Transcript

033 - Peace · North and South

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Speaker 1: Chapter thirty three, North and South. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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Speaker 1: information all to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. This
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Speaker 1: reading by Lucy Burgoyne. North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell,
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Speaker 1: Chapter thirty three, Peace sleep on my love in thy
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Speaker 1: cold bed, never to be disquieted my last good night.
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Speaker 1: Thou wilt not wake till I thy fate shall overtake
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Speaker 1: Doctor King home seemed unnaturally quiet after all this terror
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Speaker 1: and noisy commotion. Her father had seen all due preparation
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Speaker 1: made for her refreshment on her return, and then sat
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Speaker 1: down again in his accustomed chair to fall into one
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Speaker 1: of his sad waking dreams. Dixon had got Mary Higgins
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Speaker 1: to scold and direct in the kitchen, and her scolding
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Speaker 1: was not the less energetic because it was delivered in
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Speaker 1: an angry whisper. For speaking above her breath, she would
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Speaker 1: have thought irreverent as long as there was any one
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Speaker 1: dead lying in the house. Margaret had resolved not to
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Speaker 1: mention the crowning and closing a fright to her father.
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Speaker 1: There was no use in speaking about it. It had
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Speaker 1: ended well The only thing to be feared was lest
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Speaker 1: Leonard's should in some way borrow money enough to affect
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Speaker 1: his purpose of following Frederick to London and hunting him
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Speaker 1: out there. But there were immense chances against the success
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Speaker 1: of any such plan, and Margaret determined and not to
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Speaker 1: torment herself by thinking of what she could do nothing
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Speaker 1: to prevent. Frederick would be as much on his guard
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Speaker 1: as she could put him, and in a day or
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Speaker 1: two at most he would be safely out of England.
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Speaker 1: I suppose we shall hear from mister Bell to morrow,
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Speaker 1: said Margaret. Yes, replied her father. I suppose so if
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Speaker 1: he can come, he will be here to morrow evening.
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Speaker 1: I should think if he cannot come, I shall ask
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Speaker 1: mister Thornton to go with me to the funeral. I
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Speaker 1: cannot go alone. I should break down utterly. Don't ask
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Speaker 1: mister Thornton. Papa, let me go with you, said Margaret impetuously. You,
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Speaker 1: my dear women, do not generally go. No because they
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Speaker 1: can't control themselves. Women of our class don't go because
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Speaker 1: they have no power over their emotions, and yet are
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Speaker 1: ashamed of showing them. Poor women go and don't care
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Speaker 1: if they are seen overwhelmed with grief. But I promise you, Papa,
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Speaker 1: that if you will let me go, I will be
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Speaker 1: no trouble. Don't have a stranger and leave me out.
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Speaker 1: Dear Papa. If mister Bell cannot come, I shall go.
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Speaker 1: I won't urge my wish against your will if he does.
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Speaker 1: Mister Bell could not come, he had the gout. It
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Speaker 1: was a most affectionate letter and express great and true
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Speaker 1: regret from his inability to attend. He hoped to come
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Speaker 1: and pay them a visit soon if they would have him.
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Speaker 1: His milt and property required some looking after, and his
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Speaker 1: agent had written to him to say that his presence
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Speaker 1: was absolutely necessary or else. He had avoided coming near
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Speaker 1: Milton as long as he could, and now the only
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Speaker 1: thing that would reconcile him to this necessary visit was
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Speaker 1: the idea that he should see and might possibly be
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Speaker 1: able to comfort his old friend. Margaret had all the
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Speaker 1: difficulty in the world to persuade her father not to
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Speaker 1: invite mister Thornton. She had an indescribable repugnance to this
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Speaker 1: step being taken. The night before the funeral came a
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Speaker 1: stately note from Missus Thornton to Miss Hale saying that
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Speaker 1: at her son's desire, their carriage should attend the funeral,
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Speaker 1: if it would not be disagreeable to the family. Margaret
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Speaker 1: tossed the note to her father. Oh don't let us
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Speaker 1: have these forms, she said, let us go alone, you
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Speaker 1: and meet Papa. We don't care for us, or else
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Speaker 1: he would have offered to go himself and not have
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Speaker 1: proposed descending an empty carriage. I thought you were so
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Speaker 1: extremely averse to his going, Margaret, said mister Hale, in
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Speaker 1: some surprise. And so I am. I don't want him
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Speaker 1: to come at all, and I should especially dislike the
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Speaker 1: idea of our asking him. But this seemed such a
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Speaker 1: mockery of mourning that I did not expect it from him.
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Speaker 1: She startled her father by bursting into tears. She had
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Speaker 1: been so subdued in her grief, so thoughtful for others,
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Speaker 1: so gentle and patient in all things, that he could
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Speaker 1: not understand her impatient ways. To night she seemed agitated
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Speaker 1: and restless, and at all the tenderness which her father,
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Speaker 1: in his turn, now lavished upon her she only the more.
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Speaker 1: She passed so bad at night that she was ill
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Speaker 1: prepared for the additional anxiety cause by a letter received
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Speaker 1: from Frederick. Mister Lennox was out of town. His clerk
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Speaker 1: said that he would return by the following Tuesday at
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Speaker 1: the latest, that he might possibly be at home on Monday. Consequently,
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Speaker 1: after some consideration, Frederick had determined upon remaining in London.
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Speaker 1: A day or two longer. He had thought of coming
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Speaker 1: down to Milton again. The temptation had been very strong,
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Speaker 1: but the idea of mister Bell domesticated in his father's house,
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Speaker 1: and the alarm he had received at the last moment
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Speaker 1: at the railway station, had made him resolved to stay
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Speaker 1: in London. Margaret might be assured he would take every
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Speaker 1: precaution against being trapped by Leonard's Margaret was thankful that
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Speaker 1: she received this letter while her father was absent in
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Speaker 1: her mother's room. If he had been present, he would
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Speaker 1: have expected her to read it aloud to him, and
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Speaker 1: it would have raised in him as state of nervous
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Speaker 1: alarm which she would have found it impossible to soothe.
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Speaker 1: The way there was not merely the fact which disturbed
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Speaker 1: her excessively of Frederick's detention in London, but there were
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Speaker 1: allusions to the recognition at the last moment at Milton
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Speaker 1: and the possibility of a pursuit which made her blood
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Speaker 1: run cold, and how then would it have affected her father.
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Speaker 1: Many a time did Margaret repent of having suggested and
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Speaker 1: urged on the plan of consulting mister Lennox. At the moment,
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Speaker 1: it had seemed as if it would occasion so little
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Speaker 1: delay at so little to the apparently small chances of detection.
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Speaker 1: And yet everything that had since occurred had tended to
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Speaker 1: make it so undesirable. Margaret battled hard against this regret
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Speaker 1: of hers for what could not now be helped, this
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Speaker 1: self reproach, for having said what had at the time
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Speaker 1: appeared to be wise, but which after events were proving
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Speaker 1: to have been so foolish. But her father was in
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Speaker 1: too depressed a state of mind and body to struggle healthfully.
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Speaker 1: He would succumb to all these causes for morbid regret
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Speaker 1: over what could not be recalled. Margaret summoned up all
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Speaker 1: her forces to her aid. Her father seemed to have
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Speaker 1: forgotten that they had any reason to expect a letter
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Speaker 1: from Frederick that morning. He was absorbed in one idea
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Speaker 1: that the las, thus visible token of the presence of
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Speaker 1: his wife, was to be carried away from him and
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Speaker 1: hidden from his sight. He trembled pitifully as the undertaker's
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Speaker 1: man was arranging his crape draperies around him. He looked
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Speaker 1: wistfully at Margaret, and when released, he tottered towards her, murmuring,
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Speaker 1: pray for me, Margaret. I have no strength lefting me.
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Speaker 1: I cannot pray. I give her up because I must.
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Speaker 1: I try to bear it. Indeed I do. I know
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Speaker 1: it is God's will, but I cannot see why she died.
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Speaker 1: Pray for me, Margaret, that I may have faith to pray.
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Speaker 1: It is a great strait my child. Margaret sat by
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Speaker 1: him in the coach, almost supporting him in her arms,
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Speaker 1: and repeating all the noble verses of holy comfort or
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Speaker 1: texts expressive of faithful resignation that she could remember. Her
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Speaker 1: voice never faltered, and she herself gained strength by doing this.
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Speaker 1: Her father's lips moved after her repeating the well known
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Speaker 1: texts as her words suggested them. It was terrible to
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Speaker 1: see the patient's struggling effort to obtain the resignation, which
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Speaker 1: he had not strength to take into his heart as
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Speaker 1: a part of himself. Margaret's fortitude nearly gave way as
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Speaker 1: Dixon with A slight motion of her hand directed her
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Speaker 1: notice to Nicholas Higgins and his daughter, standing a little
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Speaker 1: aloof but deeply attentive to the ceremonial. Nicholas wore his
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Speaker 1: usual fustian clothes, but had a bit of black stuff
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Speaker 1: sewn round his hat, a mark of mourning which he
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Speaker 1: had never shown to his daughter Bessy's memory. But mister
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Speaker 1: Hale saw nothing. He went on repeating to himself mechanically,
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Speaker 1: as it were, all the funeral service as it was
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Speaker 1: read by the officiating clergyman. He sighed twice or thrice
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Speaker 1: when all was ended, and then, putting his hand on
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Speaker 1: Margaret's arm, he mutely entreated to be led away, as
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Speaker 1: if he were blind, and she his faithful guide Dixon
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Speaker 1: sobbed aloud. She covered her face with her handkerchief, and
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Speaker 1: was so absorbed in her own grief that she did
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Speaker 1: not perceive that the crowd attracted on such occasions was
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Speaker 1: dispersing till she was spoken to by some one close
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Speaker 1: at hand. It was mister Thornton. He had been present
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Speaker 1: all the time, standing with bent head behind a group
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Speaker 1: of people, so that in fact no one had recognized him.
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Speaker 1: I beg your pardon, but can you tell me how
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Speaker 1: mister Hale is and miss Hale too. I should like
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Speaker 1: to know how they both are. Of course, sir, they
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Speaker 1: are much as is to be expected. Master is terribly
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Speaker 1: broke down. Miss Hale bears up better than likely. Mister
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Speaker 1: Thornton would rather have heard that she was suffering the
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Speaker 1: natural sorrow. In the first place, there was selfishness enough
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Speaker 1: in him to have taken pleasure in the idea that
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Speaker 1: his great love might come in to comfort and console her,
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Speaker 1: much the same kind of strange, passionate pleasure which comes
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Speaker 1: stinging through a mother's heart when her drooping infant nestles
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Speaker 1: close to her and is dependent upon her for everything.
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Speaker 1: But this delicious few vision of what might have been,
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Speaker 1: in which, in spite of all Margaret's repulse, he would
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Speaker 1: have indulged. Only a few days ago, was miserably disturbed
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Speaker 1: by the recollection of what he had seen near the
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Speaker 1: Outwood station. Miserably disturbed. That is not strong enough. He
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Speaker 1: was haunted by the remembrance of the handsome young man
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Speaker 1: with whom she stood in an attitude of such familiar confidence,
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Speaker 1: And the remembrance shot through him like an agony till
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Speaker 1: It made him clench his hands tight in order to
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Speaker 1: subdue the pain. At that late hour, so far from home,
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Speaker 1: it took a great moral effort to galvanize his trust
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Speaker 1: herwhile so perfect in Margaret's pure and exquisite maidenliness, into life.
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Speaker 1: As soon as the effort ceased, his trust dropped down,
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Speaker 1: head and powerless, and all sorts of old fancies chased
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Speaker 1: each other like dreams through his mind. He was a
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Speaker 1: little piece of miserable, gnawing confirmation she bore up better
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Speaker 1: than likely under this grief. She had then some hope
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Speaker 1: to look to, so bright that even in her affectionate nature,
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Speaker 1: it could come in to light in the dark hours
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Speaker 1: of a daughter newly made motherless. Yes, he knew how
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Speaker 1: she would love. He had not loved her without gaining
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Speaker 1: that instinctive knowledge of what capabilities were in her. Her
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Speaker 1: soul would walk in glorious sunlight. If any man was worthy,
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Speaker 1: by his power of loving, to win back her love,
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Speaker 1: even in her mourning, she would rest with a peaceful
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Speaker 1: faith upon his sympathy. His sympathy whose that other man's
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Speaker 1: and that was another was enough to make mister Thornton's pale,
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Speaker 1: grave face grow doubly wane and stern at Dixon's answer,
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Speaker 1: I suppose I may call, said he coldly on mister Hale.
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Speaker 1: I mean he will perhaps admit me after to morrow,
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Speaker 1: or so. He spoke as if the answer were a
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Speaker 1: matter of indifference to him. But it was not so,
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Speaker 1: that all his pain he longed to see the author
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Speaker 1: of it. Although he hated Margaret, at times, when he
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Speaker 1: thought of that gentle, familiar attitude and all the attendant circumstances,
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Speaker 1: he had a restless desire to renew her picture in
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Speaker 1: his mind, a longing for the very atmosphere she breathed.
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Speaker 1: He was in the charubids of passion, and must perforce
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Speaker 1: circle and circle ever nearer round the fatal center. I
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Speaker 1: dare say, sir, Master will say you he was very
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Speaker 1: sorry to have to deny you the other day, but
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Speaker 1: circumstances were not agreeable just then. For some reason or other,
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Speaker 1: Dixon never named this interview that she had had with
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Speaker 1: mister Thornton to Margaret. It might have been mere chance,
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Speaker 1: But so it was that Margaret never heard that he
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Speaker 1: had attended her poor mother's funeral. End of Chapter thirty
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Speaker 1: three