Latest / The H. G. Wells Library / The Sleeper Awakes Chapter 15 - Prominent People
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- 0:21Speaker 1: by M. B. The Sleeper Awakes by H. G. Wells,
- 0:29Speaker 1: Chapter fifteen. Prominent People. The state apartments of the wind
- 0:35Speaker 1: Vane Keeper would have astonished Graham had he entered them
- 0:39Speaker 1: fresh from his nineteenth century life, but already he was
- 0:42Speaker 1: growing accustomed to the scale of the new time. He
- 0:46Speaker 1: came out through one of the now familiar sliding panels
- 0:50Speaker 1: upon a plateau of landing at the head of a
- 0:52Speaker 1: flight of very broad and gentle steps, with men and
- 0:55Speaker 1: women far more brilliantly dressed than any he had hitherto seen.
- 1:00Speaker 1: Ascending and descending. From this position, he looked down upon
- 1:04Speaker 1: a vista of subtle and varied ornament in lustreless white
- 1:08Speaker 1: and mauve and purple, spanned by bridges that seemed wrought
- 1:12Speaker 1: of porcelain and filigree, and terminating far off in a
- 1:15Speaker 1: cloudy mystery of perforated screens. Glancing upward, he saw tier
- 1:23Speaker 1: above tier of ascending galleries with faces looking down upon him.
- 1:29Speaker 1: The air was full of the babble of innumerable voices,
- 1:32Speaker 1: and of a music that descended from above, a gay
- 1:35Speaker 1: and exhilarating music whose source he did not discover. The
- 1:39Speaker 1: central aisle was thick with people, but by no means
- 1:43Speaker 1: uncomfortably crowded. Altogether, that assembly must have numbered many thousands.
- 1:49Speaker 1: They were brilliantly, even fantastically dressed, the men as fancifully
- 1:54Speaker 1: as the women, for the sobering influence of the Puritan
- 1:57Speaker 1: conception of dignity upon masculine dress had long since passed away.
- 2:03Speaker 1: The hair of the men, too, though it was rarely
- 2:06Speaker 1: worn long, was commonly curled in a manner that suggested
- 2:10Speaker 1: the barber and baldness had vanished from the earth. Frizzy,
- 2:15Speaker 1: straight cut masses that would have charmed Rosetti abounded, and
- 2:19Speaker 1: one gentleman, who was pointed out to Graham under the
- 2:22Speaker 1: mysterious title of an amorist, wore his hair in two
- 2:27Speaker 1: becoming plates a la marguerite. The pigtail was in evidence.
- 2:33Speaker 1: It would seem that citizens of Chinese extraction were no
- 2:37Speaker 1: longer ashamed of their race. There was little uniformity of
- 2:41Speaker 1: fashion apparent in the forms of clothing worn the more
- 2:45Speaker 1: shapely men displayed their symmetry in trunk coose, and here
- 2:49Speaker 1: were puffs and sashes, and there a cloak in their
- 2:52Speaker 1: a robe. The fashions of the days of Leo the
- 2:56Speaker 1: tenth were perhaps the prevailing influence, but the esthetic in
- 3:00Speaker 1: inceptions of the far East were also patent, masculine and bonplant,
- 3:04Speaker 1: which in Victorian times would have been subjected to the
- 3:08Speaker 1: buttoned perils. The ruthless exaggeration of tight legged, tight armed
- 3:13Speaker 1: evening dress now formed, but the basis of a wealth
- 3:17Speaker 1: of dignity and drooping folds. Graceful slenderness abounded also to Graham,
- 3:24Speaker 1: a typically stiff man from a typically stiff period. Not
- 3:28Speaker 1: only did these men seem altogether too graceful in person,
- 3:32Speaker 1: but altogether too expressive. In their vividly expressive faces. They gesticulated,
- 3:39Speaker 1: they expressed surprise, interest, amusement. Above all, they expressed the
- 3:44Speaker 1: emotions excited in their minds by the ladies about them,
- 3:47Speaker 1: with astonishing frankness. Even at the first glance, it was
- 3:52Speaker 1: evident that women were in a great majority. The ladies
- 3:56Speaker 1: in the company of these gentlemen displayed in dress, bearing
- 3:59Speaker 1: and manner i like less emphasis and more intricacy. Some
- 4:04Speaker 1: affected a classical simplicity of robing and subtlety of fold
- 4:08Speaker 1: after the fashion of the first French Empire, and flashed
- 4:12Speaker 1: conquering arms and shoulders as Graham passed. Others had closely
- 4:17Speaker 1: fitting dresses without seam or belt at the waist, sometimes
- 4:21Speaker 1: with long folds falling from their shoulders. The delightful confidences
- 4:26Speaker 1: of evening dress had not been diminished by the passage
- 4:29Speaker 1: of two centuries. Everyone's movements seemed graceful. Graham remarked to
- 4:37Speaker 1: Lincoln that he saw men as Raphael's cartoons walking, and
- 4:42Speaker 1: Lincoln told him that the attainment of an appropriate set
- 4:44Speaker 1: of gestures was part of every rich person's education. The
- 4:49Speaker 1: master's entry was greeted with a sort of tittering applause.
- 4:53Speaker 1: But these people showed their distinguished manners by not crowding
- 4:56Speaker 1: upon him, nor annoying him by any persistence scrutiny. As
- 5:01Speaker 1: he descended the steps towards the floor of the isle,
- 5:04Speaker 1: he had already learnt from Lincoln that these were the
- 5:07Speaker 1: leaders of existing London society. Almost every person there that
- 5:12Speaker 1: night was either a powerful official or the immediate connection
- 5:16Speaker 1: of a powerful official. Many had returned from the European
- 5:20Speaker 1: pleasure cities expressly to welcome him. The aeronautic authorities, whose
- 5:25Speaker 1: defection had played a part in the overthrow of the
- 5:27Speaker 1: Council only second to Grahams, were very prominent, and so
- 5:32Speaker 1: too was the wind vane Control. Amongst others, there were
- 5:36Speaker 1: several of the more prominent officers of the food Department.
- 5:40Speaker 1: The controller of the European piggeries had a particularly melancholy
- 5:43Speaker 1: and interesting countenance and a daintily cynical manner. A bishop
- 5:49Speaker 1: in full canonicals passed to thwart Graham's vision conversing with
- 5:53Speaker 1: a gentleman dressed exactly like the traditional chaucer, including even
- 5:57Speaker 1: the laurel reef. Who is that? He asked, almost involuntarily.
- 6:04Speaker 1: The Bishop of London said, Lincoln, no, the other I
- 6:08Speaker 1: mean poet laureate you still he doesn't make poetry. Of course,
- 6:14Speaker 1: he's a cousin of Wotton, one of the councilors. But
- 6:17Speaker 1: he's one of the Red Rose Loyalists, a delightful club,
- 6:21Speaker 1: and they keep up the tradition of these things. Asano
- 6:25Speaker 1: told me, there was a king. The king doesn't belong.
- 6:29Speaker 1: They had to expel him. It's the Stuart Blood, I suppose,
- 6:32Speaker 1: but really too much, far too much. Graham did not
- 6:38Speaker 1: quite follow all this, but it seemed part of the
- 6:41Speaker 1: general inversion of the New Age. He bowed condescendingly to
- 6:45Speaker 1: his first introduction. It was evident that subtle distinctions of
- 6:50Speaker 1: class prevailed even in this assembly, that only to a
- 6:53Speaker 1: small proportion of the guests to an inner group, did
- 6:56Speaker 1: Lincoln consider it appropriate to introduce him. The first introduction
- 7:01Speaker 1: was the Master Aeronaut, a man whose sun tanned face
- 7:05Speaker 1: contrasted oddly with the delicate complexions about him just at present.
- 7:10Speaker 1: His critical defection from the Council made him a very
- 7:13Speaker 1: important person. Indeed, his manner contrasted very favorably, according to
- 7:18Speaker 1: Graham's ideas, with the general bearing. He offered a few
- 7:23Speaker 1: commonplace remarks, assurances of loyalty, and frank inquiries about the
- 7:27Speaker 1: Master's health. His manner was breezy, his accent lacked the
- 7:32Speaker 1: easy staccato of latter day English. He made it admirably
- 7:36Speaker 1: clear to Graham that he was a bluff aerial dog.
- 7:40Speaker 1: He used that phrase, that there was no nonsense about him,
- 7:44Speaker 1: that he was a thoroughly manly fellow and old fashioned
- 7:47Speaker 1: at that that he didn't profess to know much, and
- 7:50Speaker 1: that what he did know was not worth knowing. He
- 7:54Speaker 1: made a curt bow, ostentatiously, free from obsequiousness, and passed.
- 8:00Speaker 1: I am glad to see that that type endures, said Graham.
- 8:04Speaker 1: Photographs and kinematographs, said Lincoln, a little spitefully. He is
- 8:10Speaker 1: studied from the life. Graham glanced at the burly form again.
- 8:16Speaker 1: It was oddly reminiscent. As a matter of fact, we
- 8:21Speaker 1: bought him, said Lincoln, partly and partly he was afraid
- 8:25Speaker 1: of ostrog Everything rested with him. He turned sharply to
- 8:31Speaker 1: introduce the Surveyor General of the Public Schools. This person
- 8:35Speaker 1: was a willowy figure in a blue gray academic gown.
- 8:38Speaker 1: He beamed down upon Graham's through pass nez of a
- 8:41Speaker 1: Victorian pattern, and illustrated his remarks by gestures of a
- 8:45Speaker 1: beautifully manicured hand. Graham was immediately interested in this gentleman's functions,
- 8:52Speaker 1: and asked him a number of singularly direct questions. The
- 8:55Speaker 1: Surveyor General seemed quietly amused at the Master's fundamental blunt
- 9:01Speaker 1: He was a little vague as to the monopoly of education.
- 9:04Speaker 1: His company possessed. It was done by contract with the
- 9:08Speaker 1: syndicate that ran the numerous London municipalities. But he waxed
- 9:12Speaker 1: enthusiastic over educational progress since the Victorian times. We have
- 9:18Speaker 1: conquered Cram, he said, completely conquered Cram. There is not
- 9:23Speaker 1: an examination left in the world, aren't you glad? How
- 9:27Speaker 1: do you get the work done, asked Graham. We make
- 9:31Speaker 1: it attractive, as attractive as possible, and if it does
- 9:34Speaker 1: not attract then we let it go. We cover an
- 9:37Speaker 1: immense field. He proceeded to details, and they had a
- 9:41Speaker 1: lengthy conversation. Graham learned that university extensions still existed, in
- 9:46Speaker 1: a modified form. There is a certain type of girl,
- 9:50Speaker 1: for instance, said the Surveyor General, dilating with a sense
- 9:54Speaker 1: of his usefulness, with a perfect passion for severe studies.
- 9:58Speaker 1: When they are not too differfficult. You know, we cater
- 10:01Speaker 1: for them by the thousand. At this moment, he said,
- 10:05Speaker 1: with a napoleonic touch. Nearly five hundred phonographs are lecturing
- 10:10Speaker 1: in different parts of London on the influence exercised by
- 10:13Speaker 1: Plato and Swift, on the love affairs of Shelley Haslet
- 10:17Speaker 1: and Burns, and Afterwards they write essays on the lectures,
- 10:21Speaker 1: and the names, in order of merit, are put in
- 10:23Speaker 1: conspicuous places. You see how your little germ has grown.
- 10:28Speaker 1: The illiterate middle class of your days has quite passed away.
- 10:32Speaker 1: About the public elementary schools, said Graham, do you control them?
- 10:36Speaker 1: The Surveyor General did entirely. Now. Graham, in his later
- 10:42Speaker 1: democratic days, had taken a keen interest in these, and
- 10:45Speaker 1: his questioning quickened. Certain casual phrases that had fallen from
- 10:50Speaker 1: the old man with whom he had talked in the darkness,
- 10:52Speaker 1: recurred to him. The Surveyor General, in effect endorsed the
- 10:57Speaker 1: old man's words. We try and make the elementary schools
- 11:02Speaker 1: very pleasant for the little children. They will have to
- 11:05Speaker 1: work so soon, just a few simple principles, obedience, industry.
- 11:11Speaker 1: You teach them very little. Why should we? It only
- 11:16Speaker 1: leads to trouble and discontent. We amuse them even as
- 11:20Speaker 1: it is. There are troubles agitations where the laborers get
- 11:26Speaker 1: the ideas one cannot tell, they tell one another. There
- 11:30Speaker 1: are socialistic dreams, anarchy. Even agitators will get to work
- 11:34Speaker 1: among them. I take it, I have always taken it
- 11:37Speaker 1: that my foremost duty is to fight against popular discontent.
- 11:41Speaker 1: Why should people be made unhappy, I wonder, said Graham thoughtfully.
- 11:48Speaker 1: But there are a great many things I want to know. Lincoln,
- 11:52Speaker 1: who had stood watching Graham's face throughout the conversation, intervened.
- 11:58Speaker 1: There are others, he said in undertone. The surveyor General
- 12:03Speaker 1: of schools gesticulated himself away. Perhaps, said Lincoln, intercepting a
- 12:08Speaker 1: casual glance, you would like to know some of these ladies.
- 12:12Speaker 1: The daughter of the manager of the piggeries was a
- 12:14Speaker 1: particularly charming little person with red hair and animated blue eyes.
- 12:19Speaker 1: Lincoln left him awhile to converse with her, and she
- 12:22Speaker 1: displayed herself as quite an enthusiast for the dear old days,
- 12:26Speaker 1: as she called them, that had seen the beginning of
- 12:28Speaker 1: his trance. As she talked, she smiled, and her eyes
- 12:33Speaker 1: smiled in a manner that demanded reciprocity. I have tried,
- 12:39Speaker 1: she said, countless times, to imagine those old romantic days,
- 12:45Speaker 1: and to you they are memories. How strange and crowded
- 12:49Speaker 1: the world must seem. To you. I have seen photographs
- 12:53Speaker 1: and pictures of the past, and little isolated houses built
- 12:56Speaker 1: of bricks made out of burnt mudin all black with
- 12:59Speaker 1: soot from your fires, the railway bridges, the simple advertisements,
- 13:03Speaker 1: the solemn, savage, puritanical men in strange black coats, and
- 13:08Speaker 1: those tall hats of theirs, iron railway trains on iron
- 13:12Speaker 1: bridges overhead, horses and cattle, and even dogs running half
- 13:17Speaker 1: wild about the streets. And suddenly you have come into this,
- 13:22Speaker 1: into this, said Graham, out of your life, out of
- 13:27Speaker 1: all that was familiar. The old life was not a
- 13:30Speaker 1: happy one, said Graham. I do not regret that. She
- 13:35Speaker 1: looked at him quickly. There was a brief pause. She
- 13:39Speaker 1: sighed encouragingly. No, no, said Graham. It was a little life,
- 13:46Speaker 1: and unmeaning. But this we thought the world complex and
- 13:51Speaker 1: crowded and civilized enough. Yet I see, although in this
- 13:55Speaker 1: world I am barely four days old, looking back on
- 13:58Speaker 1: my own time, that it was a queer, barbaric time,
- 14:02Speaker 1: the mere beginning of this new order, the mere beginning
- 14:07Speaker 1: of this new order. You will find it hard to
- 14:09Speaker 1: understand how little I know. You may ask me what
- 14:13Speaker 1: you like, she said, smiling at him. Then tell me
- 14:18Speaker 1: who these people are. I'm still very much in the
- 14:21Speaker 1: dark about them. It's puzzling. Are there any generals, men
- 14:27Speaker 1: in hats and feathers, of course not No, I suppose
- 14:33Speaker 1: they are the men who control the great public businesses.
- 14:37Speaker 1: Who is that distinguished looking man that he's a most
- 14:42Speaker 1: important officer? That is Mordan. He is managing director of
- 14:47Speaker 1: the Anti bilious pill Department. I have heard that his
- 14:51Speaker 1: workers sometimes turn out a myriad myriad pills a day
- 14:54Speaker 1: in the twenty four hours. Fancy a myriad myriad, A
- 14:59Speaker 1: myriad myriad, No wonder he looks proud, said Graham pills.
- 15:04Speaker 1: What a wonderful time it is that man in purple.
- 15:09Speaker 1: He is not quite one of the inner circle, you know,
- 15:12Speaker 1: but we like him. He is really clever and very amusing.
- 15:16Speaker 1: He is one of the heads of the medical faculty
- 15:18Speaker 1: of our London University. All medical men you know where
- 15:21Speaker 1: that purple. But of course people who are paid by
- 15:24Speaker 1: fees for doing something. She smiled away. The social pretensions
- 15:29Speaker 1: of all such people are any of your great artists
- 15:32Speaker 1: or authors? Here not authors. They are mostly such queer people,
- 15:37Speaker 1: and so preoccupied about themselves, and they quarrel so dreadfully.
- 15:42Speaker 1: They will fight, some of them for presidents on staircases. Dreadful,
- 15:47Speaker 1: isn't it? But I think Rasebury, the fashionable capillotomist is
- 15:51Speaker 1: here from Capri capillotomist, said Graham, I remember an artist.
- 15:59Speaker 1: Why not we have to cultivate him, She said, apologetically.
- 16:04Speaker 1: Our heads are in his hands. She smiled. Graham hesitated
- 16:09Speaker 1: at the invited compliment, but his glance was expressive. Have
- 16:13Speaker 1: the arts grown with the rest of civilized things? He said,
- 16:17Speaker 1: who are your great painters? She looked at him doubtfully,
- 16:22Speaker 1: then laughed. For a moment, she said, I thought you meant?
- 16:26Speaker 1: She laughed again, You mean, of course, those good men
- 16:30Speaker 1: you used to think so much of, because they could
- 16:32Speaker 1: cover great spaces of canvas with oil colors, great oblongs,
- 16:37Speaker 1: and people used to put the things in gilt frames
- 16:39Speaker 1: and hanging them up in rows in their square rooms.
- 16:42Speaker 1: We haven't any people grew tired of that sort of thing.
- 16:46Speaker 1: But what did you think? I meant? She put a
- 16:50Speaker 1: finger significantly on a cheek whose glow was above suspicion,
- 16:54Speaker 1: and smiled and looked very arch and pretty and inviting.
- 16:58Speaker 1: And here, and she indicated her eyelid. Graham had an
- 17:03Speaker 1: adventurous moment, then a grotesque memory of a picture he
- 17:07Speaker 1: had somewhere seen of Uncle Toby and the widow flashed
- 17:10Speaker 1: across his mind. An archaic shame came upon him. He
- 17:15Speaker 1: became acutely aware that he was visible to a great
- 17:18Speaker 1: number of interested people. I see, he remarked, inadequately. He
- 17:25Speaker 1: turned awkwardly away from her fascinating facility. He looked about
- 17:29Speaker 1: him to meet a number of eyes that immediately occupied
- 17:32Speaker 1: themselves with other things. Possibly, he colored a little. Who
- 17:37Speaker 1: is that talking with the lady in saffron, he said,
- 17:40Speaker 1: avoiding her eyes. The person in question, he learnt, was
- 17:45Speaker 1: one of the great organizers of the American theaters, just
- 17:48Speaker 1: fresh from a gigantic production at Mexico. His face reminded
- 17:53Speaker 1: Graham of a bust of Caligula. Another striking looking man
- 17:58Speaker 1: was the Black labor The phrase, at the time made
- 18:03Speaker 1: no deep impression, but afterwards it recurred the black labor Master.
- 18:10Speaker 1: The little lady, in no degree embarrassed, pointed out to
- 18:14Speaker 1: him a charming little woman, as one of the subsidiary
- 18:17Speaker 1: wives of the Anglican Bishop of London. She added ecomiums
- 18:21Speaker 1: on the episcopal courage. Hitherto there had been a rule
- 18:24Speaker 1: of clerical monogamy, neither a natural nor an expedient condition
- 18:28Speaker 1: of things. Why should a natural development of the affections
- 18:32Speaker 1: be dwarfed and restricted because a man is a priest,
- 18:37Speaker 1: and by the bye, she added, are you an Anglican?
- 18:41Speaker 1: Graham was on the verge of hesitating inquiries about the
- 18:44Speaker 1: status of a subsidiary wife, apparently a euphemistic phrase. When
- 18:50Speaker 1: Lincoln's return broke off this very suggestive and interesting conversation,
- 18:55Speaker 1: they crossed the aisle to where a tall man in
- 18:57Speaker 1: crimson and two charming persons in Burmese costume, as it
- 19:02Speaker 1: seemed to him, awaited him diffidently from their civilities. He
- 19:07Speaker 1: passed two other presentations. In a little while, his multitudinous
- 19:12Speaker 1: impressions began to organize themselves into a general effect. At first,
- 19:16Speaker 1: the glitter of the gathering had raised all the democrat
- 19:19Speaker 1: in Graham. He had felt hostile and satirical. But it
- 19:23Speaker 1: is not in human nature to resist an atmosphere of
- 19:25Speaker 1: courteous regard. Soon, the music, the light, the play of colors,
- 19:31Speaker 1: the shining arms and shoulders about him, the touch of hands,
- 19:35Speaker 1: the transient interest of smiling faces, the frothing sound of
- 19:39Speaker 1: skillfully modulated voices, the atmosphere of compliment, interest, and respect
- 19:45Speaker 1: had woven together into a fabric of indisputable pleasure. Graham,
- 19:50Speaker 1: for a time forgot his spacious resolutions. He gave way
- 19:54Speaker 1: insensibly to the intoxication of the position that was conceded him.
- 19:59Speaker 1: His manner became more convincingly regal. His feet walked assuredly,
- 20:04Speaker 1: the black robe fell with a bolder fold, and pride
- 20:08Speaker 1: ennobled his voice. After all, this was a brilliant, interesting world.
- 20:15Speaker 1: He looked up and saw, passing across a bridge of porcelain,
- 20:19Speaker 1: and looking down upon him a face that was almost
- 20:22Speaker 1: immediately hidden the face of the girl he had seen
- 20:26Speaker 1: overnight in the little room beyond the theater after his
- 20:28Speaker 1: escape from the Council, and she was watching him. For
- 20:33Speaker 1: the moment, he did not remember when he had seen her,
- 20:36Speaker 1: and then came a vague memory of the stirring emotions
- 20:39Speaker 1: of their first encounter, But the dancing web of melody
- 20:43Speaker 1: about him kept the air of that great marching song
- 20:46Speaker 1: from his memory. The lady to whom he talked repeated
- 20:50Speaker 1: her remark, and Graham recalled himself to the quasi regal
- 20:54Speaker 1: flirtation upon which he was engaged, yet unaccountably, a vague restlessness,
- 21:00Speaker 1: a feeling that grew to dissatisfaction came into his mind.
- 21:05Speaker 1: He was troubled, as if by some half forgotten duty,
- 21:08Speaker 1: by the sense of things important slipping from him. Amidst
- 21:11Speaker 1: this light and brilliance. The attraction that these ladies who
- 21:15Speaker 1: crowded about him were beginning to exercise ceased. He no
- 21:20Speaker 1: longer gave vague and clumsy responses to the subtly amorous
- 21:23Speaker 1: advances that he was now assured were being made to him,
- 21:27Speaker 1: and his eyes wandered from another sight of the girl
- 21:30Speaker 1: of the first Revolt, where precisely had he seen her.
- 21:36Speaker 1: Graham was in one of the upper galleries, in conversation
- 21:39Speaker 1: with a bright eyed lady on the subject of etomite.
- 21:43Speaker 1: The subject was his choice and not hers. He had
- 21:47Speaker 1: interrupted her warm assurance of personal devotion with a matter
- 21:50Speaker 1: of fact inquiry. He found her, as he had already
- 21:55Speaker 1: found several other latter day women that night, less well
- 21:58Speaker 1: informed than charming. Suddenly struggling against the eddying drift of
- 22:04Speaker 1: nearer melody, the song of the Revolt, the great song
- 22:08Speaker 1: he had heard in the hall, hoarse and massive, came
- 22:11Speaker 1: beating down to him. Ah, now he remembered. He glanced
- 22:17Speaker 1: up startled, and perceived above him an aus de boeuf
- 22:21Speaker 1: through which this song had come, and beyond the upper
- 22:25Speaker 1: courses of cable, the blue haze and the pendant fabric
- 22:29Speaker 1: of the lights of the public ways. He heard the
- 22:32Speaker 1: song break into a tumult of voices and cease. He
- 22:36Speaker 1: perceived quite clearly the drone and tumult of the moving platforms,
- 22:41Speaker 1: and a murmur of many people. He had a vague
- 22:44Speaker 1: persuasion that he could not account for a sort of
- 22:48Speaker 1: instinctive feeling that outside in the ways, a huge crowd
- 22:52Speaker 1: must be watching this place in which their master amused himself.
- 22:57Speaker 1: Though the song had stopped so abruptly, though the special
- 23:01Speaker 1: music of this gathering reasserted itself. The motif of the
- 23:05Speaker 1: marching song once it had begun, lingered in his mind.
- 23:12Speaker 1: The bright eyed lady was still struggling with the mysteries
- 23:15Speaker 1: of Edamite when he perceived the girl he had seen
- 23:18Speaker 1: in the theater again. She was coming now along the
- 23:22Speaker 1: gallery towards him. He saw her first before she saw him.
- 23:28Speaker 1: She was dressed in a faintly luminous gray. Her dark
- 23:32Speaker 1: hair about her brows was like a cloud, and as
- 23:35Speaker 1: he saw her, the cold light from the circular opening
- 23:38Speaker 1: into the waves fell upon her downcast face. The lady
- 23:43Speaker 1: in trouble about the Edamite saw the change in his
- 23:46Speaker 1: expression and grasped her opportunity to escape. Would you care
- 23:50Speaker 1: to know that girl, sire, she asked boldly. She is
- 23:55Speaker 1: Helen Wotton, a niece of the Ostrogs. She knows a
- 23:59Speaker 1: great many serious things. She is one of the most
- 24:03Speaker 1: serious persons alive. I am sure you will like her.
- 24:08Speaker 1: In another moment, Graham was talking to the girl, and
- 24:11Speaker 1: the bright eyed lady had fluttered away. I remember you
- 24:15Speaker 1: quite well, said Graham. You were in that little room
- 24:19Speaker 1: when all the people were singing and beating time with
- 24:21Speaker 1: their feet, before I walked across the hall. Her momentary
- 24:26Speaker 1: embarrassment passed. She looked up at him, and her face
- 24:30Speaker 1: was steady. It was wonderful, she said, hesitated, and spoke
- 24:36Speaker 1: with a sudden effort. All those people would have died
- 24:40Speaker 1: for you, sire. Countless people did die for you that night.
- 24:45Speaker 1: Her face glowed. She glanced swiftly aside to see that
- 24:49Speaker 1: no other heard her words. Lincoln appeared some way off
- 24:54Speaker 1: along the gallery, making his way through the press towards them.
- 25:00Speaker 1: She saw him and turned to Graham's strangely eager with
- 25:02Speaker 1: a swift change to confidence and intimacy. Sire, she said quickly,
- 25:09Speaker 1: I cannot tell you now and here, but the common
- 25:12Speaker 1: people are very unhappy. They are oppressed, they are misgoverned.
- 25:17Speaker 1: Do not forget the people who faced death death that
- 25:21Speaker 1: you might live. I know nothing, began Graham. I cannot
- 25:27Speaker 1: tell you now. Lincoln's face appeared close to them. He
- 25:32Speaker 1: bowed an apology to the girl. You find the new
- 25:38Speaker 1: world amusing, sire, said Lincoln, with smiling deference, and indicating
- 25:43Speaker 1: the space and splendor of the gathering by one comprehensive gesture.
- 25:48Speaker 1: At any rate, you find it changed, yes, said Graham, changed,
- 25:54Speaker 1: and yet after all, not so greatly changed. Wait till
- 25:59Speaker 1: you are in the air, said Lincoln. The wind has fallen.
- 26:02Speaker 1: Even now an aeroplane awaits you. The girl's attitude awaited dismissal.
- 26:09Speaker 1: Graham glanced at her face, was on the verge of
- 26:12Speaker 1: a question, found a warning in her expression, bowed to her,
- 26:17Speaker 1: and turned to accompany Lincoln. End of chapter fifteen.