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Ann Veronica Chapter 17 - In perspective · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen of Ann Veronica. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings were in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information not to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by Joy Chan and Veronica by H. G. Wells, Chapter
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  Speaker 1: seventeenth in perspective, Part one about four years and a
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  Speaker 1: quarter later to be exact. That was four years and
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  Speaker 1: four months. Mister and Missus Cape stood side by side
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  Speaker 1: upon an old Persian carpet that did duty as a
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  Speaker 1: hearthrug in the dining room of their flat, and surveyed
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  Speaker 1: a shining dinner table set for four people, lit by
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  Speaker 1: skillfully shaded electric lights, brightened by frequent gleams of silver,
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  Speaker 1: and carefully and simply adorned with sweet pea blossom. Capes
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  Speaker 1: had altered scarcely at all during the interval, except for
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  Speaker 1: a new quality of smartness in the curl of his clothes.
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  Speaker 1: But Anne Veronica was nearly half an inch taller, her
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  Speaker 1: face was at once stronger and softer, her neck firmer
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  Speaker 1: and rounder, and her carriage definitely more womanly than it
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  Speaker 1: had been in the days of her rebellion. She was
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  Speaker 1: a woman now to the tips of her fingers. She
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  Speaker 1: had said good bye to her girlhood in the old
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  Speaker 1: Garden four years and a quarter ago. She was dressed
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  Speaker 1: in a simple evening gown of soft, creamy silk, with
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  Speaker 1: a yoke of dark old embroidery that enhanced the gentle
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  Speaker 1: gravity of her style, and her black hair flowed off
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  Speaker 1: her open forehead to pass under the control of a
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  Speaker 1: simple ribbon of silver. A silver necklace enhanced the dusky
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  Speaker 1: beauty of her neck. Both husband and wife affected an
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  Speaker 1: unnatural ease of manner for the benefit of the efficient
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  Speaker 1: parlor maid who was putting the finishing touches to the
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  Speaker 1: sideboard arrangements. It looks all right, said Capes. I think
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  Speaker 1: everything's right, said Anne Veronica, with the roaming eye of
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  Speaker 1: a capable but not devoted housemistress. I wonder if they
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  Speaker 1: will seem altered, she remarked for the third time. There
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  Speaker 1: I can't help, said Capes. He walked through a wide
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  Speaker 1: open archway curtained with deep blue curtains into the apartment
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  Speaker 1: that served as a reception room, and Veronica, after a
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  Speaker 1: last server of the dinner appointments, followed him. Rustling came
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  Speaker 1: to his side by the high brass fender and touched
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  Speaker 1: two or three ornaments on the mantel above the cheerful fireplace.
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  Speaker 1: It's still a marvel to me that we are to
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  Speaker 1: be forgiven, she said, turning my charm of manner. I suppose,
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  Speaker 1: but indeed he's very human. Did you tell him of
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  Speaker 1: the Registry office? No, certainly, not so emphatically as I
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  Speaker 1: did about the play. It was an inspiration. You're speaking
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  Speaker 1: to him, I felt impudent. I believe I am getting
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  Speaker 1: Himpire had not been near the Royal Society since since
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  Speaker 1: you disgraced me. What's that? They both stood listening. It
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  Speaker 1: was not the arrival of the guests, but merely the
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  Speaker 1: maid moving about in the hall. Wonderful man, said Anne Veronica, reassured,
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  Speaker 1: and stroking his cheek with her finger. Capes made a
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  Speaker 1: quick movement as if to bite that aggressive digit, but
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  Speaker 1: it withdrew to Anne Veronica's side. I was really interested
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  Speaker 1: in his stuff. I was talking to him before I
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  Speaker 1: saw his name on the card beside the row of microscopes.
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  Speaker 1: Then naturally I went on talking. He he has rather
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  Speaker 1: a poor opinion of his contemporaries. Of course, he had
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  Speaker 1: no idea who I was. But how did you tell
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  Speaker 1: him you've never told me, wasn't it a little bit
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  Speaker 1: of a scene. Oh, let me see, I said, I
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  Speaker 1: hadn't been at the Royal Society soiree for four year,
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  Speaker 1: and got him to tell me about some of the
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  Speaker 1: fresh Mendelian work. He loves the Mendelians because he hates
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  Speaker 1: all the big names of the eighties and nineties. Then
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  Speaker 1: I think I remarked that science was disgracefully under endowed,
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  Speaker 1: and confessed I'd had to take to more profitable courses.
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  Speaker 1: The fact of it is, I said, I'm the new
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  Speaker 1: playwright Thomas Moore. Perhaps you've heard well, you know he
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  Speaker 1: had fame, isn't it. I've not seen your play, mister Moore,
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  Speaker 1: he said, but I'm told it's the most amusing thing
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  Speaker 1: in London at the present time. A friend of mine Olgivy.
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  Speaker 1: I suppose that's Oldervie and Olgivill, who do so many divorces.
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  Speaker 1: V we're speaking very highly of it, very highly, he
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  Speaker 1: smiled into her eyes. You are developing far too attentive
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  Speaker 1: a memory for praises, said Ann Veronica. I'm still new
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  Speaker 1: to them. But after that it was easy. I told
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  Speaker 1: him instantly and shamelessly that the play was going to
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  Speaker 1: be worth ten thousand pounds. He agreed, it was disgraceful.
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  Speaker 1: Then I assumed a rather portentious manner to prepare him.
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  Speaker 1: How show me? I can't be portentious, dear, when you're
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  Speaker 1: about it's my other side of the moon. But I
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  Speaker 1: was portentious. I can assure you my name's not more,
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  Speaker 1: mister Stanley, I said, that's my pet name. Yes, I
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  Speaker 1: think yes, I went on, in a pleasing blend of
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  Speaker 1: the casual assotto voce. The fact of it is, sir,
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  Speaker 1: I happen to be your son in law. Capes. I
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  Speaker 1: do wish you could come and dine with us some evening.
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  Speaker 1: It would make my wife very happy. What did he say?
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  Speaker 1: What does anyone say to an invitation to dinner? Point blank?
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  Speaker 1: One tries to collect one's wits. She is constantly thinking
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  Speaker 1: of you, I said, and he accepted meekly. Practically. What
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  Speaker 1: else could he do? You can't kick up a scene
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  Speaker 1: on the spur of the moment, in the face of
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  Speaker 1: such conflicting values as he had before him, with me
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  Speaker 1: behaving as if everything was infinitely matter of fact? What
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  Speaker 1: could he do? And just then Heaven sent old Manningtree.
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  Speaker 1: I didn't tell you before the fortunate intervention of Manningtree,
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  Speaker 1: did I? He was looking quite infernally distinguished, with a
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  Speaker 1: wide crimson ribbon across him. What is the wide crimson
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  Speaker 1: ribbon some sort of night. I suppose he is a knight.
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  Speaker 1: Well young man, he said, we haven't seen you lately,
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  Speaker 1: and something about Bateson and co. He's frightfully anti Mendelian,
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  Speaker 1: having it all their own way. So I introduced him
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  Speaker 1: to my father in law like a shot. I think
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  Speaker 1: that was decision. Yes, it was. Manningtree really secured your father.
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  Speaker 1: He here they are, said Anne Veronica. As the bell sounded.
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  Speaker 1: Part two. They received the guests in their pretty little
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  Speaker 1: hall with genuine effusion. Miss Stanley threw aside a black
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  Speaker 1: cloak to reveal a discreet and dignified arrangement of brown silk,
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  Speaker 1: and then embraced Anne Veronica with warmth so very clear
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  Speaker 1: and cold. She said, I feared we might have a fog.
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  Speaker 1: The housemaid's presence acted as a useful restraint. Anne Veronica
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  Speaker 1: passed from her aunt to her father and put her
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  Speaker 1: arms about him and kissed his cheek. Dear old daddy,
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  Speaker 1: she said, And was amazed to find herself shedding tears.
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  Speaker 1: She veiled her emotion by taking off his overcoat. And
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  Speaker 1: this is mister Capes, she heard her aunt saying. All
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  Speaker 1: four people moved a little nervously into the drawing room,
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  Speaker 1: maintaining a sort of fluttered amiability of sound and movement.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Stanley professed a great solicity to warm his hands,
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  Speaker 1: quite unusually called for the time of year. He said,
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  Speaker 1: everything very nice, I am sure, Miss Stanley murmured to
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  Speaker 1: Cape's as he steered her to a place upon the
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  Speaker 1: little sofa before the fire. Also, she made little pussy
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  Speaker 1: like sounds of a reassuring nature. And let's have a
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  Speaker 1: look at you, v said mister Stanley, standing up with
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  Speaker 1: a sudden geniality and rubbing his hands together. And Veronica,
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  Speaker 1: who knew her dress became her, dropped a curtsey to
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  Speaker 1: her father's regard. Happily, they had no one else to
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  Speaker 1: wait for, and it heartened her mightily to think that
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  Speaker 1: she had ordered the promptest possible service of the dinner.
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  Speaker 1: Cape stood beside Miss Stanley, who was beaming unnaturally, and
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  Speaker 1: mister Stanley, in his effort to seem at ease took
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  Speaker 1: entire possession of the hearth rug. You found the flat easily,
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  Speaker 1: said Cape to the balls. The numbers are a little
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  Speaker 1: difficult to see in the archway, they ought to put
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  Speaker 1: a lamp. Her father declared. There had been no difficulty.
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  Speaker 1: Dinner serve them, said the officient parlor maid in the archway,
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  Speaker 1: and the worst was over come, daddy, said Anne Veronica,
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  Speaker 1: following her husband and Miss Stanley, and in the fullness
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  Speaker 1: of her heart, she gave a friendly squeeze to the
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  Speaker 1: parental arm. Excellent fellow, he answered, a little relevantly, I
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  Speaker 1: didn't understand thee quite charming apartments. Miss Stanley admired charming.
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  Speaker 1: Everything is so pretty and convenient. The dinner was admirable
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  Speaker 1: as a dinner. Nothing went wrong, from the golden and
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  Speaker 1: excellent clear soup to the delightful iced marins and a cream,
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  Speaker 1: and Miss Stanley's praises died away to an appreciative acquiescence.
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  Speaker 1: A brisk talk sprang up between Capes and mister Stanley,
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  Speaker 1: to which the two ladies subordinated themselves intelligently. The burning
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  Speaker 1: topic of the Mendelian controversy was approached on one or
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  Speaker 1: two occasions, but avoided dexterously, and they talked chiefly of
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  Speaker 1: letters and art and the censorship of the English stage.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Stanley was inclined to think the censorship should be
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  Speaker 1: extended to the supply of what he styled latter day fiction.
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  Speaker 1: Good wholesome stories were being oulstered, he said, by vicious,
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  Speaker 1: corrupting stuff that left a bad taste in the mouth.
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  Speaker 1: He declared that no book would be satisfactory that left
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  Speaker 1: a bad taste in the mouth, however much it seized
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  Speaker 1: and interested the reader at the time, he did not
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  Speaker 1: like it, he said, with a significant look, to be
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  Speaker 1: reminded of either his books or his dinners. After she
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  Speaker 1: had done with them, Capes agreed with the utmost cordiality.
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  Speaker 1: Life is upsetting enough without the novels taking a share,
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  Speaker 1: said mister Stanley. For a time, Anne Veronica's attention was
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  Speaker 1: diverted by her aunt's interest in the salted almonds. Quite
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  Speaker 1: particularly nice, said her aunt, exceptionally so. When Anne Verona
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  Speaker 1: could attend again, she found the men were discussing the
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  Speaker 1: ethics of the depreciation of house property through the increasing
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  Speaker 1: tumult of traffic in the West End, and agreeing with
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  Speaker 1: each other to a devastating extent. It came into her
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  Speaker 1: head with real emotional force, that this must be some
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  Speaker 1: particularly fantastic sort of dream. It seemed to her that
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  Speaker 1: her father was, in some inexplicable way, meaner looking than
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  Speaker 1: she had supposed, and yet also as unaccountably appealing. His
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  Speaker 1: tie had demanded a struggle. He ought to have taken
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  Speaker 1: a clean one after his first failure. Why was she
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  Speaker 1: noting things like this? Cape seemed self possessed an elaborately
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  Speaker 1: genial and commonplace But she knew him to be nervous,
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  Speaker 1: by a little occasional clumsiness, by the faintest shadow of
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  Speaker 1: vulgarity in the urgency of his hospitality. She wished he
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  Speaker 1: could smoke and dull his nerves a little. A gust
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  Speaker 1: of irrational impatience flew through her, being Well, they got
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  Speaker 1: to the pheasants, and in a little while he would smoke.
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  Speaker 1: What was it she had expected? Surely her moods were
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  Speaker 1: getting a little out of hand. She wished her father
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  Speaker 1: and aunt would not enjoy their dinner with such quiet determination.
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  Speaker 1: Her father and her husband, who had both been a
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  Speaker 1: little pale at their first encounter, were growing now just
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  Speaker 1: faintly flushed. It was a pity people had to eat food,
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  Speaker 1: I suppose, said her father. I have read at least
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  Speaker 1: half the novels that have been at all successful during
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  Speaker 1: the last twenty years. Three a week is my allowance,
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  Speaker 1: and if I get short ones, four I changed them
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  Speaker 1: in the morning at Cannon Street, and take my book
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  Speaker 1: as I come down. It occurred to her that she
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  Speaker 1: had never seen her father dining out before, never watched
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  Speaker 1: him critically as an equal to Cape's. He was almost deferential,
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  Speaker 1: and she had never seen him deferential in the old time.
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  Speaker 1: Never The dinner was stranger than she had ever anticipated.
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  Speaker 1: It was as if he had grown right past her
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  Speaker 1: father into something older and of infinitely wider outlook, as
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  Speaker 1: if he had always been unsuspectedly a flattened figure, and
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  Speaker 1: now she had discovered him from the other side. It
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  Speaker 1: was a great relief to arrive, at last, at that pause,
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  Speaker 1: when she could say to her aunt, now, dear, and
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  Speaker 1: rise and hold back the curtain through the archway. Capes
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  Speaker 1: and her father stood up, and her father made a
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  Speaker 1: belated movement toward the curtain. She realized that he was
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  Speaker 1: the sort of man one does not think much about
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  Speaker 1: at dinners. And Caves was thinking that his wife was
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  Speaker 1: a supremely beautiful woman. He reached a silver cigar cigarette
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  Speaker 1: box on the sideboard and put it before his father
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  Speaker 1: in law, and for a time the preliminaries of smoking
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  Speaker 1: occupied them both. Then Capes flitted to the hearthrog and
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  Speaker 1: poked the fire, stood up and turned about. And Veronica's
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  Speaker 1: looking very well, don't you think, he said, a little awkwardly. Very,
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  Speaker 1: said mister Stanley, very and cracked a walnut, appreciatively life things.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think her prospects now, hope for outlook, you
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  Speaker 1: were in a difficult position, mister Stanley pronounced, and seemed
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  Speaker 1: to hesitate whether he had not gone too far. He
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  Speaker 1: looked at his port wine, as though that tawny ruby
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  Speaker 1: contained the solution of the matter. All's well, that ends well,
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  Speaker 1: he said. And the less one says about things, the better,
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  Speaker 1: of course, said Capes, and threw a newly lit ciguard
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  Speaker 1: to the fire through sheer nervousness. Have some more port wine, sir.
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  Speaker 1: It's a very sound wine, said mister Stanley, consenting with dignity.
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  Speaker 1: And Veronica has never looked quite so well, I think,
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  Speaker 1: said Capes, clinging because of a preconceived plan to the
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  Speaker 1: suppressed topic, Part three. At last, the evening was over,
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  Speaker 1: and Capes and his wife had gone down to see
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  Speaker 1: mister Stanley and his sister into a taxicab and had
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  Speaker 1: waved an amiable farewell from the pavement steps. Great DearS,
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  Speaker 1: said Capes, as the vehicle passed out of sight. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: aren't they, said Anne Veronica, after a thoughtful pause. And
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  Speaker 1: then they seemed changed. Come in out of the cold,
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  Speaker 1: said Capes, and took her arm. They seemed smaller, you know,
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  Speaker 1: even physically smaller, she said, You've grown out of them.
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  Speaker 1: You an't liked the pheasant, She liked everything. Did you
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  Speaker 1: hear us through the archway talking cookery? They went up
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  Speaker 1: by the lift in silence. It's odd, said Anne Veronica,
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  Speaker 1: re entering the flat. What's odd? Oh? Everything? She shivered
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  Speaker 1: and went to the fire and poked it. Cape sat
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  Speaker 1: down in the arm chair beside her. Life's so queer,
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  Speaker 1: she said, kneeling and looking into the flames. I wonder,
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  Speaker 1: I wonder if we shall ever get like that. She
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  Speaker 1: turned a viore lit face to her husband. Did you
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  Speaker 1: tell him? Kate smiled faintly, Yes, how well, A little clumsily,
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  Speaker 1: but how I poured him out some port wine, and
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  Speaker 1: I said, let me see, Oh, you are going to
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  Speaker 1: be your grandfather? Yes, was he pleased? Calmly he said,
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  Speaker 1: you won't mind my telling you? Not a bit, he said.
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  Speaker 1: Poor Alice has got no end. Alice's are different, said
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  Speaker 1: a Veronica, after an interval. Quite different. She didn't choose
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  Speaker 1: her man well, I told aunt, husband of mine, I
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: think we have rather overrated the emotional capacity of those
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  Speaker 1: those DearS. What did your aunt say? She didn't even
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  Speaker 1: kiss me, she said, and Veronica shivered again. I hope
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  Speaker 1: it won't make you uncomfortable, my dear, like that, and
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  Speaker 1: whatever you do, do be careful of your hair. I
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  Speaker 1: think I judged from her manner that she thought it
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: was just a little indelicate of us considering everything. But
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  Speaker 1: she tried to be practical and sympathetic and lived down
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  Speaker 1: to our standards. Capes looked at his wife's unsmiling face.
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  Speaker 1: Your father, he said, remarked that all's well, that ends well,
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  Speaker 1: and that he was disposed to let bygones be bygones.
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  Speaker 1: He then spoke with a certain fatherly kindliness of the past,
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  Speaker 1: and my heart has ached for him. Oh, no doubt
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  Speaker 1: it cut him. At the time, it must have cut him.
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  Speaker 1: We might even given it up for them. I wonder
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  Speaker 1: if we could. I suppose all is well, that ends
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  Speaker 1: well somehow to night. I don't know. I suppose so
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  Speaker 1: I'm glad. The old scores assuaged, very glad. But if
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  Speaker 1: we had gone under. They regarded one another silently, and
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  Speaker 1: Anne Veronica had one of her penetrating flashes. We are
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  Speaker 1: not the sort that goes under, said Anne Veronica, holding
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  Speaker 1: her hands so that the red reflections vanished from her eyes.
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  Speaker 1: We settled long ago. We're hard stuff. We're hard stuff.
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  Speaker 1: Then she went on to think, that is my father,
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  Speaker 1: Oh my dear, he stood over me like a cliff.
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  Speaker 1: The thought of him nearly turned me aside from everything
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  Speaker 1: we have done. He was the social order. He was
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  Speaker 1: law and wisdom. And they come here and they look
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  Speaker 1: at our furniture to see if it is good, and
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  Speaker 1: they are not glad. It does not stir them that
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  Speaker 1: at last, at last, we can dare to have children.
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  Speaker 1: She dropped back into a crouching attitude and began to weep.
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  Speaker 1: Oh my dear, she cried, and suddenly flung herself kneeling
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  Speaker 1: into her husband's arms. Do you remember the mountains? Do
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  Speaker 1: you remember how we loved one another, how intensely we
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  Speaker 1: loved one another? Do you remember the light on things
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  Speaker 1: and the glory of things. I'm greedy, I'm greedy. I
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  Speaker 1: want children like the mountains, and life like the sky. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: and love, love. We've had so splendid a time, and
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  Speaker 1: fought our fight and one and it's like the petals
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  Speaker 1: falling from a flower. Oh, I've loved love, dear, I've
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  Speaker 1: loved love and you and the glory of you. And
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  Speaker 1: the great time is over, and I have to go
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  Speaker 1: carefully and bear children and take care of my hair.
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  Speaker 1: And when I am done with that, I shall be
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  Speaker 1: old woman. The petals have fallen, the red petals we loved.
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  Speaker 1: So we hatched about with discretions and all this furniture
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  Speaker 1: and successes. We are successful at last, successful, But the mountains, dear.
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  Speaker 1: We won't forget the mountains, dear, ever, the shining slope
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  Speaker 1: of snow, and how we talked of death. We might
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  Speaker 1: have died. Even when we are old, when we are
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  Speaker 1: rich as we may be, we won't forget the time
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  Speaker 1: when we cared nothing for anything but the joy of
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  Speaker 1: one another, when we risked everything for one another, when
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  Speaker 1: all the wrappings and coverings seemed to have fallen from
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  Speaker 1: life and left light and fire stark and stark. Do
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  Speaker 1: you remember it all? Say you will never forget that
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  Speaker 1: these common things and secondary things shan't overwhelm us, These petals.
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  Speaker 1: I've been wanting to cry all the evening. Cry here
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  Speaker 1: on your shoulder for my petals. Petals, silly woman, I've
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: never had these crying fits before, Blood of my heart,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: whispered Capes, holding her clothes to him. I know, I understand.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter seventeen. End of ann Veronica