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Tono-Bungay Book 3 Chapter 3 - Parts 1-3 · The H. G. Wells Library

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Speaker 1: Book, third Chapter, third Parts one to three of Tono Bungay.
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Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot Org. Recording by William Tomko Tono Bungay
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Speaker 1: by H. G. Wells, Book, third Chapter, third parts one
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Speaker 1: to three, chapter the third Soaring One. For nearly all
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Speaker 1: the time that my uncle was incubating and hatching Crest Hill,
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Speaker 1: I was busy in a little transverse valley between the
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Speaker 1: Great Beginning and Lady Grove, with more and more costly
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Speaker 1: and ambitious experiments in aerial navigation. This work was indeed
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Speaker 1: the main substance of my life through all the great
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Speaker 1: time of the Tono Bungay Symphony. I have told already
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Speaker 1: how I came to devote myself to the system of inquiries,
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Speaker 1: how in a sort of disgust with the common adventure
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Speaker 1: of life, I took up the dropped ends of my
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Speaker 1: college studies, taking them up again with a man's resolution
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Speaker 1: instead of a boy's ambition. From the first I did
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Speaker 1: well at this work. It was, I think, largely a
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Speaker 1: case of special aptitude of a peculiar irrelevant vein of
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Speaker 1: faculty running through my mind. It is one of those
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Speaker 1: things men seem to have by chance, that has little
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Speaker 1: or nothing to do with their general merit, and which
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Speaker 1: it is ridiculous to be either conceited or modest about.
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Speaker 1: I did get through a very big, massive work in
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Speaker 1: those years, working for a time with a concentrated fierceness
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Speaker 1: that left little of such energy or capacity as I
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Speaker 1: possess unused. I worked out a series of problems connected
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Speaker 1: with the stability of bodies pitching in the air and
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Speaker 1: the internal movements of the wind. And I also revolutionized
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Speaker 1: one leading part at last, of the theory of explosive engine.
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Speaker 1: These things are to be found in the Philosophical Transactions,
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Speaker 1: the Mathematical Journal, the less frequently in one or two
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Speaker 1: other such publications, and they needed detain us here. Indeed,
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Speaker 1: I doubt if I could write about them. Here one
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Speaker 1: acquires a sort of shorthand for one's notes and mind
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Speaker 1: in relation to such special work. I have never taught
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Speaker 1: nor lectured, that is to say, I have never had
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Speaker 1: to express my thoughts about mechanical things in ordinary everyday language,
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Speaker 1: and I doubt very much if I could do so now.
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Speaker 1: Without extreme tedium. My work was to begin with very
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Speaker 1: largely theoretical. I was able to attack such early necessities
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Speaker 1: of verification as arose with quite little models, using a
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Speaker 1: turntable to get the motion through the air, and cane,
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Speaker 1: whalebone and silk as building material. But a time came
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Speaker 1: when incalculable factors crept in, factors of human capacity and
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Speaker 1: factors of insufficient experimental knowledge, when one must needs guess
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Speaker 1: and try. Then I had to enlarge the scale of
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Speaker 1: my operations, and soon I had enlarged them very greatly.
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Speaker 1: I set to work almost concurrently on the balance and
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Speaker 1: stability of gliders and upon the steering of inflated bags,
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Speaker 1: the latter a particularly expensive branch of work. I was
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Speaker 1: no doubt moved by something of the same spirit of
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Speaker 1: lavish expenditure that was running away with my uncle in
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Speaker 1: these developments. Presently my establishment above Lady Grove had grown
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Speaker 1: to a painted wood chalet big enough to accommodate six men,
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Speaker 1: and in which I would sometimes live for three weeks together,
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Speaker 1: to a gasometer, to a motor house, to three big
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Speaker 1: corrugated roofed sheds and lock up houses, to a stage
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Speaker 1: from which to start gliders to a workshop, and so
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Speaker 1: forth a rough road was made. We brought up gas
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Speaker 1: from Cheaping and electricity from Woking, which place I found
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Speaker 1: also afforded a friendly workshop for larger operations than I
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Speaker 1: could manage. I had the luck also to find a
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Speaker 1: man who seemed my heaven sent second in command, Cauthape.
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Speaker 1: His name was. He was a self educated man, he
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Speaker 1: had formerly been a sapper, and he was one of
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Speaker 1: the best and handiest working engineers alive. Without him, I
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Speaker 1: do not think I could have achieved half what I
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Speaker 1: have done. At times. He has been not so much
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Speaker 1: my assistant as my collaborator, and thus followed my fortunes
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Speaker 1: to this day. Other men came and went as I
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Speaker 1: needed them. I do not know how far it is
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Speaker 1: possible to convey to any one who has not experienced it,
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Speaker 1: the peculiar interest, the peculiar satisfaction that lies in a
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Speaker 1: sustained research when one is not hampered by want of money.
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Speaker 1: It is a different thing from any other sort of
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Speaker 1: human effort. You are free from the exasperating conflict with
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Speaker 1: your fellow creatures altogether, least so far as the essential
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Speaker 1: work goes. That for me is its peculiar merit. Scientific
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Speaker 1: truth is the remotest of mistresses. She hides in strange places.
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Speaker 1: She is attained by tortuous and laborious roads, but she
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Speaker 1: is always there when to her, and she will not
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Speaker 1: fail you. She is yours and mankind's forever. She is reality,
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Speaker 1: the one reality I have found in the strange disorder
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Speaker 1: of existence. She will not sulk with you, nor misunderstand you,
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Speaker 1: nor cheat you of your reward upon some petty doubt.
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Speaker 1: You cannot change her by advertisement or clamor nor stifle
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Speaker 1: her in vulgarities. Things grow under your hands when you
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Speaker 1: serve her, things that are permanent, as nothing else is
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Speaker 1: permanent in the whole life of man. That I think
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Speaker 1: is a peculiar satisfaction of science and its enduring reward.
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Speaker 1: The taking up of experimental work produced a great change
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Speaker 1: in my personal habit. I have told how already once
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Speaker 1: in my life at Wimblehurst I had a period of
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Speaker 1: discipline and continuous effort, And how when I came to
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Speaker 1: South Kensington I became demoralized by the immense effect of London,
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Speaker 1: by its innumerable imperative demands upon my attention and curiosity,
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Speaker 1: and I parted with much of my personal pride when
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Speaker 1: I gave up science for the development of Tono Bungay.
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Speaker 1: But my poverty kept me abstinate, and my youthful romanticism
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Speaker 1: kept me chaste until my married life was well under way.
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Speaker 1: Then in all directions I relaxed. I did a large
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Speaker 1: amount of work, but I never troubled to think whether
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Speaker 1: it was my maximum, nor whether the moods and indolences
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Speaker 1: that came to me at times were avoidable things. With
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Speaker 1: the coming of plenty, I ate abundantly and foolishly, drank freely,
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Speaker 1: and followed my impulses more and more carelessly. I felt
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Speaker 1: no reason why I should do anything else. Ever, at
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Speaker 1: any point that I used myself to the edge of
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Speaker 1: my capacity, the emotional crisis of my divorce did not
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Speaker 1: produce any immediate change in these matters of personal discipline.
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Speaker 1: I found some difficulty at first in concentrating my mind
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Speaker 1: upon scientific work. It was so much more exacting than business.
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Speaker 1: But I got over that difficulty by smoking. I became
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Speaker 1: an inordinate cigar smoker. It gave me moods of profound depression,
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Speaker 1: but I treated, as usually by the homeopathic method, by
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Speaker 1: lighting another cigar. I didn't realize at all how loose
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Speaker 1: my moral and nervous fiber had become until I reached
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Speaker 1: the practical side of my investigations and was face to
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Speaker 1: face with the necessity of finding out just how it
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Speaker 1: felt to use a glider and just what a man
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Speaker 1: could do with one. I got into this relaxed habit
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Speaker 1: of living in spite of very real tendencies in my
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Speaker 1: nature towards discipline. I've never been in love with self indulgence.
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Speaker 1: That philosophy of the loose life and the lax paunch
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Speaker 1: is one for which I've always had an instinctive distrust.
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Speaker 1: I like bare things, stripped things plain, austere and continent things,
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Speaker 1: fine lines and cold colors. But in these plethoric times,
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Speaker 1: when there is too much coarse stuff for everybody, and
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Speaker 1: the struggle for life takes the form of competitive advertisement
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Speaker 1: and the effort to fill your neighbor's eye. When there
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Speaker 1: is no urgent demand either for personal courage, sound nerves,
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Speaker 1: or stark beauty, we find ourselves by accident. Always before
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Speaker 1: these times, the bulk of the people did not overeat
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Speaker 1: themselves because they couldn't, whether they wanted to do so
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Speaker 1: or not, And all but a very few were kept
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Speaker 1: fit by unavoidable exercise and personal danger. Now, if only
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Speaker 1: he pitches standard low enough and keep free from pride,
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Speaker 1: almost anyone can achieve a sort of excess. You can
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Speaker 1: go through contemporary life fudging and evading, and melging and slacking,
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Speaker 1: never really hungry, nor frightened, nor passionately stirred. Your highest
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Speaker 1: moment a mere sentimental orgasm, and your first real contact
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Speaker 1: with primary and elemental necessities the sweat of your death bed.
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Speaker 1: So I think it was with my uncle, so very
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Speaker 1: nearly it was with me, But the glider brought me
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Speaker 1: up smartly. I had to find out how these things
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Speaker 1: went down the air, and the only way to find
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Speaker 1: out is to go down with one. And for a
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Speaker 1: time I wouldn't face it. There is something impersonal about
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Speaker 1: a book. I suppose, at any rate I find myself
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Speaker 1: able to write down here, just the confession I've never
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Speaker 1: been able to make to any one, face to face,
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Speaker 1: the frightful trouble. It was to me to bring myself
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Speaker 1: to do what I suppose every other colored boy in
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Speaker 1: the West Indies could do without turning a hair, and
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Speaker 1: that is to fling myself off from my first sore
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Speaker 1: down the wind. The first trial was bound to be
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Speaker 1: the worst. It was an a experiment I made with life,
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Speaker 1: and the chance of death or injury was I supposed
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Speaker 1: about equal to the chance of success. I believed that,
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Speaker 1: with a dawn like lucidity, I had begun with a
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Speaker 1: glider that I imagined was on the lines of the
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Speaker 1: right brother's aeroplane. But I could not be sure. It
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Speaker 1: might turn over. I might upset it. It might burrow
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Speaker 1: its nose at the end and smash itself and me.
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Speaker 1: The conditions of the flight necessitated alert attention. It wasn't
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Speaker 1: a thing to be done by jumping off and shutting
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Speaker 1: one's eyes, or getting angry or drunk. To do it,
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Speaker 1: one had to use one's weight to balance, and when
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Speaker 1: at last I did, it was horrible. For ten seconds.
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Speaker 1: For ten seconds or so, as I swept down the
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Speaker 1: air flattened on my infernal framework, and with the wind
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Speaker 1: in my eyes, the rush of the ground beneath me
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Speaker 1: filled me with sick and helpless terror. I felt as
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Speaker 1: though some violent oscillatory current was throbbing in brain and backbone,
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Speaker 1: and I groaned aloud. I set my teeth and groaned.
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Speaker 1: It was a groan wrung out of me in spite
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Speaker 1: of myself. My sensations of terror swooped to a climax,
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Speaker 1: and then you know, they ended. Suddenly my terror was
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Speaker 1: over and done with. I was soaring through the air
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Speaker 1: right way up, steadily, and no mischance had happened. I
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Speaker 1: felt intensely alive, and my nerves were strung like a bow.
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Speaker 1: I shifted a limb, swerved and shouted between fear and triumph.
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Speaker 1: As I recovered from the swerve and heeled the other
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Speaker 1: way and steadied myself, I thought I was going to
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Speaker 1: hit a rook that was flying athwart me. It was
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Speaker 1: queer with what projectile silence that jumped upon me out
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Speaker 1: of nothingness, and I yelled helplessly get out of the way.
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Speaker 1: The bird doubled itself up like a partly inverted V, flapped,
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Speaker 1: went up to the right abruptly, and vanished from my
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Speaker 1: circle of interest. Then I saw the shadow of my aeroplane,
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Speaker 1: keeping a fixed distance before me and very steady, and
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Speaker 1: the turf as it seemed, streaming out behind it. The
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Speaker 1: turf it wasn't, after all, streaming so impossibly fast. When
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Speaker 1: I came gliding down to the safe spread of level
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Speaker 1: green I had chosen. I was as cool and ready
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Speaker 1: as a city clerk who drops off an omnibus in motion,
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Speaker 1: and I learned much more than soaring. I tilted up
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Speaker 1: her nose at the right moment, leveled again, and grounded
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Speaker 1: like a snowflake on a windless day. I leave flat
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Speaker 1: for an instant, and then knelt up and got on
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Speaker 1: my feet. A tremble, but very satisfied with myself. Coothope
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Speaker 1: was running down the hill to me. But from that
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Speaker 1: day I went into training, and I kept myself in
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Speaker 1: training for many months. I had delayed my experiments for
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Speaker 1: very nearly six weeks on various excuses, because of my
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Speaker 1: dread of this first flight, because of the slackness of
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Speaker 1: body and spirit that had come to me with the
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Speaker 1: business life. The shame of that cowardice spurred me none
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Speaker 1: the less because it was probably altogether my own secret.
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Speaker 1: I felt that Kothope at any rate, might suspect, well,
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Speaker 1: he shouldn't suspect again. It is curious that I remembered
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Speaker 1: that shame and self accusation and its consequences far more
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Speaker 1: distinctly than I recalled the weeks of vacillation before I
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Speaker 1: soared for a time, I went altogether without alcohol. I
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Speaker 1: stopped smoking altogether, and ate very sparingly, And every day
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Speaker 1: I did something that called a little upon my nerves
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Speaker 1: and muscles. I soared as frequently as I could. I
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Speaker 1: substituted a motor bicycle for the London train, and took
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Speaker 1: my chances in the southward traffic. And I even tried
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Speaker 1: what thrills were to be got upon a horse, but
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Speaker 1: they put me on made horses, and I conceived a
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Speaker 1: perhaps unworthy contempt for the certitudes of equestrian exercise in
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Speaker 1: comparison with adventures of mechanism. Also, I walked along the
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Speaker 1: high wall at the back of Lady Grove Garden, and
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Speaker 1: at last brought myself to stride the gap where the
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Speaker 1: gate comes. If I didn't altogether get rid of a
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Speaker 1: certain giddy instinct by such exercises, at least I trained
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Speaker 1: my will until it didn't matter. And soon I no
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Speaker 1: longer dreaded flight, but was eager to go higher into
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Speaker 1: the air. And I came to esteam soaring upon a
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Speaker 1: glider that, even over the deepest dip in the ground,
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Speaker 1: had barely forty feet a fall beneath it. A mere
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Speaker 1: mockery of what flight might be. I began to dream
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Speaker 1: of the keener freshness in the air high above the
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Speaker 1: beech woods. And it was rather to satisfy that desire
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Speaker 1: than as any legitimate development of my proper work, that
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Speaker 1: presently I turned a part of my energies and the
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Speaker 1: bulk of my private income to the problem of the
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Speaker 1: navigable balloon. Two. I had gone far beyond that initial stage.
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Speaker 1: I had had two smashes and a broken rib, which
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Speaker 1: my aunt nursed with great energy, and was getting some
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Speaker 1: reputation in the aeronautic world, when suddenly, as though she
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Speaker 1: had never really left it, the Honorable Beatrice Normandy, dark
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Speaker 1: eyed and with the old disorderly wave of the hair
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Speaker 1: from her brow, came back into my life. She came
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Speaker 1: riding down a grass path in the thickets below Lady
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Speaker 1: Grove perched on a huge black horse, and the old
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Speaker 1: Earl of Carnaby and Archie Garvell, her half brother, were
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Speaker 1: with her. My uncle had been bothering me about the
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Speaker 1: Crest Hill hot water pipes, and we were returning by
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Speaker 1: a path transverse to theirs, and came out upon them.
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Speaker 1: Suddenly Old Carnaby was trespassing on our ground, and so
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Speaker 1: he hailed us in a friendly fashion, and pulled up
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Speaker 1: to talk to us. I didn't note Beatrice at all.
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Speaker 1: At first. I was interested in Lord Carnaby, that remarkable
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Speaker 1: vestige of his own, brilliant youth. I had heard of him,
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Speaker 1: but never seen him for a man of sixty five
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Speaker 1: who had sinned all the sins, so they said, and
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Speaker 1: laid waste the most magnificent political debut of any man
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Speaker 1: of his generation. He seemed to me to be looking
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Speaker 1: remarkably fit and fresh. He was a lean little man,
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Speaker 1: with gray blue eyes in his brown face, and his
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Speaker 1: cracked voice was the worst thing in his effect. Hope
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Speaker 1: you don't mind us coming this way, ponderevo, he cried,
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Speaker 1: And my uncle, who was sometimes a little too general
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Speaker 1: and generous with titles, answered, not at all, my lord,
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Speaker 1: not at all. Glad you make use of it. You're
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Speaker 1: building a great place over the hill, said Carnaby. Thought
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Speaker 1: i'd make a show for once, said my uncle. It
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Speaker 1: looks big because it spread out for the sun, air
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Speaker 1: and sunlight, said the Earl. You can't have too much
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Speaker 1: of them. But before our time they used to build
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Speaker 1: for shelter and water and the high road. Then I
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Speaker 1: discovered that the silent figure behind the Earl was Beatrice.
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Speaker 1: I'd forgotten her sufficiently to think for a moment that
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Speaker 1: she hadn't changed at all since she had watched me
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Speaker 1: from behind the skirts of Lady Drew. She was looking
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Speaker 1: at me, and her dainty brow under her broad brimmed hat.
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Speaker 1: She was wearing a gray hat and loose, unbuttoned coat,
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Speaker 1: was knit with perplexity trying, I suppose to remember where
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Speaker 1: she had seen me before her shaded eyes met mine
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Speaker 1: with that mute question. It seemed incredible to me she
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Speaker 1: didn't remember, well, said the Earl, and touched his horse.
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Speaker 1: Garville was patting the neck of his horse, which was
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Speaker 1: inclined to fidget, and disregarded me. He nodded over his
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Speaker 1: shoulder and followed his movement seemed to release a train
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Speaker 1: of memories in her. She glanced suddenly at him, and
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Speaker 1: then back at me, with a flash of recognition that
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Speaker 1: warmed instantly to a faint smile. She hesitated as if
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Speaker 1: to speak to me, smiled broadly and understand, and turned
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Speaker 1: to follow the others. All three broke into a canter,
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Speaker 1: and she did not look back. I stood for a
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Speaker 1: second or so at the crossing of the lanes, watching
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Speaker 1: her recede, and then became aware that my uncle was
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Speaker 1: already some paces off and talking over his shoulder. In
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Speaker 1: the belief that I was close behind, I turned about
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Speaker 1: and strode to overtake him. My mind was full of
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Speaker 1: Beatrice and this surprise. I remembered her simply as a normandy.
18:28
Speaker 1: I'd clean forgotten that Garvelle was the son and she
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Speaker 1: the step daughter of our neighbor, Lady Osbury. Indeed, I'd
18:36
Speaker 1: probably forgotten at that time that we had Lady Ousbury
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Speaker 1: as a neighbor. There was no reason at all for
18:43
Speaker 1: remembering it. It was amazing to find her in this
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Speaker 1: Surrey countryside, when I'd never thought of her as living
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Speaker 1: anywhere in the world, but at Bladesover Park, near forty
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Speaker 1: miles and twenty years away. She was so alive, so unchanged.
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Speaker 1: The same quick warm blood was in her cheeks. It
19:02
Speaker 1: seemed only yesterday that we kissed among the brackened stems.
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Speaker 1: Eh I said, I say, he's good stuff, said my uncle.
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Speaker 1: You can say what you like against the aristocracy. George,
19:15
Speaker 1: Lord Carnoby's rattling good stuff. There's a sort of savoir
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Speaker 1: faire something. It's an old fashioned phrase, George, but a
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Speaker 1: good one. There's a bong tong. It's like the Oxford turf, George.
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Speaker 1: You can't grow it in a year. I wonder how
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Speaker 1: they do it. It's living always on a scale, George.
19:35
Speaker 1: It's being there from the beginning, she might, I said
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Speaker 1: to myself, be a picture by Romney, Come alive. They
19:44
Speaker 1: tell all these stories about him, said my uncle. But
19:47
Speaker 1: what do they all amount to? Gods? I said to myself,
19:52
Speaker 1: But why have I forgotten for so long? Those queer
19:55
Speaker 1: little brows of hers, the touch of mischief in her eyes,
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Speaker 1: the way she breaks into a smile. I don't blame him,
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Speaker 1: said my uncle. Mostly its imagination, that and leisure, George.
20:09
Speaker 1: When I was a young man, I was kept pretty busy,
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Speaker 1: So were you even then. What puzzled me more particularly
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Speaker 1: was the queer trick of my memory that had never
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Speaker 1: recalled anything vital of Beatrice whatever. When I met Garville again,
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Speaker 1: that had indeed recalled nothing except a boyish antagonism and
20:29
Speaker 1: our fight. Now, when my senses were full of her,
20:33
Speaker 1: it seemed incredible that I could ever have forgotten three
20:39
Speaker 1: oh Cricke said my aunt, reading a letter behind her
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Speaker 1: coffee machine. Here's a young woman, George. We were breakfasting
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Speaker 1: together in the big window bay at Lady Grove that
20:49
Speaker 1: looks upon the iris beds. My uncle was in London.
20:54
Speaker 1: I sounded an interrogative note and decapitated an egg whose Beatrice.
20:59
Speaker 1: Norman asked my aunt, I've not heard of her before.
21:04
Speaker 1: She the young woman yes, says she knows you. I'm
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Speaker 1: no hand at old etiquette, George, but her line is
21:11
Speaker 1: a bit unusual. Practically. She says she's going to make
21:15
Speaker 1: her mother a stepmother, isn't it. You seem to know
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Speaker 1: a lot about her, she says, mother Lady Osbury. They're
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Speaker 1: to call on me anyhow next Wednesday week at four,
21:29
Speaker 1: and there's got to be you for tea ay, you
21:34
Speaker 1: for tea hum. She had rather force of character when
21:39
Speaker 1: I knew her before. I became aware of my aunt's
21:42
Speaker 1: head sticking out obliquely from behind the coffee machine and
21:46
Speaker 1: regarding me with wide blue curiosity. I met her gaze
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Speaker 1: for a moment, flinched, colored and laughed. I've known her
21:55
Speaker 1: longer than I've known you, I said, and explained at length.
21:59
Speaker 1: My aunt kept her eye on me over and round
22:02
Speaker 1: the coffee machine. As I did so. She was greatly
22:05
Speaker 1: interested and asked several elucidatory questions. Why didn't you tell
22:10
Speaker 1: me the day you saw her? You've had her on
22:13
Speaker 1: your mind for a week, she said, It is odd
22:17
Speaker 1: I didn't tell you. I admitted you thought I'd get
22:20
Speaker 1: a down on her, said my aunt conclusively, that's what
22:24
Speaker 1: you thought, and opened the rest of her letters. The
22:28
Speaker 1: two ladies came in a pony carriage with conspicuous punctuality,
22:33
Speaker 1: and I had the unusual experience of seeing my aunt
22:36
Speaker 1: entertaining callers. We had tea upon the terrace under the cedar,
22:40
Speaker 1: but old Lady Osbury, being an embittered Protestant, had never
22:44
Speaker 1: before seen the inside of the house, and we made
22:47
Speaker 1: a sort of tour of inspection that reminded me of
22:50
Speaker 1: my first visit to the place. In spite of my
22:53
Speaker 1: preoccupation with Beatrice, I stored a queer little memory of
22:57
Speaker 1: the contrast between the two other women. My aunt, tall,
23:01
Speaker 1: slender and awkward in a simple blue home keeping dress,
23:05
Speaker 1: an omnivorous reader and a very authentic wit, and the
23:10
Speaker 1: lady of Pedigree, short and plump, dressed with Victorian fussiness,
23:14
Speaker 1: living at the intellectual level of palmistry and genteel fiction,
23:19
Speaker 1: pink in the face, and generally flustered by a sense
23:22
Speaker 1: of my aunt's social strangeness, and disposed under the circumstances
23:27
Speaker 1: to behave rather like an imitation of the more queenly
23:30
Speaker 1: moments of her own cook. The one seemed made of whalebone,
23:35
Speaker 1: the other of doe. My aunt was nervous, partly through
23:38
Speaker 1: the intrinsic difficulty of handling the lady, and partly because
23:42
Speaker 1: of her passionate desire to watch Beatrice and me, and
23:45
Speaker 1: her nervousness took a common form with her a wider
23:49
Speaker 1: clumsiness of gesture and an exacerbation of her habitual oddity
23:53
Speaker 1: of phrase, which did much to deepen the pink perplexity
23:56
Speaker 1: of the lady of title. For instance, I heard my
23:59
Speaker 1: an aunt admit that one of the Stuart Durgan ladies
24:02
Speaker 1: did look a bit balmy on the crumpet. She described
24:05
Speaker 1: the knights of the Age of Chivalry as corvorting about
24:08
Speaker 1: on the off chance of a dragon. She explained she
24:12
Speaker 1: was always old mucking about the garden, and instead of
24:16
Speaker 1: offering me a Garabaldi biscuit. She asked me, with that
24:19
Speaker 1: faint lisp of hers, to have some squashed flies. George,
24:25
Speaker 1: I felt convinced Lady Osprey would describe her as a
24:28
Speaker 1: most eccentric person on the very first opportunity a most
24:33
Speaker 1: eccentric person. One could see her, as people say, shaping
24:37
Speaker 1: for that. Beatrice was dressed very quietly and brown, with
24:42
Speaker 1: a simple but courageous, broad brimmed hat and an unexpected
24:46
Speaker 1: quality of being grown up and responsible. She guided her
24:50
Speaker 1: step mother through the first encounter, scrutinized my aunt, and
24:54
Speaker 1: got us all well in movement through the house, and
24:57
Speaker 1: then she turned her attention to me with a quick
25:00
Speaker 1: and half confident smile. We haven't met, she said, since
25:05
Speaker 1: it was in the warren. Of course, she said, in
25:09
Speaker 1: the warren, I remembered it all, except just the name.
25:13
Speaker 1: I was eight. Her smiling eyes insisted on my memories
25:17
Speaker 1: being thorough. I looked up and met them squarely, a
25:21
Speaker 1: little at a loss for what I should say. I
25:24
Speaker 1: gave you away pretty completely, she said, meditating upon my face.
25:29
Speaker 1: And afterwards I gave way Archie. She turned her face
25:33
Speaker 1: away from the others, and her voice fell ever so little.
25:37
Speaker 1: They gave me a licking for telling lies, she said,
25:40
Speaker 1: as though that was a pleasant memory. And when it
25:43
Speaker 1: was all over, I went to our wigwam you remember
25:47
Speaker 1: the wigwam out in the west Wood, Yes, and cried
25:52
Speaker 1: for all the evil I had done you. I suppose
25:55
Speaker 1: I've often thought of it since Lady Ausbury stopped for
25:58
Speaker 1: us to overtake her. My dear, she said to Beatrice,
26:02
Speaker 1: such a beautiful gallery. Then she stared very hard at me,
26:07
Speaker 1: puzzled in the most naked fashion to understand who I
26:09
Speaker 1: might be. People say, the oak staircase is rather good,
26:14
Speaker 1: said my aunt, and led the way. Lady Osprey, with
26:18
Speaker 1: her skirts gathered for the ascent to the gallery and
26:21
Speaker 1: her hand on the kneel, turned and addressed a look
26:24
Speaker 1: full of meaning, overflowing indeed with meanings at her charge.
26:29
Speaker 1: The chief meaning, no doubt, was caution about myself, but
26:32
Speaker 1: much of it was just meaning at large. I chanced
26:36
Speaker 1: to catch the response in a mirror and detected Beatrice,
26:39
Speaker 1: with her nose wrinkled into a swift and entirely diabolical grimace.
26:44
Speaker 1: Lady Osprey became a deeper shade of pink and speechless
26:47
Speaker 1: with indignation. It was evident. She disavowed all further responsibility
26:53
Speaker 1: as she followed my aunt upstairs. It's dark, but there's
26:57
Speaker 1: a sort of dignity, said Beatrice, very distinct, regarding the
27:01
Speaker 1: hall with serene tranquility, and allowing the unwilling feet on
27:05
Speaker 1: the stairs to widen their distance from us. She stood
27:09
Speaker 1: a step up so that she looked down a little
27:11
Speaker 1: upon me and over me. At the old hall. She
27:15
Speaker 1: turned upon me abruptly when she thought her stepmother was
27:17
Speaker 1: beyond earshot. But how did you get here? She asked?
27:23
Speaker 1: Here all this she indicated space and leisure by a
27:27
Speaker 1: wave of the hand, at hall, in tall windows and
27:30
Speaker 1: sunlit terrace. Weren't you the housekeeper's son. I've adventured. My
27:36
Speaker 1: uncle has become a great financier. He used to be
27:39
Speaker 1: a little chemist about twenty miles from bladesover. We're promoters now,
27:44
Speaker 1: Amalgamater's big people on the new model. I understand. She
27:50
Speaker 1: regarded me with interested eyes, visibly thinking me out. And
27:55
Speaker 1: you recognized me, I asked, After a second or so,
27:59
Speaker 1: I saw you recognized me. I couldn't place you, but
28:03
Speaker 1: I knew I knew you. Then. Archie being there helped
28:06
Speaker 1: me to remember I'm glad to meet again, I ventured,
28:10
Speaker 1: I'd never forgotten you. One doesn't forget those childish things.
28:16
Speaker 1: We regarded one another for a moment with a curiously
28:19
Speaker 1: easy and confident satisfaction in coming together again. I can't
28:24
Speaker 1: explain our ready zest in one another. The thing was
28:28
Speaker 1: so we pleased each other. We had no doubt in
28:31
Speaker 1: our minds that we pleased each other from the first.
28:34
Speaker 1: We were at our ease with one another. So picturesque,
28:38
Speaker 1: so very picturesque. Came a voice from above, and then
28:43
Speaker 1: be a trice. I've a hundred things I want to
28:46
Speaker 1: know about you, she said with an easy intimacy, as
28:50
Speaker 1: we went up the winding steps. As the four of
28:53
Speaker 1: us sat at tea together under the cedar on the terrace,
28:56
Speaker 1: she asked questions about my aeronautics. My aunt helped with
29:00
Speaker 1: a word or so about my broken ribs. Lady Ousbrey
29:05
Speaker 1: evidently regarded flying as a most indesirable and improper topic,
29:09
Speaker 1: a blasphemous intrusion upon the angels. It isn't flying, I explained,
29:15
Speaker 1: We don't fly yet. You never will, she said, compactly,
29:19
Speaker 1: you never will. Well, I said, we do what we can.
29:25
Speaker 1: The little lady lifted a small gloved hand and indicated
29:29
Speaker 1: a height of about four feet from the ground. Thus far,
29:32
Speaker 1: she said, thus far, and no farther. No, she became
29:39
Speaker 1: emphatically pink. No, she said again, quite conclusively, and coughed shortly.
29:46
Speaker 1: Thank you, she said to her ninth or tenth cake.
29:50
Speaker 1: Beatrice burst into cheerful laughter, with her eye on me.
29:53
Speaker 1: I was lying on the turf, and this perhaps caused
29:56
Speaker 1: a slight confusion about the primordial curse in lady osbry
30:00
Speaker 1: his mind upon his belly. Shall he go, she said,
30:04
Speaker 1: with quiet distinctness, all the days of his life. After
30:08
Speaker 1: which we talked no more of aeronautics. Beatrice sat budged
30:13
Speaker 1: together in a chair and regarded me with exactly the
30:15
Speaker 1: same scrutiny. I thought, the same adventurous aggression that I
30:20
Speaker 1: had faced long ago at the tea table in my
30:22
Speaker 1: mother's room. She was amazingly like that little princess of
30:26
Speaker 1: my blades over memories. The wilful misbehaviors of her hair
30:30
Speaker 1: seemed the same. Her voice, thinks, one would have expected
30:34
Speaker 1: to be changed altogether. She formed her plans in the
30:37
Speaker 1: same quick way and acted with the same irresponsible decision.
30:42
Speaker 1: She stood up abruptly. What is there beyond the terrace,
30:45
Speaker 1: she said, and found me promptly beside her. I invented
30:50
Speaker 1: a view for her at the further corner from the cedar.
30:54
Speaker 1: She perched herself up upon the parapet and achieved an
30:57
Speaker 1: air of comfort among the likeness stones. Now tell me,
31:01
Speaker 1: she said, all about yourself. Tell me about yourself. I
31:06
Speaker 1: know such duffers of men. They all do the same things.
31:10
Speaker 1: How did you get here? All my men were here.
31:14
Speaker 1: They couldn't have got here. If they hadn't been here always,
31:17
Speaker 1: they wouldn't have thought it right. You've climbed. If it's climbing,
31:22
Speaker 1: I said, She went off at a tangent. It's I dunno,
31:26
Speaker 1: if you'll understand. Interesting to meet you again. I've remembered you.
31:32
Speaker 1: I don't know why, but I have. I've used you
31:35
Speaker 1: as a sort of lay figure when I've told myself stories.
31:39
Speaker 1: But you've always been rather stiff and difficult in my stories,
31:43
Speaker 1: in ready made clothes, a labor member or a brad
31:47
Speaker 1: laugh or something like that. You're not like that a bit,
31:51
Speaker 1: and yet you are. She looked at me. Was it
31:55
Speaker 1: much of a fight they make out it is. I
31:58
Speaker 1: don't know why I was shot up here by an accident.
32:02
Speaker 1: I said. There was no fight at all, except to
32:05
Speaker 1: keep honest perhaps, And I made no great figure in that.
32:09
Speaker 1: I and my uncle mixed a medicine and it blew
32:11
Speaker 1: us up. No merit in that. But you've been here
32:15
Speaker 1: all the time. Tell me what have you done? First?
32:19
Speaker 1: One thing we didn't do? She meditated for a moment.
32:22
Speaker 1: What said, I produced a little half brother for blades over.
32:27
Speaker 1: So it went to the filbrick gang and they lit it,
32:31
Speaker 1: and I and my stepmother we let two and live
32:35
Speaker 1: in a little house. She nodded her head vaguely over
32:39
Speaker 1: her shoulder and turned to me again. Well, suppose it
32:43
Speaker 1: was an accident. Here you are. Now you're here, What
32:47
Speaker 1: are you going to do? You're young? Is it to
32:50
Speaker 1: be Parliament? Heard some men the other day talking about you,
32:54
Speaker 1: before I knew you were you. They said that was
32:57
Speaker 1: what you ought to do. You put me through my
33:00
Speaker 1: intentions with a close and vital curiosity. It was just
33:04
Speaker 1: as she had tried to imagine me a soldier and
33:07
Speaker 1: place me years ago. She made me feel more planless
33:11
Speaker 1: and incidental than ever. You want to make a flying
33:14
Speaker 1: machine she pursued, And when you fly, what then would
33:20
Speaker 1: it be for fighting? I told her something of my
33:23
Speaker 1: experimental work. She had never heard of the soaring aeroplane,
33:27
Speaker 1: and was excited by the thought and keen to hear
33:30
Speaker 1: about it. She had thought all the work so far
33:33
Speaker 1: had been a mere projecting of impossible machines. For her,
33:37
Speaker 1: Pilcher and Lilienthal had died in vain. She did not
33:41
Speaker 1: know such men had lived in the world. But that's dangerous,
33:45
Speaker 1: she said, with a note of discovery. Oh, it's dangerous.
33:50
Speaker 1: Be a trice. Lady Osprey called Beatrice, dropped from the
33:54
Speaker 1: wall to her feet. Where do you do this? Soaring
33:59
Speaker 1: beyond the high balls east of Crest Hill and the wood?
34:03
Speaker 1: Do you mind people coming to see whenever you please?
34:07
Speaker 1: Only let me know. I'll take my chance some day,
34:12
Speaker 1: some day soon. She looked at me thoughtfully, smiled, and
34:17
Speaker 1: our talk was at an end. End of book, third chapter,
34:23
Speaker 1: third parts one to three. Recording by William tom Coe