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Entrapped - Alice Mangold Diehl · The Major Symptoms of Hysteria

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  Speaker 1: Chapter three of Entrapped by Alice Mangled Deal. This LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Poisoned, absurd, ridiculous. Why
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  Speaker 1: of all the men I ever met, he was the
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  Speaker 1: very last to commit suicide? Began Andrew. But doctor Bird
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  Speaker 1: did not seem to hear him bending down. He seemed
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  Speaker 1: absorbed in a careful examination of the old man's corpse,
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  Speaker 1: which had a pitiful as well as a grotesque appearance.
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  Speaker 1: Seated in the chair, then he suddenly stood up. Smell
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  Speaker 1: his mouth, he said, almost contemptuously. For a moment, Andrew
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  Speaker 1: had a fierce struggle with himself, the cold sweat of
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  Speaker 1: horror and aversion stood on his pale forehead. Then, conquering
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  Speaker 1: his emotion, he too stooped down near the drawn livid lips.
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  Speaker 1: I certainly smell something like a pungent scent, he hesitatingly began.
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  Speaker 1: My cousin, Miss Blount, had some I forget what it
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  Speaker 1: was called. Tut tut, impatiently exco aimed doctor Bird. That
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  Speaker 1: smell means but one thing, man hydrocyanic acid. Where are
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  Speaker 1: his keys in his trouser pocket? He moved the clenched
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  Speaker 1: fist of the dead Squire a little aside, and, feeling
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  Speaker 1: in his trouser pockets, drew out a small bunch of
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  Speaker 1: bright steel keys. Come, he briefly commanded, Andrew, hardly guessing
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  Speaker 1: his errand followed him into the dressing room, where a
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  Speaker 1: mahogany chest stood on a table, and watched him open
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  Speaker 1: it after trying several keys, and carefully move the small
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  Speaker 1: bottles on the shelves until he drew forth an empty one.
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  Speaker 1: In a kind of miserable stupor, There, he said, opening
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  Speaker 1: sniffing it empty, he took enough to kill a dozen
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  Speaker 1: men if that bottle had half as much in it
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  Speaker 1: to day as when I let him have it a
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  Speaker 1: few weeks back. He had been in the habit of
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  Speaker 1: taking a few drops now and then. His heart was
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  Speaker 1: not up to much. But I never dreamt of this. Come,
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  Speaker 1: let us see whether we can put our hands upon
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  Speaker 1: the glass. He drank it from He spoke in a new, alert,
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  Speaker 1: business like way, and Andrew listened, feeling too stunned to
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  Speaker 1: make a remark. He watched the little doctor thrust the
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  Speaker 1: bottle into his breast pocket and locked the medicine chest,
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  Speaker 1: then followed him into the death chamber without a single word.
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  Speaker 1: As the two men returned to the squire's bedroom, Missus
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  Speaker 1: Slee came in. I can't tell which is which of
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  Speaker 1: the cups and tumblers now, Sir Mister Quarrels added soup
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  Speaker 1: and wine and water while mister Andrew and Miss Zoe
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  Speaker 1: was at dinner, and I fetched the tray down myself.
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  Speaker 1: Susan washed him up with the rest just before she
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  Speaker 1: come up to see to the bedrooms. Doctor Bird looked discomfited,
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  Speaker 1: then puzzled, for, according to missus Slee, the glasses used
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  Speaker 1: by the squire during the day had all come below
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  Speaker 1: quite half an hour before Susan, entering had found him
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  Speaker 1: dead in his chair. Whatever he took it in must
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  Speaker 1: be up here still, then he decided. Then he began
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  Speaker 1: a search in the presence of the dead man's trusted
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  Speaker 1: housekeeper and adopted son, which was fruitless in regard to
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  Speaker 1: the bedroom and dressing room tumblers, which were dry and odorless,
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  Speaker 1: but which led to a discovery that the medicine glass
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  Speaker 1: on the mantel piece was missing from its Morocco case.
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  Speaker 1: The doctor said nothing further than that the glass must
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  Speaker 1: be found. Then he turned to Andrew and asked for tape, scissors,
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  Speaker 1: and sealing wax, and in the presence of the two
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  Speaker 1: whose help he first demanded to lay the corpse on
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  Speaker 1: the bed decently before Rigamortus set in. He raked out
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  Speaker 1: the small fire, watching it until perfect safety was assured,
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  Speaker 1: took away the lamp, locked the doors, putting the keys
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  Speaker 1: in his pocket, and asking Andrew to hold the lamp,
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  Speaker 1: carefully sealed each of the outer doors, carefully impressing the
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  Speaker 1: seals with his own signet ring. Now, please come downstairs,
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  Speaker 1: where is miss Blount in the dining room? We will
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  Speaker 1: go there, then, he briskly said, and followed by the two,
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  Speaker 1: Andrew scared looking and missus Sleeve visibly trembling. He as
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  Speaker 1: briskly went down and into the dining room, where Zoe
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  Speaker 1: was still crouching collapsed in the chair. How are you,
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  Speaker 1: he asked, going to her, shaking hands, but seemingly too
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  Speaker 1: preoccupied to notice her pallor and evident nervous prostration. Then
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  Speaker 1: he resolutely planted himself on the hearth rug back to
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  Speaker 1: the fire, and, after he had requested missus Lee to
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  Speaker 1: shut the door, insisted upon both young Master and old
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  Speaker 1: servitor being seated because he had something to say. These
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  Speaker 1: sudden deaths are always painful affairs, you see, he began,
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  Speaker 1: after clearing his throat and looking at no one in particular,
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  Speaker 1: Because there has to be a certain formula gone through.
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  Speaker 1: Inquiry has to be made. It is the law of
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  Speaker 1: the land. He paused for Andrew started up and went
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  Speaker 1: to him. He looked concentrated anger. His pale face was
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  Speaker 1: suddenly suffused with scarlet. His eyes glowed with passion. If
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  Speaker 1: by that you mean an inquest, it is shocking, he
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  Speaker 1: hotly cried. If my uncle had a weak heart, surely
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  Speaker 1: you can give the certificate of death. He would have
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  Speaker 1: been the very last tuish himself known to be a suicide,
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  Speaker 1: if indeed he was one, which I cannot believe. Doctor
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  Speaker 1: Bird swayed a little on his small, stout feet, and
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  Speaker 1: with posed up lips, contemplated them with raised eyebrows, and
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  Speaker 1: cleared his throat, a trick of his when patients were
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  Speaker 1: a tall refractory during treatment. My dear young friend, duty
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  Speaker 1: is duty, he returned, in the businesslike unemotional manner he
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  Speaker 1: had assumed since he realized the fact of his old friend,
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  Speaker 1: the eccentric squire Quarrels's tragically sudden death. My duty in
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  Speaker 1: this case is to inform the coroner, and you may
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  Speaker 1: be sure that no secondary motives will prevent my doing so,
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  Speaker 1: least of all any sentimental notions of what mister Quarrels
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  Speaker 1: would have thought or felt when alive. My duty is
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  Speaker 1: not to Andrew Quarrel's living, but to Andrew Quarrels dead.
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  Speaker 1: Here Zoe suddenly sat up and looked with affrighted eyes
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  Speaker 1: from Doctor Bird to her lover an inquest What for,
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  Speaker 1: she hoarsely asked, her eyes glittering, Oh, doctor, surely you
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  Speaker 1: can save us that disgrace. Andrew begged Doctor Bird to
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  Speaker 1: have pity on us. Her voice rang shrill if pathetic.
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  Speaker 1: But the doctor, who was both puzzled and thoroughly upset
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  Speaker 1: in his calculations at whose naturally simple yet shrewd mind.
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  Speaker 1: A score of miserable doubts and suspicions were clamoring for admission,
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  Speaker 1: stood firm, My good friends, The best thing we can
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  Speaker 1: do is to go to bed, he began. I shall
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  Speaker 1: have to be off before daylight, and honestly, I feel
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  Speaker 1: pretty well done up by my day's work, let alone
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  Speaker 1: by the shock it has been to me. To find
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  Speaker 1: my old friend dead in such a sudden and unexpected way.
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  Speaker 1: If you will allow me, I will lie down on
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  Speaker 1: that big old sofa yonder. It will not be the
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  Speaker 1: first time I have passed a night there since the first,
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  Speaker 1: when my friend, who has just died, was so mad
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  Speaker 1: with grief at the flight of his sister that I
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  Speaker 1: feared for his reason. Doctor, you will have something first,
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  Speaker 1: began Andrew hoarsely. But doctor Bird, cheery little old man
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  Speaker 1: that he looked cherublike in gentle innocence, as his bright
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  Speaker 1: face and kindly blue eyes suggested that he was, was
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  Speaker 1: as adamant. He refused Andrew's offers of meat and drink,
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  Speaker 1: sent off the housekeeper for pillows and blankets, and presently
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  Speaker 1: had so far succeeded in his desires that a dead
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  Speaker 1: silence reigned throughout the big mansion. Presumably every one of
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  Speaker 1: its few inhabitants was in bed, if not asleep. For
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  Speaker 1: himself personally, sleep was impossible. As soon as he felt
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  Speaker 1: pretty secure that he had been obeyed, he quietly threw
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  Speaker 1: off the protecting blanket, and, rising as quietly made up
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  Speaker 1: the fire and, intending to be seated in the chair.
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  Speaker 1: Zoe had lately vacated. Was feeling in his pocket for
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  Speaker 1: his pipe and tobacco pouch, when something white caught his eye,
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  Speaker 1: a wisp of white between the tumbled cushion and the
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  Speaker 1: chair arm. He took it up. It was a square
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  Speaker 1: envelope directed in the squire's handwriting to Messr's Flower Dew
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  Speaker 1: and pearlby. It was stamped, but had evidently not been
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  Speaker 1: posted his lawyers. He muttered to himself, that's queer. Then
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  Speaker 1: he started for Turning the envelope round, he saw that
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  Speaker 1: it had either not been closed or had been opened.
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  Speaker 1: This will have to be given to the coroner, he
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  Speaker 1: told himself, as he drew out the sheet enclosed and read,
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  Speaker 1: Dear Sirs, circumstances oblige me to alter my last will
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  Speaker 1: made two months ago, and I shall be glad if
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  Speaker 1: you will send or come to see about it immediately tomorrow,
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  Speaker 1: if possible, faithfully, Yours, Andrew Quarrels. There was no sleep
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  Speaker 1: for the village Esculapius that night. He sat up smoking,
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  Speaker 1: waiting for the dawn to come to leave the house
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  Speaker 1: and seat the coroner. And he had never been so
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  Speaker 1: thoroughly upset in his life, for he could not master
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  Speaker 1: his thoughts. He could not check the miserable suspicions which,
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  Speaker 1: in tormenting hordes thronged his mind. He felt as powerless
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  Speaker 1: against them as he would have been against a crowd,
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  Speaker 1: a mob of accusers who were shouting denunciations of the
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  Speaker 1: young people who had shown such unmistakable terror. Could their
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  Speaker 1: chain looks, their horrified expression, their pallor, and threatened collapse
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  Speaker 1: have been due to shock alone, he asked himself. He
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  Speaker 1: would have given worlds that night to believe that Andrew
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  Speaker 1: did not know more of the tragedy than he chose
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  Speaker 1: to tell. And Zoe also, the motive is so hideously plain,
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  Speaker 1: he told himself. He knew the two were sweethearts. It
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  Speaker 1: had been common village talks since Zoe had become an
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  Speaker 1: inmate of her uncle's house a few months previously. He
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  Speaker 1: also knew something and made a shewd guess at Moore
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  Speaker 1: of Squire Quarrels's life, which knowledge, although he had hardly
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  Speaker 1: been surprised by Quarles's adoption of his jilter's orphan son,
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  Speaker 1: had caused him to be considerably astonished when Zoe Blount
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  Speaker 1: was domiciled in Heavenly court. Nothing could have been less
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  Speaker 1: to his mind, one would think, than the marriage of
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  Speaker 1: those two. He mused, the girl might have knocked under,
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  Speaker 1: but the young man, doctor Bird dismally mournfully shook his head.
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  Speaker 1: He did not believe in Andrew. He had never been
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  Speaker 1: able to trust him. Although since the lad first arrived
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  Speaker 1: a somewhat cringing, half starved youth with the deprecating air
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  Speaker 1: which experience had taught the doctor to associate with fraud,
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  Speaker 1: humbug and even crime, he had honestly striven to overcome
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  Speaker 1: his prejudices. Thank Heaven, Chinery is one of the justest
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  Speaker 1: minded men one can find anywhere, he told himself as
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  Speaker 1: he let himself out in the gray morning, carefully closed
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  Speaker 1: the heavy door of the House of Death, and sped
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  Speaker 1: along the drive homewards. Perhaps, after all, it might have
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  Speaker 1: been a sudden aberration, Quarrels may have taken that dose
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  Speaker 1: in a moment of frenzy. But that letter, if he
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  Speaker 1: really meant it, I know the man. The very last
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  Speaker 1: thing he would have done was to end his life
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  Speaker 1: before he had his revenge. If only I had not
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  Speaker 1: to give Chinery that fatal letter. When I read it,
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  Speaker 1: I felt somehow it was somebody's death warrant end of
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  Speaker 1: chapter three, Chapter seven of Entrapped by Alice Mangold deal.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The solicitor
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  Speaker 1: did not exactly start. He was too practiced a lawyer
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  Speaker 1: to betray himself in that absurd fashion, But he gave
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  Speaker 1: Andrew Quarrels a long inquiring stare over his pince nez
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  Speaker 1: when he removed them. I quite expected that you would
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  Speaker 1: be able to tell me all about the young lady,
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  Speaker 1: he began, with cautious deliberation. All I know is that
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  Speaker 1: she is some one in whom my late client, your
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  Speaker 1: adoptive father was greatly interested, That occasionally her health gives way,
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  Speaker 1: that she is by nature timid and a recluse, and
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  Speaker 1: that occasionally she has visited here ostensibly as a guest
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  Speaker 1: of missus Slee's. That is really all I do know
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  Speaker 1: the girl in white, exclaimed Andrew, What do I mean
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  Speaker 1: that I have seen her now and again and set
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  Speaker 1: her down as some friend of missus Slee's. I dare say, then,
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  Speaker 1: Missus Slee will be able to tell you a great
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  Speaker 1: deal about her, said mister Pearlby, slowly, with a complacent smile.
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  Speaker 1: My only concern with the young lady is this, do
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  Speaker 1: you accept her as your ward? Which is tantamount to
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  Speaker 1: asking whether you accept or renounce your fortune? My dear
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  Speaker 1: good sir, of course I accept everything, returned Andrew. I
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  Speaker 1: only wish to understand my position. That is all. Have
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  Speaker 1: you that letter of my my father's with you? It
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  Speaker 1: is here, said the lawyer, drawing a square envelope from
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  Speaker 1: his bag. As you see, it is marked to be
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  Speaker 1: retained by mister Pearlby after its perusal on the occasion
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  Speaker 1: of the reading of my will by himself and my
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  Speaker 1: adopted son, Andrew. Shall I break the seals and read
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  Speaker 1: it first, asked the lawyer, And you readily acquiesced. So
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  Speaker 1: mister Pearlby resettled his discarded pinceney, and carefully breaking the
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  Speaker 1: three black seals, which were seemingly impressed by the big
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  Speaker 1: gold signat ring taken from the finger of the deceased,
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  Speaker 1: which the undertaker had delivered to the lawyer, read the
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  Speaker 1: writing upon a sheet of ordinary notepaper contained in the
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  Speaker 1: envelope with minute care and attention. Andrew watched him narrowly
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  Speaker 1: the while, but could not judge of the impression made
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  Speaker 1: upon him by the document. The expression of his face
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  Speaker 1: was rigidly vacuous. Then the lawyer handed the sheet to
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  Speaker 1: his new client, and Andrew read mister Peurlby, and Andrew,
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  Speaker 1: Margaret Money is to live at Appleby Grange, where she
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  Speaker 1: now resides with a trustworthy housekeeper and two maid servants.
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  Speaker 1: Missus Slee is to have the option of living with
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  Speaker 1: her as companion at a suitable salary. The house is
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  Speaker 1: to be kept in thorough repair, and Margaret is to
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  Speaker 1: continue to wear suitable clothing chosen by Missus Walters and
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  Speaker 1: Missus Slee. The bills to be defrayed by yourself. My
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  Speaker 1: desire is, Andrew, that you should visit her certainly once
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  Speaker 1: a month, if possible, once a fortnight. That her medical
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  Speaker 1: adviser should continue to visit her as heretofore, and that
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  Speaker 1: mister Pearlby himself should visit her once a month and
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  Speaker 1: make the inquiries into and arrangements an end to her
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  Speaker 1: welfare that I have hitherto made myself. When Margaret Money dies,
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  Speaker 1: I wish her to be buried in the same grave
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  Speaker 1: as myself, or, if this is not possible, in a
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  Speaker 1: grave as near to mine as possible, Andrew quarrels. You
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  Speaker 1: are surprised, asked mister Pearlby, As Andrew handed the sheet
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  Speaker 1: to him in silence, The young man shrugged his shoulders.
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  Speaker 1: Where is Appleby Grange? The first time I heard of
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  Speaker 1: it was when you were reading the will? He returned.
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  Speaker 1: It is in Oxfordshire, a solitary kind of place. I
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  Speaker 1: believe I have not been there, said mister Pearlby. But
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  Speaker 1: now what do you think? Had we not better have
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  Speaker 1: missus Sleigh in than top things over and your acquiescing.
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  Speaker 1: The bell was rung and a message sent to Missus
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  Speaker 1: Sleigh by Phoebe. Mister Perowby had but just concluded his
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  Speaker 1: recommendation to Andrew not to frighten the poor woman, who
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  Speaker 1: would naturally feel complicity in her late master's secrets, although
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  Speaker 1: it had been her bound and duty to keep them intact.
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  Speaker 1: When Missus Slee appeared at the door, looking old and tottery.
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  Speaker 1: Come in, Missus Slee, exclaimed mister Pearlby genially, and he
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  Speaker 1: rose and placed a chair for her close to his own.
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  Speaker 1: We are not going to bother you or detain you.
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  Speaker 1: You are a busy person, we know, but you can
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  Speaker 1: help mister andrew here more than any one can in
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  Speaker 1: his fulfillment of poor mister Quarles's wishes, and, knowing your
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  Speaker 1: devotion to your late master, I am sure you will
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: be only too glad to do that. His careful cajolery
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  Speaker 1: had some effect. Still, as missus Slee accepted the chair
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  Speaker 1: placed for her, she looked more like a victim than
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  Speaker 1: a ready assistant to the furtherance of the late squire's
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  Speaker 1: testamentary desires, seeing which mister Pearlby assumed a still more
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  Speaker 1: cheering manner. My dear missus Slee, mister Quarrels left a
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  Speaker 1: letter as well as a will, in which he informs
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  Speaker 1: us you will tell us all about his ward, Miss
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  Speaker 1: Margaret Money, he began brightly. Missus Sleeg, stiffened and bridled,
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  Speaker 1: she gave the lawyer a resentful glance. What I know
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  Speaker 1: of Miss Margaret amounts to nothing at all, sir, She
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  Speaker 1: resolutely replied, Oh come now, that's putting it a little
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  Speaker 1: too strong. Missus Slee returned mister Pearlby in pleasant expostulation.
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  Speaker 1: It is making your late master out well a story teller.
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  Speaker 1: He says, you do know, and you say you don't.
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  Speaker 1: I am sure you do not wish to give a
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  Speaker 1: flat denial to a statement made by the dead master.
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  Speaker 1: You so regret an honor. No, no, of course you
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  Speaker 1: do not now suppose to shorten matters. We put it
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  Speaker 1: this way. You will tell us all you do know
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  Speaker 1: of miss Money, begin at the beginning, and go on
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  Speaker 1: to the last time you had anything to do with her.
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  Speaker 1: Missus Slee glanced despairingly from the lawyer to Andrew, then
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  Speaker 1: back to mister Pearlby. Then she set her lips tightly
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  Speaker 1: and asked if she might see the letter this being
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  Speaker 1: handed to her immediately by mister Peurlby. She put on
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  Speaker 1: her spectacles, read it carefully two or three times, then,
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  Speaker 1: apparently relieved in her mind, returned it to the solicitor.
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  Speaker 1: I am glad Miss Margaret's are going to be took
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  Speaker 1: care of, Not that she ain't been, but that now
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  Speaker 1: mister Caralesur's is dead. She's about lost the only friend
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  Speaker 1: she seems to have had in all our life, poor soul,
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  Speaker 1: She began, I can't tell you who she is, mister
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  Speaker 1: Pearlby and mister Andrew, not if I were to be
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  Speaker 1: killed for it the next minute that I can't The
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  Speaker 1: first I ever hear or see of her. Was one
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  Speaker 1: summer's day, a hot June day. It was nigh upon midsummer.
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  Speaker 1: When the Squire comes to me, Slee, he says, sharp
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  Speaker 1: as he used to speak, poor soul, his bark was
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  Speaker 1: allers worse than his bite, as every one knows, as
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  Speaker 1: does him. Justice, Slee, I want you to do something
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  Speaker 1: very particular for me. I've got a young friend as
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  Speaker 1: I made acquaintance with casual like, and I asked her ear,
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  Speaker 1: but you know what a country place is, and this
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  Speaker 1: place in particular, how they'll talk and say all sorts
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  Speaker 1: of things if she's seen visiting me. I want her
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  Speaker 1: to come here private like, just as if she was
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  Speaker 1: your child or niece or friend. You was havin to
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  Speaker 1: stay surreptitious like I saw what ye wanted at once
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  Speaker 1: mister Purlby and mister Andrew. And I didn't ask no
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  Speaker 1: further questions. E beIN my master and me is servant,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: but did as I was told. He told me to
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: go and meet her in the evenin', and I did
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: so and brought her back. She was a pretty girl then,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: about twelve, I should say it's eight year ago. Come
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: mid summer, an she called the squire guardy. She stopped
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: three weeks that time and used to meet him about
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: the grounds. He took care ne'er to be seen with her,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: and I soon understood as how she was livin at
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: the squire's place near Oxford called Appleby Grange, with an ousekeeper,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: as i'd been a nurse and two woman servants. No, Sir,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: the child didn't seem to have any one belongin to her,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: nor to know where she was bored. She'd been at
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Appleby Grange with missus Walters, the ousekeeper, ever since. She
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: took notice like, but that's just where it is. Miss
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Margaret ain't like other folks in her perceiving's what do
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: I mean? She's all right enough some time, though, while
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: her body's growed, her mind ain't growed along with it.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Child she was when she first come here, and child
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: she is at this very minute, in my belief, what
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: some calls a softy and some calls an innocent. How
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: many times has she been here? Well, I haven't so
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: to say counted, but she has allers come in the
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: spring when the buttercups and young things calves and lambs
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: and young chickens and ducks and such was about. She
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: was that partial to spring things. Mister Quarrels liked to
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: see her over em. Then she come when the rose
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: garden was in blue. She liked to live there pretty well,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: poor dear, till mister Andrew come when she was skeered
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: and didn't like to be about. I never told mister
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: quarrel in so many words, mister Andrew, that she was
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: frighted of you, But she was. And when Miss Zoe come,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: she was nearly out of her mind for fear of her.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: She He's a pretty girl as ever was. I'll say
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: that much for her, but I don't believe as goin'
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: to see her, as the Squire says, will be much good.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Ye see, ye didn't rightly know our strangers about frightened
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: the poor girl. I didn't like to tell him, for
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: I could see as he set great store by her,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: and never once thought as I thought, And other people
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: would have thought if they'd a known her, that poor girl,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: she was simple. He was real fond of Miss Margaret,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: was mister Quarrels, and she of him er guardy, as
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: she called him, poor soul. Missus Lee sniffed and dabbed
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: her eyes with a black bordered handkerchief, upon which, with
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: sympathy and thanks, mister Pearlby notified that he and mister
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Andrew were loath to trouble her any further. His last words,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: as he closed the door upon her retreating figure, contained
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: complimentary allusions to her obedient devotion to the late Squire's
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: wishes and hopes that she would assist him and the
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: present mister Quarrels in their future furtherance. I'm sure I
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: hope so, sir, she faltered, departing, for I don't know
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: who should think of him now he's gone, if I
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: didn't be in his nurse from childhood up, as they say,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Mister Pearlby cleared his throat as he returned to where
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Andrew was sitting deeply in thought, and sat down once more.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: We are hardly much wiser on the subject of your ward,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: Miss Margaret Money, than we were before, are we, mister Quarrels,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: He drily said. Still, perhaps we may be better in
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: the darkness of ignorance than with a whof knowledge of
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: the subject. It is so well said that a little
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: knowledge is a dangerous thing. Andrew made no reply or comment.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: Two points absorbed his attention. One was the fact that
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Margaret Money's seeming mental deficiencies prevented, and apparently had hitherto prevented,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: any question of a matrimonial common location with himself or
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: any other man, either now or in the future. The
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: other was his projected squaring of his trustee so as
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: to bind him to him with hooks of steel. My
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: dear mister Peurlby, all I wish is to carry out
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: my late adoptive father's wishes in Toto. I am sure
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: you believe that of me, He earnestly began leaning forward
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: and resting his arms on the table as he gazed
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: full into his legal adviser's eyes. But somehow I feel
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: very incompetent to do so. I hope you will help
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: me stop. Wait, hear me out. No one is better
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: aware than I am how valuable your time is, not
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: only as a much appreciated lawyer in your own person,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: but as a prominent member of a firm second to
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: none in reputation. I do not ask you to waste
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: your precious hours on me. I only beg this of you.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Arrange everything all responsibilities left me by my late adoptive father,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: and charge me the extreme value of every hour spent
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: on my behalf. No, you must not deny me this.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: I am determined you shall not be imposed upon by
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: myself or any one else. I am also determined that
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: any one who helps me shall not suffer for it.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: You will not let me fall into less scrupulous, less
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: honorable hands than yours, mister Pearlby. Will you believe me
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: the world is not a world of philanthropists any more
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: than it is a world of rascals. I am convinced
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: of that, My dear sir, You do me honor and
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: yourself as well, said mister Pearlby, who was not at
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: all taken aback nor perhaps surprised. He had formed his
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: own estimate of the late Squire's adopted son long ago,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: and one of its items was that he was very able,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: very able. Indeed, I can only say this, The confidence
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: you repose in me is not misplaced, nor will you
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: have any cause to regret it. A mutual understanding established,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Andrew became expansive. He told miss to Pearlby what he
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: already knew. That he loved his supposed cousin Zoe and
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: intended to make her his wife. I had meant this
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: before my father's death, and I feel I should have
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: brought him round to my way of thinking. I assure you,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: mister Pearlby, I also feel that if anything is really
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: true that believers tell us of a future state, he
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: thinks very differently now of our marriage, he went on glibly,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: if not to the attentive lawyer, convincingly at all times,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: James Pearlby was a difficult man to convince. And my
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: intention then is doubly trebly my intention now when I
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: have good reason to know that the poor girl is
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: wrongfully suspected of having poisoned her uncle. Mister Pearlby gasped.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: My god, he exclaimed, off guard, astonished at the sudden,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: cool assertion of what he might dimly have suggested to himself,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: but which was like a moral bomb shell uttered in
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: that fashion. Pray, pray, don't say that you must be mistaken. Surely,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Andrew shook his head with a sad air. I am not,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: mister Peurlby. More's the pity, he said, poor girl, It
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: is cruel, unjust horrible, and my one desire is that
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: she should never know of it. It would be the
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: very last idea to cross her mind. She was such
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: a perfect angel to him, and he was very trying
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: at times. No for her sake and she deserves every consideration.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: I must wave everything, I must even risk shocking the
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: pious public. There is but one course to take, to
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: marry her at once, and going abroad to live the
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: scandal down. For scandal it is and will be. There
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: is no help for it. That absurd verdict of those
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: asses of jurymen ensured that mister Peurlby, if surprised and
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: a little perplexed, did not allow emotion to outbalance sober judgment.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: When he left Heavenly Court an hour later, he had
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: practically acceded to roll that his new and liberal client proposed,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: and so ably as he termed it had Andrew stated
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: his propositions that he returned to town not only with
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: a clear conscience, but in for him high spirits. His
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: client hardly seemed in a similar humor. When left to himself,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: he longed to Sizoe, but he had a dismal, haunting
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: fear which held him back. A dread lest she should
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: suspect him of what he dared not tell himself. He
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: paced the library, summoning up every grain of courage he
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: possessed to face her and fight his own battles. His
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: heart would sink, would fail him, do what he might.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: I must take her by storm, he moodily told himself
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: at last, there is no other way. I must take
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: her by storm. End of chapter seven chapter nine of
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Entrapped by Alice mangol Deal. This LibriVox recording is in
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Her overpowering love for Andrew subjugated Zoe
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: like some potent, stupefying drug. She seemed dead to every other,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: feeling only to have in existence as his creature, as
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: if she were hypnotized by him. After that crucial interview,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: the young man seemed to have gained fresh power. He
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: showed an indomitable will, and all about him submitted more
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: or less meekly to his commands. His actions were as
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: swift as his resolves. In a few days, the servants
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: were paid and were under sentence of dismissal. Missus Lee
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: was to wait until the last to help her masterful
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: young employer to shut up the house and then to
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: proceed to Appleby Grange, where she had chosen to live
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: as recommended by her late master. She was growing in
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: devotion to Andrew, who had fixed her salary as part
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: companion to the poor young man Margaret Money at one
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: hundred pounds the year. It is too much, mister Andrew Sir,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: she had said, choking with emotion and gratitude, when he
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: had told her his intentions, and she had gone away
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: his fervent admirer. When shaking hands warmly with her, he
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: had said, my dear missus Lee, I have seen and
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: felt your faithful goodness to my poor father ever since
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: he adopted me. The little it is in my power
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: to do to contribute to your comfort is only your due.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: During long walks about the garden and grounds of Zoe,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: lovely spring weather had set in, and all the sweet,
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: fresh blossoms of early year were bursting into beauty, while
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: the buds on trees and shrubs were swelling and expanding
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: into brilliant green foliage. He laid down the law as
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: to their joint future in his new adoring, if imperious manner.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: I am determined that no evil tongues, no good natured friends,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: shall spoil our life long honeymoon, he said, So we
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: shall start life immediately after our marriag mariage as a
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: mister and missus Hamilton, you will be Zora instead of Zoe,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: and you must learn to think of as well as
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: to call me by my second name of Basil. What
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: do you say you were only thinking when you found
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: it out that it fitted me I was your basilisk
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: How sweet of you to flatter me so, my darling.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: Zoe soon understood what lay immediately before her. As a
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: miss born, she was to have rooms in a fashionable
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: hotel in the west end of London, and to choose
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: a trousseau as if she were an heiress in her
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: own right. Andrew would visit her once or twice in
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: a decorous manner, on the last occasion to take her
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: to the registrars and marry her, both secretly and quietly.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: She would return to her hotel and he would proceed
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: to Paris, where she would follow, and the new life
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: as mister and Missus Hamilton would begin. At her uncle's death,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: her kind friend and godmother had written to her offering
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: her the humble home she shared with her now widowed sister.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: This Miss Vigers was the only post to whom Zoe
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: was in any way bound to account for herself, the
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: only one who could or would care where she went
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: what she did or what became of her. To this,
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: lady Zoe wrote a cleverly evasive letter, dictated by Andrew,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: containing not one word of her future movements. If she
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: wants to know, let her find out, he had somewhat
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: brutally said, as he stamped the letter with a vicious
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: thump and pocketed it. Many little new traits were present
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: in Zoe's lover during those days, but she noticed them vaguely.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: Her one prevailing feeling was anxiety to be away safe Andrew,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: her very own her husband. She trembled as if seized
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: with agu that last day. What is the matter with you,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: he peremptorily asked, when he was giving her the sheaf
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: of bank notes and the rulau of gold she was
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: to spend during the next three weeks. Fear, was her
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: laconic reply. Then, seeing a curious light in his eyes
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: which was hard that of love, she hastened to add,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: fear of losing you, my beloved, And with her new
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: abandon flinging herself into his arms, she once more told
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: him with unreserved candor what he was to her. If
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: I lost you, I should do something desperate, I know
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: I should, She cried. Then you won't do anything desperate,
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: I can assure you, he said, a speech which was
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: a prelude to one of those little outbursts of passion
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: which left her dazed, astonished, and with that peculiar, passive,
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: bewitched sensation, as if her will were temporarily paralyzed. Come
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: go and lock your trunks and say good bye to
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: the household, he said. Presently, in an hour, Zoe was
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: driving away in a fly, her boxes on the roof,
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: Andrew at her side on his way to see her off,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: the servants having uttered their regretful good byes, in the
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: firm belief that poor miss Zoe was returning to the
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: obscurity she had lived in before her uncle had allowed
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: her to take up her abode at the court, and
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: that it was a sin and a shame them too
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: couldn't marry. Neither missus Slee nor her two handmaidens suspected
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: the truth that Andrew and Zoe would soon be man
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: and wife. An hour ago, Andrew had been the passionate lover.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: As they drove through the park, he was merely calm, friendly, brotherlike.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: At first. Those extreme changes of manner had troubled Zoe
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: that was weeks ago, when their mutual affection had to
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: be hidden from the late Squire. Now she was accustomed
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: to see Andrew either ice or fire. But when he
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: had sent her somewhat abruptly through the station and he
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: was staying in the booking office to take her ticket,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: she stood there, feeling cruelly forlorn, even seized by that
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: terrible feeling of being abandoned by all creatures, being utterly
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: alone in the world which comes to the solitary. But
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: was strange in a bride on the eve of a
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: happy marriage, with her purse filled lavishly by the passionately
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: loving husband to be, whose one insistent order had been
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: to spare no expense. The train came up shortly after
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: Andrew hurried out of the station with her ticket. In
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: another minute, Zoe was leaning back in the corner of
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: the first class carriage, in which there were three other
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: ladies watching the scenes strange to her a few months back,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: but dear and familiar now flit quickly by, like the
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: cloud shadows across a sunlit landscape. Andrew did not wait
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: long after the train started. In a very few minutes,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: he was driving homewards his brow knit his lips set firm.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: He had been too absorbed and speeding Zoe safely on
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: her journey to notice that a man who had been
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: landing in the station yard before they drove in, seemed
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: to wait until he assisted his betrothed into the railway
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: compartment when he entered the next a smoking carriage. This
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: man had spent a minute between the taking his ticket
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: and following Andrew to the platform and slipping a shilling
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: into a Porsche's hand and asking him if the handsome
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: young couple who had alighted j now from a carriage
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: were not Miss Blount and mister Quarrels of Heavenly Court. Yes, sir,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: answered the porter, adding a few items anent the late
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: inquest and the rumors about the parties, which the stranger
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: listened to indifferently, then nodding abruptly left him. Zoe, utterly
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: unconscious of being watched, as she alighted from the train,
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: chartered a cab and was driven to her hotel, where
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: she was met by men in uniform and others, and
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: smiled upon by the managerress, who summoned a maid to
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: conduct her to her rooms. I hope you will find
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: everything comfortable Madam, She graciously added, the dinner ordered by wire,
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: will be ready in half an hour. Zoe thanked her,
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: declined the lift, and went upstairs after her conductress. The
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: rooms Andrew had chosen when he was in town on
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: one of his flying visits to mister Peurlby were bright
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: as well as comfortable. The chambermaid switched on the electric light,
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: and she passed through a richly furnished sitting room where
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: flowers decked the dining table ostentatiously made for one, into
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: quite a charming bed chamber, where there was ample room
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: for her trunks, which Andrew had partly packed with old
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: ailings of gold and silver, also family jewels which he
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: had found during the explorations he had made alone. While
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: Zoe and the maids were safe in bed and presumably
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: fast asleep, and the great mansion was dark and silent
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: as the grave. Here she changed her second best morning
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: frock for her best, a thin material prettily made by
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: the local dressmaker, and sat down to her dinner in
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: solitary state, attended by an obsequious waiter. The menu was
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: delicately chosen, a white soup, a morsel of the turbot,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: which was on the table de o te list, chicken,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: a cutlet, ice, and pastry. But it was one of
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: the hardest tasks Zoe ever had had to swallow enough
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: of it to escape the comment of the man's dark,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: watchful eyes. All I ask of you, my darling, is
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: to behave as much like other people as you possibly can,
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: Andrew had said to her escape notice. Appeared to be
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: mad on dress if you like, as the rest of
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: your sex seemed to be always. While she sipped her coffee,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: thankful that the ordeal of dinner was over, Zoe remembered
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: that Andrew considered that dress ought to seem her motive
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: for being in London alone, if any one in that huge,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: crowded hotel where people seemed to come and go every
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: day and all hours of the day, ever, happened to
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: notice her or give her existence a second thought. So
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: as soon as the waiter began to clear the table,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: she set to work with a note book and pencil
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: to make lists of the clothes she would buy at
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: the various well known shops Andrew had directed her to patronize.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: This helped to pass the remainder of the evening. Andrew
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: had advised her to spend at least three hundred pounds,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: but she had a darling wish to send as big
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: a sum as she could save out of what he
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: had given her to her suffering old friend and godmother.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Miss Vigures to send it anonymously from some central post office,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: reducing her trousseau so that it should not cost more
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: than two hundred pounds, occupied the time till she thought
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: she might reasonably retire for the night. Then to bed
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: she went, but not to sleep. Her calculations pursued her,
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: and when she fell into an uneasy doze, long Milliner's
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: bills troubled her brain and startled her into wakeful depression.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: When at last she fell soundly asleep, it was not
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: for long. She awoke with a start by dreaming of
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: a sudden flash of light. Dreaming as she struggled up
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: in bed, she saw that the room was no longer
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: quite dark. She could see the faint outlines of the
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: dressing table, chest of drawers, wardrobe, and moreover. The longer
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: she looked, the more distinct they appeared. Was it daylight
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: or rather dawn? No, the curtain still darkened, the window
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: looking sharply aside. She started and recoiled at the strange
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: sight which met her eyes. A column of luminous mist
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: seemed to rise out of the floor. She could see
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: the door handle through it, which shone with reflected light.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: The house is on fire, she thought, slipping out of
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: bed to get some clothing and give the alarm, for
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: the huge hotel was still. She heard no sound of
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: any kind, but as she seized her dressing gown, the
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: phosphorescent mist ascended slightly from the ground. She saw the
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: carpeted floor intact beneath it. It reminded her of the
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: wreaths of steam from railway engines before they dissolved into
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: the air. What on earth is it, she was asking herself,
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: staring at it, and she shrank back against the bed
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: with a strangled cry of horror. The column of luminous
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: vapor wavered, then seemed to assume a shape, a human shape,
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: and the face at the top was that of her
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: dead uncle, gazing at her with a sad warning look.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: As she fancied the vision was moving nearer, she gave
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: a cry. All seemed suddenly dark. She fell in a
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: heap upon the floor. How long she lay there unconscious,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: she never knew she was aroused by a persistent knocking
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: at the door nine o'clock. Ma'am, I have brought your
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: hot water, said a cheery voice. Stiff bruised, feeling more
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: dead than alive, she struggled to her feet and unlocked
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: the door. A cup of tea, she repeated stupidly, as
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: the woman amiably suggested it. Yes. Thanks, Then she turned
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: to look at the spot where this awful thing had
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: happened to her end of chapter nine chapter ten of
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: Entrapped by Alice Mangold deal this LibriVox recordings in the
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: public domain. At first, as she stared about the room
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: where she had seen the terrible illusion, she felt unreasoning horror.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: Cold drops stood on her brow as she gazed at
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: the spot where it had appeared. Her hair seemed to
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: bristle on her head. Uncle came from among the dead
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: to warn you. We must never never be married, she
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: told herself, shivering. But after she had drunk her tea,
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: when the sunshine streamed into the room and the ordinary
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: cheery set within the hotel and without seemed to give
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: the lie to the supernatural, she began to wonder if,
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: after all the thing had been a dream or if
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: not an ordinary dream, If her brain, that delicate and
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: complicated piece of human machinery, had not had one of
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: those attacks which scientists know of but at present do
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: not profess to understand. She clutched at the idea as
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: the proverbial drowning man at the straw. As she dressed
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: and breakfasted, she recalled tales she had read of optical
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: illusions and delusions. It is as plain as possible the
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: explanation of it, she told herself. I was worried about
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: the cost of night Trey sou just before I really
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: fell asleep. I was wondering what poor uncle, who was
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: so dreadfully stingy, would have thought if he could have
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: known that directly he was dead. I should marry Andrew
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: and spend such a lot of his money on wedding clothes.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: And I had an unusually vivid nightmare and simply got
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: out of bed in my sleep. It was that dinner,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: she remembered, how after a breaking up party at her
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: godmother's school, where Miss Figures, being her sole friend on earth,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: she naturally remained during the holidays. The girls who shared
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: her room declared she got up in the night and
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: began to dress, and when they awakened her she had
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: a fit of screaming, I will not force myself to
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: eat again when I don't want to, she resolved, as
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: she drove out in the hotel room, from the haberdashers
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: to the bootmakers, from thence to the fashionable milliners and dressmakers.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: But her last purchase showed that she had not quite
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: forgotten her nightmare. It was a box of night lights,
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: guaranteed to be the most satisfactory by a famous firm
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: which sold such things. She passed the next night quietly.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: Then the shopping and the persuasion to those who undertook
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: her orders to execute them in time diverted her thoughts.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: She felt the circumstance that she was neither to write
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: to Andrew nor to receive letters from him acutely. But
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: when she had suggested it, he had shortly said impossible.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: So she had to keep up her spirits as best
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: she could by reading books and newspapers, and marking the
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: lovely things which were constantly arriving before packing them away
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: in her new trunks. Andrew had said that although he
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: might have to run up to town on business connected
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: with their marriage, he could not risk exciting suspicion in
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: any one's mind by staying away a minute longer than
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: he had been accustomed to in making his periodical visits
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: to Messrs Flowerdew and Pearlby's offices. It won't do, Zoe,
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: and that's all about it, he had said. If we
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: are to have talk, we may as well chuck the
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: whole thing up. Our marriage will revive all people's vile suspicions,
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: or even worse may happen. I will try and see
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: you in a week, and after then only when we
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: start for the registrars. However, when Zoe came in late
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: one afternoon, it seemed that Andrew's patience had failed him.
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: A gentleman called to see you about half an hour ago, Madam,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: said one of the hotel officials, coming forward with a
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: deferential smile. He would not leave his name. He was dark, yes,
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: not very dark, I should say, and tall, yes, taller
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: than I am. I said, you generally came in to dinner,
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: and if he returned later he would probably be able
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: to see you, but he could not say whether he
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: would be able to do so or not. Thanks, said Zoe,
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: her heart beating so violently. Her whole body trembling so
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: much that for once she overcame her prejudice and was
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: taken up to her floor in the lift. For the
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: remainder of the evening, she was wound up to a
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: pitch of the most concentrated excitement. She sat near the door,
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: her eyes riveted upon it, listening to every footstep, every voice.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: But evening became night. The hotel noises diminished, then almost
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: ceased midnight. Struck he cannot come now, she miserably thought,
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: and she went to bed. The next few days she
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: had hard work to rally her spirits. Then came one
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: of those stormy days which sometimes occur in spring. The
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: wind howled and raged about the big building, moaning in
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: the chimney of her sitting room, driving sheets of rain
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: against the window panes. She resolved not to go out.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: The day when he had called, she had wandered about
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: the National Gallery and the other picture shows to kill time,
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: when all the while he was in town, and while
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: she was gazing vacantly at the picture of a forlorn
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: girl waiting in a cottage by the sea for the
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: lover or young husband who would never return, a picture
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: which had affected her strangely, he the only one she
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: lived and cared for on earth who one tie to life,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: had come and gone. Failing to find her fate is
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: a strange thing, she thought, as she sat and sewed,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: then arranged her beautiful trousseau afresh in her new boxes.
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: That I should just have been late that one day.
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: If I had come in at my usual time and
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: had not stopped in that wretched gallery staring at that
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: miserable picture, I should have seen my love, my husband,
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: unbounded faith in Andrew had been hers hitherto too. But
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: as she sat that stormy afternoon we sewing buttons on
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: some dainty garments, a sudden, horrible idea flashed across her.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: What if he had changed his mind? What if this
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: sending her to London with a large sum of money
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: were a ruse that he might get safely away from
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: her with the intention of never seeing her more. Did
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: not his anxiety to be off and away, the shutting
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: up of the house, the fear of their matrimonial plans
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: leaking out point to it. Oh God, how dare I
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: think such things of him? She mentally cried, flinging away
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: her work and stormily pacing the room. Then she utterly
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: broke down. Rushing away into the bedroom, she cast herself
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: prone upon her bed and abandoned herself to a storm
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: of convulsive sobs she was powerless to control. Just as
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: she was growing calmer and rising, was mixing some sol
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: volatile in a glass with a cold, shaking hand, she started.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: The door of her sitting room opened, she heard voices.
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: Miss Bourne, must be out, said a man's voice. Then
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: she heard a reply in Andrew's beloved tones, I expect
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: she is in the other room, and a tap on
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: her door, which was Ajar, followed, I am coming, she said,
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: her joy so overpowering that it strengthened her to speak calmly. Then,
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: hearing the sitting room door shut, she flew out and
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: was in his arms, shuddering, palpitating, and evidently frightening him. Why,
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: my love, what is it? He asked, alarmed, as he
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: held her away and gazed at her dimmed eyes and
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: blurred features with concern. Has your courage failed you? It
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: is not too late. Even now, my darling, I will
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: not make you my own against your will. I am
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: ready to swear that. She gave a half maddened laugh
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: and frantically, kissing his coat, his hand which held hers.
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: She laid her head pathetically against his shoulder. I think
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: he was being out when you came, missing you, when
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: I was so longing and yearning just to hear your voice,
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: which finished me up. She began, then, seeing and frown
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: and stare. She stopped short. My dear love, what are
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: you talking about, he emphatically asked, holding her away from
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: him and gazing sternly into her eyes. You have not
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: missed me. This is the very first time since I
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: took these rooms for you that I have set foot
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: in the place. She stared at him, perplexed. Well, one
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: thing is pretty certain. Some one called to see me,
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: some man, she said, a little consoled that her missed
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: delight was not caused by her own foolishness. Then she
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: related the circumstance, repeating the hotel official's words as exactly
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: as she could. The effect her communication had upon her
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: lover was startling. He paled to in ashen gray. His
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: eyes seemed to recede into his head as he questioned
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: her in a severe judicial manner. The lover vanished, only
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: the harassed, determined man remaining whom she had learnt to
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: know that he sometimes was. Since the ghastly sequence of
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: events at Heavenly Court must look into this, he said.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: You must show me the waiter or porter who told you.
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: It must be some mistake, for no one but you
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: and myself know of these aliases of ours. But you
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: must bathe your eyes and look a little better before
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: we show ourselves about, or they will think I have
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: been thrashing you. He laughed a forced laugh, gave her
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: a few hasty kisses, then sent her to her room
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: to remove the traces of her emotion if she could.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: As she bathed her eyes again and again and dressed
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: carefully in outdoor attire, donning a thick veil as he
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: had suggested, she heard him restlessly moving about the sitting room.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: That's a little bit better, he said, as she returned. Come,
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: this is what we must do. Go downstairs, where you
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: will show me as little conspicuously as you can the
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: man who made this extraordinary mistake. You will then go
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: upstairs again in the lift and wait for me here.
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: Do you understand, she assured him she did so. Together
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: they made their way down the thickly carpeted staircase into
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: the hall, where she suddenly halted. That is the man
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: who told me. Standing by the door, she said, in
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: a low tone, go upstairs again, just as if you
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: had forgotten something, he returned. As she obeyed him, she
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: wondered what could possibly have happened to make the official
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: fall into such an absurd mistake. Could there be another
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: lady named Bourne among the many guests, or or probably
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: was a miss or missus Bourne to arrive shortly. That
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: was the most plausible explanation that the man who called
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: and asked for Miss Bourne had anything to do with
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: either herself or Andrew. She did not believe for a
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: single instant. She was rejoicing in the happy calm which
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: was gradually replacing her stormy emotion when Andrew came abruptly
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: into the room, and after carefully closing the door across
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: to where she was sitting. The man was for us
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: little doubt of that, he somewhat bitterly exclaimed. Luckily, I
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: got a special license yesterday. We can be married to morrow.
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: He took her hair, and, holding it, gazed curiously at
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: her as she shrank back with a startled look. But oh,
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: my frocks will not be ready till next week, She cried.
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: That is a very minor consideration, he said, springing up
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: and beginning to pace the floor. What a child you are.
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: She watched him in his evident perturbation anxiously, until he
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: suddenly came and stood before her, his hands thrust into
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: his coat pockets. Look here, he somewhat roughly began. There
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: is only one important thing for either of us, to
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: get away as soon as possible, and to get away
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: safely married. Do you want to ruin me? Or do
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: you not? Andrew? She cried so piteously that he was
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: all penitence. In a moment, after he had soothed her
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: with all his former enduring tenderness, he became cheery, if
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: not gay. Now understand my idea of real life is
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: let us eat, drink and be merry, for to morrow
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: we die, he said, And if we are to pull
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: together at all, you must adopt it as well. Let
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: the frocks go hang will be off tomorrow in spite
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: of them. And now you are coming with me for
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: a day out. I have cut the old place. It
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: is shut up. I am staying at the International for
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: to night. I will tell you all about tomorrow by
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: and by now we are going out to lunch and
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: later on dinner, and return for half an hour to
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: dress for the theater, lock up everything, and come along.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: In another half hour, Zoe was shut into one of
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: the hotel carriages with her beloved, and between his stolen caresses,
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: he was holding forth of the future, which he painted
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: in such glowing colors that the past seemed to recede
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: and vanish. She forgot all but the happy time to come.
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: End of chapter ten Chapter fifteen of Entrapped by Alice Mangoldeal.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. There was
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: a so and feverishness about the spurious gaiety of the partis,
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: care seemingly enjoying their dainty champagne luncheon under the tree
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: ferns and pepper trees of the hotel garden. Miss Cartwright
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: was secretly horror stricken, aghast that the revelation whispered in
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: her ear as she sat on the settee in the
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: tamte pitcrant room by a man she had hitherto regarded
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: as a mere, honest hearted, simple minded Canadian officer. Captain
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: Grant feared that his courage was ebbing as the bad
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: moment of Zoe's enlightenment approached a subtle temptation to postpone
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: it assailed him, which it needed his strong sense of
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: right and wrong to combat. The Vicomte de Brecis needed
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: all his amoud prop to conceal his chagrin at being
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: cruelly used by a fate which made him an exception
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: to her rule of smiling upon the stakes of absolute novices.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: Perhaps Zoe, although inwardly perturbed and excited by her curious
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: contradictory position in life, was the least strongly emode of
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: the four. Suppressed excitement and entire lack of appetite were
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: the rule with the patrons of the restaurant, as well
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: as demands for the finest brands of wine and liqueurs.
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: So the waiters whisked away barely tasted plow and brought
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: others in a matter of coarse manner, which assisted the
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: outward calm of the little party which presently divided. Miss Cartwright,
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: having come to the Vicomte's rescue offering to sink her
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: prejudices and to try his and her combined luck at
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: the tables, she waved his whole hearted refusal on account
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: of his empty purse. She was so anxious to leave
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: Grant and Zoe tet a tete that she would have
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: made any concessions, almost to leave the Captain free to
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: pursue his elected campaign, and insisted on lending him her
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: dainty goldenette port money. If it all goes so much
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: the better, she cried, as they rose and strolled towards
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: the casino. It will mean that I am never to
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: try again, but it would seem absurd if I did
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: not have one fling. You will admit that Vicomte Captain Grant,
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: take Zoe about and be sure to escort her to
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: the concert and give her some tea expect us when
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: you see us seemingly at all events to the Vicomte,
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: who suspected nothing of a tragic mystery underlying the stalwart
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: Canadian's interest in young Madame Hamel Tongue, as he called Zoe.
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: Miss Cartwright was bitten by the gambling fever as she
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: waved her hand to Zoe and almost strode off, the
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: Vicomte trotting eagerly by her side, like a puppy by
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: a big shaggy dog. Even Zoe was puzzled. I shall
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: never understand any one, she said, with a hopeless little sigh,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: as she agreed to take a turn on the terrace,
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: as her companion turned it and strolled along a narrow
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: path leading to the terrace, overlooking the sea. No, he
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: said absently. Then he recalled his wandering thoughts. He must
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: lead up to all he had to say, he told himself,
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: or he would crush this tender creature with his horrible facts.
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: You mean you cannot quite understand miss cartright, I can.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: She is one of those happy persons who have lived honestly, straitly,
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: because they have not been tempted to do anything else.
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: As a child, she had anxious parents, nurses, doctors, friends.
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: As a girl, every one was at her feet, for
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: besides being an heiress, she was kind, good, a real woman.
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: Then he stopped short and drew a long breath. Such
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: a one can live for the day and hour, he
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: meaningly added, a boon denied to those who, like myself,
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: are haunted by a past. They were nearing the marble balustrade.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: He left her, and, leaning his arms on the broad coping,
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: gazed out to see Zoey, a little startled and greatly
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: surprised by his sudden change of manner and speech went
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: a little bashfully nearer, until she stood by his side.
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: For some moments, both stowed at the deep blue tranquil
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: waves in absolute silence. He was the first to move
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: and speak. He glanced down at her lovely waxen profile.
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: You are not inquisitive like most of your sex, he exclaimed,
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: somewhat taken aback by a fact which would add to
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: the difficulty of his self imposed task. She glanced quickly up, crimsoning,
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: I cannot afford to be She bitterly returned, It is
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: not that I am not interested, For I am. You
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: said things to me which made me wonder. She turned
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: away her head. He gave a sigh of intense relief.
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: At all events, he had made some sort of impression
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: upon her. The preliminaries were less formidable. In consequence, you
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: wondered why I said your interests would rank with me
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: before my very own, he asked, leaning back against the
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: balustrade and gazing steadfastly at her. You can hardly comprehend
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: unless I tell you the story of my life, shall I, oh, please?
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: Pleaded her eyes kindling so she felt some sort of
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: interest in him, He told himself what a signal mercy.
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: I will not bore you with more than the main facts.
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: He began. As soon as I was old enough to understand,
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: I knew that my mother had sprung from a lower
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: class than my father, who did not live with us,
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: but only stayed for a day or two. Now and
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: then we lived near London. Mother alive. She was a
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: capricious woman, but she did not deserve her fate. My
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: father distrusted and ill used her, ignored their two children,
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: then neglected and reproached her until she died literally of
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: her broken heart. So he gave a sympathetic murmur. He
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: did not seem to hear it. What became of my
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: little sister, I cannot tell, at least I happen to
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: know now, but I did not. Then he went on.
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: But as far as I am concerned, boy, though I was,
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: I bitterly resumed my father's conduct, and I found out
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: where he really lived, and went to him, giving scorn
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: for scorn, And when he dared to dispose my mother's
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: character to me, shaking the dust of his miserable house
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: from my feet and leaving him for ever, I was
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: a waife in the great heartless city. First a beggarochin,
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: then an errand boy, then a cabin boy on a
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: little trader. His captain took a fancy to me because
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: I was like his only son, who had lately died.
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: He was my benefactor. He found out I was educated
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: as a gentleman's son, and when we arrived in Canada,
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: got me a place as a junior in the office
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: of a merchant friend in Montreal. There I rose pretty
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: rapidly and saved and speculated with such luck that before
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: I was twenty I had a small fortune. Then I
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: said good bye to the counting house and volunteered for
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: the army, passed my exams, and after going through a
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: good deal, got my captaincy. At that point I began
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: to feel restless. I wanted to know about my poor
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: little sister. I returned to England, saw my father and
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: was reconciled with him. He is dead. Now, Perhaps you
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: wonder what this story of mine has to do with
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: what I said that I should ever consider your interests
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: before my own. Zo He flushed, then paled as he
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: told his story. There was a tone in his voice
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: which seemed curiously familiar. Yet how could he and she
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: be anything more than chance, acquaintances drawn together by a
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: common sympathy, that sympathy at first sight between strangers who
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: have not previously known of each other's existence, which is
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: one of the puzzled short sighted humanity vainly tries to solve.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: Then he made up for his neglect. He left you everything.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: She asked, more as something to say than because she
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: cared to know one way or the other. No, he
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: shortly returned, that is another story altogether. Yet I did
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: not want to tell you my life story alone, missus Hamilton.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: It was merely the preface to my asking your advice
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: on the matter, which, and I am not exaggerating, is
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: to me literally a matter of life and death. Will
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: you give it me? She stared at him, then recoiled
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: a little. She had thought his strong features, with a
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: broad brow, close shut mouth, massive chin, short prominent nose,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: and deep set eyes somewhat cold and expressionless, How she
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: had been mistaken at that moment. There was such an
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: intensity of passion in those eyes, about his somewhat drawn
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: and quivering lips, that she felt almost a slight fear
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: of him. Oh, she stammered. Then she gave a short,
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: embarrassed laugh, my advice. Why, I know simply nothing of
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: the world, living all my life with my godmother, the
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: maiden lady, who kept at school, and when her health
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: broke down and she sold it, staying as junior governess
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: until her successor, who seemed to hate me, sent me away,
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: and I took refuge with an old uncle and got
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: engaged to my husband, who was his adopted son. I
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: know nothing of people, of society, of anything. I think
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: I told you this before, So much the better. He
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: gently returned, plucking some dying leaves from a climbing geranium,
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: which crept about the marble balustrade, and casting them upon
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: the rocks below. Your sense of right and wrong has
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: not been dimmed. Come let us rest on that very
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: Italian looking bench, and let me tell you what it is.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: I want her advice about. First, Crimson to the roots
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: of her hair, as her conscience reproached her them paling
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: until she was white as the fragrant blossoms on a
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: neighboring orange tree. Though he somewhat reluctantly accompanied him to
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: a marble bench under a spreading pepper tree. Behind this
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: a bank covered with aloes, cactus, and subtropical shrubs concealed
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: them from possible eavesdroppers or onlookers. They too, could scarcely
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: have found a greater solitude. I hardly know how to
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: put the case to you, he began thoughtfully. But let
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: me begin by telling you that the girl concerned as
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: a very dear young cousin of mine. Seas continents separated
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: us in childhood and youth. While I was working in Canada,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: she was in England. We never met. The first I
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: heard of her after she was grown up was that
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: she had married a man I had heard no good of.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: In fact, a curious chain of circumstance answers had brought
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: to my knowledge a rumor that he had been thought
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: to be the husband of a notoriously disreputable woman. Then
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: I saw my cousin in this man, and felt it
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: my duty, as her nearest male relative, to pursue inquiries.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: I found the rumor that the man was already married
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: only too true. That poor innocent young creature is living
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: with a man who has a wife already. He may
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: be ignorant of the fact that his first wife is
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: still alive, or may have been until now. But what
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: do you think ought I not to tell her the truth. Zoe,
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: listening with all her ears, had felt a strange sense
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: of chill, a vague disappointment. As he spoke more, she
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: was slightly resentful that he had, as she felt, merely
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: paid court to her, because as a young woman, she
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: would be a fair judge of the feelings of this
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: wonderful cousin of his, Captain Grant, She began a little impatiently,
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: excuse me if I cannot feel much sympathy with you
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: in this meddling with your cousin's matrimonial affairs. Suppose she
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: this husband of hers, it may be such an awful
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: blow to her to find it her duty to separate
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: from him, that it may be the death of her
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: or send her mad. And it is not her fault
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: if she is ignorant of the case. She is doing
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: no wrong. He gave her a scared intent glance. No,
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: he slowly said, still right is right, and wrong is wrong?
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: Is it not? And love is love? She cried, almost defiantly.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: Love justifies many things, Captain Grant, just as it is
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: answerable for a good deal of everything which happens, our feelings, thoughts, actions.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: But there can be a selfish mistaken love. Remember that
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: I said I would speak the truth to you, Did
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: I not? I will? I fancy you are in love
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: yourself with this cousin of yours, and that this not
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: your conscience, is urging you to separate her from her
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: supposed husband. How do you know whether she is not
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: as well aware of the complication as you are yourself.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: She may be. He made no reply to her hotly
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: spoken words. He sat dumbly gazing out to see. Then
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: suddenly he rose and stood before her, pale, frowning. I
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: thank you for your candor, missus Hamilton, he stiffly said. Meanwhile,
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: your idea that an innocent girl would remain one hour
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: with a man who had another wife alive, who possibly
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: tricked and cheated her into marrying him, while fully aware
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: of the fact I can't tell, is a shock to me.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: It is hard to believe, a bitter pill to swallow.
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: You forget that a girl does not marry a man
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: unless she thinks him wonderful, unless she loves him, perhaps
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: adores him. She somewhat scornfully returned as she rose and
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: strolled at his side along the terrace. And if your
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: cousin does, will she not remember that in the case
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: you mention, the first wife is a notoriously disreputable woman,
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: how would she be able to leave the man she
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: loved to such a fate as that in such a case,
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: divorce seems the only rescue. The husband could surely divorce
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: an unworthy woman. A man who wants a divorce has
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: to go into court with clean hands, he began. Then,
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: as if suddenly exasperated, he added, in stern, almost contemptuous tones,
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: enough the discussion is closed. Forget this conversation, Missus Hamilton,
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: if you please, will you come and hear the concert?
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: It must be beginning, I think certainly, She somewhat distantly,
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: replied coolly, although her heart gave a sick, miserable throb
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: as he took out his watch and gazed gravely at it.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: Then she accompanied him along the pebbly pulth into the
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: casino end of chapter fifteen Chapter seventeen of Entrapped by
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: Alice Mangold Deal. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: Zoe had felt the sudden exhilaration of an unexpected in
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: an inward whirlwind of jealousy, jealousy of a stranger who
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: had possessed himself of her sympathies. How or when she
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: knew not, she had flirted and coquetted with her own husband,
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: who of late had been almost obnoxious to her. She
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: had outwardly played the part of the enamored wife. Why
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: as the table d'ote dinner over and Captain Grant no
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: longer present, she sat at coffee in the hotel vestibule
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: with her husband and Miss Cartwright, she asked herself what
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: was the potent cause of this astonishing behavior of hers.
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: She had not intended to be amiable to her husband
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: in public. She had been forced into a display of
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: pretty bridelike affection by some intensely strong, even overpowering instinct.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: As the evening wore off, Andrew had gone to the
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: billiard room with some recently arrived englishmen, and she was
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: left to the companionship of Miss Cartwright, who amused her,
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: or thought she was amusing her. By scanning all the
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: available newspaper and reading out paragraphs which she considered titbits
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: of information. Zoe's soul seemed to darken, darken, darken. All
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: the surrounding ordinary life lost its actuality. It was a vague,
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: wild dream, so it appeared, the lively hotel, with its
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: heterogeneous visitors, the charming arrangements, the pretty music. As she
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: sat by Miss Cartwright, making violent endeavors to fight her
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: wild sensations, to cling hard to common sense, she asked
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: herself passionately what it all meant, and as her soul
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: was pure, as she had never willingly harmed a living creature,
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: even as she asked the question, her soul was flooded
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: with the answer, Oh God, I love him, cried her
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: whole being, in utter prostration, in complete and absolute abandonment.
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: I love that man, and I am Andrew's wife. She
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: clutched viciously at the satin cushions as she set her
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: teeth and forced herself to listen to Miss cartwrights readings
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: and comments. As newspaper in hand, the American lady leant
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: back against her chair back and puffed at a cigarette
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: as a consoler to herself during her valiant efforts to
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: pass the time for that poor, unfortunate child. But she
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: was suffering agony on a mental rack, agny caused by
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: being confronted with the awful fact that she was chained
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: tied to a man. She neither cared for nor respected
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: of whom at certain moments she felt vague but awful suspicions,
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: And she loved another with all her heart, soul and being.
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: I am lost body and soul. Was the thought wrung
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: from her by her great anguish. It seemed to her
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: that she saw her whole future life before her, black, hopeless,
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: like some vast dark cave she had to enter, and
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: there was no hope, not a gleam that she might
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: avoid it turn back into the sunshine. Miss Cartwright noticed all,
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: and smiled, but said not one word. For her own reasons,
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: she was genuinely pleased to see that Zoe was deeply moved.
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: The one redeeming feature of intense mental suffering is that
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: its victim, if saying, is forced to seek some remedy,
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: if only in self condolence and consolation. When Zoe lay
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: sleepless through the small hours, self pity became reasoning with
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: her emotions and attempting to reduce them to something nearer
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: common sense. Life is short, she mused, and the glorious
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: life which I have caught a glimpse of a life
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: of love with a being one could respect, obey worship
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: is impossible. I must give up all idea of it?
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: What is that proverb? Mademoiselle at the school was so
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: fond of quoting, with that peculiar grin and shrug of
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: her thin shoulders, something about if one cannot have what
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: one loves, the best thing one can do is to
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: love what one has. I must try and resuscitate my
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: love for Andrew. Was it love? Oh? No, no? But
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: whatever it was, I must try to dig it up
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: and make it live again somehow. With that idea, she
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: fell asleep. Towards morning. She dreamt her mind was impressed
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: with the southern scenery, with the gray green olives on
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: the terraced slopes, the deep blue sea meeting as deep
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: an azure sky, white roads glowing hotly in the vivid sunlight,
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: gay crowds of frivolous visitors, rows of palms, marble hotels
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: and villas, and orchards of trees like bridal bouquets of
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: yellow oranges among the white waxen heavily perfumed blossoms. But
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: it was not of her immediate surroundings. She dreamt she
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: was wandering in an English hay field under a paler sky,
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: gathering the frail white roses from among their thorns on
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: a high hedge, and at her side was Captain Grant.
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: He was talking. Then suddenly she glanced up at him.
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: Their eyes met. He took her in his arms to
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: his heart, and her longing lips met as in a passionate,
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: lingering kiss. She awoke, half in horror, half in fear
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: to hear a tapping at the door. Andrew sat up, and,
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: hearing that there was a letter for him, sprang out
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: of bed and going to the bedroom door, took something
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: from the messenger, tore it open, and stood reading it
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: with his back to her. What is it, she asked, drowsily,
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: in an apologetic tone. The wickedness of that abandoned dream
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: humiliated her. Ah nothing, he returned, lightly, crushing the letter
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: or despatch in his hand. Only the fellow I was
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: with yesterday wants to see me this morning, and I
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: suppose I must go. You can do without me, go
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: for that drive to villeforante, Miss Cartwright was so hot
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: upon last night she wanted to start early. If you
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: remember the sun being a terror now at noon, Zoe
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: acquiesced with a relief sufficiently intense to horrify her, and
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: as dressed for walking. Having swallowed her coffee and roll
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: in what she felt to be quite in decent haste,
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: she made her way to Miss Cartwright's rooms. She blamed
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: herself bitterly for being so thankful for the prospect of
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: another day away from her husband. Miss Cartwright was breakfasting
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: in her handsome salon and seemed gratified at Zoe having
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: changed her mind, for as they parted the previous evening,
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: missus Hamilton had gratefully but decidedly declined the proposed excursion.
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: My dear child, don't apologize for changing your mind. Pray,
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: she genially exclaimed, when Zoe made shamefaced excuses. It is
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: only those foolish persons called in scripture the proud. I
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: always have enjoyed that expression thoroughly, who are ashamed of
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: changing their minds the wise? Never are they changed their
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: minds a dozen times a day if they can better
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: matters by doing it. Miss Cartwright seemed in such high
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: spirits that Zoe was cheered and presently started with her
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: in the pretty Victoria with a pair of horses jingling
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: their bells, and the rakish Nisois coachman seated on his
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: high seat, grateful for the small mercy of a day
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: alone with a sympathetic woman to whom she clung in
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: spirit more insistently each hour that passed. Although she wondered
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: at herself for so doing. She felt terribly spent and exhausted.
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: As they drove merrily away from the great white town,
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: up and down the slopes by the Blue sea, Miss
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: Cartwright searching the horizon through a field glass for a
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: glimpse of the faint violet line on the indigo horizon
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: which meant Corsica. It was hard work rallying her energies.
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: It seems as if I were dying, and dying of starvation,
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: she told herself, as she refused Miss Cartwright's offer to
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: have a look at Corsica through the glass. Soul's starvation,
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: My poor soul, seems nothing, an abject thing which a
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: breath from the powers would dissipate in space. As she
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: thought this, the horror of being dispersed, of dying lent
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: her power. It seemed to her that life and death
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: came mockingly on either side. Life which meant hope, happiness,
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: and death. A grinning skeleton leaning on his scythe in
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: the sudden excitement of the vision, she turned and gripped
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: Miss Cartwright's arm. Oh, if your heart is not a
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: heart of stone, save me, she piteously said. I don't
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: know what it is, but I feel there is some
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: dreadful thing I ought to be saved, frump, and that
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: you can do it, My dearest girl, Pull yourself together
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: and dump your fool, exclaimed Miss Cartwright, valiantly, sitting up
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: and gazing somewhat irascibly at her limp companion. Of course,
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: I will see you through anything and everything. Look here,
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: unless you swear to me you don't want me. I
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: won't leave you for an instant day or night. There
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: will that. Do you are well? I have no words
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: for what you are, stammered Zoe as she meant back.
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: And at that moment the coachman suddenly reined in his horses.
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: Monceux quibul palais avec madame, he obsequiously said, And as
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: he concluded his remark, a man came to the side
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: of the carriage opposite Zoe. It was Captain Grant. I
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: meant to have walked to Villefrane, but this son is awful.
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: He began lifting his hat with a deferential smile as
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: his eyes met Zoe's. Will you be a good samaritan,
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: Miss Cartwright and give me a lift back? No, laughed
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: Miss Cartwright. I cannot for missus. Hamilton and I are
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: lunching at Villefranche and meant to stroll in the famous
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: olive orchards afterwards. But if you will come with us,
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: we shall be charmed. Thank you, said Captain Grant, almost devoutly.
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: And a few moments later they were driving on the
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: Canadian seated opposite Miss Cartwright, who was chattering so briskly
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: no one could have put in a word had he
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: or she wished to speak, But Zoe was thankful to
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: be silent to escape notice. Strangely enough, the Captain's unexpected
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: appearance and acceptance of her American friend's invitation had acted
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: like a cold douche upon her unstrung nerves. She felt
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: inward shame at her emotions for jealousy of him her
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: incipient passion, inward disgusted with herself for her lack of
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: ordinary common sense. I must really try to feel and
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: think and behave reasonably, she told herself. As the arrow
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: horses trotted showily into the French once Italian townlet and
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: when the trio alighted at the hotel and lunched almost
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: alone at one of the white tables in the big sar.
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: People were leaving the riviera daily, and the waiters spoke
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: of their own imminent migration to Paris or London. So
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: he seemed more cheerfully commonplace than Miss Cartwright had as
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: yet seen her. It was hard to identify the girl
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: so ready to laugh and be amused, the brightness of
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: whose eyes and blush rose cheeks and lips contradicted the
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: deep lines of pain upon her lovely face, with a
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: passionately despairing being who had made an ad misery cordion
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: appeal to her but a minute or two before Captain
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: Grant's sudden appearance, Miss Cartwright was puzzled. Then perplexity produced uneasiness,
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: as luncheon progressed. It was not a very distinguished menu.
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: Visitors were fast disappearing, and the chef had left. She
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: became thoughtful and silent. Then she almost resentfully grumbled to
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: her companions. I will tell you what this scratch meal,
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: dreadfully badly cooked, has done for me, she said to them,
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: as desert to coffee, and the cures followed courses of
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: cutlets and fries and omelets. It has set up a
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: most abominable noralgia. Both Zoe and the Captain were sympathetic
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: and recommended various remedies black coffee, chatrusseau o de be neat,
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: but Miss Cartwright smiled derisively, children that you are both
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: of you. Do you think I have not tried everything
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: and anything? She almost contemptuously returned, nothing ever does me
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: any good unless I can lie down and get to sleep. Now,
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: if you will take Zara out, Captain Grant, I will
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: ask for a south room and lie down. They do
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: give one decent tea here for a wonder And if
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: you will come back between four and five, I dare
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: say a doze, then a cup of tea will brace
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: me for the drive back. Let us go back now
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: at once, dear Miss Cartwright. Then you could go to
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: bed at once and nurse yourself. I am sure that
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: would be the best for you, began Zoe in a
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: sudden inward panic at the prospect of a tete a
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: tete with the man she loved but had no right
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: to love. But both Miss Cartwright and Captain Grant appeared
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: to regard her suggestion as so brutal under the circumstances
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: that she felt completely snubbed, and presently, after seeing Miss
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: Cartwright comfortably established on a large sofa in a south
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: room with an idle down quilt cozily tupped about her,
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: she succumbed to the inevitable, and, fastening on her dainty hat,
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: went out into the sunshine of the captain, according to
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: the promise extracted by the American who said there was
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: no hope for her getting rid of the Paine if
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: missus Hamilton would not see the olive gardens. As if
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: I cared to see the olive gardens, said Zoe disconsolately,
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: as she opened her large white silk umbrella and descended
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: the glaring white steps of the hotel. It is much
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: too hot to be out of doors. The natives know
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: better than we do. This is the time they take
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: their siesta, curled up in shady corners. Captain Grant turned
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: and faced her. His straw hat was tilted over his forehead,
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: but his eyes gleamed in the shade as with living light.
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: All right, I should prefer staying in, he said, in
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: low meaning. Turnes. No, we must obey our hostess and
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: keep our promise, cried Zoe, scared by those eyes, and
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: she started to walk through the glare. There must be
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: shade in the orchards, she added, glancing back over her
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: shoulder at him. End of chapter seventeen Chapter nineteen of
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: Entrapped by Alice Mangled Deal. This LibriVox recording is in
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: the public domain. When Zoe recovered consciousness, she struggled to
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: sit up and smiled faintly at her friend, stammering apologies.
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: Captain Grant told me some bad news which upset me.
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: I have to return to England to night, she said, Oh, dear,
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: my hair is all anyhow, we will soon arrange that.
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: My dear, when you are a little better, I can
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: manage nicer with my pocket comb, returned Miss Cartwright cheerfully.
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: Friend hinted as much to me. Your aunt is ill
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: and wants to see you at once. Indeed she may
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: be dying, I fear, poor soul. Oh your godmother, is
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: it she brought you up, My dear, it is your
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: duty to go without delay. Then, to cover the awkwardness
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: of the situation, she rang for the Femme de Chambre
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: ordered tea and coffee to be brought up and began
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: fussing with the girl until the sun was sinking low
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: in the sky, and to her relief, she heard a
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: carriage dash up wildly to the hotel front. Looking out
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: of window, she saw Grunt a light and ran down
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: to meet him. Everything is arranged, he shortly said, But
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: I must see her alone at once. I will bring
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: her down. There is not a soul in the salon.
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: There is hardly a visitor left in the hotel, replied
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: Miss Cartwright. Go in there. We shall not be long.
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: She was just a little faint, but is all right now.
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: You are taking her to England by the mail splendid.
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: The journey will be a break. She ran off, and
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: Andrew John Quarrels, who had adopted the name of Grant,
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: which was his maternal grandfather's when he rebelled against and
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: left his unnatural and eccentric father as a boy, paced
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: the huge salon with its parqueted floor and mirrors and gilding,
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: frowning and miserable. I must not mince matters. It must
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: be fact that I tell her, bitter though the truth
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: will be to her, poor darling. He told himself, what
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: an accursed task to be a brutal mental surgeon, and
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: cut and slash at the wounded spirit of the creature.
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: I love far, far better than myself. I never dreamt
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: that man's love for woman was like this, absorbing, devouring, tyrannical,
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: seizing one as in a vice, and compelling one to
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: this and that which one would almost rather be shot
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: than do. Minutes passed, which seemed ages to him. Then
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: suddenly he heard the door open, and Zoe came in.
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: Pale but calm well, she inquiringly said, standing still and
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: gazing searchingly at him, as if she tried to read
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: her fate in his face his eyes. Come and sit here, dear,
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: and I will tell you just what happened. Our interview
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: was short, and to the purpose. He began, leading her
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: gently to one of the velvet settees against the wall,
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: and seating himself on a light chair opposite her. This
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: spurious Andrew Quarrels was taken aback by the fact of
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: my existence, and thought at first I was scheming to
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: rob him of the fortune which is legally his, my
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: poor father, having died before, he altered his will as
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: soon as he found I wanted nothing that I had
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: enough of my own. Also, that I had made myself
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: acquainted with his life history as far as it could
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: be tracked. He cringed chimney. He even blessed me for
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: my action in the affair. Zoe, don't waste a regret
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: on him, for God's sake, don't. He is not worthy
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: of it. You, dear innocent child, cannot imagine what bad
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: men can be and do. And believe me, he is
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: a bad man. But now, before I say one word more,
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: read this. He drew an undirected envelope from his breast
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: pocket and gave it to her. She opened it in
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: silence and read, Zoe, I swear to you that until
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: two or three days ago, I had no idea that
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: my poor wife, whom I believed to be dead, was alive.
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: I married you in absolute ignorance of the fact. So
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: you must not blame me. I have been passionately fond
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: of you, have I not? And I thought, as you
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: were generally suspected of being my poor adopted father's murderous
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: the very noblest thing I could do was to protect
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: you and show my belief in your innocence by making
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: you my wife. As I have lately felt that you
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: did not care for me at all. I have no
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: fear that you will fret. You are so spotlessly innocent
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: that you will begin life afresh as if our few
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: weeks companionship had never been. You have the best of
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: protectors in mister Andrew Quarrel's alias Captain Grant. He is
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: certainly one of the finest fellows I have ever met,
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: and as your nearest male relative, he undertakes to see
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: you made as happy as possible for the future. Accompany
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: him to England with a light heart. Soey, my best
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: wishes follow you. If forgetting me would add to your
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: future comfort and well being, pray forget that such an
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: individual exists as your misguided cousin by adoption. Andrew Basil
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: quarrels as she read the heartless, cold blooded words of
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: a man who had been almost from their first meeting,
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: a persistent, passionate wooer, and who in the first weeks
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: of their honeymoon, had bid fair almost to alienate her
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: liking for him by his luxorious devotion, Zoey felt half
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: paralyzed with horror that such things could be. She began
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: to shiver slightly, and the livid pallor of her lovely
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: face alarmed her, cousin, you are ill, he anxiously began,
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: but she stammered feebly that she was not. Should I
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: be human if reading that did not make me feel
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: half dead with shame? She faltered, for I once believed
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: I loved him, loved that? She shuddered afresh. Then she
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: handed him the letter, asking him to read it. Sank back,
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: closed her eyes, and drove to face the hideous facts
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: of her life. Strung up as he was on the
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: rack with anguish on her account. His spotless lily smirched
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: by being dragged through the mire by that worthless, selfish schemer.
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: He scanned the miserable document rapidly contemptuously, then seated himself
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: by her. He would have taken her hand, but nightly
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: reverence for an outraged and insulted lady forbade, my dear cousin,
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: I told you the man was worthless. What else can
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: you expect from him? Except this? He gently said. He
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: does not deserve a second thought of yours, a passing remembrance,
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: and his only redeeming feature is that he admits it. Come,
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: let us think of what we have to do. He
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: had the grace to undertake the packing of your trunks,
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: which will be at the station addressed to Miss Figures
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: in England in good time for the train. And I
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: brought your dressing bag in holdall they are in the hall.
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: If you wish to change your dress for the night journey.
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: Miss Cartwright has that room upstairs. You will have a
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: coupe lee to yourself. I have seen to that. I
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: shall travel in a smoking carriage and keep an eye
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: on you when we have a few minutes halt now
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: and then on the way. It was not long before Zoe,
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: dazed and weak but composed, was driving with Miss Cartwright
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: and her cousin to the gar at Nice. After she
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: had clung in a warm, silent embrace to her kind
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: American stranger friend, she mounted to her coupe, and in
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: a few moments was being carried away from the scene
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: of that honeymoon of hers, which was no real honeymoon,
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: and from that awful hour of revelation when she learned
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: that wife, as she had been, she was yet no wife,
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: but a nondescript as she called herself. Then dusk giving
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: place to darkness, she flung herself on the cushions of
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: her bed, carriage and cried her heart out like a disappointed,
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: frightened child end of Chapter nineteen, Chapter twenty one, oving
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: trapped by Alice Mangold deal. This LibriVox recording is in
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: the public domain. At first, the agitated girl walked leisurely
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: along the graveled path under the arches, which would soon
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: be covered with climbing roses. Already the tiny green leaves
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: disclosed buds which waxed daily plumper. But as she distanced
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: the gabled house and turning a corner, was shielded by
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: a little grove of conifers from any possible prying eyes.
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: She literally took to her heels and ran along the
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: grass walk to the arbor like a young fawn. There
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: she flung herself into a basket chair, tore open her
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: cousin's letter with feverish haste, and read Zoey. While you
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: were in such a cruel position, I could not tell
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: you of that which would pain you. Now as you
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: are in England. I have to do so that you
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: may regard the grange as a hiding place until I
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: have succeeded in proving your absolute innocence of your uncle
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: and my father death by poison. If you had not
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: been shielded by your doctor, you might have been arrested
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: and charged with murder, for a glass containing traces of
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: the poison which caused his death was found under your window,
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: in a position where it could only have been if
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: thrown from that window and brought to him. Convinced of
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 1: your integrity, that good man doctor Bird changed that glass
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: for another. It was a daring, desperate act born of chivalry.
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: Although even this was done to shield you, public feeling
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: has been excited, and both you and my poor father's
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: adopted sile are suspected. I am now about to prove
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: both your innocence and his. I and I alone can
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: explain how, why, and when my father died. This is
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: the first grave topic I have to write you about.
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: The second concerns you and myself alone. Zoe. I love you.
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: I loved you at first sight. I never loved before.
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: I shall never you love again. But I have determined
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: not to ask you to marry me. I have watched
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: you narrowly, continuously. Yours is an emotional therefore a vacillating temperament.
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: You are exquisitely beautiful, and men will flock about you
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: as wasps about an open jar of honey. You think
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: you like me, I know that. But we met when
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: you were in an exceptional position, neglected by a man
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: who was your husband in name but not in reality.
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: Your clinging to my sympathy meant nothing. Under the circumstances.
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: I have determined not to offer myself to you as
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: your husband, although to possess you as my beloved and
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: cherished wife is the one and only thing I wish
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: and crave for. I only say this, if you care
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: for me sufficiently to marry me, the one word, come
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: written or wiled, will bring me. And for that word
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: from you, I am content to wait patiently until the
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: word is said by another, my God and Lord at death. Meanwhile,
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: under no position in your regard but that of your
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: betrothed husband, called to you by your own will, unaided
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: and unbiased, will I ever look upon you again, Yours forever.
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: Andrew Quarrels. Stunned and sickened by the first awful sentences
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: of the letter, Zoe hardly grasped the remainder of its contents,
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: seated staring vacantly at the green grass at the laurels,
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: hardly knowing where she was that dreadful day of her
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: uncle's death, seemed to return from the past and confront
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: her his senile rage when she would not consent to
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: give up all idea of marriage with his adopted son,
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: his horrible, grotesque appearance as his pale eyes like spots
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: of fire in his shrunken face, he shook his trembling, clenched,
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: attenuated fist at her and shriek in that weird, toneless
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: voice of dying age. I will be revenged. You will
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: remember me, my girl. I tell you that, how often
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: those lost words of his, a climax to his retuperative
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: denunciation of her dead parent, had echoed in her ears
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: between sleeping and waking, bringing a vague terror to her soul,
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: forcing the chill sweat from her young body. Could that
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: medicine glass found under her window have been flung there
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: by him? It was true that he was weak that day,
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: but not too weak to open his window and throw
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: a glass first primed with drops of the poison, which
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: killed him among the bushes under her windows. What a
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: hideous idea to have, she told herself, How can I
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: suspect the poor old man of such a wicked thing? No,
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: it was some hateful chance, but how terrible to be
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: suspected of such a crime. If Quarrels had skillfully planned
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: a counter shop to that she had received to find
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: herself betrayed as Andrew had betrayed her, he could not
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: have been more successful in the overpowering anguish of finding
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: herself suspected of at least complicity in her uncle's death.
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: Her mock marriage became a secondary trouble. Horror at being
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: thought so base, braced, nerved, her roused the fighting instincts
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: that are the basis of all natures, however weak and frail.
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: After the first numbness and the consequent agony of mind
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: as it passed away had come and gone, Zoe was
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: really another creature, a being more like the brave, cheerful
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: girl whose only fault was an extra bold and independent spirit,
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: and who had been the popular young governess at Newnham House.
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: She read Quarrels's letter calmly, deliberately several times. Then she
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: soberly thought about its contents. Her overpowering desire was to
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: rush wildly off to the place where she had been maligned,
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: to assert her innocence in some public way. This she
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: resolutely repressed. No, she told herself, let him do as
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: he says, clear, both myself and that poor, miserable wretch.
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: She closed her eyes and gave a slight shudder of
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: inward loathing and disgust as she remembered the man she
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: had believed to be her husband. Men must work, women
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: must be. I will not weep over my troubles, but
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: I will bear them and alone. How could he think that,
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: after I had been trodden under foot in the dirt,
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: I would marry him, not only marry him, but ask
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: kim to marry me. How low his opinion is of me.
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: He has been very good, kind, noble, But I will
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 1: be dead to him from this very hour, and he
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: shall be dead to me. Braced by the ascetic sternness
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: of her idea, she paced the grass walk backwards and forwards,
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: up and down, nerving herself for her monotonous future. How
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: dreary it would be when she shut andrew out of
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: her life, she well knew, as deliberately and coolly as
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: if she were an architect, mentally sketching the initial plans
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: of his future dwelling. He said, I must begin life
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: again as Zoe Blunt. Here, she said, with a pale smile.
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: I will not only begin it, but go on with
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: it until I am as prim an old maid as Godmother,
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: and shall meet him, perhaps as a doddering, gray haired
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: old man, boring people with anecdotes of his grandchildren. However,
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: even that thought of him melted her. Her eyes smarted
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: with rising tears. It was necessary to use the cottery
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: to this absurd passion of hers, this deep yearning for him,
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: must be cut out like some deadly cancer. She read
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: the letter again with the distrust and suspicion of an enemy,
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: and found that it could be read as one of
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: the most subtly planned dismissals of a friend or lover
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: ever conceived by an unscrupulous diplomatist of daily life. The
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: woman who could marry him on those terms would be
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: the lowest of her sex, would not have a rag
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: of self respect left. She told herself, he is not
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: the true knight I thought him. It was a pose
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: I have done with him and with the whole of
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: his sex. Fortunately, no man except Godmother's doctor and parson
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: would care to come to Redwood Grange, And with this
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: feeling as her staff and support, she returned to the
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: house clothed and in her right mind, as she termed
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: it to herself to begin an entirely new life. End
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: of chapter twenty one Chapter twenty two of Entrapped by
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: Alice Mangle Deal. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: At first, Zoe started her new life bravely, perhaps with
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: a courage which was somewhat too ostentatious, choosing an opportunity
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: on a day when Miss Figures had one of her
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: brief rallies. She was open with her. It has cost
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: me a struggle, a great struggle to take up my cross, dear,
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: but I have done it, she almost triumphantly told her.
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: I mean to regard my life since the time when
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: you sold the school and poor me with it to
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: missus Mercer. And this when I have come back to
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: you again as Zoey Blount as a blank, pray, pray,
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: never mention it or anything connected with it to me again.
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: You will not. I thought you would be ready to
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: help me. You always have been. Well, that is settled.
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: The next thing is my future, my new life with you.
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: I have not come here to be dependent upon you.
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: Yet I cannot bring myself to accept anything from that
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: cruel wretch who has ruined my life. My dear dear child,
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: you shall not, Miss Figures replied, taking the slim light
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: hand of the girl she had brought up from infancy
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: to beautiful womanhood between hers and clasping it tightly. But
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: do be reasonable. Your poor uncle left a provision for you.
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: You have a right to it. You dislike having anything
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: to do without adopted son of his, then you shall
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: not doing. Miss figures tender sayings, her cooing murmurs of
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: her affection for her Zoe, and of her hopes for
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: future happy days together, which were touching considering their impossibility.
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: As far as she, a dying woman, was concerned, a
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: transient wonder as to the source of this new wealth
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: of her godmother and her widowed sister flashed unwelcomed, unexpected
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: upon Zoe's mind. She had never heard of any expectations
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: of theirs. Indeed, Miss Figures had fretted on the subject
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: of her possible poverty. She had confessed that her bogey
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: had been her death in some workhouse infirmary. It was
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: on the tip of Zoe's tongue to ask the cause
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: of the sister's changed fortunes, but she repressed. The inclination
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: to speak of such things then seemed to her the
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: worst possible taste. But when she had settled down at
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: the Grange and was leading a simple but useful life
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: with youthful companion to the dying spinster and the nervous widow,
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 1: she contrived to steer a conversation with Missus Rankin in
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: the direction of their present circumstances. She had no success.
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: Missus Rankin did not appear to understand her, and began
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: to speak of other things. Brave though Zoe was lovely,
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: though the smiling country, green with spring tide, golden in sunshine,
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: seemed to her even in her fits of depression, the
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 1: days were very long, the weeks lagged and dragged wearily away,
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 1: her flow of spirits ebbed. She blamed herself severely for
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: feeling her luxurious life, so free from harris and worry,
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 1: monotonous to the verge of irritation, almost desperation. But as
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: the spring went slowly by and glowing, luscious summer was imminent,
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: she began to wonder how long she would bear the
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: burden of this dreary, tedious round of insignificant details. In
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: the mockingly beautiful world. Everything is so smooth, she told herself.
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: The cup of tea, the morning tub, a delicate breakfast
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: served to a nicety, Then the talk with Godmother, and
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: that dreadful wandering about the village with Missus Rankin asking
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: after Johnny Pavet's wooping cough and Sarah Janesmith's broken arm,
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: poking one's nose into people's cottages, which are as much
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 1: their cousins as any palace its princes. Then the wilk luncheon,
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: another talk with her godmother, afternoon tea, and perhaps a
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: drive in Missus Rankin's pony carriage. In dinner and deadly
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: bore for the rest of the evening. It would be
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: almost better in prison, she sometimes thought. The fight to
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: please the authorities, the struggled to get through one's work,
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: and the very rage with one's self at having got
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: oneself into such a place, would prevent this awful feeling
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: of death in life. Then came a hot, bright June.
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: Pink spots upon the green hedges, under the leafy trees
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: were the budding wild roses. The scent of one of
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 1: the earliest hay harvests on record was in the sweet
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: clear air. One morning, Zoe awakening in the sunshine to
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: hear the whole rural world astir, the pigeons cooing in
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: the copse close by, the hens loudly proclaiming the arrival
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: of their latest egg. A thrush caroling in a bush
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: under her window, felt suddenly a rebel. I cannot stand
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 1: at any longer, she panted, springing out of bed and
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: holding both hands over her wildly beating heart. I cannot
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: sit still and endure while every other creature is awake,
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: alive at work. I must do something, but I am
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: chained here while my dear deputy mother is alive. I
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: cannot go away find something to do elsewhere. It must
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: be here on the spot, and there is nothing nothing.
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: Her beautiful head, with its wealth of floating hair, drooped
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: on her breast as she gave a great sigh and
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: stretched herself with longing to be no longer such a chrysalis,
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: but to live, to work anyhow, in any way, And
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: just as she was disconsolately telling herself that there was
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: no hope, that she must make up her mind to
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: continue the dreary, trivial round which seemed driving her literally mad.
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: The sweet scent of new mown hay floating in at
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: the open casement, assailed her nostrils and suggested an idea,
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 1: I might go and make ay. She thought, I remember
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: Godmother's tales of how she and her sisters went into
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: the hayfields and worked and delighted in it. She cannot
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: refuse me. The need of vigorous physical exercise had unconsciously
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: grown upon her, as her young strength was fed by
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: the pure air on the good regular aliment. It was
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: a relief to her when, after an argument between Missus
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: Rankin and her sister, the invalid, who sided with Zoe,
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: she triumphed as usual, through her very weakness. Take her
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: to missus trot at the mill farm Dorcas this morning,
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: said miss Figgers, as autocratically as her faint voice would allow.
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: I would take her myself if I could, poor dear
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: child such an innocent notion to make hay, My dearest Susan,
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: I am going to take her as fast as I can,
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: if you will only just allow me time enough to
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: give the orders to cook, was Missus Rankin's injured reply.
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: But she said no more until she was trying to
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: keep pace with Zoe's quick, vigorous footsteps as a young
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: Atalanta in a white frock and broad straw hat wreathed
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: with pink to match her waistband, she hastened along the
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: lanes and across the churchyard to the mill farm, whose
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: wide fields dotted with moving figures. Among the lines of
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: new mown hay stretched away to the foot of richly
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: wooded slopes. Then she querulously compared the young women of
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: the passing era to the girls of her day. Of course,
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: to the disadvantage of the latest developments in womanhood, all
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: that you girls seem to aim at in these days
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: is to be imitation men, with your games and your athletics,
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: and your degrees and caps and gowns, and the tailor
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: made things, and cycling and motoring, and generally making spectacles
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: of yourselves. The angels must weep at with her angry peroration,
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: after which, breathless she gave a gasp and stood still
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 1: to recover herself. I hope the angels won't weep to
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: see me haymaking, said Zoey demurely myself. If there are
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: any angels as we imagine them, I am quite make
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: sure they have something far better to do. Don't be
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: profane pray, snapped Missus Wrenkin. Then they came upon the
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: mill farm, a rural homestead with a big old barn,
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: picturesque outbuildings orchards and gardens, walking up the neat path
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 1: between blossoming borders, and knocking the brass knocker on the
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: open door. The farmer's wife, herself wearing a white bibbed apron,
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: came to the door and ushered them into her best parlor,
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: which boasted a wealth of objects under blast shades, a
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 1: brand new sweet and tapestry, a gay Brussels carpet, and
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: many interesting oleographs issued with special numbers of weakly illustrated papers,
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: and which had a curious composite perfume of burnt wood apples,
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 1: sweet cake and mice, all of which might well have
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: been present in the low sealed apartment at one time
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: or another. Of course, mister Trot will be delighted to
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: see when the hayfield miss said Missus Trot genially, when
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 1: she heard what was asked by one of the new
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: ladies at the grange, who were so kind to the
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: poor old folks in the village. If you'll go straight
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 1: down the path to the right after you are out
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: of the garden gate. It'll take you to five acres field,
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: where you'll see my husband near to one of the hedges.
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: He'll find you a light rakeness and a shady corner
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: out of the worst of the sun. Oh I like
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 1: the sun. I have been in the south of Europe
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: this winter, said Zoe Reddening. Well, that is odd, miss
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: So as my sister returned, Missus Trot interested she's made
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: to Lady Whiteford and wrote to me as where she was.
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: The oranges and orange blossoms grows together on the trees
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: out in the fields, and the hedges was covered with
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: pink roses when we here was under two foot of snow.
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: I'll show you the photograph she sent me of the place.
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: Missus Trot lumbered up, and, finding the photograph on the
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: walnut center table among the gay cloth covered books which
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 1: surrounded some wax water lilies on the looking glam under
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 1: a big round glass shade, handed it proudly to Zoe.
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 1: She stared at it with a pang. It was the
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: part of the promenade at Nice, opposite the hotel des Pellerin's,
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: and showed the very windows of her and that false
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 1: husband's rooms for the next few moments, she forgot where
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: she was all surged back the fancied love for her
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: uncle's adopted son, which she now knew had been the
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: effect of propinquity when they had no companions but each
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: other in the forlorn old mansion. Her uncle's sudden death,
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: the inquest, her flight to London, her and Andrew's marriage,
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 1: their journey to niece. Then the man she loved. Oh,
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: if she had ever doubted her deep passionate love for
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 1: her real cousin, she recognized it now, and the revelation
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 1: made her feel sick at heart as she listened to
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: Missus Trot's prattle, then accompanied her through the garden, out
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: of the gate and strolled down to the five acre field.
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 1: By Missus Rankin's side, she felt desperately inclined to give
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: up this hay making idea to go straight to the
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 1: telegraph office then and there and wire come. Thank Heaven,
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: I am prevented from degrading myself by the conclusive obstacle.
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 1: I don't know where he is, she devoutly thought, as
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: the red faced farmer, looking as surprised as if the
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 1: two ladies had been a couple of the angels Missus
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: Rankin talked about, came a little way to meet them,
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 1: lifting his straw hat. You'll find it are than ye think, missy,
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 1: he smilingly said, as he mopped his bald head with
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: a red handkerchief before replacing his hat. But I'm never
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: one to say nay to young ladies fancies. I'll find
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 1: you a rake up at the house what miss Viner,
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: our rector's daughter uses when they has a haymaking tea sometimes,
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: and bring it down to ye if ye'll wait here
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: in the shade for a few minutes. Here, you help
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: me to make a seat for the young lady under
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 1: the tree. The man addressed left his work. Farmer Trot
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 1: took up armfuls of fragrant hay. His murmurdun imitated him,
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: and in less time than so he could have described
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: the process, there was a hay throne awaiting her under
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: a tall old elm which sheltered the road, also on
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: the other side of the hedge, Thanking mister Trot. She
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: accepted her seat, and with one eye on the haymaker's
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: watched Missus Rankin's little figure ambling along at the big
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: man's side as he went up to the farm for
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 1: the promised rake. Then, seeing some pink and white spots
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: on a distant hedge which looked like dog roses, she
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: said to herself, anything is better than sitting grizzling and
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 1: worrying here, and rising, strolled off to look at them,
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: as so often happened. When she arrived at the spot,
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: she saw far better blooms on another hedge. This was
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 1: in the very next field, connected with the five acre
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 1: by a gate. She forgot the rake and farmer trot
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 1: and her eagerness for the roses, and was speedily through
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: the gate and standing opposite the hedge gathering them. Does
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 1: this remind me al? She asked herself suddenly, as a
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: weird sensation swept across her mind like a cold breeze.
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: Then she remembered it was a dream, and niece and
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 1: he had been in it. Shall I never get away
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: from the past, never be myself pure and simple? She thought.
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 1: An exasperation, she began picking the roses again, ruthlessly viciously.
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: The thorns ran into her fingers, but she did not care.
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 1: Suddenly she startled and gave a stifled cry, recoiling in alarm.
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: Her cousin, the real Andrew Quarrels was walking towards her.
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 1: He was dressed in a gray shooting suit, and saw
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 1: her kane. She stood and watched him, incredulous, fascinated as
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 1: he neared her, looking calm and unconcerned, so much so
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 1: that in furious haste she struggled for equanimity. I did
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: not expect to see you here, I must say, she said,
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 1: with a valiant attempt at nonchalance, holding out her hand.
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 1: Take care. I am all over deep seated thorns. I
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: shall never get them out. So am I all over
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 1: deep seated thorns, which I fear will never be extracted.
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: So we are companions in misfortune. He returned with an
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: easy laugh. But you ask how I came by rail? Then,
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 1: hearing where you were, first from Miss Vigures, secondly from
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: that very typical farmer I met leaving the house after
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: my interview with his wife, I walked, But why have
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 1: you come, she asked resentfully. I thought you meant to
• 1:50:33
  Speaker 1: take no further notice of me until I sent for you. Well,
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 1: of course, I am grateful to you for your kindness
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 1: and all that, But to expect me to degrade myself
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: like that, knowing how I am indebted to you? Was
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 1: I do think the very most ungenerous thing I ever
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: heard of. She turned from him, her rosy lips pressed
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 1: to her bleeding palm, and took out a white wisp
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: of handkerchief, seemingly absorbed in wrapping up her wounded hand.
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 1: He gazed at her sad smile. How exquisitely lovely was
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: the tall, slight, willowy figure against the gray green of
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 1: that second, smaller hay field, where the cut hay had
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: been left to dry. How charming was the pose of
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: the little head on the beautiful slender neck, And she
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: was not for him. Well, I have capitulated as far
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 1: as this, he began, seriously. I have volunteered for South
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 1: Africa and sail next week. I may be killed. The
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: lists are somewhat astonishing, and I thought that if you
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 1: heard I was smashed to pieces, or my head blown
• 1:51:34
  Speaker 1: off or something, you might reproach yourself that you had
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 1: let me go without your good wishes. So I have
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: come to fetch them. You cannot say I have any
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 1: false pride. She turned slowly round and gave him a
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 1: look he never afterwards forgot. It was that of the
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: soul slowly sinking into an abode of torture, mutely appealing
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: for help. The blossoms dropped from her hand. She hardly
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: knew it. You are going to the war, why, she whispered,
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 1: her all stricken eyes riveted upon his. Because well, I
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 1: have no home, you see, He somewhat roughly answered, as
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 1: you may have guessed, I have given my home away,
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 1: And dear I wanted to tell you that I have
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: left every rood of land, every farthing I possessed to you,
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 1: just as if you were my own, dear wife. She
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 1: blanched to the whiteness of the poor crushed flowers she
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 1: was unconsciously treading under foot. As I may have guessed
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 1: you have given she began slowly, as one speaking in
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: a trance. Then her eyes flashed. She saw it. All
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: you are my godmother's fortune. The grange is yours, she
• 1:52:48
  Speaker 1: cried passionately, Oh, my cousin, do not go take back
• 1:52:51
  Speaker 1: your home. Only stay. She was swaying as she stood,
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 1: holding out pale hands to keep her balance. But she
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 1: thrust his hand and his pockets and stood there, grim
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 1: and irresponsive. I can only stay with a wife, he
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: sternly said, if a woman loved me and asked me
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 1: to stay for her sake. She turned to him with
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 1: her hands joined like some little child in prayer. Please
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: will you marry me? She sobbed. I know I am
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 1: not worthy, but if you will, I will try to
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 1: make up to you. Her last words were stayed by
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: his passionate kiss. She was in his arms, on his heart.
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 1: After a few minutes of such rapture that neither really
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 1: knew whether they had been transported to paradise, or were
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 1: dead and in the Elysian fields, or indeed what was happening.
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 1: Farmer trot, wondering warily young lady had got to suddenly
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 1: espied a gleam of white in the next field, and
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: approached the gate to see Zoe in her lover's arms.
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, he exclaimed, retreating hastily. He was not
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 1: astonished when a few weeks later there was considerable excit
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 1: in the village. The church bells pealed, the folk assembled
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 1: in the churchyard, and a quiet wedding was celebrated within
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 1: the ancient walls, the marriage of Squire Quarrels's real son
• 1:54:10
  Speaker 1: and his niece Zoey. In long and pleasant wanderings. Later
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: on Andrew Quarrels told his bride the story of his life.
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 1: One item concerned her nearly the interview between the estranged
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 1: parent and his only son, a few hours before the
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 1: former's death. I never dreamt of any foul play. For
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: a very good reason, Sovie's husband told her. He told
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 1: me that he meant to die some little time before.
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: He had visited a great specialist in London, who candidly
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 1: warned him he had not long to live, but much
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 1: to suffer. I was not surprised to hear he was gone.
• 1:54:46
  Speaker 1: I believe he meant to write me, but got suddenly dead,
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 1: sick of everything, and took that fatal dose. He knew.
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 1: I did not want his money, nor do I said
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 1: Zoe Nestling, happily against him. I want nothing but you.
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter twenty two. End of Entrapped by Alice
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 1: Mangold Deal