
  Speaker 1: But she laughed affectionately, almost with a maternal pride, in
• 4:45:22
  Speaker 1: how splendid he would look in such fine clothes, Poor lamb,
• 4:45:26
  Speaker 1: she murmured to herself affectionately, and added, what he wants
• 4:45:30
  Speaker 1: is a thorough airing. This was during the first half
• 4:45:33
  Speaker 1: of the week, by the beginning of the last half,
• 4:45:37
  Speaker 1: at the end of which mister Wilkins arrived. She left off,
• 4:45:40
  Speaker 1: even assuring herself that she was unshakable, that she was
• 4:45:43
  Speaker 1: permeated beyond altering by the atmosphere. She no longer thought
• 4:45:46
  Speaker 1: of it or noticed it. She took it for granted,
• 4:45:51
  Speaker 1: if one may say so, And she certainly said so,
• 4:45:54
  Speaker 1: not only to herself but also to Lady Caroline. She
• 4:45:57
  Speaker 1: had found her celestial legs, contrary to Missus Fisher's idea
• 4:46:01
  Speaker 1: of the seemly, but of course contrary what else would
• 4:46:04
  Speaker 1: one expect of Missus Wilkins. She did not go to
• 4:46:08
  Speaker 1: meet her husband at Misago, but merely walked down to
• 4:46:11
  Speaker 1: the point where Beppo's fly would leave him and his
• 4:46:13
  Speaker 1: luggage in the street of Castagnito. Missus Fisher disliked the
• 4:46:18
  Speaker 1: arrival of mister Wilkins, and was sure that anybody who
• 4:46:21
  Speaker 1: could have married Missus Wilkins must be at least of
• 4:46:23
  Speaker 1: an injudicious disposition. But a husband, whatever his disposition, should
• 4:46:27
  Speaker 1: be properly met. Mister Fisher had always been properly met.
• 4:46:32
  Speaker 1: Never once in his married life had he gone unmet
• 4:46:35
  Speaker 1: at a station, nor had he ever not been seen off.
• 4:46:38
  Speaker 1: These observances, these courtesies strengthened the bonds of marriage and
• 4:46:43
  Speaker 1: made the husband feel he could rely on his wife's
• 4:46:45
  Speaker 1: being always there. Always being there was the essential secret
• 4:46:49
  Speaker 1: for a wife. What would have become of mister Fisher
• 4:46:52
  Speaker 1: if she had neglected to act on this principle. She
• 4:46:55
  Speaker 1: preferred not to think enough things became of him, as
• 4:46:58
  Speaker 1: it was for whatever nor one's karen stopping up married
• 4:47:02
  Speaker 1: life yet seemed to contain chinks, But Missus Wilkins took
• 4:47:06
  Speaker 1: no pains. She just walked down the hills singing. Missus
• 4:47:10
  Speaker 1: Fisher could hear her and picked up her husband in
• 4:47:12
  Speaker 1: the street as casually as if he were a pin.
• 4:47:15
  Speaker 1: The three others, still in bed, for it was not
• 4:47:18
  Speaker 1: nearly time to get up, heard her as she passed
• 4:47:21
  Speaker 1: beneath their windows down the zigzag path to meet mister Wilkins,
• 4:47:25
  Speaker 1: who was coming by the morning train, and Scrap smiled
• 4:47:28
  Speaker 1: and rose side, and missus Fisher rang her bell and
• 4:47:31
  Speaker 1: desired Francesca to bring her breakfast in her room. All
• 4:47:35
  Speaker 1: three had breakfast that day in their rooms. Moved by
• 4:47:37
  Speaker 1: a common instinct to take cover, Scrap always breakfasted in bed,
• 4:47:42
  Speaker 1: but she had the same instinct for cover, and during
• 4:47:45
  Speaker 1: breakfast she made plans for spending the whole day where
• 4:47:47
  Speaker 1: she was, perhaps, though it wouldn't be as necessary that
• 4:47:52
  Speaker 1: day as the next. That day, Scrap calculated mellersh would
• 4:47:57
  Speaker 1: be provided for he would want to have a bath,
• 4:48:00
  Speaker 1: and having a bath at San Salvator was an elaborate business,
• 4:48:03
  Speaker 1: a real adventure if one had a hot one in
• 4:48:05
  Speaker 1: the bathroom, and it took a lot of time. It
• 4:48:09
  Speaker 1: involved the attendants of the entire staff, Domenico and the
• 4:48:12
  Speaker 1: boy Giuseppe, coaxing the patent stove to burn, restraining it
• 4:48:15
  Speaker 1: when it burnt too fiercely, using the bellows to it
• 4:48:18
  Speaker 1: when it threatened to go out, relighting it when it
• 4:48:20
  Speaker 1: did go out. Francesca anxiously hovering over the tap, regulating
• 4:48:24
  Speaker 1: its trickle, because if it were turned on too full,
• 4:48:27
  Speaker 1: the water instantly ran cold, and if not full enough,
• 4:48:30
  Speaker 1: the stove blew up inside and mysteriously flooded the house,
• 4:48:34
  Speaker 1: and Costanza and Angela running up and down, bringing pails
• 4:48:37
  Speaker 1: of hot water from the kitchen to eke out what
• 4:48:39
  Speaker 1: the tap did. This bath had been put in lately
• 4:48:42
  Speaker 1: and was at once the pride and the terror of
• 4:48:44
  Speaker 1: the servants. It was very patent. Nobody quite understood it.
• 4:48:51
  Speaker 1: There were long printed instructions as to its right treatment
• 4:48:53
  Speaker 1: hanging on the wall, in which the word pericoloso recurred.
• 4:48:58
  Speaker 1: When missus Fisher, proceeding on her her arrival to the bathroom,
• 4:49:01
  Speaker 1: saw this word, she went back to her room again
• 4:49:04
  Speaker 1: and ordered a sponge bath instead, and when the others
• 4:49:06
  Speaker 1: found what using the bathroom meant, and how reluctant the
• 4:49:09
  Speaker 1: servants were to leave them alone with the stove, and
• 4:49:12
  Speaker 1: how Francesca positively refused to and stayed with her back
• 4:49:16
  Speaker 1: turned watching the tap, and how the remaining servants waited
• 4:49:19
  Speaker 1: anxiously outside the door till the bather came safely out again,
• 4:49:23
  Speaker 1: they too had sponge baths brought into their rooms instead.
• 4:49:27
  Speaker 1: Mister Wilkins, however, was a man and would be sure
• 4:49:30
  Speaker 1: to want a big bath. Having it, Scrap calculated, would
• 4:49:34
  Speaker 1: keep him busy for a long while. Then he would unpack,
• 4:49:38
  Speaker 1: and then after his night in the train, he would
• 4:49:41
  Speaker 1: probably sleep till the evening, so would he be provided
• 4:49:45
  Speaker 1: for the whole of that day and not be let
• 4:49:47
  Speaker 1: loose on them till dinner. Therefore, Scrap came to the
• 4:49:50
  Speaker 1: conclusion she would be quite safe in the garden that day,
• 4:49:53
  Speaker 1: and got up as usual after breakfast and dawdled as
• 4:49:56
  Speaker 1: usual through her dressing, listening with a slightly cocked ear
• 4:49:59
  Speaker 1: to the the sounds of mister Wilkins's arrival of his
• 4:50:02
  Speaker 1: luggage being carried into Lottie's room. On the other side
• 4:50:05
  Speaker 1: of the landing of his educated voice as he inquired
• 4:50:08
  Speaker 1: of Lottie, first, do I give this fellow anything? And
• 4:50:11
  Speaker 1: immediately afterwards can I have a hot bath? Of Lottie's voice,
• 4:50:17
  Speaker 1: cheerfully assuring him that he needn't give the fellow anything
• 4:50:20
  Speaker 1: because he was the gardener, and that yes, he could
• 4:50:23
  Speaker 1: have a hot bath. And soon after this the landing
• 4:50:26
  Speaker 1: was filled with the familiar noises of wood being brought,
• 4:50:29
  Speaker 1: of water being brought, of feet running, of tongues vociferating,
• 4:50:33
  Speaker 1: in fact, with the preparation of the bath. Scrap finished dressing,
• 4:50:37
  Speaker 1: and then loitered at her window, waiting till she should
• 4:50:40
  Speaker 1: hear mister Wilkins go into the bathroom. When he was
• 4:50:43
  Speaker 1: safely there, she would slip out and settle herself in
• 4:50:46
  Speaker 1: her garden and resume her inquiries into the probable meaning
• 4:50:49
  Speaker 1: of her life. She was getting on with her inquiries.
• 4:50:53
  Speaker 1: She dozed much less frequently, and was beginning to be
• 4:50:56
  Speaker 1: inclined to agree that tawdry was the word to apply
• 4:50:59
  Speaker 1: to her past. Also, she was afraid that her future
• 4:51:02
  Speaker 1: looked black. There she could hear mister Wilkins's educated voice again.
• 4:51:08
  Speaker 1: Lotty's door had opened, and he was coming out of it,
• 4:51:11
  Speaker 1: asking his way to the bathroom. It's where you see
• 4:51:14
  Speaker 1: the crowd, Lottie's voice answered, still a cheerful voice. Scrap
• 4:51:18
  Speaker 1: was glad to notice his steps went along the landing,
• 4:51:22
  Speaker 1: and Lotty's steps seemed to go downstairs.