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Story of the Late Mr Elvesham · Astounding Sci-Fi Story Collection

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Speaker 1: The Story of the Late Mister Elvesham by H. G. Wells.
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Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by James Christopher The Story
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Speaker 1: of the Late Mister Elvisham by H. G. Wells. I
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Speaker 1: set this story down, not expecting it will be believed,
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Speaker 1: but if possible, to prepare a way of escape for
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Speaker 1: the next victim he perhaps may profit by my misfortune.
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Speaker 1: My own case, I know, is hopeless, and I am
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Speaker 1: now in some measure prepared to meet my fate. My
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Speaker 1: name is Edward George Eden. I was born in Trenham
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Speaker 1: in Staffordshire, my father being employed in the gardens there.
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Speaker 1: I lost my mother when I was three years old,
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Speaker 1: and my father when I was five. My uncle, George Eden,
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Speaker 1: then adopting me as his own son. He was a
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Speaker 1: single man, self educated and well known in Birmingham as
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Speaker 1: an enterprising journalist. He educated me generously, fired my ambition
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Speaker 1: to succeed in the world, and at his death, which
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Speaker 1: happened four years ago, left me his entire fortune, a
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Speaker 1: matter of about five hundred pounds after all outgoing charges
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Speaker 1: were paid. I was then eighteen. He advised me in
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Speaker 1: his will to expend the money in completing my education.
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Speaker 1: I had already chosen the profession of medicine, and through
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Speaker 1: his posthumous generosity and my good fortune in a scholarship competition,
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Speaker 1: I became a medical student at University College London. At
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Speaker 1: the time of the beginning of my story, I lodged
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Speaker 1: at eleven a University Street, in a little upper room,
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Speaker 1: very shabbily furnished and drafty, overlooking the back of Shulby's premises.
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Speaker 1: I used this little room both to live in and
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Speaker 1: sleep in, because I was anxious to eke out my
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Speaker 1: miens to the very last shillingsworth. I was taking a
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Speaker 1: pair of shoes to be mended at a shop in
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Speaker 1: the Troddendam Court Road when I first encountered the little
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Speaker 1: old man with the yellow face, with whom my life
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Speaker 1: has now become so inextricably intank. He was standing on
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Speaker 1: the curb and staring at the number on the door
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Speaker 1: in a doubtful way. As I opened it, his eyes,
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Speaker 1: they were dull, gray eyes and reddish under the rims,
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Speaker 1: fell to my face, and his countenance immediately assumed an
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Speaker 1: expression of corrugated amiability. You come, he said, apt to
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Speaker 1: the moment, I had forgotten the number of your house.
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Speaker 1: How do you do, mister Eden. I was a little
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Speaker 1: astonished at his familiar address, for I had never set
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Speaker 1: eyes on the man before. I was a little annoyed, too,
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Speaker 1: at his catching me with my boots under my arm.
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Speaker 1: He noticed my lack of cordiality. Wonder who the deuce?
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Speaker 1: I am? Eh, a friend. Let me assure you I
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Speaker 1: have seen you before, though you haven't seen me. Is
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Speaker 1: there anywhere where I can talk to you? I hesitated.
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Speaker 1: The shabbiness of my room upstairs was not a matter
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Speaker 1: for every stranger. Perhaps, said I. We might walk down
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Speaker 1: the street. I am unfortunately prevented my gesture, explained the
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Speaker 1: sentence before I had spoken it. The very thing he said,
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Speaker 1: And face this way, and then that the street. Which
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Speaker 1: way shall we go? I slipped my boots down in
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Speaker 1: the passage. Look here, he said, abruptly. This business of
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Speaker 1: mine is rigmarole. Come in lunch with me, mister Eden.
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Speaker 1: I am an old man, a very old man, and
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Speaker 1: not good at explanations. And what with my piping voice
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Speaker 1: and the clatter of the traffic. He laid a persuasive,
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Speaker 1: skinny hand that trembled a little upon my arm. I
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Speaker 1: was not so old that an old man might not
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Speaker 1: treat me to lunch. Yet at the same time I
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Speaker 1: was not altogether pleased by this abrupt invasion. I had
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Speaker 1: rather I began, But I had rather, he said, catching
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Speaker 1: me up, and a certain civility is surely due to
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Speaker 1: my gray hairs. And so I consented and went with him.
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Speaker 1: He took me to Blovitsky's. I had to walk slowly
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Speaker 1: to accommodate myself to his paces, and over such a
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Speaker 1: lunch as I had never tasted before, and finned it
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Speaker 1: off my leading question, and I took a better note
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Speaker 1: of his appearance. His clean shaven face was lean and wrinkled,
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Speaker 1: his shriveled lips fell over a set of false teeth,
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Speaker 1: and his white hair was thin and rather long. He
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Speaker 1: seemed small to me, though indeed most people seemed small
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Speaker 1: to me, and his shoulders were rounded and bent, and
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Speaker 1: watching him, I could not help but observe that he
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Speaker 1: too was taking note of me, running his eyes with
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Speaker 1: a curious touch of greet in them over me, from
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Speaker 1: my broad shoulders to my son tanned hands and up
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Speaker 1: to my freckled face again, and now said he, as
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Speaker 1: we let our cigarettes, I must tell you of the
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Speaker 1: business in hand. I must tell you then that I
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Speaker 1: am an old man, a very old man, he paused momentarily.
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Speaker 1: And it happens that I have money that I must
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Speaker 1: presently be leaving, and never a child have I to
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Speaker 1: leave it to. I thought of the confidence trick, and
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Speaker 1: resolved I would be on the alert for the vestiges
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Speaker 1: of my five hundred pounds. He proceeded to enlarge on
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Speaker 1: his loneliness in the trouble he had to find the
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Speaker 1: proper disposition of his money. I have weighed this plan
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Speaker 1: and that plan, charities, institutions, and scholarships and libraries, and
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Speaker 1: I have come to this conclusion. At last, he fixed
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Speaker 1: his eyes on my face, that I will find some
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Speaker 1: young fellow, ambitious, pure minded and poor, healthy in body
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Speaker 1: and healthy in mind, and in short make him my heir.
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Speaker 1: Give him all that I have, he repeated, Give him
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Speaker 1: all that I have, so that he will suddenly be
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Speaker 1: lifted out of all the trouble and struggle in which
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Speaker 1: his sympathies have been educated to freedom and influence. I
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Speaker 1: tried to seem disinterested with a transparent hypocrisy. I said,
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Speaker 1: and you want my help, my professional services, maybe to
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Speaker 1: find that person. He smiled and looked at me over
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Speaker 1: his cigarette, and I laughed at his quiet exposure of
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Speaker 1: my modest pretense. What a career such a man might have,
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Speaker 1: he said, It fills me with envy to think how
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Speaker 1: I have accumulated that another man may spend. But there
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Speaker 1: are conditions, of course, burdens to be imposed. He must,
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Speaker 1: for instance, take my name. You cannot expect everything without
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Speaker 1: some return. And I must go into all the circumstances
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Speaker 1: of his life before I can accept him. He must
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Speaker 1: be sound. I must know his how his parents and
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Speaker 1: grandparents died, had the strictest inquiries made into his private morals.
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Speaker 1: This modified my secret congratulations a little. And do I understand?
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Speaker 1: Said I that I yes. He said, almost fiercely. You you,
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Speaker 1: I answered, never a word. My imagination was dancing wildly.
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Speaker 1: My innate skepticism was useless to modify its transports. There
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Speaker 1: was not a particle of gratitude in my mind. I
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Speaker 1: did not know what to say, nor how to say it.
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Speaker 1: But why me in particular? I said? At last, He
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Speaker 1: had chanced to hear of me from Professor Hasler. He said,
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Speaker 1: as a typically sound and sane young man, and he
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Speaker 1: wished as far as possible to leave his money where
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Speaker 1: health and integrity were assured. That was my first meeting
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Speaker 1: with the little old man. He was mysterious about himself.
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Speaker 1: He would not give his name yet, he said, And
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Speaker 1: after I answered some questions of his, he left me
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Speaker 1: at the Blovitsky Portal. I noticed that he drew a
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Speaker 1: handful of gold coins from his pocket when it came
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Speaker 1: to paying for the lunch. His insistence upon bodily health
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Speaker 1: was curious. In accordance with an arrangements we had made,
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Speaker 1: I applied that day for a life policy in the
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Speaker 1: Loyal Insurance Company for a large sum, and I was
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Speaker 1: exhaustively overhauled by the medical advisers of that company in
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Speaker 1: the subsequent week. Even that did not satisfy him, and
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Speaker 1: he insisted I must be re examined by the great
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Speaker 1: doctor Henderson. It was Friday and Whitson, a week before
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Speaker 1: he came to a decision. He called me down quite
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Speaker 1: late in the evening, nearly nine. It was from cramming
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Speaker 1: chemical equations for my preliminary scientific examination. He was standing
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Speaker 1: in the passage under the feeble gas lamp, and his
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Speaker 1: face with a grotesque interplay of shadows. He seemed more
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Speaker 1: bowed than when I had first seen him, and his
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Speaker 1: cheeks had sunk a little. His voice shook with emotion.
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Speaker 1: Everything is satisfactory, mister Eden, he said, everything is quite
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Speaker 1: quite satisfactory, And this night, of all nights, you must
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Speaker 1: dine with me and celebrate your ascension. He was interrupted
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Speaker 1: by a cough. You won't have to wait long, either,
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Speaker 1: he said, wiping his handkerchief across his lips and gripping
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Speaker 1: my hand with his long bony claw that was disengaged. Certainly,
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Speaker 1: not very long to wait. We went into the street
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Speaker 1: and called a cab. I remember every incident of that
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Speaker 1: dry vividly, the swift, easy motion, the vivid contrast of
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Speaker 1: gas in oil and electric light, the crowds of people
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Speaker 1: in the streets, the place in Regent Street to which
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Speaker 1: we went, and the sumptuous dinner we were served with there.
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Speaker 1: I was disconcerted at first by the well dressed waiters
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Speaker 1: glances at my rough clothes, bothered by the stones of
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Speaker 1: the olives. But as the champagne warmed, my blood. My
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Speaker 1: confidence revived. At first, the old man talked of himself.
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Speaker 1: He had already told me his name in the cab.
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Speaker 1: He was Egbert Elvisham, the great philosopher, whose name I
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Speaker 1: had known since I was a lad at school. It
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Speaker 1: seemed incredible to me that this man, whose intelligence had
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Speaker 1: so early dominated mine, this great abstraction, should suddenly realize
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Speaker 1: itself as this decrepit familiar figure. I dare say, every
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Speaker 1: young fellow who has suddenly fallen among celebrities has felt
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Speaker 1: something of my disappointment. He told me now the future,
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Speaker 1: that the feeble streams of his life would presently leave
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Speaker 1: dry for me houses, copyrights, investments. I had never suspected
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Speaker 1: that philosophers were so rich. He watched me drink and
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Speaker 1: eat with a touch of envy. What a capacity for
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Speaker 1: living you have, he said, and then with a sigh,
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Speaker 1: a sigh of relief. I could have thought it. It
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Speaker 1: will not be long, aye, said I, my head swimming
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Speaker 1: now with the champagne. I have a future, perhaps of
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Speaker 1: a passing, agreeable sort. Thanks to you, I shall now
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Speaker 1: have the honor of your name. But you have a past.
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Speaker 1: Such a past is worth all my future. He shook
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Speaker 1: his head and smiled, as I thought, with a half
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Speaker 1: sad appreciation of my flattering admiration that future, He said,
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Speaker 1: would you, in truth change it? The waiter came with
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Speaker 1: the course, you will not perhaps mind taking my name,
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Speaker 1: taking my position, But would you, indeed willingly take my
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Speaker 1: years with your achievements, said I gallantly. He smiled again.
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Speaker 1: Cummel both, he said to the waiter, and turned his
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Speaker 1: attention to a little paper packet he had taken from
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Speaker 1: his pocket. This hour, said he, This after dinner hour
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Speaker 1: is the hour of small things. Here is a scrap
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Speaker 1: of my unpublished wisdom. He opened the packet with his
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Speaker 1: shaking yellow fingers, and showed a little pinkish powder on
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Speaker 1: the paper. This, said he, Well, you must guess what
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Speaker 1: it is. But Cummel, put but a dash of this
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Speaker 1: powder in it is Heimel. His large grayish eyes watched
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Speaker 1: mine with an inscrutable expression. It was a bit of
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Speaker 1: a shock to me to find this great teacher gave
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Speaker 1: his mind to the flavor of Liqueur's. However, I feigned
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Speaker 1: an interest in his weakness, for I was drunk enough
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Speaker 1: for such small sycophancy. He parted the powder between the
10:53
Speaker 1: little glasses and rising suddenly with a strange, unexpected dignity,
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Speaker 1: held out his hand towards me. I imitated his action,
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Speaker 1: and the glasses rang to a quick succession, said he,
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Speaker 1: and raised his glass towards his lips. Not that, I
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Speaker 1: said hastily, Not that he paused with a liqueur at
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Speaker 1: the level of his chin, and his eyes blazing into mine.
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Speaker 1: To a long life, said I. He hesitated to a
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Speaker 1: long life, said he, with a sudden bark of laughter,
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Speaker 1: and with eyes fixed on one another, we tilted the
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Speaker 1: little glasses. His eyes looked straight into mine, and as
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Speaker 1: I drained the stuff off, I felt a curious, intense sensation.
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Speaker 1: The first touch of it set my brain in a
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Speaker 1: furious tumult. I seemed to feel an actual physical stirring
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Speaker 1: in my skull, and a seething humming filled my ears.
11:43
Speaker 1: I did not notice the flavor in my mouth, the
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Speaker 1: aroma that filled my throat. I saw only the gray
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Speaker 1: intensity of his gaze that burnt into mine. The draft,
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Speaker 1: the mental confusion, the noise and stirring in my head
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Speaker 1: seemed to last an interminable time. Curious, vague impressions of
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Speaker 1: half gotten things danced and vanished on the edge of
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Speaker 1: my consciousness. At last, he broke the spell with a sudden,
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Speaker 1: explosive sigh. He put down his glass. Well, he said,
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Speaker 1: it's glorious, said I. Though I had not tasted the stuff.
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Speaker 1: My head was spinning. I sat down. My brain was
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Speaker 1: in chaos. Then my perception grew clear and minute, as
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Speaker 1: though I saw things in a concave mirror. His manner
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Speaker 1: seemed to have changed into something nervous and hasty. He
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Speaker 1: pulled out his watch and grimaced at it. Eleven seven
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Speaker 1: and tonight I must seven twenty five waterloo, I must
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Speaker 1: go at once. He called for the bill and struggled
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Speaker 1: with his coat. Officious waiters came to our assistance. In
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Speaker 1: another moment, I was wishing him goodbye over the apron
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Speaker 1: of a cab, and still with an absurd feeling of
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Speaker 1: minute distinctness, as though how can I express it? I
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Speaker 1: not only saw but felt through it inverted upper glass.
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Speaker 1: That's stuff, he said, putting his hand to his forehead.
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Speaker 1: I ought not to have given it to you. It
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Speaker 1: will make your head split tomorrow. Wait a minute. Here
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Speaker 1: he handed me out a little flat thing like a
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Speaker 1: Sedett's powder. Take that in water as you are going
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Speaker 1: to bed. The other thing was a drug. Not till
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Speaker 1: you are ready to go to bed, mind, it will
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Speaker 1: clear your head. That's all. One more shake, futuris, I
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Speaker 1: gripped his shriveled claw. Good Bye, he said, and by
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Speaker 1: the droop of his eyelids I judged he too, was
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Speaker 1: a little under the influence of that brain twisting cordial.
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Speaker 1: He recollected something else with a start felt in his
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Speaker 1: breast pocket and produced another packet, this time a cylinder
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Speaker 1: the size and shape of a shaving stick. Here, said he,
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Speaker 1: I'd almost forgotten. Don't open this until I come tomorrow,
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Speaker 1: but take it now. It was so heavy that I
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Speaker 1: well nigh dropped it, all right, said I, and he
13:47
Speaker 1: grinned at me through the cab window as a cabman
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Speaker 1: flicked his horse into wakefulness. It was a white packet
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Speaker 1: he had given me, with red seals at either end
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Speaker 1: and along its edge. If this isn't money, said I,
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Speaker 1: it's platinum or lead. I stuck it with a labric
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Speaker 1: care into my pocket, and with a whirling brain, walked
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Speaker 1: home through the Regent Street loiterers and the dark back
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Speaker 1: streets beyond Portland Road. I remember the sensations of that walk,
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Speaker 1: very vividly strange as they were, I was still so
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Speaker 1: far myself that I could notice my strange mental state
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Speaker 1: and wonder whether the stuff I had had was opium,
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Speaker 1: a drug beyond my experience. It is hard now to
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Speaker 1: describe the peculiarity of my mental strangeness. Mental doubling vaguely
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Speaker 1: expresses it. As I was walking up Regent Street, I
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Speaker 1: found in my mind a queer persuasion that it was
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Speaker 1: Waterloo Station, and I had an odd impulse to get
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Speaker 1: into the Polytechnic as a man might get into a train.
14:37
Speaker 1: I put a knuckle in my eye, and it was
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Speaker 1: Regent Street. How can I express it? You see a
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Speaker 1: skillful actor looking quietly at you. He pulls a grimace
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Speaker 1: and lo another person. Is it too extravagant if I
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Speaker 1: tell you that? It seemed to me as if Regent
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Speaker 1: Street had, for the moment done that. Then being persuaded
14:55
Speaker 1: it was Regent Street again, I was oddly muddled about
14:58
Speaker 1: some fantastic reminiscences at CROs thirty years ago, thought I
15:03
Speaker 1: it was here that I quarreled with my brother. Then
15:06
Speaker 1: I burst out laughing, to the astonishment and encouragement of
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Speaker 1: a group of night prowlers thirty years ago. I did
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Speaker 1: not exist, and never in my life have I boasted
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Speaker 1: a brother. The stuff was surely liquid folly for the
15:18
Speaker 1: poignant regret for that lost brother still clung to me.
15:21
Speaker 1: Along Portland Road, the madness took another turn. I began
15:25
Speaker 1: to recall vanished shops and to compare the street to
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Speaker 1: what it used to be. Confused, trouble thinking is comprehensible
15:31
Speaker 1: enough after the drink I had taken. But what puzzled
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Speaker 1: me were these curiously vivid phantasm memories that had crept
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Speaker 1: into my mind. And not only the memories that had
15:39
Speaker 1: crept in, but also the memories that had slipped out.
15:43
Speaker 1: I stopped opposite Stephen's the Natural History Dealers, and coageled
15:46
Speaker 1: my brains to think what he had to do with me.
15:49
Speaker 1: A bus went by and sounded exactly like the rumbling
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Speaker 1: of a train. I seemed to be dipping into some dark,
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Speaker 1: remote pit for recollection. Of course, said I. At last,
15:58
Speaker 1: he has promised me three frogs tomorrow. Odd I should
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Speaker 1: have forgotten. Did they still show children dissolving views? In
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Speaker 1: those I remember, one view would begin like a faint
16:08
Speaker 1: ghost and grow an oust another in just that way,
16:11
Speaker 1: it seemed to me that a ghostly set of new
16:13
Speaker 1: sensations was struggling with those of my ordinary self. I
16:17
Speaker 1: went on through Euston Road to Tottam Court Road, puzzled
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Speaker 1: and a little frightened, and scarcely noticed the unusual way
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Speaker 1: I was taking. For commonly I used to cut through
16:25
Speaker 1: the intervening network of back streets. I turned in the
16:28
Speaker 1: University Street to discover that I had forgotten my number.
16:32
Speaker 1: Only by a strong effort did I recall eleven A,
16:35
Speaker 1: And even then it seemed to me that it was
16:37
Speaker 1: a thing some forgotten person had told me. I tried
16:40
Speaker 1: to steady my mind by recalling the incidents of the dinner,
16:43
Speaker 1: and for the life of me, I could conjure up
16:45
Speaker 1: no picture of my host's face. I saw him only
16:48
Speaker 1: as a shadowy outline, as one might see one's self
16:51
Speaker 1: reflected in a window through which one was looking in
16:54
Speaker 1: his place. However, I had a curious exterior vision of
16:57
Speaker 1: myself sitting at a table, flushed, bright eyed, and talkative.
17:02
Speaker 1: I must take this other, powder, said I. This is
17:04
Speaker 1: getting impossible. I tried the wrong side of the hall
17:08
Speaker 1: for my candle and the matches, and had a doubt
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Speaker 1: of which landing my room might be on. I'm drunk,
17:13
Speaker 1: I said, that's certain, and blundered needlessly on the staircase
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Speaker 1: to sustain the proposition. At the first glance, my room
17:20
Speaker 1: seemed unfamiliar what rot I said and stared about me.
17:25
Speaker 1: I seemed to bring myself back by the effort, and
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Speaker 1: the odd phantasmal quality passed into the concrete familiar. There
17:31
Speaker 1: was the old glass still with my notes on the
17:33
Speaker 1: album and stuck in the corner of the frame, my
17:36
Speaker 1: old every day suit of clothes pitched about the floor.
17:40
Speaker 1: And yet it was not so real after all. I
17:43
Speaker 1: felt an idiotic persuasion trying to creep into my mind,
17:46
Speaker 1: as it were that I was in a railway carriage
17:48
Speaker 1: in a train just stopping. That I was peering out
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Speaker 1: of the window at some unknown station. I gripped the
17:53
Speaker 1: bed rail firmly to reassure myself. It's clairvoyance, perhaps, I said,
17:58
Speaker 1: I must write to the Psychical Research Socidle. I put
18:01
Speaker 1: the Roleu on my dressing table, sat on my bed,
18:04
Speaker 1: and began to take off my boots. It was as
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Speaker 1: if a picture of my present sensation was painted over
18:09
Speaker 1: some other picture that was trying to show through curse.
18:12
Speaker 1: It said I, my wits are going, or am I
18:15
Speaker 1: in two places at once? Half undressed, I tossed the
18:19
Speaker 1: powder into a glass and drank it off it effervest
18:22
Speaker 1: and became a fluorescent amber color. Before I was in bed,
18:25
Speaker 1: my mind was already tranquilized. I felt a pillow up
18:28
Speaker 1: my cheek, and thereupon I must have fallen asleep. I
18:32
Speaker 1: awoke abruptly out of a dream of strange beasts, and
18:35
Speaker 1: found myself lying on my back. Probably every one knows
18:38
Speaker 1: that a dismal emotional dream from which one escapes awake, indeed,
18:42
Speaker 1: but strangely cowed. There was a curious taste in my mouth,
18:46
Speaker 1: a tired feeling in my limbs, a sense of cutaneous discomfort.
18:51
Speaker 1: I lay with my head motionless on my pillow, expecting
18:54
Speaker 1: that my feelings of strangest and terror would pass away,
18:57
Speaker 1: and then I should then doze off to sleep again.
18:59
Speaker 1: But in instead of that, my uncanny sensations increased. At
19:03
Speaker 1: first I could perceive nothing wrong about me. There was
19:06
Speaker 1: a faint light in the room, so faint that it
19:08
Speaker 1: was the very next thing to darkness, and the furniture
19:11
Speaker 1: stood out in it as vague blots of absolute darkness.
19:14
Speaker 1: I stared with my eyes just over the bedclothes. It
19:18
Speaker 1: came to my mind that some one had entered the
19:20
Speaker 1: room to rob me of my rouleau of money. But
19:22
Speaker 1: after lying for some moments, breathing regularly to simulate sleep,
19:26
Speaker 1: I realized that this was mere fancy. Nevertheless, the uneasy
19:30
Speaker 1: assurance of something wrong kept fast hold of me. With
19:34
Speaker 1: an effort, I raised my head from the pillow and
19:36
Speaker 1: peered about me at the dark. What it was I
19:39
Speaker 1: could not conceive. I looked at the dim shapes around me,
19:43
Speaker 1: the greater and lesser darkness that indicated curtains, table, fireplace,
19:46
Speaker 1: book shelves, and so forth. Then I began to perceive
19:50
Speaker 1: something unfamiliar in the forms of the darkness. Had the
19:53
Speaker 1: bed turned round, yonder should be the book shelves, and
19:56
Speaker 1: something strouded and pallid rose there something that would not
19:59
Speaker 1: answer to the bookshelves. However I looked at it. It
20:02
Speaker 1: was far too big to be my shirt thrown on
20:04
Speaker 1: a chair. Overcoming a childish terror, I threw back the
20:08
Speaker 1: bed clothes and thrust my leg out of bed, instead
20:11
Speaker 1: of coming out of my truckle bed upon the floor.
20:14
Speaker 1: I found my foot scarcely reached the edge of the mattress.
20:17
Speaker 1: I made another step, as it were, and sat up
20:19
Speaker 1: on the edge of the bed. By the side of
20:22
Speaker 1: my bed should be a candle and matches upon the
20:24
Speaker 1: broken chair. I put out my hand and touched nothing.
20:28
Speaker 1: I waved my hand in the darkness, and it came
20:31
Speaker 1: against some heavy hanging, soft and thick in texture, which
20:34
Speaker 1: gave a rustling noise at my touch. I grasped this
20:37
Speaker 1: and pulled it. It appeared to be a curtain suspended
20:40
Speaker 1: over the head of my bed. I was now thoroughly awake,
20:43
Speaker 1: and beginning to realize that I was in a strange room.
20:46
Speaker 1: I was puzzled. I tried to recall the overnight circumstances,
20:49
Speaker 1: and found them now curiously enough vivid in my memory.
20:53
Speaker 1: The supper, my reception of the little packages, my wonder
20:56
Speaker 1: whether I was intoxicated, my slow undressing, the coolness to
21:00
Speaker 1: my flushed face of my pillow. I felt a sudden distrust.
21:04
Speaker 1: Was that last night or the night before? At any rate,
21:08
Speaker 1: this room was strange to me, and I could not
21:11
Speaker 1: imagine how I got into it. The dim pallid outline
21:14
Speaker 1: was growing paler and I perceived it was a window
21:17
Speaker 1: with the dark shape of an oval toilet glass against
21:19
Speaker 1: the weak intimation of the dawn that filtered through the blind.
21:23
Speaker 1: I stood up and was surprised by a curious feeling
21:25
Speaker 1: of weakness and unsteadiness. With trembling hands outstretched, I walked
21:30
Speaker 1: slowly towards the window, getting nevertheless a bruise on the
21:34
Speaker 1: knee from a chair by the way. I fumbled around
21:37
Speaker 1: the glass, which was large with handsome brass sconces, to
21:40
Speaker 1: find the blind cord. I could not find any. By chance,
21:44
Speaker 1: I took hold of the tassel, and with the click
21:46
Speaker 1: of a spring, the blind ran up. I found myself
21:49
Speaker 1: looking out upon a scene that was altogether strange to me.
21:52
Speaker 1: The night was overcast, and through the fossilent gray of
21:55
Speaker 1: the heaped clouds, there filtered a faint half light of dawn.
21:59
Speaker 1: Just at the edge of the sky. The cloud canopy
22:01
Speaker 1: had a blood red rim. Below everything was dark and indistinct,
22:05
Speaker 1: dim hills in the distance, a vague mass of buildings
22:08
Speaker 1: running up into pinnacles, trees like spilt ink, and below
22:12
Speaker 1: the window a tracery of black bushes and pale gray paths.
22:16
Speaker 1: It was so unfamiliar that for the moment I thought
22:19
Speaker 1: myself still dreaming. I felt the toilet table. It appeared
22:23
Speaker 1: to be made of some polished wood, and was rather
22:25
Speaker 1: elaborately furnished. There were little cut glass bottles and a
22:28
Speaker 1: brush upon it. There was also a queer little object,
22:32
Speaker 1: horseshoe shaped. It felt with smooth, hard projections, lying in
22:35
Speaker 1: a saucer. I could find no matches nor candlestick. I
22:40
Speaker 1: turned my eyes to the room again. Now the blind
22:43
Speaker 1: was up. Faint specters of its furnishings came out of
22:46
Speaker 1: the darkness. There was a huge curtain bed, and the
22:49
Speaker 1: fireplace at its foot had a large white mantle with
22:52
Speaker 1: something of the shimmer of marble. I leant against the
22:55
Speaker 1: toilet table, shut my eyes and opened them again, and
22:58
Speaker 1: tried to think. The whole thing was far too real
23:01
Speaker 1: for dreaming. I was inclined to imagine. There was still
23:04
Speaker 1: some hiatus in my memory, as a consequence of my
23:06
Speaker 1: draft of that strange liquor, that I had come into
23:09
Speaker 1: my inheritance, perhaps and suddenly lost my recollection of everything
23:12
Speaker 1: since my good fortune had been announced. Perhaps if I
23:16
Speaker 1: waited a little, things would become clear to me again. Yet,
23:19
Speaker 1: my dinner with old Elvesham was now singularly vivid and recent.
23:23
Speaker 1: The champagne, the observant waiters, the powder, and the liqueurs.
23:28
Speaker 1: I could have staked my soul. It all happened a
23:30
Speaker 1: few hours ago. Then it occurred a thing so trivial
23:34
Speaker 1: and yet so terrible to me that I shivered now
23:36
Speaker 1: to think of that moment. I spoke aloud. I said,
23:40
Speaker 1: how the devil did I get here? And the voice
23:44
Speaker 1: was not my own? It was not my own, It
23:48
Speaker 1: was thin, the articulation was slurred. The resonance of my
23:52
Speaker 1: facial bones was different. Then, to reassure myself, I ran
23:57
Speaker 1: one hand over the other, and felt loose folds of skin,
24:00
Speaker 1: the bony laxity of age. Surely, I said, in that
24:05
Speaker 1: horrible voice that had somehow established itself in my throat.
24:08
Speaker 1: Surely this thing is a dream. Almost as quickly as
24:12
Speaker 1: if I did it involuntarily, I thrust my fingers into
24:15
Speaker 1: my mouth. My teeth had gone. My finger tips ran
24:18
Speaker 1: on the flaccid surface of an even row of shriveled gums.
24:22
Speaker 1: I was sick with dismay and disgust. I felt then
24:26
Speaker 1: a passionate desire to see myself to realize at once,
24:30
Speaker 1: in its full horror of the ghastly change that had
24:32
Speaker 1: come upon me. I tottered to the mantle and felt
24:35
Speaker 1: along it for matches. As I did so, a barking
24:39
Speaker 1: cough sprang up in my throat, and I clutched the
24:42
Speaker 1: thick flannel night dress I found about me. There were
24:44
Speaker 1: no matches there, and I suddenly realized that my extremities
24:47
Speaker 1: were cold, sniffing and coughing, whimpering a little perhaps, I
24:52
Speaker 1: fumbled back to bed. It is surely a dream, I
24:55
Speaker 1: whispered to myself as I clambered back. Surely a dream.
24:59
Speaker 1: It was a senile repetition. I pulled the big clothes
25:02
Speaker 1: over my shoulders, over my ears. I thrust my withered
25:05
Speaker 1: hand under the pillow, and determined to compose myself to sleep.
25:10
Speaker 1: Of course it was a dream. In the morning, the
25:13
Speaker 1: dream would be over, and I should wake up strong
25:15
Speaker 1: and vigorous again in my youth and studies. I shut
25:18
Speaker 1: my eyes, breathed regularly, and, finding myself wakeful, began to
25:22
Speaker 1: count slowly through the powers of three. But the thing
25:26
Speaker 1: I desired would not come. I could not get to sleep,
25:29
Speaker 1: and the persuasion of the inexorable reality of the change
25:32
Speaker 1: that had happened to me grew steadily. Presently I found
25:35
Speaker 1: myself with my eyes wide open, the powers of three forgotten,
25:39
Speaker 1: and my skinny fingers upon my shriveled gums. I was, indeed,
25:43
Speaker 1: suddenly and abruptly an old man. I had, in some
25:47
Speaker 1: unaccountable manner, fallen through my life and come to old age.
25:50
Speaker 1: In some way, I had been cheated of all the
25:52
Speaker 1: best of my life, of love, of struggle, of strength
25:56
Speaker 1: and hope. I groveled into the pillow and try. I
26:00
Speaker 1: had to persuade myself that such hallucination was possible, imperceptibly. Steadily,
26:05
Speaker 1: the dawn grew clearer. At last, despairing of further sleep,
26:10
Speaker 1: I sat up in bed and looked about me. A
26:12
Speaker 1: chill twilight rendered the whole chamber visible. It was spacious
26:16
Speaker 1: and well furnished, better furnished than any room I had
26:19
Speaker 1: ever slept in before. A candle in matches became dimly
26:22
Speaker 1: visible upon a little pedestal in a recess, I threw
26:25
Speaker 1: back the bedclothes, and, shivering with the rawness of the
26:28
Speaker 1: early morning, albeit it was summer time, I got out
26:31
Speaker 1: and lit the candle then trembling horribly, so that the
26:35
Speaker 1: extinguisher rattled on its spike. I tottered to the glass
26:38
Speaker 1: and saw Elvisham's face. It was none the less horrible,
26:42
Speaker 1: because I had already dimly feared as much he had
26:45
Speaker 1: already seen physically weak and pitiful to me. But seen
26:48
Speaker 1: now dressed only in a coarse flannel night dress that
26:51
Speaker 1: fell apart and showed the stringy neck. Seen now as
26:54
Speaker 1: my own body, I could not describe its desolate decrepitude,
26:58
Speaker 1: the hollow cheeks, the straggling tail of dirty gray hair,
27:02
Speaker 1: the roomy, bleared eyes, the quivering, shriveled lips, the lower
27:07
Speaker 1: displaying a gleam of the pink interior lining, and those
27:10
Speaker 1: horrible dark gums showing you, who were in mind and
27:14
Speaker 1: body together at your natural years. Could not imagine what
27:17
Speaker 1: this fiendish imprisonment meant to me, to be young and
27:21
Speaker 1: full of desire and energy of youth, and to be
27:23
Speaker 1: caught and presently to be crushed in this tottering ruin
27:26
Speaker 1: of a body. But I wandered from the course of
27:29
Speaker 1: my story for some time. I must have been stunned
27:32
Speaker 1: at this change had come upon me. It was daylight
27:35
Speaker 1: when I did so far gather myself together as to
27:37
Speaker 1: think in some inexplicable way I had been changed. Though
27:42
Speaker 1: how short of magic the thing had been done, I
27:44
Speaker 1: could not say. And as I thought, the diabolical ingenuity
27:48
Speaker 1: of Elbowsham came home to me. It seemed plain to
27:51
Speaker 1: me that as I found myself in his, so he
27:54
Speaker 1: must be in possession of my body, of my strength,
27:57
Speaker 1: that is, and my future. But how to prove it? Then?
28:02
Speaker 1: As I thought, the thing became so incredible even to
28:05
Speaker 1: me that my mind reeled, and I had to pinch
28:07
Speaker 1: myself to feel my toothless gums, to see myself in
28:11
Speaker 1: the glass, and touch the things about me, before I
28:14
Speaker 1: could steady myself to face the facts again? Was all
28:18
Speaker 1: life hallucination? Was I indeed Elvisham? And he me? Had
28:22
Speaker 1: I been dreaming of Eden overnight? Was there any Eden?
28:26
Speaker 1: But if I was Elvisham, I should remember where I
28:29
Speaker 1: was on the previous morning, the name of the town
28:31
Speaker 1: in which I lived, what happened before the dream began.
28:35
Speaker 1: I struggled with my thoughts. I recalled the queer doubleness
28:39
Speaker 1: of my memories over night. But now my mind was clear,
28:43
Speaker 1: not the ghost of any memories but those of proper eating.
28:45
Speaker 1: Could I raise this way lies insanity? I cried in
28:49
Speaker 1: my piping voice. I staggered to my feet, dragged my
28:53
Speaker 1: feeble heavy limbs to the wash hand stand, and plunged
28:56
Speaker 1: my gray head into a basin of cold water. Then,
29:00
Speaker 1: telling myself, I tried again. It was no good. I
29:04
Speaker 1: felt beyond all question that I was indeed Eden, not Elvisham,
29:07
Speaker 1: but Eden in Elvisham's body. Had I been a man
29:11
Speaker 1: of any other age, I might have given myself up
29:13
Speaker 1: to my fate as one enchanted. But in these skeptical days,
29:17
Speaker 1: miracles do not pass current. Here was some trick of
29:20
Speaker 1: psychology what a drug and a steady stare could do.
29:24
Speaker 1: A drug and a steady stare, or some similar treatment
29:27
Speaker 1: could surely undo men have lost their memories before. But
29:32
Speaker 1: to exchange memories as one does umbrellas. I laughed, alas,
29:36
Speaker 1: not a hearty laugh, but a wheezing scene. I'll titter.
29:40
Speaker 1: I could have fancied Old Elvesham laughing at my plight,
29:43
Speaker 1: And a gust of petulant anger unusual to me, swept
29:46
Speaker 1: across my feelings. I began dressing eagerly in the clothes
29:50
Speaker 1: I found lying about on the floor, and only realized
29:53
Speaker 1: when I was dressed that it was an evening suit
29:55
Speaker 1: I had assumed. I opened the wardrobe and found some
29:58
Speaker 1: more ordinary clothes, a a pair of plaid trousers, and
30:01
Speaker 1: an old fashioned dressing gown. I put a venerable smoking
30:05
Speaker 1: cap on my venerable head, and coughing a little from
30:07
Speaker 1: my exertions, tottered out upon the landing. It was then
30:11
Speaker 1: perhaps a quarter to six, and the blinds were closely
30:14
Speaker 1: drawn in the house quite silent. The landing was a
30:17
Speaker 1: spacious one. A broad, richly carpeted staircase went down into
30:21
Speaker 1: the darkness of the hall below, and before me a door.
30:24
Speaker 1: Ajar showed me a writing desk, a revolving bookcase, the
30:27
Speaker 1: back of a study chair, and a fine array of
30:29
Speaker 1: bound books shelf upon shelf my study. I mumbled and
30:34
Speaker 1: walked across the landing. Then, at the sound of my voice,
30:38
Speaker 1: a thought struck me, and I went back to the
30:40
Speaker 1: bedroom and put in the set of false teeth. They
30:42
Speaker 1: slipped in with the ease of old habit. That's better,
30:45
Speaker 1: said I, gnashing them, and so returned to the study.
30:49
Speaker 1: The drawers of the writing desk were locked. Its revolving
30:51
Speaker 1: top was also locked. I could see no indications of
30:54
Speaker 1: the keys, and there were none in the pockets of
30:56
Speaker 1: my trousers. I shuffled back at once to the bedroom
31:00
Speaker 1: and went through the dress suit and afterwards the pockets
31:02
Speaker 1: of all the garments I could find. I was very eager,
31:05
Speaker 1: and one might have imagined that burglars had been at
31:07
Speaker 1: work to see my room. When I had done. Not
31:09
Speaker 1: only were there no keys to be found, but not
31:12
Speaker 1: a coin nor a scrap of paper, save only the
31:14
Speaker 1: receded bill of the overnight dinner. A curious weariness asserted itself.
31:19
Speaker 1: I sat down and stared at the garments flung here
31:22
Speaker 1: and there, their pockets turned inside out. My first frenzy
31:25
Speaker 1: had already flickered out. Every moment I was beginning to
31:29
Speaker 1: realize the immense intelligence of the plans of my enemy
31:32
Speaker 1: to seem more and more clearly the hopelessness of my position.
31:36
Speaker 1: With an effort, I rose and hurried, hobbling into the
31:38
Speaker 1: study again. On the staircase was a housemaid pulling up
31:41
Speaker 1: the blinds. She stared, I think at the expression of
31:44
Speaker 1: my face. I shut the door of the study behind me,
31:48
Speaker 1: and seizing a poker, began an attack upon the desk.
31:51
Speaker 1: That is how they found me. The cover of the
31:54
Speaker 1: desk was split, the locks smashed, the letters, torn out
31:57
Speaker 1: of the pigeon holes, and tossed about the room. In
32:01
Speaker 1: my scenile rage, I had flung about the pens and
32:03
Speaker 1: other such light stationary and overturned the ink. Moreover, a
32:07
Speaker 1: large vase upon the mantle had got broken. I do
32:10
Speaker 1: not know how I could find no check book, no money,
32:14
Speaker 1: no indications of the slightest use for the recovery of
32:16
Speaker 1: my body. I was battering madly at the drawers when
32:20
Speaker 1: the butler, backed by two women servants, intruded upon me.
32:24
Speaker 1: That simply is the story of my change. No one
32:27
Speaker 1: will believe my frantic assertions. I am treated as one demented,
32:31
Speaker 1: and even at this moment I am under restraint. But
32:34
Speaker 1: I am sane, absolutely sane, and to prove it, I
32:38
Speaker 1: have set down to write this story minutely as the
32:40
Speaker 1: things happened to me. I appeal to the reader whether
32:44
Speaker 1: there is any trace of insanity in the style or
32:46
Speaker 1: method of the story he has been reading. I am
32:49
Speaker 1: a young man locked away in an old man's body.
32:52
Speaker 1: But the clear fact is incredible to every one. Naturally
32:55
Speaker 1: I appeared demented to those who will not believe this.
32:58
Speaker 1: Naturally I do not know the names of my secretaries,
33:01
Speaker 1: of the doctors who come to see me, of my
33:03
Speaker 1: servants and neighbors, of this town, wherever it is where
33:07
Speaker 1: I find myself. Naturally I lose myself in my own
33:11
Speaker 1: house and suffer inconveniences of every sort. Naturally I ask
33:15
Speaker 1: the oddest questions. Naturally I weep and cry out, and
33:19
Speaker 1: have paroxysms of despair. I have no money and no
33:22
Speaker 1: check book. The bank will not recognize my signature, for
33:26
Speaker 1: I suppose that, allowing for the feeble muscles I now have,
33:30
Speaker 1: my handwriting is still Eden's. These people about me will
33:34
Speaker 1: not let me go to the bank personally. It seems, indeed,
33:37
Speaker 1: that there is no bank in this town, and then
33:39
Speaker 1: I have an account in some part of London. It
33:42
Speaker 1: seems that Elbosham kept the name of his solicitor secret
33:44
Speaker 1: from all his household. I can ascertain nothing. Elsham was,
33:49
Speaker 1: of course, a profound student of mental science, and all
33:52
Speaker 1: my declarations of the facts of the case merely confirm
33:55
Speaker 1: the theory that my insanity is the outcome of overmuch
33:57
Speaker 1: brooding upon psychology, dreams of the personal identity. Indeed, two
34:03
Speaker 1: days ago I was a healthy youngster, with all my
34:06
Speaker 1: life before me. Now I am a furious old man,
34:09
Speaker 1: unkempt and desperate and miserable, prowling about a great, luxurious,
34:14
Speaker 1: strange house, watch feared and avoided as a lunatic by
34:18
Speaker 1: every one about me. And in London is Elvisham, beginning
34:22
Speaker 1: life again in a vigorous body, with all the accumulated
34:25
Speaker 1: knowledge and wisdom of three score and ten. He has
34:28
Speaker 1: stolen my life. What has happened? I do not clearly know.
34:33
Speaker 1: In the study or volumes of manuscript notes referring chiefly
34:36
Speaker 1: to the psychology of memory, in parts of what may
34:39
Speaker 1: be either calculations or ciphers and symbols absolutely strange to me.
34:44
Speaker 1: In some passages there are indications that he was also
34:46
Speaker 1: occupied with the philosophy of mathematics. I take it he
34:49
Speaker 1: has transferred the whole of his memories, the accumulations that
34:52
Speaker 1: makes up his personality, from this old withered brain of
34:55
Speaker 1: his to mine, and similarly that he has transferred mine
34:59
Speaker 1: to his scarded tenement. Practically, that is, he has changed bodies.
35:04
Speaker 1: But how such a change may be possible is without
35:07
Speaker 1: the range of my philosophy. I have been a materialist
35:10
Speaker 1: for all my thinking life. But here suddenly is a
35:13
Speaker 1: clear case of man's detachability from matter. One desperate experiment
35:18
Speaker 1: I am about to try. I sit writing here before
35:21
Speaker 1: putting the matter to issue. This morning, with the help
35:24
Speaker 1: of a table knife that I had secreted at breakfast,
35:27
Speaker 1: I succeeded in breaking open a fairly obvious secret drawer.
35:30
Speaker 1: In this wrecked writing desk, I discovered nothing save a
35:33
Speaker 1: little green glass file containing a white powder. Round the
35:37
Speaker 1: neck of the file was a label, and thereon was
35:39
Speaker 1: written this one word release this may be is most
35:44
Speaker 1: probably poison. I can understand ellisham placing poison in my way,
35:49
Speaker 1: and I should be sure that it was his intention
35:51
Speaker 1: to so get rid of the only living witness against him.
35:54
Speaker 1: Were it not for his careful concealment, the man has
35:58
Speaker 1: practically solved the problem of immortality, save for the spite
36:01
Speaker 1: of chance. He will live in my body until it
36:03
Speaker 1: is aged, and then again, throwing that aside, he will
36:07
Speaker 1: assume some other victim's youth and strength. When one remembers
36:11
Speaker 1: his heartlessness, it is terrible to think of the ever
36:13
Speaker 1: growing experience that how long has he been leaping from
36:17
Speaker 1: body to body? But I tire of writing. The powder
36:21
Speaker 1: appears to be soluble in water. The taste is not unpleasant.
36:26
Speaker 1: There the narrative found upon mister Elsham's desk ends. His
36:30
Speaker 1: dead body lay between the desk and the chair. The
36:33
Speaker 1: latter had been pushed back, probably by his last convulsions.
36:38
Speaker 1: The story was written in pencil and in a crazy hand,
36:41
Speaker 1: quite unlike as minute characters. There remain only two curious
36:45
Speaker 1: facts to record. Indisputably, there was some connection between Eden
36:49
Speaker 1: and Elbsham, since a whole of Elisham's property was bequeathed
36:53
Speaker 1: to the young man, but he never inherited. When Elisham
36:57
Speaker 1: committed suicide, Eden was, strangely enough, already dead twenty four
37:03
Speaker 1: hours before. He had been knocked down by a cab
37:04
Speaker 1: and killed instantly at the crowded crossing at the intersection
37:08
Speaker 1: of Gower Street and Euston Road, So that the only
37:11
Speaker 1: human being who could have thrown light upon this fantastic
37:13
Speaker 1: narrative is beyond the reach of questions. Without further comment,
37:18
Speaker 1: I leave this extraordinary matter to the reader's individual judgment.
37:24
Speaker 1: End of the Story of the Late mister Elsham by H. G. Wells.
37:29
Speaker 1: Recording by James Christopher j X Christopher at yahoo dot com,
37:35
Speaker 1: January two thousand nine,