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Strange Gentleman - Charles Dickens · The Invisible Man

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Act one of The Strange Gentleman by Charles Dickens. This
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  Speaker 1: is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Cast of characters.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Mister Owen Overton read by Noel Badrian.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: John Johnson read by Nathaniel W. C.
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  Speaker 4: Higgins, The Strange Gentleman read by David Goldfarb.
• 0:33
  Speaker 5: Charles Tompkins read by Algie Page.
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  Speaker 6: Tom Sparks read by John Trevidick.
• 0:41
  Speaker 7: The Waiters John Tom and Will read by Todd.
• 0:46
  Speaker 8: Julia Dobbs read by Tiffany Halla Colonna.
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  Speaker 9: Fanny Wilson read by Amanda Friday.
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  Speaker 10: Mary Wilson read by Dwine Miss read by Christine Nenza.
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  Speaker 9: Chambermaid read by Eden.
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  Speaker 11: Ray Headrick.
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  Speaker 1: Narrator read by Christine g. Costumes Mister Owen Overton, black
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  Speaker 1: smalls and high black boots. A blue body coat rather
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  Speaker 1: long in the waist with yellow buttons buttoned close up
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  Speaker 1: to the chin. A white stock ditto gloves, A broad brimmed,
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  Speaker 1: low crowned whe hat. Strange Gentlemen A light blue played
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  Speaker 1: French cut trousers and vest. A brown cloth frock coat
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  Speaker 1: with full skirts scarcely covering the hips. A light blue
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  Speaker 1: kichief an eccentric, low crowned, broad brimmed, white hat, boots.
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  Speaker 1: John Johnson white fashionable trousers, boots, light vest, frock coat,
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  Speaker 1: black hat, gloves. Charles Tompkins Shepherd's played French cut trousers, boots,
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  Speaker 1: mow hair, fashionable frock coat, buttoned up, black hat, gloves,
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  Speaker 1: tom sparks, leather smalls, striped stockings and laceer half boots,
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  Speaker 1: and a Holland Stable jacket, colored kerchief and a red wig.
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  Speaker 1: The waiters all in black trousers, black stockings and shoes,
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  Speaker 1: white vests, striped jackets and white kerchiefs. Marry Wilson fashionable
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  Speaker 1: walking dress, white silk stockings, shoes and gloves. Fanny Wilson
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  Speaker 1: precisely the same as Mary. Julia Dobbs a handsome white
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: traveling dress, cashmere shawl, white silk stocking, shoes and gloves,
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  Speaker 1: a bonnet to correspond Missus Noakes a chintz gown rather
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  Speaker 1: of dark pattern French apron, and a handsome cap scene
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  Speaker 1: a small town on the road to Gretna time part
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  Speaker 1: of a day and night time in acting, one hour
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  Speaker 1: and twenty minutes, Act one, Scene one. A room at
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  Speaker 1: the Saint James's Arms door in center with a bolt
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  Speaker 1: on it, a table with cover and two chairs right
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  Speaker 1: hand side. Enter missus noakes sent a door.
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  Speaker 12: Bless us what a coachful four inside, twelve out, and
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  Speaker 12: the guard blowing the key bugle in the fore boot
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  Speaker 12: for fear.
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  Speaker 11: The informers should see that they have got one over
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  Speaker 11: the number post chair and a gig. Besides, we shall
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  Speaker 11: be filled to the very attics. Now look alive there
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  Speaker 11: bustle about.
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  Speaker 1: Enter, first waiter running center door. Now John coming down
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  Speaker 1: left hand side.
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  Speaker 7: Single lady inside the stage wants a private room, ma'am,
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  Speaker 7: much luggage, four drunks, two bonnet boxes, six brown paper
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  Speaker 7: parcels and a basket.
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  Speaker 11: Give her the private room directly, number one on the
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  Speaker 11: first floor.
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  Speaker 7: Yes, ma'am.
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  Speaker 1: Exit, first waiter running center door. Enter, second waiter running
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  Speaker 1: center door. Now Tom coming down right hand side.
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  Speaker 7: Two young ladies and one gentleman in a postchaise want
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  Speaker 7: a private sitting room directly, ma'am.
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  Speaker 11: Brother and sisters.
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  Speaker 8: Tom.
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  Speaker 7: Ladies are something I like, ma'am. Gentlemen like neither of them.
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  Speaker 11: Husband and wife and wife's sister.
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  Speaker 7: Perhaps ey Tom can't be husband and life, ma'am, because
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  Speaker 7: I saw the gentleman kiss one of.
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  Speaker 11: The ladies kissing one of the ladies. Put them in
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  Speaker 11: the small sitting room behind the bar, Tom, that I
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  Speaker 11: may have an eye on them through the little window
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  Speaker 11: and see that nothing improper goes.
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  Speaker 7: Forward, Yes, ma'am, going.
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  Speaker 1: And Tom crossing to left hand side. Yes, ma'am coming
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  Speaker 1: down right hand side.
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  Speaker 11: Tell cook to put all the bones and pieces that
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  Speaker 11: were left on the plates at the great dinner yesterday,
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  Speaker 11: and make some nice soup to feed the stagecoach passengers with.
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  Speaker 7: Very well, ma'am.
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  Speaker 1: Exit second waiter, center door, and a third waiter running
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  Speaker 1: center door. Now will coming down left hand side.
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  Speaker 7: A strange gentleman in a gig, ma'am, wants a private
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  Speaker 7: sitting room. Much luggage, will one portmanteau and a great coat.
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  Speaker 11: Oh nonsense. Tell him to go into the commercial room.
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  Speaker 7: I told him so, ma'am. But the stranger gentleman says
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  Speaker 7: he will have a private apartment, and that it's as
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  Speaker 7: much as his life is worth to sit in a
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  Speaker 7: public room.
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  Speaker 11: As much as his life is worth.
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  Speaker 7: Yes, ma'am. A gentleman says, he doesn't care if it's
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  Speaker 7: a dark closet, but a private room of some kind
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  Speaker 7: he must and will have.
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  Speaker 11: Very odd Did you ever see him before?
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  Speaker 7: Will no, ma'am. He's quite a stranger here. He's a
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  Speaker 7: wonderful man to talk, ma'am. Keeps on like a steam engine.
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  Speaker 7: Here he is, ma'am.
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  Speaker 4: Without now, don't tell me, because that's all gammon and
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  Speaker 4: nonsense and gammoned. I never was and never will be
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  Speaker 4: by any waiter that ever drew the breath of life
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  Speaker 4: or a cork. And just have the goodness to leave
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  Speaker 4: my portmanteau alone, because I can carry it very well myself,
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  Speaker 4: and show me a private room without further delay. For
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  Speaker 4: a private room I must and will have. Damn me,
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  Speaker 4: do you think I'm going to be murdered?
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  Speaker 1: And the three waiters sent it all They formed down
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  Speaker 1: left hand side, the strange gentleman following, carrying his portmanteau
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  Speaker 1: and greatcoat.
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  Speaker 4: Well, this room will do capitally well, quite the thing,
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  Speaker 4: just the fit. How are you, ma'am? I suppose you
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  Speaker 4: are the landlady of this place. Just order those very
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  Speaker 4: attentive young fellows out, will you, and I'll order dinner
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  Speaker 4: to waitus.
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  Speaker 11: You may leave the room.
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  Speaker 4: Hear that you may leave the room. Make yourself scarce, evaporate, disappear, come.
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  Speaker 1: Exit waius sent the door.
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: That's right. And now, madam, while we're talking over this
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  Speaker 4: important matter of dinner, I'll just secure us effectually against
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  Speaker 4: further intrusion.
• 7:43
  Speaker 11: Bolt the door, ah, sir, bolting the door and me
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  Speaker 11: in the room.
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  Speaker 4: Don't be afraid. I won't hurt you. I have no
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  Speaker 4: designs against you, my dear ma'am, but I must be private.
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  Speaker 1: Sit on the portmante right hand side.
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  Speaker 11: Well, sir, I have no objection to break through our
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  Speaker 11: rules for once, but it is not our way when
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  Speaker 11: we're full, to give private rooms to solitary gentlemen who
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  Speaker 11: come in a gig and bring only one portmanteau. You're
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  Speaker 11: quite a stranger here, sir. If I'm not mistaken at
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  Speaker 11: your first appearance in this house, you're right, ma'am.
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  Speaker 4: It is my first, my very first, but not my last.
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  Speaker 1: I can tell you no no looking round him.
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  Speaker 4: I like the look of this place, snug and comfortable,
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  Speaker 4: neat and lively. You'll very often find me at the
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: Saint James's arms. I can tell you ma'am.
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  Speaker 11: Aside a several gentlemen, Are you a stranger in this town, sir, stranger?
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  Speaker 4: Bless you?
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  Speaker 10: No.
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  Speaker 4: I have been here for many years past in the season. Indeed,
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  Speaker 4: oh yes, put up at the Royal Hotel regularly for
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  Speaker 4: a long time. But I was obliged to leave it
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  Speaker 4: at last.
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  Speaker 11: I have had a good many complaints of it.
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  Speaker 4: Oh terrible, Such a noisy house. Ah shocking, din din
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  Speaker 4: din drum drum drum all night, nothing but noise, glare
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  Speaker 4: and nonsense. I bore it a long time for old
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  Speaker 4: acquaintance sake. But what do you think they did at last.
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  Speaker 11: Ma'am, I can't guess.
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  Speaker 4: Turned the fine old assembly room into a stable and
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  Speaker 4: took to keeping horses. I tried that too, but I
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  Speaker 4: found I couldn't stand it. So I came away, ma'am,
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  Speaker 4: And here I am rysis.
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  Speaker 11: And I will be bound to say, sir, that you
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  Speaker 11: will have no cause to complain of the exchange.
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  Speaker 4: I'm sure not, ma'am. I know it. I feel it already.
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  Speaker 11: About dinner, sir, what would you like to take?
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  Speaker 4: Let me see? Will you be good enough to suggest something, ma'am?
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  Speaker 11: Why a broiled fowl and mushrooms is a very nice dish.
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  Speaker 4: You are right, ma'am. A broiled fowl and mushrooms form
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  Speaker 4: a very delightful and harmless amusement, either for one or
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  Speaker 4: two persons. Broiled fowl and mushrooms. Let it be, ma'am, in.
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  Speaker 11: About an hour.
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  Speaker 4: I suppose, sir, for the second time, ma'am, you have
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  Speaker 4: anticipated my feelings.
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  Speaker 11: You'll want a bed tonight, I suppose, sir, perhaps you'd
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  Speaker 11: like to see it. Step this way, sir, and going
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  Speaker 11: left hand side.
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  Speaker 4: No, no, never mind. Aside, this is a plot to
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  Speaker 4: get me out of the room. She's bribed by somebody
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  Speaker 4: who wants to identify me. I must be careful. I'm
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  Speaker 4: exposed to nothing but artifice and stratagem. Never mind, ma'am,
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  Speaker 4: never mind.
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  Speaker 11: If you'll give me your portmanteau, sir, the boots will
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  Speaker 11: carry it into the next room for you.
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  Speaker 4: Aside, here's diabolical ingenuity. She thinks it's got the name
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  Speaker 4: upon it. To her, I'm very much obliged to the
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  Speaker 4: boots for his disinterested attention, ma'am. But with your kind permission,
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  Speaker 4: this portmanteau will remain just exactly where it is. Consequently, ma'am.
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  Speaker 4: If the aforesaid boots wishes to succeed in removing this portmanteau,
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  Speaker 4: he must previously remove me, ma'am me, and it will
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  Speaker 4: take a pair of very stout boots to do that, ma'am.
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  Speaker 4: I promise you.
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  Speaker 11: Dear me, sir, you needn't fear for your portmanteau in
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  Speaker 11: this house. I dare say nobody wants it.
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  Speaker 4: I hope not, ma'am, because in that case, nobody will
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  Speaker 4: be disappointed. Aside, how she fixes her old eyes on me.
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  Speaker 11: Aside, I never saw such an extraordinary person in all
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  Speaker 11: my life. What can he be?
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  Speaker 1: Looks at him? Very hard. Exit missus noakes, said a door.
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  Speaker 4: She's gone at last. Now let me commune with my
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  Speaker 4: own dreadful thoughts and reflect on the best means of
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  Speaker 4: escaping from my horrible position.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Takes a letter from his pocket.
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  Speaker 4: Here's an illegal death warrant, A pressing invitation to be slaughtered,
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  Speaker 4: A polite request just to step out and be killed,
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  Speaker 4: thrust into my hand by some disguised assassin in a
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  Speaker 4: dirty black calico jacket. The very instant I got out
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  Speaker 4: of the gig at the door, Oh, I know their hand.
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: There's a ferocious recklessness in the cross to this tea,
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  Speaker 4: and a baleful malignity in the dot of that eye,
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  Speaker 4: which warns me that it comes from my desperate.
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  Speaker 1: Rival, opens it and reads.
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  Speaker 4: Mister Horatio Tinkles that's him, presents his compliments to his enemy,
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  Speaker 4: that's me, and requests the pleasure of his company to
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  Speaker 4: morrow morning, under the clump of trees on corpse common,
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  Speaker 4: corpse common to which any of the town's people will
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  Speaker 4: direct him, and where he hopes to have the satisfaction
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  Speaker 4: of giving him his gruel. Giving him his gruel ironical cutthroat,
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  Speaker 4: his punctuality will be esteemed a personal favor, as it
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  Speaker 4: will save mister Tinkles the trouble and inconvenience of calling
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: with a horsewhip in his pocket. Mister Tinkles has ordered
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  Speaker 4: breakfast at the Royal for one. It is paid for.
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: The individual who returns alive can eat it. Pistols half
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  Speaker 4: past five, precisely, bloodthirsty mysteryant the individual who returns alive.
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  Speaker 4: I have seen him hit the painted man at the
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  Speaker 4: Shooting Gallery regularly, every time in his center shirt plate,
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  Speaker 4: except when he varied the entertainments by lodging the ball
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  Speaker 4: playfully in his left eye. Breakfast. I shall want nothing
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  Speaker 4: beyond the gruel. What's to be done?
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  Speaker 6: Escape?
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: I can't escape concealments of no use. He knows I
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  Speaker 4: am here. He has dodged me all the way from London,
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  Speaker 4: and will dodge me all the way to the residence
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  Speaker 4: of Miss Emily Browne, whom I respected, but swine headed
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: parents have picked out for my future wife, a pretty figure.
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: I should cut before the old people, whom I have
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: never beheld more than once in my life, and miss
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: Emily brown whom I have never seen at all. If
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: I went down there pursued by this salamander, who I
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: suppose is her accepted lover, what is to be done?
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: I can't go back again. Father would be furious. What
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: can be done?
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Nothing sinks into a chair.
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  Speaker 4: I must undergo this fiery ordeal and submit to be
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: packed up and carried back to my weeping parents like
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: an unfortunate buck with a flat piece of lead in
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: my head and a brief epitaph on my breast. Killed
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: on Wednesday morning.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: No, I won't starting up and walking about.
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: I won't submit to it. I'll accept the challenge, but
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: first I'll write an anonymous letter to the local authorities,
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: giving them information of this intended duel and desiring them
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: to place me under immediate restraint. That's feasible on further consideration.
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: It's capital. My character will be saved. I shall be
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: bound over. He'll be bound over. I shall resume my journey,
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: reach the house, marry the Girl'll pocket the fortune and
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: laugh at him. No time to be lost, it shall
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: be done. Forthwith goes to table and writes there the
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: challenge accepted, with a bold defiance that will look very
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: brave when it comes to be printed. Now for the
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: other writes to the mayor, Sir, a strange gentleman at
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: the Saint James's Arms, whose name is unknown to the
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: writer of this communication, is bent upon committing a rash
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: and sanguinary act at an early hour tomorrow morning. As
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: you value human life, secure the amiable youth without delay. Think,
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: I implore you, sir, Think, what would be the feelings
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: of those to whom he is nearest and dearest If
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: any mischance befall the interesting young man, do not neglect
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: this solemn warning. The number of his room is seventeen. There,
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: folding it up now if I can find anyone who
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  Speaker 4: will deliver it secretly.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Tom sparks with a pair of boots in his hand,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: peeps in at the center door.
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  Speaker 6: Are these hair urine now going back?
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: Hello? Stop?
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: Are you the boots still at the door.
• 17:15
  Speaker 13: I'm the head of that branch of the establishment. There
• 17:18
  Speaker 13: is another man under me as brushes the dirts off
• 17:22
  Speaker 13: and puts the blacking on. The fancy works my department.
• 17:26
  Speaker 13: I do the polishing, nothing else.
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: You are the upper boots, then, yes.
• 17:32
  Speaker 6: I'm the regular.
• 17:33
  Speaker 13: The other one's only the deputy top boots and half boots.
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: I calls us, you're a sharp fellow.
• 17:42
  Speaker 6: Ah, I'd better cut then going.
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: Don't hurry, boots, don't hurry. I want you.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: Rises and comes forward right hand side, coming forward, left
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: hand side.
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: Wow, can can can you secret? Boots?
• 18:02
  Speaker 13: What depends entirely on accompanying circumstances.
• 18:07
  Speaker 6: See the point.
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: I think I comprehend your meaning, Boots. You insinuate that
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: you could be secret.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Putting his hand in his pocket if you.
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: Had five shillings, for instance. Isn't that it, Boots.
• 18:23
  Speaker 13: That's the line of argument I should take up. But
• 18:27
  Speaker 13: that ain't exactly my meaning. No, No, a secret's a
• 18:33
  Speaker 13: thing as is always a rising to one's lips. He
• 18:38
  Speaker 13: requires an astonishing weight to keep one on him down. Ah, yes,
• 18:46
  Speaker 13: I don't think I could keep one's snug regular snug.
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: You know, yes, regularly the snug of course, if.
• 18:55
  Speaker 13: It had a less weight at top on it than
• 18:58
  Speaker 13: ten shilling.
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: I don't think three half crowns would do it.
• 19:02
  Speaker 13: It might, I won't say it wouldn't, but I couldn't
• 19:06
  Speaker 13: warrant it.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: You could the other Yes, then there it is, gives
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: him four half crowns.
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: You see these letters?
• 19:18
  Speaker 13: Yes, I can manage that without my spectacles.
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: Well that's to be left at the Royale Hotel. This
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: this is an anonymous one, and I wanted to be
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: delivered at the Mayor's house without his knowing from whom
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: it came or seeing who delivered it.
• 19:36
  Speaker 6: Taking the letters, I say, you're a Roman you are?
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: Think so ha? So are you? Hi?
• 19:44
  Speaker 6: Bet you're a Ramo one than me?
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: No, No, that's your modesty.
• 19:50
  Speaker 6: No, don't I say? How value did them last? As X?
• 19:56
  Speaker 6: How do you contrive that air?
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: Now?
• 19:58
  Speaker 13: If it's a fair question, is it done with a
• 20:01
  Speaker 13: pipe or do you use them?
• 20:03
  Speaker 6: Lucifer boxes?
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: Pipe? Lucifer boxes haystacks.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Why what do you mean looking cautiously round?
• 20:14
  Speaker 6: I know your name, Lolden, you know my name beside?
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: Now, how the devil has he got hold of that?
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: I wonder?
• 20:24
  Speaker 6: Yes, I know it.
• 20:27
  Speaker 13: It begins with a S, begins with an S and
• 20:31
  Speaker 13: ends with a gink. We've all heard talk of swing
• 20:38
  Speaker 13: down ere.
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: Her talk of swing. Here's a situation. Damn it. Do
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: you think I'm a walking corboy of vitriol and burn
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: everything I touch? Will you go upon the errand you're
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: paid for?
• 20:53
  Speaker 6: Oh? I'm going. I'm Going's nothing to me, you know,
• 20:56
  Speaker 6: I don't care.
• 20:58
  Speaker 13: I'll only just give these boots to the deputy to
• 21:02
  Speaker 13: take them to whoever they belong to, and then I'll
• 21:05
  Speaker 13: pitch the zer letter in at the Mayor's office window.
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: In no time will you be off?
• 21:13
  Speaker 6: Oh I'm going. I'm going close you nose.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Close exit tom scenta door.
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: In five minutes more. The letter will be delivered in
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: another half hour. If the mayor does his duty, I
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: shall be in custody and secure from the vengeance of
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: this infuriated monster. I wonder whether they'll take me away?
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: He gad. I may as well be provided with a
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: clean shirt and a nightcap in case. Let's see, she said.
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: The next room was my bedroom. And as I have
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: accepted the challenge, I may venture so far.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: Now shouldering the portmanteau.
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: What a capital notion it is. There'll be all the
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: correspondence in large letters in the county paper, and my
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: name figuring away in Roman capitals, with a long story
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: how I was such a desperate dragon and so bent
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: upon fighting that it took four constables to carry me
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: to the mayor, and one boy to carry my hat.
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: It's a capital plan. Must be done the only way
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: I have of escaping unpursued from this place, unless I
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: could put myself in the general post and direct myself
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: to a friend in town. Oh and then it's a
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: chance whether they take me in, being so much overweight.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: Exit strange gentlemen with portmanteau left hand side, missus noakes
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: peeping in centa door, then entering.
• 22:39
  Speaker 11: This is the room, ladies, But the gentleman has stepped
• 22:42
  Speaker 11: out somewhere. He won't be long. I dare say, pray,
• 22:46
  Speaker 11: come in, miss and.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: To marry and Fanny Wilson center door, Mary center.
• 22:54
  Speaker 10: This is the strange gentleman's apartment, is.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: It, missus Noakes, right?
• 23:00
  Speaker 11: Unsigned yes, miss Shall I see if I can find him,
• 23:04
  Speaker 11: ladies and tell him you are here.
• 23:07
  Speaker 10: No, we should prefer waiting till he returns.
• 23:10
  Speaker 11: If you please very well, ma'am, he'll be back directly,
• 23:14
  Speaker 11: I dare say, for it's very near his dinner time.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Exit. Missus Noakes sent a door.
• 23:22
  Speaker 10: Come, Fanny, dear, don't give way to these feelings of depression.
• 23:27
  Speaker 10: Take pattern by me. I feel the absurdity of our
• 23:31
  Speaker 10: situation acutely, but you see that I keep up. Nevertheless,
• 23:38
  Speaker 10: it is easy for you to do so.
• 23:40
  Speaker 9: Your situation is neither so embarrassing nor so painful. A
• 23:44
  Speaker 9: one is mine?
• 23:46
  Speaker 10: Well, my dear, it may not be, certainly, but the
• 23:49
  Speaker 10: circumstances which render it less so are I own somewhat
• 23:55
  Speaker 10: incomprehensible to me. My hair brained madcap swain John Johnson
• 24:01
  Speaker 10: implores me to leave my guardian's house and accompany him
• 24:05
  Speaker 10: on an expedition to Gretna Green. I, with immense reluctance, and,
• 24:12
  Speaker 10: after considerable pressing.
• 24:15
  Speaker 9: Yield a very willing consent.
• 24:18
  Speaker 10: Well, we won't quarrel about terms at all events. I
• 24:22
  Speaker 10: do consent, he bears me off, and when we get
• 24:26
  Speaker 10: exactly half way, discovers that his money is all gone,
• 24:31
  Speaker 10: and that we must stop at this inn until he
• 24:35
  Speaker 10: can procure a remittance from London by post. I think,
• 24:39
  Speaker 10: my dear, you'll own that this is rather an embarrassing position.
• 24:45
  Speaker 9: Compare it with mine. Taking advantage of your flight. I
• 24:49
  Speaker 9: send express to my admirer Charles Tompkins to say that
• 24:53
  Speaker 9: I have accompanied you, first because I should have been
• 24:56
  Speaker 9: miserable if left behind with a peevish old man alone.
• 25:00
  Speaker 9: Secondly because I thought it proper that your sister should accompany.
• 25:03
  Speaker 10: You, And thirdly because you knew that he would immediately
• 25:09
  Speaker 10: comply with this indirect assent to his entreaties of three
• 25:13
  Speaker 10: months duration and follow you without delay on the same
• 25:17
  Speaker 10: Errand eh.
• 25:19
  Speaker 9: My dear, it by no means follows that such was
• 25:22
  Speaker 9: my intention, or that I knew he would pursue such
• 25:25
  Speaker 9: a course. But supposing he has done so, supposing the
• 25:29
  Speaker 9: strange gentleman should be himself.
• 25:32
  Speaker 10: Supposing why you know it is you told him not
• 25:36
  Speaker 10: to disclose his name on any account, And the strange
• 25:41
  Speaker 10: gentleman is not a very common traveling name, I should imagine.
• 25:45
  Speaker 10: Besides the hasty note in which he said he should
• 25:49
  Speaker 10: join you here.
• 25:50
  Speaker 9: Well granted that it is he, in what a situation
• 25:53
  Speaker 9: am I placed?
• 25:55
  Speaker 13: You?
• 25:55
  Speaker 9: Tell me for the first time that my violent intended
• 25:58
  Speaker 9: must on no account be beheld by your violent intended
• 26:02
  Speaker 9: just now because of some old quarrel between them of
• 26:05
  Speaker 9: long standing, which has never been adjusted to this day.
• 26:09
  Speaker 9: What an appearance this will have? How am I to
• 26:12
  Speaker 9: explain it or relate your present situation? I should sink
• 26:16
  Speaker 9: into the earth with shame and confusion.
• 26:19
  Speaker 10: Leave it to me. It arises from my heedlessness. I
• 26:24
  Speaker 10: will take it all upon myself and see him alone.
• 26:28
  Speaker 10: But tell me, my dear, as you got up this
• 26:31
  Speaker 10: love affair with so much secrecy and expedition during the
• 26:35
  Speaker 10: four months you spent at Aunt Martha's, I have never
• 26:39
  Speaker 10: yet seen mister Tompkins. You know? Is he so very handsome?
• 26:44
  Speaker 9: See him and judge for yourself.
• 26:47
  Speaker 10: Well, I will, and you may retire till I have
• 26:51
  Speaker 10: paved the way for your appearance. But just assist me, first, dear,
• 26:56
  Speaker 10: in making a little noise to attract his attention if
• 26:59
  Speaker 10: he really be in the next room, or I may
• 27:03
  Speaker 10: wait here all day.
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: Do it.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: At the end of which exit Fanny sent the door.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: Mary reties up right hand side, and to strange gentleman
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: left hand side.
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: There now with a clean shirt in one pocket and
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: a nightcap in the other. I'm ready to be carried
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: magnanimously to my dungeon in the cause of love.
• 27:29
  Speaker 10: Beside he says he's ready to be carried magnanimously to
• 27:35
  Speaker 10: a dungeon in the cause of love. I thought it
• 27:39
  Speaker 10: was mister Tompkins hum.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: Coming down left hand side, seeing her.
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: Hello, who's this not a disguised peace officer in petticoats?
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: Beg your pardon, ma'am, advancing towards her.
• 27:55
  Speaker 11: What did you, oh, sir?
• 27:57
  Speaker 10: I feel the delicacy of my situation.
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: Aside feels the delicacy of her situation. Lord bless us,
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: what's the matter? Permit me to offer you a seat, ma'am.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: If you're in a delicate situation, He plays his chess.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: They sit.
• 28:14
  Speaker 10: You are very good, sir. You are surprised to see
• 28:18
  Speaker 10: me here, sir?
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: No, No, at least not very Rather perhaps rather aside
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: never was more astonished in all my life.
• 28:31
  Speaker 10: Beside his politeness and the extraordinary tale I have to
• 28:36
  Speaker 10: tell him overpower me. I must summon up courage. Ahem. Sir, ma'am,
• 28:46
  Speaker 10: you have arrived at this house in pursuit of a
• 28:49
  Speaker 10: young lady. If I mistake not, you are quite right, ma'am.
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: Aside mysterious female.
• 28:57
  Speaker 10: If you are the gentleman i'm in search. You wrote
• 29:01
  Speaker 10: a hasty note a short time since stating that you
• 29:04
  Speaker 10: would be found here this afternoon.
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: Drawing back his chair, I I wrote a note, ma'am.
• 29:13
  Speaker 10: You need keep nothing secret from me, Sir.
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: I know all aside that villain Boots has betrayed me.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: No, all, ma'am, everything aside.
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: Oh, it must be so. She's a constable's wife.
• 29:33
  Speaker 10: You are the writer of that letter, sir. I think
• 29:36
  Speaker 10: I am not mistaken.
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: You are not, ma'am. I confess I did write it.
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: What was I to do, ma'am? Consider the situation in
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: which I was placed.
• 29:48
  Speaker 10: In your situation, you had, as it appears to me,
• 29:52
  Speaker 10: only one course to pursue.
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: You mean the course I adopted.
• 29:58
  Speaker 10: Undoubtedly.
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: I am very happy to hear you say so, though
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: of course I should like it to be kept a secret.
• 30:05
  Speaker 10: Oh, of course.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: Drawing his chair close to her, and speaking very softly.
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: Will you allow me to ask you whether the constables
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: are downstairs.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: Surprised the constables, because.
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: If I am to be apprehended, I should like to
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: have it over. I am quite ready if it must
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: be done.
• 30:25
  Speaker 10: No legal interference has been attempted. There is nothing to
• 30:29
  Speaker 10: prevent your continuing your journey to night.
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: But will not the other party follow?
• 30:35
  Speaker 10: Looking down at the other party, I am compelled to
• 30:39
  Speaker 10: inform you is detained here by by want of funds.
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: Starting up, detained here by want of funds.
• 30:49
  Speaker 6: Hurrah, Hurrah.
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: I have caged him at last. I'm revenged for all
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: his blustering and bullying. This is a glorious triumph.
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: Ha ha ha.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: I've nailed him, nailed him to the spot, rising indignantly.
• 31:06
  Speaker 10: This exulting over a fallen foe, Sir, is mean and
• 31:10
  Speaker 10: pitiful in my presence too, it is an additional insult, insult.
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: I wouldn't insult you for the world. After the joyful
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: intelligence you have brought me, I could hug you in
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: my arms, one kiss. My little constable's deputy, seizing.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Her struggling with him, help help, And did John Johnson sent.
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: To doll What the devil do I see?
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: Ceeses strange gentleman by the collar Mary left hand sighed.
• 31:43
  Speaker 10: John and mister Tompkins met together. They'll kill each other.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: Here, help help exit marry running senta doll shaking him.
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: What do you mean by that scoundrel?
• 31:58
  Speaker 4: Come none of your nonsense. There's no done, no harm done.
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: How dare you offer to salute that lady?
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: What did you send her here for?
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: I send her?
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: Yes, you you gave her instructions, I suppose beside her husband,
• 32:15
  Speaker 4: the constable.
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: Evidently that lady, sir is attached to me.
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: Well, I know she is, and a very useful little person.
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: She must be to be attached to anybody. It's a
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: pity she can't be legally sworn in, legally sworn in, Sir.
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: That is an insolent reflection upon the temporary embarrassment which
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: prevents our taking the marriage vows. How dare you insinuate? Pooh, pooh,
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: don't talk about daring to insinuate. It doesn't become a
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: man in your station of life, my station of life.
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: But as you have managed this matter very quietly and
• 32:55
  Speaker 4: say you're in temporary embarrassment. Here, here's five shillings for you.
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: Five shillings.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: Raises his cane, flourishing a chair keep off, sir, and
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: don't marry. Tom sparks and two.
• 33:10
  Speaker 10: Waiters separate them or there'll be murder.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: Tom clasps strange gentlemen round the waist. The waiters seize
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: John Johnson.
• 33:21
  Speaker 13: Come that ere, mister s We don't let private rooms
• 33:25
  Speaker 13: for such games as these. If you want to try
• 33:28
  Speaker 13: it on where he particular, we don't mind making a
• 33:31
  Speaker 13: ring view in the yard, but you mustn't do it here.
• 33:35
  Speaker 14: Let me get at him, Let me go, wais marry,
• 33:38
  Speaker 14: don't hold me. I insist on your letting me go.
• 33:42
  Speaker 14: Hold him fast, Call yourself a peace officer.
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: You your prize fighter struggling, Let me go, I say,
• 33:53
  Speaker 4: hold him first, Hold him first.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Tom takes strange gentlemen off right hand side, Waiters take
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: John off left hand side. Marry. Following scene too, another
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: room in the inn, and to Julia Dobbs an overton
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: left hand side.
• 34:17
  Speaker 8: You seem surprised, Overton.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: Surprised, Miss Dobbs, Well, I may be, when after seeing
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: nothing of you for three years and more, you come
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: down here without any previous notice, for the express purpose
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: of running away, positively running away for the young man.
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: I am astonished, Miss Dobbs you would.
• 34:40
  Speaker 8: Have had better reason to be astonished if I had
• 34:42
  Speaker 8: come down here with any notion of positively running away
• 34:45
  Speaker 8: with an old one Overton.
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: Old or young. It would matter little to me if
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: you had not conceived the preposterous idea of entangling me,
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: me an attorney and mayor of the town, in so
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: ridiculous a scheme, Miss Dobbs, I can't do it. I
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: really cannot consent to mix myself up with such an affair.
• 35:09
  Speaker 8: Very well, Overton, very well, you recollect that in the
• 35:12
  Speaker 8: lifetime of that poor old dear mister Woolley, who.
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: Who would have married you if he hadn't died, and who,
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: as it was, left you his property free from all encumbrances,
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: the encumbrance of himself as a husband, not being amongst.
• 35:29
  Speaker 8: The least, well you may recollect that in the poor
• 35:33
  Speaker 8: old dear's lifetime, sundry advances of money were made to
• 35:36
  Speaker 8: you at my persuasion, which still remain unpaid. Oblige me
• 35:41
  Speaker 8: by forwarding them to my agent in the course of
• 35:43
  Speaker 8: the week, and I free you from any interference in
• 35:47
  Speaker 8: this little matter.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: Cross us to left hand side, and is going Stay,
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: Miss Dobbs, stay as you say we are old acquaintances,
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: and there certainly were some small sums of money, which which.
• 36:03
  Speaker 8: Which certainly are still outstanding just so.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: Just so, and which perhaps you would be likely to
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: forget if you had a husband. Eh, Miss Dobbs, Eh,
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: I have.
• 36:17
  Speaker 8: Little doubt that I should if I gained one through
• 36:20
  Speaker 8: your assistance. Indeed, I can safely say I should forget
• 36:24
  Speaker 8: all about them, My.
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: Dear Miss Dobbs. We perfectly understand each other.
• 36:29
  Speaker 8: Pray proceed well, dear Lord Peter.
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: That's the young man you're going to run away with.
• 36:36
  Speaker 8: I presume that's the young nobleman who's going to run
• 36:41
  Speaker 8: away with me, mister Overton.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, sir, I beg your pardon. Pray go on.
• 36:48
  Speaker 8: Dear Lord Peter is young and wild, and the fact
• 36:51
  Speaker 8: is his friends do not consider him very sagacious or
• 36:54
  Speaker 8: strong minded. To prevent their interference, our marriage is to
• 36:58
  Speaker 8: be a secret one. In fact, he is stopping now
• 37:00
  Speaker 8: at a friend's hunting seat in the neighborhood. He is
• 37:03
  Speaker 8: to join me here, and we are to be married
• 37:06
  Speaker 8: at Gretna.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: Just so, a matter as it seems to me, which
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: you can conclude without any interference.
• 37:15
  Speaker 8: Wait an instant to avoid suspicion and prevent our being
• 37:19
  Speaker 8: recognized and followed. I settled with him that you should
• 37:23
  Speaker 8: give out in this house that he was a lunatic,
• 37:25
  Speaker 8: and that I, his aunt, was going to convey him
• 37:29
  Speaker 8: in a chaise to night to a private asylum at Berwick.
• 37:32
  Speaker 8: I have ordered the chaise. At half past one in
• 37:34
  Speaker 8: the morning, you can see him and make our final arrangements.
• 37:39
  Speaker 8: It will avert all suspicion. If I have no communication
• 37:42
  Speaker 8: with him till we start, you can say to the
• 37:45
  Speaker 8: people of the house that the sight of me makes
• 37:47
  Speaker 8: him furious.
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: Where shall I find him?
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: Is he here?
• 37:52
  Speaker 5: You know best?
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: Hi?
• 37:56
  Speaker 8: I desired him immediately on his arrival to write you
• 37:59
  Speaker 8: some mysterious nonsense, acquainting you with the number of his.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: Room, producing a letter dear me.
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: He has arrived, Miss Dobbs. No, Yes, see here a
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: most mysterious and extraordinary composition, which was thrown in at
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: my office window this morning, and which I could make
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: neither head nor tail of.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: Is that his handwriting giving her the letter taking letter?
• 38:26
  Speaker 8: I never saw it more than once, but I know
• 38:28
  Speaker 8: he writes very large and straggling looks at letter.
• 38:32
  Speaker 11: Ha, this is capital, isn't.
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: It excellent, that's so mysterious.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: Ha ha, so very good.
• 38:40
  Speaker 8: Rash act yes, interesting young man, yes, very good, amiable youth,
• 38:49
  Speaker 8: capital solemn warning.
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's the best of all.
• 38:57
  Speaker 8: Number seventeen, he says, see him at once. That's a good.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: Creature, returning the letter, taking letter, I will. He crosses
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: to left hand side and rings a bell, and their
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: waiter left hand side.
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: Who is there in number seventeen?
• 39:12
  Speaker 7: Waiter number seventeen, sir, Oh, the strange gentleman, Sir, show
• 39:17
  Speaker 7: me the.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: Room exit waiter left hand side, looking at Julia and
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: pointing to the letter.
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: The strange gentleman. Very good, very good, indeed excellent.
• 39:29
  Speaker 5: Notion.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: Excellent severally. Scene three, same mus The first a small
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: table with winedserts and lights on it, right hand side
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: of center door. Two chairs, strange gentlemen discovered seated at table.
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: The other party is detained here by want of funds.
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: Ha ha. I can finish my wine at my leisure,
• 39:57
  Speaker 4: order my gig when I please, and drive on to
• 40:00
  Speaker 4: Brown's in perfect security. I'll drink the other party's good health,
• 40:05
  Speaker 4: and long may he be detained.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: Here fills a glass.
• 40:11
  Speaker 4: The other party, and long may he.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: A knock at Centa door.
• 40:16
  Speaker 4: HALLO, I hope this isn't the other party talk of
• 40:19
  Speaker 4: there a.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: Knock at Centa door. Well, setting down his glass.
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: This is the most extraordinary private room that was ever invented.
• 40:28
  Speaker 4: I'm continually disturbed by unaccountable knockings.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: A gentle tap at Centa door.
• 40:34
  Speaker 4: There's another that was a gentle rap, A persuasive tap,
• 40:38
  Speaker 4: like a friend's forefinger on one's coat sleeve. It can't
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: be tinkles with the gruel.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: Come in, O button peeping in at centa door?
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: Are you alone, my lord?
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: Amazed?
• 40:50
  Speaker 10: Eh?
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: Are you alone?
• 40:52
  Speaker 6: My lord?
• 40:53
  Speaker 4: My lord?
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: Stepping in and closing the door.
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: You are right, sir. We cannot be too cautious, for
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: we do not know who may be within hearing.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: You are very right, sir, rising from table and coming
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: forward to right hand side.
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: It strikes me, sir, that you are very wrong, very good,
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: very good. I like this caution. It shows me you
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: are wide awake.
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: Quite awake. Dear me. I begin to think I am
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: fast asleep and have been for the last two hours.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: Whispering I am the mayor in the same tone, Oh,
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: this is your letter? Shows it strange gentleman nods assent solemnly.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: It will be necessary for you to leave here to
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: night at half past one o'clock in a post chaise
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: and four. And the higher you bribe the postboys to
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: drive at their utmost speed, the better you don't say
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: so I do. Indeed, you are not safe from pursuit here.
• 41:53
  Speaker 4: Bless my soul. Can such dreadful things happen in a
• 41:58
  Speaker 4: civilized community, mister may.
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: It certainly does at first sight appear rather a hard
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: case that people cannot marry whom they please without being
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: hunted down in this way, to.
• 42:10
  Speaker 4: Be sure to be hunted down and killed, as if
• 42:13
  Speaker 4: one was game.
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: You know, certainly, and you ain't game, you know, of
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: course not.
• 42:21
  Speaker 4: But can't you prevent it? Can't you save me by
• 42:24
  Speaker 4: the interposition of your power?
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: My power can do nothing in such a case. Count
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: it though nothing whatever.
• 42:31
  Speaker 4: I never heard of such dreadful revenge. Never, mister Mayor.
• 42:37
  Speaker 4: I am a victim. I am the unhappy victim of
• 42:40
  Speaker 4: parental obstinacy.
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: Oh no, don't say that you may escape yet.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: Grasping his hand, do you think I may?
• 42:49
  Speaker 4: Do you think I may? Mister Mayor?
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: Certainly, certainly I have little doubt of it if you
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: manage properly.
• 42:57
  Speaker 4: I thought I was managing properly. I understood the other
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: party was detained here by want of.
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: Funds, want of funds. There's no want of funds in
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: that quarter. I can tell you aren't there though, bless
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: you no three thousand a year. But who told you
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: there was a want of funds?
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: Why she did she?
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: You have seen her then, she told me.
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: You had not nonsense. Don't believe her. She was in
• 43:26
  Speaker 4: this very room half an hour ago.
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: Then I must have misunderstood her, and you must have
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: misunderstood her too. But to return to business, don't you
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: think it would keep up appearances? If I had you
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: put under some restraint.
• 43:42
  Speaker 4: I think it would. I am very much obliged to you. Aside,
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: this regard for my character an utter stranger, and in
• 43:49
  Speaker 4: a mayor too, is quite affecting.
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: I'll send somebody up to Mount God over you.
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: Thank'ee, my dear friend, thank'e.
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: And if you make a little resistance when we take
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: you upstairs to your bedroom or away in the chaise,
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: it will be keeping up the character, you know, to
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: be sure, so it will. I'll do it very well, then,
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: I shall see your lordship again by and by for
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: the present, my lord.
• 44:18
  Speaker 4: Good evening, going Lord Lordship, mister Mayor.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: Eh oh, I see comes forward.
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: Practicing the lunatic. My Lord, ah, very good, very vacant look.
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: Indeed admirable, my lord, admirable, I say, my lord, pointing
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: to letter, amiable youth, interesting young man, strange gentlemen, eh
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: er knowing trick. Indeed, my Lord.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: Very exit overton sent the door.
• 44:53
  Speaker 4: That Mayor is either in the very last stage of
• 44:56
  Speaker 4: mystified intoxication or in the most hopeless stage of incurable insanity.
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: I have no doubt of it.
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: A little touched here tapping his forehead.
• 45:06
  Speaker 4: Never mind, he is sufficiently saying to understand my business
• 45:10
  Speaker 4: at all.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: Events, goes to table and takes a glass.
• 45:14
  Speaker 4: Poor fellow, I'll drink his health and speedy recovery.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: A knock at centa door.
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: It is a most extraordinary thing now that every time
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: I propose a toast to myself, some confounded fellow raps
• 45:27
  Speaker 4: at that door, as if he were receiving it with
• 45:29
  Speaker 4: the utmost enthusiasm. Private room, I might as well be
• 45:34
  Speaker 4: sitting behind the little shutter of a turpenny post office
• 45:37
  Speaker 4: where all the letters put in were to be postpaid.
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: A knock at center door.
• 45:43
  Speaker 4: Perhaps it's the guard. I shall feel a great deal
• 45:46
  Speaker 4: safer if it is come in.
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: He has brought a chair forward and sits left hand side.
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: Enter Tom Spark's center door, very slowly with an enormous stick,
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: closes the door, and, after looking at the strange gentleman,
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: very steadily brings a chair down left hand side and
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: sits opposite him.
• 46:09
  Speaker 4: Are you sent by the mayor of this place to
• 46:11
  Speaker 4: mount guard over me?
• 46:13
  Speaker 13: Yes?
• 46:14
  Speaker 6: Yes, it's all right.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: Aside, it's all right. I'm safe to Tom with affected indignation.
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: Now mind, I have been insulted by receiving this challenge,
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: and I want to fight the man who gave it me.
• 46:28
  Speaker 4: I protest against being kept here. I denounce this treatment
• 46:33
  Speaker 4: as an outrage.
• 46:35
  Speaker 13: I iye, anything you please, poor creature. Don't put yourself
• 46:40
  Speaker 13: in a passion. It'll only make you worse.
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: This is most extraordinary behavior. I don't understand it. What
• 46:55
  Speaker 4: do you mean by behaving in this manner?
• 46:58
  Speaker 6: Aside getting violent?
• 47:01
  Speaker 13: Or you must frighten him with a steady look, I say,
• 47:04
  Speaker 13: young fellow, do you see this HEREROI.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: Staring at him and pointing at his own eye aside.
• 47:12
  Speaker 4: Do I see his eye? What can he mean by
• 47:15
  Speaker 4: glaring upon me with that large round optic? Huh? A
• 47:20
  Speaker 4: terrible light flashes upon me. He thought I was swing
• 47:25
  Speaker 4: this morning. It was an insane delusion, that I is
• 47:29
  Speaker 4: an insane eye.
• 47:31
  Speaker 6: He is a.
• 47:31
  Speaker 13: Madman, madman, damny, I think he is a madman with
• 47:36
  Speaker 13: a vengeance.
• 47:38
  Speaker 4: He acknowledges it. He is sensible of his misfortune. Go away,
• 47:43
  Speaker 4: leave the room instantly, and tell him to send somebody else.
• 47:46
  Speaker 6: Go away, Oh, you unhappy lunatic.
• 47:51
  Speaker 4: What a dreadful situation. I shall be attacked, strangled, smothered
• 47:56
  Speaker 4: and mangled by a madman. Where's the bell?
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: Advancing and brandishing his stick?
• 48:03
  Speaker 13: Lay that air bell alone, Leave that air bell alone,
• 48:06
  Speaker 13: and come here.
• 48:08
  Speaker 4: Certainly, mister Boots, certainly he's going to strangle me.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: Going towards table.
• 48:15
  Speaker 4: Let me pull you out a glass of wine, mister Boots,
• 48:18
  Speaker 4: pray do sighed? If he said yes, I'd throw the
• 48:21
  Speaker 4: decanter at his temple.
• 48:23
  Speaker 6: Nanny your nonsense.
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: Sit down there, forces him into a chair, left hand.
• 48:28
  Speaker 6: Side, I'll said.
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: Here opposite him, right hand side.
• 48:32
  Speaker 13: Look me full in the face, and I won't hurt
• 48:35
  Speaker 13: you move hand, foot or eye, and you'll never want
• 48:38
  Speaker 13: to move either of em again.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: I'm paralyzed with terror, ha raising his stick in a
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: threatening attitude.
• 48:48
  Speaker 4: I'm dumb, mister Boots, dumb sir.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: They sit gazing intently on each other, Tom with a
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: stick raised as the axe drop slowly descents. End of
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: Act one, Act two of The Strange Gentleman by Charles Dickens.
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All libervox recordings are in
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Act two, Scene one the same
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: as scene three, Act one. Tom sparks discovered in the
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: same attitude, watching the Strange Gentleman who has fallen asleep
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: with his head over the back of his chair.
• 49:45
  Speaker 13: He's asleep, poor, unhappy wretch. How very mad he looks
• 49:51
  Speaker 13: with his mouth wide open and his eyes shut. Sh
• 49:59
  Speaker 13: ah ah, there's a wakent snore, no meaning in it
• 50:03
  Speaker 13: at all. He could have told he was out of
• 50:07
  Speaker 13: his senses from the very tone of it. Sh Oh,
• 50:14
  Speaker 13: there's a wary, insane snore. I should say he was
• 50:18
  Speaker 13: melancholy mad from the sound of it.
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: Enter through center door Overton, Missus Noakes, a chambermaid and
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: two waiters. Missus Noakes with a warming pan, the maid
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: with the light. Strange gentleman starts up greatly exhausted, starting
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: up in center.
• 50:39
  Speaker 6: Ah, I'll keep quiet, young fellow, keep quiet.
• 50:44
  Speaker 4: Left hand side, out of the way, you savage maniac, mister.
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: Mayor cross to him right hand side.
• 50:52
  Speaker 4: The person you sent to keep guard over me is
• 50:54
  Speaker 4: a madman, sir? What do you mean by shutting me
• 50:58
  Speaker 4: up with a madman? What do you mean, sir?
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: I ask, right hand center aside to strange gentlemen.
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: Bravo, bravo, very good, indeed, excellent.
• 51:10
  Speaker 4: Excellent, sir. It's horrible. The bare recollection of what I
• 51:15
  Speaker 4: have endured makes me shudder down to my very toenails.
• 51:21
  Speaker 11: Right hand side, poor dear, mad people always think other people.
• 51:27
  Speaker 4: Mad, Poor dear, ma'am. What the devil do you mean
• 51:32
  Speaker 4: by poor dear? How dare you have a madman here,
• 51:36
  Speaker 4: ma'am to assault and terrify the visitors to your establishment?
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: Ah?
• 51:41
  Speaker 11: Terrify. Indeed, I'll never have another to please anybody. You
• 51:47
  Speaker 11: may depend upon that, mister Overton to strange gentlemen there
• 51:53
  Speaker 11: there don't exert yourself. There's a dear center.
• 51:59
  Speaker 4: Exert myself.
• 52:01
  Speaker 10: Damn me.
• 52:02
  Speaker 4: It's a mercy I have any life left to exert
• 52:05
  Speaker 4: myself with. It's a special miracle, man, that my existence
• 52:09
  Speaker 4: has not long ago fallen. A sacrifice to that sanguinary
• 52:14
  Speaker 4: monster in the leather smalls right.
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: Hand centa aside to strange gentlemen.
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: I never saw any passion more real in my life.
• 52:24
  Speaker 5: Keep it up.
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: It's an admirable joke.
• 52:27
  Speaker 4: Joke, joke, peril a precious life and call it a joke.
• 52:33
  Speaker 4: You a man with a sleek head and a broad
• 52:36
  Speaker 4: brimmed hat who ought to know better, calling it a joke?
• 52:39
  Speaker 4: Are you mad too? Sir? Are you mad?
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: Confronting overton left hand side?
• 52:46
  Speaker 13: Ta't your hands off? Would you murder the wary bear? Yourself?
• 52:50
  Speaker 13: You miserable being?
• 52:53
  Speaker 4: Mister mayor, I call upon you to issue your warrant
• 52:56
  Speaker 4: for the instant confinement of that one eyed orson inside
• 53:00
  Speaker 4: place of security.
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: Aside advancing a little.
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: He reminds me that he had better be removed to
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: his bedroom. He is right, waiters, carry the gentleman upstairs, boots.
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: You will continue to watch him in his bedroom.
• 53:16
  Speaker 4: He continue? What am I to be boxed up again
• 53:20
  Speaker 4: with this infuriated animal and killed off when he has
• 53:23
  Speaker 4: done playing with me. I won't go, I won't go.
• 53:28
  Speaker 4: Help there, help.
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: The waiter's cross from right hand side to behind him.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: Enter John Johnson, hastily sent the door coming forward left
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: hand side.
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: What on earth is the meaning of this dreadful outcry
• 53:43
  Speaker 3: which disturbs the whole house?
• 53:46
  Speaker 11: Don't be alarmed, sir, I beg They're only going to
• 53:50
  Speaker 11: carry an unfortunate gentleman as is out of his senses
• 53:53
  Speaker 11: to his bedroom.
• 53:55
  Speaker 4: Center to John constable. Constable, do your duty. Apprehend these persons,
• 54:02
  Speaker 4: every one of them. Do you hear, officer, do you hear.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: The waiters seize him by the arms?
• 54:09
  Speaker 10: Here?
• 54:09
  Speaker 4: Here you see this, You've seen the assault committed. Take
• 54:13
  Speaker 4: them into custody. Off with them, poor creature.
• 54:18
  Speaker 11: He thinks you are a constable, sir.
• 54:21
  Speaker 3: Unfortunate man. It is the second time to day that
• 54:24
  Speaker 3: he has been the victim of this strange delusion.
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: Breaking from waius and going to John left hand sighed, unfortunate.
• 54:33
  Speaker 4: Man, what do you think? I am? Mad?
• 54:36
  Speaker 3: Poor fellow, His hopeless condition is pitiable.
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: Indeed goes up, returning to Santa.
• 54:42
  Speaker 4: They're all mad, every one of em.
• 54:46
  Speaker 11: Come now, come to bed. There's a dear young man.
• 54:52
  Speaker 4: Do who are you?
• 54:53
  Speaker 11: You?
• 54:54
  Speaker 4: Shameless old ghost standing there before company with a large
• 54:58
  Speaker 4: warming pen and asking me to come to bed. Are
• 55:01
  Speaker 4: you mad?
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: Oh?
• 55:03
  Speaker 11: He's getting shocking. Now take him away, take him away.
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: Ah, you had better remove him to his bedroom at once.
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: The waiters taking him up by the feet and shoulders.
• 55:15
  Speaker 4: Mind, if I survive this, I'll bring an action of
• 55:19
  Speaker 4: false imprisonment against every one of you, mark my words,
• 55:24
  Speaker 4: especially against that villainous old mayor. Mind, I'll do it.
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: They bear him off, struggling and talking, the others crowding
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: round and assisting, following how well he does it? Excellent?
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: Left hand first exit. Enter a waiter showing in. Charles
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: Tompkins in a traveling coat. Sent a door waiter, left
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: hand side.
• 55:47
  Speaker 7: This room is disengaged now, sir, there was a gentleman
• 55:50
  Speaker 7: in it, but he has just loved it very well.
• 55:52
  Speaker 5: This will do. I may want to bid here tonight, perhaps, waiter.
• 55:57
  Speaker 6: Yes, sir?
• 55:58
  Speaker 7: Shall I take your card to the bars?
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: My card?
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: No?
• 56:02
  Speaker 5: Never mind, no name, sir, No, it doesn't.
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: Matter, aside as going.
• 56:09
  Speaker 7: Out another strange gentleman.
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: Exit waiter Santa Door. Ah takes off coat.
• 56:17
  Speaker 5: The sun and dust on this long ride have been
• 56:20
  Speaker 5: almost suffocating. I wonder whether Fanny has arrived. If she has,
• 56:25
  Speaker 5: the sooner we start forward on our journey further north,
• 56:28
  Speaker 5: the better let me see. She will be accompanied by
• 56:32
  Speaker 5: her sister, she said in her note, and he would
• 56:36
  Speaker 5: both be on the lookout for me. Then the best
• 56:38
  Speaker 5: thing I can do is to ask new questions for
• 56:41
  Speaker 5: the present at all events, and to be on the
• 56:43
  Speaker 5: lookout for them.
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: Looking towards Santa Door, why.
• 56:48
  Speaker 5: Here she comes, walking slowly down the long passage, straight
• 56:52
  Speaker 5: towards this room. She can't see me yet, poor girl,
• 56:58
  Speaker 5: how melancholy she looks. I'll keep in the background for
• 57:02
  Speaker 5: an instant and give her a joyful surprise.
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: He goes up right hand side, and to Fanny sent
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: the door left hand side.
• 57:12
  Speaker 9: Was ever unhappy girl, placed in so dreadful a situation,
• 57:16
  Speaker 9: friendless and almost alone in a strange place. My dear
• 57:21
  Speaker 9: dear Charles, a victim to an attack of mental derangement,
• 57:24
  Speaker 9: and I am unable to avow my interest in him,
• 57:27
  Speaker 9: or express my anxious sympathy and solicitude for his sufferings.
• 57:31
  Speaker 9: I cannot bear this dreadful torture of agonizing suspense. I
• 57:35
  Speaker 9: must and will see him. Let the cost be what
• 57:38
  Speaker 9: it may.
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: She is going left hand side, coming forward, right hand side.
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: St Fanny startling and repressing a scream to Charles.
• 57:50
  Speaker 5: Here in this room, bodily present, my dear, in this
• 57:53
  Speaker 5: very room, my darling, Fanny, let me strain you to my.
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: Bosom, advancing, shrinking back.
• 58:01
  Speaker 9: No, no, dearest, Charles, No not now aside how flushed
• 58:07
  Speaker 9: he is, No.
• 58:09
  Speaker 5: Fanny, this cold reception is a very different one to
• 58:13
  Speaker 5: what I look forward to meeting with.
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: From you, advancing and offering the tip of her finger.
• 58:19
  Speaker 9: No, no, no, not cold, Charles, not cold. I do
• 58:23
  Speaker 9: not mean it to be so. Indeed, how is your
• 58:26
  Speaker 9: head now, dear?
• 58:27
  Speaker 5: How is my head? After days and weeks of suspense
• 58:32
  Speaker 5: and anxiety, when half our dangerous journey is gained, and
• 58:36
  Speaker 5: I meet you here to bear you whither you can
• 58:38
  Speaker 5: be made mind for life? You greet me with the
• 58:41
  Speaker 5: tip of your longest finger and inquire after my head? Fanny,
• 58:47
  Speaker 5: what can you mean you?
• 58:50
  Speaker 9: You have startled me rather, Charles. I thought you had
• 58:53
  Speaker 9: gone to bed, gone to bed?
• 58:55
  Speaker 5: Why I have but this moment arrived.
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: Aside, Poor poor Charles.
• 59:02
  Speaker 5: Miss Wilson, what am I to No?
• 59:04
  Speaker 9: No, pray, pray, Do not suffer yourself to be excited.
• 59:09
  Speaker 5: Suffer myself to be excited? Can I possibly avoid it?
• 59:13
  Speaker 5: Can I do? Aught? But wonder at this extraordinary and
• 59:16
  Speaker 5: sudden change in your whole demeanor? Excited? But five minutes
• 59:22
  Speaker 5: since I arrived here, brim full of the hope and
• 59:25
  Speaker 5: expectation which had buoyed up my spirits during my long journey,
• 59:29
  Speaker 5: I find you cold, reserved and embarrassed, everything but what
• 59:34
  Speaker 5: I expected to find you. And then you tell me
• 59:38
  Speaker 5: not to be excited.
• 59:39
  Speaker 9: Aside, he is wandering again. The fever is evidently upon him.
• 59:45
  Speaker 5: This altered manner and ill disguised confusion all convinced me
• 59:49
  Speaker 5: of what you would fain conceal, Miss Wilson, You repent
• 59:53
  Speaker 5: of your former determination and love another, poor fellow, poor fellow?
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 5: What am I pitied?
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 9: Oh Charles, do not give way to this. Consider how
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 9: much depends upon your being composed?
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 5: I see how much depends upon my being composed, ma'am? Well,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 5: very well, a husband depends upon it, ma'am. Your new
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 5: lover is in this house, and if he overhears my reproaches,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 5: he will become suspicious of the woman who has jilted another,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 5: and may jilt him. That's it, madam. A great deal depends,
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 5: as you say, upon my being composed, a great deal, ma'am.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 9: Alas these are indeed the ravings of frenzy.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 5: Upon my word, ma'am, you must form a very modest
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 5: estimate of your own power. If you imagine that disappointment
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 5: has impaired my senses, ha ha ha ha ha ha.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 5: I am delighted. I am delighted to have escaped you, ma'am.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 5: I am glad, ma'am damned.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: Glad kicks a chair over aside.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 9: I must call for assistance. He grows more incoherent and
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 9: furious every instant I.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 5: Leave you, ma'am, I am unwilling to interrupt the tender
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 5: hate to tate with the other gentleman to which you
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 5: are ned, doubt anxiously looking forward to you. I have
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 5: no more to say to him. I must beg to
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 5: offer a few rather unexpected congratulations on his approaching marriage.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: Exit Charles hastily sent a door.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 9: Alas it is but too true, his senses have entirely
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 9: left him.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: Exit left hand side scene, second and last a gallery
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: in the inn leading to the bedrooms. Four doors in
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: the flat, and one at each of the upper entrances,
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: numbered from twenty to twenty five, beginning at the right
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: hand side. A pair of boots at the door of
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: twenty three. Enter chamber with the two lights and Charles
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: Tompkins right hand side, first exit. This is your room, sir,
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: number twenty one, opening.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 5: The door very well, call me at seven in the morning, Yes, Sir.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: Gives him a light and exit chambermaid right hand first exit,
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: and at.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 5: Nine, if I can previously obtain a few words of
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 5: explanation from this unknown rival, I will just return to
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 5: the place from whence I came in the same coach
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 5: that brought me down here. I wonder who he is
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 5: and where he sleeps. Looking round, I have a lurking
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 5: suspicion of those.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: Boots pointing to number twenty three.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 5: There are an ill looking, underhanded sort of pair, and
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 5: an undefinable instinct tells me that they have clothed the
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 5: feet of the rascual I am in search of. Besides myself,
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 5: the owner of those ugly articles is the only person
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 5: who has yet come up to bed. I will keep
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 5: my eyes open for half an hour or two, and
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 5: my ears too.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: Exit Charles into number twenty one, enter right hand side,
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: first exit Missus Noakes with two lights, followed by Marry
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: and Fanny.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 11: Take care of the last step, ladies. This way, ma'am,
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 11: if you please. Number twenty is your room. Lady's nice
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 11: large double bedded room with coals and a rush light.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 9: Aside to Marry, I must ask which is his room.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 9: I cannot rest unless I know he has at length
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 9: sunk into the slumber he so much needs.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: Crosses to Missus Noakes, who is left hand side?
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 9: Which is the room in which the strange gentleman sleeps?
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 11: Number twenty three, ma'am, there's his boots outside the door.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 11: Don't be frightened of him, ladies. He's very quiet now
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 11: and our boots is a watching him.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 9: Oh no, we are not afraid of him.
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: Aside, poor Charles. Going to door number twenty which is
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: third exit on right hand side.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 11: This way, if you please, you'll find everything very comfortable.
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 11: And there's a bell rope at the head of the
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 11: bed if you want anything in the morning. Good night, ladies.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: As Mary and Fanny passed, Missus noakes. Fanny takes a
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: light exit Funny and Marry into number twenty. Tapping at
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: number twenty three, Tom, Tom, Enter Tom from number twenty three,
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: coming forward left hand side.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 6: Is that you missus?
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: Right hand side? Yes?
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 11: How's the strange gentleman? Tom?
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 13: He was weary, boisterous half an hour ago, but I
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 13: punched his head a little, and now he's uncommon comfortable.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 13: He's fallen asleep, but his snores are still weary incoherent mind.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 11: You take care of him, Tom. They'll take him away
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 11: in half an hour's time. It's very nearly one o'clock.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 5: Now.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 13: I'll pay every possible attention to him. If he offers
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 13: to call out, I shall wap him again.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: Exit Tom into number twenty three, looking off right hand side.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 11: This way, ma'am, If you please up these stairs.
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: Enter Julia Dobbs with a light, right hand side. First exit.
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 8: Which did you say was the room in which I
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 8: should arrange my dress for traveling?
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 11: Number twenty two, ma'am? The next room to your nephew's,
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 11: poor dear. He's fallen asleep, ma'am, and I dare say
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 11: you'll be able to take him away very quietly.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: By and by aside, not.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 8: So quietly as you imagine, if he plays his part
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 8: half as well as Overton reports he does.
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: To missus Noakes, thank you for the present. Good night,
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: Exit Julia into number twenty two.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 11: Wish you good night, ma'am. There now, I think I
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 11: may go downstairs again and see if mister Overton wants
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 11: any more negus.
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: Why who's this looking off right hand side?
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 10: Oh?
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 11: I forgot number twenty four into bed yet it's him.
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: Enter John Johnson with a light, right hand side first.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 11: Exit number twenty four, sir, if you please.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, I know the same room I slept in
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 3: last night.
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: Crossing left hand side, Yes, sir.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 11: Wish you good night, sir.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: Exit Missus Noakes, right hand first exit.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 3: Good night, ma'am. The same room I slept in last night, indeed,
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 3: and the same room I may sleep in tomorrow night,
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 3: and the next night, and the night after that, and
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 3: just as many more nights as I can get credit here.
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 3: Unless this remittant shall arrives, I could raise the money
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 3: to prosecute my journey without difficulty were I on the spot.
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 3: But my confounded thought this liberality to the postboys has
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 3: left me absolutely penniless. Well we shall see what.
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: Tomorrow brings forth. He goes into number twenty four, but
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: immediately returns and places his boots outside his room door,
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: leaving it Ajar exit John into number twenty four. Charles
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: peeping from number twenty one and putting out his boots.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 5: There's another pair of boots. Now, I wonder which of
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 5: these two fellows is the man. I can't help thinking
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 5: it's number twenty three. Hello.
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: He goes in and closes his door. The door of
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: number twenty opens. Fanny comes out with a light in
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: the night shade, Number twenty three open. She retires into
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: number twenty enter Tom's box with a stable lantern from
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: number twenty three, closing the door gently.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 13: Past to sleep still, I may as well go my
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 13: rounds and glean for the deputy pulls out.
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: A piece of chalk from his pocket and takes up
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: boots from number twenty three.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 6: Twenty three.
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 13: It's difficult to tell what the fella is when he
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 13: ain't got his senses, but I think this there twenty
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 13: three is a timorous, faint hearted.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: Genus examines the boots.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 6: You want new soling number twenty three.
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: Goes to number twenty four, takes up boots and looks
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: at them.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 13: Hallo, air's a bust and there has been a piece
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 13: put on in the corner. He must let my missus know.
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 13: The bills always doubtful when there's any mending.
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: Ghost to number twenty one takes up.
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 13: Boots French car Valentin's all's right here these air French
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 13: carves always comes it strong, light vines and all that
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 13: ear looking around wherey happy to see their hat no
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 13: high lows. They never drinks nothing but gin and water
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 13: them in the cloth boots is the verse customers, and
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 13: in az the cloth boots is always obstemious, only drinks
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 13: sherry vine and water, and never eats no suppers.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: He chalks a number of the room on each pair
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: of boots as it takes them up.
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 13: Lucky for you, my French carves, that you ain't done
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 13: with the paint and polish, or you have been wittreold
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 13: in no time.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 6: I don't like to put oil a wittreol.
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 13: On a well made pair of boots, but when they've
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 13: rubbed with that air polish, it must be done. Are
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 13: the profession's ruined.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: Exit Tom with boots right hand first exit and to
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: Funny from number twenty would like us before.
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 9: I tremble at the idea of going into his room,
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 9: But surely at a moment like this, when he has
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 9: left to be attended by rude and uninterested strangers, the
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 9: strict rules of propriety which regulate our ordinary proceedings may
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 9: be dispensed with. But satisfy myself that he sleeps and
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 9: has those comforts which his melancholy situation demands, and return immediately.
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: Goes to number twenty three and knocks Charles Tompkins peeping
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: at number twenty one.
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 5: I'll swear I heard a knock a woman, Fanny Wilson,
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 5: and at that door, at this.
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: Hour of the night, Funny comes forward.
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 5: Why what an ass I must have been able to
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 5: have loved that girl? It is number twenty three, though
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 5: I'll throttle him presently the next room door open, I'll
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 5: watch there.
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: He crosses to number twenty four and goes in. Fanny
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: returns to number twenty three and knocks. The door opens,
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: and the strange gentleman a pears nightcap on his head
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: and a light in his hand. Funny screams and runs
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: back into number twenty coming forward.
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 4: Well of all the wonderful and extraordinary houses that ever
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 4: did exist. This particular tenement is the most extraordinary. I've
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 4: got rid of the madman at last, and it's almost
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 4: time for that vile old mayor to remove me. But
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 4: where I'm lost, bewildered, confused, and actually begin to think
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 4: I am mad? How these things I've seen to day
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 4: must be visions of fancy. They never could have really happened. No, No,
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 4: I'm clearly mad. I've not the least doubt of it.
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 4: Now I've caught it from that horrid boots. He has
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 4: inoculated the whole establishment. We're all mad together.
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: Looking off right hand side, lights coming upstairs.
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 4: Some more lunatics exit.
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: Strange gentlemen in number twenty three enter right hand side. First,
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: exit overton with a cloak. Missus Noakes, Tom sparks with lantern,
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: and three ways with lights. The waiters range up right
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: hand side. Tom is in right hand corner and Missus
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: Noakes next to him.
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 2: Remain there till I call for your assistance.
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: Goes up to number twenty three and knocks, and to
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: strange gentlemen from number twenty three.
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 2: Now the chaise is ready. Muffle yourself up in this cloak.
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: Put it on the strange gentlemen. They come forward left
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: hand side, yes, center.
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 2: Make a little noise when we take you away, you know.
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 4: Yes, yes, I say, what a queer room this is
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 4: of mine? Somebody has been tapping at the wall for
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 4: the last half hour like a whole forest of woodpeckers.
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 2: Don't you know who that was? Now the other party
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 2: alarmed the other party to be sure the other party
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 2: is going with you, going.
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 5: With me in the same sheds, of course.
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: Hush goes to number twenty two. Knox enter Julia Dobbs
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: from number twenty two, wrapped up in a large cloak.
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: Look here bringing her forward. Julia is next to missus Noakes,
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: starting into left hand corner.
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 4: I won't go. I won't go. This is a plot,
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 4: a conspiracy.
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: I won't go.
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 4: I tell you I shall be assassinated. I shall be murdered.
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: Fanny and marry a pair at number twenty Johnson and
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: Tompkins at twenty four. At the door.
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 3: I told you he was mad.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: At the door.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 5: I see, I see poor fellow crossing to.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: Strange gentlemen and taking his arm.
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 11: Condia, come, yes, do go, there's a good soul. Go
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 11: with your affectionate aunt, breaking from her, my affectionate aunt,
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 11: Julia returns to a former position.
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 6: He don't deserve no affection.
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 13: I never see such an unfectionate fellow to his relations.
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 4: Take that wretch away and smother him between two feather beds.
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 4: Take him away and make a sandwich of him, directly
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 4: to Oviden, who's in center.
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 11: What voice was that?
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 3: It was?
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 10: Not Lord Peter's.
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: Throwing off her cloak?
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 2: Nonsense, nonsense, Look at him.
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: Pul's cloak off. Strange gentleman turning round a woman, a.
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 2: Stranger, a stranger. What aren't he your husband? That is
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 2: to your mad nephew?
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 4: I mean no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no,
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 4: I'll be damned if I am. I ain't anybody's nephew.
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 4: My aunt's dead, and I never had an uncle.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 11: And ain't he mad, ma'am?
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 3: No?
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 4: Oh, I'm not mad. I was mistaken just now.
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 2: And isn't he going away with you?
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 13: No?
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: Coming forward right hand side next to missus? Noakes?
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 10: And isn't his name Tompkins?
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 3: No?
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: Johnson and Tompkins advance to the ladies, and they all
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: retire up.
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 11: What is his name?
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: Producing a letter?
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 11: It ain't mister Walker trot is it?
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: She advances a little towards him.
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 4: Something so remarkably like it, ma'am that with your permission,
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 4: I'll open that epistle taking letter.
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: All go up, but Julia and strange gentleman opening.
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 4: Letter, Tinkle's hand reads the challenge was a ruse. By
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 4: this time I shall have been united at Gretna Green
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 4: to the charming Emily Brown. Then through a horror of duels,
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 4: I have lost a wife.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: Right hand side, with the handkerchief to her eyes, And
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: through Lord Peter's negligence, I have lost a husband. Eh
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: regards her a moment. Then beckons Olverton, who comes forward
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: left hand side.
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 4: I say, didn't you say something about three thousand a
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 4: year this morning? I did you alluded to that party?
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: Nodding towards Julia, I did ahem? Put Overton back.
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 4: Permit me, ma'am going to her to sympathize most respectfully
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 4: with your deep distress.
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 8: Oh sir, your kindness penetrates to.
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: My very heart.
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 4: Aside penetrates to her heart. It's taking the right direction,
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 4: if I understand your sorrowing murmur, ma'am, you contemplated taking
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 4: a destined husband away with you in the chase at
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 4: the door.
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 8: Oh, sir, spare my feelings.
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 10: I did.
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 8: The horses were ordered and paid for, and everything was ready.
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: Oh weeps aside.
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 4: She weeps. Expensive thing posting, ma'am, very sir. Eighteenpence a mile, ma'am,
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 4: not including the boys. Yes, sir, you've lost a husband, ma'am,
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 4: I have lost a wife. Marriages are made above. I'm
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 4: quite certain ours is booked. Pity to have all this
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 4: expense for nothing. Let's go together, drying her eyes. The
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 4: suddenness of this proposal, sir, requires a sudden answer, ma'am.
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 4: You don't say no, you mean yes. Permit me to
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 4: kisses her all right, old one.
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: To overton, who comes down left hand side.
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 4: I've done it, missus.
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: Noakes, she comes down right hand side.
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 4: Don't count, amand the shares. We're off directly.
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: Who with Fanny comes down left hand center, so are we?
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: Who would marry comes down right hand center, so are we.
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 3: Thanks to a negotiating loan and an explanation as hasty
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 3: as the quarrel that gave rise to.
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 4: It, three post chesses and four on to Gretna directly.
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: Exit waiters right hand first exit.
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 4: I say we'll stop here as we come back, certainly, certainly,
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 4: but before I go, as I fear I have given
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 4: a great deal of trouble here to night. Permit me
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 4: to inquire whether you will view my mistakes and perils
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 4: with an a nulgent eye, and consent to receive the
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 4: Strange Gentleman again tomorrow Curtain
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: End of Act two and of the Strange Gentleman by
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: Charles Dickens.