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The Shuttle Chapter 18 - The Fifteenth Eart of Mount Dunstan · The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library

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Speaker 1: CHAPTER XVIII. THE FIFTEENTH EARL OF MOUNT DUNSTON James Hubert
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Speaker 1: John Fergus Salteer, 15th Earl of Mount Dunstan, Jem Salter,
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Speaker 1: as his neighbours on the western ranches had called him,
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Speaker 1: the red-haired second-class passenger of the Meridiana, sat in the
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Speaker 1: great library of his desolate great house, and stared fixedly
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Speaker 1: through the open window at the lovely land spread out
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Speaker 1: before him. From this particular window was to be seen
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Speaker 1: one of the greatest views in England. From the upper
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Speaker 1: nurseries he had lived in as a child he had
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Speaker 1: seen it every day from morning until night, and it
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Speaker 1: had seemed to his young fancy to cover all the
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Speaker 1: plains of the earth. Surely the rest of the world,
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Speaker 1: he had thought, could be but small, though somewhere he
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Speaker 1: knew there was London where the Queen lived, and in
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Speaker 1: London were Buckingham Palace and St James's Palace and Kensington
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Speaker 1: and the Tower where heads had been chopped off. and
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Speaker 1: the horse guards, where splendid plumed soldiers rode forth glittering,
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Speaker 1: with thrilling trumpets sounding as they moved. These last he
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Speaker 1: always remembered because he'd seen them, and once when he'd
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Speaker 1: walked in the park with his nurse there had been
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Speaker 1: an excited stir in the row, and people had crowded
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Speaker 1: about a certain gate through which an escorted carriage had
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Speaker 1: been driven, and he had been made at once to
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Speaker 1: take off his hat and stand bareheaded until it passed,
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Speaker 1: because it was the Queen.' Somehow from that afternoon he
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Speaker 1: dated the first presentation of certain vaguely miserable ideas. Enquiries
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Speaker 1: made of his attendant, when the cortege had swept by,
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Speaker 1: had elicited the fact that the royal lady herself had children,
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Speaker 1: little boys who were princes and little girls who were princesses.
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Speaker 1: What curious and persistent child cross-examination on his part had
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Speaker 1: drawn forth the fact that almost all the people who
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Speaker 1: drove about and looked so happy and brilliant were the
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Speaker 1: fathers or mothers of little boys like and yet in
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Speaker 1: some mysterious way unlike himself. And in what manner had
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Speaker 1: he gathered that he was different from them? His nurse,
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Speaker 1: it is true, was not a pleasant person, and had
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Speaker 1: an injured and resentful bearing. In later years he realised
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Speaker 1: that it had been the bearing of an irregularly paid
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Speaker 1: menial who rebelled against the fact that her place was
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Speaker 1: not among people who were of distinction and high repute,
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Speaker 1: and whose households bestowed a certain social status upon their servitors.
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Speaker 1: She was a tall woman, with a sour face, and
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Speaker 1: a bearing which conveyed a glum endurance of a position
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Speaker 1: beneath her. Yes, it had been from her— Bruff, her name
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Speaker 1: was— that he had mysteriously gathered that he was not a
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Speaker 1: desirable charge, as regarded from the point of view of
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Speaker 1: the servants' hall, or, in fact, from any other point.
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Speaker 1: His people were not the people whose patronage was sought
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Speaker 1: with anxious eagerness. For some reason their townhouse was objectionable,
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Speaker 1: and Mount Dunstan was without attractions. other big houses were
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Speaker 1: in some marked way different. The townhouse he objected to
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Speaker 1: himself as being gloomy and ugly, and possessing only a
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Speaker 1: bare and battered nursery, from whose windows one could not
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Speaker 1: even obtain a satisfactory view of the mews, or at
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Speaker 1: least there were horses and grooms, who hissed cheerfully while
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Speaker 1: they curried and brushed them. He hated the townhouse, and
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Speaker 1: was in fact very glad that he was scarcely ever
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Speaker 1: taken to it. People, it seemed, did not care to
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Speaker 1: come either to the townhouse or to Mount Dunstan, that
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Speaker 1: was why he did not know other little boys again
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Speaker 1: for the mysterious reason people did not care that their
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Speaker 1: children should associate with him how did he discover this
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Speaker 1: he never knew exactly he realized however that without distinct
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Speaker 1: statements he seemed to have gathered it through various disconnected
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Speaker 1: talks with bruff she had not remained with him long
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Speaker 1: having bettered herself greatly and gone away in glum satisfaction
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Speaker 1: but she had stayed long enough to convey to him
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Speaker 1: things which became part of his existence, and smouldered in
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Speaker 1: his little soul until they became part of himself. The ancestors,
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Speaker 1: who had hewn their way through their enemies with battle-axes,
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Speaker 1: who had been fierce and cruel and unconquerable in their
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Speaker 1: savage pride, had handed down to him a burning and
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Speaker 1: unsubmissive soul. At six years old, walking with Brough in
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Speaker 1: Kensington Gardens, and seeing other children playing under the care
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Speaker 1: of nurses, who, he learned, were not inclined to make
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Speaker 1: advances to his attendant, he dragged Brough away with a
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Speaker 1: fierce little hand, and stood apart with her, scowling haughtily,
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Speaker 1: his head in the air, pretending that he disdained all
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Speaker 1: childish gambols and would have declined to join in them,
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Speaker 1: even if he had been besought to so far unbend.
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Speaker 1: Bitterness had been planted in him then, though he had
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Speaker 1: not understood, and the sourness of Bruff had been connected
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Speaker 1: with no intelligence which might have caused her to suspect
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Speaker 1: his feelings, and no one had noticed, and if anyone
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Speaker 1: had noticed, no one would have cared in the very least.
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Speaker 1: When Bruff had gone away to her far superior place,
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Speaker 1: and she had been succeeded by one variety of objectionable
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Speaker 1: or incompetent person after another, he had still continued to learn.
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Speaker 1: In different ways he silently collected information, and all of
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Speaker 1: it was unpleasant. and as he grew older it took
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Speaker 1: for some years one form. Lack of resources, which should
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Speaker 1: have right belonged to persons of rank, was the radical
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Speaker 1: objection to his people. At the townhouse there was no money,
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Speaker 1: at Mount Dunstan there was no money. There had been
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Speaker 1: so little money even in his grandfather's time that his
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Speaker 1: father had inherited comparative beggary. The fourteenth earl of Mount
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Speaker 1: Dunstan did not call it comparative beggary, he called it
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Speaker 1: beggary pure and simple, and cursed his progenitors with engaging frankness.
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Speaker 1: He never referred to the fact that in his personable
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Speaker 1: youth he had married a wife, whose fortune, if it
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Speaker 1: had not been squandered, might have restored his own. The
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Speaker 1: fortune had been squandered in the course of a few
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Speaker 1: years of riotous living. The wife had died when her
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Speaker 1: third son was born, which event took place ten years
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Speaker 1: after the birth of her second, whom she had lost
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Speaker 1: through scarlet fever. James Hubert John Fergus Saltier never heard
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Speaker 1: much of her, and barely knew of her past existence,
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Speaker 1: because in the picture gallery he had seen a portrait
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Speaker 1: of a tall, thin, fretful-looking young lady with light ringlets
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Speaker 1: and pearls around her neck. She had not attracted him
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Speaker 1: as a child, and the fact that he gathered that
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Speaker 1: she had been his mother left him entirely unmoved. She
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Speaker 1: was not a lovable-looking person, and indeed had been at
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Speaker 1: once empty-headed, irritable, and worldly. He would probably have been
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Speaker 1: no less lonely if she had lived. Lonely he was.
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Speaker 1: His father was engaged in a career much too lively
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Speaker 1: and interesting to himself to admit of his allowing himself
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Speaker 1: to be bored by an unwanted and entirely superfluous child.
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Speaker 1: The elder son, who was Lord Tenham, had reached a
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Speaker 1: premature and degenerate maturity by the time the younger one
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Speaker 1: made his belated appearance and regarded him with unconcealed dislike.
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Speaker 1: The worst thing which could have befallen the younger boy
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Speaker 1: would have been intimate association with this degenerate youth. As
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Speaker 1: Saltier left nursery days behind, he learned by degrees that
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Speaker 1: the objection to himself and his people, which had at
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Speaker 1: first endeavoured to explain itself as being the result of
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Speaker 1: an unseemly lack of money, combined with an unpleasant feature,
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Speaker 1: an uglier one, namely lack of decent reputation, angry duns,
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Speaker 1: beggarliness of income, scarcity of the necessaries and luxuries which
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Speaker 1: dignity of rank demanded, the indifference and slights of one's equals,
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Speaker 1: and the ignoring of one's existence by exalted persons, were
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Speaker 1: all hideous enough to lord Mount Dunstan and his eldest son,
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Speaker 1: but they were not so hideous as was to his
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Speaker 1: younger son, the childish shamed frenzy of awakening to the
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Speaker 1: truth that he was one of a bad lot, a
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Speaker 1: disgraceful lot, from whom nothing was expected but shifty ways,
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Speaker 1: low vices and scandals, which in the end could not
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Speaker 1: even be kept out of the newspapers. The day came,
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Speaker 1: in fact, when the worst of these was seized upon
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Speaker 1: by them and filled their sheets with matter which for
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Speaker 1: a whole season decent London avoided reading, and the fast
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Speaker 1: and indecent element laughed, derided or gloated over. The memory
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Speaker 1: of the fever of the monstrous weeks which had passed
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Speaker 1: at this time was not one it was wise for
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Speaker 1: a man to recall. But it was not to be forgotten.
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Speaker 1: The hasty midnight arrival at Mount Dunstan of father and son,
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Speaker 1: their haggard, nervous faces, their terrified discussions, and argumentative raging
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Speaker 1: when they were shut up together behind locked doors, the
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Speaker 1: appearance of legal advisers who looked as anxious as themselves,
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Speaker 1: but failed to conceal the disgust with which they were
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Speaker 1: battling— the knowledge that tongues were clacking almost hysterically in
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Speaker 1: the village, and that curious faces hurried to the windows
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Speaker 1: when even a menial from the great house passed, the
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Speaker 1: atmosphere of below-stairs whispers and jogged elbows and winks and giggles,
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Speaker 1: the final desperate excited preparations for flight which might be
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Speaker 1: ignominiously stopped at any moment by the intervention of the law,
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Speaker 1: the huddling away at night-time, the hot-throated fear that the
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Speaker 1: shameful self-branding move might be too late— the burning humiliation
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Speaker 1: of knowing the inevitable result of public contempt or laughter
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Speaker 1: when the world next day heard that the fugitives had
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Speaker 1: put the English Channel between themselves and their country's laws.
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Speaker 1: Lord Tenham had died a few years later at Port
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Speaker 1: Said after descending into all the hells of degenerate debauch.
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Speaker 1: His father had lived longer, long enough to make of
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Speaker 1: himself something horribly near and imbecile, before he died suddenly
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Speaker 1: in Paris. The Mount Dunstan who succeeded him having spent
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Speaker 1: his childhood and boyhood under the shadow of the bad lot,
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Speaker 1: had the character of being a big, surly, unattractive young fellow,
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Speaker 1: whose eccentricity presented itself to those who knew his stock,
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Speaker 1: as being of a kind which might develop at any
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Speaker 1: time into any objectionable tendency. His bearing was not such
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Speaker 1: as allured, and his fortune was not of the order
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Speaker 1: which placed a man in the view of the world.
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Speaker 1: He had no money to expend, no hospitalities to offer,
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Speaker 1: and apparently no disposition to connect himself with society. His
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Speaker 1: wild goose chase to America had, when it had been
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Speaker 1: considered worthwhile discussing at all, been regarded as being very
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Speaker 1: much the kind of thing a Mount Dunstan might do,
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Speaker 1: with some secret and disreputable end in view. No one
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Speaker 1: had heard the exact truth, and no one would have
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Speaker 1: been inclined to believe, if they had heard it, that
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Speaker 1: he had lived as plain Jem Salter, and laboured, as
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Speaker 1: any hand might have done, in desperate effort and mad hope,
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Speaker 1: would not have been regarded as a fact to be credited.
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Speaker 1: He had gone away, he had squandered money, he had returned,
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Speaker 1: he was at Mount Dunstan again, living the life of
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Speaker 1: an objectionable recluse, objectionable because the owner of a place
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Speaker 1: like Mount Dunstan should be a power and an influence
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Speaker 1: in the county, should be counted upon as a dispenser
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Speaker 1: of hospitalities, as a supporter of charities, as a dignitary
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Speaker 1: of weight. He was none of these, living no one
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Speaker 1: knew how, slouching about with his gun, riding or walking
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Speaker 1: sullenly over the roads and marshland. Just one man knew
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Speaker 1: him intimately, and this one had been from his fifteenth
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Speaker 1: year the sole friend of his life. He had come then,
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Speaker 1: the Reverend Louis Penzance, a poor and unhealthy scholar, to
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Speaker 1: be vicar of the parish of Dunstan. Only a poor
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Speaker 1: and book-absorbed man would have accepted the position. What this
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Speaker 1: man wanted was no more than quiet, pure country air
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Speaker 1: to fill frail lungs, a roof over his head, and
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Speaker 1: a place to pore over books and manuscripts. He was
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Speaker 1: a born monk and celibate. In bygone centuries he would
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Speaker 1: have lived peacefully in some monastery, spending his years in
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Speaker 1: the reading and writing of black letter and the illuminating
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Speaker 1: of missals. At the vicarage he could lead an existence
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Speaker 1: which was almost the same thing. At Mount Dunstan there
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Speaker 1: remained still the large remnant of a great library. A
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Speaker 1: huge room, whose neglected and half-emptied shelves contained some strange
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Speaker 1: things and wonderful ones, although all were in disorder, and
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Speaker 1: given up to dust and natural dilapidation. Inevitably the Reverend
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Speaker 1: Louis Penzance had found his way there. Inevitably he had
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Speaker 1: gained indifferently bestowed permission to entertain himself by endeavouring to
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Speaker 1: reduce to order, and to make an attempt at cataloguing.
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Speaker 1: Inevitably also the hours he spent in the place became
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Speaker 1: the chief sustenance of his being. There, one day, he
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Speaker 1: had come upon an uncouth-looking boy with deep eyes and
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Speaker 1: a shaggy crop of red hair. The boy was poring
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Speaker 1: over an old volume, and was plainly not disposed to
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Speaker 1: leave it. He rose, not too graciously, and replied to
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Speaker 1: the elder man's greeting and the friendly questions which followed. Yes,
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Speaker 1: he was the youngest son of the house. He had
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Speaker 1: nothing to do, and he liked the library. He often
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Speaker 1: came there and sat and read things. There were some
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Speaker 1: queer old books and a lot of stupid ones. The
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Speaker 1: book he was reading now, Oh, that, with a slight
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Speaker 1: reddening of his skin, and a little awkwardness at the admission,
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Speaker 1: was one of those he liked best. It was one
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Speaker 1: of the queer ones, but interesting for all that. It
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Speaker 1: was about their own people, the generations of Mount Dunstans
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Speaker 1: who had lived in the centuries past. He supposedly liked
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Speaker 1: it because there were a lot of odd stories and
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Speaker 1: exciting things in it, plenty of fighting and adventure. There
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Speaker 1: had been some splendid fellows among them. He was beginning
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Speaker 1: to forget himself a little by this time. They were
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Speaker 1: afraid of nothing. They were rather like savages in the
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Speaker 1: earliest days, but at that time all the rest of
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Speaker 1: the world was savage. But they were brave, and it
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Speaker 1: was odd how decent they were very often. What he
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Speaker 1: meant was— what he liked was— that they were men, even when
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Speaker 1: they were barbarians. You couldn't be ashamed of them. Things
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Speaker 1: they did then could not be done now because the
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Speaker 1: world was different, but if— well, the kind of men they
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Speaker 1: were might do England a lot of good if they
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Speaker 1: were alive to-day. They would be different themselves, of course,
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Speaker 1: in one way, but they must be the same men
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Speaker 1: in others. Perhaps Mr. Penzance, reddening again, understood what he meant.
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Speaker 1: He knew himself very well, because he had thought it
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Speaker 1: all out, he was always thinking about it, but he
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Speaker 1: was no good at explaining. Mr. Penzance was interested. His
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Speaker 1: outlook on the past and the present had always been
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Speaker 1: that of a bookworm, but he understood enough to see
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Speaker 1: that he had come upon a temperament novel enough to
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Speaker 1: awaken curiosity. the apparently entirely neglected boy, of a type
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Speaker 1: singularly unlike that of his father and elder brother, living
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Speaker 1: his life virtually alone in the big place, and finding
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Speaker 1: food to his taste in stories of those of his
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Speaker 1: blood whose dust had mingled with the earth centuries ago,
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Speaker 1: provided him with a new subject for reflection. That had
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Speaker 1: been the beginning of an unusual friendship. Gradually Penzance had
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Speaker 1: reached a clear understanding of all the building of the
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Speaker 1: young life, of its rankling humiliation, and the quality of
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Speaker 1: mind and body which made for rebellion. It sometimes thrilled
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Speaker 1: him to see in the big frame and powerful muscles,
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Speaker 1: in the strong nature and unconquerable spirit, a revival of
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Speaker 1: what had burned and stirred through lives lived in a dim,
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Speaker 1: almost mythical past. There were legends of men with big bodies,
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Speaker 1: fierce faces, and red hair, who had done big deeds,
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Speaker 1: and conquered in dark and barbarous days, even fate's self
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Speaker 1: as it had seemed. None could overthrow them, none could
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Speaker 1: stand before their determination to attain that which they chose
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Speaker 1: to claim. Students of heredity knew that there were curious
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Speaker 1: instances of revival of type. There had been a certain
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Speaker 1: Red Godwin who had ruled his piece of England before
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Speaker 1: the Conqueror came, and who had defied the interloper with
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Speaker 1: such splendid arrogance and superhuman lack of fear, that he
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Speaker 1: had won in the end, strangely enough, the admiration and
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Speaker 1: friendship of the royal savage himself, who saw in his
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Speaker 1: a kindred savagery. a power to be well ranged through
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Speaker 1: love if not through fear upon his own side this
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Speaker 1: godwin had a deep attraction for his descendant who knew
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Speaker 1: the whole story of his fierce life as told in
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Speaker 1: one yellow manuscript and another by heart why might one
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Speaker 1: not fancy penzance was drawn by the imagining this strong
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Speaker 1: thing reborn, even as the offspring of a poorer, effete type.
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Speaker 1: Red Godwin, springing into being again, had been stronger than
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Speaker 1: all else, and had swept weakness before him as he
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Speaker 1: had done in other and far-off days. In the old
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Speaker 1: library it fell out in time that Penzance and the
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Speaker 1: boy spent the greater part of their days. The man
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Speaker 1: was a bookworm and a scholar. Young Saltier had a
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Speaker 1: passion for knowledge. Among the old books and manuscripts he
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Speaker 1: gained a singular education— Without guide he could not have
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Speaker 1: gathered and assimilated all he did gather and assimilate. Together
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Speaker 1: the two rummaged forgotten shelves and chests, and found forgotten things.
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Speaker 1: That which had drawn the boy from the first always
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Speaker 1: drew and absorbed him, the annals of his own people.
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Speaker 1: Many a long winter evening the pair turned over the
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Speaker 1: pages of volumes and of parchment, and followed with eager
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Speaker 1: interest and curiosity the records of wild lives, stories of
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Speaker 1: warriors and abbots and bards, of feudal lords at ruthless
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Speaker 1: war with each other, of besiegings and battles and captives
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Speaker 1: and torments. Legends there were of small kingdoms torn asunder,
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Speaker 1: of the slaughter of their kings, the mad fightings of
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Speaker 1: their barons, and the faith or unfaith of their serfs.
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Speaker 1: Here and there the eternal power revealed itself in some
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Speaker 1: story of lawful or unlawful love, for dame or damsel,
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Speaker 1: royal lady, abbess, or high-born nun, ending in the welding
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Speaker 1: of two lives, or in rapine, violence, and death. There
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Speaker 1: were annals of early England, and of marauders, monks, and Danes.
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Speaker 1: And through all these, some thing, some man or woman,
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Speaker 1: place or strife, linked by some tie with Mount Dunstan blood.
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Speaker 1: In past generations, it seemed plain, there had been certain
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Speaker 1: of the line who had had pride in these records,
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Speaker 1: and had sought and collected them. Then there had been
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Speaker 1: born others who hadn't cared. Sometimes the relations were inadequate,
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Speaker 1: sometimes they wore an unauthentic air, but most of them seemed,
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Speaker 1: even after the passing of centuries, human documents, and together
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Speaker 1: built a marvellous great drama of life and power, wickedness
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Speaker 1: and passion and daring deeds. When the shameful scandal burst forth,
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Speaker 1: young Saltier was seen by neither his father nor his brother.
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Speaker 1: Neither of them had any desire to see him. In fact,
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Speaker 1: each detested the idea of confronting by any chance his hot,
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Speaker 1: intolerant eyes. The brat his father had called him in
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Speaker 1: his childhood, the lout, when he had grown big-limbed and clumsy.
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Speaker 1: Both he and Tenham were sick enough without being called
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Speaker 1: upon to contemplate the lout, whose opinion, in any case,
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Speaker 1: they preferred not to hear. Saltier, during the hideous days,
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Speaker 1: shut himself up in the library. He did not leave
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Speaker 1: the house, even for exercise, until after the pair had fled.
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Speaker 1: His exercise he took in walking up and down from
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Speaker 1: one end of the long room to another. Devils were
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Speaker 1: let loose in him. When Penzance came to him, he
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Speaker 1: saw their fury in his eyes, and heard it in
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Speaker 1: the savagery of his laugh. He kicked an ancient volume
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Speaker 1: out of his way as he strode to and fro.
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Speaker 1: There has been plenty of the blood of the beast
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Speaker 1: in us in bygone times, he said, but it was
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Speaker 1: not like this. Savagery in savage days had its excuse.
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Speaker 1: This is the beast sunk into the gibbering degenerate ape.
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Speaker 1: Penzance came and spent hours of each day with him.
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Speaker 1: Part of his rage was the rage of a man
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Speaker 1: but he was a boy still, and the boyishness of
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Speaker 1: his bitterly hurt youth was a thing to move to pity.
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Speaker 1: With young blood and young pride, and young expectancy rising
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Speaker 1: within him, he was at an hour when he should
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Speaker 1: have felt himself standing upon the threshold of the world,
19:23
Speaker 1: gazing out at the splendid joys and promises and powerful
19:26
Speaker 1: deeds of it, waiting only the moment to step forth
19:29
Speaker 1: and win his place.' But we're done for!' he shouted once.'
19:33
Speaker 1: We' re done for! And I am as much done for
19:36
Speaker 1: as they are!' Decent people won't touch us. That is
19:39
Speaker 1: where the last Mount Dunstan stands.' And Penzance heard in
19:43
Speaker 1: his voice an absolute break. He stopped and marched to
19:46
Speaker 1: the window at the end of the long room, and
19:48
Speaker 1: stood in dead still staring out at the down-sweeping lines
19:52
Speaker 1: of heavy rain. The older man thought many things as
19:55
Speaker 1: he looked at his big back and body. He stood
19:58
Speaker 1: with his legs astride, and Penzance noticed that his right
20:01
Speaker 1: hand was clenched on his hip, as a man's might
20:04
Speaker 1: be as he clenched the hilt of his sword. his
20:07
Speaker 1: one mate who might avenge him, even when standing at
20:10
Speaker 1: bay he knew that the end had come and he
20:11
Speaker 1: must fall. Primeval force, the thin-faced, narrow-chested, slightly bald clergyman
20:17
Speaker 1: of the Church of England was thinking, never loses its
20:20
Speaker 1: way or fails to sweep a path before it. The
20:23
Speaker 1: sun rises and sets, the seasons come and go, primeval
20:27
Speaker 1: forces of them and as unchangeable. Much of it stood
20:30
Speaker 1: before him embodied in this strongly sentient thing. In this
20:34
Speaker 1: way the Reverend Lewis found his thoughts leading him, and he,
20:38
Speaker 1: being moved to the depths of a fine soul, felt
20:40
Speaker 1: them profoundly interesting and even sustaining. He sat in a
20:44
Speaker 1: high-backed chair, holding its arms with long thin hands, and
20:48
Speaker 1: looking for some time at James Hubert John Fergus Salteer.
20:52
Speaker 1: He said at last, in a sane level voice, Lord
20:55
Speaker 1: Tenham is not the last Mount Dunstan, after which the
20:59
Speaker 1: stillness remained unbroken again for some minutes. Soltier did not
21:03
Speaker 1: move or make any response, and when he left his
21:05
Speaker 1: place at the window he took up a book and
21:07
Speaker 1: they spoke of other things. When the fourteenth earl died
21:11
Speaker 1: in Paris and his younger son succeeded, there came a
21:14
Speaker 1: time when the two companions sat together in the library again.
21:18
Speaker 1: It was the evening of a long day spent in
21:20
Speaker 1: discouraging hard work. In the morning they had ridden side
21:24
Speaker 1: by side over the estate, in the afternoon they had
21:27
Speaker 1: sat and pored over accounts, leases, maps, plans. By nightfall
21:31
Speaker 1: both were fagged and neither in a sanguine mood. Mount
21:35
Speaker 1: Dunstan had sat silent for some time. The pair often
21:39
Speaker 1: sat silent. This pause was ended by the young man's
21:42
Speaker 1: rising and standing up, stretching his limbs.' It was a
21:46
Speaker 1: queer thing you said to me in this room a
21:48
Speaker 1: few years ago,' he said.' It' s just come back to me.'
21:52
Speaker 1: Singularly enough, or perhaps naturally enough, it had also just
21:55
Speaker 1: arisen again from the depths of Penzance's subconsciousness.' Yes,' he answered.'
22:00
Speaker 1: I remember. Tonight it suggests premonition. Your brother was not
22:04
Speaker 1: the last Mount Dunstan.'' In one sense he never was
22:08
Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan at all,' answered the other man. Then he
22:12
Speaker 1: suddenly threw out his arms in a gesture whose whole
22:14
Speaker 1: significance it would have been difficult to describe. There was
22:17
Speaker 1: a kind of passion in it.' I am the last
22:20
Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan,' he harshly laughed.' Moi qui vous parle, the last.'
22:26
Speaker 1: Penzance's eyes, resting on him, took upon themselves the far-seeing
22:30
Speaker 1: look of a man who watches the world of life
22:32
Speaker 1: without living in it. He presently shook his head.' No,'
22:36
Speaker 1: he said,' I don't see that. No, not the last,
22:39
Speaker 1: believe me.' And singularly, in truth, Mount Dunstan stood still
22:44
Speaker 1: and gazed at him without speaking. The eyes of each
22:47
Speaker 1: rested in the eyes of the other, and as had
22:50
Speaker 1: happened before, they followed the subject no further. From that
22:54
Speaker 1: moment it dropped.' Only Penzance had known of his reasons
22:58
Speaker 1: for going to America. Even the family solicitors, gravely holding
23:02
Speaker 1: interviews with him and restraining expression of their absolute disapproval
23:06
Speaker 1: of such employment of his inadequate resources, knew no more
23:09
Speaker 1: than that this Mount Dunstan, instead of wasting his beggarly
23:12
Speaker 1: income at Cairo or Monte Carlo or in Paris, as
23:15
Speaker 1: the last one had done, prefers to waste it in
23:18
Speaker 1: newer places. The head of the firm, when he bids
23:21
Speaker 1: him good-morning and leaves him alone— merely shrugs his shoulders
23:24
Speaker 1: and returns to his letter-writing with the corners of his
23:27
Speaker 1: elderly mouth hard set penzance saw him off and met
23:31
Speaker 1: him upon his return in the library they sat and
23:34
Speaker 1: talked it over and having done so closed the book
23:37
Speaker 1: of the episode he sat at the table his eyes
23:40
Speaker 1: upon the widespread loveliness of the landscape but his thought
23:44
Speaker 1: elsewhere it wandered over the years already lived through wandering
23:48
Speaker 1: backwards even to the days when existence opening before the
23:51
Speaker 1: child eyes was a baffling and vaguely unhappy thing. When
23:56
Speaker 1: the door opened and Penzance was ushered in by a servant,
23:59
Speaker 1: his face wore the look his friend would have been
24:01
Speaker 1: rejoiced to see swept away to return no more. Then
24:05
Speaker 1: let us take our old accustomed seat, and begin some
24:08
Speaker 1: casual talk which will draw him out of the shadows,
24:11
Speaker 1: and make him forget such things that it is not
24:13
Speaker 1: good to remember. That is what we have done many
24:16
Speaker 1: times in the past, and may find it well to
24:19
Speaker 1: do many a time again. he begins with talk of
24:22
Speaker 1: the village and the countryside. Village stories are often quaint,
24:26
Speaker 1: and stories of the countryside are sometimes not always interesting.
24:31
Speaker 1: Tom Benson's wife has presented him with triplets, and there
24:34
Speaker 1: is great excitement in the village as to the steps
24:36
Speaker 1: to be taken to secure the three guineas given by
24:39
Speaker 1: the Queen as a reward for this feat. Old Benny
24:42
Speaker 1: Bates has announced his intention of taking a fifth wife
24:45
Speaker 1: at the age of ninety, and is indignant that it
24:47
Speaker 1: has been suggested that the parochial authorities in charge of
24:50
Speaker 1: the union in which he must inevitably shortly take refuge
24:54
Speaker 1: may interfere with his rights as a citizen the reverend
24:58
Speaker 1: lewis has been to talk seriously with him and finds
25:01
Speaker 1: him at once irate and obdurate vicar says old benny
25:05
Speaker 1: he can't refuse to marry no man law won't let
25:07
Speaker 1: him such refusal he intimates might drive him to wild
25:11
Speaker 1: and riotous living remembering his last view of old Benny
25:15
Speaker 1: tottering down the village street in his white smock, his
25:18
Speaker 1: nutcracker face like a withered rosy apple, his gnarled hand
25:21
Speaker 1: grasping the knotted staff his bent body leaned on, Mount
25:25
Speaker 1: Dunstan grinned a little. He did not smile when Penzance
25:28
Speaker 1: passed to the restoration of the ancient church at Melodine.
25:33
Speaker 1: Restoration usually meant the tearing away of ancient oaken high-backed
25:37
Speaker 1: pews and the instalment of smug new benches suggesting suburban
25:41
Speaker 1: dissenting chapels. such as the feudal soul revolts at. Neither
25:45
Speaker 1: did he smile at a reference to a gathering at
25:47
Speaker 1: Denham Castle, which was twelve miles away. Denham was the
25:51
Speaker 1: possession of a man who stood for all that was
25:53
Speaker 1: first and highest in the land— dignity, learning, exalted character, generosity, honour.
25:59
Speaker 1: He and the late Lord Mount Dunstan had been born
26:02
Speaker 1: in the same year, and had succeeded to their titles
26:05
Speaker 1: almost at the same time. There had arrived a period
26:08
Speaker 1: when they had ceased to know each other, all that
26:11
Speaker 1: the one man intrinsically was, the other man was not.
26:15
Speaker 1: All that the one estate, its castle, its village, its
26:17
Speaker 1: tenantry represented, was the antipodes of that which the other
26:21
Speaker 1: stood for. The one possession held its place as silent
26:25
Speaker 1: and perhaps unconscious reproach to the other. Among the guests,
26:29
Speaker 1: forming the large house-party which London Social News had already
26:32
Speaker 1: recorded in its columns, were great and honourable persons, and
26:36
Speaker 1: interesting ones, men and women who counted as factors in
26:40
Speaker 1: all good and dignified things accomplished. Even in the present
26:44
Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan's childhood, people of their world had ceased to
26:47
Speaker 1: cross his father's threshold. As one or two of the
26:50
Speaker 1: most noticeable names were mentioned, mentally he recalled this, and Penzance,
26:55
Speaker 1: quick to see the thought in his eyes, changed the subject.'
26:57
Speaker 1: At Stornham Village an unexpected thing has happened,' he said.'
27:02
Speaker 1: One of the relatives of Lady Anstruthers has suddenly appeared,
27:06
Speaker 1: a sister.' You may remember that the poor woman was
27:09
Speaker 1: said to be the daughter of some rich American, and
27:11
Speaker 1: it seemed unexplainable that none of her family ever appeared,
27:14
Speaker 1: and things were allowed to go from bad to worse.
27:17
Speaker 1: As it was understood that there was so much money,
27:20
Speaker 1: people were mystified by the condition of things. Anne Struthers
27:24
Speaker 1: has had money to squander, said Mount Dunstan. Tenham and
27:27
Speaker 1: he were intimates. The money he spends is no doubt
27:30
Speaker 1: his wife's. As her family deserted her, she has no
27:34
Speaker 1: one to defend her. Certainly her family has seemed to
27:37
Speaker 1: neglect her for years. Perhaps they were disappointed in his position.
27:41
Speaker 1: Many Americans are extremely ambitious. These international marriages are often
27:45
Speaker 1: singular things. Now, apparently without having been expected, the sister appears.
27:51
Speaker 1: Vanderpool is the name, Miss Vanderpool.'' I crossed the Atlantic
27:55
Speaker 1: with her in the Meridiana,' said Mount Dunstan.' Indeed, that's interesting.
28:00
Speaker 1: You did not, of course, know that she was coming here?'
28:03
Speaker 1: I knew nothing of her, but that she was a
28:05
Speaker 1: saloon passenger with a suite of staterooms, and I was
28:08
Speaker 1: in the second cabin. Nothing? That's not quite true, perhaps.
28:12
Speaker 1: Stewards and passengers gossip, and one cannot close one's ears.
28:16
Speaker 1: Of course, one heard constant reiteration of the number of
28:19
Speaker 1: millions her father possessed, and the number of cabins she
28:22
Speaker 1: managed to occupy. During the confusion and alarm of the
28:25
Speaker 1: collision we spoke to each other. He did not mention
28:29
Speaker 1: the other occasion on which he had seen her. There
28:31
Speaker 1: seemed on the whole no special reason why he should.'
28:34
Speaker 1: Then you would recognise her if you saw her. I
28:37
Speaker 1: heard to-day that she seems an unusual young woman and
28:40
Speaker 1: has beauty. Her eyes and lashes are remarkable. She's tall.
28:45
Speaker 1: The Americans are setting up a new type. Yes, they
28:48
Speaker 1: used to send over slender, fragile little women. Lady Anstruthers
28:52
Speaker 1: was the type. I confess to an interest in the sister.'' Why?''
28:57
Speaker 1: She' s made a curious impression.' She's begun to do things.
29:01
Speaker 1: Stornham Village has lost its breath. He laughed a little.
29:05
Speaker 1: She's been going over the place and discussing repairs. Mount
29:09
Speaker 1: Dunstan laughed also. He remembered what she had said, and
29:13
Speaker 1: she had actually begun. That is practical, he commented. It's
29:18
Speaker 1: really interesting. Why should a young woman turn her attention
29:21
Speaker 1: to repairs? If it had been her father, the omnipotent Mr. Vanderpool,
29:26
Speaker 1: who had appeared, one would not have wondered at such
29:28
Speaker 1: practical activity. but a young lady with remarkable eyelashes. His
29:34
Speaker 1: elbows were on the arm of his chair, and he
29:36
Speaker 1: had placed the tips of his fingers together, wearing an
29:39
Speaker 1: expression of such absorbed contemplation that Mount Dunstan laughed again.'
29:42
Speaker 1: You look quite dreamy over it,' he said.' It allures me.'
29:47
Speaker 1: Unknown quantities in character always allure me.' I should like
29:51
Speaker 1: to know her.' A community like this is made up
29:54
Speaker 1: of the absolutely known quantity' of types repeating themselves through centuries.'
29:59
Speaker 1: A new one is almost a startling thing. Gossip over
30:03
Speaker 1: teacups is not usually entertaining to me, but I found
30:06
Speaker 1: myself listening to little Miss Laura Brunel this afternoon with
30:09
Speaker 1: rather marked attention. I confess to having gone so far
30:13
Speaker 1: as to make enquiry or so. Sir Nigel Anstruthers is
30:16
Speaker 1: not often at Stornham. He's away now. It's plainly not
30:20
Speaker 1: he who is interested in repairs. is on the Riviera,
30:24
Speaker 1: in retreat, in a place he is fond of, Mount
30:27
Speaker 1: Dunstan said dryly. He took a companion with him, a
30:31
Speaker 1: new infatuation. He will not return soon. End of chapter
30:36
Speaker 1: 18