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The Shuttle Chapter 16 - The Particular Incident · The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library

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Speaker 1: CHAPTER XVI. THE PARTICULAR INCIDENT Betty Vanderpool's walk back to
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Speaker 1: Stornham did not, long though it was, give her time
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Speaker 1: to follow to its end the thread of her thoughts.
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Speaker 1: Mentally she walked again with her uncommunicative guide through wood-paths
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Speaker 1: and gardens, and stood gazing at the great blind-faced house.
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Speaker 1: She had not given the man more than an occasional
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Speaker 1: glance until he had told her his name. She had
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Speaker 1: been too much absorbed, too much moved by what she
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Speaker 1: had been seeing. She wondered, if she had been more
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Speaker 1: aware of him, whether his face would have revealed a
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Speaker 1: great deal. She believed it would not. He had made
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Speaker 1: himself outwardly stolid. But the thing must have been bitter.
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Speaker 1: To him the whole story of the splendid past was familiar,
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Speaker 1: even if through his own life he had looked on
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Speaker 1: only at gradual decay. There must be stories enough of
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Speaker 1: men and women who lived in the place, of what
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Speaker 1: they had done, of how they had loved, of what
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Speaker 1: they had counted for in their country's wars and peacemakings,
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Speaker 1: great functions and law-building. To be able to look back
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Speaker 1: through centuries and know of one's blood, that sometimes it
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Speaker 1: had been shed in the doing of great deeds, must
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Speaker 1: be a thing to remember. To realise that the courage
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Speaker 1: and honour had been lost in ignoble modern vices, which
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Speaker 1: no sense of dignity and reverence for race and name
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Speaker 1: had restrained, must be bitter, bitter. and in the role
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Speaker 1: of a servant to lead a stranger about among the
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Speaker 1: ruins of what had been, that must have been bitter too.
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Speaker 1: For a moment Betty felt the bitterness of it herself,
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Speaker 1: and her red mouth took upon itself a grim line.
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Speaker 1: The worst of it for him was that he was
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Speaker 1: not of that strain of his race who had been
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Speaker 1: the bad lot. The bad lot had been the weak lot,
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Speaker 1: the vicious, the self-degrading. Scandals which had shut men out
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Speaker 1: from their class and kind were usually of an ugly type,
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Speaker 1: This man had a strong jaw, a powerful, healthy body,
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Speaker 1: and clean, though perhaps hard, eyes. The first man of them,
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Speaker 1: who hewed his way to the front, who stood fierce
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Speaker 1: in the face of things, who won the first lands
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Speaker 1: and laid the first stones, might have been like him
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Speaker 1: in build and look. It's a disgusting thing, she said
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Speaker 1: to herself, to think of the corrupt weaklings the strong
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Speaker 1: ones dwindled down to. I hate them. So does he.
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Speaker 1: There had been many such of late years, she knew.
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Speaker 1: She had seen them in Paris, in Rome, even in
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Speaker 1: New York, things with thin or over-thick bodies and receding
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Speaker 1: chins and foreheads, things haunting places of amusement and finding
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Speaker 1: inordinate entertainment in strange jokes and horseplay. She herself had
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Speaker 1: hot blood and a fierce strength of rebellion, and she
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Speaker 1: was wondering how, if the father and elder brother had
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Speaker 1: been the bad lot, he had managed to stand still
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Speaker 1: looking on and keeping his hands off them. The last
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Speaker 1: gold of the sun was mellowing the grey stone of
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Speaker 1: the terrace, and enriching the green of the weeds thrusting
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Speaker 1: themselves into life between the uneven flags when she reached Stornham,
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Speaker 1: and passing through the house, found Lady Anstruthers sitting there.
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Speaker 1: In sustenance of her effort to keep up appearances, she
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Speaker 1: had put on a weird little muslin dress, and had
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Speaker 1: elaborated the dressing of her thin hair. It was no
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Speaker 1: longer dragged back straight from her face, and she looked
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Speaker 1: a trifle less abject, even a shade prettier. Bettina sat
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Speaker 1: upon the edge of the balustrade and touched the hair
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Speaker 1: with light fingers, ruffling it a little becomingly.' If you
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Speaker 1: had worn it like this yesterday,' she said,' I should
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Speaker 1: have known you.'' Should you, Betty? I never look in
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Speaker 1: a mirror if I can help it, but when I
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Speaker 1: do I never know myself. The thing that stares back
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Speaker 1: at me with its pale eyes is not rosy. But
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Speaker 1: of course everyone grows old. Not now. People are just
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Speaker 1: discovering how to grow young instead.' Lady Anstruthers looked into
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Speaker 1: the clear courage of her laughing eyes.' Somehow,' she said,'
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Speaker 1: you say strange things in such a way that one
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Speaker 1: feels as if they must be true, however unlike anything
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Speaker 1: else they are.'' They' re not as new as they seem,'
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Speaker 1: said Betty.' Ancient philosophers said things like them centuries ago,
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Speaker 1: but people did not believe them. We are just beginning
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Speaker 1: to drag them out of the dust and furbish them
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Speaker 1: up and pretend they're ours.' just as people rub up
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Speaker 1: and adorn themselves with jewels dug out of excavations in
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Speaker 1: america people think so many new things said poor little
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Speaker 1: lady anstruthers with yearning humbleness the whole civilized world is
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Speaker 1: thinking what you call new things said betty the old
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Speaker 1: ones won't do they have been tried and though they
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Speaker 1: have helped us to the place we have reached they
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Speaker 1: cannot help us any further we must begin again it
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Speaker 1: is such a long time since i began said rosy
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Speaker 1: such a long time Then there must be another beginning
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Speaker 1: for you too. The hour has struck. Lady Anstruthers rose
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Speaker 1: with as involuntary a movement as if a strong hand
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Speaker 1: had drawn her to her feet. She stood facing Betty,
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Speaker 1: a pathetic little figure in her washed-out muslin frock, and
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Speaker 1: with her washed-out face and eyes and being, though on
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Speaker 1: her faded cheeks a flush was rising. Oh, Betty, she said.
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Speaker 1: I don't know what there is about you, but there
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Speaker 1: is something which makes one feel as if you believed
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Speaker 1: everything and could do everything, as if one believes you.
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Speaker 1: Whatever you were to say, you would make it seem true.
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Speaker 1: If you said the wildest thing in the world, I
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Speaker 1: should believe you. Betty got up, too, and there was
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Speaker 1: an extraordinary steadiness in her eyes.' You may,' she answered.'
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Speaker 1: I shall never say one thing to you which is
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Speaker 1: not a truth, not one single thing.' I believe that,
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Speaker 1: said Rosie Anstruthers with a quivering mouth. I do believe
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Speaker 1: it so. I walked to Mount Dunstan, Betty said later. Really,
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Speaker 1: said Rosie, there and back? Yes, and all around the
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Speaker 1: park and the gardens. Rosie looked rather uncertain. Weren't you
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Speaker 1: a little afraid of meeting someone? I did meet someone.
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Speaker 1: At first I took him for a gamekeeper, but he
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Speaker 1: turned out to be Lord Mount Dunstan. Lady Anstruthers gasped.
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Speaker 1: What did he do? she exclaimed. Did he look angry
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Speaker 1: at seeing a stranger? They say he is so ill-tempered
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Speaker 1: and rude. I should feel ill-tempered if I were in
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Speaker 1: his place, said Betty. He has enough to rouse his
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Speaker 1: evil passions and make him savage. What a fate for
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Speaker 1: a man with any sense and decency of feeling! What
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Speaker 1: fools and criminals the last generation of his house must
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Speaker 1: have produced! I wonder how such things evolve themselves. But
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Speaker 1: he is different, different. One can see it. If he
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Speaker 1: had a chance, just half a chance, he would build
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Speaker 1: it all up again. And I don't mean merely the place,
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Speaker 1: but all that one means when one says his house.
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Speaker 1: He would need a great deal of money, sighed Lady Anstruthers.
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Speaker 1: Betty nodded slowly as she looked out, reflecting into the park. Yes,
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Speaker 1: it would require money, was her admission. And he has none,
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Speaker 1: Lady Anstruthers added, none whatever. He will get some, said Betty,
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Speaker 1: still reflecting. he will make it or dig it up
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Speaker 1: or someone will leave it to him there is a
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Speaker 1: great deal of money in the world and when a
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Speaker 1: strong creature ought to have some of it he gets
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Speaker 1: it oh betty said rosy oh betty watch that man
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Speaker 1: said betty you will see it will come lady anstruthers
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Speaker 1: mind working at no time on complex lines presented her
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Speaker 1: with a simple modern solution perhaps you will marry an
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Speaker 1: american she said and saying it sighed again He will
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Speaker 1: not do it on purpose, Bettina answered slowly, and with
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Speaker 1: such an air of absence of mind that Rosie laughed
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Speaker 1: a little. Will he do it accidentally or against his will?
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Speaker 1: she said. Betty herself smiled. Perhaps he will, she said.
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Speaker 1: There are Englishmen who rather dislike Americans. I think he's
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Speaker 1: one of them. It apparently became necessary for Lady Anstruthers,
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Speaker 1: a moment later, to lean upon the stone balustrade and
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Speaker 1: pick off a young leaf or so, for no reason whatever,
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Speaker 1: unless that in doing so she averted her look from
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Speaker 1: her sister as she made her next remark.' Are you— are
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Speaker 1: you going to write to father and mother?'' I have written,'
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Speaker 1: with unembarrassed evenness of tone.' Mother will be counting the days.'' Mother!'
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Speaker 1: Rosie breathed with a soft little gasp.' Mother!' and turned
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Speaker 1: her face further away.' What did you tell her?' Betty
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Speaker 1: moved over to her and stood close at her side.
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Speaker 1: The power of her personality enveloped the tremulous creature as
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Speaker 1: if it had been a sense of warmth. I told
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Speaker 1: her how beautiful the place was, and how Uhtred adored you,
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Speaker 1: and how you loved us all, and longed to see
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Speaker 1: New York again. The relief on the poor little face
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Speaker 1: was so immense that Betty's heart shook before it. Lady
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Speaker 1: Anstruthers looked up at her with adoring eyes.' I might
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Speaker 1: have known,' she said,' I might have known that you
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Speaker 1: would only say the right thing.'' You couldn't say the
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Speaker 1: wrong thing, Betty.'' Betty bent over her and spoke almost yearningly.'
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Speaker 1: Whatever happens,' she said,' we will take care that Mother
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Speaker 1: is not hurt.' She' s too kind, she's too good, she's
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Speaker 1: too tender.'' That is what I have remembered,' said Lady
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Speaker 1: Anstruthers brokenly.' She used to hold me on her lap
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Speaker 1: when I was quite grown up.' Oh, her soft, warm arms,
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Speaker 1: her warm shoulder!' I have so wanted her!'' She has
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Speaker 1: wanted you,' Betty answered. She thinks of you just as
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Speaker 1: she did when she held you on her lap. But
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Speaker 1: if she saw me now, looking like this, if she
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Speaker 1: saw me, sometimes I have even been glad to think
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Speaker 1: that she never would. She will, Betty's tone was cool
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Speaker 1: and clear, but before she does, I shall have made
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Speaker 1: you look more like yourself. Lady Anstruthers' thin hand closed
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Speaker 1: on her plucked leaves convulsively, and then opening, let them
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Speaker 1: drop upon the stone of the terrace. We shall never
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Speaker 1: see each other, it wouldn't be possible, she said. And
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Speaker 1: there is no magic in the world now, Betty. You
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Speaker 1: can't bring back—'' Yes, you can,' said Bettina.' And what
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Speaker 1: used to be called magic is only the controlled working
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Speaker 1: of the law and order of things in these days.
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Speaker 1: We must talk it all over.' Lady Anstruthers became a
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Speaker 1: little pale.' What?' she asked low and nervously. and Betty
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Speaker 1: saw her glance sideways at the windows of the room
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Speaker 1: which opened onto the terrace. Betty took her hand and
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Speaker 1: drew her down into a chair. She sat near her
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Speaker 1: and looked her straight in the face.' Don' t be frightened,'
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Speaker 1: she said.' I tell you there is no need to
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Speaker 1: be frightened.' We are not living in the Middle Ages.'
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Speaker 1: There is a policeman even in Stornham Village,' and we
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Speaker 1: are within four hours of London where there are thousands.'
10:41
Speaker 1: Lady Amstruthers tried to laugh, but did not succeed very well,
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Speaker 1: and her forehead flashed.' I don't quite know why I
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Speaker 1: seem so nervous,' she said.' It' s very silly of me.'
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Speaker 1: She was still timid enough to cling to some rag
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Speaker 1: of pretense, but Betty knew that it would fall away.
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Speaker 1: She did the wisest possible thing, which was to make
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Speaker 1: an apparently impersonal remark.' I want you to go over
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Speaker 1: the place with me and show me everything. Walls and
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Speaker 1: fences and greenhouses and outbuildings must not be allowed to
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Speaker 1: crumble away.'' What?' cried Rosie.' Have you seen all that already?'
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Speaker 1: She actually stared at her.' How practical and American!'' To
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Speaker 1: see that a wall has fallen when you find yourself
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Speaker 1: obliged to walk around a pile of grass-grown brickwork?' said Betty.
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Speaker 1: Lady Anstruthers still softly stared.' What are you thinking of?'
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Speaker 1: she asked.' Thinking that it's all too beautiful,' Betty's look
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Speaker 1: swept the loveliness spread about her,' too beautiful and too
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Speaker 1: valuable to be allowed to lose its value and its beauty.'
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Speaker 1: She turned her eyes back to Rosie, and the deep
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Speaker 1: dimple near her mouth showed itself delightfully. It is a
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Speaker 1: throwing away of capital, she added. Oh, cried Lady Anstruthers,
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Speaker 1: how clever you are, and you look so different, Betty.
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Speaker 1: Do I look stupid? The dimple deepening. I must try
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Speaker 1: to alter that. Don't try to alter your looks, said Rosie.
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Speaker 1: It's your looks that make you so, so wonderful. But
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Speaker 1: usually women, girls... Rosie paused. Oh, I have been trained,
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Speaker 1: laughed Betty. I am the spoiled daughter of a businessman
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Speaker 1: of genius. His business is an art and a science.
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Speaker 1: I have had advantages. He has let me hear him talk.
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Speaker 1: I even know some trifling things about stocks. Not enough
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Speaker 1: to do me vital injury, but something. What I know
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Speaker 1: best of all— her laugh ended, and her eyes changed their
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Speaker 1: look— is that it is a blunder to think that beauty
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Speaker 1: is not capital, that happiness is not, and that both
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Speaker 1: are not the greatest assets in the scheme. This— with
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Speaker 1: a wave of her hand taking in all they saw,
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Speaker 1: is beauty, and it ought to be happiness, and it
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Speaker 1: must be taken care of. It is your home, and Uhtred's.
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Speaker 1: It is Nigel's, put in Rosie. It's entailed, isn't it,
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Speaker 1: turning quickly? He cannot sell it? If he could, we
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Speaker 1: should not be sitting here, ruefully. Then he cannot object
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Speaker 1: to its being rescued from ruin. He will object to
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Speaker 1: money being spent on things he does not care for.
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Speaker 1: Lady Anstruther's voice lowered itself as it always did when
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Speaker 1: she spoke of her husband, and she indulged in the
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Speaker 1: involuntary hasty glance about her.' I' m going to my room
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Speaker 1: to take off my hat,' Betty said.' Will you come
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Speaker 1: with me?' She went into the house, talking quietly of
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Speaker 1: ordinary things, and in this way they mounted the stairway
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Speaker 1: together and passed along the gallery which led to her room.
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Speaker 1: When they entered it she closed the door, locked it,
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Speaker 1: and taking off her hat laid it aside, after doing
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Speaker 1: which she sat.' No one can hear and no one
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Speaker 1: can come in,' she said.' And if they could, you
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Speaker 1: are afraid of things you need not be afraid of now.'
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Speaker 1: Tell me what happened when you were so ill after
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Speaker 1: Uhtred was born.'' You guessed that it happened then,' gasped
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Speaker 1: Lady Anstruthers.' It was a good time to make anything happen,'
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Speaker 1: replied Bettina.' You were prostrated, you were a child,' and
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Speaker 1: felt yourself cast off hopelessly from the people who loved you.' Forever, forever!'
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Speaker 1: Lady Anstruther's voice was a sharp little moan.' That is
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Speaker 1: what I felt, that nothing could ever help me. I
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Speaker 1: dared not write things. He told me he would not
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Speaker 1: have it, that he would stop any hysterical complaints, that
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Speaker 1: his mother could testify that he behaved perfectly to me.
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Speaker 1: She was the only person in the room with us
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Speaker 1: when— when—'' When?' said Betty. Lady Anstruther shuddered. She leaned forward
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Speaker 1: and caught Betty's hand between her own shaking ones. He
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Speaker 1: struck me, he struck me. He said it never happened,
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Speaker 1: but it did, it did, Betty, it did. That was
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Speaker 1: the one thing that came back to me clearest. He
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Speaker 1: said that I was in delirious hysterics, and that I
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Speaker 1: had struggled with his mother and himself because they tried
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Speaker 1: to keep me quiet and prevent the servants hearing. One
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Speaker 1: awful day he brought Lady Anstruthers into the room, and
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Speaker 1: they stood over me as I lay in bed. and
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Speaker 1: she fixed her eyes on me and said that she,
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Speaker 1: being an Englishwoman, and a person whose word would be believed,
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Speaker 1: could tell people the truth, my father and mother if necessary,
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Speaker 1: that my spoiled hysterical American tempers had created unhappiness for me,
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Speaker 1: merely because I was bored by life in the country
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Speaker 1: and wanted excitement. I tried to answer, but they would
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Speaker 1: not let me, and when I began to shake all over,
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Speaker 1: they said that I was throwing myself into hysterics again,
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Speaker 1: and they told the doctor so, and he believed it.
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Speaker 1: THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE SITUATION WERE PLAINLY TO BE SEEN.
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Speaker 1: FATE IN THE FORM OF TEMPERAMENT ITSELF HAD BEEN AGAINST HER.
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Speaker 1: IT WAS CLEAR ENOUGH TO BETTY AS SHE PATTERED AND
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Speaker 1: STROKED THE THIN HANDS. I UNDERSTAND. TELL ME THE REST,
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Speaker 1: SHE SAID. LADY ANSTROTHER'S HEAD DROOKED. WHEN I WAS LONELIEST
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Speaker 1: AND DYING OF HOMESICKNESS AND SO WEAK THAT I COULD
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Speaker 1: NOT SPEAK WITHOUT SOBBING, HE CAME TO ME. IT WAS
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Speaker 1: ONE MORNING AFTER I HAD BEEN LYING AWAKE ALL NIGHT.
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Speaker 1: and he began to seem kinder. He hadn't been near
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Speaker 1: me for two days, and I had thought I was
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Speaker 1: going to be left to die alone and Mother would
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Speaker 1: never know. He said he had been reflecting, and that
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Speaker 1: he was afraid we had misunderstood each other because we
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Speaker 1: belonged to different countries and had been brought up in
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Speaker 1: different ways. She paused. And that if you understood his
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Speaker 1: position and considered it, you might both be quite happy,
16:32
Speaker 1: Betty gave in quiet termination. Lady Amstruther started, Oh, you
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Speaker 1: know it all, she exclaimed. Only because I have heard
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Speaker 1: it before. It's an old trick, and because he seemed
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Speaker 1: kind and relenting, you tried to understand, and sign something.
16:50
Speaker 1: I wanted to understand, I wanted to believe. What did
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Speaker 1: it matter which of us had the money if we
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Speaker 1: liked each other and were happy? He told me things
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Speaker 1: about the estate and about the enormous cost of it,
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Speaker 1: and his bad luck, and Detsy could not help, and
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Speaker 1: I said that I would do anything if if we
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Speaker 1: could only be like mother and father. And he kissed me,
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Speaker 1: and I signed the paper. And then? He went to
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Speaker 1: London the next day, and then to Paris. He said
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Speaker 1: he was obliged to go on business. He was away
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Speaker 1: a month, and after a week had passed, Lady Anstruthers
17:25
Speaker 1: began to be restless and angry, and once she flew
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Speaker 1: into a rage and told me I was a fool,
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Speaker 1: and that if I had been an Englishwoman I should
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Speaker 1: have had some decent control over my husband, because he
17:35
Speaker 1: would have respected me. In time I found out what
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Speaker 1: I had done. It did not take long. The paper
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Speaker 1: you signed, said Betty, gave him control over your money?
17:46
Speaker 1: A forlorn nod was the answer. And since then he
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Speaker 1: has done as he chose, and he has not chosen
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Speaker 1: to care for Stornham. And once he made you write
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Speaker 1: to father to ask for more money. I did it once.
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Speaker 1: I never would do it again. He has tried to
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Speaker 1: make me. He always says it is to save Stornham
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Speaker 1: for Uhtred.' Nothing can take Stornham from Uhtred. It may
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Speaker 1: come to him a ruin, but it will come to him.
18:12
Speaker 1: He says there are legal points I cannot understand, and
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Speaker 1: he says he is spending money on it. Where? He
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Speaker 1: doesn't go into that. If I were to ask questions,
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Speaker 1: he would make me know that I had better stop.
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Speaker 1: He says I know nothing about things, and he's right.
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Speaker 1: He's never allowed me to know, and I'm not like you, Betty.
18:31
Speaker 1: When you signed the paper, you did not realise that
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Speaker 1: you were doing something you could never undo— and that
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Speaker 1: you would be forced to submit to the consequences. I
18:41
Speaker 1: didn't realize anything but that it would kill me to
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Speaker 1: live as I had been living, feeling as if they
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Speaker 1: hated me. And I was so glad and thankful that
18:49
Speaker 1: he seemed kinder. It was as if I'd been on
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Speaker 1: the rack and he turned the screws back, and I
18:54
Speaker 1: was ready to do anything, anything, if I might be
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Speaker 1: taken off. Oh, Betty, you know, don't you, that if
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Speaker 1: he would only have been a little kind, just a little,
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Speaker 1: I would have obeyed him always and given him everything.
19:06
Speaker 1: Betty sat and looked at her with deeply pondering eyes.
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Speaker 1: She was confronting the fact that it seemed possible that
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Speaker 1: one must build a new soul for her, as well
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Speaker 1: as a new body. In these days of science and
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Speaker 1: growing sanity of thought, one did not stand helpless before
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Speaker 1: the problem of physical rebuilding, and perhaps if one could
19:25
Speaker 1: pour life into a creature, the soul of it would
19:27
Speaker 1: respond and wake again and grow.' You do not know
19:31
Speaker 1: where he is?' she said aloud.' You absolutely do not know?'
19:35
Speaker 1: i never know exactly lady anstruthers answered he was here
19:39
Speaker 1: for a few days the week before you came he
19:41
Speaker 1: said he was going abroad he might appear to-morrow i
19:44
Speaker 1: might not hear of him for six months i can't
19:47
Speaker 1: help hoping now that it will be the six months' Why,
19:50
Speaker 1: particularly now?' inquired Betty. Lady Anstruthers flushed and looked shy
19:55
Speaker 1: and awkward.' Because of you, I don't know what he
19:59
Speaker 1: would say. I don't know what he would do.'' To me?'
20:02
Speaker 1: said Betty.' It would be sure to be something unreasonable
20:06
Speaker 1: and wicked,' said Lady Anstruthers.' It would, Betty.' I wonder
20:10
Speaker 1: what it would be, Betty said musingly. He has told
20:13
Speaker 1: lies for years to keep you all from me. If
20:16
Speaker 1: he came now, he would know that he had been
20:18
Speaker 1: found out. He would say that I had told you things.
20:21
Speaker 1: He would be furious because you have seen what there
20:24
Speaker 1: is to see. He would know that you could not
20:26
Speaker 1: help but realize that the money he made me ask
20:28
Speaker 1: for had not been spent on the estate. He... Betty,
20:32
Speaker 1: he would try to force you to go away. I
20:35
Speaker 1: wonder what he would do, Betty said again musingly. She
20:38
Speaker 1: felt interested, not afraid.' It would be something cunning,' Rosie protested.'
20:43
Speaker 1: It would be something no one would expect.' He might
20:47
Speaker 1: be so rude that you could not remain in the
20:48
Speaker 1: room with him,' or he might be quite polite and
20:51
Speaker 1: pretend he was rather glad to see you.' If he
20:54
Speaker 1: was only frightfully rude we should be safer,' because that
20:57
Speaker 1: would not be an unexpected thing.' But if he was
21:00
Speaker 1: polite it would be because he was arranging something hideous'
21:03
Speaker 1: which you could not defend yourself against.'' Can you tell me,'
21:07
Speaker 1: said Betty quite slowly, because as she looked down at
21:09
Speaker 1: the carpet she was thinking very hard, the kind of
21:12
Speaker 1: unexpected thing he's done to you. Lifting her eyes, she
21:17
Speaker 1: saw that a troubled flush was creeping over Lady Anstruthers' face.'
21:20
Speaker 1: There have been so many queer things,' she faltered. Then
21:25
Speaker 1: Betty knew there was some special thing she was afraid
21:27
Speaker 1: to talk about, and that if she desired to obtain
21:30
Speaker 1: illuminating information it would be well to go into the matter.' Try,'
21:34
Speaker 1: she said,' to remember some particular incident.' Lady Anstruthers looked nervous. Rosie,
21:41
Speaker 1: in the level voice, there has been a particular incident,
21:45
Speaker 1: and I would rather hear of it from you than
21:47
Speaker 1: from him. Rosie's lap held little shaking hands. He has
21:51
Speaker 1: held it over me for years, she said breathlessly. He
21:55
Speaker 1: said he would write about it to father and mother.
21:57
Speaker 1: He says he could use it against me as evidence
22:00
Speaker 1: in the divorce court. He says that divorce courts in
22:03
Speaker 1: America are for women, but in England they are for men,
22:06
Speaker 1: and he He could defend himself against me. The incongruity
22:10
Speaker 1: of the picture of the small faded creature arraigned in
22:13
Speaker 1: a divorce court on charges of misbehaviour would have made
22:16
Speaker 1: Betty smile if she had been in a smiling mood.
22:19
Speaker 1: What did he accuse you of? That was the unexpected thing, miserably.
22:25
Speaker 1: Betty took the unsteady hands firmly in her own. Don't
22:28
Speaker 1: be afraid to tell me, she said. He knew you
22:31
Speaker 1: so well that he understood what would terrify you the most.
22:35
Speaker 1: I know you so well that I understand how he
22:37
Speaker 1: does it. Did he do this unexpected thing just before
22:41
Speaker 1: you wrote to father for the money?' As she quite
22:44
Speaker 1: suddenly presented the question, Rosie exclaimed aloud,' How did you know?'
22:48
Speaker 1: she said.' You' re like a lawyer. How could you know?'
22:52
Speaker 1: How simple she was! How obviously an easy prey! She
22:56
Speaker 1: had been unconsciously giving evidence with every word.' I have
23:00
Speaker 1: been thinking him over,' Betty said.' He interests me.' I
23:04
Speaker 1: have begun to guess that he always wants something when
23:06
Speaker 1: he professes that he has a grievance. Then, with drooping head,
23:10
Speaker 1: Rosie told the story. Yes, it happened before he made
23:14
Speaker 1: me write to father for so much money. The vicar
23:17
Speaker 1: was ill and was obliged to go away for six months.
23:20
Speaker 1: The clergyman who came to take his place was a
23:22
Speaker 1: young man. He was kind and gentle and wanted to
23:25
Speaker 1: help people. His mother was with him and she was
23:28
Speaker 1: like him. They loved each other and they were quite poor.
23:32
Speaker 1: His name was Folliott. I liked to hear him preach.
23:36
Speaker 1: He said things that comforted me. Nigel found out that
23:39
Speaker 1: he comforted me, and when he called here he was
23:42
Speaker 1: more polite to him than he'd ever been to Mr. Brent.
23:45
Speaker 1: He seemed almost as if he liked him. He actually
23:48
Speaker 1: asked him to dinner two or three times. After dinner
23:51
Speaker 1: he'd go out of the room and leave us together. Oh, Betty,
23:55
Speaker 1: clinging to her hands, I was so wretched then that
23:58
Speaker 1: sometimes I thought I was going out of my mind.
24:01
Speaker 1: I think I looked wild.' I used to kneel down
24:04
Speaker 1: and try to pray, and I couldn't.'' Yes, yes,' said Betty.'
24:08
Speaker 1: I used to feel that if I could only have
24:11
Speaker 1: one friend, just one, I could bear it better. Once
24:15
Speaker 1: I said something like that to Nigel. He only shrugged
24:18
Speaker 1: his shoulders and sneered when I said it, but afterwards
24:21
Speaker 1: I knew he had remembered. One evening, when he'd asked Mr.
24:25
Speaker 1: Folliott to dinner, he led him to talk about religion. Oh, Betty,
24:29
Speaker 1: it made my blood turn cold when he began.' I
24:32
Speaker 1: knew he was doing it for some wicked reason. I
24:35
Speaker 1: knew the look in his eyes and the awful agreeable
24:38
Speaker 1: smile on his mouth. When he said at last, If
24:42
Speaker 1: you could help my poor wife to find comfort in
24:44
Speaker 1: such things, I began to see. I could not explain
24:49
Speaker 1: to anyone how he did it, but with just a
24:51
Speaker 1: sentence dropped here and there he seemed to tell the
24:53
Speaker 1: whole story of a silly, selfish American girl, thwarted in
24:57
Speaker 1: her vulgar little ambitions and posing as a martyr, because
25:01
Speaker 1: she could not have her own way in everything. He
25:04
Speaker 1: said once, quite casually, I am afraid American women are
25:07
Speaker 1: rather spoiled. And then he said, in the same tolerant way,
25:12
Speaker 1: A poor man is a disappointment to an American girl.
25:15
Speaker 1: America does not believe in rank combined with lack of fortune.
25:19
Speaker 1: I dared not defend myself. I am not clever enough
25:22
Speaker 1: to think of the right things to say. He meant Mr.
25:26
Speaker 1: Folliott to understand that I had married him because I
25:29
Speaker 1: thought he was grand and rich, and that I was
25:31
Speaker 1: a disappointed little spiteful shrew. I tried to act as
25:35
Speaker 1: if he was not hurting me, but my hands trembled,
25:38
Speaker 1: and a lump kept rising in my throat. When we
25:41
Speaker 1: returned to the drawing-room, and at last he left us together,
25:44
Speaker 1: I was praying and praying that I might be able
25:46
Speaker 1: to keep from breaking down. She stopped and swallowed hard.
25:51
Speaker 1: Betty held her hands firmly until she went on. For
25:54
Speaker 1: a few minutes I sat still and tried to think
25:57
Speaker 1: of some new subject, something about the church or the village.
26:00
Speaker 1: but I couldn't begin to speak because of the lump
26:02
Speaker 1: in my throat. And then suddenly, but quietly, Mr. Folliott
26:06
Speaker 1: got up, and though I dared not lift my eyes,
26:09
Speaker 1: I knew he was standing before the fire quite near me. And, oh,
26:13
Speaker 1: what do you think he said, as low and gently
26:16
Speaker 1: as if his voice was a woman's? I didn't know
26:19
Speaker 1: that people ever said such things now, or even thought them.
26:23
Speaker 1: But never, never shall I forget that strange minute. He
26:26
Speaker 1: said just this— God will help you, he will, he will.
26:32
Speaker 1: As if it was true, Betty, as if there was
26:34
Speaker 1: a God, and he had not forgotten me. I did
26:38
Speaker 1: not know what I was doing, but I put out
26:40
Speaker 1: my hand and caught at his sleeve, and when I
26:42
Speaker 1: looked up into his face I saw in his kind
26:45
Speaker 1: good eyes that he knew that somehow, God knows how,
26:49
Speaker 1: he understood that I need not utter a word to
26:51
Speaker 1: explain to him that he had been listening to lies.
26:54
Speaker 1: Did you talk to him? Betty asked quietly. He talked
26:58
Speaker 1: to me. We did not even speak of Nigel. He
27:02
Speaker 1: talked to me as I had never heard anyone talk before.
27:05
Speaker 1: Somehow he filled the room with something real, which was
27:08
Speaker 1: hope and comfort, and like warmth, which kept my soul
27:11
Speaker 1: from shivering. The tears poured from my eyes at first,
27:15
Speaker 1: but the lump in my throat went away, and when
27:17
Speaker 1: Nigel came back I actually didn't feel frightened, though he
27:21
Speaker 1: looked at me and sneered quietly.' Did he say anything afterwards?'
27:27
Speaker 1: He laughed a little cold laugh, and said,' I see
27:31
Speaker 1: you've been seeking the consolation of religion. Neurotic women like confessors.
27:36
Speaker 1: I do not object to your confessing, if you confess
27:39
Speaker 1: your own backslidings and not mine.'' That was the beginning,'
27:43
Speaker 1: said Betty, speculatively.' The unexpected thing was the end. Tell
27:48
Speaker 1: me the rest.'' No one could have dreamed of it,'
27:51
Speaker 1: Rosie broke forth.' For weeks he was almost like other people.'
27:55
Speaker 1: He stayed at Stornham and spent his days in shooting.
27:58
Speaker 1: He professed that he was rather enjoying himself in a
28:01
Speaker 1: dull way. He encouraged me to go to the vicarage.
28:04
Speaker 1: He invited the Folliots here. He said Mrs. Folliot was
28:08
Speaker 1: a gentlewoman and good for me. He said it was
28:11
Speaker 1: proper that I should interest myself in parish work. Once
28:14
Speaker 1: or twice he even brought some little message to me
28:16
Speaker 1: from Mr. Folliot. It was a pitiably simple story. Betty
28:21
Speaker 1: saw through its relation the unconsciousness of the easily allured victim,
28:25
Speaker 1: the adroit leading on from step to step, the ordinary,
28:29
Speaker 1: natural-seeming method which arranged opportunities. The two had been thrown
28:33
Speaker 1: together at the court, at the vicarage, the church, and
28:36
Speaker 1: in the village, and the hawk had looked on and
28:38
Speaker 1: bided his time. For the first time in her years
28:41
Speaker 1: of exile, Rosie had begun to feel that she might
28:44
Speaker 1: be allowed a friend, though she lived in secret tremor
28:47
Speaker 1: since the normal liberty permitted her should suddenly be snatched away.
28:51
Speaker 1: We never talked of Nigel, she said, twisting her hands,
28:55
Speaker 1: but he made me begin to live again. He talked
28:58
Speaker 1: to me of something that watched and would not leave me,
29:00
Speaker 1: would never leave me. I was learning to believe it. Sometimes,
29:05
Speaker 1: when I walked through the wood to the village, I
29:07
Speaker 1: used to stop among the trees and look up at
29:09
Speaker 1: the bits of sky between the branches and listen to
29:11
Speaker 1: the sound of the leaves, the sound that never stops.
29:15
Speaker 1: And it seemed as if it were saying something to me,
29:18
Speaker 1: and I would clasp my hands and whisper— yes i
29:22
Speaker 1: will i will i used to see nigel looking at
29:25
Speaker 1: me at table with a queer smile in his eyes
29:28
Speaker 1: and once he said to me you are growing young
29:31
Speaker 1: and lovely my dear your colour is improving the counsel
29:34
Speaker 1: of our friend are of a salutary nature it would
29:38
Speaker 1: have made me nervous but he said it almost good-naturedly,
29:41
Speaker 1: and I was silly enough even to wonder if it
29:43
Speaker 1: could be possible that he was pleased to see me
29:46
Speaker 1: looking less ill. It was true, Betty, that I was
29:49
Speaker 1: growing stronger, but it didn't last long.'' I was afraid not,'
29:54
Speaker 1: said Betty.' An old woman in the lane near Bartian
29:57
Speaker 1: Wood was ill.' Mr. Folliott had asked me to go
30:00
Speaker 1: to see her, and I used to go. She suffered
30:03
Speaker 1: a great deal, and clung to us both. He comforted
30:06
Speaker 1: her as he comforted me. Sometimes, when he was called away,
30:10
Speaker 1: he would send a note to me, asking me to
30:12
Speaker 1: go to her. One day he wrote hastily, saying that
30:15
Speaker 1: she was dying, and asked if I would go with
30:17
Speaker 1: him to her cottage at once. I knew it would
30:20
Speaker 1: save time if I met him in the path, which
30:22
Speaker 1: was a short cut, so I wrote a few words
30:25
Speaker 1: and gave them to the messenger. I said— Do not
30:27
Speaker 1: come to the house. I will meet you in Bartian Wood.
30:31
Speaker 1: Betty made a slight movement, and in her face there
30:34
Speaker 1: was a dawning of mingled amazement and incredulity. The thought
30:38
Speaker 1: which had come to her seemed, as Uhtred's locking of
30:40
Speaker 1: the door had seemed, too wild for modern days. Lady
30:45
Speaker 1: Anstruthers saw her expression and understood it. She made a
30:48
Speaker 1: hopeless gesture with her small bony hand. Yes, she said,
30:53
Speaker 1: it's just like that. No one would believe it. The
30:56
Speaker 1: worst cleverness of the things he does is that when
30:59
Speaker 1: one tells of them they sound like lies. I have
31:02
Speaker 1: a bewildered feeling that I should not believe them myself
31:04
Speaker 1: if I had not seen them. He met the boy
31:07
Speaker 1: in the park and took the note from him. He
31:09
Speaker 1: came back to the house and up to my room
31:12
Speaker 1: where I was dressing quickly to go to Mr. Folliott.
31:15
Speaker 1: She stopped for quite a minute, rather as if to
31:18
Speaker 1: recover breath. He closed the door behind him and came
31:22
Speaker 1: towards me with the note in his hand. and I
31:25
Speaker 1: saw in a second the look that always terrifies me
31:27
Speaker 1: in his face. He'd opened the note, and he smoothed
31:31
Speaker 1: out the paper quietly and said,' What is this?' I
31:35
Speaker 1: could not help it. I turned cold and began to shiver.
31:39
Speaker 1: I could not imagine what was coming.' Is it my
31:43
Speaker 1: note to Mr. Folliott?' I asked.' Yes, it is your
31:47
Speaker 1: note to Mr. Folliott,' and he read it aloud.' Do
31:50
Speaker 1: not come to the house. I will meet you in
31:52
Speaker 1: Bartian Wood.' that is a nice note for a man's
31:55
Speaker 1: wife to have written to be picked up and read
31:57
Speaker 1: by a stranger if your confessor is not cautious in
32:00
Speaker 1: the matter of letters from women when he begins a
32:03
Speaker 1: thing in that way you may always know that he
32:05
Speaker 1: has planned everything that you can do nothing i always
32:09
Speaker 1: know i knew then and i knew i was quite
32:12
Speaker 1: white when i answered him i wrote it in a
32:15
Speaker 1: great hurry mrs fawn is worse we are going together
32:18
Speaker 1: to her i said i would meet him to save
32:20
Speaker 1: time He laughed his awful little laugh and touched the paper.
32:26
Speaker 1: I have no doubt, and I have no doubt that
32:28
Speaker 1: if other persons saw this they would believe it. It's
32:31
Speaker 1: very likely. But you believe it, I said. You know
32:35
Speaker 1: it's true. No one would be so silly, so silly
32:38
Speaker 1: and wicked as to— Then I broke down and cried out,
32:42
Speaker 1: What do you mean? What could anyone think it meant?
32:46
Speaker 1: I was so wild that I felt as if I
32:48
Speaker 1: was going crazy. He clenched my wrist and shook me.'
32:53
Speaker 1: Don' t think you can play the fool with me,' he said.'
32:56
Speaker 1: I have been watching this thing from the first.' The
32:59
Speaker 1: first time I leave you alone with the fellow,' I
33:01
Speaker 1: come back to find you've been giving him an emotional scene.'
33:04
Speaker 1: Do you suppose your simpering good spirits' and your imbecile
33:07
Speaker 1: pink cheeks told me nothing?' They told me exactly this.'
33:11
Speaker 1: I have waited to come upon it, and here it is.'
33:14
Speaker 1: Do not come to the house.' I will meet you
33:17
Speaker 1: in the wood.'' That was the unexpected thing.' It was
33:21
Speaker 1: no use to argue and try to explain. I knew
33:24
Speaker 1: he did not believe what he was saying, but he
33:26
Speaker 1: worked himself into a rage. He accused me of awful things,
33:30
Speaker 1: and called me awful names in a loud voice, so
33:33
Speaker 1: that he could be heard, until I was dumb and staggering.
33:37
Speaker 1: All the time I knew there was a reason, but
33:39
Speaker 1: I couldn't tell what it was. He said at last
33:42
Speaker 1: that he was going to Mr. Folliott. He said, I
33:45
Speaker 1: will meet him in the wood, and I will take
33:47
Speaker 1: your note with me. Betty, it was so shameful that
33:52
Speaker 1: I fell down on my knees. Oh, don't, don't do that,
33:55
Speaker 1: I said. I beg of you, Nigel. He's a gentleman
33:58
Speaker 1: and a clergyman. I beg and beg of you. If
34:01
Speaker 1: you will not, I will do anything, anything. And at
34:05
Speaker 1: that minute I remembered how he'd tried to make me
34:08
Speaker 1: write to father for money, and I cried out, catching
34:11
Speaker 1: at his coat and holding him back. I'll write to
34:14
Speaker 1: father as you asked me. I will do anything. I
34:17
Speaker 1: can't bear it. That was the meaning of the whole thing,
34:21
Speaker 1: said Betty, with eyes ablaze. That was the beginning, the middle,
34:25
Speaker 1: and the end. What did he say? He pretended to
34:29
Speaker 1: be made more angry. He said, Don't insult me by
34:32
Speaker 1: trying to bribe me with your vulgar money. Don't insult me.
34:37
Speaker 1: But he gradually grew sulky instead of raging, and though
34:40
Speaker 1: he put the note in his pocket, he did not
34:42
Speaker 1: go to Mr. Folliott, and I wrote to Father. I
34:47
Speaker 1: remember that. Betty answered.' Did you ever speak to Mr.
34:51
Speaker 1: Folliott again?' He guessed. He knew. I saw it in
34:55
Speaker 1: his kind brown eyes when he passed me without speaking
34:58
Speaker 1: in the village. I dare say the villagers were told
35:01
Speaker 1: about the awful thing by some servant who heard Nigel's voice.
35:05
Speaker 1: Villagers always know what's happening. He went away a few
35:09
Speaker 1: weeks later. The day before he went I had walked
35:12
Speaker 1: through the wood, and just outside it I met him.
35:15
Speaker 1: He stopped for one minute, just one. He lifted his
35:19
Speaker 1: hat and said, just as he had spoken them that
35:21
Speaker 1: first night, just the same words, God will help you,
35:25
Speaker 1: he will, he will. A strange, almost unearthly joy suddenly
35:30
Speaker 1: flashed across her face. It must be true, she said,
35:34
Speaker 1: it must be true, he sent you, Betty. It has
35:37
Speaker 1: been a long time, it has been so long that
35:40
Speaker 1: sometimes I have forgotten his words, but you have come. Yes,
35:44
Speaker 1: I have come, Betty answered. and she bent forward and
35:47
Speaker 1: kissed her gently as if she had been soothing a child.
35:51
Speaker 1: There were other questions to ask. She was obliged to
35:54
Speaker 1: ask them. The unexpected thing had been used as an
35:57
Speaker 1: instrument for years. It was always efficacious. Over the yearningly
36:02
Speaker 1: homesick creature had hung the threat that her father and mother,
36:05
Speaker 1: those she ached and longed for, could be told the
36:08
Speaker 1: story in such a manner as would brand her as
36:10
Speaker 1: a woman with a shameful secret. How could she explain herself?
36:14
Speaker 1: There were the awful written words. He was her husband.
36:18
Speaker 1: He was remorseless, plausible. She dared not write freely. She
36:22
Speaker 1: had no witnesses to call upon. She had discovered that
36:25
Speaker 1: he had planned with composed steadiness that misleading impressions should
36:29
Speaker 1: be given to servants and village people. When the prince
36:32
Speaker 1: returned to the vicarage, she had observed with terror that
36:35
Speaker 1: for some reason they stiffened and looked askance when the
36:38
Speaker 1: Folliots were mentioned. I am afraid, Lady Anstruthers, that Mr.
36:42
Speaker 1: Folliot was a great mistake. Mrs. Brent said once. Lady
36:47
Speaker 1: Anstruthers had not dared to ask any questions. She had
36:50
Speaker 1: felt the awkward colour rising in her face, and had
36:52
Speaker 1: known that she looked guilty. But if she had protested
36:55
Speaker 1: against the injustice of the remark, Sir Nigel would have
36:58
Speaker 1: heard of her words before the day had passed, and
37:01
Speaker 1: she shuddered to think of the result. He had by
37:04
Speaker 1: that time reached the point of referring to Folliott with
37:07
Speaker 1: sneering lightness as your lover.' Do you defend your lover
37:11
Speaker 1: to me?' it said on one occasion, when she had
37:14
Speaker 1: entered a timid protest, and her white face and wild
37:18
Speaker 1: helpless eyes had been such evidence as to the effect
37:21
Speaker 1: the word had produced that he had seen the expediency
37:24
Speaker 1: of making a point of using it. The blood beat
37:27
Speaker 1: in Betty Vanderpool's veins.' Rosie,' she said, looking steadily in
37:32
Speaker 1: the faded face,' tell me this. Did you never think
37:35
Speaker 1: of getting away from him, of going somewhere and trying
37:38
Speaker 1: to reach father by cable or letter or some means?'
37:42
Speaker 1: Lady Anstruther's weary and wrinkled little smile was a pitiably
37:45
Speaker 1: illuminating thing.' My dear,' she said,' if you are strong
37:50
Speaker 1: and beautiful and rich and well-dressed so that people care
37:53
Speaker 1: to look at you and listen to what you say,
37:55
Speaker 1: you can do things. But who in England will listen
37:58
Speaker 1: to a shabby, dowdy, frightened woman when she runs away
38:01
Speaker 1: from her husband if he follows her and tells people
38:04
Speaker 1: she is hysterical or mad or bad? It is the shabby,
38:08
Speaker 1: dowdy woman who is in the wrong.' At first I
38:11
Speaker 1: thought of nothing else but trying to get away, and
38:14
Speaker 1: once I went to Stornham Station, I walked all the
38:16
Speaker 1: way on a hot day, and just as I was
38:19
Speaker 1: getting into a third-class carriage, Nigel marched in and caught
38:22
Speaker 1: my arm and held me back. I fainted, and when
38:26
Speaker 1: I came to myself I was in the carriage, being
38:28
Speaker 1: driven back to the court, and he was sitting opposite
38:31
Speaker 1: to me. He said,' You fool, it would take a
38:34
Speaker 1: cleverer woman than you to carry that out,' and I
38:37
Speaker 1: knew it was the awful truth. It's not the awful
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Speaker 1: truth now, said Betty as she rose to her feet
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Speaker 1: and stood looking before her, but with a look that
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Speaker 1: did not rest on chairs and tables. She remained so,
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Speaker 1: standing for a few moments of dead silence. What a
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Speaker 1: fool he was, she said at last, and what a villain!
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Speaker 1: But a villain is always a fool. She bent, and
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Speaker 1: taking Rosie's face between her hands, kissed it with a
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Speaker 1: kiss that seemed like a seal. That will do, she said.
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Speaker 1: Now I know. one must know what is in one's
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Speaker 1: hands and what is not then one need not waste
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Speaker 1: time in talking of miserable things one can save one's
39:17
Speaker 1: strength for doing what can be done i believe you
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Speaker 1: would always think about doing things said lady anstruthers that
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Speaker 1: is american too it is a quality americans inherited from
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Speaker 1: england likely One of the results of it is that
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Speaker 1: England covers a rather large share of the map of
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Speaker 1: the world. It is a practical quality. You and I
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Speaker 1: might spend hours in talking to each other of what
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Speaker 1: Nigel has done and what you have done, of what
39:43
Speaker 1: he has said and what you have said. We might
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Speaker 1: give some hours, I dare say, to what the Dowager
39:48
Speaker 1: did and said. But wiser people than we are have
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Speaker 1: found out that thinking of black things past is living
39:54
Speaker 1: them again, and it is like poisoning one's blood. It's
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Speaker 1: deterioration of property.' She said the last words as if
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Speaker 1: she'd ended with a jest, but she knew what she
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Speaker 1: was doing.' You were tricked into giving up what was
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Speaker 1: yours to a person who could not be trusted. What
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Speaker 1: has been done with it scarcely matters. It is not yours,
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Speaker 1: but Sir Nigel's. but we are not helpless because we
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Speaker 1: have in our hands the most powerful material agent in
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Speaker 1: the world. Come, Rosie, and let us walk over the house.
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Speaker 1: We will begin with that. End of chapter 16