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051 - Ch 50 - Changes at Milton · North and South (version 2)

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Speaker 1: Chapter fifty of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. This
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Marianne,
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Speaker 1: Chapter fifty changes at Milton, here we go up, up, up,
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Speaker 1: and here we go down down down ee nursery song. Meanwhile,
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Speaker 1: at Milton, the chimneys smoked the ceaseless roar, and mighty
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Speaker 1: beat and dizzying whirl of machinery, struggled and strove perpetually.
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Speaker 1: Senseless and purposeless were wood and iron and steam in
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Speaker 1: their endless labors. But the persistence of their monotonous work
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Speaker 1: was rivaled in tireless endurance by the strong crowds, who,
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Speaker 1: with sense and with purpose, were busy and restless in
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Speaker 1: seeking after what. In the streets there were few loiterers,
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Speaker 1: none walking from mere pleasure. Every man's face was set
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Speaker 1: in lines of eagerness or anxiety. News was sought for
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Speaker 1: with fierce avidity, and men jostled each other aside in
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Speaker 1: the mart and in the exchange, as they did in life.
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Speaker 1: In the deep selfishness of competition, there was gloom over
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Speaker 1: the town. Few came to buy, and those who did
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Speaker 1: were looked at suspiciously by the sellers, for credit was
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Speaker 1: insecure and the most stable, might have their fortunes affected
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Speaker 1: by the sweep in the great neighboring port among the
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Speaker 1: shipping houses. Hitherto there had been no failures in Milton,
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Speaker 1: but from the immense speculations that had come to light
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Speaker 1: in making a bad end in America, and yet nearer home,
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Speaker 1: it was known that some Milton houses of business must
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Speaker 1: suffer so severely that every day men's faces asked, if
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Speaker 1: their tongues did not, what news, who is gone? How
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Speaker 1: will it affect me? And if two or three spoke together,
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Speaker 1: they dwelt rather on the name aims of those who
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Speaker 1: were safe, then dared to hint at those likely, in
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Speaker 1: their opinion, to go for idle breath may at such
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Speaker 1: times caused the downfall of some who might otherwise weather
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Speaker 1: the storm. And one going down drags many. After Thornton
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Speaker 1: is safe, they say his business is large, extending every year,
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Speaker 1: But such a head as he has, and so prudent
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Speaker 1: with all his daring. Then one man draws another aside,
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Speaker 1: and walks a little apart, and with head inclined into
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Speaker 1: his neighbor's ear, he says Thornton's business is large, but
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Speaker 1: he has spent his profits in extending it, he has
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Speaker 1: no capital laid by his machinery is new within these
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Speaker 1: two years, and has cost him. We won't say what
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Speaker 1: a word to the wise, but that mister Harrison was
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Speaker 1: a croaker, a man who had succeeded to his father's trade,
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Speaker 1: made fortune when he had feared to lose by altering
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Speaker 1: his motive business to any having a larger scope. Yet
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Speaker 1: he grudged every penny made by others more daring and
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Speaker 1: far sighted. But the truth was, mister Thornton was hard pressed.
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Speaker 1: He felt it acutely in his vulnerable point. His pride
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Speaker 1: in the commercial character which he had established for himself
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Speaker 1: architect of his own fortunes. He attributed this to no
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Speaker 1: special merit or qualities of his own, but to the
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Speaker 1: power which he believed that commerce gave to every brave,
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Speaker 1: honest and persevering man to raise himself to a level
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Speaker 1: from which he might see and read the great games
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Speaker 1: of worldly success, and, honestly, by such far sightedness, command
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Speaker 1: more power and influence than in any other mode of life.
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Speaker 1: Far away in the east and in the West, where
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Speaker 1: his person would never be known, his name was to
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Speaker 1: be regarded, and his wishes to be fulfilled, and his
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Speaker 1: word passed like gold. That was the idea of merchant
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Speaker 1: life with which mister Thornton had started her merchants be
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Speaker 1: like princes, said his mother, reading the text aloud as
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Speaker 1: if it were a trumpet call to invite her boy
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Speaker 1: to the struggle. He was, but like many others, men,
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Speaker 1: women and children, alive to distant and dead to near things.
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Speaker 1: He sought to possess the influence of a name in
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Speaker 1: foreign countries and far away seas, to become the head
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Speaker 1: of a firm that should be known for generations. And
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Speaker 1: it had taken him long, silent years to come even
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Speaker 1: to a glimmering of what he might be now to day.
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Speaker 1: Here in his own town, his own factory, among his
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Speaker 1: own people, he and they had led parallel lives, very
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Speaker 1: close but never touching till the accident, or so it seemed,
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Speaker 1: of his acquaintance with Higgins, once brought face to face
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Speaker 1: man to man with an individual of the masses around him,
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Speaker 1: and take notice out of the character of master and workmen.
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Speaker 1: In the first instance, they had begun to recognize that
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Speaker 1: we have all of us one human heart. It was
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Speaker 1: the fine point of the wedge and until now, when
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Speaker 1: the apprehension of losing his connection with two or three
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Speaker 1: of the workmen whom he had so lately begun to
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Speaker 1: know as men, of having a plan or two which
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Speaker 1: were experiments lying very close to his heart, roughly nipped
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Speaker 1: off without trial, gave a new poignancy to the subtle
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Speaker 1: fear that came over him from time to time. Until now,
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Speaker 1: he had never recognized how much and how deep was
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Speaker 1: the interest he had grown of late to feel in
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Speaker 1: his position as manufacturer, simply because it led him into
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Speaker 1: such close contact and gave him the opportunity of so
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Speaker 1: much power among a race of people strange, shrewd, ignorant,
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Speaker 1: but above all full of character and strong human feeling.
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Speaker 1: He reviewed his position as a Milton manufacturer the strike
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Speaker 1: a year and a half ago or more, for it
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Speaker 1: was now untimely wintry weather in a late spring. That strike,
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Speaker 1: when he was young, and he was now old, had
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Speaker 1: prevented his completing some of the largest orders he had
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Speaker 1: then on hand. He had locked up a good deal
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Speaker 1: of his capital in new and expensive machinery, and he
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Speaker 1: had also bought cotton, largely for the fulfillment of these
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Speaker 1: orders taken under contract that he had not been able
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Speaker 1: to complete them, was owing in some degree to the
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Speaker 1: utter want of skill on the part of the Irish
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Speaker 1: hands whom he had imported. Much of their work was
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Speaker 1: damaged and unfit to be sent forth by a house
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Speaker 1: which prided itself on turning out nothing but first rate articles.
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Speaker 1: For many months, the embarrassment caused by the strike had
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Speaker 1: been an obstacle in mister Thornton's way, and often when
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Speaker 1: his eye fell on Higgins, he could have spoken angrily
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Speaker 1: to him without any present cause, just from feeling how
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Speaker 1: serious was the injury that had arisen from this affair
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Speaker 1: in which he was implicated. But when he became conscious
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Speaker 1: of this sudden, quick resentment, he resolved to curb it.
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Speaker 1: It would not satisfy him to avoid Higgins. He must
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Speaker 1: convince himself that he was master over his own anger
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Speaker 1: by being particularly careful to allow Higgins access to him
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Speaker 1: whenever the strict rules of business or mister Thornton's leisure permitted,
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Speaker 1: and by and by he lost all sense of resentment.
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Speaker 1: In wonder how it was or could be that two
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Speaker 1: men like himself and Higgins, living by the same trade,
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Speaker 1: working in their different ways, at the same object could
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Speaker 1: look upon each other's position and duties in so strangely
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Speaker 1: different a way, and thence arose that intercourse, which, though
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Speaker 1: it might not have the effect of preventing all future
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Speaker 1: clash of opinion and action, when the occasion arose, would
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Speaker 1: at any rate enable both master and man to look
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Speaker 1: upon each other with far more charity and sympathy, and
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Speaker 1: bear with each other more patiently and kindly. Besides this
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Speaker 1: improvement of feeling, both mister Thornton and his workmen found
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Speaker 1: out their ignorance as to positive matters of fact known
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Speaker 1: heretofore to one side, but not to the other. But
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Speaker 1: now had come one of those periods of bad trade
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Speaker 1: when the market falling brought down the value of all
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Speaker 1: large stocks mister Thorntons fell to nearly half. No orders
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Speaker 1: were coming in, so he lost the interest of the
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Speaker 1: capital he had locked up in machinery. Indeed, it was
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Speaker 1: difficult to get payment for the orders completed, yet there
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Speaker 1: was the constant drain of expenses for working the business.
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Speaker 1: Then the bills became due for the cotton he had purchased,
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Speaker 1: and money being scarce, he could only borrow at exorbitant interest,
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Speaker 1: and yet could not realize any of his property. But
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Speaker 1: he did not despair. He exerted himself day and night
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Speaker 1: to foresee and to provide for all emergencies. He was
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Speaker 1: as calm and gentle to the women in his home
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Speaker 1: as ever to the workmen in his mill. He spoke
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Speaker 1: not many words, but they knew him by this time,
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Speaker 1: and many a curt decided answer was received by them,
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Speaker 1: rather with sympathy for the care they saw pressing upon him,
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Speaker 1: than with the suppressed antagonism which had formerly been smoldering
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Speaker 1: and ready for hard words and hard judgments on all occasions.
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Speaker 1: The master's a deal to potter him, said Higgins one day,
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Speaker 1: as he heard mister Thornton's short, sharp inquiry why such
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Speaker 1: a command had not been obeyed, and caught the sound
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Speaker 1: of the suppressed sigh which he heaved in going past
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Speaker 1: the room where some of the men were working. Higgins
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Speaker 1: and another man stopped over hours that night, unknown to
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Speaker 1: any one, to get the neglected piece of work done.
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Speaker 1: And mister Thornton never knew but that the overlooker to
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Speaker 1: whom he had given the command in the first instance,
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Speaker 1: had done it himself. Ay, I reckon, I know who'd
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Speaker 1: ha been sorry for to see our master sitting so
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Speaker 1: like a piece of gray calico. The old parson would
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Speaker 1: have fretted his woman's heart out if he'd seen the
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Speaker 1: woeful looks I have seen on our Measter's face, thought
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Speaker 1: Higgins one day, as he was approaching mister Thornton in
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Speaker 1: Marlborough Street. Measter said, he stopping his employer in his
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Speaker 1: quick resolved walk, and causing that gentleman to look up
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Speaker 1: with a sudden, annoyed start, as if his thoughts had
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Speaker 1: been far away. Have you heard aught of miss Margaret lately?
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Speaker 1: Miss who, replied mister Thornton, Miss Margot, miss Hale, the
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Speaker 1: old Parson's daughter. You know who I mean well enough,
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Speaker 1: if you'll only think a bit. There was nothing disrespectful
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Speaker 1: in the tone in which this was said. Oh yes,
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Speaker 1: And suddenly the wind a tree frost bound look of
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Speaker 1: care had left mister Thornton's face, as if some soft
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Speaker 1: summer gale had blown all anxiety away from his mind.
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Speaker 1: And though his mouth was much compressed as before, his
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Speaker 1: eyes smiled out benignly on his questioner. She's my landlord, now,
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Speaker 1: you know, Higgins. I hear of her through her agent
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Speaker 1: here every now and then she's well and among friends.
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Speaker 1: Thank you, Higgins. That thank you, that lingered after the
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Speaker 1: other words, and yet came with so much warmth of
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Speaker 1: feeling let in a new light. To the acute Higgins.
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Speaker 1: It might be but a will o the wisp, but
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Speaker 1: he thought he would follow it and ascertain whither it
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Speaker 1: would lead him. And she's not getting married, Measter, not yet.
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Speaker 1: The face was cloudy once more. There's some talk of it,
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Speaker 1: as I understand, with a connection of the family. Then
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Speaker 1: she'll not be for coming to Milton again, I reckon,
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Speaker 1: no stop a minute, Measter. Then going up confidentially close,
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Speaker 1: he said, is the young gentleman cleared? He enforced the
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Speaker 1: depth of his intelligence by a wink of the eye,
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Speaker 1: which only made things more mysterious to mister Thornton, the
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Speaker 1: young gentleman, I mean mister Frederick. They called him her
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Speaker 1: brother as was over here, Yo known over here, Aye,
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Speaker 1: to be sure, at the Missus's death, Yo'll know na
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Speaker 1: be feared, O my tellin fer Mary an me we
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Speaker 1: knowed it all along, only beheld our peace, for we
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Speaker 1: got it through Mary workin in the house, and he
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Speaker 1: was over it was her brother sure enough, an I reckon,
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Speaker 1: yo knowed it, or i'd never ha let on yo
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Speaker 1: knowed she had a brother, Yes, I know all about him,
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Speaker 1: and he was over at missus Hale's death. Nay, I'm
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Speaker 1: not goin for to tell more. I've maybe getting them
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Speaker 1: into mischief already, for they kept it very close, I know,
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Speaker 1: but wanted to know if they'd getten him cleared, not
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Speaker 1: that I know of. I know nothing. I only hear
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Speaker 1: of miss Hale now as my landlord, and through her lawyer.
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Speaker 1: He broke off from Higgins to follow the business on
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Speaker 1: which he had been bent when the latter first accosted him,
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Speaker 1: leaving Higgins baffled in his endeavor. It was her brother,
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Speaker 1: said mister Thornton to himself. I am glad I may
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Speaker 1: never see her again, but it is a comfort, a
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Speaker 1: relief to know that much I knew she could not
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Speaker 1: be unmaidenly, and yet I yearned for conviction. Now I
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Speaker 1: am glad. It was a little golden thread running through
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Speaker 1: the dark web of his present fortunes, which were growing
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Speaker 1: ever gloomier and more gloomy. His agent had largely trusted
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Speaker 1: a house in the American trade, which went down along
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Speaker 1: with several others just at this time like a pack
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Speaker 1: of cards, the fall of one compelling other failures. What
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Speaker 1: were mister Thornton's engagements? Could he stand? Night after night?
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Speaker 1: He took books and papers into his own private room
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Speaker 1: and sat up there long after the family were gone
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Speaker 1: to bed. He thought that no one knew of this occupation,
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Speaker 1: of the hours he should have spent in sleep. One morning,
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Speaker 1: when daylight was stealing in through the crevices of his shutters,
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Speaker 1: and he had never been to bed, and in hopeless
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Speaker 1: indifference of mind, was thinking that he could do without
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Speaker 1: the hour or two of rest, which was all that
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Speaker 1: he should be able to take before the stir of
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Speaker 1: daily labor began again. The door of his room opened
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Speaker 1: and his mother stood there, dressed as she had been
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Speaker 1: the day before. She had never laid herself down to
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Speaker 1: slumber any more than he. There eyes met, Their faces
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Speaker 1: were cold and rigid, and wan from long watching Mother,
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Speaker 1: Why are you not in bed, son, John, said she.
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Speaker 1: Do you think I can sleep with an easy mind
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Speaker 1: while you keep awake full of care? You have not
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Speaker 1: told me what your trouble is, but sore trouble you
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Speaker 1: have had these many days past. Trade is bad, and
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Speaker 1: you dread I dread nothing, replied he, drawing up his
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Speaker 1: head and holding it erect. I know now that no
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Speaker 1: man will suffer by me. That was my anxiety. But
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Speaker 1: how do you stand? Shall you? Will it be a failure,
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Speaker 1: her steady voice trembling in an unwonted manner. Not a failure.
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Speaker 1: I must give up business, but I pay all men,
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Speaker 1: I might redeem myself. I am sorely tempted. How, oh John,
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Speaker 1: keep up your name, Try all risks for that? How
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Speaker 1: redeem it by speculation offered to me? Full of risk,
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Speaker 1: But if successful, placing me above water mark, so that
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Speaker 1: no one need ever know of the strait I am
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Speaker 1: in still if it fails. And if it fails, said she,
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Speaker 1: advancing and laying her hand on his arm. Her eyes
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Speaker 1: full of eager light, she held her breath to hear
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Speaker 1: the end of his speech. Honest men are ruined by
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Speaker 1: a rogue, said he gloomily. As I stand now, My
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Speaker 1: creditors money is safe, every farthing of it. But I
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Speaker 1: don't know where to find my own. It may all
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Speaker 1: be gone, and I penniless at this moment. Therefore, it
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Speaker 1: is my creditor's money that I should risk. But if
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Speaker 1: it succeeded, they need never know. Is it so desperate
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Speaker 1: a speculation? I am sure it is not, or you
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Speaker 1: would never have thought of it. If it succeeded, I
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Speaker 1: should be a rich man, and my peace of conscience
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Speaker 1: would be gone. Why you would have injured no one? No,
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Speaker 1: but I should have run the risk of ruining many
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Speaker 1: for my own paltry aggrandizement. Mother, I have decided. You
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Speaker 1: won't much grieve over our leaving this house, shall you,
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Speaker 1: dear mother? No? But to have you other than what
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Speaker 1: you are will break my heart? What can you do?
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Speaker 1: Be always the same John Thornton, in whatever circumstances, endeavoring
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Speaker 1: to do right and making great blunders, and then trying
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Speaker 1: to be brave, And said too afresh, but it is hard, mother.
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Speaker 1: I have so worked and planned, I have discovered new
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Speaker 1: powers in my situation too late, and now all is over.
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Speaker 1: I am too old to begin again with the same heart.
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Speaker 1: It is hard, mother. He turned away from her and
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Speaker 1: covered his face with his hands. I can't think, said she,
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Speaker 1: with gloomy defiance in her tone. How it comes about? Here?
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Speaker 1: Is my boy, good son, just man, tender heart than
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Speaker 1: he fails in all he sets his mind? Upon he
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Speaker 1: finds a woman to love, and she cares no more
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Speaker 1: for his affection than if he had been any common man.
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Speaker 1: He labors, and his labor comes to naught. Other people
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Speaker 1: prosper and grow rich, and hold their paltry names high
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Speaker 1: and dry above shame. Shame never touched me, said he
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Speaker 1: in a low voice. But she went on, I sometimes
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Speaker 1: have wondered where justice was gone to, and now I
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Speaker 1: don't believe there is such a thing in the world.
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Speaker 1: Now you are come to this, you my own John Thornton,
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Speaker 1: though you and I must be beggars together, my own
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Speaker 1: dear son. She fell upon his neck and kissed him
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Speaker 1: through her tears. Mother said, he, holding her gently in
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Speaker 1: his arms. Who has sent me my lot in life
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Speaker 1: of both good and evil? She shook her head. She
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Speaker 1: would have nothing to do with religion. Just then, mother,
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Speaker 1: He went on, seeing that she would not speak, I
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Speaker 1: too have been rebellious, but I am striving to be so.
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Speaker 1: No longer help me as you helped me when I
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Speaker 1: was a child. Then you said many words when my
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Speaker 1: father died, and we were sometimes sorely short of comforts,
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Speaker 1: which we shall never be. Now you said, brave, noble, trustful, words, then, Mother,
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Speaker 1: which I have never forgotten, though they may have lain dormant.
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Speaker 1: Speak to me again in the old way. Mother, Do
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Speaker 1: not let us have to think that the world has
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Speaker 1: too much hardened our hearts. If you would say the
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Speaker 1: old good words, it would make me feel something of
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Speaker 1: the pious simplicity of my childhood. I say them to myself,
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Speaker 1: but they would come differently from you, remembering all the
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Speaker 1: cares and trials you have had to bear. I have
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Speaker 1: had many, said she, sobbing, but none so sore as
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Speaker 1: this to see you cast down from your rightful place.
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Speaker 1: I could say it for myself, John, but not for you.
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Speaker 1: Not for you. God has seen fit to be very
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Speaker 1: hard on you, very She shook with the sobs that
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Speaker 1: came so convulsively when an old person weeps. The silence
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Speaker 1: around her struck her. At last, she quieted herself to
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Speaker 1: listen no sound. She looked. Her son sat by the table,
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Speaker 1: his arms thrown half across it, his face bent downwards. Oh, John,
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Speaker 1: said she, and she lifted his face up. Such a strange,
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Speaker 1: pallid look of gloom was on it that for a
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Speaker 1: moment it struck her that this look was the forerunner
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Speaker 1: of death. But as the rigidity melted out of the
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Speaker 1: countenance and the natural color returned, she saw that he
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Speaker 1: was himself once again. All the worldly mortification sank to
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Speaker 1: nothing before the consciousness of the great blessing that he himself,
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Speaker 1: by his simple exist dion was to her. She thanked
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Speaker 1: God for this, and this alone, with a fervor that
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Speaker 1: swept away all rebellious feelings from her mind. He did
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Speaker 1: not speak readily, but he went and opened the shutters
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Speaker 1: and let the ruddy light of dawn flood the room.
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Speaker 1: But the wind was in the east. The weather was
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Speaker 1: piercing cold, as it had been for weeks. There would
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Speaker 1: be no demand for light summer goods this year. That
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Speaker 1: hope for the revival of trade must utterly be given up.
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Speaker 1: It was a great comfort to have had this conversation
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Speaker 1: with his mother, and to feel sure that, however they
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Speaker 1: might henceforward keep silence on all these anxieties. They yet
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Speaker 1: understood each other's feelings, and were, if not in harmony,
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Speaker 1: at least not in discord with each other in their
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Speaker 1: way of viewing them. Fanny's husband was vexed at Thornton's
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Speaker 1: refusal to take any share in the speculation which he
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Speaker 1: had offered to him, and with drew from any possibility
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Speaker 1: of being supposed able to assist him with the ready
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Speaker 1: money which indeed the speculator needed for his own venture.
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Speaker 1: There was nothing for it at last but that which
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Speaker 1: mister Thornton had dreaded for many weeks. He had to
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Speaker 1: give up the business in which he had been so
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Speaker 1: long engaged, with so much honor and success, and look
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Speaker 1: out for a subordinate situation. Marlborough Mills and the adjacent
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Speaker 1: dwelling were held under a long lease. They must, if possible,
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Speaker 1: be relet. There was an immediate choice of situations offered
23:34
Speaker 1: to mister Thornton. Mister Hamper would have been only too
23:37
Speaker 1: glad to have secured him as a steady and experienced
23:40
Speaker 1: partner for his son, whom he was setting up with
23:42
Speaker 1: a large capital in a neighboring town. But the young
23:46
Speaker 1: man was half educated as regarded information, and wholly uneducated
23:50
Speaker 1: as regarded any other responsibility than that of getting money,
23:54
Speaker 1: and brutalized both as to his pleasures and his pains.
23:59
Speaker 1: Mister Thornton declined having any share in a partnership which
24:02
Speaker 1: would frustrate what few plans he had that survived the
24:05
Speaker 1: wreck of his fortunes, he would sooner consent to be
24:09
Speaker 1: only a manager where he could have a certain degree
24:11
Speaker 1: of power beyond the mere money getting part, than to
24:15
Speaker 1: have to fall in with the tyrannical humors of a
24:17
Speaker 1: moneyed partner with whom he felt sure that he should
24:20
Speaker 1: quarrel in a few months. So he waited and stood
24:24
Speaker 1: on one side with profound humility, as the news swept
24:28
Speaker 1: through the exchange of the enormous fortune which his brother
24:31
Speaker 1: in law had made by his daring speculation. It was
24:35
Speaker 1: a nine days wonder. Success brought with it its worldly
24:39
Speaker 1: consequence of extreme admiration. No one was considered so wise
24:44
Speaker 1: and far seeing as mister Watson end of Chapter fifty