Latest / The Turn of the Screw / Owen Wingrave-Henry James

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Owen Wingrave-Henry James · The Turn of the Screw

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  Speaker 1: Part one of Owen Wingrave. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by David Wales Owen Wingrave by Henry James, Part one,
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  Speaker 1: Upon my honor, you must be off your head, cried
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  Speaker 1: Spencer Coyle, as the young man with a white face
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  Speaker 1: stood there, panting a little and repeating, really, I've quite decided,
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  Speaker 1: and I assure you I've thought it all out. They
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: were both pale, but Owen Wingrave smiled in a manner
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  Speaker 1: exasperating to his interlocutor, who, however, still discriminated sufficiently to
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  Speaker 1: see that his grimace, it was like an irrelevance lear
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: was the result of extreme and conceivable nervousness. It was
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: certainly a mistake to have gone so far, but that
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  Speaker 1: is exactly why I feel I mustn't go farther, poor
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  Speaker 1: Owen said, waiting mechanically, almost humbly. He wished not to swagger,
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  Speaker 1: and indeed he had nothing to swagger about, and carrying
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  Speaker 1: through the window to the stupid opposite houses, the dry
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  Speaker 1: glitter of his eyes, I'm unspeakably disgusted. You've made me
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  Speaker 1: dreadfully ill. Mister Coyle went on, looking thoroughly upset. I'm
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  Speaker 1: very sorry. It was the fear of the effect on
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  Speaker 1: you that kept me from speaking sooner. You should have
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  Speaker 1: spoken three months ago. Don't you know your mind from
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: one day to the other. The young man, for a
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  Speaker 1: moment said nothing. Then he replied with a little tremor.
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  Speaker 1: You're very angry with me, and I expected it. I'm
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  Speaker 1: awfully obliged to you for all you've done for me.
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  Speaker 1: I'll do anything else for you in return, but I
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  Speaker 1: can't do that every one else will let me have it.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, I'm prepared for it. I'm prepared for everything.
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  Speaker 1: That's what has taken the time to be sure. I
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  Speaker 1: was prepared. I think it's your displeasure. I feel most
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  Speaker 1: and regret most. But little by little you'll get over it.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: You'll get over it rather faster, I suppose. Spencer Coyle
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: satirically exclaimed he was quite as agitated as his young friend,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: and they were evidently in no condition to prolong an
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  Speaker 1: encounter in which they each drew blood. Mister Coyle was
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: a professional coach. He prepared young men for the army,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: taking only three or four at a time, to whom
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: he applied the irresistible stimulus of which the possession was
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  Speaker 1: both his secret and his fortune. He had not a
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  Speaker 1: great establishment. He would have said himself that it was
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: not a wholesale business. Neither his system, his health, nor
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  Speaker 1: his temper could have accommodated itself to numbers. So he
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  Speaker 1: weighed and measured his pupils, and turned away more applicants
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  Speaker 1: than he passed. He was an artist in his line,
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  Speaker 1: caring only for picked subjects, and capable of sacrifices, almost
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  Speaker 1: passionate for the individual. He liked ardent young men. There
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: were kinds of capacity to which he was indifferent, and
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: he had taken a particular fancy to owen Wingrave. This
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: young man's facility really fascinated him. His candidate usually did wonders,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: and he might have sent up a multitude. He was
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  Speaker 1: a person of exactly the stature of the great Napoleon,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: with a certain flicker of genius in his light blue eyes.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: It had been said of him that he looked like
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  Speaker 1: a pianist. The tone of his favorite pupil now expressed,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: without intention, indeed, a superior wisdom, which irritated him. He
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: had not especially suffered before from Wingrave's high opinion of himself,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: which had seemed justified by remarkable parts, but to day
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  Speaker 1: it struck him as intolerable. He cut short the discussion,
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  Speaker 1: declining absolutely to regard their relations as terminated, and remarked
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  Speaker 1: to his pupil that he had better go off somewhere
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  Speaker 1: down to Eastbourne, say the sea would bring him round,
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  Speaker 1: and take a few days to find his feet and
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  Speaker 1: come to his senses. He could afford the time. He
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  Speaker 1: was so well up. When Spencer Coyle remembered how well
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  Speaker 1: up he was, he could have boxed his ears. The tall,
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  Speaker 1: athletic young man was not physically a subject for simplified reasoning,
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  Speaker 1: but there was a troubled gentleness in his handsome face,
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  Speaker 1: the index of compunction mixed with pertinacity, which signified that
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  Speaker 1: if it could have done any good, he would have
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  Speaker 1: turned both cheeks. He evidently didn't pretend that his wisdom
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  Speaker 1: was superior. He only presented it as his own. It
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  Speaker 1: was his own career, after all, that was in question.
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  Speaker 1: He couldn't refuse to go through the form of trying Eastbourne,
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  Speaker 1: or at least of holding his tongue, though there was
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  Speaker 1: that in his manner which implied that if he should
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  Speaker 1: do so, it would be really to give mister Coyle
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  Speaker 1: a chance to recuperate. He didn't feel a bit overworked,
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  Speaker 1: but there was nothing more natural than that, with their
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  Speaker 1: tremendous pressure, mister Coyle should be mister Coyle's own intellect
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  Speaker 1: would derive an advantage from his pupil's holiday. Mister Coyle
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  Speaker 1: saw what he meant, but he controlled himself. He only
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  Speaker 1: demanded as his right a truce of three days. Owen
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  Speaker 1: Wingrave granted it, though as fostering sad illusions. This went
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  Speaker 1: visibly against his conscience. But before they separated, the famous
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: crammer remarked, all the same, I feel as if I
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  Speaker 1: ought to see some one. I think you mentioned to
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  Speaker 1: me that your aunt had come to town. Oh, yes,
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  Speaker 1: she's in Baker Street. Do go and see her, the
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: boy said comfortingly. Mister Coyle looked at him an instant.
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  Speaker 1: Have you broached this folly to her? Not yet, to
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  Speaker 1: no one. I thought it right to speak to you first.
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  Speaker 1: Oh what you think right? Cried Spencer Coyle, outraged by
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  Speaker 1: his young friend's standards. He added that he would probably
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  Speaker 1: call on miss Wingrave, after which the recreant youth got
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  Speaker 1: out of the house. Owen Wingrave didn't, however, start punctually
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  Speaker 1: for Eastbourne. He only directed his steps to Kensington Gardens,
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  Speaker 1: from which mister Coyle's desirable residence he was terribly expensive
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  Speaker 1: and had a big house, was not far removed. The
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  Speaker 1: famous coach put up his pupils, and Owen had mentioned
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  Speaker 1: to the butler that he would be back to dinner.
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  Speaker 1: The spring day was warm to his young blood, and
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  Speaker 1: he had a book in his pocket, which, when he
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  Speaker 1: had passed into the gardens, and after a short stroll,
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  Speaker 1: dropped into a chair he took out with the slow,
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  Speaker 1: soft sigh that finally ushers in a pleasure postponed. He
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  Speaker 1: stretched his long legs and began to read it. It
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: was a volume of Gerta's poems. He had been for
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  Speaker 1: days in a state of the highest tension, and now
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  Speaker 1: that the cord had snapped, the relief was proportionate. Only
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  Speaker 1: it was characteristic of him that this deliverance should take
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  Speaker 1: the form of an intellectual pleasure. If he had thrown
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  Speaker 1: up the probability of a magnificent career, it was not
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  Speaker 1: too dawdle along Bond Street, nor parade his indifference in
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  Speaker 1: the window of a club. At any rate, he had,
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  Speaker 1: in a few moments forgotten everything, the tremendous pressure, mister
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  Speaker 1: Coyle's disappointment, and even his formidable aunt in Baker Street.
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  Speaker 1: If these watchers had overtaken him, there would surely have
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  Speaker 1: been some excuse for their exasperation. There was no doubt
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  Speaker 1: he was perverse, for his very choice of a past
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  Speaker 1: time only showed how he had got up his German.
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  Speaker 1: What the devil's the matter with him? Do you know? Spencer?
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  Speaker 1: Coyle asked that afternoon of young Leshmere, who had never
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  Speaker 1: before observed the head of the establishment to set a
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  Speaker 1: fellow such an example of bad language. Young Leshmere was
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  Speaker 1: not only when Grave's fellow pupil. He was supposed to
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  Speaker 1: be his intimate, indeed quite his best friend, and had
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  Speaker 1: unconsciously performed for mister Coyle the office of making the
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  Speaker 1: promise of his great gifts more vivid. By contrast, he
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  Speaker 1: was short and sturdy, and as a general thing, uninspired,
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  Speaker 1: and mister Coyle, who found no amusement in believing in him,
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  Speaker 1: had never thought him less exciting than as he stared
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  Speaker 1: now out of a face from which you could never
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  Speaker 1: guess whether he had caught an idea. Young Leshmere concealed
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  Speaker 1: such achievements as if they had been youthful indiscretions. At
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  Speaker 1: any rate, he could evidently conceive no reason why it
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  Speaker 1: should be thought there was anything more than usual the
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  Speaker 1: matter with the companion of his studies. So mister Coyle
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  Speaker 1: had to continue. He declines to go up. He chucks
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  Speaker 1: the whole thing. The first thing that struck Young Leshmere
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  Speaker 1: in the case was the freshness it had imparted to
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  Speaker 1: the Governor's vocabulary. He doesn't want to go to Sandhurst,
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  Speaker 1: He doesn't want to go anywhere. He gives up the
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  Speaker 1: army altogether. He objects, said mister Coyle, in a tone
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  Speaker 1: that made Young Leshmere almost hold his breath, to the
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  Speaker 1: military profession. Why it has been the profession of all
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  Speaker 1: his family, their profession, It has been their religion. Do
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  Speaker 1: you know, miss Wingrave. Oh? Yes, isn't she awful? Young
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  Speaker 1: Leshmeir candidly ejaculated. His instructor demurred, She's formidable if you
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  Speaker 1: mean that, And it's right she should be, because somehow
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  Speaker 1: in her very person good maiden lady. As she is,
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  Speaker 1: she represents the might. She represents the traditions and the
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  Speaker 1: exploits of the British army. She represents the expansive property
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  Speaker 1: of the English name. I think his family can be
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  Speaker 1: trusted to come down on him, but every influence should
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  Speaker 1: be set in motion. I want to know what yours is.
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  Speaker 1: Can you do anything in the matter. I can try
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  Speaker 1: a couple of rounds with him, said young Lachhmir reflectively.
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  Speaker 1: But he knows a fearful lot. He has the most
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  Speaker 1: extraordinary ideas. Then he has told you some of them.
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  Speaker 1: He has taken you into his confidence. I've heard him
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  Speaker 1: jaw by the yard, smiled the honest youth. He has
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  Speaker 1: told me he despises it. What is it he despises?
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  Speaker 1: I can't make out the most consecutive of mister Coyle's
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  Speaker 1: nurslings considered a moment, as if he were conscious of
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  Speaker 1: a responsibility. Why I think military glory? He's we take
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  Speaker 1: the wrong view of it. He oughtn't to talk to
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  Speaker 1: you that way. It's corrupting the youth of Athens. It's
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  Speaker 1: sewing sedition. Oh I'm all right, said young Lekhmir. And
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  Speaker 1: he never told me he meant to chuck it. I
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  Speaker 1: always thought he meant to see it through, simply because
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  Speaker 1: he had to. He'll argue on any side you like.
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  Speaker 1: It's a tremendous pity. I'm sure he'd have a big career.
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  Speaker 1: Tell him so, then plead with him, struggle with him.
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  Speaker 1: For God's sake. I'll do what I can. I'll tell
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  Speaker 1: him it's a regular shame. Yes, strike that note, insist
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  Speaker 1: on the disgrace of it. The young man gave mister
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  Speaker 1: Coyle a more perceptive glance. I'm sure he wouldn't do
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  Speaker 1: anything dishonorable. Well, it won't look right. He must be
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  Speaker 1: made to feel that. Work it up. Give him a
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  Speaker 1: comrade's point of view, that of a brother in arms.
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  Speaker 1: That's what I thought we were going to be, young
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  Speaker 1: Lehmir mused romantically, much uplifted by the nature of the
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  Speaker 1: mission imposed on him. He's an awfully good sort. No
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  Speaker 1: one will think so if he backs out, said Spencer Coyle.
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  Speaker 1: They mustn't say it to me. His pupil rejoined with
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  Speaker 1: a flush. Mister Coyle hesitated a moment, noticing his tone
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  Speaker 1: and aware that in the perversity of things, though this
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  Speaker 1: young man was a born soldier. No excitement would ever
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  Speaker 1: attach to his alternatives, save perhaps on the part of
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  Speaker 1: the nice girl, to whom, at an early day he
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  Speaker 1: was sure to be placidly united. Do you like him
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  Speaker 1: very much? Do you believe in him? Young Leshmir's life
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  Speaker 1: in these days was spent in answering terrible questions, But
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  Speaker 1: he had never been subjected to so queer an interrogation
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  Speaker 1: as this believe in him rather then save him? The
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  Speaker 1: poor boy was puzzled, as if it were forced upon
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  Speaker 1: him by this intensity, that there was more in such
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  Speaker 1: an appeal than could appear on the surface, and he
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  Speaker 1: doubtless felt that he was only entering into a complex
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  Speaker 1: situation when, after another moment, with his hands in his pockets,
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  Speaker 1: he replied, hopefully but not pompously, I dare say I
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  Speaker 1: can bring him round and of Part one, Part two
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  Speaker 1: of Owen Wingrave by Henry James. This LibriVox recording is
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  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Before seeing Young Leshmir, mister Coyle
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  Speaker 1: had determined to telegraph an inquiry to miss Wingrave. He
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  Speaker 1: had prepaid the answer, which, being promptly put into his hand,
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  Speaker 1: brought the interview we have just related to a close.
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  Speaker 1: He immediately drove off to Baker Street, where the lady
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  Speaker 1: had said she awaited him, and five minutes after he
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  Speaker 1: got there, as he sat with Owen Wingrave's remarkable aunt,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: he repeated over several times, in his angry sadness and
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  Speaker 1: with the infallibility of his experience, He's so intelligent, He's
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  Speaker 1: so intelligent, he had declared. It had been a luxury
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  Speaker 1: to put such a fellow through. Of course, he's intelligent.
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  Speaker 1: What else could he be? We've never that I know of,
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  Speaker 1: had but one idiot in the family, said Jane Wingrave.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: This was an illusion that mister Coyle could understand, and
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: it brought home to him another of the reasons for
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: the disappointment, the humiliation, as it were, of the good
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: people at Paramour, at the same time that it gave
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: an example of the conscientious coarseness he had on former
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: occasions observed in his interlocritus. Poor Philip Wingrave, her late
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: brother's eldest son, was literally imbecile and banished from view, deformed, unsocial, irretrievable.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: He had been relegated to a private asylum and had
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: become among the friends of the family only a little hushed,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: lugubrious legend. All the hopes of the house picturesque Paramour,
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  Speaker 1: now unintermittently old Sir Philip's rather melancholy home, his infirmities
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  Speaker 1: would keep him there to the last, were therefore collected
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: on the second boy's head, which nature, as if in
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: compunction for her previous botch, had, in addition to making
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: it strikingly handsome, filled with marked originalities and talents. These
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: two had been the only children of the old man's
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  Speaker 1: only son, who, like so many of his ancestors, had
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: given up a gallant young life to the service of
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: his country. Owen Wingrave, the elder had received his death
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: cut in close quarters from an Afghan saber. The blow
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: had come crashing across his skull. His wife, at the
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: time in India, was about to give birth to her
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: third child, and when the event took place in darkness
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: and anguish, the baby came lifeless into the world, and
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: the mother sank under the multiplication of her woes. The
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: second of the little boys in England, who was at
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Paramour with his grandfather, became the peculiar charge of his aunt,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: the only unmarried one. And during the interesting Sunday that
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: by urgent invitation, Spencer Coyle, busy as he was, had
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: after consenting to put Owen through spent under that roof.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: The celebrated Crammer received a vivid impression of the influence exerted,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: at least in intention, by Miss Wingrave. Indeed, the picture
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: of this short visit remained with the observant little man
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: a curious one, the vision of an imparverich Jacobean house,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: shabby and remarkably creepy, but full of characters still and
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: full of felicity, as a setting for the distinguished figure
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: of the peaceful old soldier. Sir Philip Wingrave, a relic
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: rather than a celebrity, was a small, brown, erect octagenarian
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: with smoldering eyes and a studied courtesy. He liked to
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: do the diminished honors of his house. But even when
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: with a shaky hand he lighted a bedroom candle for
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: a deprecating guest, it was impossible not to feel that
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: beneath the surface he was a merciless old warrior. The
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: eye of the imagination could glance back into his crowded
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: Eastern past, back at episodes in which his scrupulous forms
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: would only have made him more terrible. Mister Coyle remembered
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: also two other figures, a faded, inoffensive Missus Julian, domesticated
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: there by a system of frequent visits as the widow
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: of an officer and a particular friend of Miss Wingrave,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: and a remarkably clever little girl of eighteen, who was
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: this lady's daughter, and who struck the speculative visitor as
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: already formed for other relations. She was very impertinent to Owen,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: and in the course of a long walk that he
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: had taken with the young man, and the effect of which,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: in much talk, had been to clinch his high opinion
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: of him, he had learned, for Owen chattered confidentially that
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Missus Julian was the sister of a very gallant gentleman,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: Captain Hume Walker of the Artillery, who had fallen in
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: the Indian Mutiny, and between whom and Miss Wingrave it
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: had been that lady's one known concession, a passage of
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: some delicacy taking a tragic turn, was believed to have
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: been enacted. They had been engaged to be married, but
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: she had given away to the jealous of her nature,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: had broken with him and sent him off to his fate,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: which had been horrible a passionate sense of having wronged him,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: A hard, eternal remorse had thereupon taken possession of her,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: And when his poor sister, linked also to a soldier,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: had by a still heavier blow, been left almost without resources,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: she had devoted herself charitably to a long expiation. She
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: had sought comfort in taking Missus Julian to live much
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: of the time at Parromore, where she became an unremunerated,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: though not uncriticized housekeeper, and Spencer Coyle suspected that it
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: was part of this comfort that she could, at her
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: leisure trample on her. The impression of Jane Wingrave was
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: not the faintest he had gathered on that intensifying Sunday,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: an occasion singularly tinged for him with a sense of
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: bereavement and mourning, and memory of names never mentioned, of
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: the faraway plaint of widows, and the echoes of battles
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: and bad news. It was all military, indeed, and mister
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Coyle was made to shedder a little at the profession
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: of which he helped to open the door to harmless
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: young men. Miss Wingrave, moreover, might have made such a
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: bad conscience worse, so cold and clear a good one
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: looked at him out of her hard, fine eyes, and
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: trumpeted in her sonorous voice. She was a high distinguished person,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: angular but not awkward, with a large forehead and abundant
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: black hair arranged like that of a woman conceiving, perhaps
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: excusably of her head as noble, and irregularly streaked today
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: with white. If, however, she represented, for Spencer Coyle the
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: genius of a military race, it was not that she
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: had the step of a grenadier or the vocabulary of
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: a camp follower. It was only that such sympathies were
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: vividly implied in the general fact to which her very presence,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: and each of her actions and glances and tones were
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: a constant and direct allusion the paramount valor of her family.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: If she was military, it was because she sprang from
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: a military house, and because she wouldn't for the world
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: have been anything but what the wind Graves had been.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: She was almost vulgar about her ancestors, and if one
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: had been tempted to quarrel with her, one would have
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: found a fair pretext in her defective sense of proportion.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: This temptation, however, said nothing to Spencer Coyle, for whom,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: as a strong character, revealing itself in color and sound.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: She was as a spectacle, and who was glad to
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: regard her as a force exerted on his own side.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: He wished her nephew had more of her narrowness, instead
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: of being almost cursed with a tendency to look at
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: things in their relations. He wondered why when she came
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: up to town she always resorted to Baker Street for lodgings.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: He had never known nor heard of Baker Street as
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: a residence. He associated it only with bazaars and photographers.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: He divined in her a rigid indifference to everything that
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: was not the passion of her life. Nothing really mattered
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: to her but that, and she would have occupied apartments
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: in Whitechapel if they had been a feature in her tactics.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: She had received her visitor in a large, cold faded room,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: furnished with slippery seats and decorated with alabaster vases and
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: wax flowers. The only little personal comfort for which she
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: appeared to have looked out was a fat catalog of
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: the Army and Navy stores, which reposed on a vast,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: desolate table cover of false blue. Her clear forehead. It
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: was like a porcelain slate, a receptacle for addresses and
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: sums had flushed when her nephew's crammer told her the
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: extraordinary news, But he saw she was fortunately more angry
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: than frightened. She had essentially she would always have too
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: little imagination for fear, and the healthy habit. Moreover, effacing
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: everything had taught her that the occasion usually found her
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: a quantity to reckon with. Mister Coyle saw that her
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: only fear at present could have been that of not
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: being able to prevent her nephew from being absurd, and
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: that to such an apprehension as this, she was in
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: fact inaccessible. Practically too, She was not troubled by surprise.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: She recognized none of the futile, none of the subtle sentiments.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: If Philip had for an hour made a fool of himself,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: she was angry, disconcerted, as she would have been on
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: learning that he had confessed to debts or fallen in
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: love with a low girl. But there remained, in any
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: annoyance the saving fact that no one could make a
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: fool of her. I don't know when I've taken such
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: an interest in a young man. I think I never
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: have since I began to handle them, mister Coyle said,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: I like him, I believe in him. It's been a
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: delight to see how he was going. Oh, I know
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: how they go. Miss Wingrave threw back her head with
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: a familiar briskness, as if a rapid procession of the
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: generations had flashed before her, rattling their scabbards and spurs.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Spencer Coyle recognized the intimation that she had nothing to
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: learn from anybody about the natural carriage of a wingrave,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: and he even felt convicted by her next words of
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: being in her eyes with the troubled story of his
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: check his weak complaint of his pupil. Rather a poor creature.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: If you like him, she exclaimed, for mercy's sake, keep
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: him quiet. Mister Coyle began to explain to her that
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: this was less easy than she appeared to imagine, but
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: he perceived that she understood very little of what he said.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: The more he insisted that the boy had a kind
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: of intellectual independence, the more this struck her as a
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: conclusive proof that her nephew was a wingrave and a soldier.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: It was not till he mentioned to her that Owen
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: had spoken of the profession of arms as of something
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: that would be beneath him. It was not till her
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: attention was arrested by this intenser light on the complexity
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: of the problem that Miss Wingrave broke out after a
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: moment's stupefied reflection, send him to me immediately. That's exactly
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: what I wanted to ask your leave to do. But
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: I've wanted also to prepare you for the worst, to
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: make you understand that he strikes me as really obstinate,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: and to suggest to you that the most powerful arguments
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: at your command, especially if you should be able to
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: put your hand on some intensely practical one, will be
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: none too effective. I think I've got a powerful argument.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Miss Wingrave looked very hard at her visitor. He didn't
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: know in the least what it was, but he begged
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: her to put it forward without delay. He promised that
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: their young man should come to Baker Street that evening, mentioning, however,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: that he had already urged him to spend without delay
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: a couple of days at Eastbourne. This led Jane Wingrave
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: to inquire with surprise what virtue there might be in
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: that expect remedy, and to reply with decision when mister
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: Coyle had said, the virtue of a little rest, a
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: little change, a little relief to overwrought nerves. Ah, don't
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: coddle him. He's costing us a great deal of money.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: I'll talk to him and i'll take him down to Paramore.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Then i'll send him back to you straightened out. Spencer
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Coyle hailed this pledge superficially with satisfaction, but before he
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: quitted Miss Wingrave, he became conscious that he had really
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: taken on a new anxiety, a restlessness that made him
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: say to himself, groaning inwardly, Oh, she is a grenadier
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: at bottom, and she'll have no tact. I don't know
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: what her powerful argument is. I'm only afraid she'll be
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: stupid and make him worse. The old man's better. He's
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: capable of tact, though he's not quite an extinct volcano.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: Owen will probably put him in a rage. In short,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: the difficulty is that the boys the best of them.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Spencer Coyle felt afresh that evening at dinner that the
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: boy was the best of them. Young Wingrave, whom he
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: was pleased to observe, had not yet proceeded to the
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: sea side, appeared at the repast as usual, looking inevitably
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: a little self conscious, but not too original for Bayswater.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: He talked very naturally to missus Coyle, who had thought
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: him from the first the most beautiful young man they
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: had ever received, so that the person most ill at
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: ease was poor Lechmere, who took great trouble, as if
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: from the deepest delicacy, not to meet the eye of
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: his misguided mate. Spencer Coyle, however, paid the penalty of
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: his own profundity in feeling more and more worried. He
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: could so easily see that there were all sorts of
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: things in him, his young friend, that the people of
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Paramour wouldn't understand. He began even already to react against
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: the notion of his being harassed, to reflect that, after all,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: he had a right to his ideas, to remember that
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: he was of a substance too fine to be in
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: fairness roughly used. It was in this way that the
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: ardent little Crammer, with his whimsical perceptions and complicated sympathies,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: was generally condemned not to settle down comfortably, either into
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: his displeasures or into his enthusiasms. His love of the
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: real truth never gave him a chance to enjoy them.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: He mentioned to Wingrave after dinner the propriety of an
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: immediate visit to Baker Street, and the young man, looking
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: queer as he thought that his smiling, again with the
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: exaggerated glory he had shown in their recent interview, went
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: off to face the ordeal. Spencer Coyle noted that he
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: was scared. He was afraid of his aunt, but somehow
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: this didn't strike him as a sign of pusillanimity. He
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: should have been scared. He was well aware in the
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: poor boy's place, and the sight of his pupil marching
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: up to the battery in spite of his terrors was
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: a positive suggestion of the temperament of the soldier. Many
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: a plucky youth would have shirked this particular peril. He
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: has got ideas young Lachhmir broke out to his instructor
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: after his comrade had quitted the house. He was evidently
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: bewildered and agitated. He had an emotion to work off.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: He had before dinner gone straight at his friend, as
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: mister Coyle had requested and had elicited from him, that
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: his scruples were founded on an overwhelming conviction of the stupidity,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: the crass, barbarism, he called it, of war. His great
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: complaint was that people hadn't invented anything cleverer, and he
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: was determined to show the only way he could that
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: he wasn't such an ass. And he thinks all the
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: great generals ought to have been shot, and that Napoleon
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: Bonaparte in particular, the greatest, was a criminal, a monster
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: for whom language has no adequate name. Mister Coyle rejoined,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: completing Young Leshmir's picture. He favored you, I see with
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: exactly the same pearls of wisdom that he produced for me.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: But I want to know what you said. I said
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: they were awful rot. Young Leshmir spoke with emphasis, and
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: he was slightly surprised to hear mister Coyle laugh incongruously
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: at this just declaration, and then after a moment continue,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: it's all very curious. I dare say there's something in it.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: But it's a pity, he told me when it was
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: that the question began to strike him in that light,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: for or five years ago, when he did a lot
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: of reading about all the great swells and their campaigns.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Hannibal and Julius Caesar, Marlborough, and Frederick and Bonaparte. He
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: has done a lot of reading, and he says it
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: opened his eyes. He says that a wave of disgust
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: rolled over him. He talked about the immeasurable misery of
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: wars and asked me why nations didn't tear to pieces
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: the governments, the rulers that go in for them. He
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: hates poor old Bonaparte worst of all. Well, poor old
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: Bonaparte was a brute. He was a frightful ruffian. Mister
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Coyle unexpectedly declared, but I suppose you didn't admit that. Oh,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: I dare say he was objectionable, and I'm very glad
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: we laid him on his back. But the point I
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: made to Wingrave was that his own behavior would excite
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: no end of remark. Young lehmir hesitated an instant. Then
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: he added, I told him he must be prepared for
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: the worst. Of course, he asked you what you meant
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: by the worst, said Spencer Coyle. Yes, he asked me that,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: And do you know what I said? I said, people
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: would say that his conscientious scruples and his wave of
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: disgust were only a pretext. Then he asked a pretext
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: for what. Ah, he rather had you there, mister Coyle exclaimed,
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: with a little laugh. That was mystifying to his pupil,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: not a bit, for I told him, what did you
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: tell him? Once more? For a few seconds, with his
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: conscious eyes and his instructors, the young man hung fire,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: Why what we spoke of a few hours ago? The
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: appearance he had present of not having the honest youth
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: faltered a moment, then brought it out, the military temperament,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: don't you know? But do you know what he said
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: to that? Young Lechmir went on, damn the military temperament.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: The crammer promptly replied, Young Lehmir stared. Mister Coyle's tone
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: left him uncertain if he were attributing the phrase to
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Wingrave or uttering his own opinion, But he exclaimed those
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: were exactly his words. He doesn't care, said mister Coyle. Ah,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: perhaps not, but it isn't fair for him to abuse
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: us fellows. I told him it's the finest temperament in
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: the world, and that there's nothing so splendid as pluck
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: and heroism. Ah, there you had him. I told him
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: it was unworthy of him to abuse a gallant, a
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: magnificent profession. I told him, there's no type so fine
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: as that of the soldier doing his duty. That's essentially
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: your type, my dear boy, Young Leshmere blushed. He couldn't
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: make out and the danger was naturally unexpected to him
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: whether at that moment he didn't exist mainly for the
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: recreation of his friend, but he was partly reassured by
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: the genial way his friend continued, laying a hand on
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: his shoulder. Keep at him that way, we may do something.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: I'm extremely obliged to you. Another doubt, however, remained unassuaged,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: a doubt which led him to exclaim to mister Coyle
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: before they dropped the painful subject, he doesn't care, but
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: it's awfully odd. He shouldn't so it is. But remember
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: what you said this afternoon, I mean about your not
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: advising people to make insinuations to you. I believe I
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: should knock a fellow down, said young Leshmeir. Mister Coyle
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: had got up. The conversation had taken place while they
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: sat together after Missus Coyle's withdrawal from the dinner table,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: and the head of the establishment administered to his disciple
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: on principles that were a part of his thoroughness a
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: glass of excellent claret. The disciple also on his feet
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: linger an instant, not for another go, as he would
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: have called it at the decanter, but to wipe his
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: microscopic mustache with prolonged and unusual care. His companion saw
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: he had something to bring out which required a final effort,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: and waited for him an instant with a hand on
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: the knob of the door. Then, as young Lehmir approached him,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: Spencer Coyle grew conscious of an unwonted intensity in the
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: round and ingenuous face. The boy was nervous, but he
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: tried to behave like a man of the world. Of course,
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: it's between ourselves, he stammered, And I wouldn't breathe such
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: a word to anyone who wasn't interested in poor Wingrave
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: as you are. But do you think he funks it?
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: Mister Coyle looked at him so hard for an instant
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: that he was visibly frightened at what he had said.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: Funx it funks? What? Why what you're talking about? The service?
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: Young Leshmir gave a little gulp and added, with a naivete,
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: almost pathetic to Spencer Coil the dangers you know, do
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: you mean he's thinking of his skin? Young Leshmere's eyes
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: expanded appealingly. And what his instructors saw in his pink face,
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: he even thought he saw a tear. Was the dread
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: of a disappointment, shocking in the degree in which the
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: loyalty of admiration had been great? Is he is he afraid?
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: Repeated the honest lad with a quaver of suspense. Dear no,
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: said Spencer Coyle, turning his back. Young Leshmir felt a
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: little snubbed and even a little ashamed, but he felt
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: still more relieved and of Part two. Owen Wingrave by
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: Henry James, Part three. Less than a week after this,
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: Spencer Coyle received a note from Miss Wingrave, who had
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: immediately quitted London with her nephew. She proposed that he
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: should come down to Paramour for the following Sunday. Owen
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: was really so tiresome on the spot in that house
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: of examples and memories, and in combination with her poor
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: dear father, who was dreadfully annoyed, it might be worth
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: their while to make a last stand. Mister Coyle read
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: between the lines of this letter that the party at
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: Paramour had got over a good deal of ground, since
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: Miss Wingrave in Baker Street had treated his despair as superficial.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: She was not an insinuating woman, but she went so
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: far as to put the question on the ground of
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: his conferring a particular favor on an afflicted family, and
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: she expressed the pleasure it would give them if he
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: should be accompanied by missus Coyle, for whom she enclosed
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: a separate invitation. She mentioned that she was also writing
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: subject to mister Coyle's approval to young Leshmere. She thought
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: such a nice, manly boy might do her wretched nephew
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: some good. The celebrated Crammer determined to embrace this opportunity.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: And now it was the case, not so much that
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: he was angry as that he was anxious. As he
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: directed his answer to Miss Wingrave's letter, he caught himself
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: smiling at the thought that, at bottom he was going
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: to defend his young friend rather than to attack him.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: He said to his wife, who was a fair, fresh,
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: slow woman, a person of much more presence than himself,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: that she had better take Miss Wingrave at her word.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: It was such an extraordinary, such a fascinating specimen of
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: an old English home. This last allusion was amicably sarcastic.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: He had already accused the good lady more than once
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: of being in love with Owen Wingrave. She admitted that
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: she was. She even gloried in her passion, which shows
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: that the subject between them was treated in a liberal spirit.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: She carried out the joke by accepting the invitation with eagerness.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: Young Leshmeir was delighted to do the same. His instructor
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: had good naturedly taken the view that the little break
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: would freshen him up for his last spurt. It was
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: the fact that the occupants of Paramour did indeed take
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: their trouble hard that struck Spencer Coyle after he had
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: been an hour or two in that fine old house.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: This very short second visit, beginning on the Saturday evening,
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: was to constitute the strangest episode of his life. As
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: soon as he found himself in private with his wife
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: they had retired to dress for dinner. They called each
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: attention with effusion and almost with alarm, to the sinister
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: gloom that was stamped on the place. The house was
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: admirable with its old gray front, which came forward in
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: wings so as to form three sides of a square.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: But missus Coyle made no scruple to declare that if
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: she had known in advance the sort of impression she
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: was going to receive, she would never have put her
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: foot in it. She characterized it as uncanny. She accused
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: her husband of not having warned her properly. He had
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: mentioned to her in advance certain facts, but while she
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: almost feverishly dressed, she had innumerable questions to ask. He
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: hadn't told her about the girl, the extraordinary girl, Miss Julian.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: That is, he hadn't told her that this young lady,
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: who in plain terms was a mere dependent, would be,
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: in effect, and as a consequence of the way she
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: carried herself, the most important person in the house. Missus
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: Coyle was already prepared to announce that she hated Miss
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: Julian's affectations. Her husband, above all, hadn't told her that
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: they should find their young charge looking five years older.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: I couldn't imagine that, said mister Coyle, nor that the
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: character of the crisis here would be quite so perceptible.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: But I suggested to Miss Wingrave the other day that
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: they should press her nephew in real earnest and she
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: has taken me at my word. They've cut off his supplies.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: They're trying to starve him out. That's not what I meant,
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: But indeed I don't quite know to day what I meant.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: Owen feels the pressure, but he won't yield. The strange
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: thing was that, now that he was there, the versatile
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: little coach felt still more that his own spirit had
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: been caught up by a wave of reaction. If he
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: was there, it was because he was on poor Owen's side.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: His whole impression, his whole apprehension, had on the spot,
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: become much deeper. There was something in the dear boy's
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: very resistance that began to charm him. When his wife,
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: in the intimacy of the conference I have mentioned, threw
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: off the mask and commended, even with extravagance, the stand
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: his pupil had taken. He was too good to be
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: a horrid soldier, and it was noble of him to
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: suffer for his convictions. Wasn't he as upright as a
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: young hero, even though as pale as a Christian martyr?
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: The good lady only expressed the sympathy which under cover
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: of regarding his young friend as a rare exception he
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: had already recognized in his own soul for half an
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: hour ago, after they had had superficial tea in the
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: brown old hall of the house. His young friend had
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: proposed to him before going to dress, to take a
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: turn outside, and had, even on the terrace, as they
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: walked together to one of the far ends of it,
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: passed his hand entreatingly into his companion's arm, permitting himself
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: thus a familiarity unusual between pupil and master, and calculated
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: to show that he had guessed whom he could most
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: depend on to be kind to him. Spencer Coyle, on
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: his own side, had guessed something so that he was
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: not surprised at the boys having a particular confidence to make.
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: He had felt, on arriving that each member of the
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: party had wished to get hold of him first, and
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: he knew that at the moment Jane Wingrave was peering
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: through the ancient blur of one of the windows the
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: house had been modernized so little that the thick dim
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: panes were three centuries old, to see if her nephew
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: looked as if he were poisoning the visitor's mind. Mister
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: Coyle lost no time therefore, in remind finding the youth,
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: and he took care to laugh as he did so
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: that he had not come down to Parmore to be corrupted.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: He had come down to make face to face a
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: last appeal to him. He hoped it wouldn't be utterly vain.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: Owen smiled sadly as they went, asking him if he
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: thought he had the general air of a fellow who
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: was going to knock under. I think you look strange.
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: I think you look ill, Spencer Coyle said, very honestly.
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: They had paused at the end of the terrace. I've
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: had to exercise a great power of resistance, and it
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: rather takes it out of one. Ah, my dear boy,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: I wish your great power for you evidently possess it
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: were exerted in a better cause. Owen Wingrave smiled down
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: at his small instructor. I don't believe that, then, he
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: added to explain, why isn't what you want, if you're
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: so good as to think well of my character, to
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: see me exert most power in whatever direction, Well, this
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: is the way I exert most. Owen Wingrave went on
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: to relate that he had had some terrible hours with
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: his grandfather, who had denounced him in a way to
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: make one's hair stand up on one's head. He had
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: expected them not to like it, not a bit, But
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: he had had no idea they would make such a row.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: His aunt was different, but she was equally insulting. Oh,
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: they had made him feel they were ashamed of him.
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: They accused him of putting a public dishonor on their name.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: He was the only one who had ever backed out.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: He was the first. For three hundred years, every one
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: had known he was to go up, and now every
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: one would know he was a young hypocrite who suddenly
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: pretended to have scruples. They talked of his scruples as
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: you wouldn't talk of a cannibal's god. His grandfather had
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: called him a regius names he called me, he called
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: me here. The young man faltered, his voice failed him.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: He looked as haggard as was possible to a young
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: man in such magnificent health. I probably know, said Spencer
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: Coyle with a nervous laugh. Owen Wingrave's clouded eyes as
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: if they were following the far off consequences of things
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: rested for an instant on a distant object. Then they
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: met his companions and for another moment sounded them deeply.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: It isn't true. No, it isn't. It's not that I
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: don't suppose it is. But what do you propose instead
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: of it? Instead of what instead of the stupid solution
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: of war? If you take that away, you should suggest
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: at least a substitute. That's for the people in charge
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: for governments and cabinets, said Owen Wingrave. They'll arrive soon
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: enough at a substitute. In the particular case, if they're
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: made to understand that, they'll be hung if they don't
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: find one. Make it a capital crime that'll quicken the
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: wits of ministers. His eyes brightened as he spoke, and
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: he looked assured and exalted. Mister Coyle gave a sigh
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: of perplexed resignation. It was a monomania. He fancied. After
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: this for a moment that Owen was going to ask
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: him if he too thought he was a coward, But
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: he was relieved to observe that he either didn't suspect
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: him of it or shrank uncomfortably from putting the question
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: to the test. Spencer Coyle wished to show confidence, but
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: somehow a direct assurance that he didn't doubt of his
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: courage appeared too gross a compliment. It would be like
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: saying he didn't doubt of his honesty. The difficulty was
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: presently averted by Owen's continuing, my grandfather can't break the entail,
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: but I shall have nothing but this place, which as
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: you know, is small, and with the way rents are going,
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: has quite ceased to yield an income. He has some money,
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: not much, but such as it is, he cuts me off.
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: My aunt does the same. She has let me know
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: her intentions. She was to have left me her six
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: hundred a year. It was all settled. But now what's
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: settled is that I don't get a penny of it
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: if I give up the army. I must add, in
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: fairness that I have from my mother three hundred a
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: year of my own. And I tell you the simple
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: truth when I say that I don't care a rap
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: for the loss of the money. The young man drew
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: a long, slow breath, like a creature in pain. Then
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: he subjoined, that's not what worries me. What are you
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: going to do, asked Spencer Coyle. I don't know, perhaps nothing,
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: nothing great at all events, only something peaceful. Owen gave
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: a weary smile, as if we're as he was. He
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: could yet appreciate the humorous effect of such a declaration
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: from a wind grave. But what it suggested to his companion,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: who looked up at him with a sense that he was,
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: after all not a wind grave for nothing, and had
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: a military steadiness under fire, was the exasperation that such
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: a program uttered in such a way and striking them
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: as the last word of the inglorious might well have
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: engendered on the part of his grandfather and his aunt.
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: Perhaps nothing when he might carry on the great tradition. Yes,
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: he wasn't weak, and he was interesting, but there was
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: a point of view from which he was provoking. What
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: is it then that worries you, mister Coyle demanded, Oh,
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: the house, the very air and feeling of it. There
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: are strange voices in it that seem to mutter at me,
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: to say dreadful things as I pass. I mean the
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: general consciousness and respect wont'sibility of what I'm doing. Of course,
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: it hasn't been easy for me, not a bit, I
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: assure you. I don't enjoy it. With a light in
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: them that was like a longing for justice. Owen again
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: bent his eyes on those of the little coach. Then
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: he pursued, I've started up all the old ghosts, the
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: very portraits glower at me on the walls. There's one
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: of my great great grandfather, the one the extraordinary story,
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: you know, is about the old fellow who hangs on
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: the second landing of the big staircase that fairly stirs
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: on the canvas, just heaves a little when I come
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: near it. I have to go up and downstairs. It's
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: rather awkward. It's what my aunt calls the family circle.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: It's all constituted here. It's a kind of indestructible presence.
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: It stretches away into the past. And when I came
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: back with her the other day, Miss Wingrave told me
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't have the impudence to stand in the midst
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: of it and say such things. I had to say
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: them to my grandfather. But now that I've said them,
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: it seems to me that the questions ended. I want
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: to go away. I don't care if I never come
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: back again. Oh, you are a soldier. You must fight
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: it out, mister Coyle laughed. The young man seemed discouraged
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: at his levity, but as they turned round, strolling back
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: in the direction from which they had come. He himself
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: smiled faintly after an instant and replied, Ah, we're tainted.
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: All They walked in silence part of the way to
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: the old portico. Then Spencer Coyle stopped short after having
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: assured himself that he was at a sufficient distance from
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: the house not to be heard, suddenly put the question,
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: what does miss Julian say? Miss Julian Owen had perceptibly colored.
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: I'm sure she doesn't conceal her opinion. Oh, it's the
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: opinion of the family circle, for she's a member of it,
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: of course, and then she has her own as well,
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: her own opinion, her own family circle. Do you mean
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: her mother, that patient lady? I mean more particularly her
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: father who fell in battle, and her grandfather and his father,
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: and her uncles and great uncles, they all fell in battle.
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: Hasn't the sacrifice of so many lives been sufficient? Why
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: should she sacrifice you? Oh? She hates me, Owen declared,
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: as they resumed their walk. Ah. The hatred of pretty
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: girls for fine young men, exclaimed Spencer Coyle. He didn't
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: believe in it, but his wife did. It appeared perfectly
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: when he mentioned this conversation while in the fashion that
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: has been described the visitors dressed for dinner. Missus Coyle
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: had already discovered that nothing could have been nastier than
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: Miss Julian's manner to the disgraced youth during the half
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: hour the party had spent in the hall. And it
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: was this lady's judgment that one must have had no
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: eyes in one's head not to see that she was
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: already trying outrageously to flirt with young Leshmore, it was
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: a pity they had brought that silly boy. He was
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: down in the hall with her at that moment. Spencer
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: Coyle's version was different. He thought there were finer elements involved.
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: The girl's footing in the house was inexplicable on any
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: ground save that of her being predestined to Miss Wingrave's nephew,
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: as the niece of Miss Wingrave's own unhappy intended. She
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: had been dedicated early by this lady to the office
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: of healing by a union with Owen the tragic breach
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: that had separated their elders. And if in reply to
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: this it was to be said that a girl of
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: spirit couldn't enjoy in such a matter having her duty
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: cut out for her Owen's enlightened friend was ready with
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: the argument that a young person in Miss Julian's position
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: would never be such a fool as really to quarrel
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: with a capital chance. She was familiar at Parmore, and
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: she felt safe. Therefore, she might trust herself to the
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: amusement of pretending that she had her option. But it
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: was all innocent coquetry. She had a curious charm, and
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: it was vain to pretend that the air of that
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: house wouldn't seem good enough to a girl clever as
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: she might be of eighteen. Missus Coyle reminded her husband
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: that the poor young man was precisely now not of
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: that house. This problem was among the questions that exercised
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: their wits. After the two men had taken the turn
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: on the terrace, Spencer Coyle told his wife that Owen
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: was afraid of the portrait of his great great grandfather.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: He would show it to her, since she hadn't noticed
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: it on their way downstairs. Why of his great great
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: grandfather more than any of the others, Oh, because he's
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: the most formidable. He's the one who's sometimes seen. Scene
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: where missus Coyle had turned round with a jerk in
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: the room. He was found dead in the white room
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: they've always called it. Do you mean to say the
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: house has a ghost? Missus Coyle almost shrieked. You brought
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: me here without telling me? Didn't I mention it after
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: my other visit? Not a word you only talked about,
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: Miss Wingrave. Oh, I was full of the story you
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: have simply forgotten. Then you should have reminded me. If
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: I had thought of it, I would have held my peace,
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: for you wouldn't have come. I wish indeed I hadn't, cried,
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: missus Coyle. What is the story? Oh? A deed of
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: violence that took place here? Ages of go I think
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: it was in George the First's time. Colonel Wingrave, one
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: of their ancestors, struck in a fit of passion one
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: of his children, a lad just growing up, a blow
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: on the head of which the unhappy child died. The
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: matter was hushed up for the hour. Some other explanation
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: was put about. The poor boy was laid out in
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: one of those rooms on the other side of the house, and,
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: amid strange smothered rumors, the funeral was hurried on the
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: next morning. When the household assembled, Colonel Wingrave was missing.
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: He was looked for vainly, and at last it occurred
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: to some one that he might perhaps be in the
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: room from which his child had been carried to burial.
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: The seeker knocked without an answer, then opened the door.
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: Colonel Wingrave lay dead on the floor in his clothes,
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: as if he had reeled and fallen back, without a wound,
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: without a mark, without any thing in his appearance to
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: indicate that he had either struggled or suffered. He was
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: a strong sound man. That was nothing to account for
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: such a catastrophe. He is supposed to have gone to
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: the room during the night, just before going to bed,
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: in some fit of compunction or some fascination of dread.
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: It was only after this that the truth about the
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: boy came out. But no one ever sleeps in the room.
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: Missus Coyle had fairly turned pale. I hope not, Thank heavens,
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: they haven't put us there. We're at a comfortable distance.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: But I've seen the gruesome chamber. Do you mean You've
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: been in it for a few moments. They're rather proud
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: of it, and my young friend showed it to me
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: when I was here before Missus Coyle stared and what
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: is it like? Simply like an empty, dull, old fashioned bedroom,
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: rather big, with the things of the period in it.
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: It's paneled from floor to ceiling, and the panels, evidently
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: years and years ago, were painted white, but the paint
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: has darkened with time. And there are three or four
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: quaint little ancient samplers framed and glazed, hung on the walls.
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: Missus Coyle looked round with a shudder. I'm glad there
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: are no samplers here. I never heard anything so jumpy.
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: Come down to dinner on the staircase. As they went down,
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: her husband showed her the portrait of Colonel Wingrave, rather
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: a vigorous representation for the place and period, of a
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: gentleman with a hard, handsome face in a red coat
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: and a peruke. Missus Coyle declared that his descendant, Sir Philip,
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: was wonderfully like him, and her husband could fancy, though
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: he kept it to himself that if one should have
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: the courage to walk about the old Cora of Paramour
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: at night, one might meet a figure that resembled him,
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: roaming with the restlessness of a ghost, hand in hand
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: with the figure of a tall boy. As he proceeded
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: to the drawing room with his wife. He found himself
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: suddenly wishing that he had made more of a point
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: of his pupils going to Eastbourne. The evening, however, seemed
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: to have taken upon itself to dissipate any such whimsical forebodings.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: For the grimness of the family circle, as Spencer Coyle
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: had preconceived, its composition, was mitigated by an infusion of
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: the neighborhood. The company at dinner was recruited by two
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: cheerful couples, one of them the vicar and his wife,
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: and by a silent young man who had come to fish.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: This was a relief to mister Coyle, who had begun
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: to wonder what was after all expected of him, and
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: why he had been such a fool as to come,
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: and who now felt that for the first hours at
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: least the situation would not have directly to be dealt with. Indeed,
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: he found, as he had found before, sufficient occupation for
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: his ingenuity in reading the various symptoms of which the
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: picture before him was an expression. He should probably have
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: an irritating day on the morrow. He foresaw the difficulty
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: of the long, decorous sunday, and how dry Jane Wingrave's ideas,
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: elicited in a strenuous conference, would taste She and her
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: father would make him feel that they depended upon him
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: for the impossible, And if they should try to associate
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: him with a merely stupid policy, he might end by
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: telling them what he thought of it, an accident not
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: required to make his visit a sensible mistake. The old
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: Man's actual design was evidently to let their friends see
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: in it a positive mark of their being all right.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: Might the presence of the Great London Coach was tantamount
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: to a profession of faith in the results of the
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: impending examination. It had clearly been obtained from Owen. Rather
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: to Spencer Coyle's surprise that he would do nothing to
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: interfere with the apparent harmony, he let the allusions to
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: his hard work pass, and, holding his tongue about his affairs,
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: he talked to the ladies as amicably as if he
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: had not been cut off. When Spencer Coyle looked at
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: him once or twice across the table, catching his eye,
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: which showed an indefinable passion, he saw a puzzling pathos
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: in his laughing face. One couldn't resist a pang for
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: a young lamb so visibly marked for sacrifice, hang him,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: What a pity, he's such a fighter, he privately sighed,
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: with a want of logic that was only superficial. This idea, however,
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: would have absorb orbed him more if so much of
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: his attention had not been given to Kate Julian, who,
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: now that he had her well before him, struck him
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: as a remarkable and even as a possibly fascinating young woman.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: The fascination resided not in any extraordinary prettiness, for if
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: she was handsome, with her long eastern eyes, her magnificent hair,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: and her general unabashed originality, he had seen complexions rosier
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: and features that pleased him. More. It resided in a
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: strange impression that she gave of being exactly the sort
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: of person whom, in her position, common considerations, those of prudence,
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: and perhaps even a little those of decorum, would have
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: enjoined on her not to be. She was what was
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: vulgarly termed a dependent, penniless, patronized, tolerated, But something in
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: her aspect and manner signified that if her situation was inferior,
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: her spirit to make up for it was above precautions
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: or submissions. It was not in the least that she
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: was aggressive. She was too indifferent for that. It was
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: only as if, having nothing either to gain or to lose,
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: she could afford to do as she liked. It occurred
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: to Spencer Coyle that she might really have had more
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: at stake than her imagination appeared to take account of
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: whatever it was. At any rate, he had never seen
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: a young woman at less pains to be on the
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: safe side. He wondered inevitably how the peace was kept
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: between Jane Wingrave and such an inmate as this. But
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: those questions, of course, were unfathomable deeps. Perhaps Kate Julian
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: lorded it even over her protectress. The other time he
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: was at Parmore, he had received an impression that with
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: Sir Philip beside her, the girl could fight with her
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: back to the wall. She amused Sir Philip. She charmed him,
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: and he liked people who weren't afraid Between him and
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: his daughter. Moreover, there was no doubt which was the
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: higher in command. Miss Wingrave took many things for granted,
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: and most of all the rigor of discipline and the
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: fate of the vanquished and the captive. But between their
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: clever boy and so original a companion of his childhood,
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: what odd relation would have grown up? It couldn't be indifference,
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: And yet on the part of happy, handsome, youthful creatures,
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: it was still less likely to be aversion. They weren't
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: Paul and Virginia, but they must have had their common
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: summer and their idol. No nice girl could have disliked
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: such a nice fellow for anything but not liking her,
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: and no nice fellow could have resisted such propinquis. Mister
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: Coyle remembered, indeed, that missus Julian had spoken to him
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: as if the propinquity had been by no means constant,
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: owing to her daughter's absences at school, to say nothing
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: of Owen's her visits to a few friends who were
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: so kind as to take her from time to time,
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: her sojourns in London, so difficult to manage, but still
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: managed by God's help, for advantages for drawing and singing,
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: especially drawing or rather painting in oils, in which she
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: had immense success. But the good lady had also mentioned
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: that the young people were quite brother and sister, which
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: was a little after all, like Paul and Virginia. Missus
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: Coyle had been right, and it was apparent that Virginia
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: was doing her best to make the time pass agreeably
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: for Young Leshmere. There was no such whirl of conversation
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: as to render it any effort for mister Coyle to
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: reflect on these things, for the tone of the occasion,
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: thanks principally to the other guests, was not disposed to stray.
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: It tended to the repetition of anecdote and the discussion
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: of rents, topics that huddled together like uneasy animals. He
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: could judge how intensely his hosts wished the evening to
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: pass off as if nothing had happened, and this gave
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: him the measure of their private resentment. Before dinner was over,
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: he found himself fidgety about his second pupil, Young Leshmere,
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: since he began to cram had done all that might
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: have been expected of him, but this couldn't blind his
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: instructor to a present perception of his being, in moments
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: of relaxation, as innocent as a babe. Mister Coyle had
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: considered that the amusements of paramour would probably give him
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: a fillip, and the poor fellow's manner testified to the
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: mountainess of the forecast. The philip had been unmistakably administered.
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: It had come in the form of a revelation. The
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: light on young Leshmere's brow announced with a candor that
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: was almost an appeal for compassion, or at least a
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: deprecation of ridicule, that he had never seen anything like
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: Miss Julian And of Part three, Part four of Owen
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: Wingrave by Henry James. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: public domain. In the drawing room after dinner, the girl
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: found an occasion to approach Spencer Coyle. She stood before
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: him a moment, smiling while she opened and shut her fan,
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: and then she said, abruptly, raising her strange eyes, I
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: know what you've come for, but it isn't any use.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: I've come to look after you a little. Isn't that
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: any use? It's very kind, but I'm not the question
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: of the hour. You won't do anything with Owen. Spencer
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: Coyle hesitated a moment. What will you do with his
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: young friend? She stared, looked around her. Mister Leshmere, oh,
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: poor little lad, we've been talking about Owen. He admires him, so,
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: so do I. I should tell you that, so do
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: we all. That's why we're in such despair personally. Then
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: you'd like him to be a soldier, Spencer Coyle inquired,
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: I've quite set my heart on it. I adore the army,
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: and I'm awfully fond of my old playmate, said Miss Julian.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: Her interlocutor remembered the young man's own different version of
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: her attitude, but he judged it loyal not to challenge
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: the girl. It's not conceivable that your old playmate shouldn't
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: be fond of you. He must therefore wish to please you,
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: and I don't see why between you. You don't set
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: the matter right. Wish to please me? Miss Julian exclaimed,
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry to say he shows no such desire. He
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: thinks me an impudent wretch. I've told him what I
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: think of him, and he simply hates me. But you
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: think so highly. You just told me you admire him,
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: his talents, his possibilities, yes, even his appearance, if I
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: may allude to such a matter. But I don't admire
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: his present behavior. Have you had the question out with him,
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: Spencer Coyle asked, Oh, yes, I've ventured to be quite frank.
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: The occasion seemed to excuse it. He couldn't like what
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: I said? What did you say, Miss Julian, thinking a moment,
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: opened and shut her fan again. Why that such conduct
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: isn't that of a gentleman. After she had spoken, her
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: eyes met Spencer Coyle, who looked into their charming depths.
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: Do you want, then so much to send him off
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: to be killed? How odd for you to ask that
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: in such a way, she replied with a laugh. I
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: don't understand your position. I thought your line was to
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: make soldiers. You should take my little joke. But as
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: regards Owen Wingrave, there's no making. Indeed, mister Coyle added,
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: to my sense, the little crammer paused a moment, as
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: if with a consciousness of responsibility for his paradox. To
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: my sense, he is in a high sense of the
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: term a fighting man. Oh let him prove it, the
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: girl exclaimed, turning away. Spencer Coyle let her go. There
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: was something in her tone that annoyed and even a
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: little shocked him. There had evidently been a violent passage
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: between these young people, and the reflection that such a
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: matter was, after all none of his business only made
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: him more sore. It was indeed a military house, and
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: she was, at any rate a person who placed her
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: ideal of manhood young persons, doubtless always had their ideals
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: of manhood in the type of the belted warrior. It
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: was a taste like another. But even a quarter of
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: an hour later, finding himself near Young Lechmere, in whom
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: this type was embodied, Spencer Coyle was still so ruffled
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: that he addressed the innocent lad with a certain magisterial dryness.
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: You're not to sit up late, you know, That's not
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: what I brought you down for. The dinner guests were
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: taking leave, and the bedroom candles twinkled in a monitory row.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: Young Lechmere, however, was too agreeably agitated to be accessible
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: to a snub. He had a happy preoccupation, which almost
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: engendered a grin. I'm only too eager for bedtime. Do
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: you know there's an awfully jolly room. Surely they haven't
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: put you there? Oh no, indeed, no one has passed
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: a night in it for ages. But that's exactly what
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: I want to do. It should be tremendous fun. And
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: have you been trying to get miss Julian's permission. Oh,
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: she can't give leave, she says, but she believes in it,
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: and she maintains that no man dare, no man shall.
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: A man in your critical position, in particular, must have
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: a quiet night, said Spencer Coyle. Young Lechmeir gave a
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: disappointed but reasonable sigh. Oh all right, but mayn't I
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: sit up for a little go at wingrave. I haven't
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: had any yet, mister Coyle looked at his watch. You
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: may smoke one cigarette. He felt a hand on his shoulder,
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: and he turned round to see his wife tilting candle
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: grease upon his coat. The ladies were going to bed,
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: and it was Sir Philip's inveterate hour. But Missus Coyle
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: confided to her husband that after the dreadful things he
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: had told her, she positively declined to be left alone
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: for no matter how short an interval, in any part
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: of the house. He promised to follow her within three minutes,
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: and after the orthodox handshakes, the ladies rustled away. The
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: forms were kept up at Paramour as bravely as if
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: the old house had no present heartache. The only one
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: of which Spencer Coyle noticed the omission was some salutation
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: to himself from Kate Julian. She gave him neither a
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: word nor a glance, but he saw her look hard
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: at Owen Wingrave. Her mother, timid and pitying, was apparently
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: the only person from whom this young man caught an
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: inclination of the head. Miss Wingrave marshaled the three ladies
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: her little procession of twinkling tapers up the wide oaken stairs,
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: and passed the watching portrait of her ill fated ancestor.
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: Sir Philip's servant appeared and offered his arm to the
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: old man, who turned a perpendicular back on poor Owen
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: when the boy made a vague movement to anticipate this office.
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: Spencer Coyle learned afterwards that before Owen had forfeited favor,
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: it had always, when he was at home, been his
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: privilege at bedtime to conduct his grandfather ceremoniously to rest.
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: Sir Philip's habits were contemptuously different. Now his apartments were
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: on the lower floor, and he shuffled stiffly off to
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: them with his valet's help, after fixing for a moment
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: significantly on the most responsible of his visitors, the thick
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: red ray, like the glow of stirred embers that always
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: made his eyes conflict oddly with his mild manners. They
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: seemed to say to Spencer Coyle, we'll let the young
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: scoundrel have it tomorrow. One might have gathered from them
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: that the young scoundrel, who had now strolled to the
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: other end of the hall, had at least forged a check.
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: Mister Coyle watched him an instant saw him drop nervously
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: into a chair, and then, with a restless movement, get up.
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: The same movement brought him back to where his late
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: instructors stood. Addressing a last injunction to young Lekshmere, I'm
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: going to bed, and I should like you particularly to
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: conform to what I said to you a short time ago.
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: Smoke a single cigarette with your friend here and then
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: go to your room. You'll have me down on you
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: if I hear of your having during the night tried
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: any preposterous games. Young Lehmir, looking down with his hands
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: in his pockets, said nothing. He only poked at the
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: corner of a rug with his toe, so that Spencer Coyle,
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: dissatisfied with so tacit a pledge, presently went on to
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: Owen I must request you, when Grave, not to keep
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: this sensitive subject sitting up, and indeed to put him
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: to bed and turn his key in the door. As
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: Owen stared an instant, apparently not understanding the motive of
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: so much solicitude, he added, Lechmere has a morbid curiosity
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: about one of your legends of your historic rooms. Nip
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: it in the bud. Oh, the legend's rather good, but
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: I'm afraid the room's an awful cell. Owen laughed. You
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: know you don't believe that, my boy, young Lechmir exclaimed,
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: I don't think he does, said mister Coyle, noticing Owen's
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: mottled flush. He wouldn't try a knight there himself. Young
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: Lechmir pursued, I know who told you that, rejoined Owen,
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: lighting a cigarette in an embarrassed way at the candle
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: without offering one to either of his companions. Well what
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: if she did, asked the younger of these gentlemen, rather red.
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: Do you want them all yourself? He continued, facetiously, fumbling
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: in the cigarette box. Owen Wingrave only smoked quietly. Then
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: he exclaimed, yes, what if she did? But she doesn't know,
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: he added, she doesn't know what. She doesn't know anything.
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: I'll tuck him in. Owen went on gayly to mister Coyle,
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: who saw that his presence, now that a certain note
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: had been struck, made the young men uncomfortable. He was curious,
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: but there was a kind of discretion with his pupils
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: that he had always pretended to practice, a discretion that, however,
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: didn't prevent him, as he took his way upstairs from
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: recommending them not to be donkeys. At the top of
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: the staircase, to his surprise, he met Miss Julian, who
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: was apparently going down again. She had not begun to undress,
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: nor was she perceptibly disconcerted at seeing him. She, nevertheless,
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: in a manner slightly at variance with the rigor with
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: which she had overlooked him ten minutes before, dropped the
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: words I'm going down to look for something. I've lost
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: a jewel, a jewel, a rather good turquoise out of
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: my locket, as it's the only ornament I have the
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: honor to possess, And she passed down. Shall I go
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: with you and help you, asked Spencer Coyle. The girl
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: paused a few steps below him, looking back with her
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: oriental eyes don't I hear voices in the hall. Those
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: remarkable young men are there. They'll help me. And Kate
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: Julian descended. Spencer Coyle was tempted to follow her, but,
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: remembering his standard of tact, he rejoined his wife in
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: their apartment. He delayed, however, to go to bed, and
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: though he went into his dressing room, he couldn't bring
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: himself even to take off his coat. He pretended for
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: half an hour to read a novel, after which quietly,
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: or perhaps I should say agitatedly, he passed from the
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: dressing room into the corridor. He followed this passage to
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: the door of the room which he knew to have
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: been assigned to young Leshmere, and was comforted to see
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: that it was closed. Half an hour earlier he had
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: seen it standing open. Therefore he could take for granted
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: that the bewildered boy had come to bed. It was
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: of this he had wished to assure himself, and having
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: done so, he was on the point of retreating. But
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: at the same instant he heard a sound in the room.
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: The occupant was doing to the window, something which showed
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: him that he might knock without the reproach of waking
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: his pupil up. Young Leshmere came in fact to the
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: door in his shirt and trousers. He admitted his visitor
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: in some surprise, and when the door was closed again,
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: Spencer Coyle said, I don't want to make your life
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: a burden to you, but I had it on my
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: conscience to see for myself that you're not exposed to
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: undue excitement. Oh there's plenty of that, said the ingenuous youth.
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: Miss Julian came down again to look for turquoise, so
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: she said, did she find it? Oh? I don't know.
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: I came up. I left her with poor Wingrave. Quite
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: the right thing, said Spencer Coyle. I don't know, Young
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: Lechmir repeated uneasily. I left them quarreling. What about? Oh,
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: I don't understand. They're a quaint pair. Spencer Coyle hesitated.
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: He had fundamentally principles and scruples, but what he had
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: in particular just now was a curiosity, or rather to
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: recognize it for what it was, a sympathy which brushed
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: them away. Does it strike you that she's down on him?
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: He permitted himself to inquire Rabther when she tells him
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: he lies, What do you mean, why before me? It
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: made me leave them, it was getting too hot. I
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: stupidly brought up the question of the haunted room again
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: and said how sorry I was that I had had
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: to promise you not to try my luck with it.
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: You can't pry about in that gross way in other
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: people's houses. You can't take such liberties, you know. Mister
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: Coyle interjected, I'm all right, see how good I am.
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: I don't want to go near the place, said young
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: Lehmir confidingly. Miss Julian said to me, oh, I dare
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: say you'd risk it? But and she turned and laughed
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: at poor Owen, that's more than we can expect of
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: a gentleman who has taken his extraordinary line. I could
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: see that something had already passed between them on the subject,
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: some teasing or challenging of hers. It may have been
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: only chaff, but his chucking the profession had evidently brought
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: up the question of his pluck. And what did Owen say? Oh?
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: Nothing at first, But presently he brought out, very quietly,
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: I spent all last night in that confounded place. We
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: both stared and cried out at this, and I asked
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: him what he had seen there, he said he had
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: seen nothing, and miss Julian replied that he ought to
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: tell his story better than that, he ought to make
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: something good of it. It's not a story, it's a
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: simple fact, said he, on which she jeered at him
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: and wanted to know why if he had done it,
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: he hadn't told her in the morning, since he knew
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: what she thought of him. I know, but I don't care,
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: said Wingrave. This made her angry, and she asked him
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: quite seriously whether he would care if he should know
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: she believed him to be trying to deceive us. Ah,
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: what a brute, cried Spencer Coyle. She's a most extraordinary girl.
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: I don't know what she's up to. Extraordinary indeed to
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: be romping and bandying words at that hour of the
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: night with fast young men. Young Lechmir reflected a moment.
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: I mean because I think she likes him. Spencer Coyle
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: was so struck with this unwonted symptom of subtlety that
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: he flashed out and do you think he likes her?
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: But his interlocutor only replied with a puzzled sigh and
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: a plaintive Uh, I don't know. I give it up.
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: I'm sure he did see something or hear something, Young
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: lekhimre added, in that ridiculous place, What makes you sure?
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: I don't know. He looks as if he had, He
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: behaves as if he had. Why then shouldn't he mention it?
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: Young Lekhmere thought a moment, Perhaps it's too gruesome. Spencer
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: Coyle gave a laugh. Aren't you glad? Then you're not
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: in it? Uncommonly go to bed, you goose, said Spencer
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: Coyle with another laugh. But before you go, tell me
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: what he said when she told him he was trying
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: to deceive. You take me there yourself then and lock
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: me in? And did she take him in? I don't know,
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: I came up. Spencer Coyle exchanged a long look with
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: his pupil. I don't think they're in the hall. Now,
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: where's Owen's own room? I haven't the least idea. Mister
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: Coyle was perplexed. He was in equal ignorance, and he
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: couldn't go about trying doors. He bade Young Lekchmir sink
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: to slumber and came out into the passage. He asked
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: himself if he should be able to find his way
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: to the room Owen had formerly shown him, remembering that,
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: in common with many of the others, it had its
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: ancient name painted upon it. But the corridors of Parrimore
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: were intricate. Moreover, some of the servants would still be up,
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: and he didn't wish to have the appearance of roaming
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: over the house. He went back to his own quarters,
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: where Missus Coyle soon perceived that his inability to wretches
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: had not subsided, as she confessed for her own part
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: in the dreadful place to an increased sense of creepiness.
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: They spent the early part of the night in conversation,
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: so that a portion of their vigil was inevitably beguiled
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: by her husband's account of his colloquy with little Lechmere,
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: and by their exchange of opinions about it. Towards two o'clock,
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: Missus Coyle became so nervous about their persecuted young friend,
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: and so possessed by the fear that that wicked girl
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: had availed herself of his invitation to put him to
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: an abominable test, that she begged her husband to go
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: and look into the matter, at whatever cost to his
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: own equilibrium. But Spencer Coyle perversely had ended as the
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: perfect stillness of the night settled upon them by charming
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: himself into a tremulous acquiescence in Owen's readiness to face
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: a formidable ordeal or deal the more formidable to an
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: excited imagination. As the poor boy now knew from the
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: experience of the previous night, how resolute an effort he
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: should have to make. I hope he is there, he
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: said to his wife. It puts them all so in
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: the wrong. At any rate, he couldn't take upon himself
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: to explore a house he knew so little he was. Inconsequent,
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: he didn't prepare for bed. He sat in the dressing
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: room with his light and his novel, waiting to find
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: himself nodding. At last, however, missus Coyle turned over and
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: ceased to talk, And at last, too, he fell asleep
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: in his chair. How long he slept he only knew
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: afterwards by computation. What he knew to begin with was
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: that he had started up in confusion with the sense
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, appalling sound. His sense cleared itself quickly,
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: helped doubtless by a confirmatory cry of horror from his
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: wife life's room. But he gave no heed to his wife.
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: He had already bounded into the passage. There the sound
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: was repeated. It was the help of a woman in
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: agonized terror. It came from a distant quarter of the house,
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: but the quarter was sufficiently indicated. Spencer Coyle rushed straight
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: before him, with the sound of opening doors and alarmed
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: voices in his ears, and the faintness of the early
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: dawn in his eyes. At a turn of one of
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: the passages, he came upon the white figure of a
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: girl in a swoon on a bench, and in the
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: vividness of the revelation he read as he went that
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: Kate Julian, stricken in her pride too late, with a
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: chill of compunction for what she had mockingly done, had,
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: after coming to release the victim of her derision, reeled away,
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: overwhelmed from the catastrophe that was her work, the catastrophe
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: that The next moment he found himself a guest at
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: on the threshold of an open door. Owen Wingrave, dressed
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: as he had last seen him, lay dead on the
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: spot on which his ancestor had been found. He looked
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: like a young soldier on a battlefield. End of Part four.
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: End of Owen wingrave by Henry James