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42 - Centaur by Algernon Blackwood · Centaur

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  Speaker 1: Chapter forty two of The Centaur by Alginnon Blackwood. This
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  Speaker 1: Liberywox recording is in the public domain. Read by yoganand
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  Speaker 1: the Centaur, Chapter forty two. There followed four days then
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  Speaker 1: of sea Criest left behind Messina and the Lipari Islands passed,
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  Speaker 1: and the blue outline of Sardinia and Corsica began to
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  Speaker 1: keep pace with them. As they near the narrow straits
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  Speaker 1: of Bonifacio between them, the passengers came up to watch
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  Speaker 1: the rocky, desolate shows slipped by so close, and Captain
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  Speaker 1: Bergenfelder was on the bridge. Gray headed rocks rose everywhere
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  Speaker 1: close about the ship. Overhead the sea gulls cried and circled.
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  Speaker 1: No vegetation was visible on either shore. No horses, no
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  Speaker 1: abode of men, nothing but the lighthouses, then miles of
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  Speaker 1: deserted rock, dressed in those splendors with the sun's good night.
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  Speaker 1: The dinner gong had sounded, but the sight was too
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  Speaker 1: magnificent to leave for the setting sun floated on an
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  Speaker 1: emblazoned sea and stead straight against them in level glory.
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  Speaker 1: Down the narrow passage, unimaginable colors painted sky and wave,
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  Speaker 1: the ruddy cliffs of bleak loneliness rose from a bed
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  Speaker 1: of flame, soft as fanned the cheeks with welcome coldness
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  Speaker 1: after the fierce heat of the day. There was a
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  Speaker 1: scent of wild honey in the air, borne from the
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  Speaker 1: purple uplands far far away. I wonder, oh, I wonder
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  Speaker 1: if they realized that God is passing close. The Irish
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  Speaker 1: Man murmured, with the rising of the heart, and that
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  Speaker 1: here is a great mood of the earth consciousness inviting
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  Speaker 1: them to peace. Or do they merely see a yellow
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  Speaker 1: sun that dips beneath the violet sea. The washing of
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  Speaker 1: the water passed the steamer's side, caught away the rest
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  Speaker 1: of the half whispered birds. He remembered that host of
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  Speaker 1: many thousand heads had bowed in silence while a god
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  Speaker 1: swept by. It was almost a shock to hear a
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  Speaker 1: voice replying close beside him. Come to my cabin when
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  Speaker 1: you are ready. My windows open to the west. We
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  Speaker 1: can be alone together. We can have their watfoot need
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  Speaker 1: you would prefer it. Perhaps He felt the touch of
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  Speaker 1: the sympathetic hand upon his shoulder and bent his head
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  Speaker 1: to signify agreement. For a moment, face to face with
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  Speaker 1: the superb sunset he had known, a deep and utter
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  Speaker 1: piece in that vast bosom of this great soul bought
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  Speaker 1: him her consciousness again had bruised and fringed his own.
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  Speaker 1: Across that delicately divided threshold. The beauty and the power
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  Speaker 1: of the gods had poured in a flood into his being.
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  Speaker 1: And only there was peace, Only there was joy. Only
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  Speaker 1: there was the death of those ancient yearnings that tortured
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  Speaker 1: his little, personal and separate existence. The return to the
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  Speaker 1: world was aching pain again. The old loneliness that seemed
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  Speaker 1: more than he could bear, swept icily through him, contracting
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  Speaker 1: life and freezing every spring of joy. For in that
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  Speaker 1: single instant of return he felt pass into him a
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  Speaker 1: loneliness of the whole traviiling world, the loneliness of countless centuries,
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  Speaker 1: the loneliness of all the races of the earth who
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  Speaker 1: were exiled and had lost the way. Too deep it
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  Speaker 1: lay for words or tears or sighs. The Doctor's invitation
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  Speaker 1: came most opportunely and presently. In the silence. He turned
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  Speaker 1: his back upon the open sky of dream from which
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  Speaker 1: the sun had gone, and walked slowly down the deck
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  Speaker 1: towards Stall's cabin. If only can share it with them,
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  Speaker 1: he thought as he went, if only men will listen,
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  Speaker 1: if only they will come, to keep it all to myself,
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  Speaker 1: to dream alone will kill me. And as he stood
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  Speaker 1: before the door, it seemed he heard wild rushing through
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  Speaker 1: the sky, the tramping of a thousand hoofs, a roaring
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  Speaker 1: of the wind, the joy of that free, torrential passage
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  Speaker 1: with the earth. He turned the handle and entered the
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  Speaker 1: cozy room, where weeks before they held the inquest on
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  Speaker 1: the little empty tenement of flesh, remembering how that other
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  Speaker 1: figure had once stood where he now stood, part of
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  Speaker 1: the sun rise, part of the sea, part of the
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  Speaker 1: morning winds. There their meals almost in silence, while the
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  Speaker 1: glow of sunset filled the cabin through the western row
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  Speaker 1: of portholes. When it was Overstall made the coffee as
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  Speaker 1: of old and lit the familiar black cigar. Slowly, o'many's
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  Speaker 1: pain and restlessness gave way before the other's soothing quiet.
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  Speaker 1: He had never known him before, so calm and gentle,
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  Speaker 1: so sympathetic, almost tender. The usual sarcasm seemed wailed in sadness.
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  Speaker 1: There was no irony in the voice, no mockery in
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  Speaker 1: the eyes. Then to the irishman. It came suddenly that
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  Speaker 1: all these days, while he had been lost in dreaming,
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  Speaker 1: the doctor had kept him, as of old, under close observation.
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  Speaker 1: The completeness of his reverie had concealed from him this
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  Speaker 1: steady scrutiny. He had been oblivious to the fact that
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  Speaker 1: Tall had all the time been watching, investigating, keenly examining. Abruptly,
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  Speaker 1: he now realized it, and then Stall spoke. His tone
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  Speaker 1: was winning, his man of frank and inviting, But it
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  Speaker 1: was a sadness about him that one O'malice's confidence so holy,
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  Speaker 1: I can guess. He said, something of the dream you
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  Speaker 1: brought with you from those mountains, understand more, perhaps then
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  Speaker 1: you imagine and can sympathize more than you thing possible.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me about it fully, if you can, I see
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  Speaker 1: your heart is very full, and in the telling you
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  Speaker 1: will find relief. I'm not hostile as you sometimes feel.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me, my dear young clear eyed friend, tell me
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  Speaker 1: your vision and your hope. Perhaps I might even help,
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  Speaker 1: for there may be things that I could also tell
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  Speaker 1: to you in return, something in the choice of the words,
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  Speaker 1: none of which offended. In the atmosphere and setting, no
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  Speaker 1: detail of which chart, and in the degree of balance
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  Speaker 1: between utterance and silence, his world of inner forces just
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  Speaker 1: then knew, combined to make the invitation irresistible Moreoway had
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  Speaker 1: wanted to tell it all these days. Stall was alderdly,
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  Speaker 1: half convinced Stall would surely understand and help him. It
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  Speaker 1: was a psychological moment for confession. The two men rose
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  Speaker 1: in the same moment, Stall to lock the cabin doors
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  Speaker 1: against interruption, O'Malley to set their chairs more closely, side
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  Speaker 1: by side, so that talking should be easiest. And then,
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  Speaker 1: without timor or hesitation, he opened his heart to this other,
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  Speaker 1: and let the floodgates of his soul swing wide. He
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  Speaker 1: told the vision, and he told the dream. He told
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  Speaker 1: his hope as well, and the story of his passion,
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  Speaker 1: filled in with pages from those notebooks he ever carried
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  Speaker 1: in his pocket, still lasted. When the western blow had
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  Speaker 1: faded from the sky, and the thick sown stars shone
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  Speaker 1: down upon the gliding steamer, the hush of night lay
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  Speaker 1: soft upon the world. Before he finished, he told the
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  Speaker 1: thing complete much I imagine, as he told it all
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  Speaker 1: to me upon the roof of that apartment building, and
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  Speaker 1: in the dingy Soho Restaurant. He told it without reservations,
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  Speaker 1: his lifelong yearnings, the explanation brought by the presence of
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  Speaker 1: the silent stranger upon the outward voyage, the journey to
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  Speaker 1: the garden, the vision that all life, from gods to flowers,
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  Speaker 1: from ment to mountains, lay contained in the conscious being
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  Speaker 1: of the earth. That beauty was but glimpses of essential nakedness,
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  Speaker 1: and the salvation of the world's disease of modern life
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  Speaker 1: was to be found in a general return to the
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  Speaker 1: simplicity of nature, close against a mothering heart. He told
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  Speaker 1: it all in words that his passionate joy chose faultlessly,
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  Speaker 1: and Heinrich stole in silence, listened, He asked no single question.
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  Speaker 1: He made no movement in his chair. His black cigar
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  Speaker 1: went out before the half of it was smoked. The
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  Speaker 1: darkness hid his face impenetrably, and no one came to interrupt.
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  Speaker 1: The murmur of the speeding steamer and occasional footsteps on
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  Speaker 1: the deck as passengers passed to and fro in the
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  Speaker 1: cool of the night, where the only sounds that broke
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  Speaker 1: the music of that incurable, idealist, impassioned story. The end
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  Speaker 1: of chapter forty two