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Diana of the Crossways Chapter 2 - An Irish Ball · The George Meredith Library

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Speaker 1: Chapter two of Diana of the Crossways. This is a
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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Speaker 1: Recording by Pamela and Agami. Diana of the Crossways by
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Speaker 1: George Meredith. Chapter two, an Irish Ball. In the assembly
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Speaker 1: rooms of the capital city of the Sister Island, there
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Speaker 1: was a public ball to celebrate the return to Erin
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Speaker 1: of a British hero of Irish blood after his victorious
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Speaker 1: Indian campaign. A mighty struggle splendidly ended. And truly it
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Speaker 1: could be said that all Erin danced to meet him.
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Speaker 1: But this was the pick of the dancing past dispute
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Speaker 1: the pick of the supping outside those halls, The supping
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Speaker 1: was done in Lazarus fashion, mainly through an excessive straining
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Speaker 1: of the organs of hearing and vision, which imparted the
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Speaker 1: readiness for more, declared by physicians to be the state
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Speaker 1: inducing to sound digestion. Some one spied the figure of
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Speaker 1: the hero at the window and was fed. Some only
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Speaker 1: to hear the tale, chewed the cut of it. Some
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Speaker 1: told of having seen him mount the steps, and sure
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Speaker 1: it was that at an hour of the night, no
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Speaker 1: matter when, and never mind a drop or two of cloud,
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Speaker 1: he would come down them again and have an Irish
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Speaker 1: cheer to freshen his pillow. For tis Ireland gives England
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Speaker 1: her soldiers, her generals.
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Speaker 2: Too.
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Speaker 1: Farther away over field and Bogland, the Whiskies did their excellent,
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Speaker 1: ancient service of watering the dry and drying the damp.
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Speaker 1: To the toast of Lord Lary, and God bless him,
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Speaker 1: he's an honor to the old country. And a bit
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Speaker 1: of a sigh of follow hints of a story and
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Speaker 1: loud laughter, a drink, a deeper sigh, settling into conversation
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Speaker 1: about the brave Lord Larian's deeds in an Irish regiment.
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Speaker 2: He favored.
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Speaker 1: I had no taste for the enemy without the backing
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Speaker 1: of his boys, not he why he'd never march to battle,
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Speaker 1: And nay, not handy, because when he struck, he struck hard,
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Speaker 1: he said, And he has a wound on the right
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Speaker 1: hip and two fingers off his left hand. Has bled
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Speaker 1: for England to show her what irishmen are when they're
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Speaker 1: well treated. The fine old warrior standing at the upper
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Speaker 1: end of the long saloon, tall straight, gray haired marshal,
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Speaker 1: in his aspect and decorations, was worthy to be the
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Speaker 1: flagpole for enthusiasm. His large gray eyes lightened from time
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Speaker 1: to time as he ranged them over the floating couples
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Speaker 1: and dropped.
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Speaker 2: A word of inquiry to his aid.
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Speaker 1: Captain Sir Lucan Dunstaine, a good model of a cavalry officer,
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Speaker 1: though somewhat a giant, equally happy with his chief. In
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Speaker 1: passing the troops of animated ladies under review, he named
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Speaker 1: as many as were known to him. Reviewing women exquisitely
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Speaker 1: attired for inspection, all variously and charmingly smiling, is a
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Speaker 1: relief after the monotonous regiments of men. Ireland had done
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Speaker 1: her best to present the hero of her blood and
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Speaker 1: agreeable change, And he too, expressed a patriotic satisfaction on
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Speaker 1: hearing that the faces most admired by him were of
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Speaker 1: the native Isle. He looked upon one that came whirling
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Speaker 1: up to him on a young officer's arm, and swept
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Speaker 1: off into the crowd of tops for a considerable while
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Speaker 1: before he put his customary question. She was returning on
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Speaker 1: the spin when he said, who is she? Sir Lucan
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Speaker 1: did not know. She's a new bird.
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Speaker 2: She nodded to my wife, I'll ask. He maneuvered a.
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Speaker 1: Few steps cleverly to where his wife reposed. The information
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Speaker 1: he gathered for the behoof of his chief was that
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Speaker 1: the handsome creature answered to the name of miss Marian Irish,
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Speaker 1: aged somewhere between eighteen and nineteen, a dear friend of
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Speaker 1: his wife's, and he ought to have remembered her, but
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Speaker 1: she was a child when he saw her last.
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Speaker 2: Dan Marian died.
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Speaker 1: I remember about the day of my sailing for India,
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Speaker 1: said the general. She may be his daughter. The bright
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Speaker 1: Synisure rounded up to him in the web of the
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Speaker 1: walls with her dark eyes for Lady Dunstane, and vanished
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Speaker 1: again amongst the twisting columns.
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Speaker 2: He made his.
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Speaker 1: Way handsomely, bumped by an apologetic pair to Lady Dunstain,
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Speaker 1: beside whom a seat was vacated for him, and he
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Speaker 1: trusted she had not over fatigued herself. Confess, she replied,
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Speaker 1: you are perishing to know more than Lucan has been
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Speaker 1: able to tell you.
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Speaker 2: Let me hear that you admire her.
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Speaker 1: It pleases me, and you shall hear what will please
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Speaker 1: you as much I promise you, General, I do. Who wouldn't,
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Speaker 1: said he frankly. She crossed the channel expressly to dance
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Speaker 1: here to night at the public ball in honor of you,
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Speaker 1: Where she appears, the first person falls to second rank
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Speaker 1: and accepts it humbly.
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Speaker 2: That is grandly spoken.
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Speaker 1: She makes everything in the room dust round a blazing jewel.
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Speaker 1: She makes a poet of a soldier. Well that you
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Speaker 1: may understand how pleased I am. She is my dearest friend.
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Speaker 1: Though she is younger than I, as may be seen,
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Speaker 1: she is the only friend I have. I nursed her
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Speaker 1: when she was an infant. My father and mister Dan
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Speaker 1: Marian were chums. We were parted by my marriage and
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Speaker 1: the voyage to India. We have not yet exchanged a syllable.
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Speaker 1: She was snapped up, of course, the moment she entered
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Speaker 1: the room, I knew she would be a taking girl.
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Speaker 2: How lovely I did not guess. You are right.
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Speaker 1: She extinguishes the others. She used to be the sprightliest
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Speaker 1: of living creatures, and to judge by her letters, that
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Speaker 1: is not faded. She's in the market. General Lord Larian
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Speaker 1: nodded to everything he heard, concluding with a mock doleful
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Speaker 1: shape the head, my poorest subaltern, he sighed, in the
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Speaker 1: theatrical but cordially melancholy style of green Age viewing Cytherea's market.
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Speaker 1: His poorest subaltern was richer than he in the wherewithal
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Speaker 1: to bid for such prizes?
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Speaker 2: What is her name?
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Speaker 1: In addition to Marian Diana, Antonia, Marian Tony to me, Diana.
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Speaker 2: To the world.
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Speaker 1: She lives over there, in England or anywhere wherever she
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Speaker 1: is taken in she will live, I hope chiefly with.
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Speaker 2: Me and honest irish. Oh, she's irish. Ah.
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Speaker 1: The general was irish to the heels that night. Before
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Speaker 1: further could be said, the fair object of the dialog came,
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Speaker 1: darting on a triple little runs, both hands out all
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Speaker 1: her face. One tender sparkle of a smile in her
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Speaker 1: cry proved the quality of her blood. Emmy, Emmy, my heart,
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Speaker 1: my dear Tony. I should not have come but for
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Speaker 1: the whole of seeing you here. Lord Larian rose and
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Speaker 1: received a hurried acknowledgment of his courtesy from the usurper
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Speaker 1: of his place. Emmy, we might kiss and hug. We're
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Speaker 1: in Ireland. I burned to but you're not still ill. Dear,
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Speaker 1: say no, that Indian fever must have gone. You do
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Speaker 1: look a dash pale my own. You're tired. One dance
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Speaker 1: has tired me. Why were you so late to give
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Speaker 1: the others a chance to produce a greater impression by suspense?
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Speaker 2: No, and no, I wrote you.
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Speaker 1: I was with the Pettigrews. We caught the coach, we
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Speaker 1: caught the boat. We were only two hours late for
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Speaker 1: the ball, so we did wonders and good missus Pettigrew
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Speaker 1: is pining somewhere to complete her adornment. I was in
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Speaker 1: the crush spying for Emmy when mister Mayor informed me
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Speaker 1: it was the duty of every irishwoman to dance her
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Speaker 1: toes off if she'd be known for what she is
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Speaker 1: ann twirl. A man had me by the waist, and
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Speaker 1: I dying to find you.
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Speaker 2: Who was the man?
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Speaker 1: Not to save these limbs from the lighted steak? Could
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Speaker 1: I tell you are to perform a ceremonious bow to
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Speaker 1: Lord Larian. Chatter first a little. The plea for chatter
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Speaker 1: was disregarded. It was visible that the hero of the
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Speaker 1: night hung listening, and in expectation. He and the beauty
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Speaker 1: were named to one another and they chatted through a quadrille.
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Speaker 1: Sir Lucan introduced a fellow Herovian of the old days,
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Speaker 1: mister Thomas Redworth, to his wife, our weather prophet meteorologist.
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Speaker 1: He remarked, to set them going. You remember in India,
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Speaker 1: my pointing to you his name in a newspaper let
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Speaker 1: her on the subject. He was generally safe for the
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Speaker 1: cricketing days. Lady Dunstaine kindly appeared to call it to mind,
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Speaker 1: and she led upon them, queried at times by an
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Speaker 1: abrupt hum, And I beg pardon for manifestly his gaze
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Speaker 1: and one of his ears, if not the pair were
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Speaker 1: given to the young lady discoursing with Lord Larian, beauty
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Speaker 1: is rare.
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Speaker 2: Luckily is it rare? Or?
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Speaker 1: Judging from its effect on men and the very stoutest
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Speaker 1: of them, our world would be internally more distracted planet
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Speaker 1: than we see, to the perversion of business, courtesy, rights
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Speaker 1: of property and the rest. She perceived an incipient victim
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Speaker 1: of the hundreds she anticipated, and she very tolerantly talked
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Speaker 1: on the Weatherin women have some resemblance. They say, is
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Speaker 1: it true that he who reads.
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Speaker 2: The one can read the other?
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Speaker 1: Lord Larian here burst into a brave old laugh, exclaiming,
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Speaker 1: oh good, mister Redworth knitted his thick brows. I beg pardon, ah,
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Speaker 1: women weatherin women? No, the one point more variable in
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Speaker 1: women makes all the difference. Can you tell me what?
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Speaker 1: The General laughed at. The honest Englishman entered the t
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Speaker 1: with promptitude.
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Speaker 2: She said, who is she? May I ask you?
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Speaker 1: Lady Dunstaine mentioned her name, daughter of the famous Dan Marian.
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Speaker 2: The young lady.
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Speaker 1: Merited examination for her father's sake, but when reminded of
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Speaker 1: her laughter moving speech, mister Redworth bungled it. He owned
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Speaker 1: he spoiled it, and candidly stated his inability to see
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Speaker 1: the fun. She said, Saint George's channel in a gale
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Speaker 1: ought to be called Saint Patrick's. Something I miss some
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Speaker 1: point that quadrill tune the pastoral or something she had
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Speaker 1: experience of the channel last night. Lady Dunstane pursued, and
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Speaker 1: they both, while in seeming converse, caught snatches from their neighbors.
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Speaker 1: During a pause of the dance, the sparkling Diana said,
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Speaker 1: to Lord Larian, you really declined to make any of
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Speaker 1: us proud women by dancing to night? The General answered,
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Speaker 1: I might do it on two stilts. I can't on one.
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Speaker 1: He touched his veteran leg, but surely, said she. There's
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Speaker 1: always an inspiration coming to it from its partner in motion.
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Speaker 1: If one of them takes the step. He signified a
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Speaker 1: woeful negative. My dear young lady, you say dark things
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Speaker 1: to gray hairs, she rejoined. If we were over in
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Speaker 1: England and you fixed on me the stigma of saying
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Speaker 1: dark things, I should never speak without being thought obscure.
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Speaker 1: It's because you flashed too brightly for them. I think
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Speaker 1: it is rather the reminiscence of the tooth that received
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Speaker 1: a stone wind. Expected candy again. The General laughed, He
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Speaker 1: looked pleased and warmed, Yes, that's their way, that's their way.
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Speaker 1: And he repeated her words to himself, diminishing their importance
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Speaker 1: as he stamped them on his memory, but so heartily
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Speaker 1: admiring the lovely speaker that he considered her wit and
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Speaker 1: honor to the old country, and told her so irish
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Speaker 1: prevailed up to the boiling point. Lady Dunstane, not less gratified,
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Speaker 1: glanced up at mister Redworth, whose brows bore the knot
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Speaker 1: of perplexity over a strong stare he too, stamped the
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Speaker 1: words on his memory to cease. Subsequently, whether they had
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Speaker 1: a vestige of meaning terrifically precocious, he thought her Lady Dunstain,
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Speaker 1: in her quick sympathy with her friend, read the adverse
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Speaker 1: mind in his face, and her reading of the mind
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Speaker 1: was right wrong altogether. Her deduction of the corresponding sentiment
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Speaker 1: music was resumed to confuse the hearing.
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Speaker 2: Of the eaves droppers.
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Speaker 1: They beheld a quaint spectacle. A gentleman, obviously an Englishman,
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Speaker 1: approached with the evident intention of reminding the beauty of
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Speaker 1: the night of her engagement to him and claiming her
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Speaker 1: as it were in the lion's jaws. He advanced afoot Withdrew.
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Speaker 1: It advanced Withdrew, eager for his prize, not over enterprising
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Speaker 1: in all the illustrious general she entertained, presumably quite unaware
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Speaker 1: of the pretender's presence. Whereupon a voice was heard, Oh,
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Speaker 1: if it was minueting you meant before the lady, I'd
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Speaker 1: never have disputed your right to perform, sir. For it
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Speaker 1: seemed that there were two claimants in the field, an
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Speaker 1: Irishman and an Englishman, and the former, having a livelier
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Speaker 1: sense of the situation, hung aloof in waiting for her eye,
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Speaker 1: the latter directed himself to strike bluntly at his prey,
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Speaker 1: and he continued minuetting, now rapidly, blinking, flushed, angry, conscious
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Speaker 1: of awkwardness and a tangle incapable of extrication, he began
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Speaker 1: to blink horribly under the raillery of his rival. The
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Speaker 1: general observed him, but as an object, remote and minute,
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Speaker 1: a fly or gnat. The face of the brilliant Diana
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Speaker 1: was entirely devoted to him, she amused. Lady Dunstain had
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Speaker 1: the faint lines of a decorous laugh on her lips
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Speaker 1: as she said, how odd it is that our men
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Speaker 1: show to such disadvantage in a ball room. I have
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Speaker 1: seen them in danger, and there they shine first of
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Speaker 1: any and one is proud of them. They should always
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Speaker 1: be facing the elements or in action. She glanced at
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Speaker 1: the minuet, which had become a petrified figure, still palpitating,
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Speaker 1: bent forward an interrogative reminder. Mister Redworth reserved his assent
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Speaker 1: to the proclamation of any English disadvantage. A whiff of
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Speaker 1: Celtic hostility in the atmosphere put him on his metal.
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Speaker 1: Wherever the man is tried, he said, my lady. The
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Speaker 1: Irish gentleman bowed to Lady Dunstain. I had the honor
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Speaker 1: Sullivan Smith at the castle. She responded to the salute,
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Speaker 1: and mister Sullivan Smith proceeded to tell her half in
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Speaker 1: speech half in dot's most luminous of a civil contention
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Speaker 1: between the English gentleman and himself as to the possession
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Speaker 1: of the loveliest partners for this particular ensuing dance, and
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Speaker 1: that they had simultaneously made a rush from the lower courts,
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Speaker 1: namely their cards, to the upper being. The lady and
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Speaker 1: mister Sullivan Smith partly founded his preferable claim on her
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Speaker 1: Irish descent and on his acquaintance with her eminent defunct father,
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Speaker 1: one of the ever radiating stars of his quenchless country.
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Speaker 1: Lady Dunstain sympathized with him for his not intruding his
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Speaker 1: claim when the young lady stood pre engaged, as well
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Speaker 1: as in humorous appreciation of his imaginative logic. There will
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Speaker 1: be dancing enough after supper.
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Speaker 2: She said.
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Speaker 1: If I could score one dance with her, I'd go
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Speaker 1: home supperless and feasted, said he. And that's not saying
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Speaker 1: much among the hordes of hungry trooper's tiptoe for the signal.
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Speaker 2: To the buffet.
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Speaker 1: See my lady, the gentleman as we call him, there
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Speaker 1: he is working his gamut perpetually up to the da capo.
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Speaker 1: Oh but it's a sheep trying to be a wolf.
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Speaker 1: He's sheep bite and he's a wolf fan, pathetic and larcenous.
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Speaker 2: Oh now, who believe it? The man is dared.
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Speaker 1: I'd as soon think of committing sacrilegion a cathedral. The
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Speaker 1: man was actually, to quote his indignant rival, breaching the
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Speaker 1: fortress and pointing out to Diana Marian her name on
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Speaker 1: his dirty scrap of paper, A shocking sight when the
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Speaker 1: lady's recollection was the sole point to be aimed at
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Speaker 1: and the only umpire. As if all of us couldn't
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Speaker 1: have written that and hadn't done it. Mister Sullivan Smith
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Speaker 1: groaned disgustedly. He hated bad manners, particularly in cases involving ladies,
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Speaker 1: and the bad manners of a Saxon fired his antagonism
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Speaker 1: to the race, individual members of which he boasted of
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Speaker 1: forgiving and embracing honoring. So the man blackened the race
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Speaker 1: for him, and the race was excused in the man,
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Speaker 1: but his hatred of bad manners was vehement and would
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Speaker 1: have extended to a fellow countryman. His own were of
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Speaker 1: the antecedent century. Therefore, venerable Diana turned from her pursuer
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Speaker 1: with a comic woeful lifting of the brows at her friend.
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Speaker 1: Lady Dunstain motioned her fan and Diana came, bending head, are.
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Speaker 2: You bound and honor?
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Speaker 1: I don't think I am, and I do want to
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Speaker 1: go on talking with the General. He is so delightful
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Speaker 1: and modest, My dream of a true soldier telling me
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Speaker 1: of his last big battle, bit by bit to my fishing.
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Speaker 1: Put off this person for a square, dance down the
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Speaker 1: list and take out mister Redworth, Miss Diana Merlin, mister Redworth.
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Speaker 1: He will bring you back to the General, who must
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Speaker 1: not totally absorb you, or he will forfeit his popularity.
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Speaker 1: Diana instantly struck a treaty with the pertinacious advocate of
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Speaker 1: his claims, to whom, on his relinquishing her, mister Sullivan
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Speaker 1: Smith remarked, oh, sir, the law of it were a
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Speaker 1: lady's concerned. You're one for evictions, I should guess, and
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Speaker 1: the anti human process. It's that letter of the law
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Speaker 1: that stands between you and me and mine and yours.
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Speaker 1: But ye've got your kanji on my blessing on ye
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Speaker 1: it was a positive engagement, said the enemy mister Sullivan.
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Speaker 1: Smith derided him in a pretty partner you've picked for
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Speaker 1: yourself when she keeps her positive engagement, He besought Lady
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Speaker 1: Dunstain to console him with a turn. She pleaded weariness.
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Speaker 1: He proposed to sit beside her.
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Speaker 2: And divert her.
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Speaker 1: She smiled, but warned him that she was English in
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Speaker 1: every vein, he interjected, irishmen an English women. Though it's
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Speaker 1: put in the cart before the horse, the copper pennies
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Speaker 1: where the gold guinea should be.
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Speaker 2: So here's the gentleman.
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Speaker 1: Who takes the oyster, like the lawyer of the fable.
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Speaker 1: English is he? But we read the last shall be first?
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Speaker 1: An englishwoman an irishman make the finest coupling in the universe.
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Speaker 1: You must submit to see an irishwoman let out by
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Speaker 1: an englishman, said Lady dunstan at the same time informing
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Speaker 1: the obedient Diana, then bestowing her hand on mister Redworth
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Speaker 1: to please her friend, that he was a schoolfellow of
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Speaker 1: her husband's favor can't help coming by rotation except in
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Speaker 1: very extraordinary circumstances. And he was ahead of me with you,
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Speaker 1: and takes my do and twould be hard on me
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Speaker 1: if I weren't thoroughly indemnified, mister Sullivan Smith bowed. You
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Speaker 1: gave them just the start over the frozen minute for conversation.
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Speaker 1: They were total strangers. And he doesn't appear a bad
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Speaker 1: sort of fellow for a temporary mate, though he's not
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Speaker 1: perfectly sure of his legs. And nat will excuse to
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Speaker 1: any man leading out such a fresh, young beauty of
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Speaker 1: a bright eyes, like the stars of a winter night
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Speaker 1: in the frosty season, over column kill or where you will.
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Speaker 1: So that's an Ireland, to be sure of the likeness
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Speaker 1: to her. Her mother was half English, of course she
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Speaker 1: was on what was my observation about the coupling Dan
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Speaker 1: Marian would make her Irish all over? And she has
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Speaker 1: a vain as Spanish blood in her, for he had,
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Speaker 1: and she's got the color. But ye spoke of their coupling, or.
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Speaker 2: I did, oh.
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Speaker 1: A man can hold his own with an English roly polyymate.
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Speaker 1: He's not stifled, but a woman hasn't his power of
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Speaker 1: resistance to dead weight. She's volatile, she's frivolous, a rattler
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Speaker 1: and gabbler. Haven't I heard what they say of Irish
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Speaker 1: girls over there? She marries and it's the end of
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Speaker 1: her sparkling. She must choose at home for a perfect
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Speaker 1: harmonious partner. Lady Dunstain expressed her opinion that her couple
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Speaker 1: danced excellently together. It's a bitter thing to see if
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Speaker 1: the fellow couldn't dance.
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Speaker 2: After leading her.
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Speaker 1: Out, sighed mister Sullivan Smith. I heard her over there.
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Speaker 1: They'd call her the black pearl and the Irish lily
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Speaker 1: because she's dark. They racked their poor brains and get
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Speaker 1: the laugh of us. And I listen to you, said
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Speaker 1: Lady Dunstane. Ah, if fall England half a quarter the
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Speaker 1: smallest piece of the lamb were like you, my lady,
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Speaker 1: I'd be loyal to the finger nails.
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Speaker 2: Now? Is she engaged when I get a word with her?
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Speaker 1: She is nineteen or nearly, and she ought to have
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Speaker 1: five good years of freedom, I think, and five good
21:26
Speaker 1: years of serfdom. I'd serve to win her all. Look
21:30
Speaker 1: at him under the Eyelid's assured Lady Dunstain that there
21:33
Speaker 1: would be small chance for mister Sullivan Smith after a
21:36
Speaker 1: life of bondage if she knew her Diana. In spite
21:40
Speaker 1: of his tongue, his tact, his lively features and breadth
21:44
Speaker 1: of shoulders up, he sprang, Diana was on mister Redworth's arm.
21:49
Speaker 1: No refreshment, she said, And this is my refreshment, taking
21:53
Speaker 1: the seat of mister Sullivan Smith, who ejaculated. I must
21:57
Speaker 1: go and have that gentleman's name.
21:59
Speaker 2: He wanted a foe. You know you are.
22:02
Speaker 1: Ready to coquet with the general at any moment, Tony
22:05
Speaker 1: said her friend. Yes, with the general. He is a
22:09
Speaker 1: noble old man, superb And don't say old man. With
22:13
Speaker 1: his uniform and his height and his gray head, he's
22:16
Speaker 1: like a glorious October day. Just before the brown leaves fall,
22:20
Speaker 1: Diana hummed a little of the air of Planksy Kelly,
22:23
Speaker 1: the favorite of her childhood, as Lady Dunstane Well remembered,
22:27
Speaker 1: they smiled together at the scenes and times it recalled
22:31
Speaker 1: do you still write verses? Tony I could about him.
22:35
Speaker 1: At one part of the fight, he thought he would
22:38
Speaker 1: be beaten. He was overmatched in artillery, and it was
22:42
Speaker 1: a cavalry charge. He thundered on them, riding across the
22:46
Speaker 1: field to give the word of command to the couple
22:48
Speaker 1: of regiments riddled to threads that gain the day that
22:52
Speaker 1: is life, when we dare death to live. I wonder
22:56
Speaker 1: at men, who are men being anything but soldiers? I
22:59
Speaker 1: told ju Madre, my own emmy, I forgave you for
23:03
Speaker 1: marrying because it was a soldier. Perhaps a soldier is
23:07
Speaker 1: to be the happy man. But you have not told
23:10
Speaker 1: me a word of yourself. What has been done with
23:13
Speaker 1: the old crossways? The house, you know, is mine, and
23:17
Speaker 1: it's all I have ten acres in the house, furnished
23:21
Speaker 1: and let for less than two hundred a year. Oh
23:24
Speaker 1: how I long to evicted tenants. They can't have my
23:27
Speaker 1: feeling for the place where I was born. They're people
23:30
Speaker 1: of tolerably good connections, middling wealthy, I suppose of the
23:34
Speaker 1: name of Warwick, and as far as I can understand,
23:37
Speaker 1: they stick there to be near the Sussex Downs for
23:40
Speaker 1: a nephew who likes to ride on them. I have
23:43
Speaker 1: a half engagement, barely legible to visit them on an
23:47
Speaker 1: indefinite day, and can't bear the idea of strangers masters
23:52
Speaker 1: in the old house. I must be driven there for
23:54
Speaker 1: shelter for a roof some month, and I could make
23:58
Speaker 1: a pilgrimage in rain or snow, just to dote on.
24:00
Speaker 2: The outside of it.
24:02
Speaker 1: That's your tony, She's my darling. I hear myself speak,
24:07
Speaker 1: but your voice.
24:08
Speaker 2: Are mine, Madre. It's one soul.
24:10
Speaker 1: Be sure I am giving up the ghost when I
24:12
Speaker 1: cease to be one soul with you, dear and dearest.
24:15
Speaker 1: No secrets, never a shadow of a deception, or else
24:19
Speaker 1: I shall feel I am not fit to live. Was
24:22
Speaker 1: I a bad correspondent when you were in India? Pretty
24:26
Speaker 1: well copious letters? When you did write, I was shy.
24:30
Speaker 1: I knew I should be writing to Emmy in another
24:33
Speaker 1: and only when I came to the flow could I
24:35
Speaker 1: forget him. He is very finely built, and I dare
24:39
Speaker 1: say he has a head. I read of his deeds
24:42
Speaker 1: in India and quivered, But he was just a bit
24:45
Speaker 1: in the way. Men are the barriers to perfect naturalness,
24:50
Speaker 1: at least with girls. I think you wrote to me
24:53
Speaker 1: in the same tone as ever, and at first I
24:55
Speaker 1: had to struggle to reply. And I, who have such
24:58
Speaker 1: pride in being always myself two staring semicircles had formed,
25:04
Speaker 1: one to front the hero, the other the beauty. These
25:08
Speaker 1: half moons imperceptibly dissolved to replenish and become a fixed obstruction. Yes,
25:14
Speaker 1: they look Diana made answer to Lady Dunstain's comment on
25:18
Speaker 1: the curious impertinence. She was getting used to it, and
25:22
Speaker 1: her friend had a gratification in seeing how little this
25:24
Speaker 1: affected her perfect naturalness. You are often in the world
25:29
Speaker 1: dinners dances, she said. People are kind, any proposals nibbles,
25:35
Speaker 1: quite heart free. Absolutely, Diana's unshadowed, bright face defied all
25:41
Speaker 1: menace of an eclipse. The block of sturdy gazers began
25:45
Speaker 1: to melt. The general had dispersed his group of satellites
25:49
Speaker 1: by a movement with the mayress on his arm, construed
25:53
Speaker 1: as the signal for procession to the supper table.
25:58
Speaker 2: End of Chapter two