Latest / North and South (version 2) / 037 - Ch 37 - Looking South

Transcript

037 - Ch 37 - Looking South · North and South (version 2)

0:00
Speaker 1: Chapter thirty seven of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell.
0:05
Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Marianne,
0:09
Speaker 1: chapter thirty seven, Looking South, A spade, a rake, a hoe,
0:17
Speaker 1: a pickaxe or a bill, a hook to reap, or
0:22
Speaker 1: a scythe to mow a flail, or what ye will,
0:26
Speaker 1: And here's a ready hand to ply the needful tool,
0:29
Speaker 1: and skilled enough by lessons rough in Labor's rugged school hood.
0:38
Speaker 1: Higgins's door was locked the next day when they went
0:40
Speaker 1: to pay their call on the widow Boucher, but they
0:42
Speaker 1: learnt this time from an officious neighbor that he was
0:45
Speaker 1: really from home. He had, however, been in to see
0:49
Speaker 1: Missus Boucher before starting on his day's business. Whatever that was,
0:54
Speaker 1: it was but an unsatisfactory visit to Missus Boucher. She
0:58
Speaker 1: considered herself an ill used woman by her poor husband's suicide,
1:02
Speaker 1: and there was quite germ of truth enough in this
1:04
Speaker 1: idea to make it a very difficult one to refute. Still,
1:08
Speaker 1: it was unsatisfactory to see how completely her thoughts were
1:11
Speaker 1: turned upon herself and her own position, and this selfishness
1:15
Speaker 1: extended even to her relations with her children, whom she
1:19
Speaker 1: considered as incumbrances, even in the very midst of her
1:22
Speaker 1: somewhat animal affection for them. Margaret tried to make acquaintances
1:26
Speaker 1: with one or two of them, while her father strove
1:28
Speaker 1: to raise the widow's thoughts into some higher channel than
1:31
Speaker 1: that of mere helpless querulousness. She found that the children
1:35
Speaker 1: were truer and simpler mourners than the widow. Daddy had
1:38
Speaker 1: been a kind daddy to them. Each could tell, in
1:41
Speaker 1: their eager, stammering way, of some tenderness shown, some indulgence
1:46
Speaker 1: granted by the lost father. Is yon thing upstairs really him?
1:52
Speaker 1: It does not look like him. I'm feared on it,
1:55
Speaker 1: and I never was feared to Daddy. Margaret's heart bled
1:59
Speaker 1: to hear that the mother, in her selfish requirement of sympathy,
2:03
Speaker 1: had taken her children upstairs to see their disfigured father.
2:06
Speaker 1: It was intermingling the coarseness of horror with the profoundness
2:10
Speaker 1: of natural grief. She tried to turn their thoughts in
2:13
Speaker 1: some other direction on what they could do for her mother,
2:16
Speaker 1: on what for this was a more efficacious way of
2:19
Speaker 1: putting it, what father would have wished them to do.
2:22
Speaker 1: Margaret was more successful than mister Hale in her efforts.
2:26
Speaker 1: The children, seeing their little duties lie in action close
2:29
Speaker 1: around them, began to try, each one to do something
2:32
Speaker 1: that she suggested towards redding up the slatternly room. But
2:36
Speaker 1: her father set too high a standard and too abstract
2:39
Speaker 1: a view before the indolent invalid. She could not rouse
2:43
Speaker 1: her torpid mind into any vivid imagination of what her
2:46
Speaker 1: husband's misery might have been before he had resorted to
2:49
Speaker 1: the last terrible step. She could only look upon it
2:53
Speaker 1: as it affected herself. She could not enter into the
2:56
Speaker 1: enduring mercy of the God who had not specially interposed
3:00
Speaker 1: to prevent the water from drowning her prostrate husband. And
3:03
Speaker 1: although she was scarcely blaming her husband for having fallen
3:06
Speaker 1: into such dread despair, and denying that he had any
3:09
Speaker 1: excuse for his last rash act, she was inveterate in
3:13
Speaker 1: her abuse of all who could, by any possibility be
3:16
Speaker 1: supposed to have driven him to such desperation. The masters,
3:20
Speaker 1: mister Thornton in particular, whose mill had been attacked by Boucher,
3:24
Speaker 1: and who, after the warrant had been issued for his
3:27
Speaker 1: apprehension on the charge of rioting, had caused it to
3:30
Speaker 1: be withdrawn, the union of which Higgins was the representative
3:34
Speaker 1: to the poor woman, the children, so numerous, so hungry,
3:38
Speaker 1: and so noisy, all made up one great army of
3:41
Speaker 1: personal enemies, whose fault it was that she was now
3:45
Speaker 1: a helpless widow. Margaret heard enough of this unreasonableness to
3:49
Speaker 1: dishearten her, and when they came away, she found it
3:52
Speaker 1: impossible to cheer her father. It is the town life,
3:56
Speaker 1: said she. Their nerves are quickened by the haste and
4:00
Speaker 1: bustle and speed of everything around them, to say nothing
4:03
Speaker 1: of the confinement in these pent up houses, each of
4:06
Speaker 1: which itself is enough to induce depression and worry of spirits.
4:11
Speaker 1: Now in the country people live so much more out
4:13
Speaker 1: of doors, even children, and even in the winter. But
4:18
Speaker 1: people must live in towns, and in the country some
4:21
Speaker 1: get such stagnant habits of mind that they are almost fatalists. Yes,
4:27
Speaker 1: I acknowledge that I suppose each mode of life produces
4:30
Speaker 1: its own trials and its own temptations. The dweller in
4:34
Speaker 1: towns must find it as difficult to be patient and
4:37
Speaker 1: calm as the country bred man must find it to
4:40
Speaker 1: be active and equal to unwonted emergencies. Both must find
4:44
Speaker 1: it hard to realize a future of any kind, the
4:47
Speaker 1: one because the present is so living and hurrying and
4:50
Speaker 1: close around him, the other because his life tempts him
4:53
Speaker 1: to revel in the mere sense of animal existence, not
4:57
Speaker 1: knowing of and consequently not caring for any ungency of
5:00
Speaker 1: pleasure for the attainment of which he can plan and
5:03
Speaker 1: deny himself and look forward. And thus both the necessity
5:09
Speaker 1: for engrossment and the stupid content in the present produce
5:13
Speaker 1: the same effects. But this poor missus Boucher, how little
5:17
Speaker 1: we can do for her, And yet we dare not
5:20
Speaker 1: leave her without our efforts, although they may seem so useless.
5:24
Speaker 1: Oh Papa, it's a hard world to live in. So
5:28
Speaker 1: it is, my child, We feel it so just now
5:32
Speaker 1: at any rate. But we have been very happy, even
5:36
Speaker 1: in the midst of our sorrow. What a pleasure Frederick's
5:39
Speaker 1: visit was, Yes, that it was, said Margaret brightly. It
5:45
Speaker 1: was such a charming, snatching, forbidden thing. But she suddenly
5:50
Speaker 1: stopped speaking. She had spoiled the remembrance of Frederick's visit
5:53
Speaker 1: to herself by her own cowardice. Of all faults, the
5:58
Speaker 1: one she most despised in others was the want of bravery,
6:01
Speaker 1: the meanness of heart which leads to untruth, and here
6:05
Speaker 1: had she been guilty of it. Then came the thought
6:08
Speaker 1: of mister Thornton's cognizance of her falsehood. She wondered if
6:12
Speaker 1: she should have minded detection half so much from any
6:14
Speaker 1: one else. She tried herself in imagination with her aunt
6:19
Speaker 1: Shaw and Edith, with her father, with Captain, and mister Lennox,
6:24
Speaker 1: with Frederick. The thought of the last knowing what she
6:27
Speaker 1: had done, even in his own behalf, was the most painful,
6:31
Speaker 1: for the brother and sister were in the first flush
6:33
Speaker 1: of their mutual regard and love. But even any fall
6:37
Speaker 1: in Frederick's opinion was nothing to the shame, the shrinking
6:40
Speaker 1: shame she felt at the thought of meeting mister Thornton again,
6:45
Speaker 1: And yet she longed to see him, to get it over,
6:48
Speaker 1: to understand where she stood in his opinion. Her cheeks
6:52
Speaker 1: burnt as she recollected how proudly she had implied an
6:55
Speaker 1: objection to trade in the early days of their acquaintance,
6:59
Speaker 1: because it too often and led to the deceit of
7:01
Speaker 1: passing off inferior for superior goods. In the one branch,
7:05
Speaker 1: of assuming credit for wealth and resources not possessed in
7:09
Speaker 1: the other. She remembered mister Thornton's look of calm disdain,
7:13
Speaker 1: as in a few words he gave her to understand
7:15
Speaker 1: that in the great scheme of commerce, all dishonorable ways
7:19
Speaker 1: of acting were sure to prove injurious in the long run,
7:23
Speaker 1: and that testing such actions simply according to the poor
7:26
Speaker 1: standard of success, there was folly and not wisdom in
7:29
Speaker 1: all such and every kind of deceit in trade as
7:33
Speaker 1: well as in other things, she remembered. She then, strong
7:38
Speaker 1: in her own untempted truth, asking him if he did
7:42
Speaker 1: not think that buying in the cheapest and selling in
7:44
Speaker 1: the dearest market proved some want of the transparent justice
7:48
Speaker 1: which is so intimately connected with the idea of truth.
7:51
Speaker 1: And she had used the word chivalric, and her father
7:55
Speaker 1: had corrected her with the higher word Christian, and so
7:58
Speaker 1: drawn the argument upon him, while she sat silent by
8:02
Speaker 1: with a slight feeling of contempt. No more contempt for her,
8:07
Speaker 1: No more talk about the chivalric. Henceforth she must feel
8:11
Speaker 1: humiliated and disgraced in his sight. But when would she
8:15
Speaker 1: see him? Her heart leapt up in apprehension at every
8:19
Speaker 1: ring of the door bell, and yet when it fell
8:21
Speaker 1: down to calmness, she felt strangely saddened and sick at
8:24
Speaker 1: heart at each disappointment. It was very evident that her
8:28
Speaker 1: father expected to see him, and was surprised that he
8:31
Speaker 1: did not come. The truth was that there were points
8:34
Speaker 1: in their conversation the other night on which they had
8:36
Speaker 1: no time then to enlarge. But it had been understood
8:40
Speaker 1: that if possible, on the succeeding evening, if not then
8:44
Speaker 1: at least the very first evening that mister Thornton could command,
8:47
Speaker 1: they should meet for further discussion. Mister Hale had looked
8:51
Speaker 1: forward to this meeting ever since they had parted, but
8:54
Speaker 1: he had not yet resumed the instruction to his pupils,
8:56
Speaker 1: which he had relinquished at the commencement of his wife's
8:59
Speaker 1: more serious illness. So he had fewer occupations than usual,
9:03
Speaker 1: and the great interest of the last day or so
9:06
Speaker 1: Boucher's suicide had driven him back with more eagerness than ever.
9:10
Speaker 1: Upon his speculations. He was restless all evening. He kept saying,
9:16
Speaker 1: I quite expected to have seen mister Thornton. I think
9:19
Speaker 1: the messenger who brought the book last night. Must have
9:22
Speaker 1: had some note and forgot to deliver it. Do you
9:25
Speaker 1: think there has been any message left to day? I
9:28
Speaker 1: will go and inquire, Papa, said Margaret, after the changes
9:32
Speaker 1: on these sentences had been rung once or twice. Stay,
9:36
Speaker 1: there's a ring. She sat down instantly and bent her
9:39
Speaker 1: head attentively over her work. She heard a step on
9:42
Speaker 1: the stairs, but it was only one, and she knew
9:45
Speaker 1: it was Dixon's. She lifted up her head and sighed
9:49
Speaker 1: and believed she felt glad it's that Higgins, sir. He
9:54
Speaker 1: wants to see you or else Miss Hale. Or it
9:57
Speaker 1: might be Miss Hale first and then you, sir, For
10:00
Speaker 1: he's in a strange kind of way. He had better
10:03
Speaker 1: come up here, Dixon, and then he can see us
10:05
Speaker 1: both and choose which he likes for his listener. Oh
10:10
Speaker 1: very well, sir, I've no wish to hear what he's
10:13
Speaker 1: got to say. I'm sure. Only if you could see
10:16
Speaker 1: his shoes, I'm sure you'd say the kitchen was the
10:19
Speaker 1: fitter place. He can wipe them, I suppose, said mister Hale.
10:25
Speaker 1: So Dixon flung off to bid him walk up stairs.
10:28
Speaker 1: She was a little mollified. However, when he looked at
10:31
Speaker 1: his feet with a hesitating air, and then sitting down
10:34
Speaker 1: on the bottom stair, he took off the offending shoes
10:37
Speaker 1: and without a word, walked up stairs. Sarvant sir, he said,
10:42
Speaker 1: slicking his hair down when he came into the room.
10:45
Speaker 1: If he'll excuse me, looking at Margaret, for be any
10:49
Speaker 1: my stockings, I's been tramp in a day an streets
10:51
Speaker 1: is none of the cleanest. Margaret thought the fatigue might
10:55
Speaker 1: account for the change in his manner, for he was
10:57
Speaker 1: unusually quiet and subdued, and he had evidently some difficulty
11:01
Speaker 1: in saying what he came to say. Mister Hale's ever
11:05
Speaker 1: ready sympathy with anything of shyness or hesitation or want
11:09
Speaker 1: of self possession made him come to his aid, we
11:12
Speaker 1: shall have tea up directly, and then you'll take a
11:15
Speaker 1: cup with us. Mister Higgins, I am sure you are
11:18
Speaker 1: tired if you've been out much this wet, relaxing day. Margaret,
11:23
Speaker 1: my dear, can't you hasten tea? Margaret could only hasten
11:28
Speaker 1: tea by taking the preparation of it into her own hands,
11:31
Speaker 1: and so offending Dixon, who is emerging out of her
11:34
Speaker 1: sorrow for her late mistress into a very touchy, irritable state.
11:38
Speaker 1: But Martha, like all who came in contact with Margaret,
11:42
Speaker 1: even Dixon herself, in the long run, felt it a
11:44
Speaker 1: pleasure and an honor to forward any of her wishes,
11:48
Speaker 1: and her readiness, and Margaret's sweet forbearance soon made Dixon
11:52
Speaker 1: ashamed of herself. Why Master, and you must always be
11:56
Speaker 1: asking the lower classes upstairs since we came to Milton.
11:59
Speaker 1: I cannot understand folk at Helstone were never brought higher
12:03
Speaker 1: than the kitchen, and I've let one or two of
12:05
Speaker 1: 'em know before now that they might think it an
12:07
Speaker 1: honor to even be there. Higgins found it easier to
12:11
Speaker 1: unburden himself to one than to two. After Margaret left
12:15
Speaker 1: the room, he went to the door and assured himself
12:17
Speaker 1: that it was shut. Then he came and stood close
12:20
Speaker 1: to mister Hale. Master said he you'd not guess easy
12:25
Speaker 1: what I bend to trampon after to day, special, if
12:28
Speaker 1: y'll remember my manner o talk yesterday, I've been a
12:31
Speaker 1: seekin work, I have said he. I said to myself,
12:36
Speaker 1: I'd keep a civil tongue in my head that who
12:38
Speaker 1: would say what em would I'd set my teeth into
12:41
Speaker 1: my tongue sooner, nor speak in haste for that man's sake, Yo, understand,
12:47
Speaker 1: jerking his thumb back in some unknown direction. No, I don't,
12:52
Speaker 1: said mister Hale, seeing he waited for some kind of assent,
12:56
Speaker 1: and completely bewildered as to who that man could be.
13:00
Speaker 1: That chop as lies there, he said, with another jerk,
13:04
Speaker 1: He and miswent and drowned it himself, Poor chap. I
13:07
Speaker 1: did na think he'd got it in him to lie
13:09
Speaker 1: still and let the water creep o'er him till he died. Boucher.
13:14
Speaker 1: You know, yes, I know now, said mister Hale. Go
13:19
Speaker 1: back to what you were saying. You did not speak
13:22
Speaker 1: in haste for his sake, not yet, for his sake,
13:27
Speaker 1: for where he is and what air he'll ne'er know
13:30
Speaker 1: other clemmin Or cold again, But for the wife's sake
13:34
Speaker 1: and the bits of childer God bless you, said mister Hale,
13:38
Speaker 1: starting up, Then calming down, he said, breathlessly, what do
13:43
Speaker 1: you mean? Tell me out I have telled? Yo, said Higgins,
13:48
Speaker 1: a little surprised at mister Hale's agitation. I would nay
13:51
Speaker 1: ask for work for myself, but them's left as a
13:54
Speaker 1: charge on me. I reckon I would ha guided Boucher
13:58
Speaker 1: to a better end, but I set him off for
14:00
Speaker 1: the road, and so I'm an answer for him. Mister
14:04
Speaker 1: Hale got hold of Higgins's hand and shook it heartily
14:07
Speaker 1: without speaking. Higgins looked awkward and ashamed. Dear, dear master,
14:13
Speaker 1: there's nearer a man to call a man amongst us?
14:16
Speaker 1: But what would do the same? Ay am better too,
14:20
Speaker 1: For believe me, I's ne'er got a stroke o work,
14:24
Speaker 1: nor yet a sight of any For all I tell it,
14:27
Speaker 1: Hamper that let alone his pledge which I would not sign. No,
14:31
Speaker 1: I could nay not e'n for this. He'd near hay
14:34
Speaker 1: such a worker on his mill as I would be.
14:37
Speaker 1: He'd ha none o me, nor more would none o
14:40
Speaker 1: the others. I am a poor black, feckless sheep childer
14:44
Speaker 1: may clem for aught I can do unless person, yeo'd
14:48
Speaker 1: help me? Help you? How I would do anything? But
14:54
Speaker 1: what can I do? Missed there, for Margaret had re
14:58
Speaker 1: entered the room and stood silent listening. Has often talked,
15:02
Speaker 1: grand O, the south and the ways down there. Now,
15:06
Speaker 1: I dunnot know how far off it is. But I've
15:09
Speaker 1: been thinkin if I could get em down there, where
15:12
Speaker 1: food is cheap and wage is good, and all the
15:14
Speaker 1: folk rich and poor, master and man friendly like yo
15:20
Speaker 1: could maybe help me to work. I'm not forty five,
15:24
Speaker 1: and I've a deal o strength in me, measter. But
15:27
Speaker 1: what kind of work could you do, my man? Well,
15:32
Speaker 1: I reckon I could spade a bit, and for that,
15:35
Speaker 1: said Margaret, stepping forwards. For anything, you could do Haggins
15:39
Speaker 1: with the best will in the world. You would maybe
15:43
Speaker 1: get nine shillings a week, maybe ten. At the outside.
15:47
Speaker 1: Food is much the same as here, except that you
15:49
Speaker 1: might have a little garden. The childer could work at that,
15:53
Speaker 1: said he. I'm sick o Milton anyways, and Milton is
15:57
Speaker 1: sick o me. You must not go to the south,
16:00
Speaker 1: said Margaret, for all that you could not stand it.
16:05
Speaker 1: You would have to be out all weathers. It would
16:07
Speaker 1: kill you with rheumatism. The mere bodily work at your
16:11
Speaker 1: time of life would break you down. The fair is
16:14
Speaker 1: far different to what you've been accustomed to. It is
16:18
Speaker 1: nought particular about my meat, said he, as if offended.
16:22
Speaker 1: But you've reckoned on having butcher's meat once a day,
16:25
Speaker 1: if you're in work, pay for that out of your
16:28
Speaker 1: ten shillings, and keep those poor children if you can.
16:32
Speaker 1: I owe it to you, since it's my way of
16:34
Speaker 1: talking that has set you off on this idea. To
16:37
Speaker 1: put it all clear before you, you would not bear
16:40
Speaker 1: the dullness of the life. You don't know what it is.
16:44
Speaker 1: It would eat you away like a rust. Those that
16:47
Speaker 1: have lived there all their lives are used to soaking
16:49
Speaker 1: in the stagnant waters. They labor on from day to
16:53
Speaker 1: day in the great solitude of steaming fields, never speaking
16:57
Speaker 1: or lifting up their poor, bent downcap heads. The hard
17:02
Speaker 1: spade work robs their brain of life. The sameness of
17:05
Speaker 1: their toil deadens their imagination. They don't care to meet
17:09
Speaker 1: to talk over thoughts and speculations, even of the weakest,
17:13
Speaker 1: wildest kind. After their work is done, they go home,
17:17
Speaker 1: brutishly tired, poor creatures, caring for nothing but food and rest.
17:23
Speaker 1: You could not stir them up into any companionship which
17:26
Speaker 1: you get in a town as plentiful as the air
17:28
Speaker 1: you breathe, whether it be good or bad, and that
17:31
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I do know that of all men,
17:35
Speaker 1: you are not one to bear life among such laborers.
17:39
Speaker 1: What would be peace to them would be eternal fretting
17:41
Speaker 1: to you. Think no more of it, Nicholas, I beg. Besides,
17:47
Speaker 1: you could never pay to get mother and children all there.
17:50
Speaker 1: That's one good thing I've reckoned for that one house
17:54
Speaker 1: mun do for esay, and the furniture oath. Other would
17:58
Speaker 1: go a good way. And men there mun have their
18:01
Speaker 1: families to keep mappen. Six or seven childer, God help em,
18:05
Speaker 1: said he more convinced by his own presentation of the
18:08
Speaker 1: facts than by all Margaret had said, and suddenly renouncing
18:12
Speaker 1: the idea which had but recently formed itself in a
18:15
Speaker 1: brain worn out by the day's fatigue and anxiety. God
18:19
Speaker 1: help em. North in South have each getten their own
18:22
Speaker 1: troubles if works sure and steady, There labors paid its
18:26
Speaker 1: starvation praises, while here we're in rocks of money coming
18:29
Speaker 1: in one quarter and nearer far than the next. For sure,
18:34
Speaker 1: the world is in a confusion that passes me or
18:36
Speaker 1: any other man to understand. It needs fetlin And who's
18:40
Speaker 1: to fettle it? If it's as yon folks say? And
18:43
Speaker 1: there's nought but what we see. Mister Hale was busy
18:47
Speaker 1: cutting bread and butter. Margaret was glad of this, for
18:50
Speaker 1: she saw that Higgins was better left to himself, that
18:54
Speaker 1: if her father began to speak, ever so mildly on
18:56
Speaker 1: the subject of Higgins's thoughts, the latter would consider himself
19:00
Speaker 1: challenged to an argument, and would feel himself bound to
19:03
Speaker 1: maintain his own ground. She and her father kept up
19:06
Speaker 1: an indifferent conversation until Higgins, scarcely aware whether he ate
19:11
Speaker 1: or not, had made a very substantial meal. Then he
19:14
Speaker 1: put his chair away from the table and tried to
19:16
Speaker 1: take an interest in what they were saying, but it
19:19
Speaker 1: was of no use, and he fell back into a
19:22
Speaker 1: dreamy gloom. Suddenly, Margaret said she had been thinking of
19:27
Speaker 1: it for some time, but the words had stuck in
19:29
Speaker 1: her throat. Higgins, have you been to Marlborough Mills to
19:33
Speaker 1: seek for work Thornton's, asked he Aye, I've been at Thornton's.
19:40
Speaker 1: And what did he say? Such a chap as me
19:43
Speaker 1: is not like to see the master the oar looker
19:46
Speaker 1: bid me go, and be damned. I wish you had
19:50
Speaker 1: seen mister Thornton, said, mister Hale. He might not have
19:53
Speaker 1: given you work, but he would not have used such
19:56
Speaker 1: language as to the language I'm willy used to it.
20:00
Speaker 1: Dunnot matter to me. I'm not nesh myself when I'm
20:04
Speaker 1: put out. It were the fact that I were nay
20:06
Speaker 1: wanted there no more, nor any other place as I minded.
20:11
Speaker 1: But I wish you had seen, mister Thornton replied Margaret.
20:15
Speaker 1: Would you go again? It's a good deal to ask,
20:18
Speaker 1: I know, but would you go to morrow and try him?
20:22
Speaker 1: I should be so glad if you would. I'm afraid
20:25
Speaker 1: it would be of no use, said mister Hale in
20:28
Speaker 1: a low voice. It would be better to let me
20:30
Speaker 1: speak to him. Margaret still looked at Higgins for his answer.
20:35
Speaker 1: Those grave, soft eyes of hers were difficult to resist.
20:39
Speaker 1: He gave a great sigh. It would tax my pride
20:43
Speaker 1: above a bit if it were for myself. I could
20:46
Speaker 1: stand a deal o clemmin. First, I'd sooner knock him
20:49
Speaker 1: down than ask a favor from him. I'd a deal
20:52
Speaker 1: sooner be flogged myself. But yo're not a common wench
20:56
Speaker 1: axing your pardon, nor yet have yo common ways about yo.
21:01
Speaker 1: I'll e make a wry face and go at it
21:03
Speaker 1: to morrow. Dunno yo think that he'll do it. That
21:07
Speaker 1: man has it in him to be burnt at the
21:08
Speaker 1: stake afore he'll give in. I do it for your sake,
21:12
Speaker 1: Miss Hale. And it's the first time in my life
21:15
Speaker 1: as e'er I give way to a woman. Neither my
21:18
Speaker 1: wife nor best. Could e'er say that much again me
21:22
Speaker 1: all the more do I thank you, said Margaret, smiling,
21:25
Speaker 1: though I don't believe you. I believe you've just given
21:28
Speaker 1: way to wife and daughter as much as most men.
21:32
Speaker 1: And as to mister Thornton, said mister Hale, I'll give
21:35
Speaker 1: you a note to him, which I think I may
21:38
Speaker 1: venture to say will insure you a hearing. I thank
21:42
Speaker 1: yo kindly, sir, But i'd as leaf stand on my
21:45
Speaker 1: own bottom. I dunne it's stomach the notion of having
21:48
Speaker 1: favor curried for me by one who doesn't know the
21:52
Speaker 1: ins and outs o the quarrel. Meddling TwixT master and
21:55
Speaker 1: man is like meddling TwixT husband and wife than aughtels.
21:59
Speaker 1: It takes a a wisdom for to do on a
22:01
Speaker 1: good I'll stand guard at the lodge door. I'll stand
22:05
Speaker 1: there for six in the morning till I get speech
22:07
Speaker 1: on him. But i'd liefer sweep the streets if paupers
22:11
Speaker 1: had nay got hold on that work, then are yo?
22:14
Speaker 1: Hope miss there'll be more chance to get him milk
22:17
Speaker 1: out of a flint. I wish a very good night
22:20
Speaker 1: and many thanks to yo. You'll find your shoes by
22:24
Speaker 1: the kitchen fire. I took them there to dry, said Margaret.
22:28
Speaker 1: He turned round and looked at her steadily, and then
22:31
Speaker 1: he brushed his lean hand across his eyes and went away.
22:35
Speaker 1: How proud that man is, said her father, who was
22:38
Speaker 1: a little annoyed at the manner in which Higgins had
22:41
Speaker 1: declined his intercession with mister Thornton. He is, said Margaret.
22:46
Speaker 1: But what grand makings of a man there are in him,
22:49
Speaker 1: pride and all. It's amusing to see how he evidently
22:53
Speaker 1: respects the part in mister Thornton's character, which is like
22:56
Speaker 1: his own. There's granite in all these northern people, Papa,
23:01
Speaker 1: is there not? There was none in poor Boucher. I'm
23:05
Speaker 1: afraid none in his wife either. I should guess from
23:09
Speaker 1: their tones that they had Irish blood in them. I
23:12
Speaker 1: wonder what success he'll have tomorrow if he and mister
23:15
Speaker 1: Thornton speak out together as man to man. If Higgins
23:19
Speaker 1: would forget that mister Thornton was a master, and speak
23:22
Speaker 1: to him as he does to us. And if mister
23:24
Speaker 1: Thornton would be patient enough to listen to him with
23:27
Speaker 1: his human heart, not with his master's ears, you are
23:31
Speaker 1: getting to do mister Thornton justice at last, Margaret said
23:35
Speaker 1: her father, pinching her ear. Margaret had a strange choking
23:39
Speaker 1: in her heart, which made her unable to answer. Oh,
23:43
Speaker 1: thought she I wish I were a man, that I
23:46
Speaker 1: could go and force him to express his disapprobation and
23:50
Speaker 1: tell him honestly that I knew I deserved it. It
23:53
Speaker 1: seems hard to lose him as a friend, just when
23:56
Speaker 1: I had begun to feel his value, how tender he
23:59
Speaker 1: was with dear Mamma. If it were only for her sake,
24:03
Speaker 1: I wish he would come, and then at least I
24:05
Speaker 1: should know how much I was abased in his eyes.
24:10
Speaker 1: End of Chapter thirty seven