Latest / Classic Treasures - Must-Read Fiction Books / Lesley Castle - Dramatic Reading - Jane Austen

Transcript

Lesley Castle - Dramatic Reading - Jane Austen · Classic Treasures - Must-Read Fiction Books

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Leslie Castle, an unfinished novel in letters.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: To Henry Thomas Austin esquire, Sir, I am now availing
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: myself of the liberty you have frequently honored me with
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: of dedicating one of my novels to you. That it
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: is unfinished. I grieve yet fear that from me it
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: will always remain, so that as far as it is carried,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: it should be so trifling and so unworthy of you.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Is another concern to your obliged, humble servant, the author.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Messr's demand and co. Please to pay Jane Austen Spinster
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: the sum of one hundred guineas on account of your
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: humble servant, H. T.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Austin, Leslie Castle.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: Letter.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: The first is from Miss Margaret Leslie to Miss.
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: Charlotte Lateral, Leslie Castle, January the third, seventeen ninety two.
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: My brother has just left us, Matilda, said he, at
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: parting you and.
• 1:05
  Speaker 5: Margaret, will I am certain take all the care of
• 1:08
  Speaker 5: my dear little one that she might have received from
• 1:11
  Speaker 5: an indulgent and affectionate and amiable mother.
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: Tears rolled down his cheeks as he spoke these words,
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: the remembrance of her who had so wantonly disgraced the
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: maternal character, and so openly violated the conjugal duties prevented
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: his adding anything farther. He embraced his sweet child, and,
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: after saluting Matilda and Me, hastily broke from us and,
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: seating himself in his chaise, pursued the road to Aberdeen.
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: Never was there a better young man, Ah, how little
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: did he deserve the misfortunes he has experienced in the
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: marriage state. So good a husband to so bad a wife.
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: For you know, my dear Charlotte, that the worthless Louisa
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: left him her child and reputation a few weeks ago
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: in company with Danvers and Dishonor. Never was there a
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: sweet a face, a finer form, or a less amiable
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: heart than Louisa owned. Her child already possesses the personal
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: charms of her unhappy mother. May she inherit from her
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: father or his mental ones. Leslie is at present but
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: five and twenty, and has already given himself up to
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: melancholy and despair. What a difference between him and his father,
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: Sir George's fifty seven and still remains the beau, the flighty, stripling,
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: the gay lad, the sprightly youngster that his son was
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: really about five years back, and that he is affected
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: to appear ever since my remembrance. While our father is
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: fluttering about the streets of London, gay, dissipated and thoughtless,
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: at the age of fifty seven, Matildre and I continue
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: secluded from mankind in our old and moldering castle, which
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: is situated two miles from Perth on a bold projecting rock,
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: and commands an extensive view of the town and its
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: delightful environs. But though retired from almost all the world,
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: for we visit no one but the MacLeod's, the mckensie's,
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: the macpherson's, the McCartneys, the MacDonald's, the McKinnon's, the mclellans,
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: the McKay's, the macbeth's, and the mac duffs. We are
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: neither dull nor unhappy. On the contrary, there were never
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: two more lively, more agreeable, or more witty girls than
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: we are. Not an hour in the day hangs heavy
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: on our hands. We read, we work, we walk, and
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: when fatigued with these employments, relieve our spirits either by
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: a lively song, a graceful dance, or by some smart,
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: bond and witty repartee. We are handsome, my dear Charlotte,
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: very handsome, and the greatest of our perfections is that
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: we are entirely insensible of them ourselves. But why do
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: I thus dwell on myself? Let me rather repeat the
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: praise of our dear little niece, the innocent Louisa, who
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: is at present sweetly smiling in a gentle nap as
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: she reposes on the sofa. The dear creature is just
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: turned of two years old, as handsome as though two
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: and twenty, as sensible as though two and thirty, and
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: as prudent as though two and forty. To convince you
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: of this, I must inform you that she has a
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: very fine complexion and very pretty features, that she already
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: knows the first two letters in the alphabet, and that
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: she never tears her frocks. If I have not now
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: convinced you of her beauty, sense and prudence, I have
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: nothing more to urge in support of my assertion, and
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: you will therefore have no way of deciding the affair,
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: but by coming to Leslie Castle, and by a personal
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: acquaintance with Louisa, determined for yourself, Ah, my dear friend,
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: how happy should I be? To see you within these
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: venerable walls. It is now four years since my removal
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: from school has separated me from you. That two such
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: tender hearts, so closely linked together by the ties of
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: sympathy and friendship, should be so widely removed from each
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: other is vastly moving. I live in Perthshire, you in Sussex.
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: We might meet in London, were my father disposed to
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: carry me there, and were your mother to be there
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: at the same time. We might meet at Bath, at Tunbridge,
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: or anywhere else. Indeed, could we but be at the
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: same place together. We have only to hope that such
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: a period may arrive. My father does not return to
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: us till autumn. My brother will leave Scotland in a
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: few days. He is impatient to travel. Mistaken youth, he
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: vainly flatters himself that change of air will heal the
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: wounds of a broken heart. You will join with me.
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: I am certain, my dear Charlotte, in prayers for the
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: recovery of the unhappy Leslie's peace of mind, which must
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: ever be essential to that of your sincere friend, M.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: Leslie.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: End of letter the first letter the second from Miss
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: c Lutorelle to Miss m Leslie in.
• 6:40
  Speaker 6: Answer, Glenford, February twelfth, I have a thousand excuses to
• 6:48
  Speaker 6: beg for having so long delayed, thanking you, my dear Peggy,
• 6:53
  Speaker 6: for your agreeable letter, which, believe me, I should not
• 6:58
  Speaker 6: have deferred doing, had not every moment of my time
• 7:02
  Speaker 6: during the last five weeks been so fully employed in
• 7:07
  Speaker 6: the necessary arrangements for my sister's wedding as to allow
• 7:12
  Speaker 6: me no time to devote either to you or myself.
• 7:17
  Speaker 6: And now what provokes me more than anything else is
• 7:22
  Speaker 6: that the matches broke off and all my labor thrown away.
• 7:28
  Speaker 6: Imagine how great the disappointment must be to me when
• 7:33
  Speaker 6: you consider that, after having labored both by night and
• 7:38
  Speaker 6: by day in order to get the wedding dinner ready
• 7:42
  Speaker 6: by the time appointed, after having roasted beef, broiled mutton,
• 7:49
  Speaker 6: and stewed soup enough to last the new married couple
• 7:55
  Speaker 6: through the honey moon, I had the mortific case a
• 8:01
  Speaker 6: finding that I had been roasting, broiling, and stewing both
• 8:08
  Speaker 6: they meat and my self to no purpose. Indeed, my
• 8:17
  Speaker 6: dear friend, I never remember suffering any vexation equal to
• 8:24
  Speaker 6: what I experience on last Monday, when my sister came
• 8:29
  Speaker 6: running to me in the storeroom with her face as
• 8:34
  Speaker 6: white as a whipped syllable, and told me that hervey
• 8:40
  Speaker 6: had been thrown from his horse, had fractured his skull,
• 8:45
  Speaker 6: and was pronounced by his surgeon to be in the
• 8:49
  Speaker 6: most imminent danger. Good God, said I, you don't say so.
• 8:56
  Speaker 6: Why what in the name of Heaven will become of
• 8:58
  Speaker 6: all the vitual? We shall never be able to eat
• 9:03
  Speaker 6: it while it is good. However, we'll call in the
• 9:07
  Speaker 6: surgeon to help us. I shall be able to manage
• 9:11
  Speaker 6: the surlloy in myself. My mother will eat the soup,
• 9:16
  Speaker 6: and you and the doctor must finish the rest. Here
• 9:20
  Speaker 6: I was interrupted by seeing my poor sister fall down
• 9:25
  Speaker 6: to appearance lifeless upon one of the chests where we
• 9:30
  Speaker 6: keep our table lidden. I immediately called my mother and
• 9:34
  Speaker 6: the maids, and at last we brought her to herself again,
• 9:38
  Speaker 6: as soon as ever she was sensible. She expressed a
• 9:44
  Speaker 6: determination of going instantly to Henry, and was so wildly
• 9:50
  Speaker 6: bent on this scheme that we had the greatest difficulty
• 9:56
  Speaker 6: in the world to prevent her putting it in execution.
• 10:02
  Speaker 6: At last, however, more by force than in cheaty, we
• 10:07
  Speaker 6: prevailed on her to go into her room. We laid
• 10:11
  Speaker 6: her upon the bed, and she continued for some hours
• 10:16
  Speaker 6: in the most dreadful convulsions. My mother and I continued
• 10:22
  Speaker 6: in the room with her, and when any intervals of
• 10:27
  Speaker 6: tolerable composure in Eluisia would allow us, we joined in
• 10:34
  Speaker 6: heartfelt lamentations on the dreadful waste in our provisions which
• 10:40
  Speaker 6: this event must occasion, and in concerting some plan for getting.
• 10:47
  Speaker 7: Rid of them, we agreed that the best thing we
• 10:51
  Speaker 7: could do was to begin eating them immediately, and accordingly
• 10:55
  Speaker 7: we ordered up the cold.
• 10:57
  Speaker 6: Ham and fowls an instant began our devouring plan on
• 11:02
  Speaker 6: them with great alacrity. We would have persuaded Eluisia to
• 11:08
  Speaker 6: have taken a wing of a chicken, but she would
• 11:12
  Speaker 6: not be persuaded. She was, however, much quieter than she
• 11:17
  Speaker 6: had been the convulsians she had before suffered, having given
• 11:23
  Speaker 6: way to an almost perfect insensibility. We endeavored to rouse
• 11:28
  Speaker 6: her by every means in our power, but to no purpose.
• 11:33
  Speaker 6: I talked to her of Henry. Dear Eluisia said, I,
• 11:38
  Speaker 6: there's no occasion for your crying so much about such
• 11:42
  Speaker 6: a trifle. For I was willing to make light of
• 11:45
  Speaker 6: it in order to comfort her, I beg you would
• 11:48
  Speaker 6: not mind it. You see, it does not vex me
• 11:53
  Speaker 6: in the least, though perhaps I may suffer most from it.
• 11:57
  Speaker 6: After all, for I shall not only be obliged to
• 12:01
  Speaker 6: eat up all the vituals I have dressed already, but
• 12:06
  Speaker 6: must if Henry should recover, which however, is not very likely,
• 12:12
  Speaker 6: dress as much for you again. Or should he die,
• 12:16
  Speaker 6: as I suppose he will, I shall still have to
• 12:19
  Speaker 6: prepare a dinner for you whenever you marry anyone else.
• 12:24
  Speaker 6: So you see that, though perhaps for the present it
• 12:27
  Speaker 6: may afflict you to think of Henry's sufferings, yet I
• 12:32
  Speaker 6: dare say he'll die soon, and then his pain will
• 12:35
  Speaker 6: be over, and you will be easy, whereas my trouble
• 12:39
  Speaker 6: will last much longer. For work as hard as I may,
• 12:43
  Speaker 6: I am certain that the pantry cannot be cleared in
• 12:47
  Speaker 6: less than a fortnight. Thus I did all in my
• 12:50
  Speaker 6: power to console her, but without any effect. And at last,
• 12:55
  Speaker 6: as I saw that she did not seem to listen
• 12:57
  Speaker 6: to me, I said no more, But leaving her with
• 13:00
  Speaker 6: my mother, I took down the remains of the ham
• 13:03
  Speaker 6: and chicken, and said William to ask how Henry did.
• 13:07
  Speaker 6: He was not expected to live many hours. He died
• 13:11
  Speaker 6: the same day. We took all possible care to break
• 13:15
  Speaker 6: the melancholy event to Weluisia in the tenderest manner. Yet
• 13:20
  Speaker 6: in spite of every precaution, her sufferings on hearing it
• 13:24
  Speaker 6: were too violent for her reason, and she continued for
• 13:28
  Speaker 6: many hours in our high delirium. She is still extremely ill,
• 13:33
  Speaker 6: and her physicians are greatly afraid of her going into
• 13:37
  Speaker 6: a decline. We are therefore preparing for Bristol, where we
• 13:41
  Speaker 6: mean to be in the course of the next week.
• 13:46
  Speaker 6: And now, my dear Margaret, let me talk a little
• 13:49
  Speaker 6: of your affairs. And in the first place, I must
• 13:53
  Speaker 6: inform you that it is confidently reported your father is
• 13:58
  Speaker 6: going to be married. I am very unwilling to believe
• 14:02
  Speaker 6: so unpleasing a report, and at the same time cannot
• 14:07
  Speaker 6: wholly discredit it. I have written to my friend Susan
• 14:13
  Speaker 6: Fitzgerald for information concerning it, which, as she is at
• 14:18
  Speaker 6: present in town, she will be very able to leave me.
• 14:22
  Speaker 6: I know not who is the lady. I think your
• 14:25
  Speaker 6: brother is extremely right in the resolution he has taken
• 14:29
  Speaker 6: of traveling as it will perhaps contribute to obliterate from
• 14:34
  Speaker 6: his remembrance those disagreeable events which have lately so much
• 14:38
  Speaker 6: afflicted him. I am happy to find that those secluded
• 14:42
  Speaker 6: from all the world, neither you nor Matilda are dull
• 14:46
  Speaker 6: or unhappy. That you may never know what it is
• 14:50
  Speaker 6: to be Either is the wish of yours, Sincerely, Affectionate, C. L. P. S.
• 14:59
  Speaker 6: I have this instant received an answer from my friend Susan,
• 15:03
  Speaker 6: which I enclosed to you, and on which you will
• 15:07
  Speaker 6: make your own reflections the enclosed letter.
• 15:12
  Speaker 8: My dear Charlotte, You could not have applied for information
• 15:15
  Speaker 8: concerning the report of Sir George Leslie's marriage to anyone
• 15:19
  Speaker 8: better able to give it to you than I am.
• 15:22
  Speaker 8: Sir George is certainly married. I was myself present at
• 15:26
  Speaker 8: the ceremony, which you will not be surprised at when
• 15:29
  Speaker 8: I subscribe myself your affectionate, Susan Leslie.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: End of letter. The second letter the third from Miss
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Margaret Leslie to Miss C.
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: Luturelle Leslie, Castle, February sixteenth. I have made my own
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: reflections on the letter you enclosed to me, my dear Charlotte,
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: and I will now tell you what those reflections were
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: I reflected that if by this second marriage Sir George
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: should have a second family, our fortunes be considerably diminished.
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: That if his wife should be of an extravagant turn,
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: she would encourage him to persevere in that gay and
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: dissipated way of life to which little encouragement would be necessary,
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: and which has I fear already proved but too detrimental
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: to his health and fortune. That she would now become
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: mistress of those duels which once adorned our mother, and
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: which Sir George had always promised us. That if they
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: did not come into Perthshire, I should not be able
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: to gratify my curiosity of beholding my mother in law,
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: and that if they did, Matilda would no longer sit
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: at the head of her father's table. These, my Dear Charlotte,
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: were the melancholy reflections which crowded into my imagination after
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: perusing Susan's letter to you, and which instantly occurred to
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: Matilda when she had perused it. Likewise, the same ideas,
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: the same fears, immediately occupied her mind, and I know
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: not which reflection distressed her most, whether the probable diminution
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: of our fortunes or her own consequence. We both wish
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: very much to know whether Lady Leslie is handsome, and
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: what is your opinion of her? As you honor her
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: with the appellation of your friend, we flatter ourselves that
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: she must be amiable. My brother is already in Paris.
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: He intends to quit it in a few days and
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: to begin his route to Italy. He writes, in a
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: most cheerful manner, says that the Heir of France has
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: greatly recovered both his health and spirits, that he has
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: now entirely ceased to think of Louisa with any degree
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: either of pity or affection, that he even feels himself
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: obliged to her for her elopement, as he thinks it
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: very good fun to be single again. By this, you
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: may perceive that he has entirely regained that cheerful gaiety
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: and sprightly wit for which he was once so remarkable.
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: When he first became acquainted with Louisa, which was little
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: more than three years ago, he was one of the
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: most lively, the most agreeable young men of the age.
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: I believe you never yet heard the particulars of his
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: first acquaintance with her. It commenced at our cousin, Colonel Drummonds,
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: at whose house in Cumberland he spent the Christmas in
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: which he attained the age of two and twenty. Louisa
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: Burton was the daughter of a distant relation of Missus Drummond, who,
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: dying a few months before in extreme poverty, left his
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: only child, then about eighteen, to the protection of any
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: of his relations who would protect her. Missus Drummond was
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: the only one who found herself so disposed. Louisa was
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: therefore removed from a miserable cottage in Yorkshire to an
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: elegant mansion in Cumberland, and from every pecuniary distress that
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: poverty could inflict, to every elegant enjoyment that money could purchase.
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: Louisa was naturally ill tempered and cunning, but she had
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: been taught to disguise her real disposition under the appearance
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: of insinuating sweetness by her father, who but too well
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: knew that to be married would be the only chance
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: she would have of not being starved, and who flattered
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: himself that with such an extraordinary share of personal beauty,
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: joined to a gentleness of manners and an engaging address,
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: she might stand a good chance of pleasing some young
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: man who might afford to marry a girl without a shilling.
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: Louisa perfectly entered into her father's schemes and was determined
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: to forward them with all her care and attention. By
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: dint of perseverance and application, she had at length so
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: thoroughly disguised her natural disposition under the mask of innocence
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: and softness, as to impose upon everyone who would not,
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: by a long and constant intimacy with her, discovered her
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: real character. Such was Louisa when the hapless Leslie first
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: beheld her at Drummond House, his heart, which, to use
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: your favorite comparison, was as delicate, as sweet, and as
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: tender as a witch. Syllabub could not resist her attractions.
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: In a very few days, he was falling in love.
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: Shortly after actually fell and before he had known her
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: a month he had married her. My father was at
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: first highly displeased as so hasty and imprudent a connection,
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: but when he found that they did not mind it,
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: he soon became perfectly reconcile to the match. The estate
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: near Aberdeen, which my brother possesses by the bounty of
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: his great uncle in independent of Sir George, was entirely
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: sufficient to support him and my sister in elegance and
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: ease for the first twelvemonth. No one could be happier
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: than Leslie, and no one more amiable to appearance than Louisa.
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: And so plausibly did she act and so cautiously behave,
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: that though Matildre and I often spent several weeks together
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: with them, yet we neither of us had any suspicion
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: of her real disposition. After the birth of Louisa, however,
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: which one would have thought would have strengthened her regard
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: for Leslie, the mask she had so long supported was
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: by degrees thrown aside, and as probably she then thought
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: herself secure in the affection of her husband, which did
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: indeed appear, if possible, augmented by the birth of his child.
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: She seemed to take no pains to prevent that affection
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: from ever diminishing. Our visits, therefore to Dunbeethe were now
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: less frequent and by far less agreeable than they used
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: to be. Our absence was, however, never either mentioned or
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: lamented by Louisa, who, in the society of young Danvers
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: with whom she became acquainted to Aberdeen he was at
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: one of the universities there felt infinitely happier than in
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: that of Matilda and your friend, though there certainly never
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: were pleasanter girls than we are. You know the sad
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: end of all Leslie's connubial happiness. I will not repeat it. Adieu,
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: my dear Charlotte. Although I have not yet mentioned anything
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: of the matter, I hope you will do me the
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: justice to believe that I think and feel a great
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: deal for your sister's affliction. I do not doubt but
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: that the healthy air of the Bristol Downs will entirely
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: remove it by a raising from her mind the remembrance
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: of Henry. I am, my dear Charlotte, Yours ever, M.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: L end of letter the third letter the fourth from
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: Miss C. Luturelle to Miss.
• 23:10
  Speaker 6: M Leslie, Bristol, February twenty seventh. My dear Peggy, I
• 23:17
  Speaker 6: have but just received your letter, which, being directed to
• 23:22
  Speaker 6: Sussex while I was at Bristol, was obliged to be
• 23:25
  Speaker 6: forwarded to me here, and from some unaccountable delay has
• 23:31
  Speaker 6: but this instant reached me. I return you many thanks
• 23:36
  Speaker 6: for the account. It contains of Leslie's acquaintance, love and
• 23:41
  Speaker 6: marriage with Louisia, which has not the less entertained me
• 23:45
  Speaker 6: for having often been repeated to me before. I have
• 23:49
  Speaker 6: the satisfaction of informing you that we have every reason
• 23:53
  Speaker 6: to imagine. Our pantry is by this time nearly cleared,
• 23:59
  Speaker 6: as we left particular orders with the servants to eat
• 24:03
  Speaker 6: as hard as they possibly could, and to call in
• 24:08
  Speaker 6: a couple of chairwomen to assist them. We brought a
• 24:12
  Speaker 6: cold pigeon pie, a cold turkey, a cold tongue, and
• 24:17
  Speaker 6: half a dozen jellies with us, which we were lucky enough,
• 24:21
  Speaker 6: with the help of our landlady, her husband, and their
• 24:25
  Speaker 6: three children, to get rid of in less than two
• 24:29
  Speaker 6: days after our arrival. Paul Eluisia is still so very indifferent,
• 24:35
  Speaker 6: both in health and spirits, that I very much fear
• 24:41
  Speaker 6: the air of the Bristol downs, healthy as it is,
• 24:45
  Speaker 6: has not been able to drive poor Henry from her remembrance.
• 24:52
  Speaker 6: You ask me whether your new mother in law is
• 24:56
  Speaker 6: handsome and amiable, I will now give you an exact
• 25:01
  Speaker 6: description of her bodily and mental charms. She is short,
• 25:06
  Speaker 6: an extremely well made, is naturally pale, but rouges a
• 25:12
  Speaker 6: good deal has fine eyes and fine teeth, as she
• 25:16
  Speaker 6: will take care to let you know as soon as
• 25:20
  Speaker 6: she sees you, and is altogether very pretty. She is
• 25:25
  Speaker 6: remarkably good tempered when she has her own way, and
• 25:30
  Speaker 6: very lively when she is not out of humor. She
• 25:34
  Speaker 6: is naturally extravagant and not very affected. She never reads
• 25:39
  Speaker 6: anything but the letters she receives from me, and never
• 25:43
  Speaker 6: writes anything but her answers to them. She plays, sings
• 25:48
  Speaker 6: and answers, but has no taste for either, and excels
• 25:53
  Speaker 6: in none, though she says she is passionately fond of all.
• 25:58
  Speaker 6: Perhaps your bear flatter me so far as to be
• 26:01
  Speaker 6: surprised that one of whom I speak with so little
• 26:05
  Speaker 6: affection should be my particular friend. But to tell you
• 26:09
  Speaker 6: the truth, our friendship arose rather from caprice on her
• 26:14
  Speaker 6: side than esteem on mine. We spend two or three
• 26:18
  Speaker 6: days together with a lady in Berkshire, with whom we
• 26:22
  Speaker 6: both happened to be connected. During our visit, the weather
• 26:27
  Speaker 6: being remarkably bad and our party particularly stupid, she was
• 26:33
  Speaker 6: so good as to conceive a violent partiality for me,
• 26:38
  Speaker 6: which very soon settled in a downright friendship and ended
• 26:43
  Speaker 6: in an established correspondence. She is probably by this time
• 26:48
  Speaker 6: as tired of me as I am of her, But
• 26:53
  Speaker 6: as she is too polite and I am too civil
• 26:56
  Speaker 6: to say so, our letters are still as frequent and
• 27:01
  Speaker 6: affectionate as ever, and our attachment as firm and sincere
• 27:06
  Speaker 6: as when it first convinced. As she had a great
• 27:10
  Speaker 6: taste for the pleasures of London and of brightelam Stone,
• 27:14
  Speaker 6: she will, I dare say, find some difficulty in prevailing
• 27:19
  Speaker 6: on herself even to satisfy the curiosity I dare say
• 27:23
  Speaker 6: she feels of beholding you at the expense of quitting
• 27:28
  Speaker 6: those favorite haunts of dissipation for the melancholy, though venerable
• 27:34
  Speaker 6: gloom of the castle you inhabit. Perhaps, however, if she
• 27:39
  Speaker 6: finds her health impaired by too much amusement, she may
• 27:44
  Speaker 6: acquire fortitude sufficient to undertake a journey to Scotland, in
• 27:50
  Speaker 6: the hope of its proving at least beneficial to her health,
• 27:54
  Speaker 6: if not conducive to her happiness. Your fears, I am
• 27:59
  Speaker 6: sorry to say, say, concerning your father's extravagance, your own fortunes,
• 28:05
  Speaker 6: your mother's jewels, and your sister's consequence, I should suppose,
• 28:11
  Speaker 6: are but too well founded. My friend herself has four
• 28:17
  Speaker 6: thousand pounds and will probably spend nearly as much every
• 28:23
  Speaker 6: year in dress and public places if she can get it.
• 28:28
  Speaker 6: She will certainly not endeavor to reclaim Sir George from
• 28:32
  Speaker 6: the manner of living to which he has been so
• 28:35
  Speaker 6: long accustomed. And there is therefore some reason to fear
• 28:40
  Speaker 6: that you will be very well off if you can
• 28:44
  Speaker 6: get any fortune at all. The jewels, I should imagine too,
• 28:49
  Speaker 6: will undoubtedly be hers, And there is too much reason
• 28:54
  Speaker 6: to think that she will preside at her husband's table
• 28:58
  Speaker 6: in preference to his daughter. But as so melancholy a
• 29:04
  Speaker 6: subject must necessarily extremely distress you, I will no longer
• 29:10
  Speaker 6: dwell on it. Elisia's indisposition has brought us to Bristol
• 29:18
  Speaker 6: at so unfashionable a season of the year that we
• 29:23
  Speaker 6: have actually seen but one genteel family since we came.
• 29:28
  Speaker 6: Mister and missus Marlowe are very agreeable people. The ill
• 29:34
  Speaker 6: health of their little boy occasioned their arrival here. You
• 29:38
  Speaker 6: may imagine that, being the only family with whom we
• 29:42
  Speaker 6: can converse, we are of course on a footing of
• 29:46
  Speaker 6: intimacy with them. We see them indeed almost every day,
• 29:50
  Speaker 6: and dine with them yesterday. We spent a very pleasant
• 29:54
  Speaker 6: day and had a very good dinner, though to be sure,
• 29:58
  Speaker 6: the veal was terribly underdone and the curry had no seasoning.
• 30:04
  Speaker 6: I could not help wishing all dinner time that I
• 30:08
  Speaker 6: had been at the dressing it. A brother of missus Marlowe,
• 30:13
  Speaker 6: mister Cleveland, is with them at present. He is a
• 30:17
  Speaker 6: good looking young man and seems to have a good
• 30:21
  Speaker 6: deal to say for himself. I tell Eluisia that she
• 30:25
  Speaker 6: should set her cap at him, but she does not
• 30:29
  Speaker 6: at all seem to relish the proposal. I should like
• 30:33
  Speaker 6: to see the girl married, and Cleveland has a very
• 30:36
  Speaker 6: good estate. Perhaps you may wonder that I do not
• 30:39
  Speaker 6: consider myself as well as my sister in my matrimonial projects.
• 30:45
  Speaker 6: But to tell you the truth, I never wish to
• 30:47
  Speaker 6: act a more principal part at a wedding than the
• 30:50
  Speaker 6: superintending and directing the dinner. And therefore, while I can
• 30:55
  Speaker 6: get any of my acquaintance to marry for me, I
• 30:59
  Speaker 6: shall never think of doing it myself, as I very
• 31:03
  Speaker 6: much suspect that I should not have so much time
• 31:07
  Speaker 6: for dressing my own wedding dinner as for dressing that
• 31:11
  Speaker 6: of my friends, yours sincerely see.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: L end of the letter. The fourth letter the fifth
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: Miss Margaret Leslie to Miss Charlotte.
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: Littrell Leslie, Castle, March eighteenth. On the same day that
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: I receive your last kind letter, Matilda received one from
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: Sir George which was dated from Edinburgh, and informed us
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: that he should do himself the pleasure of introducing Lady
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: Leslie to us on the following evening. This, as you
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: may suppose, considerably surprised us, particularly as your account of
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: her ladyship had given us reason to imagine there was
• 31:52
  Speaker 4: little chance of her visiting Scotland at a time that
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: London must be so gay. As it was our business, howe,
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: to be delighted at such a mark of condescension as
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: a visit from Sir George and Lady Leslie, we prepare
• 32:07
  Speaker 4: to return them an answer expressive of the happiness we
• 32:11
  Speaker 4: enjoyed in expectation of such a blessing. When luckily recollecting
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: that as they were to reach the castle the next evening,
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: it would be impossible for my father to receive it
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: before he left Edinburgh, we contented ourselves with leaving them
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: to suppose that we were as happy as we ought
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: to be. At nine in the evening on the following day,
• 32:34
  Speaker 4: they came, accompanied by one of Lady Leslie's brothers. Her
• 32:38
  Speaker 4: Ladyship perfectly answers the description you sent me of her,
• 32:42
  Speaker 4: except that I do not think her so pretty as
• 32:45
  Speaker 4: you seem to consider her. She has not a bad face,
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: but there is something so extremely unmajestic in her little,
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: diminutive figure as to render her, in comparison with the
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: elegant height of Matilda and myself, an insignificant dwarf. Her
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: curiosity to see us, which must have been great to
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: bring her more than four hundred miles, being now perfectly gratified.
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: She already begins to mention their return to town, and
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: has desired us to accompany her. We cannot refuse her request,
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: since it is seconded by the commands of our father,
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: and thirded by the entreaties of mister Fitzgerald, who is
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: certainly one of the most pleasing young men I ever beheld.
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: It is not yet determined when we are to go,
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: but whenever we do, we shall certainly take our little
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: Louisa with us. Adieu, my dear Charlotte. Matilda unites in
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: best wishes to you and Eloisa, with yours ever.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: M l end of letter, the fifth letter of the
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: sixth Lady Leslie to Miss Charlotte.
• 33:56
  Speaker 8: Luturelle Leslie, Castle, March twentieth. We arrived here, my sweet friend,
• 34:02
  Speaker 8: about a fortnight ago, and I already heartily repent that
• 34:05
  Speaker 8: I ever left our charming house in Portman Square for
• 34:08
  Speaker 8: such a dismal, old, weather beaten castle as this. You
• 34:11
  Speaker 8: can form no idea sufficiently hideous of its dungeon like form.
• 34:15
  Speaker 8: It is actually perched upon a rock, to appearance so
• 34:18
  Speaker 8: totally inaccessible that I expected to have been pulled up
• 34:22
  Speaker 8: by a rope, And sincerely repented having gratified my curiosity
• 34:26
  Speaker 8: to behold my daughters at the expense of being obliged
• 34:29
  Speaker 8: to enter their prison in so dangerous and ridiculous a manner.
• 34:34
  Speaker 8: But as soon as I once found myself safely arrived
• 34:37
  Speaker 8: in the inside of this tremendous building, I comforted myself
• 34:40
  Speaker 8: with the hope of having my spirits revived by the
• 34:43
  Speaker 8: sight of two beautiful girls, such as the Miss Leslie's
• 34:47
  Speaker 8: had been represented to me at Edinburgh. But here again
• 34:51
  Speaker 8: I met with nothing but disappointment and surprise. Matilda and
• 34:55
  Speaker 8: Margaret Leslie are two great, tall, out of the way
• 34:58
  Speaker 8: overgrown girls, just over proper size to inhabit a castle,
• 35:01
  Speaker 8: almost as large in comparison as themselves. I wish, my
• 35:06
  Speaker 8: dear Charlotte, that you could but behold these Scotch giants.
• 35:10
  Speaker 8: I am sure they would frighten you out of your wits.
• 35:13
  Speaker 8: They will do very well as foils to myself. So
• 35:15
  Speaker 8: I have invited them to accompany me to London, where
• 35:18
  Speaker 8: I hope to be in the course of a fortnight.
• 35:21
  Speaker 8: Besides these two fair damsels, I found a little humored
• 35:24
  Speaker 8: brat here who I believe is some relation to them.
• 35:27
  Speaker 8: They told me who she was and gave me a
• 35:29
  Speaker 8: long rigormarole story of her father and a miss somebody
• 35:33
  Speaker 8: which I have entirely forgot. I hate scandal and detest children.
• 35:37
  Speaker 8: I have been plagued ever since I came here with
• 35:40
  Speaker 8: tiresome visits from a parcel of Scotch wretches with terrible
• 35:44
  Speaker 8: hard names. They were so civil, give me so many invitations,
• 35:47
  Speaker 8: and talked of coming again so soon that I could
• 35:50
  Speaker 8: not help affronting them. I suppose I shall not see
• 35:53
  Speaker 8: them anymore. And yet as a family party we are
• 35:56
  Speaker 8: so stupid that I do not know what to do
• 35:58
  Speaker 8: with myself. These girls have no music but Scotch airs,
• 36:02
  Speaker 8: no drawings but Scotch mountains, and no books but Scotch poems.
• 36:06
  Speaker 8: And I hate everything Scotch in general. I can spend
• 36:10
  Speaker 8: half the day at my toilet with a great deal
• 36:12
  Speaker 8: of pleasure. But why should I dress here? Since there
• 36:15
  Speaker 8: is not a creature in the house whom I have
• 36:17
  Speaker 8: any wish to please. I have just had a conversation
• 36:20
  Speaker 8: with my brother in which he has greatly offended me,
• 36:23
  Speaker 8: and which, as I have nothing more entertaining to send you,
• 36:26
  Speaker 8: I will give you the particulars of you. Must know
• 36:29
  Speaker 8: that I have, for these four or five days past,
• 36:32
  Speaker 8: strongly suspected William of entertaining a partiality to my eldest daughter.
• 36:37
  Speaker 8: I own indeed that had I been inclined to fall
• 36:40
  Speaker 8: in love with any woman, I should not have made
• 36:43
  Speaker 8: the choice of Matilda Leslie for the object of my passion,
• 36:46
  Speaker 8: For there's nothing I hate so much as a tall woman.
• 36:50
  Speaker 8: But however, there is no accounting for some men's taste.
• 36:53
  Speaker 8: And as William is himself nearly six feet high, it
• 36:56
  Speaker 8: is not wonderful that he should be partial to that
• 36:59
  Speaker 8: high now, as I have a very great affection for
• 37:03
  Speaker 8: my brother and should be extremely sorry to see him unhappy,
• 37:06
  Speaker 8: which I suppose he means to be if he cannot
• 37:08
  Speaker 8: marry Matilda. As moreover, I know that his circumstances will
• 37:12
  Speaker 8: not allow him to marry anyone without a fortune, and
• 37:16
  Speaker 8: that Matilda's is entirely dependent on her father, who will
• 37:19
  Speaker 8: neither have his own inclination nor my permission to give
• 37:22
  Speaker 8: her anything at present. I thought it would be doing
• 37:25
  Speaker 8: a good natured action by my brother to let him
• 37:28
  Speaker 8: know as much, in order that he might choose for
• 37:31
  Speaker 8: himself whether to conquer his passion or love and despair. Accordingly,
• 37:37
  Speaker 8: finding myself this morning alone with him in one of
• 37:40
  Speaker 8: the horrid old rooms of this castle, I opened the
• 37:42
  Speaker 8: cause to him in the following manner. Well, my dear William,
• 37:46
  Speaker 8: what do you think of these girls? For my part,
• 37:48
  Speaker 8: I do not find them so plain as I expected.
• 37:51
  Speaker 8: But perhaps you may think me partial to the daughters
• 37:54
  Speaker 8: of my husband, And perhaps you are right. They are
• 37:57
  Speaker 8: indeed so very like Sir George, that it is not I'm.
• 38:00
  Speaker 5: Actual to think, my dear Susan.
• 38:02
  Speaker 8: Cried he in a tone of the greatest amazement.
• 38:06
  Speaker 5: You do not really think they bear the least resemblance
• 38:08
  Speaker 5: to their father. He is so very plain. But I
• 38:13
  Speaker 5: beg your pardon. I had entirely forgotten to whom I
• 38:16
  Speaker 5: was speaking.
• 38:18
  Speaker 8: Oh pray, don't mind me, replied I. Everyone knows Sir
• 38:21
  Speaker 8: George is horribly ugly, and I assure you I always
• 38:24
  Speaker 8: thought him affright.
• 38:26
  Speaker 5: You surprise me, extremely, answered William. By what you say
• 38:31
  Speaker 5: both with respect to Sir George and his daughters, You
• 38:35
  Speaker 5: cannot think your husband is so deficient in personal charms
• 38:38
  Speaker 5: as you speak of. Nor can you surely see any
• 38:42
  Speaker 5: resemblance between him and the miss leslies, who are, in
• 38:46
  Speaker 5: my opinion, perfectly unlike him and perfectly handsome.
• 38:51
  Speaker 8: If that is your opinion with regard to the girls,
• 38:54
  Speaker 8: it certainly is no proof of their father's beauty, For
• 38:57
  Speaker 8: if they are perfectly unlike him and very handsome at
• 39:00
  Speaker 8: the same time, it is natural to suppose that he
• 39:02
  Speaker 8: is very plain.
• 39:04
  Speaker 5: By no means, said he, for what may be pretty
• 39:09
  Speaker 5: in a woman may be very unpleasing in a man.
• 39:13
  Speaker 8: But you, yourself replied, I, but a few minutes ago
• 39:16
  Speaker 8: allowed him to be very plain.
• 39:18
  Speaker 5: Men are no judges of beauty in their own sex.
• 39:22
  Speaker 4: Said he.
• 39:23
  Speaker 8: Neither men nor women can think Sir George tolerable.
• 39:27
  Speaker 5: Well well, said he. We will not dispute about his beauty,
• 39:31
  Speaker 5: but your opinion of his daughters is surely very singular.
• 39:35
  Speaker 5: For if I understood you right, you said you did
• 39:38
  Speaker 5: not find them so plain as you expected to do.
• 39:42
  Speaker 8: Why do you find them plainer? Then, said I.
• 39:46
  Speaker 5: I can scarcely believe you to be serious, returned he.
• 39:50
  Speaker 5: When you speak of their persons in so extraordinary a manner,
• 39:54
  Speaker 5: do not you think the miss leslies are two very
• 39:57
  Speaker 5: handsome young women.
• 39:59
  Speaker 8: Lord no, oh, cried I. I think them terribly.
• 40:01
  Speaker 5: Plain plain, replied he. My dear Susan, you cannot really think.
• 40:08
  Speaker 9: So.
• 40:09
  Speaker 5: Why what single feature in the face of either of
• 40:12
  Speaker 5: them can you possibly find faults with?
• 40:16
  Speaker 10: Oh?
• 40:16
  Speaker 8: Trust me for that, replied I. Come, I will begin
• 40:19
  Speaker 8: with the eldest, with Matilda, shall i?
• 40:22
  Speaker 6: William?
• 40:22
  Speaker 8: I looked as cunning as I could when I said it,
• 40:25
  Speaker 8: in order to shame him.
• 40:27
  Speaker 5: They are so much alike, said he, that I should
• 40:30
  Speaker 5: suppose the faults of one would be the faults of both.
• 40:34
  Speaker 8: Well, then, in the first place, they are both so
• 40:36
  Speaker 8: horribly tall.
• 40:38
  Speaker 5: They are taller than you are, indeed.
• 40:41
  Speaker 8: Said he with a saucy smile. Nay said, I I
• 40:45
  Speaker 8: know nothing of that.
• 40:47
  Speaker 5: Well, but he continued, though they may be above the
• 40:51
  Speaker 5: common size, the figures are perfectly elegant, and as to
• 40:55
  Speaker 5: their faces, their eyes are beautiful.
• 40:59
  Speaker 8: I never can think such tremendous knock me down figures
• 41:02
  Speaker 8: in the least degree elegant. And as for their eyes,
• 41:05
  Speaker 8: they are so tall that I could never strain my
• 41:07
  Speaker 8: neck enough to look at them. Nay replied he.
• 41:10
  Speaker 5: I know not whether you may not be in the
• 41:13
  Speaker 5: right and not attempting it, For perhaps they might dazzle
• 41:17
  Speaker 5: you with their luster.
• 41:19
  Speaker 8: Oh, certainly, said I, with the greatest complacency. For I
• 41:23
  Speaker 8: assure you, my dearest Charlotte, I was not in the
• 41:26
  Speaker 8: least offended, though by what followed one would suppose that
• 41:29
  Speaker 8: William was conscious of having given me just cause to
• 41:32
  Speaker 8: be so. For coming up to me and taking my hand.
• 41:35
  Speaker 5: He said, you must not look so grave, Susan, you
• 41:38
  Speaker 5: will make me fear that I have offended.
• 41:40
  Speaker 8: You offended me, dear brother, how came such a thought
• 41:44
  Speaker 8: in your head? Returned I, No, really, I assure you
• 41:48
  Speaker 8: that I am not in the least surprised at your
• 41:50
  Speaker 8: being so warm an advocate for the beauty of these girls. Well,
• 41:55
  Speaker 8: but interrupted, William.
• 41:56
  Speaker 5: Remember that we have not yet concluded our dispute. Can
• 42:00
  Speaker 5: discerning them? What fault do you find with their complexion?
• 42:04
  Speaker 8: They are so horridly pale.
• 42:07
  Speaker 5: They have always a little color, and after any exercise
• 42:11
  Speaker 5: it is considerably heightened.
• 42:14
  Speaker 8: Yes, but if there should ever happen to be any
• 42:16
  Speaker 8: rain in this part of the world, they will never
• 42:19
  Speaker 8: be able to raise more than their common stock, except
• 42:22
  Speaker 8: indeed they amuse themselves with running up and down these
• 42:25
  Speaker 8: horrid old galleries.
• 42:26
  Speaker 5: And Ante Chambers, well.
• 42:29
  Speaker 8: Replied my brother, in a tone of vexation, and glancing
• 42:32
  Speaker 8: an impertinent look at me.
• 42:34
  Speaker 5: If they have but little color, at least it is
• 42:37
  Speaker 5: all their own.
• 42:39
  Speaker 8: This was too much, my dear Charlotte, for I am
• 42:42
  Speaker 8: certain that he had the impudence by that look of
• 42:45
  Speaker 8: pretending to suspect the reality of mine. But you, I
• 42:49
  Speaker 8: am sure, will vindicate my character whenever you may hear
• 42:52
  Speaker 8: it so cruellyous. First, for you can witness how often
• 42:56
  Speaker 8: I have protested against wearing rouge, and how much I
• 42:59
  Speaker 8: am always told you I disliked it, And I assure
• 43:02
  Speaker 8: you that my opinions are still the same. Well, not
• 43:05
  Speaker 8: bearing to be so suspected by my brother, I left
• 43:08
  Speaker 8: the room immediately and have been ever since in my
• 43:12
  Speaker 8: own dressing room writing to you. What a long letter
• 43:16
  Speaker 8: have I made of it? But you must not expect
• 43:18
  Speaker 8: to receive such from me when I get to town,
• 43:21
  Speaker 8: for it is only at Leslie Castle that one has
• 43:24
  Speaker 8: time to write, even to a Charlotte Letterer. I was
• 43:27
  Speaker 8: so much vexed by William's glance that I could not
• 43:29
  Speaker 8: summon patience enough to stay and give him that advice
• 43:32
  Speaker 8: respecting his attachment to Matilda, which had first induced me
• 43:36
  Speaker 8: from pure love to him to begin the conversation. And
• 43:40
  Speaker 8: I am now so thoroughly convinced by it of his
• 43:42
  Speaker 8: violent passion for her, that I am certain he would
• 43:46
  Speaker 8: never hear reason on the subject. And I shall therefore
• 43:49
  Speaker 8: give myself no more trouble either about him or his favorite. Adieu,
• 43:54
  Speaker 8: my dear girl, yours affectionately susan l.
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: End of letters. But at the seventh from Missy Luttrell
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: to Miss m.
• 44:03
  Speaker 6: Leslie, Bristol, the twenty seventh of March, I have received
• 44:10
  Speaker 6: letters from you and your mother in law within this week,
• 44:15
  Speaker 6: which have greatly entertained me, as I find by them
• 44:20
  Speaker 6: that you are both downright jealous of each other's beauty.
• 44:25
  Speaker 6: It is very odd that two pretty women, though actually
• 44:29
  Speaker 6: mother and daughter, cannot be in the same house without
• 44:33
  Speaker 6: falling out about their faces. Do be convinced that you
• 44:38
  Speaker 6: are both perfectly handsome, and say no more of the matter.
• 44:43
  Speaker 6: I suppose this letter must be directed to Portman Square, where,
• 44:48
  Speaker 6: probably great as is your affection for Leslie Castle, you
• 44:52
  Speaker 6: will not be sorry to find yourself. In spite of
• 44:56
  Speaker 6: all that people may say about Greenfield and the country,
• 45:01
  Speaker 6: I was always of opinion that London and its amusements
• 45:05
  Speaker 6: must be very agreeable for a while, and should be
• 45:10
  Speaker 6: very happy. Could my mother's income allow her to jocky
• 45:15
  Speaker 6: us into its public places during winter? I always long
• 45:21
  Speaker 6: particularly to go to Vauxhall to see whether the cold
• 45:26
  Speaker 6: beef there is cut so thin as it is reported,
• 45:30
  Speaker 6: For I have a sly suspicion that few people understand
• 45:35
  Speaker 6: the art of cutting a slice of cold beef so
• 45:38
  Speaker 6: well as I do. Nay, it would be hard if
• 45:42
  Speaker 6: I did not know something of the matter, for it
• 45:46
  Speaker 6: was a part of my education that I took by
• 45:50
  Speaker 6: far the most pains with Mamma always found me her
• 45:55
  Speaker 6: best scholar, though when Papa was alive, Eluisia was his.
• 46:01
  Speaker 6: Never to be sure were there two more different dispositions
• 46:05
  Speaker 6: in the world. We both loved reading. She preferred histories,
• 46:11
  Speaker 6: and I receipts. She loved drawing pictures, and I drawing pullets.
• 46:18
  Speaker 6: No one could sing a better song than she, and
• 46:21
  Speaker 6: no one could make a better pie than I, And
• 46:25
  Speaker 6: so it has always continued since we have been no
• 46:29
  Speaker 6: longer children. The only difference is that all disputes on
• 46:33
  Speaker 6: the superior excellence of our employments, then so frequent, are
• 46:39
  Speaker 6: now no more. We have for many years entered into
• 46:44
  Speaker 6: an agreement always to admire each other's works. I never
• 46:49
  Speaker 6: fail listening to her music, and she is as constant
• 46:55
  Speaker 6: in eating my pies. Such at least was the case
• 47:00
  Speaker 6: till Henry Herby made his appearance in Sussex, before the
• 47:06
  Speaker 6: arrival of his aunt in our neighborhood, where she established herself,
• 47:12
  Speaker 6: you know, about a twelve month ago. His visits to
• 47:16
  Speaker 6: her had been at stated times and of equal and
• 47:20
  Speaker 6: settled duration. But on her removal to the hall, which
• 47:25
  Speaker 6: is within a walk from our house, they became both
• 47:29
  Speaker 6: more frequent and longer. This, as you may suppose, could
• 47:35
  Speaker 6: not be pleasing to missus Diana, who is a professed
• 47:40
  Speaker 6: enemy to everything which is not directed by decorum and formality,
• 47:46
  Speaker 6: or which bears the least resemblance to ease and good breeding. Nay,
• 47:53
  Speaker 6: so great was her aversion to her nephew's behavior that
• 47:58
  Speaker 6: I have often heard her give such hints of it
• 48:01
  Speaker 6: before his face, that had not Henry at such times
• 48:06
  Speaker 6: been engaged in conversation with Eluisia, they must have caught
• 48:11
  Speaker 6: his attention and have very much distressed him. This alteration
• 48:17
  Speaker 6: in my sister's behavior, which I have before hinted at,
• 48:21
  Speaker 6: now took place. The agreement we had entered into of
• 48:27
  Speaker 6: admiring each other's productions she no longer seemed to regard.
• 48:32
  Speaker 6: And though I constantly applauded even every country dance she played,
• 48:39
  Speaker 6: yet not even a pigeon pie of my making could
• 48:44
  Speaker 6: obtain from her a single word of approbation. This was
• 48:49
  Speaker 6: certainly enough to put any one in a passion. However,
• 48:54
  Speaker 6: I was as cool as a cream cheese, and having
• 48:58
  Speaker 6: formed my plan and concerted a scheme of revenge, I
• 49:04
  Speaker 6: was determined to let her have her own way, and
• 49:08
  Speaker 6: not even to make her a single reproach. My scheme
• 49:13
  Speaker 6: was to treat her as she treated me, And though
• 49:17
  Speaker 6: she might even draw my own picture or play Marlbrook,
• 49:23
  Speaker 6: which is the only tune I ever really liked, not
• 49:27
  Speaker 6: to say so much as thank you, Eluisia, though I
• 49:33
  Speaker 6: had for many years constantly hallowed whenever she played Bravo, bravisimo,
• 49:40
  Speaker 6: encore de couple, ala greto, corn expression, and Poco presto
• 49:47
  Speaker 6: who with many other such outlandish words, all of them,
• 49:51
  Speaker 6: as Aluisia told me, expressive of my admiration, and so indeed,
• 49:55
  Speaker 6: I suppose they are, as I see some of them
• 49:58
  Speaker 6: in every page of every music book, being the sentiments
• 50:02
  Speaker 6: I imagine of the composer. I executed my plan with
• 50:06
  Speaker 6: great punctuality. I cannot say success for Alas My silence
• 50:12
  Speaker 6: while she played seemed not in the least to displease her.
• 50:17
  Speaker 6: On the contrary, she actually said to me one day.
• 50:23
  Speaker 9: Well, Charlotte, I'm very glad to find that you have
• 50:27
  Speaker 9: at last left off that ridiculous custom of applauding my
• 50:32
  Speaker 9: execution on the harpsichord, till you made my head ache
• 50:36
  Speaker 9: and yourself force. I feel very much obliged to you
• 50:41
  Speaker 9: for keeping your admiration to yourself.
• 50:46
  Speaker 6: I never shall forget the very witty answer I made
• 50:51
  Speaker 6: to this speech, Eluisia said, I, I beg you would
• 50:55
  Speaker 6: be quite at your ease with respect to all such
• 51:00
  Speaker 6: fears in future, for be assured that I shall always
• 51:05
  Speaker 6: keep my admiration to myself and my own pursuits, and
• 51:11
  Speaker 6: never extend it to yours. This was the only very
• 51:16
  Speaker 6: severe thing I ever said in my life, not but
• 51:21
  Speaker 6: that I have often felt myself extremely satirical. But it
• 51:26
  Speaker 6: was the only time I ever made my feelings public.
• 51:30
  Speaker 6: I suppose there never were two young people who had
• 51:34
  Speaker 6: a greater affection for each other than Henry and Aloisia.
• 51:39
  Speaker 6: Know the love of your brother for Miss Burton could
• 51:43
  Speaker 6: not be so strong, though it might be more violent.
• 51:46
  Speaker 6: You may imagine therefore, how provoked my sister must have
• 51:50
  Speaker 6: been to have him play her such a trick. Poor girl.
• 51:55
  Speaker 6: She still laments his death with undeminiush constancy, notwithstanding he
• 52:01
  Speaker 6: has been dead more than six weeks. But some people
• 52:04
  Speaker 6: mind such things more than others. The ill state of
• 52:08
  Speaker 6: health into which his loss has thrown her makes her
• 52:12
  Speaker 6: so weak and so unable to support the least exertion
• 52:17
  Speaker 6: that she has been in tears all this morning, merely
• 52:22
  Speaker 6: from having taken leave of Missus Marlowe, who, with her husband,
• 52:27
  Speaker 6: brother and child utterly Bristol this morning. I am sorry
• 52:32
  Speaker 6: to have them go, because they are the only family
• 52:36
  Speaker 6: with whom we have here any acquaintance. But I never
• 52:40
  Speaker 6: thought of crying. To be sure, Eluisia and Missus Marlowe
• 52:45
  Speaker 6: have always been more together than with me, and have
• 52:49
  Speaker 6: therefore contracted a kind of affection for each other which
• 52:54
  Speaker 6: does not make tears so inexcusable in them as they
• 52:58
  Speaker 6: would be in me. The Marlowes are going to town.
• 53:02
  Speaker 6: Cleveland accompanies them, as neither Eluisia nor I could catch him.
• 53:08
  Speaker 6: I hope you and Matilda may have better luck. I
• 53:12
  Speaker 6: know not when we shall leave Bristol. Eluisia's spirits are
• 53:16
  Speaker 6: so low that she is very averse to moving, and
• 53:20
  Speaker 6: yet is certainly by no means mended by her residence here.
• 53:25
  Speaker 6: A week or two will I hope determine our measures
• 53:30
  Speaker 6: in the meantime. Believe me, and et cetera, and et cetera.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: Charlotte Lotto l end of letter, the seventh letter the
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: eighth Miss Littorel to missus Marlowe.
• 53:44
  Speaker 9: Bristol, April fourth. I feel myself greatly obliged to you,
• 53:50
  Speaker 9: my dear Emma, for such a mark of your affection,
• 53:54
  Speaker 9: as I flatter myself, was conveyed in the proposal you
• 53:58
  Speaker 9: made me of our correspond I assure you that it
• 54:02
  Speaker 9: will be a great relief to me to write to you,
• 54:07
  Speaker 9: and as long as my health and spirits will allow me,
• 54:10
  Speaker 9: you will find me a very constant correspondent. I will
• 54:15
  Speaker 9: not say an entertaining one, for you know my situation
• 54:19
  Speaker 9: sufficiently not to be ignorant that in me mirth would
• 54:25
  Speaker 9: be improper, and I know my own heart too well
• 54:30
  Speaker 9: not to be sensible that it would be unnatural. You
• 54:34
  Speaker 9: must not expect news, for we see no one with
• 54:38
  Speaker 9: whom we are in the least acquainted, or in whose
• 54:41
  Speaker 9: proceedings we have any interest. You must not expect scandal,
• 54:46
  Speaker 9: for by the same rule we are equally debarred either
• 54:50
  Speaker 9: from hearing or inventing it. You must expect from me
• 54:55
  Speaker 9: nothing but the melancholy effusions of a broken heart, which
• 55:00
  Speaker 9: is ever reverting to the happiness it once enjoyed, and
• 55:04
  Speaker 9: which ill supports its present wretchedness. The possibility of being
• 55:09
  Speaker 9: able to write, to speak to you of my lost henry,
• 55:14
  Speaker 9: will be a luxury to me, and your goodness will not,
• 55:18
  Speaker 9: I know, refuse to read what it will so much
• 55:23
  Speaker 9: relieve my heart to write. I once thought that to
• 55:27
  Speaker 9: have what is in general called a friend, I mean
• 55:31
  Speaker 9: one of my own sex, to whom I might speak
• 55:34
  Speaker 9: with less reserve than to any other person independent of
• 55:38
  Speaker 9: my sister, would never be an object of my wishes.
• 55:42
  Speaker 9: But how much was I mistaken? Charlotte is too much
• 55:47
  Speaker 9: engrossed by too confidential correspondence of that sort to supply
• 55:53
  Speaker 9: the place of one to me. And I hope you
• 55:56
  Speaker 9: will not think me girlishly romantic when I say that
• 56:02
  Speaker 9: to have some kind and compassionate friend whom i'd listen
• 56:06
  Speaker 9: to my sorrows without endeavoring to console me was what
• 56:11
  Speaker 9: I had for some time wished for. When our acquaintance
• 56:14
  Speaker 9: with you, the intimacy which followed it, and the particular
• 56:18
  Speaker 9: affectionate attention you paid me almost from the first caused
• 56:24
  Speaker 9: me to entertain the flattering idea of those attentions being
• 56:28
  Speaker 9: improved on a closer acquaintance into a friendship, which, if
• 56:33
  Speaker 9: you were what my wishes formed, you would be the
• 56:37
  Speaker 9: greatest happiness I could be capable of enjoying. To find
• 56:43
  Speaker 9: that such hopes are realized is a satisfaction, indeed a
• 56:48
  Speaker 9: satisfaction which is now almost the only one I could
• 56:53
  Speaker 9: ever experience. Oh, I feel myself so languid that I
• 56:58
  Speaker 9: am sure where you with me, you would oblige me
• 57:02
  Speaker 9: to leave off writing, And I cannot give you a
• 57:06
  Speaker 9: greater proof of my affection for you, done by acting
• 57:10
  Speaker 9: as I know you would wish me to do, whether
• 57:14
  Speaker 9: absent or present. I am my dear Emmas, sincere friend e.
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: L end of letter the eighth better than ninth from
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: Missus Marlowe to Miss Ludureau.
• 57:30
  Speaker 10: Grosvenor Street, April tenth. Need I say, my dear, oh Larisa,
• 57:35
  Speaker 10: how welcome your letter was to me. I cannot give
• 57:38
  Speaker 10: a greater proof of the pleasure I received from it,
• 57:40
  Speaker 10: or of the desire I feel that our correspondence may
• 57:43
  Speaker 10: be regular and frequent than by setting you so good
• 57:46
  Speaker 10: an example as I now do in answering it before
• 57:49
  Speaker 10: the end of the week. But do not imagine that
• 57:51
  Speaker 10: I claim any merit in being so punctual on the contrary,
• 57:55
  Speaker 10: I assure you that it is a far greater gratification
• 57:58
  Speaker 10: to me to write to you than to spend the
• 58:00
  Speaker 10: evening either at a concert or a ball. Mister Marlowe
• 58:03
  Speaker 10: is so desirous of my appearing at some of the
• 58:06
  Speaker 10: public places every evening that I do not like to
• 58:08
  Speaker 10: refuse him, But at the same time so much wished
• 58:11
  Speaker 10: to remain at home that independent of the pleasure I
• 58:14
  Speaker 10: experience in devoting any portion of my time to my
• 58:17
  Speaker 10: dear Eluisa. Yet the liberty I claim from having a
• 58:20
  Speaker 10: letter to write, of spending an evening at home with
• 58:23
  Speaker 10: my little boy, you know me well enough to be sensible,
• 58:26
  Speaker 10: will of itself be a sufficient inducement, if one is
• 58:29
  Speaker 10: necessary to my maintaining with pleasure or correspondence with you.
• 58:33
  Speaker 10: As to the subject of your letters to me, whether
• 58:36
  Speaker 10: grave or merry, if they concern you, they must be
• 58:39
  Speaker 10: equally interesting to me. Not but that I think the
• 58:42
  Speaker 10: melancholy indulgence of your own sorrows, by repeating them and
• 58:45
  Speaker 10: dwelling on them to me, will only encourage and increase them,
• 58:49
  Speaker 10: and that it will be more prudent in you to
• 58:51
  Speaker 10: avoid so sad a subject. But yet knowing as I do,
• 58:55
  Speaker 10: what a soothing and melancholy pleasure it must afford you,
• 58:58
  Speaker 10: I cannot prevail on myself to deny you so great
• 59:01
  Speaker 10: an indulgence, and will only insist on your not expecting
• 59:04
  Speaker 10: me to encourage you in it by my own letters.
• 59:07
  Speaker 10: On the contrary, I intend to fill them with such
• 59:10
  Speaker 10: lively wit and enlivening humor as shall even provoke a
• 59:13
  Speaker 10: smile in the sweet but sorrowful countenance of my Eloisa.
• 59:17
  Speaker 10: In the first place, you are to learn that I
• 59:19
  Speaker 10: have met your sister's three friends, Lady Leslie and her daughters,
• 59:22
  Speaker 10: twice in public since I have been here. I know
• 59:26
  Speaker 10: you will be impatient to hear my opinion of the
• 59:28
  Speaker 10: beauty of three ladies of whom you have heard so much. Now,
• 59:32
  Speaker 10: as you are too ill and too unhappy to be vain,
• 59:35
  Speaker 10: I think I may venture to inform you that I
• 59:37
  Speaker 10: like none of their faces so well as I do
• 59:39
  Speaker 10: your own. Yet they are all handsome. Lady Leslie, indeed
• 59:43
  Speaker 10: I have seen before her daughters I believe, would in
• 59:46
  Speaker 10: general be said to have a finer face than her Ladyship.
• 59:49
  Speaker 10: And yet what would the charms of a blooming complexion
• 59:52
  Speaker 10: a little affectation and a great deal of small talk,
• 59:55
  Speaker 10: in each of which she is superior to the young ladies.
• 59:58
  Speaker 10: She will, I dare say, gain herself as many admirers
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 10: as the more regular features of Matilda and Margaret. I
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 10: am sure you will agree with me in saying that
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 10: they can none of them be of a proper size
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 10: for real beauty, when you know that two of them
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 10: are taller and the other shorter than ourselves. In spite
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 10: of this defect, or rather by reason of it, there
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 10: is something very noble and majestic in the figures of
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 10: the miss leslies, and something agreeably lively in the appearance
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 10: of their pretty little mother in law. But though one
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 10: may be majestic and the other lively, yet the faces
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 10: of neither possess that bewitching sweetness of my Eloisa's, which
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 10: her present languor is so far from diminishing. What would
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 10: my husband and brother say of us if they knew
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 10: all the fine things I have been saying to you
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 10: in this letter? It is very hard that a pretty
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 10: woman is never to be told she is so by
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 10: any one of her own sex, without that person's being
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 10: suspected to be either her determined enemy or her professed
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 10: toad leader. How much more amiable are women in that particular?
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 10: One man may say forty civil things to another without
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 10: our supposing that he has ever paid for it, and
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 10: provided he does his duty by our sex, we care
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 10: not how polite he is to his own. Missus Latterrell
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 10: will be so good as to accept my compliments. Charlotte,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 10: my love and Eloisa the best wishes for the recovery
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 10: of her health and spirits that can be offered by
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 10: her affectionate friend, E Marlowe. I am afraid this letter
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 10: will be but a poor specimen of my powers in
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 10: the witty way, and your opinion of them will not
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 10: be greatly increased when I assure you that I have
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 10: been as entertaining as I possibly could.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: End of letter. The ninth letter the tenth from Miss
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: Margaret Leslie to Miss Charlotte lutturelle.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 4: Portman Square, April thirteenth, My dear Charlotte, we left Leslie
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 4: Castle on the twenty eighth of last month and arrived
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 4: safely in London after a journey of seven days. I
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 4: had the pleasure of finding your letter here waiting my arrival,
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 4: for which you have my grateful thanks Ah, my dear friend,
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 4: I every day more regret the serene and tranquil pleasures
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 4: of the castle we have left in exchange for the
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 4: uncertain and unequal amusements of this vaunted city. Not that
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 4: I will pretend to assert that these uncertain and unequal
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 4: amusements are in the least degree unpleasing to me. On
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 4: the contrary, I enjoy them extremely, and should enjoy them
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 4: even more were I not certain that every appearance I
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 4: make in public but rivets the chains of those unhappy
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 4: beings whose passion it is impossible not to pity, though
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 4: it is out of my power to return. In short,
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 4: my dear Charlotte, it is my sensibility for the sufferings
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 4: of so many amiable young men, my dislike of the
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 4: extreme admiration I meet with, and my aversion to being
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 4: so celebrated, both in public, in private, in papers and
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 4: in print shops, that are the reasons why I cannot
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 4: more fully enjoy the amusements so various and pleasing of London.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 4: How often have I wished that I possessed as little
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 4: personal beauty as you do, that my figure were as inelegant,
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 4: my face as unlovely, and my appearance as unpleasing as yours,
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 4: But are what little chance is there of so desirable
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 4: an event? I have had the smallpox and must therefore
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 4: submit to my unhappy fate. I am now going to
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 4: entrust you, my dear Charlotte, with a secret which has
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 4: long disturbed the tranquility of my days, and which is
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 4: of a kind to require the most inviolable secrecy from you.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 4: Last Monday tonight, Machildren, I accompanied Lady Leslie to a
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 4: route at that honorable missus Kickabouts. We were escorted by
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 4: mister Fitzgerald, who was a very amiable young man in
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 4: the main, though perhaps a little singer in his taste.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 4: He is in love with Matilda. We had scarcely paid
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 4: our compliments to the lady of the house, and curtsied
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 4: to half a score different people, when my attention was
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 4: attracted by the appearance of a young man, the most
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 4: lovely of his sex, who at that moment entered the
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 4: room with another gentleman and lady. From the first moment
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 4: I beheld him, I was certain that on him depended
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 4: the future happiness of my life. Imagine my surprise when
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 4: he was introduced to me by the name of Cleveland.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 4: I instantly recognized him as the brother of Missus Marlowe
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 4: and the acquaintance of my Charlotte at Bristol. Mister and
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 4: Missus m were a gentleman and lady who accompanied him.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 4: You do not think Missus Marlowe handsome. The elegant address
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 4: of mister Cleveland, his polished manners and delightful bow at
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 4: once confirmed my attach He did not speak, but I
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 4: can imagine everything he would have said had he opened
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 4: his mouth. I can picture to myself the cultivated understanding,
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 4: the noble sentiments, and elegant language which would have shone
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 4: so conspicuous in the conversation of mister Cleveland. The approach
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 4: of Sir James Gower, one of my two numerous admirers,
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 4: prevented the discovery of any such powers, by putting an
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 4: end to a conversation we had never commenced, and by
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 4: attracting my attention to himself. But oh, how inferior are
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 4: the accomplishments of Sir James to those of his so
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 4: greatly envy rival. Sir James is one of the most
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 4: frequent of our visitors, and is almost always of our parties.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 4: We have since often met mister and Missus Marlowe, but
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 4: no Cleveland. He is always engaged somewhere else. Missus Marlowe
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 4: fatigues me to death every time I see her by
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 4: her tiresome conversations about you and Eloisa. She is so stupid.
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 4: I live in the hope of seeing her irresistible brother tonight,
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 4: as we are going to Lady Flambo's, who is I
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 4: know intimate with the Marlowe's. Our party will be Lady Leslie,
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 4: Matilda Fitzgerald, Sir James Gower, and myself. We see little
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 4: of Sir George, who is almost always at the gaming table. Ah,
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 4: my poor fortune, where art thou? By this time we
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 4: see more of Lady l who always makes her appearance
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 4: highly rouged at dinner time. Alas, what delightful duels will
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 4: she be decked in this evening at Lady Flambo's. Is
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 4: I wonder how she can herself delight in wearing them?
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 4: Surely she must be sensible of the ridiculous impropriety of
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 4: loading her diminutive figure with such superfluous ornaments. Is it
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 4: possible that she cannot know how greatly superior an elegant
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 4: simplicity is to the most studied apparel, would she but
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 4: present them to Matildron me? How greatly should we be
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 4: obliged to her? How becoming would diamonds be on our
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 4: fine majestic figures? And how surprising it is that such
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 4: an idea should never have occurred to her. I am
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 4: sure if I have reflected in this manner once, I
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 4: have fifty times whenever I see Lady Leslie dressed in them,
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 4: such reflections immediately come across me my own mother's jewels too.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 4: But I will say no more on so melancholy a subjects.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 4: Let me entertain you with something more pleasing. Matilda had
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 4: a letter this morning from Leslie, by which we have
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 4: the pleasure of finding that he is at Naples, has
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 4: to and Roman Catholic, obtained one of the Pope's bulls
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 4: for annulling his first marriage, and has since actually married
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 4: a Neapolitan lady of great rank and fortune. He tells
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 4: us moreover that much the same sort of affair has
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 4: befallen his first wife, The worthless Louisa, who is likewise
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 4: at Naples, had turned Roman Catholic and is soon to
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 4: be married to a Neapolitan nobleman of great and distinguished merit.
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 4: He says that they are at present very good friends,
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 4: have quite forgiven all past errors, and intend in future
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 4: to be very good neighbours. He invites matildren Me to
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 4: pay him a visit to Italy and to bring him
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 4: his little Louisa, whom both a mother stepmother and himself
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 4: are equally desirous of beholding. As to our accepting his invitation,
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 4: it is at present very uncertain. Lady Leslie advises us
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 4: to go without loss of time. Time Fitzgerald offers to
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 4: escort us there, but Matilda has some doubts of the
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 4: propriety of such a scheme. She owns it would be
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 4: very agreeable. I am certain she likes the fellow. My
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 4: father desires us not to be in a hurry, as
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 4: perhaps if we wait a few months, both he and
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 4: Lady Leslie will do themselves the pleasure of attending us.
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 4: Lady Leslie says, no, that nothing will ever tempt her
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 4: to forego the amusements of bright Helmstone for a journey
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 4: to Italy merely to see our brother. No, says the
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 4: disagreeable woman.
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 8: I have once in my life been fool enough to travel.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 8: I don't know how many hundred miles to see two
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 8: of the family, and I found it did not answer.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 8: So deuce take me if I am ever so foolish again.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 4: So says her Ladyship. But Sir George still perseveres in
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 4: saying that perhaps in a month or two they may
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 4: accompany us. Adieu, my dear Charlotte, Yours faithful Margaret Leslie.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: End of letter The tenth End of Leslie Castle by
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: Jane Austen