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The Shuttle Chapter 1 - The Weaving of the Shuttle · The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library

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Speaker 1: CHAPTER I. THE WEAVING OF THE SHUTTLE Fate alone saw
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Speaker 1: the meaning of the web it wove, the might of
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Speaker 1: it and its place in the making of a world's history.
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Speaker 1: Men thought but little of either web or weaving, calling
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Speaker 1: them by other names and lighter ones, for the time
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Speaker 1: unconscious of the strength of the thread thrown across thousands
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Speaker 1: of miles, of leaping, heaving, grey or blue ocean. Fate
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Speaker 1: and life planned the weaving, and it seemed mere circumstance
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Speaker 1: which guided the shuttle to and fro between two worlds,
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Speaker 1: divided by a gulf broader and deeper than the thousands
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Speaker 1: of miles of salt, fierce sea, the gulf of a
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Speaker 1: bitter quarrel, deepened by hatred and the shedding of brother's blood.
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Speaker 1: Between the two worlds of east and west there was
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Speaker 1: no will to draw nearer, each held apart. Those who
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Speaker 1: had rebelled against that which their souls called tyranny, having
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Speaker 1: struggled madly and shed blood in tearing themselves free, turned
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Speaker 1: stern backs upon their unconquered enemies, broke all cords that
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Speaker 1: bound them to the past— flinging off ties of name, kinship,
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Speaker 1: and rank, beginning with fierce disdain a new life. Those who,
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Speaker 1: being rebelled against, found the rebels too passionate in their determination,
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Speaker 1: and too desperate in their defence of their strongholds to
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Speaker 1: be less than unconquerable, sailed back haughtily to the world
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Speaker 1: which seemed so far the greater power. Plunging into new battles,
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Speaker 1: they added new conquests and splendour to their land, looking
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Speaker 1: back with something of contempt to the half-savage West, left
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Speaker 1: to build its own civilization without other aid than the
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Speaker 1: strength of its own strong right hand and strong uncultured brain.
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Speaker 1: But while the two worlds held apart, the shuttle, weaving
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Speaker 1: slowly in the great hand of fate, drew them closer
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Speaker 1: and held them firm, each of them all unknowing for
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Speaker 1: many a year that what had first been mere threads
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Speaker 1: of gossamer was forming a web whose strength in time
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Speaker 1: none could compute, whose severance could be accomplished but by
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Speaker 1: tragedy and convulsion. The weaving was but in its early
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Speaker 1: and slow-moving years when this story opens. Steamers crossed and
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Speaker 1: recrossed the Atlantic, but they accomplished the journey at leisure
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Speaker 1: and with heavy rollings, and all such discomforts as small
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Speaker 1: craft can afford. Their staterooms and decks were not crowded
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Speaker 1: with people to whom the voyage was a mere incident,
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Speaker 1: in many cases a yearly one. A crossing in those
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Speaker 1: days was an event. It was planned seriously, long thought of,
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Speaker 1: discussed and rediscussed, with and among the various members of
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Speaker 1: the family to whom the voyager belonged. A certain boldness
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Speaker 1: bordering on recklessness was almost to be presupposed in the
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Speaker 1: individual who, turning his back upon New York, Philadelphia, Boston,
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Speaker 1: and like cities, turned his face towards Europe. In those
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Speaker 1: days when the shuttle wove at leisure, a man did
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Speaker 1: not lightly run over to London or Paris or Berlin,
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Speaker 1: he gravely went to Europe. The journey, being likely to
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Speaker 1: be made once in a lifetime, The traveller's intention was
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Speaker 1: to see as much as possible, to visit as many cities, cathedrals, ruins, galleries,
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Speaker 1: as his time and purse would allow. People who could
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Speaker 1: speak with any degree of familiarity of Hyde Park, the Champs-Élysées,
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Speaker 1: the Pincio, had gained a certain dignity. The ability to
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Speaker 1: touch with an intimate bearing upon such localities was a
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Speaker 1: raison de plus for being asked out to tea or
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Speaker 1: to dinner. To possess photographs and relics was to be
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Speaker 1: of interest— To have seen European celebrities, even at a distance,
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Speaker 1: to have wandered about the outside of poets' gardens and
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Speaker 1: philosophers' houses, was to be entitled to respect. The period
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Speaker 1: was a far cry from the time when the shuttle,
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Speaker 1: having shot to and fro, faster and faster, week by week,
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Speaker 1: month by month, weaving new threads into its web each year,
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Speaker 1: has woven warp and woof until they bind far shore
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Speaker 1: to shore. It was in comparatively early days that the
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Speaker 1: first thread we follow was woven into the web, Many
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Speaker 1: such have been woven since, and have added greater strength
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Speaker 1: than any others, twining the cord of sex and home-building
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Speaker 1: and race-founding. But this was a slight and weak one,
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Speaker 1: being only the thread of the life of one of
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Speaker 1: Reuben Vanderpool's daughters, the pretty little simple one whose name
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Speaker 1: was Rosalie. They were, the Vanderpools, of the Americans whose
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Speaker 1: fortunes were a portion of the history of their country.
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Speaker 1: The building of these fortunes had been a part of,
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Speaker 1: or had created, epochs and crises.' Their millions could scarcely
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Speaker 1: be regarded as private property. Newspapers bandied them about, so
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Speaker 1: to speak, employing them as factors in argument, using them
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Speaker 1: as figures of speech, incorporating them into methods of calculation.
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Speaker 1: Literature touched upon them, moral systems considered them, stories for
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Speaker 1: the young treated them gravely as illustrative. The first Reuben Vanderpool,
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Speaker 1: who in early days of danger had traded with savages
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Speaker 1: for the pelts of wild animals— was the lauded hero
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Speaker 1: of stories of thrift and enterprise. Throughout his hard-working life
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Speaker 1: he had been irresistibly impelled to action by an absolute
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Speaker 1: genius of commerce, expressing itself at the outset by the
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Speaker 1: exhibition of courage in mere exchange and barter. An alert
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Speaker 1: power to perceive the potential value of things, and the
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Speaker 1: possible malleability of men and circumstances, had stood him in
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Speaker 1: marvellous good stead. He had bought at low prices things
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Speaker 1: which in the eyes of the less discerning were worthless,
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Speaker 1: but having obtained possession of such things, the less discerning
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Speaker 1: had almost invariably awakened to the fact that in his
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Speaker 1: hands values increased, and methods of remunerative disposition being sought
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Speaker 1: were found. Nothing remained unutilizable. The practical, sordid, uneducated little
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Speaker 1: man developed the power to create demand for his own supplies.
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Speaker 1: If he was betrayed into an error, he quickly retrieved it.
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Speaker 1: He could live upon nothing, and consequently could travel anywhere
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Speaker 1: in search of such things as he desired. He could
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Speaker 1: barely read and write, and could not spell, but he
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Speaker 1: was daring and astute. His untaught brain was that of
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Speaker 1: a financier. His blood burned with the fever of but
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Speaker 1: one desire, the desire to accumulate. Money expressed to his nature,
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Speaker 1: not expenditure, but investment, in such small or large properties
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Speaker 1: as could be resold for profit in the near or
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Speaker 1: far future. The future held fascinations for him. He bought
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Speaker 1: nothing for his own pleasure or comfort. nothing which could
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Speaker 1: not be sold or bartered again. He married a woman
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Speaker 1: who was a trader's daughter and shared his passion for gain.
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Speaker 1: She was of North of England blood, her father having
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Speaker 1: been a hard-fisted small tradesman in an unimportant town, who
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Speaker 1: had been daring enough to emigrate when emigration meant the
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Speaker 1: facing of unknown dangers in a half-savage land. She had
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Speaker 1: excited Reuben Vanderpool's admiration by taking off her petticoat one
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Speaker 1: bitter winter's day to sell it to a squaw, in
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Speaker 1: exchange for an ornament for which she chanced to know
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Speaker 1: another score would pay with a skin of value. The
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Speaker 1: first Mrs. Vanderpool was as wonderful as her husband, they
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Speaker 1: were both wonderful. They were the founders of the fortune which,
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Speaker 1: a century and a half later, was the delight, in
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Speaker 1: fact the pièce de résistance, of New York society reporters,
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Speaker 1: its enormity being restated in round figures when a blank
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Speaker 1: space must be filled up. The method of statement lent
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Speaker 1: itself to infinite variety, and was always interesting to a
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Speaker 1: particular class some elements of which felt it encouraging to
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Speaker 1: be assured that so much money could be a personal
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Speaker 1: possession some elements feeling the fact an additional argument to
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Speaker 1: be used against the infamy of monopoly the first reuben
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Speaker 1: vanderpoel transmitted to his son his accumulations and his fever
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Speaker 1: for gain he had but one child the second reuben
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Speaker 1: built upon the foundations this afforded him a fortune as
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Speaker 1: much larger than the first as the rapid growth and
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Speaker 1: increasing capabilities of the country gave him enlarging opportunities to acquire.
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Speaker 1: It was no longer necessary to deal with savages. His
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Speaker 1: powers were called upon to cope with those of white
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Speaker 1: men who came to a new country to struggle for
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Speaker 1: livelihood and fortune. Some were shrewd, some were desperate, some
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Speaker 1: were dishonest. But shrewdness never outwitted, desperation never overcame, dishonesty
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Speaker 1: never deceived the second Reuben Vanderpool. Each characteristic ended by
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Speaker 1: adapting itself to his own purposes and qualities, and as
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Speaker 1: a result of each it was he who in any
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Speaker 1: business transaction was the gainer. It was the common saying
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Speaker 1: that the Vanderpools were possessed of a money-making spell. Their
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Speaker 1: spell lay in their entire mental and physical absorption in
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Speaker 1: one idea. Their peculiarity was not so much that they
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Speaker 1: wished to be rich, as that nature itself impelled them
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Speaker 1: to collect wealth as the lodestone draws towards it iron.
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Speaker 1: Having possessed nothing, they became rich. Having become rich, they
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Speaker 1: became richer. Having founded their fortunes on small schemes, they
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Speaker 1: increased them by enormous ones. In time they attained that
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Speaker 1: omnipotence of wealth which it would seem no circumstance can
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Speaker 1: control or limit. The first Reuben Vanderpool could not spell,
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Speaker 1: the second could, the third was as well educated as
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Speaker 1: a man could be whose sole profession is money-making. His
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Speaker 1: children were taught all that expensive teachers and expensive opportunities
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Speaker 1: could teach them. After the second generation the meagre and
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Speaker 1: mercantile physical type of the Vanderpools improved upon itself. Feminine
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Speaker 1: good looks appeared, and were made the most of. The
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Speaker 1: Vanderpool element invested even good looks to an advantage. The
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Speaker 1: fourth Reuben Vanderpool had no son and two daughters. They
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Speaker 1: were brought up in a brownstone mansion built upon a
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Speaker 1: fashionable New York thoroughfare roaring with traffic. To the furthest
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Speaker 1: point of the Rocky Mountains the number of dollars this
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Speaker 1: mansion— it was always called so— had cost was known. There may
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Speaker 1: have existed Pueblo Indians who had heard rumours of the
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Speaker 1: price of it. All the shopkeepers and farmers in the
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Speaker 1: United States had read newspaper descriptions of its furnishings, and
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Speaker 1: knew the value of the brocade which hung in the
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Speaker 1: bedrooms and boudoirs of the Mrs. Vanderpool. It was a
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Speaker 1: fact much cherished, that Miss Rosalie's bath was of Carrara marble,
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Speaker 1: and a good soul's actively engaged in doing their own
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Speaker 1: washing in small New England or Western towns, it was
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Speaker 1: a distinct luxury to be aware that the water in
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Speaker 1: the Carrara marble bath was perfumed with Florentine iris. Circumstances
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Speaker 1: such as these seemed to become personal possessions, and even
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Speaker 1: to lighten somewhat the burden of toil. Rosalie Vanderpool married
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Speaker 1: an Englishman of title, and part of the story of
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Speaker 1: her married life forms my prologue. Hers was of the
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Speaker 1: early international marriages, and the republican mind had not yet
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Speaker 1: adjusted itself to all that such alliances might imply. It
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Speaker 1: was yet ingenious, imaginative, and confiding in such matters. A
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Speaker 1: baronetcy in a manor-house reigning over an old English village,
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Speaker 1: and over villagers in possible smock-frocks, presented elements of picturesque
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Speaker 1: dignity to people whose intimacy with such allurements had been
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Speaker 1: limited by the novels of Mrs. Oliphant and other writers.
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Speaker 1: The most ordinary little anecdotes in which vicarages, gamekeepers, and
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Speaker 1: dowagers figured were exciting in these early days. Sir Nigel Anstruthers,
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Speaker 1: when engraved upon a visiting card, wore an air of
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Speaker 1: distinction almost startling. Sir Nigel himself was not as picturesque
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Speaker 1: as his name, although he was not entirely without attraction, when,
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Speaker 1: for reasons of his own, he chose to aim at
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Speaker 1: agreeableness of bearing. He was a man with a good
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Speaker 1: figure and a good voice, and but for a heaviness
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Speaker 1: of feature, the result of objectionable living, might have given
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Speaker 1: the impression of being better looking than he really was.
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Speaker 1: New York laid amused, and at the same time charmed
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Speaker 1: stress upon the fact that he spoke with an English accent.
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Speaker 1: His enunciation was, in fact, clear-cut, and treated its vowels well.
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Speaker 1: He was a man who observed, with an air of
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Speaker 1: accustomed punctiliousness, such social rules and courtesies as he deemed
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Speaker 1: it expedient to consider. An astute worldling had remarked that
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Speaker 1: he was at once more ceremonious and more casual in
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Speaker 1: his manner than men bred in America.' If you invite
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Speaker 1: him to dinner,' the worldling said,' or if you die,
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Speaker 1: or marry, or meet with an accident, his notes of
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Speaker 1: condolence or congratulation are prompt and civil.' but the actual
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Speaker 1: truth is that he cares nothing whatever about you or
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Speaker 1: your relations, and if you don't please him he doesn't
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Speaker 1: hesitate to sulk or be astonishingly rude, which last an
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Speaker 1: American does not allow himself to be as a rule.
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Speaker 1: By many people Sir Nigel was not analysed but accepted.
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Speaker 1: He was of the early English who came to New York,
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Speaker 1: and was a novelty of interest, with his background of
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Speaker 1: manor-house and village and old family name. He was very
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Speaker 1: much talked of at vivacious ladies' luncheon-parties, He was very
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Speaker 1: much talked to at equally vivacious afternoon teas. At dinner-parties
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Speaker 1: he was furtively watched a good deal, but after dinner,
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Speaker 1: when he sat with the men over their wine, he
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Speaker 1: was not popular. He was not perhaps exactly disliked, but
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Speaker 1: men whose chief interest at that period lay in stocks
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Speaker 1: and railroads did not find conversation easy with a man
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Speaker 1: whose sole occupation had been the shooting of birds and
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Speaker 1: the hunting of foxes. When he was not absolutely loitering
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Speaker 1: about London, with his time on his hands. The stories
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Speaker 1: he told, and they were few, were chiefly anecdotes whose
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Speaker 1: points gained their humour by the fact that a man
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Speaker 1: was a comically bad shot or bad rider, and either
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Speaker 1: peppered a game-peeper, or was thrown into a ditch when
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Speaker 1: his horse went over a hedge, and such relations did
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Speaker 1: not increase in the poignancy of their interest by being
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Speaker 1: filtered through brains accustomed to applying their powers to problems
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Speaker 1: of speculation and commerce. He was not so dull but
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Speaker 1: that he perceived this at an early stage of his
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Speaker 1: visit to New York, which was probably the reason of
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Speaker 1: the infrequency of his stories. He, on his side, was
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Speaker 1: naturally not quick to rise to the humour of a
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Speaker 1: big deal or a big blunder made on Wall Street,
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Speaker 1: or to the wit of jokes concerning them. Upon the
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Speaker 1: whole he would have been glad to have understood such
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Speaker 1: matters more clearly. His circumstances were such as had at
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Speaker 1: last forced him to contemplate the world of money-makers with
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Speaker 1: something of an annoyed respect. These fellows, who had neither
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Speaker 1: titles nor estates to keep up, could make money. He,
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Speaker 1: as he acknowledged disgustedly to himself, was much worse than
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Speaker 1: a beggar. There was Stornham Court in a state of ruin,
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Speaker 1: the estate going to the dogs, the farmhouses tumbling to pieces,
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Speaker 1: and he, so to speak, without a sixpence to bless
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Speaker 1: himself with, and head over heels in debt. Englishmen of
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Speaker 1: the rank which in bygone times had not associated itself
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Speaker 1: with trade, had begun at least to trifle with it,
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Speaker 1: to consider its potentialities as factors possibly to be made
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Speaker 1: useful by the aristocracy. Countesses had not yet spiritedly opened
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Speaker 1: milliner's shops, nor belted earls adorned the stage, but certain
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Speaker 1: noblemen had dallied with beer and coquetted with stocks. One
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Speaker 1: of the first commercial developments had been the discovery of America,
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Speaker 1: particularly of New York, as a place where, if one
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Speaker 1: could make up one's mind at the plunge, one might
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Speaker 1: marry one's sons profitably. At the outset it presented a
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Speaker 1: field so promising as to lead to rashness and indiscretion
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Speaker 1: on the part of persons not given to analysis of character,
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Speaker 1: and in consequence relying too serenely upon an ingeniousness which
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Speaker 1: rather speedily revealed that it had its limits. Ingeniousness, combining
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Speaker 1: itself with remarkable alertness of perception on occasion, is rather
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Speaker 1: American than English, and is therefore to the English mind misleading.
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Speaker 1: At first younger sons who gave trouble to their families
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Speaker 1: were sent out. Their names, their backgrounds of castles or manors,
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Speaker 1: relatives of distinction, London seasons, fox-hunting, Buckingham Palace and Goodwood races,
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Speaker 1: formed a picturesque allurement. That the castles and manors would
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Speaker 1: belong to their elder brothers, that the relatives of distinction
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Speaker 1: did not encourage intimacy with swarms of the younger branches
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Speaker 1: of their families, that London seasons, hunting and racing, were
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Speaker 1: for their elders and betters, were facts not realised in
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Speaker 1: all their importance by the republican mind. In the course
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Speaker 1: of time they were realised to the full, but in
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Speaker 1: Rosalie Vanderpool's nineteenth year they covered what was at that
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Speaker 1: time almost unknown territory. One may rest assured Sir Nigel
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Speaker 1: Anstruthers said nothing whatsoever in New York of an interview
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Speaker 1: he had had before sailing with an intensely disagreeable great-aunt,
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Speaker 1: who was the wife of a bishop. She was a
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Speaker 1: horrible old woman, with a broad face, blunt features, and
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Speaker 1: a raucous voice, whose tones added acridity to her observations
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Speaker 1: when she was indulging in her favourite pastime of interfering
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Speaker 1: with the business of her acquaintances and relations.' I do
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Speaker 1: not know what you are going chasing off to America for, Nigel,'
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Speaker 1: she commented.' You can't afford it, and it's perfectly ridiculous
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Speaker 1: of you to take it upon yourself to travel for
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Speaker 1: pleasure as if you were a man of means, instead
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Speaker 1: of being in such a state of pocket that Maria
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Speaker 1: tells me you cannot pay your tailor. Neither the bishop
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Speaker 1: nor I can do anything for you, and I hope
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Speaker 1: you don't expect it. All I can hope is that
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Speaker 1: you know yourself what you are going to America in
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Speaker 1: search of, and that it is something more practical than buffaloes.
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Speaker 1: You had better stop in New York. Those big shopkeepers'
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Speaker 1: daughters are enormously rich, they say, and they are immensely
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Speaker 1: pleased by attentions from men of your class. They say
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Speaker 1: they'll marry anything if it has an aunt or a
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Speaker 1: grandmother with a title. You can mention the Martianess, you know.
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Speaker 1: You need not refer to the fact that she thought
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Speaker 1: your father a blaggard and your mother an interloper, and
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Speaker 1: that you have never been invited to Broadmere since you
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Speaker 1: were born. You can refer casually to me and to
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Speaker 1: the bishop, and to the palace, too. A palace, even
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Speaker 1: a bishop's, ought to go a long way with Americans.
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Speaker 1: They think it's something royal. She ended her remarks with
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Speaker 1: one of her most insulting snorts of laughter, and Sir
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Speaker 1: Nigel became dark red and looked as if he would
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Speaker 1: like to knock her down. It was not, however, her
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Speaker 1: sentiments which were particularly revolting to him. If she had
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Speaker 1: expressed them in a manner more flattering to himself, he
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Speaker 1: would have felt that there was a good deal to
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Speaker 1: be said for them. In fact, he had put the
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Speaker 1: same thing to himself some time previously, and in summing
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Speaker 1: up the American matter, had reached certain thrifty decisions. The
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Speaker 1: impulse to knock her down surged within him solely because
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Speaker 1: he had a brutally bad temper when his vanity was insulted,
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Speaker 1: and he was furious at her impudence in speaking to
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Speaker 1: him as if he were a villager out of work
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Speaker 1: whom she was at liberty to bully and lecture.' For
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Speaker 1: a woman who is supposed to have been born of
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Speaker 1: gentle people,' he said to his mother afterwards,' Aunt Marion
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Speaker 1: is the most vulgar old beast I have ever beheld.
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Speaker 1: She has the taste of a female cost-monger.' Which was
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Speaker 1: entirely true, but it might be added that his own
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Speaker 1: was no better, and his points of view and morals
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Speaker 1: wholly coincided with his taste. Naturally, Rosalie Vanderpool knew nothing
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Speaker 1: of this side of the matter. She had been a
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Speaker 1: petted butterfly child, who had been pretty and admired and
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Speaker 1: indulged from her infancy. She had grown up into a
19:25
Speaker 1: petted butterfly girl, pretty and admired and surrounded by inordinate luxury.
19:31
Speaker 1: Her world had been made up of good-natured, lavish friends
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Speaker 1: and relations, who enjoyed themselves and felt a delight in
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Speaker 1: her girlish toilettes and triumphs. She had spent her one
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Speaker 1: season of beldam, in being whirled from festivity to festivity,
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Speaker 1: in dancing in rooms festooned with thousands of dollars' worth
19:48
Speaker 1: of flowers, in lunch or dining at tables loaded with
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Speaker 1: roses and violets and orchids, from which ballrooms or feasts
19:55
Speaker 1: she had borne away wonderful favours and gifts, whose prices,
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Speaker 1: being recorded in the newspapers, caused a thrill of delight
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Speaker 1: or envy to pass over the land. She was a
20:05
Speaker 1: slim little creature, with quantities of light feathery hair like
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Speaker 1: a French doll's. She had small hands and small feet
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Speaker 1: and a small waist. A small brain also, it must
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Speaker 1: be admitted, but she was an innocent, sweet-tempered girl with
20:18
Speaker 1: a childlike simpleness of mind. In fine she was exactly
20:22
Speaker 1: the girl to find Sir Nigel's domineering temperament at once
20:25
Speaker 1: imposing and attractive, so long as it was cloaked by
20:28
Speaker 1: the ceremonies of external good-breeding. Her sister, Bettina, who was
20:33
Speaker 1: still a child, was of a stronger and less susceptible nature. Betty,
20:37
Speaker 1: at eight, had long legs and a square but delicate
20:40
Speaker 1: small face. Her well-opened steel-blue eyes were noticeable for rather
20:44
Speaker 1: extravagant ink-black lashes, and a straight young stare which seemed
20:48
Speaker 1: to accuse if not to condemn. She was being educated
20:52
Speaker 1: at a ruinously expensive school with a number of other
20:55
Speaker 1: inordinately rich little girls, who were all too wonderfully dressed
20:59
Speaker 1: and too lavishly supplied with pocket-money. The school considered itself
21:03
Speaker 1: especially refined and select, but was in fact interestingly vulgar.
21:09
Speaker 1: The inordinately rich little girls, who had most of them
21:12
Speaker 1: pretty in spiritual or pretty in piquant faces, ate a
21:15
Speaker 1: great many bonbons, and chatted a great deal in high,
21:18
Speaker 1: unmodulated voices about the parties their sisters and other relatives
21:22
Speaker 1: went to, and the dresses they wore. Some of them
21:25
Speaker 1: were nice little souls, who in the future would emerge
21:28
Speaker 1: from their chrysalis state enchanting women, but they used colloquialisms freely,
21:33
Speaker 1: and had an ingenious habit of referring to the prices
21:35
Speaker 1: of things. Bettina Vanderpool, who was the richest and cleverest
21:40
Speaker 1: and most promisingly handsome among them, was colloquial to slanginess,
21:44
Speaker 1: but she had a deep mellow child voice and an
21:46
Speaker 1: amazing carriage. She could not endure Sir Nigel Anstruthers, and
21:51
Speaker 1: being an American child did not hesitate to express herself
21:54
Speaker 1: with force, if with some crudeness.' He' s a hateful thing,'
21:58
Speaker 1: she said.' I loathe him.' He's stuck up and he
22:01
Speaker 1: thinks you're afraid of him, and he likes it.' Sir
22:04
Speaker 1: Nigel had known only English children, little girls who lived
22:07
Speaker 1: in that discreet corner of their parents' town or country
22:10
Speaker 1: houses known as the schoolroom, apparently emerging only for daily
22:14
Speaker 1: walks with governesses, girls with long hair, and boys in
22:18
Speaker 1: little high hats and with faces which seemed curiously made
22:21
Speaker 1: to match them. Both boys and girls were decently kept
22:25
Speaker 1: out of the way, and not in the least dwelt
22:27
Speaker 1: on except when brought out for inspection during the holidays.'
22:30
Speaker 1: and taken to the pantomime. Sir Nigel had not realised
22:34
Speaker 1: that an American child was an absolute factor to be
22:37
Speaker 1: counted with, and a youngster who entered the drawing-room when
22:40
Speaker 1: she chose, and joined fearlessly in adult conversation, was an
22:43
Speaker 1: element he considered annoying. It was quite true that Bettina
22:47
Speaker 1: talked too much and too readily at times, but it
22:50
Speaker 1: had not been explained to her that the opinions of
22:53
Speaker 1: eight years are not a way of absorbing interest to
22:55
Speaker 1: the mature. It was also true that Sir Nigel was
22:58
Speaker 1: a great fool for interfering with what was clearly no
23:01
Speaker 1: affair of his, in such a manner as would have
23:03
Speaker 1: made him an enemy, even had not the child's instinct
23:07
Speaker 1: arrayed her against him at the outset.' You American youngsters
23:11
Speaker 1: are too cheeky,' he said on one of the occasions
23:13
Speaker 1: when Betty had talked too much.' If you were my
23:16
Speaker 1: sister and lived at Stornham Court, you would be learning
23:19
Speaker 1: lessons in the schoolroom and wearing a pinafore. Nobody ever
23:22
Speaker 1: saw my sister Emily when she was your age.' Well,
23:26
Speaker 1: I'm not your sister Emily, retorted Betty, and I guess
23:29
Speaker 1: I'm glad of it. It was rather impudent of her,
23:32
Speaker 1: but it must be confessed that she was not infrequently
23:35
Speaker 1: rather impudent in a rude little girl way, but she
23:38
Speaker 1: was serenely unconscious of the fact. Sir Nigel flushed darkly
23:43
Speaker 1: and laughed a short unpleasant laugh. If she had been
23:46
Speaker 1: his sister Emily she would have fared ill at that moment,
23:49
Speaker 1: for his villainous temper would have got the better of him.'
23:52
Speaker 1: I guess that I may be congratulated, too,' he sneered.'
23:56
Speaker 1: If I was going to be anybody's sister, Emily,' said Betty,
24:00
Speaker 1: excited a little by the sense of the fray,' I
24:02
Speaker 1: wouldn't want to be yours.'' Now, Betty, don't be hateful,'
24:07
Speaker 1: interposed Rosalie, laughing, and her laugh was nervous.' There' s Mina
24:11
Speaker 1: Thalberg coming up the front steps. Go and meet her.' Rosalie,
24:15
Speaker 1: poor girl, always found herself nervous when Sir Nigel and
24:18
Speaker 1: Betty were in the room together. She instinctively recognised their antagonism,
24:23
Speaker 1: and was afraid Betty would do something an English baronet
24:26
Speaker 1: would think vulgar. Her simple brain could not have explained
24:29
Speaker 1: to her why it was that she knew Sir Nigel
24:32
Speaker 1: often thought New Yorkers vulgar. She was, however, quite aware
24:36
Speaker 1: of this but imperfectly concealed fact, and felt a timid
24:39
Speaker 1: desire to be explanatory. When Bettina marched out of the
24:43
Speaker 1: room with her extraordinary carriage finally manifest, Rosie's little laugh
24:48
Speaker 1: was propitiatory. you mustn't mind her she said she's a
24:52
Speaker 1: real splendid little thing but she's got a quick temper
24:56
Speaker 1: it's all over in a minute they wouldn't stand that
25:00
Speaker 1: sort of thing in england said sir nigel she's deucedly
25:03
Speaker 1: spoilt you know he detested the child he disliked all
25:07
Speaker 1: children but this one awakened in him more than mere
25:10
Speaker 1: dislike the fact was that though betty herself was wholly
25:14
Speaker 1: unconscious of the subtle truth The as yet undeveloped intellect,
25:18
Speaker 1: which later made her a brilliant and captivating personality, vaguely
25:22
Speaker 1: saw him as he was, an unscrupulous, sordid brute, as
25:25
Speaker 1: remorseless an adventurer and swindler in his special line, as
25:29
Speaker 1: if he had been engaged in drawing false cheques and
25:32
Speaker 1: arranging huge jewel-robberies, instead of planning to entrap into a
25:36
Speaker 1: disadvantageous marriage a girl whose gentleness and fortune could be
25:40
Speaker 1: used by a blackguard of reputable name. The man was
25:43
Speaker 1: cold-blooded enough to see that her gentle weakness was of
25:47
Speaker 1: value because it could be bullied. Her money was to
25:50
Speaker 1: be counted on because it could be spent on himself
25:52
Speaker 1: and his degenerate vices, and on his racked and ruined
25:56
Speaker 1: name and estate, which must be rebuilt and restocked at
25:59
Speaker 1: an early date by someone or other, lest they tumbled
26:02
Speaker 1: into ignominious collapse which could not be concealed. Bettina, of
26:06
Speaker 1: the accusing eyes, did not know that in the depth
26:09
Speaker 1: of her yet crude young being instinct was summing up
26:12
Speaker 1: for her the potentialities of an unusually fine specimen of
26:16
Speaker 1: the British blaggard. But this was nevertheless the interesting truth.
26:21
Speaker 1: When later she was told that her sister had become
26:23
Speaker 1: engaged to Sir Nigel Anstruthers, a flame of colour flashed
26:27
Speaker 1: over her face. She stared silently a moment, then bit
26:30
Speaker 1: her lip and burst into tears.' Well, bet!' exclaimed Rosalie.'
26:35
Speaker 1: You are the queerest thing I ever saw!' Bettina's tears
26:40
Speaker 1: were an outburst, not a flow. She swept them away
26:43
Speaker 1: passionately with her small handkerchief.' He' ll do something awful to you,'
26:48
Speaker 1: she said.' He' ll nearly kill you. I know he will.
26:51
Speaker 1: I'd rather be dead myself.' She dashed out of the
26:55
Speaker 1: room and could never be induced to say a word
26:57
Speaker 1: further about the matter. She would indeed have found it
27:00
Speaker 1: impossible to express her intense antipathy and sense of impending calamity.
27:05
Speaker 1: She had not the phrases to make herself clear even
27:08
Speaker 1: to herself. And after all, what controlling effort can one
27:11
Speaker 1: produce when one is only eight years old? End of
27:15
Speaker 1: chapter 1