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Ann Veronica Chapter 7 - Ideals and a reality · The H. G. Wells Library

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Speaker 1: Chapter seven of Ann Veronica. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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Speaker 1: by Joy Chan and Veronica by H. G. Wells. Chapter
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Speaker 1: the seventh Ideals and a Reality, Part one and now
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Speaker 1: for some weeks, Anne Veronica was to test her market
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Speaker 1: value in the world. She went about in a negligent
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Speaker 1: November London that had become very dark and foggy and
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Speaker 1: greasy and forbidding indeed, and tried to find that modest
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Speaker 1: but independent employment she had so rashly assumed. She went
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Speaker 1: about intent looking and self possessed, trim and fine, concealing
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Speaker 1: her emotions, whatever they were, as the realities of her
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Speaker 1: position opened out before her. Her little bed sitting room
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Speaker 1: was like a lair, and she went out from it
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Speaker 1: into this vast darn world, with its smoke gray houses,
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Speaker 1: its glaring streets of shops, its dark streets of homes,
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Speaker 1: its orange lit windows under skies of dull copper or
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Speaker 1: muddy gray or black. Much as an animal goes out
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Speaker 1: to seek food, she would come back and write letters,
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Speaker 1: carefully planned and written letters or read some books she
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Speaker 1: had fetched from Mudi's she had invested a half guinea
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Speaker 1: with Modi's or sit over her fire and think slowly
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Speaker 1: and reluctantly. She came to realize that viv Warren was
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Speaker 1: what is called an ideal. There were no such girls,
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Speaker 1: and no such positions. No work that offered was at
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Speaker 1: all of the quality she had vaguely postulated for herself.
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Speaker 1: With such qualifications as she possessed, two chief channels of
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Speaker 1: employment lay open, and neither attracted her. Neither seemed really
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Speaker 1: to offer a conclusive escape from that subjection to mankind
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Speaker 1: against which, in the person of her father, she was rebelling.
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Speaker 1: One main avenue was for her to become a sort
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Speaker 1: of salaried accessory wife or mother, to be a governess
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Speaker 1: or an assistant schoolmistress, or a very high type of
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Speaker 1: governess nurse. The other was to go into business into
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Speaker 1: a photographer's reception room, for example, or costumers or hat shop.
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Speaker 1: The first set of occupations seemed to her to be
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Speaker 1: altogether too domestic and restricted. For the latter, she was
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Speaker 1: dreadfully handicapped by her want of experience, and also she
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Speaker 1: didn't like them. She didn't like the shops. She didn't
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Speaker 1: like the other women's faces. She thought the smirking men
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Speaker 1: in frock coats who dominated these establishments the most intolerable
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Speaker 1: persons she had ever had to face. One called her
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Speaker 1: very distinctly, my dear. Two secretarial posts did indeed seem
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Speaker 1: to offer themselves in which at least there was no
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Speaker 1: specific exclusion of womanhood. One was under a radical member
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Speaker 1: of parliament, and the other under a Harley Street doctor,
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Speaker 1: and both men declined her proffited services with the utmost
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Speaker 1: civility and admiration and terror. There was also a curious
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Speaker 1: interview at a big hotel with a middle aged, white,
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Speaker 1: powdered woman, all covered with jewels and reeking of scent,
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Speaker 1: who wanted a companion. She did not think Anne Veronica
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Speaker 1: would do as her companion. And nearly all these things
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Speaker 1: were fearfully ill paid. They carried no more than bare
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Speaker 1: subsistence wages, and they demanded all her time and energy.
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Speaker 1: She had heard of women journalists, women writers, and so forth,
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Speaker 1: but she was not even admitted to the presence of
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Speaker 1: the editors she demanded to see, and by no means
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Speaker 1: sure that if she had been, she could have done
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Speaker 1: any work. They might have given her. One day, she
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Speaker 1: desisted from her search and went unexpectedly to the treadch
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Speaker 1: called college. Her place was not filled, she had been
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Speaker 1: simply noted as absent, and she did a comforting day
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Speaker 1: of admirable dissection upon the tortoise. She was so interested,
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Speaker 1: and this was such a relief from the treading anxiety
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Speaker 1: of her search for work, that she went on for
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Speaker 1: a whole week as if she was still living at home.
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Speaker 1: Then a third secretarial opening occurred and renewed her hopes
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Speaker 1: again a position as an amanuensis, with which some of
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Speaker 1: the lighter duties of a nurse were combined, to an
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Speaker 1: infirm gentleman of means living at Twickenham, and engaged upon
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Speaker 1: a great literary research to prove that the fairy queen
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Speaker 1: was really a triotized upon molecular chemistry, written in a
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Speaker 1: peculiar and picturesquely handled cipher. Part two. Now, while Anne
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Speaker 1: Veronica was taking these surroundings in the industrial sea and
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Speaker 1: measuring herself against the world as it is, she was
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Speaker 1: also making extensive explorations among the ideas and attitudes of
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Speaker 1: a number of human beings who seemed to be largely
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Speaker 1: concerned with the world as it ought to be. She
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Speaker 1: was drawn first by Miss Miniver, and then by her
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Speaker 1: own natural interest, into a curious stratum of people who
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Speaker 1: are busied with dreams of world progress, of great and
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Speaker 1: fundamental changes, of a new age that is to replace
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Speaker 1: all the stresses and disorders of contemporary life. Miss Minerva
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Speaker 1: learned of her flight and got her address from the Widgets.
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Speaker 1: She arrived about nine o'clock the next evening. In a
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Speaker 1: state of tremulous enthusiasm. She followed the landlady half way
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Speaker 1: upstairs and called up to Anne Veronica. May I come up,
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Speaker 1: It's me, you know, Nettie Minever. She appeared before Anne
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Speaker 1: Veronica could clearly recall who Nettie Minever might be. There
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Speaker 1: was a wild light in her eye, and her straight
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Speaker 1: hair was out, demonstrating and suffragetting upon some independent notions
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Speaker 1: of its own. Her fingers were bursting through her gloves
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Speaker 1: as if to get at once into touch with Aunt Veronica.
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Speaker 1: You're glorious, said Miss Miniver in tones of rapture, holding
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Speaker 1: a hand in each of hers and peering up into
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Speaker 1: Anne Veronica's face. Glorious, You're so calm, dear, and so resolute,
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Speaker 1: so serene. It's girls like you who'll show them what
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Speaker 1: we are, said Miss Minneva, girls whose spirits have not
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Speaker 1: been broken. Anne Veronica sunned herself a little in this warmth.
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Speaker 1: I was watching you at Morningside Park, dear, said Miss Minerva.
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Speaker 1: I am getting to watch all women. I thought, then
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Speaker 1: perhaps you didn't care that you were like so many
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Speaker 1: of them. Now it's just as though you had grown up.
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Speaker 1: Suddenly she stopped and then suggested, I wonder I should
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Speaker 1: love if it was anything I said. She did not
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Speaker 1: wait for Anne Veronica's reply. She seemed to assume that
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Speaker 1: it must certainly be something she had said. They all
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Speaker 1: catch on, she said, It spreads like wildfire. This is
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Speaker 1: such a grand time, such a glorious time. There never
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Speaker 1: us at a time as this. Everything seemed so close
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Speaker 1: to fruition, so coming on and leading on the insurrection
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Speaker 1: of women. They spring up everywhere. Tell me all that happened,
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Speaker 1: one sister woman to another. She chilled Anne Veronica a
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Speaker 1: little by that last phrase. And yet the magnetism of
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Speaker 1: her fellowship and enthusiasm was very strong, and it was
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Speaker 1: pleasant to be made out a heroine after so much expostination.
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Speaker 1: And so many secret doubts. She did not listen long.
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Speaker 1: She wanted to talk. She sat crouched together by the
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Speaker 1: corner of the hearth rug under the bookcase that supported
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Speaker 1: the pig skull, and looked into the fire and up
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Speaker 1: at Anne Veronica's face and let herself go. Let us
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Speaker 1: put the lamp out. She said, The flames are ever
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Speaker 1: so much better for talking, and Anne Veronica agreed, You're
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Speaker 1: coming right out into life, facing it all. Anne Veronica
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Speaker 1: sat with her chin on her hand, red lit and
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Speaker 1: saying little, and Miss Miniver discoursed. As she talked. The
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Speaker 1: drift and significance of what she was saying shaped itself slowly.
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Speaker 1: To Anne Veronica's apprehension, it presented itself in the likeness
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Speaker 1: of a great, gray, dull world, a brutal, superstitious, confused
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Speaker 1: and wrong headed world that hurt people and limited people
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Speaker 1: unaccountably in remote times and countries. Its evil tendencies had
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Speaker 1: expressed themselves in the form of tyrannies, massacres, wars and
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Speaker 1: what not, But just at present in England, they shaped
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Speaker 1: as commercialism and competition, silk hats, suburban morals, the sweating system,
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Speaker 1: and the subjection of women. So far the thing was
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Speaker 1: acceptable enough. But over against the world, Miss minnevh assembled
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Speaker 1: a small but energetic minority, the children of light, people
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Speaker 1: she described as being in the van, or altogether in
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Speaker 1: the van, about whom Anne Veronica's mind was disposed to
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Speaker 1: be more skeptical. Everything, miss Minova said, was working up,
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Speaker 1: Everything was coming on the higher thought, the simple life, socialism, humanitarianism.
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Speaker 1: It was all the same. Really, She loved to be there,
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Speaker 1: taking part in it, all, breathing it, in being it.
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Speaker 1: Hitherto in the world's history there had been precursors of
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Speaker 1: this progress, at great intervals, voices that had spoken and ceased.
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Speaker 1: But now it was all coming on together in a rush.
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Speaker 1: She mentioned with familiar respect, Christ and Buddha, and Shelley
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Speaker 1: and Niche and Plato, pioneers, all of them, such names
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Speaker 1: shone brightly in the darkness, with black spaces of unilluminated
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Speaker 1: emptiness about them, as stars shine in the night. But
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Speaker 1: now now it was different. Now it was dawn, the
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Speaker 1: real dawn. The women are taking it up, said Miss Minova,
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Speaker 1: the women and the common people, all pressing forward, all roused.
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Speaker 1: Ann Veronica listened with her eyes on the fire everybody
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Speaker 1: is taking it up, said Miss Minova. You had to
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Speaker 1: come in. You couldn't help it. Something drew you, Something
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Speaker 1: draws everybody, from suburbs, from country towns, everywhere. I see
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Speaker 1: all the movements as far as I can, I belong
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Speaker 1: to them all. I keep my finger on the pulse
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Speaker 1: of things. Aunt Veronica said, nothing the dawn, said Miss Minerva,
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Speaker 1: with her glasses reflecting the fire like pools of blood
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Speaker 1: red flame. I came to London, said Anne Veronica. Rather
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Speaker 1: because of my own difficulty. I don't know that I
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Speaker 1: understand altogether. Of course you don't, said Miss Minnova, gesticulating
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Speaker 1: triumphantly with her thin hand and thinner wrist and patting
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Speaker 1: Anne Veronica's knee. Of course you don't, that's the wonder
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Speaker 1: of it. But you will, you will. You must let
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Speaker 1: me take you to things, to meetings and things, to
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Speaker 1: conferences and talks. Then you will begin to see, You
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Speaker 1: will begin to see it all opening out. I am
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Speaker 1: up to the ears in it all. Every moment I
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Speaker 1: can spare, I throw up work everything. I just teach
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Speaker 1: in one school, one good school, three days a week.
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Speaker 1: All the rest movements I can live now in four
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Speaker 1: pence day think how free that leaves me to follow
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Speaker 1: things up. I must take you everywhere. I must take
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Speaker 1: you to the suffrage people, and the Tolstonians and the Fabians.
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Speaker 1: I have heard of the Fabians, said and Veronica. It's
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Speaker 1: the society, said Miss Minov. It's the center of the intellectuals.
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Speaker 1: Some of the meetings are wonderful, such earnest, beautiful women,
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Speaker 1: such deep browed men. And to think that there they
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Speaker 1: are making history. There they are putting together the plans
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Speaker 1: of a new world almost lightheartedly. There's share and Webb
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Speaker 1: and Wilkins, the author, and Turmor and doctor Tumpany, the
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Speaker 1: most wonderful people there. You see them discussing, deciding, planning.
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Speaker 1: Just think they are making a new world. But are
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Speaker 1: these people going to alter everything? Said and Veronica? What
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Speaker 1: else can happen? Asked Miss Minerva, with a little weak
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Speaker 1: gesture at the glow. What else can possibly happen? As
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Speaker 1: things are going now? Part three, Miss Minneva leed an
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Speaker 1: Veronica into her peculiar levels of the world with so
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Speaker 1: enthusiastic a generosity that it seemed ingratitude to remain critical,
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Speaker 1: indeed almost insensibly, and Veronica became habituated to the peculiar
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Speaker 1: appearance and the peculiar manners of the people in the van.
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Speaker 1: The shock of their intellectual attitude was over usage, robbed
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Speaker 1: it of the first quaint effect of deliberate unreason. They were,
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Speaker 1: in many respects so right. She clung to that, and
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Speaker 1: shirked more and more the paradoxical conviction that they were also,
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Speaker 1: somehow and even in direct relation to that rightness absurd.
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Speaker 1: Very central in Miss Miniver's universe were the Goops. The
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Speaker 1: Goops were the oddest little couple conceivable, following a frutarian
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Speaker 1: career upon an upper floor in Theobald's room. They were
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Speaker 1: childless and servantless, and they had reduced simple living to
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Speaker 1: the finest of fine arts. Mister Goops and Veronica gathered
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Speaker 1: was a mathematical tutor and visited schools, and his wife
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Speaker 1: wrote a weekly column in New Ideas upon vegetarian cookery, vivisection,
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Speaker 1: the generation, the lactial secretion, appendicitis, and the higher thought generally,
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Speaker 1: and assisted in the management of a fruit shop in
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Speaker 1: the Tottenham Court Road. Their very furniture had mysteriously a
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Speaker 1: high browed quality, and mister Goops, when at home, dressed
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Speaker 1: simply in a pajama shaped suit of canvas sacking tied
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Speaker 1: with brown ribbons, while his wife wore a purple dijba
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Speaker 1: with a richly embroidered yoke. He was a small, dark
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Speaker 1: reserved man with a large and flexible looking convex forehead,
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Speaker 1: and his wife was very pink and high spirited, with
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Speaker 1: one of those chins that passed insensibly into a full
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Speaker 1: strong neck. Once a week, every Saturday, they had a
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Speaker 1: little gathering from nine to the small hours, just talk
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Speaker 1: and perhaps reading aloud, and frutarian refreshments chestnut sandwiches buttered
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Speaker 1: with nut toast and so forth, and lemonade and unfermented wine.
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Speaker 1: And to one of these symposia, Miss Miniver. After a
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Speaker 1: good deal of preliminary solicitude conducted Anne Veronica, she was introduced,
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Speaker 1: perhaps a little too obviously for her taste, as a
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Speaker 1: girl who was standing out against her people, to a
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Speaker 1: gathering that consisted of a very old lady with an
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Speaker 1: extremely wrinkled skin and a deep voice, who was wearing
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Speaker 1: what appeared to Ann Veronica's inexperienced eye to be an
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Speaker 1: antimachasa upon her head, a shy blond young man with
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Speaker 1: a narrow forehead and glasses, two undistinguished women in plain
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Speaker 1: skirts and blouses, and a middle aged, very fat and
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Speaker 1: alike in black mister and Missus Alderman Dunstable of the
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Speaker 1: Borough Council of Marylebone. These were seated in an imperfect
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Speaker 1: semicircle about a very copper adorned fireplace, surmounted by a
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Speaker 1: carved wood inscription do it now and to them presently
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Speaker 1: added a roguish looking young man with reddish hair, an
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Speaker 1: orange tie and a fluffy tweed suit, and others who,
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Speaker 1: in Anne Veronica's memory, in spite of her efforts to
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Speaker 1: recall details, remained obstinately just others. The talk was animated
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Speaker 1: and remained always brilliant in form, even when it ceased
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Speaker 1: to be brilliant in substance. There were moments when Anne
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Speaker 1: Veronica rather more than suspected the chief speakers to be,
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Speaker 1: as schoolboys say, showing off at her. They talked of
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Speaker 1: a new substitute for dripping in vegetarian crookery that Missus
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Speaker 1: Goose was convinced exercise an exceptionally purifying influence on the mind.
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Speaker 1: And then they talked of anarchism and socialism, and whether
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Speaker 1: the former was the exact opposite of the latter, or
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Speaker 1: only a higher form. The reddish haired young man contributed
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Speaker 1: allusions to the Hegelian philosophy that momentarily confused the discussion.
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Speaker 1: Then Alderman Dunstable, who had hitherto been silent, broke out
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Speaker 1: into speech and went off at a tangent, and gave
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Speaker 1: his personal impressions of quite a number of his fellow counselors.
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Speaker 1: He continued to do this for the rest of the evening,
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Speaker 1: intermittently in and out among other topics. He addressed himself
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Speaker 1: chiefly to the Goops, and spoke as if in reply
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Speaker 1: to long sustained inquiries on the part of the Goops
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Speaker 1: into the personnel of the Marylebone Borough Council. If you
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Speaker 1: were to ask me, he would say, I should say
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Speaker 1: Blinder's is straight, an ordinary type of course. Missus Dunstable's
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Speaker 1: contributions to the conversation were entirely in the form of nods.
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Speaker 1: Whenever Alderman Dunstable praised or blamed, she nodded twice or
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Speaker 1: thrice according to the requirements of his emphasis, and she
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Speaker 1: seemed always to keep one eye on Anne Veronica's dress.
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Speaker 1: Missus Goops, disconcerted the Olderman a little by abruptly challenging
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Speaker 1: the roguish looking young man in the orange tie, who
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Speaker 1: it seemed was the assistant editor of New Ideas, upon
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Speaker 1: a critique of Nietzsche and Tolstoy that had appeared in
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Speaker 1: his paper, in which doubts had been cast upon the
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Speaker 1: perfect sincerity of the latter. Everybody seemed greatly concerned about
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Speaker 1: the sincerity of Tolstoy. Miss Minnivah said that if once
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Speaker 1: she lost her faith in Tolstoy's sincerity, nothing she felt
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Speaker 1: would really matter much any more, and she appealed to
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Speaker 1: Anne Veronica whether she did not feel the same. And
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Speaker 1: mister Goop said that we must distinguish between sincerity and irony,
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Speaker 1: which was often, indeed no more than sincerity at the
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Speaker 1: sublimated level. Alderman Dunstable said that sincerity was often a
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Speaker 1: matter of opportunity and illustrated the point to the fair
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Speaker 1: young man with an anecdote about Linda's on the Dust
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Speaker 1: Destructor Committee, during which the young man in the orange
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Speaker 1: tie succeeded in giving the whole discussion a daring and
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Speaker 1: erotic flavor by questioning whether any one could be perfectly
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Speaker 1: sincere in love. Miss Miniva thought that there was no
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Speaker 1: true sincerity except in love, and appealed to and Veronica.
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Speaker 1: But the young man in the orange tie went on
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Speaker 1: to declare that it was quite possible to be sincerely
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Speaker 1: in love with two people at the same time, although
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Speaker 1: perhaps on different plains, with each individual and deceiving them both.
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Speaker 1: But that brought missus goops down on him with the
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Speaker 1: lessentation teachers so beautifully in his sacred and profane love,
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Speaker 1: and became quite eloquent upon the impossibility of any deception
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Speaker 1: in the former. Then they discoursed on love for a time,
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Speaker 1: and Alderman Dunstable, turning back to the shy blond young man,
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Speaker 1: and speaking in undertones of the utmost clearness, gave a
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Speaker 1: brief and confidential account of an unfounded rumor of the
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Speaker 1: bifurcation of the affection of blinders that had led to
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Speaker 1: a situation of some unpleasantness upon the borough council. The
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Speaker 1: very old lady in the antimachassa touched Anne Veronica's arms
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Speaker 1: suddenly and said, in a deep arch voice, talking of
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Speaker 1: love again, spring again, Love again, oh you young people.
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Speaker 1: The young man with the orange tie, in spite of
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Speaker 1: sisyphus like efforts on the part of Goops to get
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Speaker 1: the topic on to a higher plane displayed great persistence
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Speaker 1: in speculating upon the possible distribution of the affections of
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Speaker 1: highly developed modern types. The old lady in the antimachassa
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Speaker 1: said abruptly, ah, you young people, you young people, if
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Speaker 1: you only knew, and then laughed, and then news in
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Speaker 1: a marked manner. And the young man with the narrow
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Speaker 1: forehead and glasses cleared his throat and asked the young
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Speaker 1: man in the orange tie whether he believed that platonic
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Speaker 1: love was possible. Missus Goop said she believed in nothing else,
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Speaker 1: and with that she glanced at Anne. Veronica rose a
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Speaker 1: little abruptly and directed Goops and the shy young man
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Speaker 1: in the handing of re freshments. But the young man
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Speaker 1: with the orange tie remained in his place, disputing whether
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Speaker 1: the body had not something or other which he called
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Speaker 1: its legitimate claims. And from that they came back by
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Speaker 1: way of the crutes of Sonata and Resurrection to toll
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Speaker 1: story again. So the talk went on. Goops, who had
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Speaker 1: at first been a little reserved, resorted presently to the
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Speaker 1: Socratic method to restrain the young man with the orange tie,
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Speaker 1: and bent his forehead over him, and brought out at last,
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Speaker 1: very clearly from him that the body was only illusion,
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Speaker 1: and everything nothing but just spirit and molecules of thought.
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Speaker 1: It became a sort of deal at last between them,
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Speaker 1: and all the others sat and listened, everyone that is,
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Speaker 1: except the Olderman, who had got the blond young man
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Speaker 1: into a corner by the green stained dresser with the
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Speaker 1: aluminium things, and was sitting with his back to everyone else,
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Speaker 1: holding one hand over his mouth for greater privacy, and
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Speaker 1: telling him with an accent of confidential admission in whispers
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Speaker 1: of the chronic struggle between the natural modesty and general
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Speaker 1: inoffensiveness of the borough Council and the social evil in Marylebone.
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Speaker 1: So the talk went on, and presently they were criticizing novelists,
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Speaker 1: and certain daring essays of Wilkins got their due share
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Speaker 1: of attention, and then they were discussing the future of
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Speaker 1: the theater. Anne Veronica intervened a little in the novelists discussion,
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Speaker 1: with the defense of Esmond and in a denial that
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Speaker 1: the egoist was obscure, And when she spoke, everyone else
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Speaker 1: stopped talking and listening. Then they deliberated whether Bernard Shaw
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Speaker 1: ought to go into Parliament, and that brought them to
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Speaker 1: vegetarianism and teetultialism. And the young man in the Orange
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Speaker 1: tie and Missus Goops had a great set to about
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Speaker 1: the sincerity of Chesterton and Belloc, that was ended by
21:42
Speaker 1: Goops showing signs of resuming the Socratic method. And at
21:46
Speaker 1: last Anne Veronica and miss minever came down the dark
21:49
Speaker 1: staircase and out into the foggy spaces of the London
21:52
Speaker 1: squares and crossed Russell Square, Woburn Square, Gordon Square, making
21:58
Speaker 1: an oblique route to a Veronica's loge. They trudged along,
22:01
Speaker 1: a little hungry because of the Friuterian refreshments, and mentally
22:05
Speaker 1: very active, and Miss minev fell discussing whether Goops or
22:09
Speaker 1: Bernard Shaw, or Tolstoy, or doctor Tumpany or Wilkins the
22:12
Speaker 1: author had the more powerful and perfect mind in existence
22:16
Speaker 1: at the present time. She was clear there were no
22:19
Speaker 1: other minds like them in all the world. Part four
22:27
Speaker 1: then one evening, and Veronica went with Miss Minervh into
22:30
Speaker 1: the back seats of the gallery at Essex Hall and
22:33
Speaker 1: heard and saw the giant leaders of the Fabian Society
22:36
Speaker 1: who are remaking the world? Bernard Shaw and Tumor, and
22:40
Speaker 1: doctor Tumpany and Wilkins the author, all displayed upon a platform.
22:45
Speaker 1: The place was crowded, and the people about her were
22:48
Speaker 1: almost equally made up of very good looking and enthusiastic
22:51
Speaker 1: young people, and a great variety of goops like types.
22:55
Speaker 1: In the discussion there was the oddest mixture of things
22:58
Speaker 1: that were personal and petty, with an idealist devotion that
23:01
Speaker 1: was fine beyond dispute. In nearly every speech she heard
23:05
Speaker 1: was the same implication of great and necessary changes in
23:08
Speaker 1: the world, changes to be won by effort and sacrifice, indeed,
23:12
Speaker 1: but surely to be one. And afterwards she saw very
23:16
Speaker 1: much larger and more enthusiastic gathering a meeting of the
23:19
Speaker 1: advanced section of the Woman Movement in Caxton Hall, where
23:23
Speaker 1: the same note of vast changes and progress sounded, And
23:26
Speaker 1: she went to a soiree in the Dress Reform Association
23:29
Speaker 1: and visited a food reform exhibition where imminent change was
23:33
Speaker 1: made even alarmingly visible. The women's meeting was much more
23:37
Speaker 1: charged with emotion of force than the socialists. Anne Veronica
23:41
Speaker 1: was carried off her intellectual and critical feat by it altogether,
23:44
Speaker 1: and applauded and uttered cries that subsequent reflection failed to endorse.
23:49
Speaker 1: I knew you would feel, it, said Miss Miniver, as
23:52
Speaker 1: they came away, flushed and heated. I knew you would
23:55
Speaker 1: begin to see how it all falls into place together.
23:59
Speaker 1: It did begin to fall into place together. She became
24:03
Speaker 1: more and more alive, not so much to a system
24:06
Speaker 1: of ideas as to a big, diffused impulse toward change,
24:10
Speaker 1: to a great discontent with and criticism of life as
24:13
Speaker 1: it is lived, to a clamorous confusion of ideas for reconstruction,
24:18
Speaker 1: reconstruction of the methods of business, of economic development, of
24:22
Speaker 1: the rules of property, of the status of children, of
24:25
Speaker 1: the clothing and feeding and teaching of everyone. She developed
24:29
Speaker 1: a quite exaggerated consciousness of a multitude of people going
24:33
Speaker 1: about the swarming spaces of London, with their minds full,
24:36
Speaker 1: their talk and gestures full, their very clothing charged with
24:40
Speaker 1: the suggestion of the urgency of this pervasive project of alteration.
24:44
Speaker 1: Some indeed carried themselves dressed themselves even rather as foreign
24:49
Speaker 1: visitors from the land of looking backward and news from nowhere,
24:53
Speaker 1: than as the indigenous London as they were for the
24:56
Speaker 1: most part. These were detached people, men practicing the plastic,
25:00
Speaker 1: young writers, young men in employment, a very large proportion
25:04
Speaker 1: of girls and women, self supporting women or girls of
25:08
Speaker 1: the student class. They made a stratum into which Anne
25:11
Speaker 1: Veronica was now plunged up to her neck. It had
25:14
Speaker 1: become her stratum. None of the things they said and
25:19
Speaker 1: did were altogether new to Anne Veronica, but now she
25:22
Speaker 1: got them masked and alive, instead of by glimpses or
25:25
Speaker 1: in books, a live and articulate and insistent the London
25:29
Speaker 1: backgrounds in Bloomsbury and Marylebone against which these people went
25:33
Speaker 1: to and fro took on by reason of their gray facades,
25:37
Speaker 1: their implacably respectable windows and window blinds, they reiterated unmeaning
25:42
Speaker 1: iron railings, a stronger and stronger suggestion of the flavor
25:46
Speaker 1: of her father at his most obdurate phase, and of
25:49
Speaker 1: all that she felt herself fighting against. She was already
25:53
Speaker 1: a little prepared by her discursive reading and discussion under
25:56
Speaker 1: the widget influence for ideas and movements, though temperamentally perhaps
26:01
Speaker 1: she was rather disposed to resist and criticize than embrace them.
26:05
Speaker 1: But the people among whom she was now thrown through
26:08
Speaker 1: the sposial exertions of Miss Miniver and the widgets for
26:11
Speaker 1: Teddy and Hetty came up for Morningside Park and took
26:14
Speaker 1: her to an eighteen penny dinner in Soho and introduced
26:17
Speaker 1: her to some art students who were also socialists, and
26:20
Speaker 1: so opened the way to an evening of meandering talk
26:23
Speaker 1: in a studio carried with them like an atmosphere. At
26:26
Speaker 1: this implication not only that the world was in some
26:29
Speaker 1: stupid and even obvious way wrong with which indeed she
26:33
Speaker 1: was quite prepared to agree, but that it needed only
26:36
Speaker 1: a few pioneers to behave as such and be thoroughly
26:40
Speaker 1: and indiscriminately advanced for the new order to achieve itself.
26:45
Speaker 1: When ninety percent out of the ten or twelve people
26:48
Speaker 1: one meets in a month not only say, but feel
26:51
Speaker 1: and assume a thing, it is very hard not to
26:53
Speaker 1: fall into the belief that the thing is so imperceptibly
26:57
Speaker 1: almost Anne Veronica began to acquire the new attitude, even
27:01
Speaker 1: while her mind still resisted the feltered ideas that went
27:04
Speaker 1: with it, and Miss Minova began to sway her the
27:08
Speaker 1: very facts that Miss Minova never stated, an argument clearly
27:12
Speaker 1: that She was never embarrassed by a sense of self contradiction,
27:15
Speaker 1: and had little more respect for consistency of statement than
27:18
Speaker 1: a washerwoman has for wisps of vapor, which made at
27:22
Speaker 1: Veronica critical and hostile at their first encounter in Morningside Park,
27:26
Speaker 1: became at last, with constant association the secret of Miss
27:29
Speaker 1: Minerva's growing influence. The brain tires of resistance, and when
27:34
Speaker 1: it meets again and again incoherently active the same phrases,
27:38
Speaker 1: the same ideas that it has already slain, exposed and
27:41
Speaker 1: dissected and buried, it becomes less and less energetic to
27:45
Speaker 1: repeat the operation. There must be something one feels in
27:49
Speaker 1: ideas that achieved persistently a successful resurrection, what Miss Minerva
27:54
Speaker 1: would have called the higher truth supervenes. Yet through these talks,
27:59
Speaker 1: these meetings, conferences, these movements and efforts, and Veronica, for
28:04
Speaker 1: all that she went with her friend, and at times
28:06
Speaker 1: applauded with her enthusiastically, yet went nevertheless with eyes that
28:10
Speaker 1: grew more and more puzzled, and fine eyebrows more and
28:13
Speaker 1: more disposed to knit. She was with these movements, akin
28:18
Speaker 1: to them, she felt it at times intensely, and yet
28:21
Speaker 1: something eluded her Morningside Park had been passive and defective.
28:26
Speaker 1: All this rushed about and was active, but it was
28:29
Speaker 1: still defective. It still failed in something. It did seem
28:33
Speaker 1: germane to the matter that so many of the people
28:35
Speaker 1: in the van were plain people, or faded people, or
28:38
Speaker 1: tired looking people. It did affect the business that they
28:42
Speaker 1: all argued badly, and were egotistical in their manners and
28:45
Speaker 1: inconsistent in their phrases. There were moments when she doubted
28:49
Speaker 1: whether the whole mass of movements and societies and gatherings
28:52
Speaker 1: and talks was not simply one coherent spectacle of failure,
28:56
Speaker 1: protecting itself from objection by the glamor of its own assertions.
29:00
Speaker 1: It happened that that the extremest point of Anne Veronica's
29:03
Speaker 1: social circle from the Widgets, was the family of the
29:05
Speaker 1: Morningside Park horse Dealer, a company of extremely dressy and
29:09
Speaker 1: hilarious young women with one equestrian brother. Addicted to fancy waistcoats, cigars,
29:15
Speaker 1: and facial spots, these girls wore hats at remarkable angles
29:20
Speaker 1: and bows to startle and kill. They liked to be
29:23
Speaker 1: right on the spot every time, and up to everything
29:26
Speaker 1: that was it. From the very beginning, and they rendered
29:28
Speaker 1: their conception of socialists and all reformers by the words positively,
29:32
Speaker 1: frightening and weird. Well, it was beyond dispute that these
29:37
Speaker 1: words did convey a certain quality of the movements in general,
29:40
Speaker 1: amid which Miss Minover disported herself they were weird. And
29:45
Speaker 1: yet for all that, he got into Ante Veronica's nights
29:49
Speaker 1: at last and kept her awake the perplexing contrast between
29:52
Speaker 1: the advanced thought and the advanced thinker. The general propositions
29:56
Speaker 1: of socialism, for example, struck her as admirable, but she
30:00
Speaker 1: certainly did not extend her admiration to any of its exponents.
30:03
Speaker 1: She was still more stirred by the idea of the
30:06
Speaker 1: equal citizenship of men and women, by the realization that
30:10
Speaker 1: a big and growing organization of women were giving form
30:13
Speaker 1: and a generalized expression to just that personal pride, that
30:17
Speaker 1: aspiration for personal freedom and respect, which had brought her
30:21
Speaker 1: to London. But when she heard Miss Minerva discoursing on
30:24
Speaker 1: the next step in the suffrage campaign, or read of
30:27
Speaker 1: women badding cabinet ministers, padlocked and railings, or getting up
30:31
Speaker 1: in a public meeting to pipe out a demand for
30:33
Speaker 1: boats and be carried out, kicking and screaming. Her soul revolted.
30:38
Speaker 1: She could not part with dignity. Something as yet unformulated
30:42
Speaker 1: within her kept her estranged from all these practical aspects
30:46
Speaker 1: of her belief. Not for these things, O ann Veronica,
30:50
Speaker 1: have you revolted? It said, And this is not your
30:53
Speaker 1: appropriate purpose. It was as if she faced a darkness
30:57
Speaker 1: in which was something very beautiful, and one won as
31:00
Speaker 1: yet unimagined, The little pocker in her brows became more perceptible.
31:10
Speaker 1: Part five. In the beginning of December, Anne Veronica began
31:15
Speaker 1: to speculate privately upon the procedure of pawning. She had
31:19
Speaker 1: decided that she would begin with her pearl necklace. She
31:23
Speaker 1: spent a very disagreeable afternoon and evening. It was raining
31:27
Speaker 1: fast outside, and she had very unwisely left her soundest
31:30
Speaker 1: pair of boots in the boothole of her father's house
31:32
Speaker 1: in Morningside Park, thinking over the economic situation and planning
31:37
Speaker 1: a course of action. Her aunt had secretly sent Aunt
31:41
Speaker 1: of Anne Veronica some new warm underclothing, a dozen pairs
31:45
Speaker 1: of stockings, and her last winter's jacket. But the dear
31:48
Speaker 1: lady had overlooked those boots. These things illuminated her situation extremely. Finally,
31:56
Speaker 1: she decided upon a step that had always seemed reasonable
31:58
Speaker 1: to her, but that hitherto she had, from motives too
32:02
Speaker 1: faint for her to formulate, refrained from taking. She resolved
32:06
Speaker 1: to go into the city to Rammage and ask for
32:08
Speaker 1: his advice. And next morning she attired herself with a
32:12
Speaker 1: special care and neatness, found his address in the directory
32:15
Speaker 1: at a post office, and went to him. She had
32:20
Speaker 1: to wait some minutes in an outer office, wherein three
32:23
Speaker 1: young men of spirited costume and appearance regarded her with
32:26
Speaker 1: ill concealed curiosity and admiration. Then Rammage appeared with effusion
32:31
Speaker 1: and ushered her into his inner apartment. The three young
32:35
Speaker 1: men exchanged expressive glances. The inner apartment was rather gracefully
32:40
Speaker 1: furnished with a thick, fine Turkish carpet, a good brass fender,
32:44
Speaker 1: a fine old bureau, and on the walls were engravings
32:48
Speaker 1: of two young girl's heads by grows, and of some
32:51
Speaker 1: modern picture of boy's bathing in a sunlit pool. But
32:55
Speaker 1: this is a surprise, said Rammage. This is wonderful. I've
32:59
Speaker 1: been feeling that you had vanished from my world. Have
33:01
Speaker 1: you been away from Morningside Park. I'm not interrupting you.
33:07
Speaker 1: You are splendidly. Business exists for such interruptions. There you
33:12
Speaker 1: are the best client's chair. And Veronica sat down, and
33:17
Speaker 1: Rammage's eager eyes feasted on her. I've been looking out
33:21
Speaker 1: for you, he said, I confess it. She had not,
33:25
Speaker 1: She reflected, remembered how prominent his eyes were. I want
33:29
Speaker 1: some advice, said Anne Veronica. Yes, you remember once how
33:35
Speaker 1: we talked at a gate on the Downs. We talked
33:38
Speaker 1: about how a girl might get an independent living. Yes, yes,
33:43
Speaker 1: well you see something has happened at home, she paused.
33:49
Speaker 1: Nothing has happened to mister Stanley. I've fallen out with
33:53
Speaker 1: my father. It was about a question of what I
33:56
Speaker 1: might do or might not do. He in fact, he
34:00
Speaker 1: he locked me in my room. Practically her breath left
34:06
Speaker 1: her for a moment, I say, said mister Rammage. I
34:11
Speaker 1: wanted to go to an art student ball, of which
34:13
Speaker 1: he disapproved, and why shouldn't you. I felt that sort
34:18
Speaker 1: of thing couldn't go on, So I packed up and
34:20
Speaker 1: came to London next day to a friend, to lodgings alone.
34:27
Speaker 1: I say, you know you have some pluck. You did
34:30
Speaker 1: it on your own, and Veronica smiled, quite on my own,
34:35
Speaker 1: she said, it's magnificent. He leaned back and regarded her
34:41
Speaker 1: with his head a little on one side. By jove,
34:44
Speaker 1: he said, there is something direct about you. I wonder
34:48
Speaker 1: if I should have locked you up if i'd been
34:50
Speaker 1: your father. Luckily I'm not, and you started out forthwith
34:54
Speaker 1: to fight the world and be a citizen on your
34:56
Speaker 1: own basis. He came forward again and for his hands
35:00
Speaker 1: under him on his desk. How has the world taken it?
35:04
Speaker 1: He asked. If I was the world, I think I
35:07
Speaker 1: should have put down a crimson carpet and asked you
35:10
Speaker 1: to say what you wanted and generally walk over me.
35:14
Speaker 1: But the world didn't do that, not exactly. It presented
35:19
Speaker 1: a large and penetrable back and went on thinking about
35:22
Speaker 1: something else. It offered from fifteen to two and twenty
35:27
Speaker 1: shillings a week for drudgery. The world has no sense
35:32
Speaker 1: of what is due to youth and courage. It never
35:34
Speaker 1: has had, yes said and Veronica, But the thing is,
35:40
Speaker 1: I want a job exactly. And so you came along
35:45
Speaker 1: to me, and you see I don't turn my back,
35:48
Speaker 1: and I'm looking at you and thinking about you from
35:50
Speaker 1: top to toe, And what do you think I ought
35:53
Speaker 1: to do? Exactly? He lifted a paper weight and dabbed
35:58
Speaker 1: it gently down. Again, what ought you to do? I've
36:02
Speaker 1: hunted up all sorts of things. The point to notice
36:06
Speaker 1: that fundamentally you don't want particularly to do it. I
36:10
Speaker 1: don't understand. You want to be free and so forth. Yes,
36:15
Speaker 1: but you don't particularly want to do the job that
36:17
Speaker 1: sets you free for its own sake. I mean that
36:20
Speaker 1: it doesn't interest you in itself. I suppose not. That's
36:26
Speaker 1: one of our differences. We men are like children. We
36:29
Speaker 1: can get absorbed in play, in games, in the business
36:32
Speaker 1: we do. That's really why we do them sometimes rather
36:35
Speaker 1: well and get on. But women women, as a rule,
36:38
Speaker 1: don't throw themselves into things like that. As a matter
36:41
Speaker 1: of fact, it isn't there fair, And as a natural consequence,
36:45
Speaker 1: they don't do so well, and they don't get on,
36:48
Speaker 1: and so the world doesn't pay them. They don't catch
36:50
Speaker 1: on to discursive interest, you see, because they are more serious.
36:54
Speaker 1: They are concentrated on the central reality of life and
36:57
Speaker 1: a little impatient of its it's outer aspects at least.
37:01
Speaker 1: That I think is what makes a clever woman's independent
37:04
Speaker 1: career so much more difficult than a clever man's. She
37:10
Speaker 1: doesn't develop a specialty, and Veronica was doing her best
37:14
Speaker 1: to follow him. She has one. That's why her specialty
37:19
Speaker 1: is the central thing in life. It is life itself,
37:22
Speaker 1: the warmth of life, sex and love. He pronounced this
37:27
Speaker 1: with an air of profound conviction, and with his eyes
37:30
Speaker 1: on ane Veronica's face. He had an air of having
37:34
Speaker 1: told her a deep personal secret. She winced as he
37:37
Speaker 1: thrust the fact at her, was about to answer, and
37:41
Speaker 1: checked herself. She colored faintly. That doesn't touch the question
37:46
Speaker 1: I asked you, she said. It may be true, but
37:50
Speaker 1: it isn't quite what I have in mind. Of course, not,
37:55
Speaker 1: said Rammage, as one who rouses himself from deep preoccupations,
37:59
Speaker 1: and he began to question her in a business like
38:02
Speaker 1: way upon the steps she had taken and the inquiries
38:04
Speaker 1: she had made. He displayed none of the airy optimism
38:08
Speaker 1: of their previous talk over the Downland Gate. He was helpful,
38:12
Speaker 1: but gravely dubious. You see, he said, from my point
38:17
Speaker 1: of view, you're grown up. You're as old as all
38:20
Speaker 1: the goddesses and the contemporary of any man alive. But
38:23
Speaker 1: from the the economic point of view, you are very
38:26
Speaker 1: young and altogether inexperienced person. He returned to and developed
38:32
Speaker 1: that idea. You're still, he said, in the educational years.
38:38
Speaker 1: From the point of view of most things in the
38:40
Speaker 1: world of employment which a woman can do reasonably well
38:42
Speaker 1: and earn a living by, you're unripe and half educated.
38:46
Speaker 1: If you had taken your degree. For example, he spoke
38:51
Speaker 1: of secretarial work, but even there she would need to
38:54
Speaker 1: be able to do typing and shorthand. He made it
38:57
Speaker 1: more and more evident to her that her proper course
38:59
Speaker 1: was not to earn a salary, but to accumulate equipment.
39:03
Speaker 1: You see, he said, you are like an inaccessible gold
39:07
Speaker 1: mine in all this sort of matter. You're splendid stuff,
39:10
Speaker 1: you know, but you've got nothing ready to sell. That's
39:13
Speaker 1: the flat business situation, he thought. Then he slapped his
39:20
Speaker 1: hand on his desk and looked up with the air
39:22
Speaker 1: of a man struck by a brilliant idea. Look here,
39:26
Speaker 1: he said, protruding his eyes. Why get anything to do
39:29
Speaker 1: at all? Just yet? Why if you must be free,
39:33
Speaker 1: why not do the sensible thing make yourself worth a
39:35
Speaker 1: decent freedom. Go on with your studies at the Imperial College,
39:39
Speaker 1: for example, get a degree and make yourself good value,
39:43
Speaker 1: or become a thoroughgoing typist and stenographer and secretarial expert.
39:48
Speaker 1: But I can't do that. Why not? You see? If
39:52
Speaker 1: I do go home my father objects to the college.
39:54
Speaker 1: And as for typing, don't go home? Yes, but you
39:59
Speaker 1: forget how am I to live easily? Easily borrow from me?
40:05
Speaker 1: I couldn't do that, said Ann Veronica, sharply. I see
40:10
Speaker 1: no reason why you shouldn't. It's impossible, as one friend
40:15
Speaker 1: to another, men are always doing it. And if you
40:17
Speaker 1: set up to be a man, no, it's absolutely out
40:21
Speaker 1: of the question, mister Rammage, and An Veronica's face was hot.
40:26
Speaker 1: Rabbage pursed his rather loose lips and shrugged his shoulders,
40:29
Speaker 1: with his eyes fixed steadily upon her. Well, anyhow, I
40:33
Speaker 1: don't see the force of your objection. You know that's
40:36
Speaker 1: my advice to you. Here I am consider you've got
40:39
Speaker 1: resources deposited with me. Perhaps at the first blush, it
40:43
Speaker 1: strikes you as odd people are brought up to be
40:46
Speaker 1: so shy about money, as though it were indelicate. It's
40:49
Speaker 1: just the sort of shyness. But here I am to
40:52
Speaker 1: draw upon. Here, I am as an alternative either to
40:55
Speaker 1: nasty work or going home. It's very kind of you,
41:00
Speaker 1: began Ann Veronica. Not a bit, just a friendly, polite suggestion.
41:05
Speaker 1: I don't suggest any philanthropy. I shall charge you five percent,
41:09
Speaker 1: you know, fair and square an. Veronica opened her lips
41:14
Speaker 1: quickly and did not speak. But the five percent certainly
41:17
Speaker 1: did seem to improve the aspect of Rammage's suggestion. Well, anyhow,
41:23
Speaker 1: consider it open. He dawed with his paper weight again
41:26
Speaker 1: and spoke in an entirely indifferent tone. And now tell me, please,
41:30
Speaker 1: how you eloped for Morningside Park? How did you get
41:33
Speaker 1: your luggage out of the house? Wasn't it? Wasn't it
41:37
Speaker 1: rather in some respects rather a lark. It's one of
41:40
Speaker 1: my regrets for my lost youth. I never ran away
41:43
Speaker 1: from anywhere with anybody anywhere, And now I suppose I
41:47
Speaker 1: should be considered too old. I don't feel it. Didn't
41:50
Speaker 1: you feel rather eventful? In the train coming up to Waterloo?
41:59
Speaker 1: Part six Before Christmas and Veronica had gone to Rammage
42:03
Speaker 1: again and accepted this offer. She had at first declined.
42:08
Speaker 1: Many little things had contributed to that decision. The chief
42:12
Speaker 1: influence was her awakening sense of the need of money.
42:15
Speaker 1: She had been forced to buy herself that pair of
42:18
Speaker 1: boots and a walking skirt, and the pearl necklace at
42:21
Speaker 1: the pawnbrokers had yielded very disappointingly, And also she wanted
42:25
Speaker 1: to borrow that money. It did seem, in so many
42:28
Speaker 1: ways exactly what Rammage said. It was the sensible thing
42:32
Speaker 1: to do there. It was to be borrowed. It would
42:36
Speaker 1: put the whole adventure on a broader and better footing.
42:40
Speaker 1: It seemed indeed almost the only possible way in which
42:43
Speaker 1: she might emerge from her rebellion with anything like success,
42:47
Speaker 1: if only for the sake of her argument with her home.
42:50
Speaker 1: She wanted success, and why, after all, should she not
42:53
Speaker 1: borrow money from Rammage? It was so true what he
42:57
Speaker 1: said middle class people were ridiculous, squeamish about money. Why
43:02
Speaker 1: should they be? She and Rammage were friends, very good friends.
43:07
Speaker 1: If she was in a position to help him, she
43:08
Speaker 1: would help him. Only it happened to be the other
43:11
Speaker 1: way round. He was in a position to help her.
43:15
Speaker 1: What was the objection? She found it impossible to look
43:19
Speaker 1: her own diffidence in the face. So she went to
43:22
Speaker 1: Rammage and came to the point almost at once, can
43:25
Speaker 1: you spare me forty pounds? She said, mister Rammage controlled
43:30
Speaker 1: his expression and thought very quickly. Agreed, he said, certainly,
43:35
Speaker 1: and drew a check book toward him. It's best, he said,
43:40
Speaker 1: to make it a good round sum. I won't give
43:43
Speaker 1: you a check, though, yes I will. I'll give you
43:45
Speaker 1: an uncrossed check, and then you can get it at
43:48
Speaker 1: the bank here quite close by. You'd better not have
43:51
Speaker 1: all the money on you. You had better open a
43:53
Speaker 1: small account in the post office and draw it out
43:56
Speaker 1: a fiver at a time. That won't involve references as
43:59
Speaker 1: a account would, and all that sort of thing. The
44:02
Speaker 1: money will last longer and it won't bother you. He
44:07
Speaker 1: stood up rather close to her and looked into her eyes.
44:10
Speaker 1: He seemed to be trying to understand something very perplexing
44:14
Speaker 1: and elusive. It's jolly, he said, to feel you have
44:18
Speaker 1: come to me. It's a sort of guarantee of confidence.
44:22
Speaker 1: Last time you made me feel snubbed. He hesitated and
44:27
Speaker 1: went off at a tangent. There's no end of things
44:31
Speaker 1: I'd like to talk over with you. It's just upon
44:33
Speaker 1: my lunchtime. Come and have lunch with me. And Veronica
44:38
Speaker 1: fenced for a moment. I don't want to take up
44:41
Speaker 1: your time. We won't go to any of these city places.
44:45
Speaker 1: They're just all men, and no one is safe from scandal.
44:47
Speaker 1: But I know a little place where we'll get a
44:49
Speaker 1: little quiet talk. And Veronica, for some undefinable reason, did
44:55
Speaker 1: not want to lunch with him, a reason indeed so
44:58
Speaker 1: indefinable that she dismissed, and Rammage went through the outer
45:02
Speaker 1: office with her alert and attentive to the vivid interest
45:06
Speaker 1: of the three clerks. The three clerks fought for the
45:09
Speaker 1: only window and saw her whisk into a hansom. Their
45:13
Speaker 1: subsequent conversation is outside the scope of our story, Ritters,
45:18
Speaker 1: said Rammage to the driver Dean Street. It was rare
45:22
Speaker 1: that Ann Veronica used hansom's, and to be in one
45:25
Speaker 1: was itself eventful and exhilarating. She liked the high, easy
45:30
Speaker 1: swing of the thing over its big wheels, the quick
45:32
Speaker 1: clutter patter of the horse, the passage of the teeming streets.
45:37
Speaker 1: She admitted her pleasure to Rammage, and Ritters too, was
45:41
Speaker 1: very amusing and foreign and discreet, A little rambling room
45:45
Speaker 1: with a number of small tables with red electric light
45:48
Speaker 1: shades and flowers. It was an overcast day, albeit not foggy,
45:53
Speaker 1: and the electric light shades glowed warmly, and an Italian
45:56
Speaker 1: waiter with insufficient English took Rammage's orders and waited with
46:00
Speaker 1: an appearance of affection. Anne Veronica thought the whole affair
46:04
Speaker 1: rather jolly. Ritter sold better food than most of his compatriots,
46:09
Speaker 1: and cooked it better, and Rammaged, with a fine perception
46:12
Speaker 1: of a feminine palette, ordered vero capri. It was. Anne
46:16
Speaker 1: Veronica felt as a sip or so of that remarkable
46:19
Speaker 1: blend warmed her blood, just the sort of thing that
46:22
Speaker 1: her aunt would not approve to be lunching. Thus, tete
46:26
Speaker 1: a tete with a man, and yet at the same
46:28
Speaker 1: time it was a perfectly innocent and was well as
46:31
Speaker 1: agreeable proceeding. They talked across their meal in an easy
46:35
Speaker 1: and friendly manner about Anne Veronica's affairs. He was really
46:40
Speaker 1: very bright and clever, with a sort of conversational boldness
46:43
Speaker 1: that was just within the limits of permissible daring. She
46:47
Speaker 1: described the Goops and the Fabians to him and gave
46:49
Speaker 1: him a sketch of her landlady, and he talked in
46:52
Speaker 1: the most liberal and entertaining way of a modern young
46:55
Speaker 1: woman's outlook. He seemed to know a great deal about life.
46:59
Speaker 1: He gave glimpses of possibilities. He roused curiosities. He contrasted
47:04
Speaker 1: wonderfully with the empty showing off of Teddy. His friendship
47:08
Speaker 1: seemed a thing worth having. But when she was thinking
47:11
Speaker 1: it over in her room that evening, vague and baffling
47:14
Speaker 1: doubts came drifting across this conviction. She doubted how she
47:18
Speaker 1: stood toward him, and what the restrained gleam on his
47:21
Speaker 1: face might signify. She felt that perhaps, in her desire
47:25
Speaker 1: to play an adequate part in the conversation, she had
47:28
Speaker 1: talked rather more freely than she ought to have done,
47:31
Speaker 1: and giving him a wrong impression of herself. Part seven.
47:38
Speaker 1: That was two days before Christmas Eve. The next morning
47:42
Speaker 1: came a compact letter from her father, my dear daughter.
47:46
Speaker 1: It ran, here on the verge of the season of forgiveness,
47:50
Speaker 1: I hold out a last hand to you in the
47:52
Speaker 1: hope of a reconciliation. I ask you, although it is
47:57
Speaker 1: not my place to ask you to return home. This
48:00
Speaker 1: roof is still open to you. You will not be
48:03
Speaker 1: taunted if you return, and everything that can be done
48:06
Speaker 1: will be done to make you happy. Indeed, I must
48:09
Speaker 1: implore you to return this adventure of yours has gone
48:13
Speaker 1: on altogether too long. It has become a serious distress
48:16
Speaker 1: to both your aunt and myself. We fail altogether to
48:20
Speaker 1: understand your motives in doing what you are doing, or
48:23
Speaker 1: indeed how you are managing to do it, or what
48:26
Speaker 1: you are managing on. If you will think only of
48:29
Speaker 1: one trifling aspect, the inconvenience, it must be to us
48:33
Speaker 1: to explain your absence. I think you may begin to
48:36
Speaker 1: realize what it all means for us. I need hardly
48:39
Speaker 1: say that your aunt joins with me very heartily in
48:41
Speaker 1: this request. Please come home. You will not find me
48:46
Speaker 1: unreasonable with you, your affectionate father. And Veronica sat over
48:53
Speaker 1: her fire with her father's note in her hand. Queer letter,
48:57
Speaker 1: he writes, She said, I suppose most people's letters are queer,
49:02
Speaker 1: rufe open like a Noah's ark. I wonder if he
49:06
Speaker 1: really wants me to go home. It's odd how little
49:09
Speaker 1: I know of him, and of how he feels and
49:11
Speaker 1: what he feels. I wonder how he treated Gwen. Her
49:17
Speaker 1: mind drifted into a speculation about her sister. I ought
49:21
Speaker 1: to look up Gwen, she said, I wonder what happened.
49:26
Speaker 1: Then she fell to thinking about her aunt. I would
49:30
Speaker 1: like to go home, she cried, to please her. She
49:33
Speaker 1: has been a dear considering how little he lets her have.
49:38
Speaker 1: The truth prevailed. The unaccountable thing is that I wouldn't
49:43
Speaker 1: go home to please her. She is, in her way
49:45
Speaker 1: a dear one ought to want to please her, and
49:49
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't care. I can't even make myself
49:52
Speaker 1: care presently, As if for comparison with her father's letter,
49:57
Speaker 1: she got out Rammage's check from the box that can
50:00
Speaker 1: her papers. For so far she had kept it uncashed.
50:04
Speaker 1: She had not even endorsed it. Suppose I chuck it,
50:08
Speaker 1: she remarked, standing with the Mauve's lip in her hand.
50:11
Speaker 1: Suppose I chuck it and surrender and go home. Perhaps,
50:15
Speaker 1: after all Roddy was right. Father keeps opening the door
50:19
Speaker 1: and shutting it. But a time will come. I could
50:23
Speaker 1: still go home. She held Rammage's check as if to
50:27
Speaker 1: tear it across. No, she said, at last, I'm a
50:32
Speaker 1: human being, not a timid female. What could I do
50:35
Speaker 1: at home? The others are crumple up? Just surrender, funk,
50:39
Speaker 1: I'll see it out. End of chapter seven