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Bealby Chapter 5 - The Seeking of Bealby Part Two · The H. G. Wells Library

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Speaker 1: Chapter five, Part two of Bilby a Holiday. This is
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Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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Speaker 1: Recording by Rita Boutros Bilby a Holiday by H. G. Wells,
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Speaker 1: Chapter five, The Seeking of Bilby, Part two sub chapter seven.
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Speaker 1: This meeting was no exception to their other meetings. The
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Speaker 1: coming to her was a crescendo of poetical desire, the
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Speaker 1: sight of her a climax, and then an accumulation of irritations.
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Speaker 1: He had thought being with her would be pure delight,
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Speaker 1: And as they went over the down straying after the
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Speaker 1: bowls and the giges, toward the Red Lake Hotel, he
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Speaker 1: already found himself rather urtchly asking her to marry him,
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Speaker 1: and being annoyed by what he regarded as her evasiveness.
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Speaker 1: He walked along with the restrained movement of a decent Englishman.
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Speaker 1: He seemed, as it were, to gesticulate only through his
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Speaker 1: clenched teeth, and she floated beside him in a wonderful
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Speaker 1: blue dress that, with a wonderful foresight she had planned
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Speaker 1: for Breezy uplands on the basis of Batichelli's primavera. He
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Speaker 1: was urging her to marry him soon. He needed her.
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Speaker 1: He could not live in peace without her. It was
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Speaker 1: not at all what he had come to say. He
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Speaker 1: could not recollect that he had come to say anything,
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Speaker 1: but now that he was with her, it was the
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Speaker 1: only thing he could find to say to her. But
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Speaker 1: my dearest boy, she said, how are we to marry?
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Speaker 1: What is to become of your career and my career?
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Speaker 1: I've left my career, cried Captain Douglas, with the first
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Speaker 1: clear note of irritation in his voice. Oh don't let
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Speaker 1: us quarrel, she cried. Don't let us talk of all
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Speaker 1: those distant things. Let us be happy. Let us enjoy
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Speaker 1: just this lovely day, and the sunshine and the freshness
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Speaker 1: and the beauty. Because you know we are snatching these days.
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Speaker 1: We have so few days together. Each each must be
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Speaker 1: a gem. Look, dear, how the breeze sweeps through these tall,
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Speaker 1: dry stems that stick up everywhere, low broad ripples. She
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Speaker 1: was a perfect work of art, abolishing time and obligations.
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Speaker 1: For a time they walked in silence. Then Captain Douglas said,
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Speaker 1: all very well, beauty and all that, But a fellow
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Speaker 1: likes to know where he is. She did not answer immediately,
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Speaker 1: and then she said, I believe you are angry because
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Speaker 1: you have come away from France. Not a bit of it,
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Speaker 1: said the cat, and stoutly. I'd come away from anywhere
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Speaker 1: to be with you. I wonder, she said, well, haven't I?
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Speaker 1: I wonder if you are ever with me. Oh, I
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Speaker 1: know you want me, I know you desire me. But
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Speaker 1: the real thing, the happiness love? What is anything to love?
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Speaker 1: Anything at all? In this strain? They continued until their
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Speaker 1: footsteps led them through the shelter of a group of beeches,
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Speaker 1: and there the gallant captain sought expression in deeds. He
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Speaker 1: kissed her hands, He sought her lips. She resisted softly. No,
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Speaker 1: she said, only if you love me with all your heart. Then, suddenly, wonderfully, conqueringly,
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Speaker 1: she yielded him her lips. Oh, she sighed, presently, if
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Speaker 1: only you understood, And leaving speech at that enigma, she
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Speaker 1: kissed again. But you see now how difficult it was,
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Speaker 1: under these mystically loving conditions to introduce the idea of
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Speaker 1: a prompt examination and despatch of Bielby already these days
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Speaker 1: were consecrated, and then you see Bielby vanished, going seaward.
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Speaker 1: Even the crash of the caravan disaster did little to
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Speaker 1: change the atmosphere, in spite of a certain energetic quality
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Speaker 1: in the Professor's direction of the situation. He was a
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Speaker 1: little embittered because his thumb was sprained and his knee
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Speaker 1: bruised rather badly, and he had a slight abrasion over
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Speaker 1: one ear, and William had bitten his calf. The general
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Speaker 1: disposition was to treat the affair hilariously. Nobody seemed really
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Speaker 1: hurt except William. The Professor was not so much hurt
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Speaker 1: as annoyed, and William's injuries, though striking, were all superficial.
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Speaker 1: A sprained jaw and grazes and bruises and little things
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Speaker 1: like that. Everybody was heartened up to the idea of
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Speaker 1: damages to be paid for, and neither the internal injuries
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Speaker 1: to the caravan nor the hawker's estimate of his stock
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Speaker 1: in trade proved to be as great as one might
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Speaker 1: reasonably have expected. Before sunset, the caravan was safely housed
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Speaker 1: in the Winthorpe Sutbury Public House. William had found a
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Speaker 1: congenial corner in the bar parlor, where his account of
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Speaker 1: an inside view of the catastrophe and his views upon
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Speaker 1: Professor Bowles were much appreciated. The hawker had made a
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Speaker 1: bit extra by carting all the luggage to the Red
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Speaker 1: Lake Royal Hotel, and the caravanners and their men folk
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Speaker 1: had loitered harmoniously back to this refuge. Madeleine had walked
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Speaker 1: along the road beside Captain Douglas and his motor bicycle,
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Speaker 1: which he had picked up at the now desolate encampment.
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Speaker 1: It only remains, she said, for that thing to get broken.
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Speaker 1: But I may want it. He said, no, she said,
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Speaker 1: Heaven has poured us together, and now he has smashed
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Speaker 1: the vessels. At least he has smashed one of the vessels,
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Speaker 1: and look like a great shield. There is the moon.
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Speaker 1: It's the harvest moon, isn't it. No, said the captain,
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Speaker 1: with his poetry running away with him. It's the lover's moon.
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Speaker 1: It's like a benediction rising over our meeting. And it
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Speaker 1: was certainly far too much like a benediction for the
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Speaker 1: captain to talk about Beelby. That night was a perfect
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Speaker 1: night for lovers, a night flooded with a kindly radiance
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Speaker 1: so that the warm mystery of the center of life
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Speaker 1: seemed to lurk in every shadow, and hearts throbbed instead
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Speaker 1: of beating, and eyes were stars. After dinner, every one
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Speaker 1: found wraps and slipped out into the moonlight. The gieges
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Speaker 1: vanished like moths. The prof Professor made no secret that
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Speaker 1: Judy was transfigured for him night works these miracles. The
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Speaker 1: only other visitors there. A brace of couples resorted to
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Speaker 1: the boats upon the little lake, two enormous waiters removing
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Speaker 1: the coffee cups from the small tables upon the verandah
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Speaker 1: heard Madeleine's beautiful voice for a little while, and then
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Speaker 1: it was stilled. Sub Chapter eight. The morning found Captain
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Speaker 1: Douglas in a state of reaction. He was anxious to
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Speaker 1: explain quite clearly to Madeleine just how necessary it was
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Speaker 1: that he should go in search of Balby forthwith. He
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Speaker 1: was beginning to realize now just what a chance in
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Speaker 1: the form of Bilby had slipped through his fingers. He
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Speaker 1: had dropped Bilby, and now the thing to do was
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Speaker 1: to pick up Bilby again before he was altogether lost.
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Speaker 1: Her professional life, unfortunately, had given Miss Phillips the habit
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Speaker 1: of never rising before midday, and the captain had to
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Speaker 1: pass the time as well as he could until the
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Speaker 1: opportunity for his explanation came. A fellow couldn't go off
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Speaker 1: without an explanation. He passed the time with Professor Bowles
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Speaker 1: upon the golf links. The Professor was a first rate player,
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Speaker 1: and an unselfish one. He wanted all other players to
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Speaker 1: be as good as himself. He would spare no pains
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Speaker 1: to make them so. If he saw them committing any
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Speaker 1: of the many errors into which golfers fall, he would
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Speaker 1: tell them of it, and tell them why it was
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Speaker 1: an error, and insist upon showing them just how to
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Speaker 1: avoid it in the future. He would point out any
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Speaker 1: want of judgment, and not confine himself as so many
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Speaker 1: professional golf teachers do, merely to the stroke. After a time,
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Speaker 1: he found it necessary to hint to the captain that
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Speaker 1: nowadays a military man must accustom himself to self candy.
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Speaker 1: The captain kept pishing and tushing, and presently it was
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Speaker 1: only too evident. Swearing softly, his play got jerky. His
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Speaker 1: strokes were forcible without any real strength. Once he missed
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Speaker 1: the globe altogether, and several times he sliced badly. The
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Speaker 1: eyes under his light eyelashes were wicked little things. He
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Speaker 1: remembered that he had always detested golf and the Professor.
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Speaker 1: He had always detested the Professor and his caddie. At
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Speaker 1: least he would have always detested his caddy if he
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Speaker 1: had known him long enough. His caddy was one of
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Speaker 1: those maddening boys with no expression at all. It didn't
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Speaker 1: matter what he did or failed to do. There was
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Speaker 1: the silly idiot with his stuffed face, unmoved really, of
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Speaker 1: course overjoyed, but apparently unmoved. Why did I play it
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Speaker 1: that way? The Captain repeated, Oh, because I like to
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Speaker 1: play it that way. Well, said the Professor, It isn't
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Speaker 1: a recognized way anyhow. Then came a moment of evil pleasures.
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Speaker 1: He'd sliced old bulls, had sliced.
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Speaker 2: For once in a while. He'd muffed something.
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Speaker 1: Always teaching others, and here he was slicing. Why sometimes
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Speaker 1: the Captain didn't slice. He'd get out of that neatly enough,
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Speaker 1: luck he'd get the hole.
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Speaker 2: Yet, what a bore it all was.
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Speaker 1: Why couldn't Madeleine get up at a decent hour to
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Speaker 1: see a fellow? Why must she lie in bed when
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Speaker 1: she wasn't acting. If she had got up all this
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Speaker 1: wouldn't have happened. The shame of it. Here he was
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Speaker 1: an able, bodied, capable man in the prime of life,
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Speaker 1: and the morning of a day playing this Blockhead's game. Yes,
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Speaker 1: Blockhead's game, you play the like, said the professor. Rather,
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Speaker 1: said the captain, and addressed himself to his stroke. That's
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Speaker 1: not your ball, said the professor, similar position, said the captain.
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Speaker 1: You know you might win this hole, said the professor.
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Speaker 1: Who cares, said the captain under his breath, and putt
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Speaker 1: it extravagantly. That saves me, said the professor, and went
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Speaker 1: down from a distance of twelve yards. The captain, full
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Speaker 1: of an irrational resentment, did his best to have the
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Speaker 1: hole and failed. You ought to put in a week
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Speaker 1: at nothing but putting, said the professor. It would save
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Speaker 1: you at least a stroke a hole. I've noticed that
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Speaker 1: on almost every green. If I haven't beaten you before
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Speaker 1: I pull up in the putting. The captain pretended not
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Speaker 1: to hear and said a lot of rococo things inside himself.
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Speaker 1: It was Madeleine who had got him in for this game.
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Speaker 1: A beautiful, healthy girl ought to get up in the mornings.
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Speaker 1: Mornings and beautiful, healthy girls are all the same thing. Really,
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Speaker 1: she ought to be dewy, positively dewy. There she must
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Speaker 1: be lying warm and beautiful in bed, like Catherine the
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Speaker 1: Great or somebody of that sort. No, it wasn't right.
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Speaker 1: All very luxurious and so on, but not right. She
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Speaker 1: ought to have understood that he was bound to fall
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Speaker 1: a prey to the professor if she didn't get up golf.
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Speaker 2: Here he was.
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Speaker 1: Neglecting his career, hanging about on these beastly links, all
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Speaker 1: the sound men away there in France. It didn't do
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Speaker 1: to think of it, and he was playing this retired
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Speaker 1: tradesman's consolation beastly. The professor's legs looked from behind. The
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Speaker 1: uglier a man's legs are, the better he plays golf.
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Speaker 2: It's almost a law.
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Speaker 1: That's what it was, a retired tradesman's consolation. A decent
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Speaker 1: British soldier has no more business to be playing golf
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Speaker 1: than he has to be dressing dolls. It's a game,
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Speaker 1: at once worthless and exasperating. If a man isn't perfectly fit,
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Speaker 1: he cannot play golf. And when he is perfectly fit,
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Speaker 1: he ought to be doing a man's work in the world.
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Speaker 1: If ever anything deserved the name of vice, if ever
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Speaker 1: anything was pure, unforgivable dissipation, surely golf was that thing.
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Speaker 1: And meanwhile that boy was getting more and more start.
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Speaker 1: Anyone with a haporth of scents would have been up
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Speaker 1: at five, and after that brat might have had him
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Speaker 1: bagged and safe and back to lunch. Ass one was
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Speaker 1: at times. You're here, sir, said the caddie. The captain
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Speaker 1: perceived he was in a nasty place, open green ahead,
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Speaker 1: but with some tumbled country near at hand, and to
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Speaker 1: the left, a rusty old gravel pit, furs at the sides,
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Speaker 1: water at the bottom, nasty, attractive hole of a place.
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Speaker 1: Sort of thing one gets into. He must pull himself
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Speaker 1: together for this, after all, having undertaken to play a game,
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Speaker 1: one must play the game. If he hit the infernal thing,
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Speaker 1: that is to say, the ball. If he hit the
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Speaker 1: ball so that, if it didn't go straight, it would
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Speaker 1: go to the right rather clear of the hedge, it
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Speaker 1: wouldn't be so bad to the right difficult to manage.
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Speaker 1: Best thing was to think hard of the green ahead,
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Speaker 1: a long way ahead, with just the slightest deflection to
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Speaker 1: the right. Now then heels well down, club up a
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Speaker 1: good swing. Keep your eye on the ball, Keep your
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Speaker 1: eye on the ball, keep your eye on the ball
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Speaker 1: just where you mean to hit it, far below there
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Speaker 1: and a little to the right. And don't worry rap
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Speaker 1: in the pond. I think, sir, the water would have
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Speaker 1: splashed it if it had gone in the pond, said
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Speaker 1: the professor. It must be over there in the wet sand.
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Speaker 1: You hit it pretty hard, I thought. Search The caddy
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Speaker 1: looked as though he didn't care whether he found it
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Speaker 1: or not. He ought to be interested. It was his profession,
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Speaker 1: not just his game. But nowadays everybody had this horrid
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Speaker 1: disposition towards slacking. A tired generation.
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Speaker 2: We are. The world is too much with us.
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Speaker 1: Too much to think about, too much to do. Madelan's
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Speaker 1: army maneuvers, angry lawyers, lost boys, let alone such exhausting
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Speaker 1: foolery as this game got it, sir, said the caddie.
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Speaker 1: Where here, sir, Up in the bush?
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Speaker 2: Sir?
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Speaker 1: It was resting in the branches of a bush two
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Speaker 1: yards above the slippery bank. I doubt if you can
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Speaker 1: play it, said the professor, but it will be interesting
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Speaker 1: to try. The captain scrutinized the position. I can play it,
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Speaker 1: he said, you'll slip. I'm afraid, said the professor. They
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Speaker 1: were both right. Captain Douglas drove his feet into the
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Speaker 1: steep slope of rusty sand below the bush, held his
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Speaker 1: iron a little short, and wiped the ball up and over,
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Speaker 1: And as he found afterwards out of the rough, all
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Speaker 1: eyes followed the ball except his. The Professor made sounds
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Speaker 1: of friendly encouragement. But the Captain was going, going, He
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Speaker 1: was on all fours. He scrabbled handfuls of prickly gorse
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Speaker 1: of wet sand. His feet, his ankles, his calves. Slid
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Speaker 1: into the pond. How much more, No he'd reached the bottom,
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Speaker 1: he proceeded to get out again as well as he could,
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Speaker 1: not so easy. The bottom of the pond sucked at him.
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Speaker 1: When at last he rejoined the other three. His hands
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Speaker 1: were sandy red, his knees were sandy red. His were
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Speaker 1: of clay. But his face was like the face of
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Speaker 1: a little child, like the face of a little fair
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Speaker 1: child after it has been boiled red in its bath,
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Speaker 1: and then dusted over with white powder. His ears were
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Speaker 1: the color of roses, Lancaster roses, and His eyes too,
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Speaker 1: had something of the angry wonder of a little child distressed.
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Speaker 1: I was afraid you'd slip into the pond, said the professor.
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Speaker 2: I didn't, said the captain.
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Speaker 1: I just got in to see how deep it was
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Speaker 1: and cool my feet.
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Speaker 2: I hate warm feet.
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Speaker 1: He lost that hole, but he felt a better golfer now.
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Speaker 1: His anger, he thought, was warming him up so that
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Speaker 1: he would presently begin to make strokes by instinct and
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Speaker 1: do remarkable things unawares. After all, there was something in
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Speaker 1: the phrase getting one's blood up. If only the professor
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Speaker 1: wouldn't dally so with his ball and let one's blood
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Speaker 1: get down again. Tap, the Professor's ball went sarring.
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Speaker 2: Now for it.
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Speaker 1: The captain addressed himself to his task, altered his plans
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Speaker 1: rather hastily, smote and topped the ball. The least one
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Speaker 1: could expect was a sympathetic silence, but the professor thought
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Speaker 1: fit to improve the occasion. You'll never drive, said the professor.
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Speaker 1: You'll never drive with that irritable jerk in the middle
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Speaker 1: of the stroke. You might just as well smack the
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Speaker 1: ball without raising your club. If you think the captain
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Speaker 1: lost his self control altogether, look here, he said, if
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Speaker 1: you think that I care a single rap about how
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Speaker 1: I hit the ball, if you think that I really
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Speaker 1: want to win and do well at this beastly, silly, elderly,
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Speaker 1: childish game, he paused on the verge of ungentlemanly language.
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Speaker 1: If a thing's worth doing at all, said the professor,
18:58
Speaker 1: after a pause for a reflection, it's worth doing well,
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Speaker 1: then it isn't worth doing at all, as this whole
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Speaker 1: gives you the game, if you don't mind. The captain's
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Speaker 1: hot moods were so rapid that already he was acutely
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Speaker 1: ashamed of himself. Oh, certainly, if you wish it, said
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Speaker 1: the professor, with a gesture. The professor indicated the altered
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Speaker 1: situation to the respectful caddies, and the two gentlemen turned
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Speaker 1: their faces towards the hotel. For a time they walked
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Speaker 1: side by side in silence, the caddies following with hushed expressions.
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Speaker 1: Splendid weather for the French maneuvers, said the captain presently,
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Speaker 1: in an offhand tone. That is to say, if they
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Speaker 1: are getting this weather at present. There are a series
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Speaker 1: of high precious systems over the whole of Europe north
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Speaker 1: of the Alps, said the professor. It is as near
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Speaker 1: set fare as Europe can be. Fine weather for tramps
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Speaker 1: and wanderers, said the captain. After a further interval. There's
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Speaker 1: a drawback to everything, said the professor, but it's very
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Speaker 1: lovely weather sub Chapter nine. They got back to the
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Speaker 1: hotel about half past eleven, and the captain went and
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Speaker 1: had an unpleasant time with one of the tires of
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Speaker 1: his motor bicycle, which had got down in the night.
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Speaker 1: In replacing the tire, he pinched the top of one
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Speaker 1: of his fingers rather badly. Then he got the ordnance
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Speaker 1: map of the district and sat at a green table
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Speaker 1: in the open air in front of the hotel windows
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Speaker 1: and speculated on the probable flight of Bielby. He had
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Speaker 1: been last seen going south by east that way lay
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Speaker 1: the sea, and all boy fugitives going naturally for the sea.
20:50
Speaker 1: He tried to throw himself into the fugitive's mind and
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Speaker 1: work out just exactly the course Bilby must take to
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Speaker 1: the sea. For a time he found this quite an
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Speaker 1: absorbing occupation. Bilbe probably had no money, or very little money.
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Speaker 1: Therefore he would have to beg or steal. He wouldn't
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Speaker 1: go to the workhouse because he wouldn't know about the workhouse.
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Speaker 1: Respectable poor people never know anything about the workhouse, and
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Speaker 1: the chances were he would be both too honest and
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Speaker 1: too timid to steal.
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Speaker 2: He'd beg.
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Speaker 1: He'd beg at front doors because of dogs and things,
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Speaker 1: and he'd probably go along a high road. He'd be
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Speaker 1: more likely to beg from houses than from passers by,
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Speaker 1: because a door is at first glance, less formidable than
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Speaker 1: a pedestrian, and more accustomed to being addressed. And he'd
21:42
Speaker 1: try isolated cottages rather than the village street doors. An
21:46
Speaker 1: isolated wayside cottage is so much more confidential. He'd ask
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Speaker 1: for food, not money. All that seemed pretty sound. Now
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Speaker 1: this road on the map, into it he was to fall,
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Speaker 1: and along it he would go, begging no other no.
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Speaker 1: In the fine weather, he'd sleep out, and he'd go ten, twelve, fourteen, thirteen,
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Speaker 1: thirteen miles a day. So now he ought to be
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Speaker 1: about here and tonight here tomorrow at the same pace here.
22:22
Speaker 1: But suppose he got a lift, he'd only get a
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Speaker 1: slow lift. If he got one at all, it wouldn't
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Speaker 1: make much difference in the calculation. So if tomorrow one
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Speaker 1: started and went on to these cross roads marked in
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Speaker 1: just about twenty six miles. It must be by this scale,
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Speaker 1: and beat round it one ought to get something in
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Speaker 1: the way of tidings of mister Bielby.
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Speaker 2: Was there any reason.
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Speaker 1: Why Bilby shouldn't go on south by east and seaward? None?
22:53
Speaker 1: And now there remained nothing to do but to explain
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Speaker 1: all this clearly to Madeleine. And why didn't she come down?
23:01
Speaker 1: Why didn't she come down? But when one got Balby,
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Speaker 1: what would one do with him? Wring the truth out
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Speaker 1: of him, half by threats and half by persuasion. Suppose,
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Speaker 1: after all he hadn't any connection with the upsetting of
23:16
Speaker 1: Lord Margeridge. He had, Suppose he hadn't he had?
23:22
Speaker 2: He had? He had?
23:24
Speaker 1: And when one had the truth, whisked the boy right
23:28
Speaker 1: up to London and confront the Lord Chancellor with the facts.
23:32
Speaker 1: But suppose he wouldn't be confronted with the facts. He
23:35
Speaker 1: was a touchy old sinner. For a time, Captain Douglas
23:39
Speaker 1: balked at this difficulty. Then suddenly there came into his
23:43
Speaker 1: head the tall figure, the long mustaches of that kindly
23:47
Speaker 1: popular figure, his adopted uncle, Lord Chickney. Suppose he took
23:52
Speaker 1: the boy straight to Uncle Chickney told him the whole story.
23:57
Speaker 1: Even the Lord Chancellor would scarcely refuse to ten minutes
24:00
Speaker 1: to General Lord Chickney. The clearer the plans of Captain
24:05
Speaker 1: Douglas grew, the more anxious he became to put them
24:08
Speaker 1: before Madeleine clearly and convincingly, because first he had to
24:14
Speaker 1: catch his boy. Presently, as Captain Douglas fretted at the
24:19
Speaker 1: continued eclipse of Madeleine, his thumb went into his waistcoat
24:23
Speaker 1: pocket and found a piece of paper. He drew it
24:26
Speaker 1: out and looked at it. It was a little piece
24:29
Speaker 1: of stiff note paper cut into the shape of a
24:32
Speaker 1: curved v, rather after the fashion of a soaring bird.
24:36
Speaker 1: It must have been there for months. He looked at it,
24:40
Speaker 1: his care wrinkled brow relaxed. He glanced over his shoulder
24:44
Speaker 1: at the house, and then held this little scrap high
24:47
Speaker 1: over his head and let go. It descended with a
24:51
Speaker 1: slanting flight, curving round to the left, and then came
24:55
Speaker 1: about and swept down to the ground to the right. Now,
24:59
Speaker 1: why did it go like that? As if it changed
25:02
Speaker 1: its mind, he tried it again, same result. Suppose the
25:07
Speaker 1: curvature of the wings was a little greater. Would it
25:10
Speaker 1: make a more acute or a less acute angle?
25:13
Speaker 2: He did not know. Try it.
25:16
Speaker 1: He felt in his pocket for a piece of paper,
25:19
Speaker 1: found Lady Laxton's letter, produced a stout pair of nail
25:23
Speaker 1: scissors in a sheath from a waistcoat pocket, selected a
25:27
Speaker 1: good clear sheet and set himself to cut out his
25:30
Speaker 1: improved V. As he did so, his eyes were on V.
25:35
Speaker 1: Number one on the ground.
25:37
Speaker 2: It would be.
25:37
Speaker 1: Interesting to see if this thing turned about to the
25:40
Speaker 1: left again, if in fact it would go on zigzagging
25:45
Speaker 1: it ought, he felt to do so. But to test
25:48
Speaker 1: that one ought to release it from some higher point,
25:51
Speaker 1: so as to give it a longer flight. Stand on
25:54
Speaker 1: the chair not in front of the whole rotten hotel.
25:58
Speaker 1: And there was a beastly looking man in a green
26:01
Speaker 1: apron coming out of the house, the sort of man
26:04
Speaker 1: who looks at you. He might come up and watch.
26:07
Speaker 1: These fellows are equal to anything of that sort. Captain
26:11
Speaker 1: Douglas replaced his scissors and scraps in his pockets, leaned back,
26:16
Speaker 1: with an affectation of boredom, got up, let a cigarette,
26:20
Speaker 1: sort of thing the man in the green apron would think,
26:23
Speaker 1: all right, and strolled off towards a clump of beech trees,
26:27
Speaker 1: beyond which were bushes and a depression. There, perhaps one
26:32
Speaker 1: might be free from observation. Just try these things for
26:35
Speaker 1: a bit. That point about the angle was a curious one.
26:39
Speaker 1: It made one feel one's ignorance.
26:41
Speaker 2: Not to know that.
26:44
Speaker 1: Sub chapter ten, the ideal king has a careworn look.
26:49
Speaker 1: He rules, he has to do things. But the ideal
26:53
Speaker 1: Queen is radiant happiness, tall and sweetly dignified. Simply she
26:59
Speaker 1: has to be things. And when at last, towards midday
27:04
Speaker 1: Queen Madeleine dispelled the clouds of the morning and came
27:08
Speaker 1: shining back into the world that waited outside her door,
27:12
Speaker 1: she was full of thankfulness for herself and for the
27:16
Speaker 1: empire that was given her. She knew she was a
27:20
Speaker 1: delicious and wonderful thing. She knew she was well done.
27:24
Speaker 1: Her hands, the soft folds of her dress as she
27:27
Speaker 1: held it up. The sweep of her hair from her
27:30
Speaker 1: forehead pleased her. She lifted her chin, but not too
27:34
Speaker 1: high for the almost unenvious homage in the eyes of
27:38
Speaker 1: the housemaid on the staircase. Her descent was well timed
27:42
Speaker 1: for the lunch gathering of the hotel guests. There was ah,
27:47
Speaker 1: here she comes at last, and there was her own
27:50
Speaker 1: particular court out upon the verandah before the entrance Gege
27:55
Speaker 1: and the professor, and Missus Bowles, and missus Gege coming
27:59
Speaker 1: up across the lawn, and the lover she came on
28:04
Speaker 1: down and out into the sunshine. She betrayed no surprise.
28:10
Speaker 1: The others met her with flattering greetings that she returned smilingly.
28:15
Speaker 1: But the lover he was not there. It was as
28:19
Speaker 1: if the curtain had gone up on almost empty stalls.
28:23
Speaker 1: He ought to have been worked up and waiting tremendously.
28:27
Speaker 1: He ought to have spent the morning in writing a
28:30
Speaker 1: poem to her, or in writing a delightful poetical love
28:34
Speaker 1: letter she could carry away and read, or in wandering
28:38
Speaker 1: alone and thinking about her. He ought to be feeling
28:41
Speaker 1: now like the end of a vigil. He ought to
28:44
Speaker 1: be standing now a little in the background, and with
28:48
Speaker 1: that pleasant flush of his upon his face, and that shy, subdued,
28:52
Speaker 1: reluctant look that was so infinitely more flattering than any
28:57
Speaker 1: boldness of admiration. And then she would go towards him,
29:01
Speaker 1: for she was a giving type, and hold out both
29:04
Speaker 1: hands to him, and he, as though he couldn't help it,
29:08
Speaker 1: in spite of all his British reserve, would take one
29:12
Speaker 1: and hesitate, which made it all the more marked, and
29:16
Speaker 1: kiss it instead of which he was just not there.
29:21
Speaker 1: No visible disappointment dashed her bravery. She knew that at
29:25
Speaker 1: the slightest flicker Judy and missus Gege would guess, and
29:30
Speaker 1: that anyhow the men would guess nothing. I've rested, she said,
29:34
Speaker 1: I've rested delightfully. What have you all been doing? Judy
29:39
Speaker 1: told of great conversations. Mister Gech had been looking for
29:43
Speaker 1: trout in the stream. Missus Gege, with a thin little smile,
29:48
Speaker 1: said she had been making a few notes, and she
29:51
Speaker 1: added the word with deliberation, observations. And Professor Bowles said
29:56
Speaker 1: he had had a round of golf with the Captain,
29:59
Speaker 1: and he asked Madeleine.
30:02
Speaker 2: He's careless in.
30:03
Speaker 1: His drive and impatient at the greens, said the professor modestly,
30:08
Speaker 1: and then he vanished, said the professor, recognizing the true
30:13
Speaker 1: orientation of her interest. There was a little pause, and
30:17
Speaker 1: missus Geach said, you know, and stopped short interrogative looks
30:23
Speaker 1: focused upon her. It's so odd, she said, Curiosity increased.
30:29
Speaker 1: I suppose one ought not to say, said missus Geach.
30:33
Speaker 1: And yet why shouldn't one exactly said Professor Bowles, And
30:38
Speaker 1: everyone drew a little nearer to missus Geech. One can't
30:42
Speaker 1: help being amused, she said. It was so extraordinary? Is
30:47
Speaker 1: it something about the captain, asked Madeleine. Yes, you see,
30:52
Speaker 1: he didn't see me. Is he Is he writing poetry?
30:57
Speaker 1: Madeleine was much entertained and relieved at the thought that
31:01
Speaker 1: would account for everything. The poor dear he hadn't been
31:05
Speaker 1: able to find some rhyme, but one gathered from the
31:09
Speaker 1: mysterious airs of missus Gech that he was not writing poetry.
31:14
Speaker 1: You see, she said, I was lying out there among
31:17
Speaker 1: the bushes, just trotting down a few little things. And
31:20
Speaker 1: he came by, and he went down into the hollow,
31:23
Speaker 1: out of sight. And what do you think he's doing.
31:27
Speaker 1: You'd never guess he's been at it for twenty minutes.
31:31
Speaker 1: They didn't guess. He's playing with little bits of paper. Oh,
31:37
Speaker 1: like a kitten plays with dead leaves. He throws them
31:40
Speaker 1: up and they fluttered to the ground, and then he
31:43
Speaker 1: pounces on them. But said Madeline, and then very brightly,
31:49
Speaker 1: let's go and see. She was amazed. She couldn't understand.
31:54
Speaker 1: She hid it under a light playfulness that threatened to
31:58
Speaker 1: become distraught Eve. When presently, after a very careful stalking
32:03
Speaker 1: of the dell, under the guidance of missus Gech, with
32:06
Speaker 1: the others in support, she came in sight of him,
32:10
Speaker 1: she still found him incredible. There was her lover, her
32:14
Speaker 1: devoted lover, standing on the top bar of a fence,
32:18
Speaker 1: his legs wide apart and his body balanced with difficulty,
32:23
Speaker 1: and in his fingers, poised high was a little scrap
32:26
Speaker 1: of paper. This was the man who should have been
32:30
Speaker 1: waiting in the hall with feverish anxiety. His fingers released
32:34
Speaker 1: the little model, and down it went, drifting. He seemed
32:39
Speaker 1: to be thinking of nothing else in the world. She
32:41
Speaker 1: might never have been born. Some noise, some rustle, caught
32:46
Speaker 1: his ear. He turned his head quickly, guiltily, and saw
32:51
Speaker 1: her and her companions, and then he crowned her astonishment.
32:56
Speaker 1: No love light leapt to his eyes. He uttered no
33:00
Speaker 1: cry of joy. Instead, he clutched wildly at the air, shouted,
33:04
Speaker 1: oh damn, and came down with a complicated inelegance, on
33:09
Speaker 1: all fours upon the ground. He was angry with her
33:13
Speaker 1: angry She could see that he was extremely angry sub
33:20
Speaker 1: Chapter eleven. So it was that the incompatibilities of man
33:25
Speaker 1: and woman arose again in the just recovering love dream
33:29
Speaker 1: of Madeleine Phillips. But now the discord was far more
33:34
Speaker 1: evident than it had been at the first breach. Suddenly,
33:38
Speaker 1: her dear lover, her flatterer, her worshiper, had become a strange,
33:42
Speaker 1: averted man. He scrabbled up two of his paper scraps
33:47
Speaker 1: before he came towards her, still with no love light
33:50
Speaker 1: in his eyes. He kissed her hand as if it
33:54
Speaker 1: was a matter of course, and said, almost immediately, I've
33:57
Speaker 1: been hoping for you all the endless morning. I've had
34:00
Speaker 1: to amuse myself as best I can. His tone was resentful.
34:05
Speaker 1: He spoke as if he had a claim upon her,
34:07
Speaker 1: upon her attentions, as if it wasn't entirely upon his
34:11
Speaker 1: side that obligations lay. She resolved that shouldn't deter her
34:16
Speaker 1: from being charming, and all through the lunch she was
34:20
Speaker 1: as charming as she could be, And under such treatment
34:23
Speaker 1: that rebellious, ruffled quality vanished from his manner, vanished so
34:28
Speaker 1: completely that she could wonder if it had really been
34:31
Speaker 1: evident at any time the alert servitor returned. She was
34:36
Speaker 1: only too pleased to forget the disappointment of her descent
34:40
Speaker 1: and forgive him. And it was with a puzzled incredulity
34:43
Speaker 1: that she presently saw his difficult expression returning. It was
34:49
Speaker 1: an odd little knitting of the brows, a faint absent
34:52
Speaker 1: mindedness of filming of the brightness of his worship. He
34:57
Speaker 1: was just perceptibly indifferent to the charm and charming things
35:01
Speaker 1: she was saying. It seemed best to her to open
35:04
Speaker 1: the question herself, is there something on your mind? Dot
35:09
Speaker 1: Dot was his old school nickname. Well, no, not exactly
35:14
Speaker 1: on my mind, but it's a bother. Of course, there's
35:17
Speaker 1: that confounded boy. Were you trying some sort of divination
35:22
Speaker 1: about him with those pieces of paper? No, that was different.
35:27
Speaker 1: That was just something else. But you see that boy
35:31
Speaker 1: probably clear up the whole of the Maggeridge bother, And
35:35
Speaker 1: you know it is a bother might turn out beastly awkward.
35:40
Speaker 1: It was extraordinarily difficult to express. He wanted so much
35:44
Speaker 1: to stay with her, and he wanted so much to go,
35:48
Speaker 1: But all reason, all that was expressible all that found
35:53
Speaker 1: vent in words and definite suggestions was on the side
35:56
Speaker 1: of an immediate pursuit of Bilby, so that it's seemed
36:00
Speaker 1: to her he wanted and intended to go much more
36:03
Speaker 1: definitely than he actually did. That divergence of purpose flawed.
36:08
Speaker 1: A beautiful afternoon, cast chill, shadows of silence over their
36:13
Speaker 1: talk arrested endearments. She was irritated. About six o'clock, she
36:19
Speaker 1: urged him to go. She did not mind anyhow, She
36:22
Speaker 1: had things to see to letters to write, and she
36:26
Speaker 1: left him with an effect of leaving him forever. He
36:29
Speaker 1: went and overhauled his motor bicycle thoroughly, and then an
36:33
Speaker 1: aching dread of separation from her arrested him. Dinner, the
36:38
Speaker 1: late June sunset and the moon seemed to bring them
36:42
Speaker 1: together again, almost harmoniously. He was able to suggest that
36:47
Speaker 1: he should get up very early the next morning, pursue
36:50
Speaker 1: and capture Bielby, and return for lunch. You'd get up
36:55
Speaker 1: at dawn, she cried, But how perfectly splendid the midsummer
36:59
Speaker 1: dawn must be. Then she had an inspiration. Dot She cried,
37:05
Speaker 1: I will get up at dawn also and come with you. Yes,
37:09
Speaker 1: but as you say, he cannot be more than thirteen
37:11
Speaker 1: miles away. We'd catch him warm in his little bed somewhere,
37:15
Speaker 1: and the freshness, the dewy freshness. And she laughed, her
37:19
Speaker 1: beautiful laugh, and said it would be such fun entering
37:23
Speaker 1: as she supposed, into his secret desires and making the
37:27
Speaker 1: most perfect of reconciliations. They were to have tea first,
37:32
Speaker 1: which she would prepare with the caravan, lamp and kettle.
37:36
Speaker 1: Missus Goech would hand it over to her. She broke
37:39
Speaker 1: into song.
37:40
Speaker 2: A hunting, we will go.
37:42
Speaker 1: Oh, she sang, a hunting, we will go. But she
37:46
Speaker 1: could not conquer the churlish under side of the captain's nature.
37:49
Speaker 1: Even by such efforts.
37:52
Speaker 2: She threw a.
37:52
Speaker 1: Glamor of vigor and fun over the adventure, But some
37:56
Speaker 1: cold streak in his composition was insisting all the time
38:01
Speaker 1: that as a boy hunt, the attempt failed. Various little
38:05
Speaker 1: delays in her preparations prevented a start before half past seven.
38:10
Speaker 1: He let that way with him. And when sometimes she
38:13
Speaker 1: clapped her hands and ran, and she ran like a deer,
38:16
Speaker 1: and sometimes she sang, he said something about going at
38:20
Speaker 1: an even pace. At a quarter past one, missus Gege
38:24
Speaker 1: observed them returning, they were walking abreast and about six
38:28
Speaker 1: feet apart. They bore themselves grimly, after the manner of
38:32
Speaker 1: those who have delivered ultimata, and they conversed no more.
38:38
Speaker 1: In the afternoon, Madeleine kept her own room, exhausted, and
38:42
Speaker 1: Captain Douglas sought opportunities of speaking to her in vain.
38:46
Speaker 1: His face expressed distress and perplexity, with momentary lapses into
38:52
Speaker 1: wrathful resolution, and he evaded Judy and her leading questions,
38:57
Speaker 1: and talked about the weather with Gege. He declined a
39:00
Speaker 1: proposal of the professors to go round the links, with
39:04
Speaker 1: a special reference to his neglected putting you ought to,
39:08
Speaker 1: you know, said the professor. About half past three, and
39:12
Speaker 1: without any publication of his intention, Captain Douglas departed upon
39:17
Speaker 1: his motor bicycle. Madeline did not reappear until dinner time,
39:22
Speaker 1: and then she was clad in lace and gaiety that
39:26
Speaker 1: impressed the naturally very good observation of missus goech as
39:30
Speaker 1: unreal sub Chapter twelve. The captain a confusion of motives
39:37
Speaker 1: that was, as it were, a mind returning to chaos started.
39:42
Speaker 1: He had seen tears in her eyes just for one instant,
39:46
Speaker 1: but certainly they were tears, tears of vexation or sorrow,
39:51
Speaker 1: which is the worse thing for a lover to arouse
39:54
Speaker 1: grief or resentment. But this boy must be caught, because
39:58
Speaker 1: if he was not caught, a perpetually developing story of
40:02
Speaker 1: imbecile practical joking upon eminent and influential persons would eat
40:08
Speaker 1: like a cancer into the captain's career.
40:11
Speaker 2: And if his career were.
40:12
Speaker 1: Spoilt, what sort of thing would he be as a lover,
40:16
Speaker 1: Not to mention that he might never get a chance
40:19
Speaker 1: then to try flying for military purposes. So anyhow, anyhow,
40:24
Speaker 1: this boy must be caught, but quickly, For women's hearts
40:29
Speaker 1: are tender. They will not stand exposure to hardship. There
40:33
Speaker 1: is a kind of unreasonableness natural to goddesses. Unhappily, this
40:38
Speaker 1: was an expedition needing wariness, deliberation, and one brought to
40:43
Speaker 1: it a feverish hurry to get back. There must be
40:47
Speaker 1: self control, there must be patience. Such occasions try the
40:52
Speaker 1: soldierly quality of a man. It added nothing to the
40:56
Speaker 1: captain's self control that, after he had traveled ten miles,
41:00
Speaker 1: he found he had forgotten his quite indispensable map and
41:04
Speaker 1: had to return for it. Then he was seized again
41:07
Speaker 1: with doubts about his inductions, and went over them again.
41:11
Speaker 1: Sitting by the roadside, there must be patients. He went
41:15
Speaker 1: on at a pace of thirty five miles an hour
41:18
Speaker 1: to the inn he had marked upon his map as
41:21
Speaker 1: Bilby's limit for the second evening. It was a beastly
41:25
Speaker 1: little inn. It stewed tea for the captain atrociously, and
41:29
Speaker 1: it knew nothing of Bilby. In the adjacent cottages, also
41:34
Speaker 1: they had never heard of Bilby. Captain Douglas revised his
41:38
Speaker 1: deductions for the third time and came to the conclusion
41:41
Speaker 1: that he had not made a proper allowance for Wednesday afternoon.
41:45
Speaker 1: Then there was all Thursday and the longer lengthening part
41:49
Speaker 1: of Friday. He might have done thirty miles or more already,
41:54
Speaker 1: and he might have crossed this corner inconspicuously. Suppose he hadn't,
41:59
Speaker 1: after all, come along this road. He had a momentary
42:03
Speaker 1: vision of Madeline with eyes brightly tearful. You left me
42:07
Speaker 1: for a wild goose chase, he fancied her, saying, one
42:12
Speaker 1: must stick to one's job. A soldier more particularly, must
42:16
Speaker 1: stick to his job. Consider Balaklava, He decided to go
42:21
Speaker 1: on along this road and try the incidental cottages that
42:25
Speaker 1: his reasoning led him to suppose were the most likely
42:29
Speaker 1: places at which Bielby would ask for food. It was
42:32
Speaker 1: a business demanding patience and politeness, so a number of cottagers,
42:37
Speaker 1: for the greater part they were elderly women past the
42:40
Speaker 1: fiercer rush and hurry of life, grandmothers and ancient dames,
42:45
Speaker 1: or wives at leisure with their children away at the
42:48
Speaker 1: council schools. Had a collar that afternoon cottages are such
42:53
Speaker 1: lonely places in the daytime that even district visitors and
42:57
Speaker 1: canvasses are godsends, and only tramp ill received Captain Douglas
43:03
Speaker 1: ranked high in the scale of visitors. There was something
43:06
Speaker 1: about him, his fairness, a certain handsomeness, his quick color,
43:11
Speaker 1: his active speech which interested women at all times, and
43:16
Speaker 1: now an indefinable flow of romantic excitement conveyed itself to
43:21
Speaker 1: his interlocutors. He encountered the utmost civility everywhere. Doors, at
43:27
Speaker 1: first tentatively Ajar opened wider at the sight of him,
43:31
Speaker 1: and there was a kindly disposition to enter into his
43:34
Speaker 1: troubles lengthily and deliberately. People listened attentively to his demands,
43:40
Speaker 1: and before they testified to Bilby's sustained absence from their perception,
43:46
Speaker 1: they would, for the most part, ask numerous questions.
43:49
Speaker 2: In return.
43:50
Speaker 1: They wanted to hear the captain's story, the reason for
43:53
Speaker 1: his research, their relationship between himself and the boy. They
43:58
Speaker 1: wanted to feel something of the same sentiment of the thing.
44:01
Speaker 1: After that was the season for negative facts. Perhaps when
44:06
Speaker 1: everything was stated, they might be able to conjure up
44:09
Speaker 1: what he wanted. He was asked in to have tea twice,
44:13
Speaker 1: for he looked not only pink and dusty, but dry.
44:16
Speaker 1: And one old lady said that years ago she had
44:19
Speaker 1: lost just such a boy as Bilby seemed to be. Ah,
44:23
Speaker 1: not in the way you have lost him, And she wept,
44:26
Speaker 1: poor old dear, and was only comforted after she had
44:30
Speaker 1: told the captain three touching but extremely lengthy and detailed
44:34
Speaker 1: anecdotes of Bilby's vanished prototype. Fellow cannot rush away, you know.
44:40
Speaker 1: Still all this sort of thing accumulating, means a confounded
44:44
Speaker 1: lot of delay. And then there was a deaf old man,
44:49
Speaker 1: a very very tiresome deaf old man, who said, at
44:53
Speaker 1: first he had seen Bilby after all the old fellow
44:57
Speaker 1: was deaf. The sunset found the capt and on a
45:00
Speaker 1: breezy common, forty miles away from the Red Lake Royal Hotel.
45:05
Speaker 1: And by this time he knew that fugitive boys cannot
45:08
Speaker 1: be trusted to follow the lines, even of the soundest inductions.
45:13
Speaker 1: This business meant a search. Should he pelt back to
45:17
Speaker 1: Red Lake and start again more thoroughly on the morrow?
45:20
Speaker 1: A moment of temptation. If he did, he knew she wouldn't.
45:24
Speaker 2: Let him go.
45:25
Speaker 1: No, no, he must make a sweeping movement through the
45:30
Speaker 1: country to the left, trying up and down the roads that,
45:33
Speaker 1: roughly speaking, radiated from Red Lake. Between the twenty fifth
45:38
Speaker 1: and the thirty fifth milestone. It was night and high
45:42
Speaker 1: moonlight when at last the Captain reached Crayminster, that little
45:47
Speaker 1: old town decayed to a village in the Crays Valley.
45:51
Speaker 1: He was hungry, dispirited, quite unsuccessful, and here he resolved
45:56
Speaker 1: to eat and rest for the night. He would have
45:59
Speaker 1: a meal, for by this time he was ravenous, and
46:02
Speaker 1: then go and talk in the bar or the tap
46:04
Speaker 1: about Bilby until he had eaten. He felt he could
46:08
Speaker 1: not endure the sound of his own voice repeating what
46:11
Speaker 1: had already become a tiresome, stereotyped formula. You haven't I
46:16
Speaker 1: suppose seen or heard anything during the last two days
46:19
Speaker 1: of a small boy, little chap of about thirteen wandering about.
46:24
Speaker 1: He's a sturdy, resolute little fellow with a high color,
46:28
Speaker 1: short wiry hair, rather dark. The white Heart at Crayminster,
46:33
Speaker 1: after some negotiations, produced mutton cutlets and Australian hawk. As
46:39
Speaker 1: he sat at his meal in the small, ambiguous, respectable
46:42
Speaker 1: dining room of the inn, adorned with framed and glazed
46:46
Speaker 1: beer advertisements, crinkled paper fringes, and insincere sporting prints, he
46:52
Speaker 1: became aware of a murmurous confabulation going on in the
46:56
Speaker 1: bar parlor. It must certainly he felt b the bar
47:01
Speaker 1: parlor he could not hear distinctly, and yet it seemed
47:05
Speaker 1: to him that the conversational style of Crayminster was abnormally
47:09
Speaker 1: rich and expletive, and the tone was odd. It had
47:13
Speaker 1: a steadfast quality of combination. He brushed off a crumb
47:18
Speaker 1: from his jacket, lit a cigarette, and stepped across the
47:21
Speaker 1: passage to put his hopeless questions. The talk ceased abruptly
47:26
Speaker 1: at his appearance. It was one of those deep toned
47:30
Speaker 1: bar parlors that are so infinitely more pleasant to the
47:33
Speaker 1: eye than the tawdry decorations of the genteel accommodation. It
47:38
Speaker 1: was brown with a trimming of green paper hops, and
47:42
Speaker 1: it had a mirror and glass shelves sustaining bottles and tankards.
47:46
Speaker 1: Six or seven individuals were sitting about the room. They
47:50
Speaker 1: had a numerous effect. There was a man in very
47:53
Speaker 1: light flowery tweeds, with a flowery bloom on his face
47:57
Speaker 1: and hair and an anxious, dep breast expression. He was
48:02
Speaker 1: clearly a baker. He sat forward as though he nursed
48:05
Speaker 1: something precious under the table. Next him was a respectable looking,
48:10
Speaker 1: regular featured fair man with a large head and a
48:14
Speaker 1: ruddy faced, butcherlike individual smoked a clay pipe by the
48:18
Speaker 1: side of the fireplace. A further individual with an alert,
48:22
Speaker 1: intrusive look, might have been a grocer's assistant, associating above himself.
48:28
Speaker 1: Evening said the captain. Evening said the man with a
48:32
Speaker 1: large hand guardedly. The captain came to the hearth rug
48:36
Speaker 1: with an affectation of ease. I suppose he began that
48:40
Speaker 1: you haven't any of you seen anything of a small
48:42
Speaker 1: boy wandering about. He's a little chap about thirteen, sturdy,
48:47
Speaker 1: resolute little fellow with a high color, short, wiry hair,
48:51
Speaker 1: rather dark. He stopped short, arrested by the excited movements
48:56
Speaker 1: of the butcher's pipe and by the changed expressions of
48:59
Speaker 1: the rest of the company. We we seen him, the
49:02
Speaker 1: man with the big head managed to say. At last,
49:06
Speaker 1: we seen em, all right, said a voice out of
49:08
Speaker 1: the darkness beyond the range of the lamp. The baker,
49:12
Speaker 1: with the melancholy expression interjected, I don't care if I
49:15
Speaker 1: don't ever see him again. Ah, said the captain, astonished
49:20
Speaker 1: to find himself suddenly beyond hoping on a hot fresh scent. Now,
49:25
Speaker 1: all that's very interesting. Where did you see him? Thunderin
49:29
Speaker 1: vicious little varmint, said the butcher. Audacious, mister Benshaw said,
49:34
Speaker 1: the voice from the shadows is after him now with
49:37
Speaker 1: a shotgun loaded up with oats. He'll pepper him if
49:40
Speaker 1: he gets 'em. Bill, will you bet you're at and
49:43
Speaker 1: serve him jolly well right too?
49:46
Speaker 2: I doubt, said the baker.
49:48
Speaker 1: I doubt if I'll ever get my stomach not thoroughly
49:50
Speaker 1: proper again.
49:52
Speaker 2: It's a blow I've had it. Gimme a blow.
49:55
Speaker 1: Oh, mister Urex, could I trouble you for another thimbleful
49:58
Speaker 1: of brandy? Just a simpleful neat it eases the age.
50:05
Speaker 1: End of Chapter five, Part two,