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Bealby Chapter 5 - The Seeking of Bealby part one · The H. G. Wells Library

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Speaker 1: Chapter five, Bilby a Holiday. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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Speaker 1: by Rita Boutros Bilby a Holiday by H. G. Wells,
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Speaker 1: Chapter five, The Seeking of Bilby, Part one sub chapter one.
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Speaker 1: On the same Monday evening that witnessed Bilby's first experience
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Speaker 1: of the theater, mister Merkleson, the house steward of Chantz,
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Speaker 1: walked slowly and thoughtfully across the corner of the park
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Speaker 1: between the laundry and the gardens. His face was much
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Speaker 1: recovered from the accidents of his collision with the Lord Chancellor.
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Speaker 1: Resort to raw meat in the kitchen had checked the
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Speaker 1: development of his injuries, and only a few can tusions
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Speaker 1: in the side of his face were more than faintly traceable,
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Speaker 1: and suffering had on the whole rather ennobled than depressed
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Speaker 1: his bearing. He had a black eye, but it was
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Speaker 1: not he felt a common black eye. It came from
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Speaker 1: high quarters, and through no fault of mister Murgleson's own,
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Speaker 1: he carried it well. It was a fruit of duty,
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Speaker 1: rather than the outcome of wanton pleasure seeking or misdirected passion.
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Speaker 1: He found mister Darling in profound meditation over some peach
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Speaker 1: trees against the wall. They were not doing so well
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Speaker 1: as they ought to do, and mister Darling was engaged
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Speaker 1: in wondering. Why good evening, mister Darling, said mister Morgleson.
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Speaker 1: Mister Darling ceased rather slowly to wander and turned to
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Speaker 1: his friend, good evening, mister Morgleson. He said, I don't
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Speaker 1: quite like the look of these here peaches. Bloat if
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Speaker 1: I do. Mister Mergleson glanced at the peaches and then
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Speaker 1: came to the matter that was nearest his heart. You haven't,
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Speaker 1: I suppose, seen anything of your steps on these last
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Speaker 1: two days, mister Darling. Naturally not, said mister Darling, putting
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Speaker 1: his head on one side and regarding his interlocutor, naturally not.
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Speaker 1: I've left that to you, mister Mogleson. Well that's what's awkward,
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Speaker 1: said mister Murguson, and then, with a forced easiness, you
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Speaker 1: see I ain't seen him either, No, no, I lost
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Speaker 1: sight of him. Mister Murgleson appeared to reflect. Late on
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Speaker 1: Saturday night, how's that, mister Murguson. Mister Murgleson considered the
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Speaker 1: difficulties of lucid explanation. We missed 'em, said mister Morgleson,
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Speaker 1: simply regarding the well weeded garden path with a calculating expression,
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Speaker 1: and then lifting his eyes to mister Darling's with an
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Speaker 1: air of great candor. And we continue to miss him well,
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Speaker 1: said mister Darling. That's rum, yes, said mister Merkleson. It's
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Speaker 1: a decidedly rum, said mister Darling. We thought he might
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Speaker 1: be idlin from his work or cut off home. You
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Speaker 1: didn't send down to ask. We was too busy with
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Speaker 1: the week end people. On the all, we thought if
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Speaker 1: he had cut home. On the all, it wasn't a
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Speaker 1: very serious loss. He got in the way at times,
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Speaker 1: and there was one or two things happened. Now that
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Speaker 1: they're all gone and he hasn't turned up. Well, I
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Speaker 1: came down, mister Darling, to urste where's he gone. He
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Speaker 1: ain't come here, said mister Darling, surveying the garden. I
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Speaker 1: happ expected he might, and I haarp expected he mightn't,
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Speaker 1: said mister Merkleson, with the air of one who had
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Speaker 1: anticipated mister Darling's answer, but hesitated to admit as much.
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Speaker 1: The two gentlemen paused for some seconds and regarded each
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Speaker 1: other searchingly. Where's he got to, said mister Darling. Well,
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Speaker 1: said mister Murgeson, putting his hands where the tails of
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Speaker 1: his short jacket would have been if it hadn't been short,
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Speaker 1: and looking extraordinarily like a parrot in its more thoughtful moods.
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Speaker 1: To tell ye the truth, mister Darling, I've had a
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Speaker 1: dream about him, and it worries me. I got a
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Speaker 1: sort of idea of him, esbin. In one of them
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Speaker 1: secret passages i'd n away there was a guest. Well,
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Speaker 1: I say it with all respect, but any one might
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Speaker 1: have hid from him This morning, soon as the week
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Speaker 1: end had cleared up, an gone home. Me and Thomas
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Speaker 1: went through them passages as well as we could not
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Speaker 1: a trace of em. But I still got that idea
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Speaker 1: he was a regulin climbin enterprise and sort o boy,
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Speaker 1: I've checked him for it once or twice, said mister Darling,
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Speaker 1: with the red light of fierce memories gleaming for a
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Speaker 1: moment in his eyes. He might even, said mister Murgeson. Well,
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Speaker 1: very likely I've got himself jammed in one of them's
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Speaker 1: secret pass sages, jammed, repeated mister Darling. Well got himself
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Speaker 1: somewhere where I can't get out. I've ver tell. There's
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Speaker 1: walled up dungeons, they say, said mister Darling. There's underground
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Speaker 1: passages to the abbey ruins three good mile away. Awkward,
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Speaker 1: said mister Merkleson. Trat's eyes, said mister Darling, scratching and
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Speaker 1: said what does he mean by it? We can't leave
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Speaker 1: him there, said mister Merkleson. I know the young devil wants.
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Speaker 1: What crawled up a culvert, said mister Darling. His father
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Speaker 1: had to dig him out like a fox. Lord how
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Speaker 1: he walloped him for it. Mistake to have a boy
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Speaker 1: in so young, said mister Merkleson. It's all very awkward,
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Speaker 1: said mister Darling. Surveying every aspect of the case. You
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Speaker 1: see his mother sets a most extraordinary value on him,
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Speaker 1: most extraordinary. I don't know whether she oughtn't to be told,
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Speaker 1: said mister Merkleson. I was thinking of that. Mister Darling
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Speaker 1: was not the sort of man to meet trouble half way.
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Speaker 1: He shook his head at that. Not yet, mister Murguson,
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Speaker 1: I don't think yet, not until everything's been tried. I
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Speaker 1: don't think there's any need to give her a needless
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Speaker 1: distress none whatever. If you don't mind, I think I'll
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Speaker 1: come up to night nine inch say and have a
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Speaker 1: talk to you and Thomas about it. A quiet talk.
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Speaker 1: Best to begin with a quiet talk. It's a dashed rum.
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Speaker 1: Go and me and you. We got to think it
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Speaker 1: out a bit. That's what I think, said mister Murgleson,
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Speaker 1: with unconcealed relief at mister Darling's friendliness. That's exactly the light,
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Speaker 1: mister Darling in which it appears to me, Because you see,
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Speaker 1: if he's all right and in the house, why doesn't
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Speaker 1: he come for his victuals? Sub Chapter two. In the
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Speaker 1: pantry that evening, the question of telling someone was discussed further.
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Speaker 1: It was discussed over a number of glasses of mister
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Speaker 1: Murryglesson's beer. For following a sound tradition, mister Merkleson brewed
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Speaker 1: at chance, and sometimes he brewed well, and sometimes he
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Speaker 1: brewed ill, and sometimes he brewed weak, and sometimes he
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Speaker 1: brewed strong. And there was no monotony in the cups
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Speaker 1: at chance. This was sturdy stuff and suited mister darling's mood,
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Speaker 1: and ever and again, with an author's natural weakness and
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Speaker 1: an affectation of abstraction, mister Merkleson took the jug out
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Speaker 1: empty and brought it back foaming. Henry the second Footman
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Speaker 1: was disposed to a forced hopefulness so as not to
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Speaker 1: spoil the evening, but Thomas was sympathetic and distressed. The
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Speaker 1: red haired youth made cigarettes with a little machine, licked them,
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Speaker 1: and offered them to the others, saying little as became him.
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Speaker 1: Etiquette deprived him of an uninvited beer, and mister Merkleson's
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Speaker 1: inattention completed what etiquette began. I can't bear to think
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Speaker 1: of the poor little beggar stuck head foremost into some
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Speaker 1: cobwebby cranny bloat, if I can, said Thomas, getting help
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Speaker 1: from the jug. He was an interestin' kid, said Thomas,
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Speaker 1: in a tone that was frankly obituary. He didn't like
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Speaker 1: his work, one could see that, but he was lively,
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Speaker 1: and I tried to help him along all I could
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Speaker 1: when I wasn't too busy myself. There was something sensitive
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Speaker 1: about him, said Thomas. Mister Murgleson sat with his arms
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Speaker 1: loosely thrown out over the table. What we got to
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Speaker 1: do is tell someone, he said. I don't see how
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Speaker 1: I can put off telling her ladyship after tomorrow mornin'
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Speaker 1: an then even help us. Course, I got to tell
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Speaker 1: my missus, said mister Darling, and poured in a preoccupied way,
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Speaker 1: some running over. We'll go through them passages again now
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Speaker 1: before we go to bed, said mister Morgleson. Far as
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Speaker 1: we can. But there is all and chinks only a
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Speaker 1: boy could get through. I got to tell the missus,
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Speaker 1: said mister Darling. That's what's worryin' me. As the evening
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Speaker 1: wore on, there was a tendency on the part of
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Speaker 1: mister Darling to make this the refrain of his discourse,
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Speaker 1: he sought advice. How'd you tell the missus, he asked
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Speaker 1: mister Merkleson, and emptied a glass to control his impatience
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Speaker 1: before mister Merkleson replied, I shall tell her Ladyship, just
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Speaker 1: simply the fact. I shall say, your ladyship, here's my
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Speaker 1: boy gone and we don't know where. And as she
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Speaker 1: asked me questions, so shall I give particulars? Mister Darling reflected,
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Speaker 1: and then shook his head slowly. Ow'd you tell the missus?
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Speaker 1: He asked Thomas glad, I haven't got to, said Thomas,
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Speaker 1: poor little beggar. Yes, but how would you tell her,
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Speaker 1: mister Darling said, varying the accent very carefully. I'd go
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Speaker 1: to her and I'd pat her back and I'd say
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Speaker 1: bear up, see, And when she asked what for, I
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Speaker 1: just tell her what for? Grad You'll like, you don't
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Speaker 1: know the missus, said mister Darling. Henry, how do you
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Speaker 1: tell her? Let her find out? Said Henry. Women do.
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Speaker 1: Mister Darling reflected and decided that too was unworkable. How jew,
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Speaker 1: he asked, with an air of desperation of the red
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Speaker 1: haired youth. The red haired youth remained for a moment
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Speaker 1: with his tongue extended, licking the gum of a cigarette paper,
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Speaker 1: and his eyes on mister Darling. Then he finished the cigarette, slowly,
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Speaker 1: giving his mind very carefully to the question he had
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Speaker 1: been honored with. I think, he said, in a low,
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Speaker 1: serious voice, I should say, just simply Mary or Susan
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Speaker 1: or whatever her name is. Tilda supplied mister Darling. Tilda,
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Speaker 1: I should say, the Lord gave and the Lord hath
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Speaker 1: taken away Tilda, he's gone something like that. The red
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Speaker 1: haired boy cleared his throat. He was rather touched by
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Speaker 1: his own simple eloquence. Mister Darling reflected on this with
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Speaker 1: profound satisfaction for some moments. Then he broke out, almost querulously, Yes,
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Speaker 1: but brest him. Where's he gone? Anyhow, said mister Darling.
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Speaker 1: I ain't goin to tell her, not till the morning.
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Speaker 1: I ain't goin to lose my night's rest if I
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Speaker 1: have lost my step son. No how, mister Murgleson, I
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Speaker 1: must say, I don't think I ever i've tasted better beer. Never,
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Speaker 1: it's it's famous beer. He had some more on his
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Speaker 1: way back through the moonlight to the gardens. Mister Darling
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Speaker 1: was still unsettled as to the exact way of breaking
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Speaker 1: things to his wife. He had come out from the
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Speaker 1: house a little ruffled because of mister Murgleson's opposition to
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Speaker 1: a rather good idea of his that he should go
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Speaker 1: about the house an I'll er for him a bit.
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Speaker 1: He'd know my voice, you see, Ladyship wouldn't mind very
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Speaker 1: likely sleep by now. But the moonlight dispelled his irritation.
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Speaker 1: How was he to tell his wife? He tried various
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Speaker 1: methods to the listening moon. There was, for example, the
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Speaker 1: offhand noosy way, you know that boy yours? Then a
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Speaker 1: pause for the reply, then he's totally disappeared. Only there
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Speaker 1: were difficulties about the word totally, or the distressed, impersonal
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Speaker 1: manner dreadful thing happened, dreadful thing that poor little chap
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Speaker 1: Artie totally disappeared totally again, or the personal intimate note
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Speaker 1: don't know what you'll say to me, Tilda, when I
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Speaker 1: tell you what you got to say, thoroughly bad news.
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Speaker 1: Seems they lost our arty up there, clean lost him,
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Speaker 1: can't find him nowhere? A tall or the authoritative kindly Tilda,
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Speaker 1: you go control yourself, go show what you're made of.
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Speaker 1: Our boy? Is it lost? Then he addressed the park
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Speaker 1: at large with a sudden despair. Don't care why I say,
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Speaker 1: shall blame it on to me. I know her. After that,
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Speaker 1: the enormous pathos of the situation got hold of him,
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Speaker 1: Poor little chap he said, poor little fell and shed
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Speaker 1: a few natural tears. Loved him jess as me On's son.
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Speaker 1: As the circumambient night made no reply, he repeated the
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Speaker 1: remark in a louder, almost domineering tone. He spent some
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Speaker 1: time trying to climb the garden wall because the door
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Speaker 1: did not seem to be in the usual place. Have
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Speaker 1: to inquire about that in the morning. Difficult to see
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Speaker 1: everything is all right when one is so bereaved. But
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Speaker 1: finally he came on the door round a corner. He
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Speaker 1: told his wife merely that he intended to have a
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Speaker 1: peaceful night, and took off his boots in a defiant
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Speaker 1: and intermittant manner. The morning would be soon enough. She
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Speaker 1: looked at him pretty hard, and he looked at her
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Speaker 1: ever and again, but she never made a guess at
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Speaker 1: it bed sub chapter three. So soon as the week
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Speaker 1: enders had dispersed and Sir Peter had gone off to
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Speaker 1: London to attend to various matters affecting the peptonizing of
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Speaker 1: milk and the distribution of baby soothers about the habitable glow,
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Speaker 1: Lady Laxton went back to bed and remained in bed
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Speaker 1: until midday on Tuesday. Nothing short of complete rest and
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Speaker 1: the utmost kindness from her maid would, she felt, save
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Speaker 1: her from a nervous breakdown of the most serious description.
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Speaker 1: The festival had been stormy to the end. Sir Peter's
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Speaker 1: ill advised attempts to deprive Lord Margridge of alcohol had
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Speaker 1: led to a painful struggle at lunch, and this had
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Speaker 1: been followed by a still more un pleasant scene between
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Speaker 1: host and guest in the afternoon. This is an occasion
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Speaker 1: for tact, Sir Peter, had said, and had gone off
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Speaker 1: to tackle the Lord Chancellor, leaving his wife to the
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Speaker 1: direst best founded apprehensions. For Sir Peter's tact was a
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Speaker 1: thing by itself, a mixture of misconception, reclamation and familiarity
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Speaker 1: that was rarely well received. She had had to explain
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Speaker 1: to the Sunday dinner party that his lordship had been
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Speaker 1: called away suddenly, something connected with the Great Seal. Lady
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Speaker 1: Laxton had whispered in a discreet, mysterious whisper. One or
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Speaker 1: two simple hearers were left with the persuasion that the
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Speaker 1: Great Seal had been taken suddenly unwell, and probably in
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Speaker 1: a slightly indelicate manner. Thomas had to paint Mergilson's eye
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Speaker 1: with grease paint left over from some private theatricals. It
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Speaker 1: had been a patched up affair all time together, and
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Speaker 1: before she retired to bed that night, Lady Lexton had
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Speaker 1: given way to her accumulated tensions and wept. There was
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Speaker 1: no reason whatever why to wind up the day. Sir
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Speaker 1: Peter should have stayed in her room for an hour
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Speaker 1: saying what he thought of Lord Morgridge. She felt she
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Speaker 1: knew quite well enough what he thought of Lord Morgridge,
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Speaker 1: and on these occasions he always used a number of
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Speaker 1: words that she did her best to believe as a
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Speaker 1: delicately brought up woman, were unfamiliar to her ears. So
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Speaker 1: on Monday, as soon as the guests had gone, she
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Speaker 1: went to bed again and stayed there, trying, as a
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Speaker 1: good woman should, to prevent herself thinking of what the
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Speaker 1: neighbors could be thinking and saying of the whole affair,
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Speaker 1: by studying a new and very circumstantial pamphlet by Bishop
16:52
Speaker 1: Fowl on social evils, turning over the moving illustrations of
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Speaker 1: some recent anti vivisection literature, and rereading the accounts in
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Speaker 1: the Morning Papers of a colliery disaster in the North
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Speaker 1: of England. To such women as Lady Laxton, brought up
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Speaker 1: in an atmosphere of refinement that is almost colorless, and
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Speaker 1: living a life troubled only by small social conflicts, and
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Speaker 1: the minor violence of Sir Peter. Blameless to the point
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Speaker 1: of complete uneventfulness, and secure and comfortable to the point
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Speaker 1: of tedium. There is something amounting to fascination in the
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Speaker 1: wickedness and sufferings of more normally situated people. There is
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Speaker 1: a real attraction and solace in the thought of pain
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Speaker 1: and stress, And as her access to any other accounts
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Speaker 1: of vice and suffering was restricted, she kept herself closely
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Speaker 1: in touch with the more explicit literature of the various
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Speaker 1: movements for human moralization that distinguish our age, and responded
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Speaker 1: eagerly and generously to such painful catastrophes as an enlive
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Speaker 1: in it. The counterfoils of her check book witnessed to
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Speaker 1: her gratitude for these vicarious sensations. She figured herself to
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Speaker 1: herself in her day dreams as a calm and white
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Speaker 1: and shining intervention, checking and reproving amusements of an undesirable nature,
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Speaker 1: and earning the tearful blessings of the mangled by products
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Speaker 1: of industrial enterprise. There is a curious craving for entire
18:29
Speaker 1: reality in the feminine composition, and there were times when,
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Speaker 1: in spite of these feasts of particulars. She wished she
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Speaker 1: could come just a little nearer to the heady dreadfulnesses
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Speaker 1: of life than simply writing a check against it. She
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Speaker 1: would have liked to have actually seen the votaries of
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Speaker 1: evil blench and repent before her contributions, to have herself
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Speaker 1: unstrapped and revived and pitied some doomed and chloroformed victim
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Speaker 1: of the so called scientist, to have herself participated in
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Speaker 1: the stretcher and the hospital, and humanity made marvelous by
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Speaker 1: enlistment under the Red Cross badge. But Sir Peter's ideals
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Speaker 1: of womanhood were higher than his language, and he would
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Speaker 1: not let her soil her refinement with any vision of
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Speaker 1: the pain and evil in the world. Sort of woman
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Speaker 1: they want up there as a trained nurse, he used
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Speaker 1: to say. When she broached the possibility of going to
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Speaker 1: some famine or disaster, you don't want to go, prying,
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Speaker 1: old girl, she suffered, she felt, from repressed to heroism.
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Speaker 1: If ever she was to shine in disaster, that disaster,
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Speaker 1: she felt must come to her, she must not go
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Speaker 1: to meet it. And so you realize how deeply it
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Speaker 1: stirred her, how it brightened her, and uplifted her to
19:49
Speaker 1: learn from mister Murgleson's halting statements that perhaps, that probably,
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Speaker 1: that almost certainly, a painful and tragical thing was happening
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Speaker 1: even now within the walls of Schantz, that there was
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Speaker 1: urgent necessity for action if anguish was to be witnessed
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Speaker 1: before it had ended and life saved. She clasped her hands.
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Speaker 1: She surveyed her large servitor with agonized green gray eyes.
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Speaker 1: Something must be done at once, she said, everything possible
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Speaker 1: must be done, poor little mite. Of course my lady
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Speaker 1: may have run away. Oh no, she cried, he hasn't
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Speaker 1: run away, He hasn't run away. How can you be
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Speaker 1: so wicked Margleson. Of course he hasn't run away. He's
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Speaker 1: there now, and it's too dreadful. She became suddenly very
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Speaker 1: firm and masterful. The morning's colliery tragedy inspired her imagination.
20:48
Speaker 1: We must get pickaxes, she said. We must organize search parties.
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Speaker 1: Not a moment is to be lost, Margleson, Not a moment.
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Speaker 1: Get the men in off the roads, get every one
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Speaker 1: you can, and not a moment was lost. The road
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Speaker 1: men were actually at work and shants before their proper
21:07
Speaker 1: dinner hour was over, they did quite a lot of
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Speaker 1: things that afternoon. Every passage attainable from the dining room
21:15
Speaker 1: opening was explored, and where these passages gave off chinks
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Speaker 1: and crannies, they were opened up with a vigor which
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Speaker 1: Lady Laxton had greatly stimulated by an encouraging presence and
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Speaker 1: liberal doses of whiskey. Through their efforts, a fine new
21:31
Speaker 1: opening was made into the library from the wall near
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Speaker 1: the window, a hole big enough for a man to
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Speaker 1: fall through, because one did, and a great piece of
21:41
Speaker 1: stone work was thrown down from the Queen Elizabeth's tower,
21:45
Speaker 1: exposing the upper portion of the secret passage. To the
21:48
Speaker 1: light of day, Lady Laxton herself and the head housemaid
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Speaker 1: went round the paneling with a hammer and a chisel
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Speaker 1: and called out are you there, and attempted an opening
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Speaker 1: wherever it sounded hollow. The sweep was sent for to
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Speaker 1: go up the old chimneys outside the present flues. Meanwhile,
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Speaker 1: mister Darling had been sent with several of his men
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Speaker 1: to dig for, discover, pick up and lay open the
22:15
Speaker 1: underground passage or disused drain, whichever it was that was
22:20
Speaker 1: known to run from the corner of the laundry towards
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Speaker 1: the old ice house, and that was supposed to reach
22:26
Speaker 1: to the abbey ruins. After some bold exploratory excavations, this
22:31
Speaker 1: channel was located and a report sent at once to
22:35
Speaker 1: Lady Laxton. It was this and the new and alarming
22:39
Speaker 1: scar on the Queen Elizabeth Tower that brought mister beaulu
22:44
Speaker 1: Plumber posthaste from the estate office up to the house.
22:48
Speaker 1: Mister boulu Plumber was the Marquis of Cranberry's estate agent,
22:53
Speaker 1: a man of great natural tact, and charged, among other duties,
22:57
Speaker 1: with the task of seeing that the Laxtons did not
22:59
Speaker 1: make a way with Schantz during the period of their tenancy.
23:03
Speaker 1: He was a sound, compact little man, rarely out of
23:07
Speaker 1: the extreme riding breeches and gaiters, and he wore glasses
23:11
Speaker 1: that now glittered with astonishment as he approached Lady Laxton
23:16
Speaker 1: and her band of spade workers. At his approach, mister
23:20
Speaker 1: Darling attempted to become invisible, but he was unable to
23:23
Speaker 1: do so. Lady Laxton, mister boloo Plumber appealed, may I ask, oh,
23:30
Speaker 1: mister boulou Plumber, I'm so glad you've come. A little
23:34
Speaker 1: boy suffocating. I can hardly bear it suffocating, cried mister
23:39
Speaker 1: Buloh Plumber. Where and was, in a confused manner told
23:44
Speaker 1: he asked a number of questions that Lady Laxton found
23:48
Speaker 1: very tiresome. But how did she know the boy was
23:51
Speaker 1: in the secret passage? Of course she knew? Was it
23:55
Speaker 1: likely she would do all this if she didn't know?
23:57
Speaker 1: But mightn't he have run away? How could he when
24:00
Speaker 1: he was in the secret passages? But why not first
24:04
Speaker 1: scour the countryside, by which time he would be smothered
24:07
Speaker 1: and starved and dead. They parted with a mutual loss
24:11
Speaker 1: of esteem, and mister Beaulou Plumber, looking very serious, indeed
24:16
Speaker 1: ran as fast as he could straight to the village
24:19
Speaker 1: telegraph office, Or, to be more exact, he walked until
24:23
Speaker 1: he thought himself out of sight of Lady Laxton, and
24:27
Speaker 1: then he took to his heels and ran. He sat
24:30
Speaker 1: for some time in the parlor post office, spoiling telegraph
24:34
Speaker 1: forms and composing telegrams to Sir Peter Laxton and Lord Cranberry.
24:40
Speaker 1: He got these off at last, and then, drawn by
24:43
Speaker 1: an irresistible fascination, went back to the park and watched
24:47
Speaker 1: from afar the signs of fresh activities on the part
24:51
Speaker 1: of Lady Laxton. He saw men coming from the direction
24:55
Speaker 1: of the stables with large rakes. With these they dragged
24:59
Speaker 1: the ornamental. Then a man with a pickaxe appeared against
25:04
Speaker 1: the skyline and crossed the roof in the direction of
25:07
Speaker 1: the clock tower, bound upon some unknown but probably highly
25:12
Speaker 1: destructive mission. Then he saw Lady Laxton going off to
25:16
Speaker 1: the gardens. She was going to console Missus Darling in
25:20
Speaker 1: her trouble. This she did through nearly an hour and
25:23
Speaker 1: a half, and on the whole it seemed d well,
25:27
Speaker 1: mister Beaulou Plummer, that so she should be occupied. It
25:31
Speaker 1: was striking five when a telegraph boy on a bicycle
25:35
Speaker 1: came up from the village with a telegram from Sir
25:37
Speaker 1: Peter Laxton. Stop all proceedings absolutely, it said, until I
25:43
Speaker 1: get to you. Lady Laxton's lips tightened at the message.
25:47
Speaker 1: She was back from much weeping with Missus Darling, and
25:51
Speaker 1: altogether finely strung. Here she felt was one of those
25:55
Speaker 1: supreme occasions when a woman must assert herself a matter
25:59
Speaker 1: of life or death. She wired in reply, and to
26:03
Speaker 1: show herself how completely she overrode such dictation as this
26:07
Speaker 1: she sent mister Mirkleson down to the village public house
26:11
Speaker 1: with orders to engage any one he could find there
26:14
Speaker 1: for an evening's work on an extraordinarily liberal overtime scale.
26:20
Speaker 1: After taking this step, the spirit of Lady Laxton quailed.
26:24
Speaker 1: She went and sat in her own room and quivered.
26:27
Speaker 1: She quivered, but she clenched her delicate fist. She would
26:31
Speaker 1: go through with it, come what might. She would go
26:34
Speaker 1: on with the excavation all night, if necessary. But at
26:38
Speaker 1: the same time she began a little to regret that
26:41
Speaker 1: she had not taken earlier steps to demonstrate the improbability
26:45
Speaker 1: of bielby having simply run away. She set to work
26:49
Speaker 1: to repair this omission. She wrote off to the superintendent
26:54
Speaker 1: of police in the neighboring town, to the nearest police magistrate,
26:58
Speaker 1: and then, on the off chance, to various of her
27:02
Speaker 1: weekend guests, including Captain Douglas. If it was true that
27:06
Speaker 1: he had organized the annoyance of the Lord Chancellor, and
27:10
Speaker 1: though she still rejected that view, she did now begin
27:14
Speaker 1: to regard it as a permissible hypothesis, then he might
27:18
Speaker 1: also know something about the mystery of this boy's disappearance.
27:22
Speaker 1: Each letter she wrote, she wrote with greater fatigue and
27:26
Speaker 1: haste than its predecessor, and more illegibly. Sir Peter arrived
27:32
Speaker 1: long after dark. He cut across the corner of the
27:35
Speaker 1: park to save time, and fell into one of the
27:38
Speaker 1: trenches that mister Darling had opened. This added greatly to
27:42
Speaker 1: the eclat with which he came into the hall. Lady
27:45
Speaker 1: Laxton withstood him for five minutes and then returned abruptly
27:50
Speaker 1: to her bedroom and locked herself in, leaving the control
27:53
Speaker 1: of the operations in his hands. If he's not in
27:57
Speaker 1: the house, said Sir Peter, all that thundering foolery, And
28:02
Speaker 1: if he's in the house, he's dead. If he's dead,
28:05
Speaker 1: he'll smell in a bit, and then'll be the time
28:07
Speaker 1: to look for him. Something to go upon, instead of
28:10
Speaker 1: all this blind hacking the place about no wonder they're
28:14
Speaker 1: threatening proceedings sub Chapter four upon Captain Douglas. Lady Laxton's
28:22
Speaker 1: letter was destined to have a very distracting effect, because,
28:26
Speaker 1: as he came to think it over, as he came
28:29
Speaker 1: to put her partly illegible allusions to secret passages and
28:33
Speaker 1: a missing boy side by side with his memories of
28:36
Speaker 1: Lord Margredge's accusations and the general mystery of his expulsion
28:41
Speaker 1: from chance. It became more and more evident to him
28:45
Speaker 1: that he had here something remarkably like a clue, something
28:50
Speaker 1: that might serve to lift the black suspicion of irreverence
28:53
Speaker 1: and levity from his military reputation. And he had already
28:59
Speaker 1: got to the poor of suggesting to Miss Phillips that
29:02
Speaker 1: he ought to follow up and secure Bilby forthwith before
29:07
Speaker 1: ever they came over the hill crest to witness the
29:10
Speaker 1: disaster to the caravan. Captain Douglas, it must be understood,
29:15
Speaker 1: was a young man at war within himself. He had
29:19
Speaker 1: been very nicely brought up, firstly in a charming English home,
29:24
Speaker 1: then in a preparatory school for selected young gentlemen, then
29:28
Speaker 1: in a good set at Eton, then at Sandhurst, where
29:32
Speaker 1: the internal trouble had begun to manifest itself. Afterwards, the
29:36
Speaker 1: Bister sures there were three main strands in the composition
29:41
Speaker 1: of Captain Douglas. In the first place, and what was
29:45
Speaker 1: peculiarly his own quality was the keenest interest in the
29:49
Speaker 1: why of things, and the how of things, and the
29:52
Speaker 1: general mechanism of things. He was fond of clocks, curious
29:57
Speaker 1: about engines, eager for science. He had a quick brain
30:01
Speaker 1: and nimble hands. He read Jules Byrne and liked to
30:05
Speaker 1: think about going to the stars and making flying machines
30:09
Speaker 1: and submarines. In those days when everybody knew quite certainly
30:13
Speaker 1: that such things were impossible. His brain teemed with larval
30:18
Speaker 1: ideas that only needed air and light to become active,
30:23
Speaker 1: full fledged ideas. There he excelled most of us. In
30:27
Speaker 1: the next place, but this second strand was just a
30:31
Speaker 1: strand that most young men have. He had a natural,
30:34
Speaker 1: keen interest in the other half of humanity. He thought
30:38
Speaker 1: them lovely, interesting, wonderful, and they filled him with warm curiosities,
30:43
Speaker 1: and set his imagination cutting the prettiest capers. And in
30:48
Speaker 1: the third place, and there again he was ordinarily human.
30:52
Speaker 1: He wanted to be liked, admired, approved, well thought of,
30:57
Speaker 1: and so constituted. He had passed through the educationational influence
31:01
Speaker 1: of that English home, that preparatory school, the good set
31:05
Speaker 1: at Eton, the Sandhurst discipline, the Bister sure mess. Now
31:11
Speaker 1: the educational influence of the English home, the preparatory school,
31:16
Speaker 1: the good set at Eton and Sandhurst in those days,
31:19
Speaker 1: though Sandhurst has altered a little, since was all to
31:22
Speaker 1: develop that third chief strand of his being, to the
31:26
Speaker 1: complete suppression of the others, to make him look well
31:29
Speaker 1: and unobtrusive, dress well and unobtrusively, behave well and unobtrusively
31:36
Speaker 1: carry himself well, play games reasonably well, do nothing else
31:40
Speaker 1: well and in the best possible form. And the two
31:44
Speaker 1: brothers Douglas, who were really very much alike, did honestly
31:48
Speaker 1: do their best to be such plain and simple gentlemen
31:52
Speaker 1: as our country demands, taking pretentious, establish things seriously, and
31:57
Speaker 1: not being odd or intelligent in spite of those insurgent strands.
32:02
Speaker 1: But the strands were in them. Below the surface, the
32:06
Speaker 1: disturbing impulses worked and at last forced their way out.
32:11
Speaker 1: In one, Captain Douglas, as missus rampound Pilby told the
32:15
Speaker 1: Lord Chancellor, the suppressed ingenuity broke out in disconcerting mystifications
32:21
Speaker 1: and practical jokes that led to a severance from Portsmouth.
32:25
Speaker 1: In the other, the pent up passions came out before
32:28
Speaker 1: the other ingredients, in an uncontrollable devotion to the obvious
32:33
Speaker 1: and challenging femininity of Miss Madeleine Phillips. His training had
32:38
Speaker 1: made him proof against ordinary women, deaf as it were,
32:42
Speaker 1: to their charms. But she she had penetrated and impulsive
32:47
Speaker 1: forces that have been pent up go with a bang
32:50
Speaker 1: when they go. The first strand in the composition of
32:54
Speaker 1: Captain Douglas has still to be accounted for. The sinister
32:58
Speaker 1: strain of intelligence and inventiveness and lively curiosity on that
33:04
Speaker 1: he had kept a warier hold so far that had
33:08
Speaker 1: not been noted against him. He had his motor bicycle,
33:12
Speaker 1: It is true, at a time when motor bicycles were
33:15
Speaker 1: on the verge of the caddish. To what extent a
33:18
Speaker 1: watchful eye might have found him suspicious. That was all
33:21
Speaker 1: that showed. I wish I could add. It was all
33:24
Speaker 1: that there was. But other things, Other things were going on.
33:29
Speaker 1: Nobody knew about them, but they were going on more
33:32
Speaker 1: and more. He read books, not decent fiction, not official
33:37
Speaker 1: biographies about other fellows, fathers, and all the old anecdotes
33:42
Speaker 1: brought up to date and so on, but books with ideas,
33:46
Speaker 1: you know, philosophy, social philosophy, scientific stuff, all that rot,
33:52
Speaker 1: the sort of stuff they read in mechanics institutes. He
33:57
Speaker 1: thought he could have controlled it, but he did not
34:00
Speaker 1: attempt to control it. He tried to think. He knew
34:03
Speaker 1: perfectly well that it wasn't good form, but a vicious
34:07
Speaker 1: attraction drew him on. He used to sit in his
34:10
Speaker 1: bedroom study at Sandhurst, with the door locked, and write
34:14
Speaker 1: down on a bit of paper what he really believed
34:16
Speaker 1: and why he would cut all sorts of things. To
34:20
Speaker 1: do this. He would question things no properly trained English
34:24
Speaker 1: gentleman ever questions, and he experimented this, you know, was
34:30
Speaker 1: long before the French and American aviators. It was long
34:34
Speaker 1: before the coming of that emphatic lead from abroad, without
34:38
Speaker 1: which no well bred English mind permits itself to stir.
34:43
Speaker 1: In the darkest secrecy, he used to make little models
34:46
Speaker 1: of cane and paper and elastic, in the hope that
34:49
Speaker 1: somehow he would find out something about flying. Flying that dream.
34:55
Speaker 1: He used to go off by himself to lonely places
34:58
Speaker 1: and climb up as high as he could and send
35:01
Speaker 1: these things fluttering earthward. He used to moon over them
35:05
Speaker 1: and muse about them. If any one came upon him
35:09
Speaker 1: suddenly while he was doing these things, he would sit
35:12
Speaker 1: on his model, or pretend it didn't belong to him,
35:15
Speaker 1: or clap it into his pocket, whichever was most convenient.
35:20
Speaker 1: And assume the vacuous expression of a well bred gentleman
35:23
Speaker 1: at leisure, And so far nobody had caught him, but
35:27
Speaker 1: it was a dangerous practice. And finally, and this now
35:31
Speaker 1: is the worst and last thing to tell of his eccentricities.
35:36
Speaker 1: He was keenly interested in the science of his profession
35:39
Speaker 1: and intensely ambitious. He thought, though it wasn't his business
35:44
Speaker 1: to think. The business of a junior officer is to
35:48
Speaker 1: obey and look a credit to his regiment, that the
35:51
Speaker 1: military science of the British Army was not nearly so
35:54
Speaker 1: bright as it ought to be, and that if big
35:57
Speaker 1: trouble came, there might be considerable scope for an inventive
36:01
Speaker 1: man who had done what he could to keep abreast
36:04
Speaker 1: with foreign work, and a considerable weeding out of generals
36:08
Speaker 1: whose promotion had been determined entirely by their seniority, amiability
36:13
Speaker 1: and unruffled connubial felicity. He thought that the field artillery
36:19
Speaker 1: would be found out, there was no good in making
36:22
Speaker 1: a fuss about it beforehand, that no end of neglected
36:26
Speaker 1: dodges would have to be picked up from the enemy,
36:29
Speaker 1: that the transport was feeble, and a health service other
36:33
Speaker 1: than surgery and ambulance an unknown idea. But he saw
36:38
Speaker 1: no remedy but experience. So he worked hard in secret.
36:42
Speaker 1: He worked almost as hard as some confounded foreigner might
36:46
Speaker 1: have done, in the belief that after the first hard
36:49
Speaker 1: smash up there might be a chance to do things outwardly.
36:53
Speaker 1: Of course, he was sedulously all right, but he could
36:57
Speaker 1: not quite hide the stir in his mind. It broke
37:00
Speaker 1: out upon his surface in a chattering activity of incompleted sentences,
37:05
Speaker 1: which he tried to keep as decently silly as he could.
37:09
Speaker 1: He had done his utmost hitherto to escape the observation
37:13
Speaker 1: of the powers that were his infatuation for Madeleine. Phillips
37:17
Speaker 1: had at any rate distracted censorious attention from these deeper infamies.
37:24
Speaker 1: And now here was a crisis in his life, through
37:28
Speaker 1: some idiotic entanglement manifestly connected with this missing boy. He
37:33
Speaker 1: had got tarred by his brother's brush, and was under
37:36
Speaker 1: grave suspicion for liveliness and disrespect. The thing might be
37:41
Speaker 1: his professional ruin, and he loved the suppressed possibilities of
37:46
Speaker 1: his work beyond measure. It was a thing to make
37:50
Speaker 1: him absent minded, even in the company of Madeleine. Sub
37:55
Speaker 1: chapter five. Not only were the first and second strands
37:59
Speaker 1: in the compass of Captain Douglas in conflict with all
38:03
Speaker 1: his appearances and pretensions, but they were also in conflict
38:07
Speaker 1: with one another. He was full of that concealed resolve
38:11
Speaker 1: to do and serve and accomplish great things in the
38:14
Speaker 1: world that was surely purpose enough to hide behind an
38:18
Speaker 1: easy going, unpretending gentlemanliness. But he was also tremendously attracted
38:24
Speaker 1: by Madeleine Phillips, more particularly when she was not there.
38:29
Speaker 1: A beautiful woman may be the inspiration of a great career. This, however,
38:34
Speaker 1: he was beginning to find, was not the case with himself.
38:37
Speaker 1: He had believed it at first, and written as much,
38:40
Speaker 1: and said as much, and said it very variously and gracefully.
38:45
Speaker 1: But becoming more and more distinctly clear to his intelligence
38:49
Speaker 1: was the fact that the very reverse was the case.
38:53
Speaker 1: Miss Madeleine Phillips was making it very manifest to Captain
38:57
Speaker 1: Douglas that she herself was a career that a lover
39:01
Speaker 1: with any other career in view, need not, as the
39:04
Speaker 1: advertisements say, apply, And the time she took up the
39:09
Speaker 1: distress of being with her and the distress of not
39:12
Speaker 1: being with her. She was such a proud and lovely
39:16
Speaker 1: and entrancing and distressing being to remember, and such a
39:20
Speaker 1: vain and difficult thing to be with. She knew clearly
39:24
Speaker 1: that she was made for love, for she had made
39:27
Speaker 1: herself for love. And she went through life like its empress,
39:31
Speaker 1: with all mankind and numerous women at her feet. And
39:35
Speaker 1: she had an ideal of the lover who should win her,
39:38
Speaker 1: which was like an oleographic copy of a Laslow portrait
39:42
Speaker 1: of Douglas, greatly magnified. He was to rise rapidly to
39:46
Speaker 1: great things. He was to be a conqueror and administrator
39:50
Speaker 1: while attending exclusively to her. And incidentally, she would gather
39:55
Speaker 1: desperate homage from all other men of Mark, and these
39:59
Speaker 1: attentions would be an added glory to her love for him.
40:03
Speaker 1: At first, Captain Douglas had been quite prepared to satisfy
40:07
Speaker 1: all these requirements. He had met her at Shorncliffe, for
40:11
Speaker 1: her people were quite good military people, and he had
40:15
Speaker 1: worshiped his way straight to her feet. He had made
40:19
Speaker 1: the most delightfully simple and delicate love to her. He
40:23
Speaker 1: had given up his secret vice of thinking for the
40:25
Speaker 1: writing of quite surprisingly clever love letters, and the little
40:29
Speaker 1: white paper models had ceased for a time to flutter
40:33
Speaker 1: in lonely places, And then the thought of his career
40:37
Speaker 1: returned to him from a new aspect, as something he
40:41
Speaker 1: might lay at her feet. And once it had returned
40:44
Speaker 1: to him, it remained with him some day, he said,
40:48
Speaker 1: And it may not be so very long. Some of
40:50
Speaker 1: those scientific chaps will invent flying. Then the army will
40:55
Speaker 1: have to take it up. You know, I should love,
40:58
Speaker 1: she said to Sore through the air. He talked one
41:02
Speaker 1: day of going on active service. How would it affect
41:05
Speaker 1: them if he had to do so. It was a
41:08
Speaker 1: necessary part of a soldier's lot. But I should come too,
41:12
Speaker 1: she said, I should come with you. It might not
41:16
Speaker 1: be altogether convenient, he said, for already he had learned
41:20
Speaker 1: that Madeleine Phillips usually traveled with quite a large number
41:24
Speaker 1: of trunks and considerable impressiveness. Of course, she said, it
41:29
Speaker 1: would be splendid. How could I let you go alone?
41:32
Speaker 1: You would be the great general, and I should be
41:35
Speaker 1: with you always. Not always very comfortable, he suggested, silly boy,
41:41
Speaker 1: I shouldn't mind that. How little you know me? Any
41:45
Speaker 1: hardship a woman, if she isn't a nurse, I should
41:50
Speaker 1: come dressed as a man. I would be your groom.
41:54
Speaker 1: He tried to think of her dressed as a man,
41:57
Speaker 1: but nothing on earth could get his imagination any further
42:00
Speaker 1: than a vision of her dressed as a principal boy.
42:04
Speaker 1: She was so delightfully and valiantly not virile. Her hair
42:08
Speaker 1: would have flowed, her body would have moved, a richly
42:11
Speaker 1: fluent femininity visible through any disguise sub Chapter six. That
42:19
Speaker 1: was in the opening stage of the controversy between their careers.
42:23
Speaker 1: In those days, they were both acutely in love with
42:26
Speaker 1: each other. Their friends thought the spectacle quite beautiful. They
42:31
Speaker 1: went together so well, admirers fluttered with the pride of participation,
42:37
Speaker 1: asked them for weekends together, those theatrical weekends that begin
42:41
Speaker 1: on Sunday morning and end on Monday afternoon. She confided widely,
42:47
Speaker 1: and when at last there was something like a rupture,
42:51
Speaker 1: it became the concern of a large circle of friends.
42:54
Speaker 1: The particulars of the breach were differently stated. It would
42:58
Speaker 1: seem that, looking ahead, he had announced his intention of
43:02
Speaker 1: seeing the French army maneuvers just when it seemed probable
43:06
Speaker 1: that she would be out of an engagement. But I
43:09
Speaker 1: ought to see what they are doing. He said, they're
43:11
Speaker 1: going to try those new dirigibles. Then should she come?
43:16
Speaker 1: He wanted to whisk about. It wouldn't be any fun
43:19
Speaker 1: for her. They might get landed at nightfall in any
43:22
Speaker 1: old hole, And besides, people would talk, especially as it
43:27
Speaker 1: was in France. One could do unconventional things in England
43:31
Speaker 1: one couldn't do in France. Atmosphere was different. For a
43:36
Speaker 1: time after that halting explanation, she maintained a silence. Then
43:41
Speaker 1: she spoke, in a voice of deep feeling she perceived.
43:45
Speaker 1: She said that he wanted his freedom. She would be
43:48
Speaker 1: the last person to hold a reluctant lover to her side.
43:52
Speaker 1: He might go to any maneuvers he might go, if
43:55
Speaker 1: he wished round the world. He might go away from
43:58
Speaker 1: her forever. She would not detain him, cripple him, hamper
44:03
Speaker 1: a career she had once been assured she inspired. The
44:07
Speaker 1: unfortunate man, torn between his love and his profession, protested
44:12
Speaker 1: that he hadn't meant that. Then what had he meant?
44:17
Speaker 1: He realized he had meant something remarkably like it, and
44:21
Speaker 1: he found great difficulty in expressing these fine distinctions. She
44:26
Speaker 1: banished him from her presence, for a month, said he
44:29
Speaker 1: might go to his maneuvers with her blessing. As for herself,
44:33
Speaker 1: that was her own affair. Some day perhaps he might
44:36
Speaker 1: know more of the heart of a woman. She choked
44:39
Speaker 1: back tears very beautifully, and military science suddenly became a
44:44
Speaker 1: trivial matter. But she was firm. He wanted to go,
44:48
Speaker 1: He must go for a month anyhow. He went sadly
44:53
Speaker 1: into this opening breach, rushed friends. It was the inestimable
44:58
Speaker 1: triumph of judy bulls to get there first, to begin with,
45:02
Speaker 1: Madeleine confided in her, and then, availing herself of the
45:06
Speaker 1: privilege of a distant cousinship, she commanded Douglas to tea
45:11
Speaker 1: in her Knightsbridge flat and had a good straight talk
45:14
Speaker 1: with him. She liked good straight talks with honest young
45:17
Speaker 1: men about their love affairs. It was almost the only
45:21
Speaker 1: form of flirtation that the professor, who was a fierce, tough,
45:25
Speaker 1: undiscriminating man upon the essentials of matrimony, permitted her. And
45:30
Speaker 1: there was something peculiarly gratifying about Douglas's complexion. Under her guidance,
45:36
Speaker 1: he was induced to declare that he could not live
45:39
Speaker 1: without Madeleine, that her love was the heart of his life.
45:44
Speaker 1: Without it, he was nothing, and with it he would
45:47
Speaker 1: conquer the world. Judy permitted herself great protestations on behalf
45:52
Speaker 1: of Madeleine, and Douglas was worked up to the pitch
45:55
Speaker 1: of kissing her intervening hand. He had little silvery hair
46:00
Speaker 1: she saw all over his temples, and he was such
46:03
Speaker 1: a simple, perplexed dear. It was a rich, deep, beautiful
46:07
Speaker 1: afternoon for Judy. And then, in a very obvious way, Judy,
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Speaker 1: who was already deeply in love with the idea of
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Speaker 1: a caravan tour and the wind down the heath and
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Speaker 1: the gypsy life and the open road and all the
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Speaker 1: rest of it, worked this charming little love difficulty into
46:27
Speaker 1: her scheme, utilized her reluctant husband to arrange for the
46:32
Speaker 1: coming of Douglas, confided in Missus Geach, and Douglas went
46:37
Speaker 1: off with his perplexities. He gave up all thought of France.
46:41
Speaker 1: Weekended at Janson's stead to his own grave injury, returned
46:46
Speaker 1: to London unexpectedly by a Sunday train, packed for France,
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Speaker 1: and started. He reached Rams on Monday afternoon, and then
46:55
Speaker 1: the image of Madeleine, which always became more beautiful and
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Speaker 1: mysterious and commanding with every mile he put between them,
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Speaker 1: would not let him go on. He made unconvincing excuses
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Speaker 1: to the Daily Excess military expert with whom he was
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Speaker 1: to have seen things. There's a woman in it, my boy,
47:15
Speaker 1: and you're a fool to go, said the Daily Excess man.
47:18
Speaker 1: But of course you'll go, and I, for one don't
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Speaker 1: blame you. He hurried back to London and was at
47:25
Speaker 1: Judy's trysting place, even as Judy had anticipated. And when
47:30
Speaker 1: he saw Madeleine standing in the sunlight, pleased and proud
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Speaker 1: and glorious, with a smile in her eyes and trembling
47:37
Speaker 1: on her lips, with a strand or so of her
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Speaker 1: beautiful hair, and a streamer or so of delightful blue
47:44
Speaker 1: flutterings in the wind about her gracious form, it seemed
47:48
Speaker 1: to him for the moment that leaving the Maneuvers and
47:51
Speaker 1: coming back to England was quite a right and almost
47:55
Speaker 1: a magnificent thing to do. End of Chapter five, Part
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Speaker 1: one