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The Sea Lady Chapter 7 · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: The Sea Lady, Chapter seven. This LibriVox recording is in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain recording by Thomas Copeland. The Sea Lady
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  Speaker 1: by H. G. Wells, Chapter the seventh, The Crisis one.
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  Speaker 1: The crisis came about a week from that time, I
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  Speaker 1: say about because of Melville's conscientious inexactness in these matters,
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  Speaker 1: and so far as the crisis goes, I seemed to
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  Speaker 1: get Melville at his best. He was keenly interested, keenly observant,
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  Speaker 1: and his more than average memory took some excellent impressions
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  Speaker 1: to my mind. At any rate, too, at least of
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  Speaker 1: these people come out fuller and more convincingly than anywhere
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  Speaker 1: else in this painfully disinterred story he has given me.
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  Speaker 1: Here in Adeline, I seem to believe in, and something
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  Speaker 1: much more like chatteris than any of the broken fragments
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  Speaker 1: I have had to go upon and amplify and budge together.
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  Speaker 1: So far, and for all such trangent lucidities in this
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  Speaker 1: mysterious story, the reader no doubt will echo my heaven
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  Speaker 1: be thanked. Melville was called down to participate in the
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  Speaker 1: crisis at Sandgate by a telegram from Missus Bunting, and
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  Speaker 1: his first exponent of the situation was Fred Bunting. Come down, urgent, please,
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  Speaker 1: was the irresistible message for Missus Bunting. My cousin took
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  Speaker 1: the early train and arrived at Sandgate in the forenoon.
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  Speaker 1: He was told that Missus Bunting was upstairs with Miss Glendower,
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  Speaker 1: and that she implored him to wait until she could
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  Speaker 1: leave her charge. Miss Glendower not well, then, said Melville. No, sir,
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  Speaker 1: not at all well, said the housemaid, evidently awaiting a
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  Speaker 1: further question. Where are the others? He asked casually. The
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  Speaker 1: three younger young ladies had gone to high, said the housemaid,
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  Speaker 1: with a marked omission of the sea. Lady Melville has
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  Speaker 1: an intense dislike of questioning servants on points at issue,
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  Speaker 1: so he asked nothing at all concerning missus Waters. This
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  Speaker 1: general absence of people from the room of familiar occupation
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  Speaker 1: conveyed the same suggested warning of crisis as the telegram.
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  Speaker 1: The housemaid waited an instant longer and withdrew. He stood
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  Speaker 1: for a moment in the drawing room, and then walked
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  Speaker 1: out upon the verandah. He perceived a richly caparisoned figure
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  Speaker 1: advancing towards him. It was Fred Bunting He had been
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  Speaker 1: taking advantage of the general desertion of home to bathe
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  Speaker 1: from the house. He was wearing an umbrageous white cotton
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  Speaker 1: hat and a striped blanket, and a more aggressively manly
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  Speaker 1: pipe than any fully adult male would ever dream of smoking.
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  Speaker 1: Hung from the corner of his mouth. Hallo, he said,
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  Speaker 1: the mater sent for you. Melville admitted the truth of
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  Speaker 1: this theory. There's ructions, said Fred, and removed the pipe.
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  Speaker 1: The act offered conversation, where's miss Waters gone? Back? Lord?
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  Speaker 1: No catch her? She's gone to Lummage's hotel with her maid,
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  Speaker 1: took a suite. Why the maid made a row with her? Whatever?
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  Speaker 1: For Harry my cousin stared at the situation, it broke out,
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  Speaker 1: said Fred, What broke out the row? Harry's gone daft
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  Speaker 1: on her? Addie says on miss Waters rather Mooney didn't
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  Speaker 1: care for his electioneering, didn't care for his ordinary nourishment
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  Speaker 1: loose ends. Didn't mention it to atline, but she began
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  Speaker 1: to see it. Asked questions. Next day went off London.
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  Speaker 1: She asked what was up? Three days silence? Then wrote
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  Speaker 1: to her. Fred intensified all this by raising his eyebrows,
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  Speaker 1: pulling down the corners of his mouth, and nodding portentously. Ay,
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  Speaker 1: he said. And then, to make things clearer, wrote a letter.
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  Speaker 1: He didn't write to her about Miss Waters. Don't know
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  Speaker 1: what he wrote A don't suppose he mentioned her name,
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  Speaker 1: but I dare say he made it clear enough. All
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  Speaker 1: I know is that everything in the house felt like elastic,
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  Speaker 1: pulled tighter than it ought to be. For two whole days,
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  Speaker 1: everybody in a sort of complicated twist, and then there
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  Speaker 1: was a snap. All that time Addie was writing letters
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  Speaker 1: to him and tearing him up, and no one could
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  Speaker 1: quite make it out. Everyone looked blue except the Sea Lady.
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  Speaker 1: She kept her own lovely pink. And at the end
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  Speaker 1: of that time, the Mater began asking things. Adeline chucked writing,
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  Speaker 1: gave the mater half a hint, made her took it
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  Speaker 1: all in in an instant, and the thing burst. Miss
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  Speaker 1: Glendower didn't no. The mater did put it pretty straight too,
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  Speaker 1: as the mater can. She didn't deny it, said she
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  Speaker 1: couldn't help herself, and that he was as much hers
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  Speaker 1: as Adeline's. I heard that, said Fred shamelessly. Pretty thick eh,
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  Speaker 1: considering he's ngay aged, and the maid gave it her
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  Speaker 1: pretty straight, said, I've been very much deceived in you,
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  Speaker 1: miss Waters, very much. Indeed, I heard her, and then
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  Speaker 1: asked her to go. Said she'd requited us ill for
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  Speaker 1: taking her up when nobody but a fisherman would have
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  Speaker 1: looked at her. She said that well, words to that effect,
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  Speaker 1: and miss Waters went in a first class cab made
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  Speaker 1: and boxes in another, all complete perfect lady. Couldn't have
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  Speaker 1: believed if I hadn't seen it. But the tale I mean,
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  Speaker 1: and missus Glendower, Addie, oh she's been going it comes
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  Speaker 1: downstairs and does the pale faced heroine, and goes up
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  Speaker 1: stairs and does the broken hearted part. I know it's
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  Speaker 1: all very well. You never had sisters, you know. Fred
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  Speaker 1: held his pipe elaborately out of the way and protruded
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  Speaker 1: his face to a confidential nearness. I believe they half
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  Speaker 1: like it, said Fred, a confidential half whisper such a go,
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  Speaker 1: you know, Mabel pretty near as bad, and the girls
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  Speaker 1: all making the very most they can of it. Me.
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  Speaker 1: I think Chatteris is the only man alive to hear him.
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  Speaker 1: I couldn't get up emotion as they do if my
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  Speaker 1: feet were being flayed. Cheerful home eh for holidays? Where's
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  Speaker 1: the principal gentleman, asked Melville, a little grimly in London.
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  Speaker 1: Unprincipled gentleman, I call him, said Fred. He's stopping down
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  Speaker 1: here at the metropole, stuck down here, stuck rather stuck
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  Speaker 1: and set about. My cousin tried for side lights. What's
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  Speaker 1: his attitude? He asked? Slump, said Fred, with intensity. Miss
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  Speaker 1: little blowoff has rather astonished em, he explained when he
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  Speaker 1: wrote to say that the election didn't interest him for
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  Speaker 1: a bit, but he hoped to pull around. You said,
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  Speaker 1: you didn't know what he wrote. My do that much,
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  Speaker 1: said Fred. You know more thought they'd have spotted that.
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  Speaker 1: It meant miss Waters than a baby. But women are
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  Speaker 1: so thundering sharp, you know, they're born spotters. How it'll
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  Speaker 1: all end? But why has he come to the metropole
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  Speaker 1: middle of the stage, I pose, said Fred? What's his attitude?
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  Speaker 1: Says he's going to see Adeline and explain everything, and
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  Speaker 1: doesn't do it, puts it off, and Adeline, as far
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  Speaker 1: as I can gather, says that if he doesn't come
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  Speaker 1: down soon, she's hanged if she'll see him, much as
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  Speaker 1: her heart may be broken and all that. If she doesn't,
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  Speaker 1: you know, naturally, said Melville, rather inconsecutively. And he doesn't,
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  Speaker 1: doesn't stir. Does he see the other lady? We don't know.
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  Speaker 1: We can't watch him. But if he does, he's clever.
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  Speaker 1: Why there's about a hundred blessed relatives of his in
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  Speaker 1: the place. Came like crows for a corpse, and never
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  Speaker 1: saw such a lot talk about a man of good
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  Speaker 1: old family. It's decaying. I never saw such a high
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  Speaker 1: old family in my life. Ants they are chiefly ants.
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  Speaker 1: Ants say they've rallied round him. How they got hold
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  Speaker 1: of it, I don't know, like vultures, unless the mater,
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  Speaker 1: but they're here. They're all at him, using their influence
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  Speaker 1: with them, threatening to cut off legacies and all that.
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  Speaker 1: There's one old girl at Bates, lady pointing mallow. We's
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  Speaker 1: bit horsey, but about as all right as any of them,
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  Speaker 1: who's been down here twice. Seemed a trifle disappointed in Adeline.
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  Speaker 1: And there's two ants at wampach'es, you know, the sort
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  Speaker 1: that stop at wampaches, regular hothouse flowers. A watering potful
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  Speaker 1: of real, icy cold water would kill both of them,
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  Speaker 1: and there's one come over from the continent, short hair,
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  Speaker 1: short skirts, regular terror. She's at the Favilliard. They're all
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  Speaker 1: chasing round, saying, where is this woman? Fish sort of thing?
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  Speaker 1: Let me peek? Does that constitute a hundred relatives? Practically?
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  Speaker 1: The Wompatches are sending for a bishop who used to
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  Speaker 1: be a schoolmaster. No stone unturned, eh, none. And has
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  Speaker 1: he found out yet that she's a mermaid? I don't
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  Speaker 1: believe he has. The Pater went up to tell him.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, she was a bit out of breath and
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  Speaker 1: embarrassed and chatteris cut him down. At least let me
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  Speaker 1: hear nothing against her, he said, And the Peter took
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  Speaker 1: that and came away, Good old Peter. Eh. And the
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  Speaker 1: ants they're taking it in. Mainly they grasped the fact
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  Speaker 1: that he's going to jilt Adeline, just as he jilted
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  Speaker 1: the American girl. The mermaid's sighed. They seem to boggle
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  Speaker 1: at old people like that don't take to a new
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  Speaker 1: idea at once. The womp patch ones are shocked but curious.
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  Speaker 1: They don't believe for a moment she really is a mermaid,
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  Speaker 1: but they want to know all about it. And the
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  Speaker 1: one down at the pavilion, simply said, bosh, how can
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  Speaker 1: she breathe under water? Tell me that missus Bunting tis
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  Speaker 1: some sort of person you have picked up. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know how, but mermaid she cannot be. They'd be all
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  Speaker 1: tremendously down on the mater, I think for picking her
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  Speaker 1: up if it wasn't that they can't do without her
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  Speaker 1: help to bring Addie round again? Pretty mess all round, eh.
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  Speaker 1: I suppose the aunts will tell him what about the tale?
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  Speaker 1: I suppose they will, and what then? Heaven knows? Just
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  Speaker 1: as likely they won't. My cousin meditated on the veranda
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  Speaker 1: tiles for a space. It amuses me, said Fred Bunting.
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  Speaker 1: Look here, said my cousin Melville. What am I supposed
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  Speaker 1: to do? Why have I been asked to come? I
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  Speaker 1: don't know. Stir it up a bit? I expect everybody
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  Speaker 1: do a bit like the Christmas pudding, but said Melville.
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  Speaker 1: I've been bathing, said Fred. Nobody asked me to take
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  Speaker 1: a hand, and I didn't. It won't be a good
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  Speaker 1: pudding without me. But there you are. There's only one
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  Speaker 1: thing I can see to do. It might be the
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  Speaker 1: right thing, but is it? Punch Chatters's head? I don't
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  Speaker 1: see how that would help matters. Oh, it wouldn't help matters,
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  Speaker 1: said Fred, adding with an air of conclusiveness. There it is. Then,
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  Speaker 1: adjusting the folds of his blanket to a greater dignity,
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  Speaker 1: and replacing his long, extinct, large pipe between his teeth,
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  Speaker 1: he went on his way. The tail of his blanket
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  Speaker 1: followed him reluctantly through the door. His bare feet padded
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  Speaker 1: across the hall and became inaudible on the carpet of
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  Speaker 1: the stairs. Fred said, Melville going forward with a sudden
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  Speaker 1: afterthought for fuller particulars. But Fred gone instead. Missus Bunting appeared. Two.
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  Speaker 1: She appeared with traces of recent emotion. I telegraphed. She said,
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  Speaker 1: we are in dreadful trouble. Miss Waters. I gather she's gone.
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  Speaker 1: She went towards the bell and stopped. They'll get luncheon
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  Speaker 1: as usual, she said, you will be wanting your luncheon.
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  Speaker 1: She came towards him with rising hands. You cannot imagine,
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  Speaker 1: she said, that, poor child. You must tell me, said Melville.
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  Speaker 1: I simply do not know what to do. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know where to turn. She came nearer to him. She
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  Speaker 1: protested all that I did, mister Melville, I did for
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  Speaker 1: the best I saw. There was trouble. I could see
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  Speaker 1: that I had been deceived, and I stood it as
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  Speaker 1: long as I could. I had to speak at last.
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  Speaker 1: My cousin, by leading questions and interrogative silences, developed her
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  Speaker 1: story a little. And every one, she said, blames me.
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  Speaker 1: Every one. Everybody blames everybody who does anything in affairs
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  Speaker 1: of this sort, said Melville. You mustn't mind that. I'll
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  Speaker 1: try not to. She said, bravely, you know, mister Melville.
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  Speaker 1: He laid his hand on her shoulder for a moment. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: he said, very impressively, And I think Missus Bunting felt better.
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  Speaker 1: We all looked to you. She said, I don't know
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  Speaker 1: what I should do without you. That's it, said Melville.
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  Speaker 1: How do things stand? What am I to do? Go
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  Speaker 1: to him? Said Missus Bunting, and put it all right?
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  Speaker 1: But suppose began Melville, doubtfully, Go to her, make her
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  Speaker 1: see what it would mean for him and all of us.
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  Speaker 1: He tried to get more definite instructions. Don't make difficulties,
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  Speaker 1: implored Missus Bunting. Think of that poor girl upstairs, Think
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  Speaker 1: of us all exactly, said Melville, thinking of chatteris and
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  Speaker 1: staring despondently out of the window, Bunting, I gather it
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  Speaker 1: is you or no one, said Missus Bunting, sailing over
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  Speaker 1: his unspoken words. Fred is too young. And Randolph he's
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  Speaker 1: not diplomatic. He he hectors does he? Exclaimed Melville. You
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  Speaker 1: should see him abroad often. Many times I have had
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  Speaker 1: to interfere. No, it is you. You know Harry so well.
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  Speaker 1: He trusts you. You can say things to him. No
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  Speaker 1: one else could say. That reminds me. Does he know?
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  Speaker 1: We don't know? How can we know? We know he
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  Speaker 1: is infatuated, that is all. He is up there in Folkeston,
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  Speaker 1: and she is in Folkeston, and they may be meeting.
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  Speaker 1: My cousin sought counsel with himself. Say you will go,
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  Speaker 1: said Missus Bunting, with a hand upon his arm. I'll go,
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  Speaker 1: said Melville. But I don't see what I can do.
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  Speaker 1: And Missus Bunting clasped his hand in both of her own, plump,
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  Speaker 1: shapely hands, and said she knew all along that he would,
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  Speaker 1: and that for coming down so promptly to her telegram,
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  Speaker 1: she would be grateful to him so long as she
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  Speaker 1: had a breath to draw, And then she added, as
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  Speaker 1: if it were part of the same remark, that he
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  Speaker 1: must want his luncheon. He accepted the luncheon proposition in
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  Speaker 1: an incidental manner and reverted to the question in hand.
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  Speaker 1: Do you know what his attitude? He has written only
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  Speaker 1: to Addie. It isn't as if he had brought about
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  Speaker 1: this crisis. It was Addie he went away, and something
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  Speaker 1: in his manner made her write and ask him the
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  Speaker 1: reason why. So soon as she had his letter saying
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: he wanted to rest from politics for a little, that
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  Speaker 1: somehow he didn't seem to find the interest in life
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  Speaker 1: he thought it deserved. She divined everything everything, Yes, but
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  Speaker 1: just what is everything that she had led him on,
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  Speaker 1: Miss Waters, Yes, my cousin reflected, so that was what
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  Speaker 1: they considered to be everything. I wish I knew just
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  Speaker 1: where he stood, he said at last, and followed Missus
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  Speaker 1: Bunting luncheon word. In the course of that meal, which
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  Speaker 1: was tete a tete, it became almost unsatisfactorily evident what
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  Speaker 1: a great relief Melville's consent to interview Chatteris was to
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  Speaker 1: missus Bunting. Indeed, she seemed to consider herself relieved from
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  Speaker 1: the greater portion of her responsibility in the matter, since
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Melville was bearing her burden. She sketched out her defense
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  Speaker 1: against the accusations that had no doubt been leveled at
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  Speaker 1: her explicitly and implicitly. How was I to know? She asked,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: And she told over again the story of that memorable landing,
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  Speaker 1: but with new extenuating details. It was Adeline herself who
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: had cried first, she must be saved. Missus Bunting made
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  Speaker 1: a special point of that. And what else was there
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  Speaker 1: for me to do? She asked? And as she talked,
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  Speaker 1: the problem before my cousin assumed graver and yet graver proportions.
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  Speaker 1: He perceived more and more clearly the complexity of the
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  Speaker 1: situation with which he was entrusted in the first place.
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  Speaker 1: It was not at all clear that Miss Glendower was
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: willing to receive backer lover except upon terms, and the
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  Speaker 1: sea lady, he was quite sure, did not mean to
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  Speaker 1: release him from any grip she had upon him. They
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: were preparing to treat an elemental struggle as if it
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: were an individual case. It grew more and more evident
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: to him how entirely Missus Bunning overlooked the essentially abnormal
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: nature of the sea lady. How absolutely she regarded the
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: business as a mere every day vacillation, a commonplace outbreak
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  Speaker 1: of that jilting spirit which dwells covered deep perhaps, but
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: never entirely eradicated in the heart of man. And how
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: confidently she expected him, with a little tactful remonstrance and
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: pressure to restore the status coante as for chatterers. Melville
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: shook his head at the cheese and answered Missus Bunting abstractedly. Three.
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  Speaker 1: She wants to speak to you, said Missus Bunting, and Melville,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: with a certain trepidation, went upstairs. He went up to
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: the big landing with the seats to save Adeline the
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  Speaker 1: trouble of coming down. She appeared dressed in a black
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: and violet tea gown with much lace, and her dark
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: hair was done with a simple carefulness that suited it.
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  Speaker 1: She was pale, and her eyes showed traces of tears,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: but she had a certain dignity that differed from her
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: usual bearing. In being quite unconscious, she gave him a
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: limp hand and spoke in an exhausted voice. You know all,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: she asked, all the outline, anyhow, why has he done
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  Speaker 1: this to me. Melville looked profoundly sympathetic through a pause.
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  Speaker 1: I feel, she said, that it isn't coarseness, certainly not,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: said Melville. It is some mystery of the imagination that
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  Speaker 1: I cannot understand. I should have thought his career at
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: any rate would have appealed. She shook her head and
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: regarded a part of ferns fixedly for a space. He
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  Speaker 1: has written to you, asked Melville, three times, she said,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: looking up. Melville hesitated to ask the extent of that correspondence,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: but she left no need for that. I had to
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: ask him, she said. He kept it all from me,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: and I had to force it from him before he
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: would tell tell, said Melville, what what he felt for
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  Speaker 1: her and what he felt for me? But did he?
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  Speaker 1: He has made it clearer, But still even now, no,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: I don't understand. She turned slowly and watched Melville's face
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  Speaker 1: as she spoke. You know, mister Melville, that this has
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: been an enormous shock to me. I suppose I never
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  Speaker 1: really knew him. I suppose I idealized him. I thought
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  Speaker 1: he cared for a work. At any rate, he did
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: care for our work. He believed in it. Surely he
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: believed in it he does, said Melville. And then, but
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: how can he? He is he is a man with
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: rather a strong imagination or a weak will relatively. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: it is so strange, she sighed, It is so inconsistent.
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  Speaker 1: It is like a child catching it a new toy.
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  Speaker 1: Do you know, mister Melville, she hesitated, All this has
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: made me feel old. I feel very much older, very
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: much wiser than he is. I cannot help it. I
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: am afraid it is for all women to feel that, sometimes,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: she reflected, froundly, for all women. The child man. I
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: see now just what Sara Grand meant by that. She smiled,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: a wan smile. I feel just as if he had
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: been a naughty child, and I I worshiped him, mister Melville,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: she said, and her voice quivered. My cousin coughed and
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: turned about to stare hard out of the window. He
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: was he perceived much more shockingly inadequate, even than he
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: had expected to be. If I thought she could make
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: him happy, she said, presently, leaving a hiatus of generous
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: self sacrifice. The case is complicated, said Melville. Her voice
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: went on clear and a little high, resigned, impenetrably assured.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: But she would not all his better side, all his
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: serious side. She would miss it and ruin it all.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Does he began Melville, and repented of the temerity of
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: his question. Yes, she said, Does he ask to be released? No,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: he wants to come back to me and you he
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: doesn't come. But do you do you want him back?
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: How can I say, mister Melville, He does not say, certainly,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: even that he wants to come back. My cousin Melville
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: looked perplexed. He lived on the superficies of emotion, and
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: these complexities in matters he had always assumed were simple.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Put him out. There are times she said, when it
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: seems to me that my love for him is altogether dead.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: Think of the disillusionment, the shock, the discovery of such weakness.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: My cousin lifted his eyebrows and shook his head in agreement.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: His feet to find his feet were of clay. There
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: came a pause. It seems as I have never loved him.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: And then and then I think of all the things
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: that still might be. Her voice made him look up,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: and he saw that her mouth was set hard, and
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: tears were running down her cheeks. It occurred to my cousin,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: he says that he would touch her hand in a
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: sympathetic manner, And then it occurred to him that he wouldn't.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Her words rang in his thoughts for a space, and
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: then he said, somewhat tardily, he may still be all
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: those things. I suppose he may, She said, slowly and
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: without color. The weeping moment had passed. What is she?
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: She changed abruptly. What is this being who has come
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: between him and all the realities of life? What is
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: there about her? And why should I have to compete
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: with her? Because he because he doesn't know his own mind?
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: For a man, said Melville, to know his own mind
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: is to have exhausted one of the chief interests in life.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: After that, a cultivated extinct volcano, if ever it was
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: a volcano, he reflected egotistically for a space. Then, with
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: a secret start, he came back to consider her. What
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: is there? She said, with that deliberate attempt at clearness,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: which was one of her antipathetic qualities. For Melville, what
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: is there that she has that she offers that I
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Melville winced at this deliberate proposal of appalling comparisons. All
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: the cat like quality in his soul came to his aid.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: He began to edge away and walk obliquely and generally
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: to shirk the issue. My dear miss Glendower, he said,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: and tried to make that seem an adequate reply. What
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: is the difference? She insisted? There are impalpable things, waved Melville.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: They are above reason and beyond describing. But you, she urged,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: you take an attitude. You must have an impression. Why
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: don't you don't you see, mister Melville, this is very
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: her voice caught for a moment, very vital for me.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: It isn't kind of you if you have impressions. I'm sorry,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: mister Melville, if I seem to be trying to get
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: too much from you, I I want to know. It
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: came into Melville's head for a moment that this girl
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: had something in her perhaps that was just a little
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: beyond his former judgments. I must admit I have a
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: sort of impression, he said. You are a man, you
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: know him. You know all sorts of things, all sorts
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: of ways of looking at things. I don't know if
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: you could go so far as to be frank well,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: said Melville, and stopped. She hung over him, as it
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: were as a tense violence. There is a difference, he admitted,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: and still went unhelped. How can I put it? I
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: think in certain ways you contrast with her in a
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: way that makes things easier for her. He has I
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: know that thing sounds like cant only you know he
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: doesn't plead it in defense. He has a temperament to
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: which she sometimes appeals more than you do. Yes, I know,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: but how well? Tell me you are austere. You are restrained.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: Life for a man like Chatteris is schooling. He has something, something,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: perhaps more worth having than most of us have. But
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: I think at times it makes life harder for him
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: than it is for a lot of us. Life comes
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: at him with limitations and regulations. He knows his duty
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: well enough. You you mustn't mind what I say too much,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Miss Glendower. I may be wrong. Go on, she said,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: go on, you are too much the agent general of
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: his duty. But surely what else? I talked to him
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: in London, and then I thought he was quite in
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: the wrong. Since that, I've thought all sorts of things,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: even that you might be in the wrong in certain
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: minor things. Don't mind my vanity now, she cried. Tell me,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: you see, you have defined things very clearly. You have
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: made it clear to him what you expect him to
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: be and what you expect him to do. It is
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: like having built a house in which he is to live.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: For him to go to her is like going out
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: of a house, a very fine and dignified house. I
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: admit into something larger, something adventurous and incalculable. She is.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: She has an air of being natural. She is as
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: lax and lawless as the sun set. She is as
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: free and familiar as the wind. She doesn't, if I
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: may put it in this way, she doesn't love and
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: respect him when he is this, and disapprove of him
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: highly when he is that. She takes him altogether. She
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: has the quality of the open sky, of the flight
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: of birds, of deep tangled places. She has the quality
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: of the high sea. That I think is what she
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: is for him. She is the great outside you. You
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: have the quality. He hesitated. Go on, she insisted, let
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: us get the meaning of an edifice. I don't sympathize
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: with him, said Melville. I am a tame cat, and
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: I should scratch and mew at the door directly. I
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: got outside of things. I don't want to go out.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: The thought scared me. But he is different. Yes, she said,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: he is different. For a time it seemed that Melville's
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: interpretation had hold of her. She stood thoughtful, slowly. Other
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: aspects of the thing came into his mind, of course,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: she said, thinking as she looked at him. Yes, yes,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: that is the impression, that is the quality. But in
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: reality there are other things in the world besides effects
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: and impressions. After all, that is an analogy. It is
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: pleasant to go out of houses and dwellings into the
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: open air, but most of us, nearly all of us,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: must live in houses. Decidedly, said Melville. He cannot. What
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: can he do with her? How can he live with her?
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: What life could they have in common? It's a case
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: of attraction, said Melville, and not of plans. After all,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: she said, he must come back. If I let him
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: come back, he may spoil everything. Now, he may lose
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: his election and be forced to start again lower and
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: less hopefully. He may tear his heart to pieces. She
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: stopped at a sob Miss Glendower said Melville abruptly, I
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: don't think you quite understand, understand what you think. He
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: cannot marry this, this being who has come among us.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: How could he? No, he couldn't you think his imagination
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: has wandered away from you to something impossible, that generally,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: in an aimless way, he has cut himself up for
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: nothing and made an inordinate fool of himself, And that
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: it's simply a business of putting everything back into place again.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: He paused, and she said nothing, but her face was attentive.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: What you do not understand, he went on, What no
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: one seems to understand, is that she comes out of
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: the sea, out of some other world. She comes whispering
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: that this life is a phantom life, unreal, flimsy, limited,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: casting upon everything a spell of disillusionment. So that he yes,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: and then she whispers, there are better dreams. The girl
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: regarded him in frank perplexity. She hints of these vague
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: better dreams. She whispers of a way, what way? I
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: do not know what way, But it is something, something
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: that tears at the very fabric of this daily life.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: You mean she is a mermaid. She is a thing
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: of dreams and desires, a siren, a whisper, and a seduction.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: She will lure him with her. He stopped where she
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: whispered into the deeps, the deeps They hung upon a
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: long pause. Melville sought vagueness with infinite solicitude and could
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: not find it. He blurted out, at last, there can
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: be but one way out of this dream we are
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: all dreaming, you know, And that way, that way, began Melville,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: and dared not say it. You mean, she said, with
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: a pale face, half awakened to a new thought, the
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: way is Melville shirked the word. He met her eyes
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: and nodded weakly. But how, she asked, At any rate,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: he said, hastily, seeking some palliative phrase. At any rate,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: if she gets him this little world of yours, there
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: will be no coming back for him, you know, no
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: coming back. She said, No coming back, said Melville. But
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: are you sure? She doubted sure that it is so?
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: The desire is desire, and the deep the deep. Yes,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: I never thought, she began, and stopped, mister Melville, She said,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: you know, I don't understand. I thought, I scarcely know
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: what I thought. I thought he was trivial and foolish
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: to let his thoughts go wandering. I agreed, I see
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: your point as to the difference in our effect upon him.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: But this, this suggestion that for him she may be
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: something determining and final. After all, she she is nothing,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: he said. She is the hand that takes hold of him,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: the shape that stands for things unseen. What things unseen?
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: My cousin shrugged his shoulders. Something we never find in life,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: he said, something we are always seeking. But what, she asked.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Melville made no reply. She scrutinized his face for a
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: time and then looked out at the sunlight. Yet do
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: you want him back? He said, I don't know. Do
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: you want him back? I feel as if I had
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: never wanted him before, and now yes. But if he
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: will not come back, he will not come back, said Melville,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: for the work I know. He will not come back
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: for his self respect or any of those things. No,
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: those things you know are only fainter dreams. All the
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: palace you have made for him is a dream. But yes,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: he might come back, he said, and looked at her
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: and stopped. He tells me he had some vague intention
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: of startling her, rousing her, wounding her to some display
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: of romantic force, some insurgents of passion that might yet
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: win chatteris back. And then, in that moment, and like
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: a blow, it came to him, how foolish such a
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: fancy had been there. She stood in penetrably herself, limitedly intelligent,
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: well meaning, imitative, and powerless. Her pose, her face suggested
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: nothing but a clear and reasonable objection to all that
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: had come to her, a critical antagonism, a steady opposition.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: And then amazingly she changed. She looked up and suddenly
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: held out both her hands, and there was something in
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: her eyes that he had never seen before. Melville took
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: her hands mechanically, and for a second or so they
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: stood looking with a sort of discovery into each other's eyes.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: Tell him, she said, with an astounding perfection of simplicity,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: to come back to me. There can be no other
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: thing than what I am. Tell him to come back
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: to me, and tell him that forgiveness. No, tell him
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: I wanted him. If he will not come for that,
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: he will not come at all. If he will not
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: come back for that, she halted for a moment. I
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: do not want him. No, I do not want him.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: He is not mine, and he may go. His passive
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: hold of her hands became a pressure. Then they dropped
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: a part again. You are very good to help us,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: she said. As he turned to go, he looked at her.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: You are very good to help me, she said, And
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: then tell him whatever you like, if only he will
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: come back to me. No, tell him what I have said.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: He saw she had something more to say, and stopped.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: You know, mister Melville, all this is like a book
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: newly opened to me? Are you sure? Sure? Sure of
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: what you say? Sure of what she is to him?
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: Sure that if he goes on, he will, she stopped.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: He nodded. It means, she said, and stopped it again.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: No adventure, no incident, but a going out from all
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: that this life has to offer. You mean, she insisted,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: You mean death, said Melville starkly, and for a space
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: both stood without a word. She winced and remained looking
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: into his eyes. Then she spoke again, mister Melville, tell
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: him to come back to me, and tell him to
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: come back to me or A sudden note of passion
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: rang in her voice. If I have no hold upon him,
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: let him go his way, but said Melville, I know,
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: she cried with her face set I know. But if
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: he is mine, he will come to me. And if
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: he is not, let him dream his dream. Her clenched
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: hand tightened as she spoke. He saw in her face
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: she would say no more, that she wanted urgently to
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: leave it there. He turned to again towards the staircase.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: He glanced at her and went down. As he looked
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: up from the bend of the stairs, she was still
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: standing in the light. He was moved to proclaim himself
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: in some manner her adherent, But he could think of
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: nothing better than whatever I can do, I will, and
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: so after a curious pause, he departed rather stumblingly from
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: her sight. Four after this interview, it was right and
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: proper that Melville should have gone at once to chatteris.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: But the course of events in the world does occasionally
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: display a lamentable disregard for what is right and proper.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: Points of view were destined to crowd upon him that day,
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: for the most part, entirely unsympathetic points of view. He
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: found missus Bunting in the company of a boldly trimmed
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: bonnet in the hall, waiting. It became clear to intercept
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: him as he descended in a state of extreme preoccupation.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: The boldly trimmed bonnet revealed beneath it a white faced,
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: resolute person in a duster and sensible boots. This stranger,
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: Missus Bunting, made apparent was Lady Pointing Mallow, one of
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: the more representative of the chatteris ants. Her ladyship made
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: a few inquiries about Adeline with an eye that took
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: Melville's measure, and then, after agreeing to a number of
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: the suggestions Missus Bunting had to advance, proposed that he
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: should escort her back to her hotel. He was much
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: too exercised without a line to discuss the proposal. I walk,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: she said, and we go along the lower road. He
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: found himself walking. She remarked, as the Bunting door closed
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: behind them, that it was always a comfort to have
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: to do with a man. And there was a silence
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: for a space. I don't think at that time Melville
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: completely grasped the fact that he had a companion, but
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: presently his meditations were disturbed by her voice. He started,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: I beg your pardon. He said that Bunting woman is
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: a fool, repeated Lady Pointing Mallow. It was a slight
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: interval for consideration. She's an old friend of mine, said Melville.
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: Quite possibly, said Lady pointing Mallow. The position seemed a
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: little awkward to Melville. For a moment, he flicked a
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: fragment of orange peel into the road. I want to
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: get to the bottom of all this, said lady, pointing Mallow.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: Who is this other woman? What other woman tet him? Quid,
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: said lady pointing Mallow, with a luminous incorrectness. Mermaid, I gather,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: said Melville. What's the objection to her? Tail? Thin and
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: all complete? You're sure of it? Certain? How do you know?
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: I'm certain? Repeated Melville, with a quite unusual testeness. The
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: lady reflected, well, there are worse things in the world
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: than a fishy tail, she said. At last, Melville saw
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: no necessity for our reply, hum said Lady, pointing Mallow,
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: apparently by way of comment on his silence, and for
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: a space they went on. That Glendower girl is a
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: fool too, she added, after a pause. My cousin opened
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: his mouth and shut it again. How could one answer
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: when ladies talk in this way? But if he did
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: not answer at any rate, his preoccupation was gone. He
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: was now acutely aware of the determined person at his side.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: She has means, she asked abruptly, Miss glent Dower. No,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: I know all about her. The other the mermaid, Yes,
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: the mermaid, why not? Oh, she very considerable means galleons,
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: Phoenician treasure ships, wrecked frigates, submarine reefs. Well, that's all right,
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: And now will you tell me, mister Melville, why shouldn't
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: Harry have her? But if she is a mermaid, it's
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: no worse than an American silver mine, and not nearly
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: so raw and ill bred. First place, there's his engagement,
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: Oh that, and in the next there's the sea lady.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: But I thought she she's a mermaid. It's no objection,
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: so far as I can see, she'd make an excellent
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: wife for him. And as a matter of fact, down
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: here she'd be able to help him in just the
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: right way. The member here they'll be fighting. This sassoon
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: man makes a lot of capital out of deep sea cables.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: Couldn't be better. Harry could dish him easily. That's all right,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: I shouldn't have her. She stuck her hands deeply into
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: the pockets of her dust coat, and a china blue
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: eye regarded Melville from under the brim of the boldly
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: trimmed bonnet. You understand clearly she is a properly constituted
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: mermaid with a real physical tale, well said lady, pointing mallow.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: Apart from any question of miss Glendower, that's understood. I
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: think that such a marriage would be impossible. Why my
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: cousin played round the question. She's an immortal, for example,
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: with a past simply makes her more interesting. Melville tried
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: to enter into her point of view. You think, he said,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: she would go to London for him and marry at
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: Saint George's Hanover Square, and pay for a mansion in
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: Park Lane and visit just anywhere he liked. That's precisely
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: what she would do. Just now, with a court that
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: is waking up, It's precisely what she won't do, said Melville.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: But any woman would do it. To add the chance
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: she's a mermaid, she's a fool, said Lady pointing Mallow.
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: She doesn't even mean to marry him. It doesn't enter
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: into her code. The hussy. What does she mean? My
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: cousin made a jess to Seaward that he said she's
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: a mermaid? What out there? Where there? Lady pointing Mallow
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: scanned the sea as if it were some curious new object.
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: It's an amphibious outlook for the family, she said, after reflection.
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: But even then, if she doesn't care for society, and
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: it makes Harry happy man, perhaps after they are tired
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: of rusticating. I don't think you fully realize that she
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: is a mermaid, said Melville, and chatteris you know, breathes
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: air n. That is a difficulty, admitted lady, pointing mallow
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: and studied the sunlit offing for a space. I don't
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: see why it shouldn't be managed. For all that she
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: considered after a pause, it can't be, said Melville, with
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: arid emphasis. She cares for him. She's come to fetch
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: him if she wants him badly. He might make terms.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: In these affairs. It's always one or other has to
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: do the buying. She'd have to marry anyhow, my cousin
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: regarded her impenetively satisfied face. He could have a yacht
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: and a diving bell, she suggested, if she wanted him
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: to visit her people. They are pagan demigods, I believe,
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: and live in some mythological way in the Mediterranean. Dear
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: Harry's a pagan himself, so that doesn't matter. And as
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: for being mythological, all good families are. He could even
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: wear a diving dress if one could be found to
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: suit him. I don't think that anything of the sort
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: is possible for a moment, simply because you've never been
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: a woman in love, said lady pointing Mallow, with an
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: air of vast experience. She continued the conversation. If it's
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: see water she wants, it would be quite easy to
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: fit up a tank wherever they lived, and she could
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: easily have a bath chair like a Sitz bath on wheels. Really,
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: mister Milvain, Melville, Mister Melville, I don't see where your
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: impossible comes in. Have you seen the lady? Do you
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: think I've been in Folkeston two days doing nothing? You
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: don't mean you've called on her, dear, No, it's Harry's
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: place to settle that. But I've seen her in her
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: bath chair on the leaves, and I'm certain I've never
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: seen any one who looked so worthy of dear Harry.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: Never well, well, said Melville. Apart from any other considerations,
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: you know, there's miss Glendower. I've never regarded her as
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: a suitable wife for Harry. Possibly not, still, she exists,
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: so many people do, said lady pointing Mallow. She evidently
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: regarded that branch of the subject as dismissed. They pursued
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: their way in silence. What I wanted to ask you,
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: mister Milvain Melville. Mister Melville, is just precisely where you
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: come into this business. I'm a friend of miss Glendower
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: who wants him back. Frankly, Yes, isn't she devoted to him?
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: I presume as she's engaged, she ought to be devoted
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: to him. Yes, well, why can't she see that she
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: ought to release him for his own good? She doesn't
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: see it's for his good? Nor do I simply an
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: old fashioned prejudiced because the woman's got a tale. Those
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: old frumps at wampatches are quite of your opinion. Melville
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: shrugged his shoulders. And so I suppose you're going to
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: bully and threaten on account of miss Glendower. You'll do
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: no good? May I ask what you are going to do?
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: What a good aunt always does, and that let him
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: do what he likes. Suppose he wants to drown himself.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: My dear, mister Milvain, Harry isn't a fool. I've told
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: you she's a mermaid. Ten times. A constrained silence fell
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: between them. It became apparent they were near the Folkeston lift.
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: You'll do no good, said lady, pointing mallow Melville's escort
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: concluded at the lift station. There, the lady turned upon him.
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: I'm greatly obliged to you for coming, mister Milburn, she said,
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: and very glad to hear your views of this matter.
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: It's a peculiar business, but I hope we're sensible people.
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: You think over what I've said. As a friend of Harry's.
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: You are a friend of Harry's. We've known each other
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: some years. I feel sure you will come round do
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: my point of view, sooner or later. It is so
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: obviously the best thing for him. There's miss Glendower. If
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: I Miss Glendower is a womanly woman, she will be
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: ready to make any sacrifice for his good. And with
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: that they parted. In the course of another minute, Melville
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: found himself on the side of the road opposite the
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: lift station. Regarding the ascending car. The boldly trimmed bonnet, vivid, erect, assertive,
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: went gliding upward, a perfect embodiment of sound common sense.
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: His mind was lapsing once again into disorder. He was stunned,
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: as it were, by the vigor of her ladyship's view.
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: Could any one not absolutely right be quite so clear
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: and emphatic and If so, what became of all that
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: oppression of foreboding, that sinister promise of an escape, that
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: whisper of other dreams that had dominated his mind only
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: a short half hour before he turned his face back
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: to Sandgate, his mind a theater of warring doubts. Quite vividly,
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: he could see the sea lay as lady pointing. Maddell
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: saw her as something pink and solid, and smart and wealthy,
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: and indeed quite abominably vulgar, And yet quite as vividly
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: he recalled her as she had talked to him in
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: the garden, her face full of shadows, her eyes of
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: deep mystery, and the whisper that made all the world
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: about him no more than a flimsy, thin curtain before
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: vague and wonderful and hitherto quite unsuspected things. Five Chatteris
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: was leaning against the railings. He started violently at Melville's
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: hand upon his shoulder. They made awkward greetings. The fact is,
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: said Melville, I I have been asked to talk to you.
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: Don't apologize, said Chatteris. I'm glad to have it out
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: with some one. There was a brief silence. They stood
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: side by side, looking down upon the harbor behind The
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: evening band played remotely, and the black little promenaders went
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: to and fro under the tall electric lights. I think
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: Chatteris decided to be very self possessed at first, a
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: man of the world. It's a gorgeous night, he said. Glorious,
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: said Melville, playing up to the key set. He clicked
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: his cutter on a cigar. There was something you wanted
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: me to tell you. I know all that, said Chatteris,
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: with the shoulder towards Melville, becoming obtrusive. I know everything
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: you have seen, and talked to her several times. There
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: was perhaps a minute's pause. What are you going to do,
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: asked Melville. Chatteris made no answer, and Melville did not
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: repeat his question. Presently, Chatteris turned about. Let's walk, he said,
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: and they paced westward, side by side. He made a
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: little speech. I'm sorry to give everybody all this trouble,
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: he said, with an air of having prepared to see sentences.
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: I suppose there is no question that I have behaved
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: like an ass. I am profoundly sorry. Largely it is
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: my own fault. But you know, so far as the
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: overt kickop goes, there is a certain amount of blame
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: attaches to our outspoken friend, Missus Bunting. I'm afraid there is,
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: Melville admitted. You know, there are times when one is
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: under the necessity of having moves. It doesn't help them
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: to drag them into general discussion. The mischief's done, you know.
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: Adeline seems to have objected to the presence of this
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: sea lady at a very early stage. Missus Bunting overruled her. Afterwards,
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: when there was trouble, she seems to have tried to
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: make up for it. I didn't know Miss Glindower had objected.
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: She did. She seems to have seen nhead chatteris reflected.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: Of course, all that doesn't excuse me in the least,
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: but it's a sort of excuse for you being dragged
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: into this bother. He said something less distinctly about a
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: stupid bother and private affairs. They found themselves drawing near
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: the band and already on the outskirts of its territory
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: of votaries. Its cheerful rhythms became insistent. The canopy of
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: the stand was a focus of bright light. Music stands
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: and instruments sent out beams of reflected brilliance, and a
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: luminous red conductor in the midst of the lantern guided
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: the ratitude tat ratitude tat of a popular air. Voices,
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: detached fragments of conversation came to our talkers and mingled
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: impertinently with their thoughts. I wouldn't have no truck with them,
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: not after that, said a young person to her friend.
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: Let's get out of this, said chatteris. Abruptly they turned
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: aside from the high path of the LEAs to the
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: head of some steps that led down the declivity. In
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: a few moments, it was as if those imposing fronts
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: of stucco, those many windowed hotels, the electric lights on
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: the tall masts, the bandstand and miscellaneous holiday British public
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: had never existed. It is one of Folkestone's best effects,
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: that black quietness under the very feet of a crowd.
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: They no longer heard the band, even only a remote
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: suggestion of music filtered to them over the brow. The
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: black treed slopes fell from them to the surf below,
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: and out at sea were the lights of many ships.
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: Away to the westward, like a swarm of fireflies, hung
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: the lights of hythe The two men sat down on
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: a vacant seat in the dimness for a time, neither spoke.
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: Chatteris impressed Melville, with an air of being on the defensive,
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: He murmured in a meditative undertone, I wouldn't have no
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: truck with them, not after that. I will admit, by
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: every standard, he said aloud, that I have been flappy
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: and feeble and wrong very in these things. There is
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: a prescribed and definite course. Too. Hesitate to have two
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: points of view is condemned by all right thinking people.
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: Still one has the two points of view. You have
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: come up from Sandgate. Yes, did you see miss Glendower? Yes,
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: talked to her. I suppose what do you think of her?
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: His cigar glowed into an expectant brightness, while Melville hesitated
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: at his answer and showed his eyes thoughtful upon Melville's face.
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: I've never thought her, Melville sought more diplomatic phrasing. I've
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: never found her exceptionally attractive before. Handsome, you know, but
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: not winning. But this time she seemed rather splendid. She is,
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: said Chatters. She is. He sat forward and began flicking
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: imaginary ash from the end of his cigar. She is splendid,
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: he admitted, You only begin to imagine you don't, my
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: dear man, know that girl. She is not quite in
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: your line. She is, I assure you, the straightest and
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: cleanest and clearest human being I have ever met. She
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: believes so firmly. She does right so simply. There is
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: a sort of queenly benevolence, a sort of integrity of benevolence.
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: He left the sentence unfinished, as if unfinished, it completely
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: expressed his thought. She wants you to go back to her,
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: said Melville. Bluntly. I know, said Chatteris, and flicked again
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: at that ghostly ash. She has written that. That's just
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: where her complete magnificence comes in. She doesn't fence and
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: fool about as the she women do. She doesn't squawk
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: and say you've insulted me and everything's at an end,
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: And she doesn't squawk and say, for God's sake, come
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: back to me. She doesn't say she won't have no
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: truck with me, not after this. She writes straight. I
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: don't believe Melville. I half knew her until all this
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: business came up. She comes out before that. It was
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: as you said, And I quite perceive I perceived all
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: along a little too statistical. He became meditative, and a
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: cigar glow waned and presently vanished altogether. You are going back,
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: by Joe, Yes, Melville stirred slightly, and then they both
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: sat rigidly quiet for a space. Then abruptly, Chatter has
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: flung away his extinct cigar. He seemed to fling many
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: other things away with that dim gesture. Of course, he said,
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: I shall go back. It is not my fault. He
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: insisted that this trouble, this separation, has ever arisen. I
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: was moody, I was preoccupied. I know things had got
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: into my head. But if I'd been left alone, I
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: have been forced into this position. He summarized. You understand,
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: said Melville, that though I think matters are indefined and
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: distressing just now, I don't attach blame anywhere. You're open minded,
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: said Chatteris. That's just your way, And I can imagine
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: how all this upset and discomfort distresses you. You're awfully
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: good to keep so open minded and not to consider
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: me an utter outcast, an ill regulated disturber of the
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: order of the world. It's a distressing state of affairs,
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: said Melville. But perhaps I understand the forces pulling at
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: you better than you imagine they're very simple. I suppose
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: very and yet well, he seemed to hesitate at a
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: dangerous topic the other he said, Melville's silence bade him
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: go on. He plunged from his prepared attitude. What is it?
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: Why should this being come into my life as she
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: has done? If it is so simple? What is there
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: about her or me that has pulled me so astray?
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: She has? You know, here we are at sixes and sevens.
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: It's not the situation, it's the mental conflict. Why am
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: I pulled about? She has got into my imagination? How
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: I haven't the remotest idea? She's beautiful? Meditated Melville. She's beautiful, certain,
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: but so is miss Glendower. She's very beautiful. I'm not
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: blind chatteris she's beautiful in a different way? Yes, but
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: that's only the name for the effect. Why is she
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: very beautiful? Elville shrugged his shoulders. She's not beautiful to everyone,
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: you mean, Bunting keeps calm. Oh. He and other people
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: don't seem to see it as I do. Some people
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: seem to see no beauty at all, as we do
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: with emotion. That is, why do we we see finer?
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: Do we? Is? It finer. Why should it be finer
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: to see beauty where it is fatal to us to
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: see it? Why, unless we are to believe there is
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: no reason in things, why should this impossibility be beautiful
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: to any one? Anyhow? Put it as a matter of reason, Melville.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: Why should her smile be so sweet to me? Why
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: should her voice move me? Why hers and not Adeline's.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: Adeline has straight eyes and clear eyes, and fine eyes,
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: and all the difference there can be. What is it?
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: An infinitesimal curving of the lid, an infinitesimal difference in
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: the lashes, and it shatters everything in this way? Who
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: could measure the difference? Who could tell the quality that
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: makes me swim in the sound of her voice? The difference?
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: After all, it's a visible thing, it's a material thing.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: It's in my eyes. By jove, he laughed abruptly. Imagine
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: old Helmholtz trying to gage it with a battery of
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: resonators or spencer in the light of evolution and the
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: environment explaining it away. These things are beyond measurement, said Melville,
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: Not if you measure them by their effect, said Chatteris.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: And anyhow, why do they take us that is the
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: question I can't get away from just now. My cousin meditated,
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: no doubt, with his hands deep in his trousers pockets.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: It is an illusion, he said, It is a sort
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: of glamor. After all, look at it squarely. What is she?
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: What can she give you? She promises you vague some things.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: She is a snare, She is deception. She is the
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: beautiful mask of death. Yes, said Chatteris. I know, And
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: then again I know there is nothing for me to
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: learn about that, he said, But why why should the
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: mask of death be beautiful? After all, we get our
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: duty by good, hard reasoning. Why should reason and justice
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: carry everything? Perhaps, after all, there are things beyond our reason. Perhaps,
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: after all, desire has a claim on us. He stopped interrogatively,
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: and Melville was profound, I think, said my cousin. At last,
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: desire has a claim on us. Beauty at any rate,
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, he explained, We are human beings. We are matter,
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: with minds growing out of ourselves. We reached downward into
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: the beautiful wonderland of matter, and upward to something. He
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: stopped from sheer dissatisfaction with the image in another direction, anyhow,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: he tried feebly. He jumped at something that was not
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: quite his meaning. Man is a sort of half way house.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: He must compromise, as you do well. Yes, I try
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: to strike a balance. A few good old engravings, good,
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: I suppose, a little luxury and furniture and flowers, a
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: few things that come within your means, art in moderation,
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: and a few kindly acts of the pleasanter sort a
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: certain respect for truth, duty also in moderation. Eh, it's
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: just that even balance that I cannot contrive. I cannot
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: sit down to the oatmeal of this daily life and
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: wash it down with a temperate draft of beauty and
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: water art. I suppose I'm voracious. I'm one of the
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: unfit for the civilized stage. I've sat down once. I've
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: sat down twice to perfectly sane, secure and reasonable things.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: It's not my way, he repeated. It's not my way. Melville,
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: I think said nothing to that. He was distracted from
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: the immediate topic by the discussion of his own way
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: of living. He was lost in egotistical comparisons. No doubt,
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: he was on the verge of saying, as most of
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: us would have been under the circumstances, I don't think
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: you quite understand my position. But after all, what is
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: the good of talking in this way? Exclaimed chatteris abruptly.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: I am simply trying to elevate the whole business by
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: dragging in these wider questions. It's justification when I didn't
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: mean to justify. I have to choose between life with
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: Adeline and this woman out of the sea who is dead.
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: How do I know she is death? But you said
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: you had made your choice. I have, he seemed to recollect.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: I have he corroborated I told you I am going
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: back to see miss Glendower tomorrow. Yes, he recalled further
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: portions of what I believe was some prepared and ready
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: phrased decision, some decision from which the conversation had drifted.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: The need of my life is disciplined, the habit of persistence,
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: of ignoring side issues and wandering thoughts. Discipline and work work,
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: if you like to put it so, it's the same thing.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: The trouble so far has been I haven't worked hard enough.
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: I've stopped to speak to the woman by the way,
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: I've paltered with compromise, and the other thing has caught me.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: I've got to renounce it. That is all It isn't
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: that your work is contemptible by Joe. No, it's arduous.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: It has its dusty moments. There are places to climb
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: that are not only steep but muddy. The world wants leaders.
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: It gives a man of your class a great deal leisure, honor, training,
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: and high traditions, and it expects something back. I know
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: I am wrong, have been wrong. Anyhow, this dream has
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: taken me wonderfully, and I must renounce it. After all,
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: it is not so much to renounce a dream. It's
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: no more than deciding to live. There are big things
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: in the world for men to do. Melville produced an
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: elaborate conceit. If there is no venusanadiamine, he said, there
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: is Michael and his sword, the stern angel in armor.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: But then he had a good palpable dragon to slash,
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: and not his own desires. And our weigh nowadays is
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: to do a deal with the dragons somehow, raise the
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: minimum wage and get a better housing for the working
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: classes by Hooker by Krok. Melville does not think that
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: was a fair treatment of his suggest No, said chatteris,
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: I've no doubt about the choice. I'm going to fall
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: in with the species. I'm going to take my place
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: in the ranks in that great battle for the future,
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: which is the meaning of life. I want a moral
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: cold bath that I mean to take one. This lacks
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: dalliance with dreams and desires must end. I will make
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: a time table for my hours and a rule for
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: my life. I will entangle my honor in controversies. I
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: will give myself to service as a man should do,
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: clean handed work, struggle in performance. And there is miss Glendar,
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: you know, rather said Chatteris, with a faint touch of insincerity,
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: tall and straight eyed and capable. By Jove, if there's
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: to be no Venus and a Diamine at any rate,
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: there will be a pallas Athene. It is she who
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: plays the reconciler. And then he said these words. It
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: won't be so bad, you know. Melville restrained a movement
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: of impatience. He tells me. At that then, Chatteris, he says,
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: broke into a sort of speech. The case is tried,
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: he said, the judgment has been given. I am that
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: I am. I've been through it all and worked it out.
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: I am a man, and I must go a man's way.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: There is desire, the light and guide of the world.
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: A beacon on the headland blazing out. Let it burn,
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: Let it burn. The road runs near it and by
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: it and past. I've made my choice. I've got to
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: be a man. I've got to live a man and
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: die a man, and carry the burden of my class
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: and time. There it is. I've had the dream. But
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: you see I keep hold of reason. Here with a
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: flame burning, I renounce it. I make my choice. Renunciation, always, renunciation.
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: That is life for all of us. We have desires,
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: only to deny them, senses that we all must starve.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: We can live only as a part of ourselves. Why
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: should I be exempt? For me? She is evil? For me,
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: she is death only? Why have I seen her face?
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: Why have I heard her voice? Six? They walked out
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: of the shadows and up a long sloping path until sandgate,
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: as a little line of lights came into view below.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: Presently they came out upon the brow and walked together,
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: the pan playing with a remote and sweetening indistinctness far
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: away behind them, towards the cliff at the end. They
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: stood for a little while in silence, looking down. Melville
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: made a guess at his companion's thoughts. Why not come
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: down to night, he asked, on a night like this.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: Chatteris turned about suddenly and regarded the moonlight at the sea.
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: He stood quite still for a space, and that cold
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: white radiance gave an illusory strength and decision to his face. No,
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: he said at last, and the word was almost a sigh.
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: Go down to the girl below there and the thing.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: She will be there thinking of you. No, said Chatteris. No,
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: it's not ten yet. Melville tried again. Chatteris thought, no,
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: he answered, not to night tomorrow, in the light of
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: every day. I want a good, gray, honest day, he said,
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: with a southwest wind, these still soft nights, how can
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: you expect me to do anything of that sort to night?
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: And then he murmured, as if he found the word
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: a satisfying word to repeat. Renunciation by Jove, he said,
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: with the most astonishing transition. But this is a night
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: out of fairy land. Look at the lights of those
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: windows below there, and then up up into this enormous
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: blue of sky, and there, as if it were fainting
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: with moonlight, shines one star. The end of chapter seven
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: recording by Thomas Copeland