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042 - Ch 42 - Alone Alone · North and South (version 2)

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Speaker 1: Chapter forty two of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell.
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Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by
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Speaker 1: Marianne chapter forty two alone Alone, When some beloved voice
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Speaker 1: that was to you both sound and sweetness faileth suddenly,
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Speaker 1: and silence against which you dare not cry, aches round
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Speaker 1: you like a strong disease, And new what hope, what help?
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Speaker 1: What music will undo that silence? To your sense, missus Browning,
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Speaker 1: The shock had been great. Margaret fell into a state
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Speaker 1: of prostration, which did not show itself in sobs and tears,
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Speaker 1: or even find the relief of words. She lay on
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Speaker 1: the sofa with her eyes shut, never speaking, but when
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Speaker 1: spoken to and then replying in whispers. Mister was perplexed.
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Speaker 1: He dared not leave her. He dared not ask her
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Speaker 1: to accompany him back to Oxford, which had been one
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Speaker 1: of the plans he had formed on the journey to Milton.
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Speaker 1: Her physical exhaustion was evidently too complete for her to
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Speaker 1: undertake any such fatigue, putting the sight that she would
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Speaker 1: have to encounter out of the question. Mister Bell sat
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Speaker 1: over the fire, considering what he had better do. Margaret
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Speaker 1: lay motionless and almost breathless by him, he would not
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Speaker 1: leave her, even for the dinner which Dixon had prepared
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Speaker 1: for him downstairs, And with sobbing hospitality, would fain have
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Speaker 1: tempted him to eat he had a plateful of something
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Speaker 1: brought up to him. In general, he was particular and
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Speaker 1: dainty enough, and knew well each shade of flavor in
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Speaker 1: his food. But now the devil chicken tasted like sawdust.
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Speaker 1: He minced up some of the fowl for Margaret, and
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Speaker 1: peppered and salted it well. But when Dixon, following his directions,
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Speaker 1: tried to feed her, the languid shake if head proved
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Speaker 1: that in such a state as Margaret was in, food
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Speaker 1: would only choke, not nourish her. Mister Bell gave a
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Speaker 1: great sigh, lifted up his stout old limbs, stiff with
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Speaker 1: traveling from their easy position, and followed Dixon out of
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Speaker 1: the room. I can't leave her. I must write to
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Speaker 1: them at Oxford to see that the preparations are made.
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Speaker 1: They can be getting on with these till I arrive.
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Speaker 1: Can't missus Lennox come to her. I'll write and tell
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Speaker 1: her she must. The girl must have some woman friend
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Speaker 1: about her, if only to talk her into a good
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Speaker 1: fit of crying. Dixon was crying enough for two but
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Speaker 1: after wiping her eyes and steadying her voice, she managed
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Speaker 1: to tell mister Bell that Missus Lennox was too near
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Speaker 1: her confinement to be able to undertake any journey at present. Well,
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Speaker 1: I suppose we must have missus Shaw. She's come back
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Speaker 1: to England, isn't she? Yes, sir, she's come back. But
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Speaker 1: I don't think she will like to leave Missus Lennox
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Speaker 1: at such an interesting time, said Dixon, who did not
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Speaker 1: much approve of a stranger entering the household to share
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Speaker 1: with her. In her ruling care of Margaret, interesting time
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Speaker 1: be beam, Mister Bell restricted himself to coughing over the
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Speaker 1: end of his sentence. She could be content to be
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Speaker 1: at Venice or Naples or some of those popish places
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Speaker 1: at the last interesting time which took place in Corfu.
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Speaker 1: I think, And what does that little prosperous woman's interesting
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Speaker 1: time signify in comparison with that poor creature there, that helpless, homeless,
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Speaker 1: friendless Margaret, lying as still on that sofa as if
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Speaker 1: it were an altar tomb, and she the stone statue
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Speaker 1: on it. I tell you, missus Shaw shall come see
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Speaker 1: that a room or whatever she wants is got ready
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Speaker 1: for her by to morrow night. I'll take care she
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Speaker 1: comes accordingly. Mister Bell wrote a letter which missus Shaw declared,
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Speaker 1: with many tears, to be so like one of the
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Speaker 1: dear generals when he was going to have a fit
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Speaker 1: of the gout, that she should always value and preserve it.
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Speaker 1: If he had given her the option by requesting or
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Speaker 1: urging her as if a refusal were possible, she might
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Speaker 1: not have come true. And sincere as was her sympathy
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Speaker 1: with Margaret, it needed the sharp, uncourteous command to make
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Speaker 1: her conquer her vis inertia and allow herself to be
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Speaker 1: packed up by her maid. After the latter had completed
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Speaker 1: the boxes, Edith, all cap shawls and tears came out
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Speaker 1: to the top of the stairs as Captain Lennox was
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Speaker 1: taking her mother down to the carriage. Don't forget, mamma.
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Speaker 1: Margaret must come and live with us. Sholto will go
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Speaker 1: to Oxford on Wednesday, and you must send word by
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Speaker 1: mister Bell to him when we're to expect you. And
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Speaker 1: if you want Sholto he can go on from Oxford
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Speaker 1: to Milton. Don't forget, mamma, you are to bring back Margaret.
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Speaker 1: Edith re entered the drawing room. Mister Henry Lennox was there,
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Speaker 1: cutting open the pages of a new review. Without lifting
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Speaker 1: his head, he said, if you don't like Sholto to
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Speaker 1: be so long absent from you, Edith, I hope you
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Speaker 1: would let me go down to Milton and give what
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Speaker 1: assistance I can. Oh, thank you, said Edith. I dare say,
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Speaker 1: old mister Bell will do everything he can and more
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Speaker 1: help me not be needed. Only one does not look
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Speaker 1: for much savoir faire from a resident fellow. Dear darling Margaret,
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Speaker 1: won't it be nice to have her here again? You
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Speaker 1: are both great allies years ago, were we asked he indifferently,
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Speaker 1: with an appearance of being interested in a passage in
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Speaker 1: the review. Well perhaps not, I forget I was so
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Speaker 1: full of Sholto. But doesn't it fall out well that
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Speaker 1: if my uncle was to die, it should be just
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Speaker 1: now when we are come home and settled in the
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Speaker 1: old house and quite ready to receive Margaret, poor thing.
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Speaker 1: What a change it will be to her from Milton.
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Speaker 1: I'll have new chintz for her bedroom and make it
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Speaker 1: look new and bright, and cheer her up a little
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Speaker 1: in the same spirit of kindness. Missus Shaw journeyed to Milton,
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Speaker 1: occasionally dreading the first meeting and wondering how it would
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Speaker 1: be got over, but more frequently planning how soon she
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Speaker 1: could get Margaret away from that horrid place and back
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Speaker 1: into the pleasant comforts of Harley Street. Oh dear, she
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Speaker 1: said to her maid, look at those chimneys, my poor
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Speaker 1: sister Hale. I don't think I could have rested at Naples.
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Speaker 1: If I had known what it was, I must have
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Speaker 1: come and fetched her and Margaret away. And to herself
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Speaker 1: she acknowledged that she had always thought her brother in
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Speaker 1: law rather a weak man, but never so weak as
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Speaker 1: now when she saw for what a place he had
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Speaker 1: exchanged the lovely Helstone home. Margaret had remained in the
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Speaker 1: same state, white, motionless, speechless, tearless. They had told her
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Speaker 1: that her aunt Shaw was coming, but she had not
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Speaker 1: expressed either surprise or pleasure or dislike to the idea.
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Speaker 1: Mister Bell, whose appetite had returned and who appreciated Dixon's
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Speaker 1: endeavors to gratify it in vain, urged upon her to
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Speaker 1: taste some sweetbreads stewed with oysters. She shook her head
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Speaker 1: with the same quiet obstinacy as on the previous day,
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Speaker 1: and he was obliged to console himself for her rejection
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Speaker 1: by eating them all himself. But Margaret was the first
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Speaker 1: to hear the stopping of the cab that brought her
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Speaker 1: aunt from the railway station. Her eyelids quivered, her lips
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Speaker 1: colored and trembled. Mister Bell went down to meet missus Shaw,
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Speaker 1: and when they came up, Margaret was standing trying to
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Speaker 1: steady her dizzy self, and when she saw her aunt,
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Speaker 1: she went forward to the arms open to receive her,
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Speaker 1: and first found the passionate relief of tears on her
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Speaker 1: aunt's shoulder. All thoughts of quiet, habitual love, of tenderness
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Speaker 1: for years of relationship to the dead, all that inexplicable
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Speaker 1: likeness in look, tone, and gesture that seemed to belong
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Speaker 1: to one family, and which reminded Margaret so forcibly at
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Speaker 1: this moment of her mother came in to melt and
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Speaker 1: soften her numbed heart into the overflow of warm tears.
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Speaker 1: Mister Bell stole out of the room and went down
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Speaker 1: into the study, where he ordered a fire and tried
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Speaker 1: to divert his thoughts by taking down and examining the
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Speaker 1: different books, Each volume brought a remembrance or a suggestion
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Speaker 1: of his dead friend. It might be a change of
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Speaker 1: employment from his two days work of watching Margaret, but
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Speaker 1: it was no change of thought. He was glad to
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Speaker 1: catch the sound of mister Thornton's voice making inquiry at
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Speaker 1: the door. Dixon was rather kept filearly dismissing him, for
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Speaker 1: with the appearance of missus Shaw's maid came visions of
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Speaker 1: former grandeur of the Beresford blood of the station. So
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Speaker 1: she was pleased to term it from which her young
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Speaker 1: lady had been ousted, and to which she was now
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Speaker 1: please God to be restored, these visions which she had
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Speaker 1: been dwelling on with complacency in her conversation with Missus
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Speaker 1: Shaw's maid, skillfully eliciting meanwhile, all the circumstances of state
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Speaker 1: and consequence connected with the Harley Street establishment for the
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Speaker 1: edification of the listening Martha made Dixon rather inclined to
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Speaker 1: be supercilious in her treatment of any inhabitant of Milton.
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Speaker 1: So though she always stood rather in awe of mister Thornton,
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Speaker 1: she was as curt as she durst be in telling
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Speaker 1: him that he could see none of the inmates of
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Speaker 1: the house that night. It was rather uncomfortable to be
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Speaker 1: contradicted in her statement by mister Bell's opening the study
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Speaker 1: door and calling out Thornton, is that you come in
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Speaker 1: from me? It or two I want to speak to you.
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Speaker 1: So mister Thornton went into the study, and Dixon had
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Speaker 1: to retreat into the kitchen and reinstate herself in her
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Speaker 1: own esteem by a prodigious story of Sir John Beresford's
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Speaker 1: coach and six when he was high Sheriff. I don't
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Speaker 1: know what I wanted to say to you, after all,
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Speaker 1: only it's dull enough to sit in a room where
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Speaker 1: everything speaks to you of a dear friend. Yet Margaret
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Speaker 1: and her aunt must have the drawing room to themselves.
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Speaker 1: Is missus? Is her aunt come? Asked mister Thornton, Come, yes, maid,
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Speaker 1: And all one would have thought she might have come
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Speaker 1: by herself at such a time. And now I shall
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Speaker 1: have to turn out and find my way to the Clarendon.
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Speaker 1: You must not go to the Clarendon. We have five
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Speaker 1: or six empty bedrooms at home well aired. I think
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Speaker 1: you may trust my mother for that. Then I'll only
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Speaker 1: run up stairs and wish that wan girl good night,
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Speaker 1: and make my bow to her aunt, and go off
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Speaker 1: with you straight. Mister Bell was some time upstairs. Mister
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Speaker 1: Thornton began to think it long, for he was full
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Speaker 1: of business and had hardly been able to spare the
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Speaker 1: time for running up to Crampton and inquiring how miss
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Speaker 1: Hale was when they had set out upon their walk.
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Speaker 1: Mister Bell said, I was kept by those women in
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Speaker 1: the drawing room. Missus Shaw is anxious to get home
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Speaker 1: on account of her daughter, she says, and wants Margaret
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Speaker 1: to go off with her at once. Now she is
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Speaker 1: no more fit for traveling than I am for flying. Besides,
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Speaker 1: she says, and very justly, that she has friends. She
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Speaker 1: must see that she must wish good bye to several people.
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Speaker 1: And then her aunt worried her about old claims, and
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Speaker 1: was she forgetful of old friends? And she said, with
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Speaker 1: a great burst of crying, she should be glad enough
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Speaker 1: to go from a place where she had suffered so much.
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Speaker 1: Now I must return to Oxford tomorrow. And I don't
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Speaker 1: know on which side of the scale to throw in
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Speaker 1: my voice. He paused, as if asking a question, but
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Speaker 1: he received no answer from his companion, the echo of
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Speaker 1: whose thoughts kept repeating, where she has suffered so much? Alas,
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Speaker 1: and that was the way in which this eighteen months
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Speaker 1: in Milton to him, so unspeakably precious, down to its
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Speaker 1: very bitterness, which was worth all the rest of life's sweetness,
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Speaker 1: would be remembered. Neither loss of father nor loss of mother,
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Speaker 1: dear as she was to mister Thornton, could have poisoned
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Speaker 1: the remembrance of the weeks, the days, the hours, when
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Speaker 1: a walk of two miles, every step of which was
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Speaker 1: pleasant as it brought him nearer and nearer to her,
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Speaker 1: took him to her sweet presence, every step of which
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Speaker 1: was rich, as each recurring moment that bore him away
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Speaker 1: from her made him recall some fresh grace in her demeanor,
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Speaker 1: or pleasant pungency in her case character. Yes, whatever had
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Speaker 1: happened to him external to his relation to her, he
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Speaker 1: could never have spoken of that time when he could
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Speaker 1: have seen her every day, when he had her within
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Speaker 1: his grasp, as it were, as a time of suffering,
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Speaker 1: it had been a royal time of luxury to him,
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Speaker 1: with all its stings and contumelies, compared to the poverty
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Speaker 1: that crept round and clipped the anticipation of the future
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Speaker 1: down to sordid fact and life without an atmosphere of
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Speaker 1: either hope or fear. Missus Thornton and Fanny were in
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Speaker 1: the dining room, the latter in a flurry of small exultation,
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Speaker 1: as the maid held up one glossy material after another
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Speaker 1: to try the effect of the wedding dresses by candlelight.
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Speaker 1: Her mother really tried to sympathize with her, but could not.
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Speaker 1: Neither taste nor dress were in her line of subjects,
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Speaker 1: and she heartily wished that Fanny had accepted her brother's
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Speaker 1: offer of having the wedding clothes provided by some first
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Speaker 1: rate London dressmaker, without the endless troublesome discussions unsettled wavering
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Speaker 1: that arose out of Fanny's desire to choose and superintend
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Speaker 1: everything herself. Mister Thornton was only too glad to mark
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Speaker 1: his grateful approbation of any sensible man who could be
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Speaker 1: captivated by Fanny's second rate airs and graces by giving
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Speaker 1: her ample means for providing herself with the finery which
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Speaker 1: certainly rivaled, if it did not exceed, the lover in
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Speaker 1: her estimation. When her brother and mister Bell came in.
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Speaker 1: Fanny blushed and simpered and fluttered over the signs of
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Speaker 1: her employment in a way which could not have failed
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Speaker 1: to draw attention from any one else but mister Bell.
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Speaker 1: If he thought about her and her silks and satins
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Speaker 1: at all, it was to compare her and them with
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Speaker 1: the pale sorrow he had left behind him, sitting motionless
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Speaker 1: with bent head and folded hands, in a room where
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Speaker 1: the stillness was so great that you might almost fancy
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Speaker 1: the rush in your straining ears was occasioned by this
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Speaker 1: spirits of the dead yet hovering round their beloved. For
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Speaker 1: when mister Bell had first gone upstairs, Missus Shaw lay
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Speaker 1: asleep on the sofa, and no sound broke the silence.
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Speaker 1: Missus Thornton gave mister Bell her formal, hospitable welcome. She
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Speaker 1: was never so gracious as when receiving her son's friends
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Speaker 1: in her son's house, and the more unexpected they were,
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Speaker 1: the more honor to her admirable housekeeping preparations for comfort.
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Speaker 1: How is miss Hale, she asked, about, as broken down
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Speaker 1: by this last stroke as she can be. I am
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Speaker 1: sure it is very well for her that she has
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Speaker 1: such a friend as you. I wish I were her
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Speaker 1: only friend, Madam, I dare say it sounds very brutal,
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Speaker 1: But here have I been displaced and turned out of
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Speaker 1: my post of comforter and adviser by a fine lady aunt.
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Speaker 1: And there are cousins in what not claiming her in
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Speaker 1: London as if she were a lap dog belonging to them.
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Speaker 1: And she is too weak and miserable to have a
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Speaker 1: will of her own. She must indeed be weak, said
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Speaker 1: missus Thornton, with an implied meeting, which her son understood well.
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Speaker 1: But where continued Missus Thornton. Have these relations been all
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Speaker 1: this time? That miss Hale has appeared almost friendless, and
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Speaker 1: has certainly had a good deal of anxiety to bear.
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Speaker 1: But she did not feel interest enough in the answer
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Speaker 1: to her question to wait for it. She left the
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Speaker 1: room to make her household arrangements. They have been living abroad.
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Speaker 1: They have some kind of claim upon her. I will
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Speaker 1: do them that justice. The aunt brought her up, and
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Speaker 1: she and the cousin have been like sisters. The thing
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Speaker 1: vexing me, you see, is that I wanted to take
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Speaker 1: her for child of my own. And I am jealous
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Speaker 1: of these people who don't seem to value the privilege
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Speaker 1: of their right now. It would be different if Frederick
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Speaker 1: claimed her. Frederick exclaimed, mister Thornton, who is he? What right?
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Speaker 1: He stopped short in his vehement question. Frederick said, mister
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Speaker 1: Bell in surprise, Why don't you know he's her brother?
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Speaker 1: Have you not heard? I never heard his name before?
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Speaker 1: Where is he? Who is he? Surely I told you
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Speaker 1: about him when the family first came to Milton, the
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Speaker 1: son who was concerned in that mutiny. I never heard
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Speaker 1: of him till this moment. Where does he live in Spain?
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Speaker 1: He's liable to be arrested the moment he sets foot
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Speaker 1: on English ground. Poor fellow, he will grieve at not
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Speaker 1: being able to attend his father's funeral. We must be
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Speaker 1: content with Captain Lennox, for I don't know of any
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Speaker 1: other relation to summon. I hope I may be allowed
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Speaker 1: to go, certainly, thankfully here a good fellow. After all,
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Speaker 1: Thornton Hale liked you. He spoke to me only the
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Speaker 1: other day about you at Oxford. He regretted that he
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Speaker 1: had seen so little of you lately. I'm obliged to
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Speaker 1: you for wishing to show him respect. But about Frederick,
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Speaker 1: does he never come to England. Never, he was not
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Speaker 1: over here about the time of missus Hale's death. No,
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Speaker 1: why I was here then? I hadn't seen Hale for
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Speaker 1: years and years, and if you remember I came. No,
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Speaker 1: it was some time after that that I came. But
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Speaker 1: poor Frederick Hale was not here then. What made you
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Speaker 1: think he was? I saw a young man walking with
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Speaker 1: miss Hale one day, replied mister Thornton. And I think
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Speaker 1: it was about that time. Oh, that would be this
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Speaker 1: young Lennox, the Captain's brother. He's a lawyer, and they
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Speaker 1: were in pretty constant correspondence with him. And I remember
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Speaker 1: mister Hale told me he thought he would come down,
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Speaker 1: do you know, said mister Bell, wheeling round and shutting
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Speaker 1: one eye, the better to bring the forces of the
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Speaker 1: other to bear with. Keen scrutiny on mister Thornton's face,
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Speaker 1: that I once fancied you had a little tenderness for Margaret.
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Speaker 1: No answer, no change of countenance. And so did poor Hale.
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Speaker 1: Not at first, and not till I had put it
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Speaker 1: into his head. I admired miss Hale. Every one must
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Speaker 1: do so. She is a beautiful creature, said mister Thornton.
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Speaker 1: Driven to bay by mister Bell's pertinacious questioning, is that
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Speaker 1: all you can speak of her in that measured way
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Speaker 1: as simply a beautiful creature, only something to catch the eye.
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Speaker 1: I did hope you had had nobleness enough in you
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Speaker 1: to make you pay her the homage of the heart.
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Speaker 1: Though I believe, in fact I know she would have
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Speaker 1: rejected you. Still, to have loved her without return would
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Speaker 1: have lifted you higher than all those, be they who
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Speaker 1: they may, that have never known her too love beautiful creature. Indeed,
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Speaker 1: do you speak of her as you would of a
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Speaker 1: horse or a dog. Mister Thornton's eyes glowed like red embers.
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Speaker 1: Mister Bell said he before you speak, so you should
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Speaker 1: remember that all men are not as free to express
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Speaker 1: what they feel as you are. Let us talk of
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Speaker 1: something else. For though his heart leaped up as at
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Speaker 1: a trumpet call to every word that mister Bell had said,
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Speaker 1: and though he knew that what he had said would
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Speaker 1: henceforth bind the thought of the old Oxford fellow closely
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Speaker 1: up with the most precious things of his heart, yet
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Speaker 1: he would not be forced into any expression of what
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Speaker 1: he felt towards Margaret. He was no mocking bird of
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Speaker 1: praise to try, because another extolled what he reverenced, and
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Speaker 1: passionately loved to outdo him in laudation. So he turned
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Speaker 1: to some of the dry matters of business that lay
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Speaker 1: between mister Bell and him as landlord and tenant. What
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Speaker 1: is that heap of brick and mortar we came against
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Speaker 1: in the yard? Any repairs wanted? No? None? Thank you?
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Speaker 1: Are you building on your own account? If you are,
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Speaker 1: I am very much obliged to you. I'm building a
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Speaker 1: dining room for the men, I mean the hands. I
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Speaker 1: thought you were hard to please. If this room wasn't
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Speaker 1: good enough to satisfy you. A bachelor, I've got acquainted
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Speaker 1: with a strange kind of chap, and I put one
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Speaker 1: or two children in whom he is interested to school.
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Speaker 1: So as I happened to be passing near his house
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Speaker 1: one day, I just went there about some trifling payment
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Speaker 1: to be made, and I saw such a miserable black
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Speaker 1: frizzle of a dinner, a greasy cinder of meat, as
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Speaker 1: first set me a thinking. But it was not till
21:41
Speaker 1: provisions grew so high this winter that I bethought me
21:44
Speaker 1: how by buying things wholesale and cooking a good quantity
21:48
Speaker 1: of provisions together, much money might be saved and much
21:52
Speaker 1: comfort gained. So I spoke to my friend or my enemy,
21:57
Speaker 1: the man I told you of, and he bound fault
22:00
Speaker 1: with every detail of my plan, And in consequence I
22:03
Speaker 1: laid it aside, both as impractical and also because if
22:07
Speaker 1: I forced it into operation, I should be interfering with
22:10
Speaker 1: the independence of my men. When suddenly this Higgins came
22:16
Speaker 1: to me and graciously signified his approval of a scheme
22:19
Speaker 1: so nearly the same as mine that I might fairly
22:21
Speaker 1: have claimed it, and moreover the approval of several of
22:25
Speaker 1: his fellow workmen to whom he had spoken. I was
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Speaker 1: a little riled, I confess, by his manner, and thought
22:32
Speaker 1: of throwing the whole thing overboard to sink or swim.
22:35
Speaker 1: But it seemed childish to relinquish a plan which I
22:38
Speaker 1: had once thought wise and well laid, just because I
22:41
Speaker 1: myself did not receive all the honor and consequence due
22:44
Speaker 1: to the originator. So I coolly took the part assigned me,
22:48
Speaker 1: which is something like that of a steward to a club.
22:51
Speaker 1: I buy the provisions wholesale and provide a fitting matron
22:55
Speaker 1: or cook. I hope you give satisfaction in your new capacity.
23:00
Speaker 1: Are you a good judge of potatoes and onions? But
23:03
Speaker 1: I suppose missus Thornton assists you in your marketing. Not
23:07
Speaker 1: a bit, replied mister Thornton. She disapproves of the whole plan,
23:11
Speaker 1: and now we never mention it to each other. But
23:14
Speaker 1: I manage pretty well, getting in great stocks from Liverpool
23:18
Speaker 1: and being served in butcher's meat by our own family. Butcher,
23:22
Speaker 1: I can assure you the hot dinners, the matron turns out,
23:25
Speaker 1: are by no means to be despised. Do you taste
23:29
Speaker 1: each dish as it goes in? In virtue of your office?
23:32
Speaker 1: I hope you have a white Wand I was very
23:36
Speaker 1: scrupulous at first in confining myself to the mere purchasing part,
23:40
Speaker 1: and even in that I rather obeyed the men's orders
23:43
Speaker 1: conveyed through the housekeeper than went by my own judgment.
23:47
Speaker 1: At one time the beef was too large, at another
23:50
Speaker 1: the mutton was not fat enough. I think they saw
23:53
Speaker 1: how careful I was to leave them free and not
23:56
Speaker 1: to intrude my own ideas upon them. So one day
24:00
Speaker 1: two or three of the men, my friend Higgins among them,
24:03
Speaker 1: asked me if I would not come in and take
24:05
Speaker 1: a snack. It was a very busy day. But I
24:08
Speaker 1: saw that the men would be hurt if, after making
24:11
Speaker 1: the advance, I didn't meet them half way. So I
24:14
Speaker 1: went in and I never made a better dinner in
24:17
Speaker 1: my life. I told them my next neighbors. I mean,
24:20
Speaker 1: for I'm no speech maker, how much I'd enjoyed it.
24:24
Speaker 1: And for some time whenever that especial dinner reoccurred in
24:27
Speaker 1: their dietary, I was sure to be met by these
24:29
Speaker 1: men with a master. There's hot pot for dinner to
24:32
Speaker 1: day when YO come. If they had not asked me,
24:36
Speaker 1: I would no more have intruded on them than I
24:38
Speaker 1: would have gone to the mess at the barracks without invitation.
24:42
Speaker 1: I should think you are rather a restraint on your
24:44
Speaker 1: host's conversation. They can't abuse the masters while you're there.
24:49
Speaker 1: I suspect they take it out on non hot pot days. Well,
24:54
Speaker 1: hitherto we've steered clear of all vexed questions, But if
24:57
Speaker 1: any of the old disputes came up again, I I
25:00
Speaker 1: would certainly speak out my mind next hot pot day.
25:03
Speaker 1: But you are hardly acquainted with our Darkshire fellows. For
25:06
Speaker 1: all your darkshire men yourself. They have such a sense
25:09
Speaker 1: of humor and such a racy mode of expression. I
25:13
Speaker 1: am getting really to know some of them now, and
25:15
Speaker 1: they talk pretty freely before me. Nothing like the act
25:19
Speaker 1: of eating. For equalizing men, dying is nothing to it.
25:24
Speaker 1: The philosopher dies sententiously, the pharisee ostentatiously, the simple hearted humbly,
25:31
Speaker 1: the poor idiot blindly as the sparrow falls to the ground.
25:36
Speaker 1: The philosopher and idiot, publican and pharisee all eat after
25:40
Speaker 1: the same fashion, given an equally good digestion. There's theory
25:44
Speaker 1: for theory for you. Indeed, I have no theory. I
25:50
Speaker 1: hate theories. I beg your pardon to show my penitence.
25:54
Speaker 1: Will you accept a ten pound note towards your marketing
25:57
Speaker 1: and give the poor fellows a feast? Thank you, but
26:01
Speaker 1: I'd rather not. They pay me rent for the oven
26:04
Speaker 1: and cooking places at the back of the mill, and
26:06
Speaker 1: will have to pay more for the new dining room.
26:09
Speaker 1: I don't want it to fall into a charity. I
26:11
Speaker 1: don't want donations. Once let in the principle, and I
26:15
Speaker 1: should have people going and talking and spoiling the simplicity
26:19
Speaker 1: of the whole thing. People will talk about any new plan.
26:23
Speaker 1: You can't help that. My enemies, if I have any,
26:28
Speaker 1: may make a philanthropic fuss about this dinner scheme. But
26:32
Speaker 1: you are friend, and I expect you will pay my
26:35
Speaker 1: experiment the respect of silence. It is but a new
26:39
Speaker 1: broom at present, and sweeps clean enough. But by and
26:43
Speaker 1: by we shall meet with plenty of stumbling blocks, no doubt.
26:49
Speaker 1: End of chapter forty two