Latest / The H. G. Wells Library / The Sea Lady Chapter 4

Transcript

The Sea Lady Chapter 4 · The H. G. Wells Library

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Chapter four of The Sea Lady by H. G. Wells.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Thomas Copeland. The Sea Lady by H. G. Wells, Chapter
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the fourth The Quality of Parker one. So far I
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: have been very full, I know, and very similitude has
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: been my watchword rather than the true affidavit style. But
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: if I have made it clear to the reader just
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: how the Sea Lady landed, and just how it was
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: possible for her to land and become a member of
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: human society without any considerable excitement on the part of
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: that society, such poor pains as I have taken to
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: tint and shadow and embellish the facts at my disposal
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: will not have been taken in vain. She positively and
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: quietly settled down with the Buntings. Within a fortnight. She
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: had really settled down so thoroughly that, save for her
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: exceptional beauty and charm, and the occasional faint touches of
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: something a little indefinable in her smile, she had become
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: the quite passable and credible human being. She was a cripple, indeed,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: and her lower limb was most pathetically swathed and put
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: in a sort of case, but it was quite generally understood.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: I'm afraid that Missus Bunting's initiative that presently they, Missus
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Bunting said they, which was certainly almost as far, or
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: even a little farther than legitimate prevarication may go, would
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: be as well as ever, of course, said Missus Bunting,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: she will never be able to bicycle again. That was
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: the sort of glamor she threw about it. Two. In Parker,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: it is indisputable that the Sea Lady found, or at
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: least had found for her by Missus Bunting, a treasure
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: of the richest sort. Parker was still fallaciously young, but
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: she had been made to a lady from India who
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: had been in a case and had experienced an overcome
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: cross examination. She had also been deceived by a young
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: man whom she had fancied greatly, only to find him
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: walking out with another. Contrary to her inflexible sense of correctness,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: in the presence of which all other things are altogether vain,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: life she had resolved should have no further surprises for her.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: She looked out on its largely improper pageant with an
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: expression of alert impartiality. In her hazel eyes, calm, doing
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: her specific duty and entirely declining to participate further. She
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: always kept her elbows down by her side, and her
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: hands always just in contact, and it was impossible for
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: the most powerful imagination to conceive her, under any circumstances
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: as being anything but absolutely straight and clean and neat,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: and a voice was always, under all circumstances, low and
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: wonderfully distinct, just to an infinitesimal degree. Indeed, mincing, Missus
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Bunting had been a little nervous when it came to
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: the point. It was Missus Bunting, of course, who engaged her,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: because the sea lady was so entirely without experience. But
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: certainly Missus Bunting's nervousness was thrown away. You understand, said
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Missus Bunting, taking a plunge at it that that she
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: is an invalid. I didn't, ma'am, replied Parker, respectfully, and
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: evidently quite willing to understand anything as part of a
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: duty in this world. In fact, said Missus Bunting, rubbing
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: the edge of the tablecloth daintily with her gloved finger
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: and watching the operation with interest. As a matter of fact,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: she has a mermaid's tail. Mermaid's tail, indeed, ma'am. And
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: is it painful at all? Oh, dear, No, it involves
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: no inconvenience, nothing except you understand there is a need
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: of discretion, of course, men, said Parker, as who should say,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: there always is. We particularly don't want the servants, the
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: lower servants. No, em, you understand. And Missus Bunting looked
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: up again and regarded Parker calmly. Precisely meant, said Parker,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: with a face unmoved. And so they came to the
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: question of terms. It all passed off most satisfactorily, said
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Missus Bunting, taking a deep breath at the mere memory
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: of that moment. And it is clear that Parker was
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: quite of her opinion. She was not only discreet, but
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: really clever and handy. From the very outset, she grasped
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: the situation unostentatiously but very firmly. It was Parker who
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: contrived the sort of violin case for it, and who
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: made the tea gown extension that covered the case's arid contours.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: It was Parker who suggested an invalid's chair for use
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: indoors and in the garden, and a carrying chair for
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: the staircase. Hitherto, Fred Bunting had been on hand at last,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: even in excessive abundance, whenever the Sea Lady lay in
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: need of masculine arms. But Parker made it clear at
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: once that that was not at all in accordance with
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: her ideas, and so earned the life long gratitude of
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Mabel Glendower. And Parker too spoke out for drives, and suggested,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: with an air of rightness that left nothing else to
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: be done, the hire of a carriage and pair for
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: the season, to the equal delight of the Buntings and
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: the Sea Lady. It was Parker who dictated the daily
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: drive up to the eastern end of the LEAs, and
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: the sea lady's transfer, and the manner of the Sea
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: lady's transfer to the bath chair in which she promenaded
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: the LEAs. There seemed to be nowhere that it was
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: pleasant and proper for the Sea Lady to go that
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Parker did not swiftly and correctly indicate it and the
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: way to get to it. And there seems to have
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: been nothing that it was really undesirable the Sea Lady
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: should do, and anywhere that it was really undesirable that
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: she should go that Parker did not, at once invisibly
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: but effectively interpose a bar. It was Parker who released
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: the Sea Lady from being a sort of private and
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: peculiar property in the Bunting household, and carried her off
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: to a becoming position in the world. When the crisis
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: came in little things, as in great she failed not.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: It was she who made it luminous that the Sea
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Lady's card plate was not yet engraved and printed. Miss
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Doris Thalassia Waters was the pleasant and appropriate name with
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: which the Sea Lady came primed, and who replaced the
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: box of the presumably dank and drowned and dripping tom
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: by a jewel case, a dressing bag, and the first
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: of the Sea Lady's trunks. On a thousand little occasions,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: this Parker showed a sense of propriety that was penetratingly fine.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: For example, in the shop one day, when things of
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: an intimate sort were being purchased, she suddenly intervened, There
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: are stockings, ma'am, she said, in a discreet undertone, behind
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: but not too vulgarly, behind a fluttering straight hand stockings,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: cried missus Bunting. But I think mem she should have stockings,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: said Parker quietly, but very firmly. And come to think
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: of it, why should an unavoidable deficiency in a lady
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: excuse one that can be avoided. It's there we touch
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: the very quintessence and principle of the proper life. But
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: missus Bunting, you know, would never have seen it like that. Three.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Let me add here, regretfully, but with infinite respect, one
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: other thing about Parker, and then she shall drop into
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: her proper place. I must confess, with a slight tinge
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: of humiliation, that I pursued this young woman to her
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: present situation at Highton Towers, made she is to that
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: eminent religious and social propagandist, the lady Jane Glanville. There
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: were certain details of which I stood in need, certain
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: scenes and conversations of which my passion for verisimilitude had
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: scarcely a crumb to go upon, And from first to last,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: what she must have seen and learned and inferred would
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: amount practically to everything. I put this to her. Frankly.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: She made no pretense of not understanding me, nor of
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: ignorance in certain hidden things. When I had finished, she
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: regarded me with a level regard. I couldn't think of it, sir,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: she said, it wouldn't be at all according to my ideas.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: But it surely couldn't possibly hurt you. Now to tell me,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: I'm afraid I couldn't, sir. It couldn't hurt any one.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: It isn't that, sir. I should see you didn't lose
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: by it, you know. She looked at me politely, having
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: said what she intended to say, And in spite of
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: what became at last very fine and handsome inducements, that
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: remained the inflexible Parker's reply. Even after I had come
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: to an end with my finesse and attempted to bribe
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: her in the grossest manner, she displayed nothing but a
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: becoming respect for my impregnable social superiority. I couldn't think
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: of it, sir, she repeated, it wouldn't be at all
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: according to my ideas. And if in the end you
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: should find the story to any extent vague or incomplete,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: I trust you will remember how the inflexible severity of
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Parker's ideas stood in my way. End of chapter four
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: recording by Thomas Copeland