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045 - Molly Gibson to the Rescue · Wives and Daughters

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Speaker 1: Chapter forty four of Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell.
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Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, Chapter forty four.
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Speaker 1: Molly Gibson to the rescue. It seemed curious enough after
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Speaker 1: the storms of the night to meet in smooth tranquility
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Speaker 1: at breakfast. Cynthia was pale, but she talked as quietly
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Speaker 1: as usual about all manner of indifferent things, while Molly
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Speaker 1: sat silent, watching and wondering, and becoming convinced that Cynthia
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Speaker 1: must have gone through a long experience of concealing her
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Speaker 1: real thoughts and secret troubles before she could have been
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Speaker 1: able to put on such a semblance of composure. Among
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Speaker 1: the letters that came in that morning was one from
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Speaker 1: the London Kirkpatrick's, but not from Helen. Cynthia's own particular correspondent.
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Speaker 1: Her sister wrote to apologize for Helen, who was not well.
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Speaker 1: She said had had the influenza which had left her
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Speaker 1: very weak and poorly.
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Speaker 2: Let her come down here for a change of.
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Speaker 1: Air, said mister Gibson.
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Speaker 2: Country at this time of the year is better than London,
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Speaker 2: except when the place is surrounded by trees. Now our
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Speaker 2: house is well drained. High up gravel soil, and I'll
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Speaker 2: undertake to doctor her for nothing.
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Speaker 1: It would be charming, said missus Gibson, rapidly revolving in
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Speaker 1: her mind. The change is necessary in her household economy
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Speaker 1: before receiving a young lady accustomed to such a household
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Speaker 1: as mister Kirkpatrick's, calculating the consequent inconveniences and weighing them
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Speaker 1: against the probable advantages even while she spoke.
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Speaker 3: Should not you like it, Cynthia and Molly too, You, then, dear,
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Speaker 3: would become acquainted with one of the girls, and I
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Speaker 3: have no doubt you would be asked back again, which
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Speaker 3: would be so very nice.
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Speaker 2: And I shouldn't let her.
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Speaker 1: Go, said mister Gibson, who had acquired an unfortunate facility
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Speaker 1: of reading his wife's thoughts. Dear Helen, went on Missus Gibson,
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Speaker 1: I should so like.
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Speaker 3: To nurse her. We would make your consulting room into
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Speaker 3: her own private sitting room.
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Speaker 1: My dear, it is hardly necessary to say that the
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Speaker 1: scales had been waighed down by the inconveniences of having
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Speaker 1: a person behind the scenes for several weeks.
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Speaker 3: For with an invalid so much depends on tranquility in
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Speaker 3: the drawing room, for instance, she might constantly be disturbed
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Speaker 3: by callers. And the dining room is so so what
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Speaker 3: shall I call it? So dinnery? The smell of meals
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Speaker 3: never seems to leave it. It would have been different if
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Speaker 3: dear Papa had allowed me to throw out that window.
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Speaker 2: Why can't you have the dressing room for her bedroom
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Speaker 2: and the little room opening out of the drawing room
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Speaker 2: for her sitting.
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Speaker 1: Room, asked mister Gibson. The library for by this name.
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Speaker 1: Missus Gibson chose to dignify what had formerly been called
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Speaker 1: the book closet.
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Speaker 3: Why it would hardly hold a sofa besides the books
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Speaker 3: and the writing table, And there are drafts everywhere. No,
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Speaker 3: my dear, we had better not ask her at all.
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Speaker 3: Her own home is comfortable at any rate.
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Speaker 1: Well, well, said mister Gibson, seeing that he was to
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Speaker 1: be worsted, and not caring enough about the matter to
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Speaker 1: show fight.
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Speaker 2: Perhaps you're right. It's a case of luxury versus fresh air.
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Speaker 2: Some people suffer more from want of the one than
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Speaker 2: from want of the other. You know, I shall be
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Speaker 2: glad to see her if she likes to come and
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Speaker 2: take us as we are, But I can't give up
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Speaker 2: the consulting room. It's a necessity our daily bread.
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Speaker 3: I'll write and tell them how kind mister Gibson is.
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Speaker 1: Said his wife, in high contentment. As her husband left
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Speaker 1: the room.
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Speaker 3: They'll be just as much obliged to him as if
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Speaker 3: she had come, whether.
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Speaker 1: It was Helen's illness or from some other cause. After breakfast,
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Speaker 1: Cynthia became very flat and absent, and this lasted all
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Speaker 1: day long. Molly understood now why her moods had been
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Speaker 1: so changeable for many months, and was tender and forbearing
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Speaker 1: with her accordingly. Towards evening, when the two girls were
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Speaker 1: left alone, Cynthia came and stood over Molly so that
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Speaker 1: her face could not be seen. Molly said, she.
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Speaker 4: Will you do it? Will you do what you said
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Speaker 4: last night? I've been thinking of it all day, and
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Speaker 4: sometimes I believe he would give you back the letters
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Speaker 4: if you asked him. He might fancy at any rate.
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Speaker 4: It's worth trying if you don't very much dislike it now.
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Speaker 1: It so happened that, with every thought she had given
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Speaker 1: to it, Molly disliked the idea of the proposed interview
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Speaker 1: with mister Preston more and more. But it was after
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Speaker 1: all her own offer, and she neither could nor would
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Speaker 1: draw back from it. It might do good, she did
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Speaker 1: not see how it could possibly do harm. So she
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Speaker 1: gave her consent and tried to conceal her distaste, which
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Speaker 1: grew upon her more and more as Cynthia hastily arranged
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Speaker 1: the details.
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Speaker 4: You shall meet him in the avenue leading from the
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Speaker 4: park Lodge up to the towers. He can come in
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Speaker 4: one way from the towers, where he has often business.
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Speaker 4: He has pass keys everywhere. You can go in as
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Speaker 4: we have often done by the lodge. You need not
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Speaker 4: go far.
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Speaker 1: It did strike Molly that Cynthia must have had some
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Speaker 1: experience in making all these arrangements, and she ventured to
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Speaker 1: ask how he was to be informed of all this.
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Speaker 1: Cynthia only reddened and replied.
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Speaker 4: Oh, never mind, he will only be too glad to come.
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Speaker 4: You heard him say he wished to discuss the affair more.
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Speaker 4: It is the first time the appointment has come from
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Speaker 4: my side. If I can but once be free, Oh Molly,
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Speaker 4: I I will love you and be grateful to you
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Speaker 4: all my life.
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Speaker 1: Molly thought of Roger, and that thought prompted her next speech.
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Speaker 5: It must be horrible, I think I'm very brave, but
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Speaker 5: I don't think I could have could have accepted even
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Speaker 5: Roger with a half canceled engagement hanging over me.
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Speaker 1: She blushed as she spoke.
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Speaker 4: You forget how I detest mister Preston, said Cynthia. It
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Speaker 4: was that, more than any excess of love for Roger,
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Speaker 4: that made me thankful to be at least a securely
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Speaker 4: pledged to someone else. He did not want to call
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Speaker 4: it an engagement, but I did because it gave me
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Speaker 4: the feeling of assurance that I was free from mister Preston.
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Speaker 4: And so I am all but those letters. Oh, if
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Speaker 4: you can but make him take back his abominable money
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Speaker 4: and get me my letters, then we would bury it
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Speaker 4: all on oblivion, and he could marry somebody else, and
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Speaker 4: I would marry Roger, and no one would be the wiser.
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Speaker 4: After all, it was only what people call youthful folly.
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Speaker 4: And you may tell mister Preston that as soon as
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Speaker 4: he makes my letters public, shows them to your father
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Speaker 4: or anything, I shall go away from Hollingford.
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Speaker 1: And never loaded with many such messages which she felt
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Speaker 1: she could never deliver, not really knowing what she should say,
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Speaker 1: hating the errand not satisfied with Cynthia's manner of speaking
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Speaker 1: about her relations to Roger, oppressed with shame and complicity
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Speaker 1: in conduct which appeared to her deceitful, yet willing to
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Speaker 1: bear all and brave all if she could once set
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Speaker 1: Cynthia in the straight path, in a clear space, and
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Speaker 1: almost more pitiful to her friend's great distress and possible disgrace,
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Speaker 1: than able to give her that love which involves perfect sympathy,
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Speaker 1: Molly set out on her walk towards the appointed place.
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Speaker 1: It was a cloudy, blustering day, and the noise of
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Speaker 1: the blowing wind among the nearly leafless branches of the
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Speaker 1: great trees filled her ears as she passed through the
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Speaker 1: park gates and entered the avenue. She walked quickly, instinctively,
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Speaker 1: wishing to get her blood up and have no time
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Speaker 1: for thought. But there was a bend in the avenue,
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Speaker 1: about a quarter of a mile from the lodge. After
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Speaker 1: that bend, it was a straight line up to the
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Speaker 1: Great House, now emptied of its inhabitants. Molly not like
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Speaker 1: going quite out of sight of the lodge, and she
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Speaker 1: stood facing it, close by the trunk of one of
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Speaker 1: the trees presently she heard a step coming over the grass.
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Speaker 1: It was mister Preston. He saw a woman's figure half
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Speaker 1: behind the trunk of a tree, and made no doubt
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Speaker 1: that it was Cynthia. But when he came nearer, almost close,
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Speaker 1: the figure turned round, and instead of the brilliantly colored
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Speaker 1: face of Cynthia, he met the pale, resolved look of Molly.
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Speaker 1: She did not speak to greet him, but though he
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Speaker 1: felt sure, from the general aspect of pallor and timidity
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Speaker 1: that she was afraid of him, her steady gray eyes
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Speaker 1: met his with courageous innocence.
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Speaker 6: Is Cynthia unable to come.
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Speaker 1: Asked he, perceiving that she expected him.
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Speaker 5: I did not know you thought that you should meet her.
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Speaker 1: Said Molly, a little surprised in her simplicity. She had
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Speaker 1: believed that Cynthia had named that it was she, Molly Gibson,
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Speaker 1: who would meet mister Preston at a given time and place.
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Speaker 1: But Cynthia had been too worldly wise for that, and
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Speaker 1: had decoyed him thither by a vaguely worded note, which,
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Speaker 1: while avoiding actual falsehood, had led him to believe that
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Speaker 1: she herself would give him the meeting.
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Speaker 6: She said she should be here, said.
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Speaker 1: Mister Preston, extremely annoyed at being entrapped, as he now
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Speaker 1: felt that he had been into an interview with miss Gibson.
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Speaker 1: Molly hesitated a little before she spoke. He was determined
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Speaker 1: not to break the silence, as she had intruded herself
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Speaker 1: into the affair. She should find her situation as awkward
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Speaker 1: as possible at any rate. She sent me here to
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Speaker 1: meet you, said Molly. She has told me exactly how
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Speaker 1: matters stand between you and her, has she sneered.
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Speaker 6: He she is not always the most open or reliable
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Speaker 6: person in the world.
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Speaker 1: Molly reddened. She perceived the impertinence of the tone, and
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Speaker 1: her temper was none of the coolest, but she mastered
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Speaker 1: herself and gained courage by so doing.
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Speaker 5: You should not speak so of the person you professed
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Speaker 5: to wish to have for your wife. But putting on
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Speaker 5: that aside, you have some letters of hers that she
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Speaker 5: wishes to have back again.
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Speaker 6: I dare say and that you have no right to keep,
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Speaker 6: no legal or no moral right. Which do you mean?
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Speaker 5: I do not know. Simply you have not write at
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Speaker 5: all as a gentleman to keep a girl's letter when
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Speaker 5: she ask for them. Back again, much less to hold
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Speaker 5: them over her as a threat.
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Speaker 6: I see you do, know all, miss Gibson.
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Speaker 1: Said, he changing his manner to one of more respect.
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Speaker 6: At least she has told you her story from her
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Speaker 6: point of view, her side. Now you must hear mine.
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Speaker 6: She promised me as solemnly as ever a woman.
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Speaker 5: She was not a woman. She was only a girl,
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Speaker 5: barely sixteen.
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Speaker 6: Old enough to know what she was doing. But I'll
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Speaker 6: call her a girl if you like. She promised me
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Speaker 6: solemnly to be my wife, making the one stipulation of
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Speaker 6: secrecy and a certain period of waiting. She wrote me
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Speaker 6: letters repeating this promise, and confidential enough to prove that
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Speaker 6: she considered herself bound to me by such an implied relation.
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Speaker 6: I don't give in to humbug. I don't set myself
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Speaker 6: up as a saint, and in most ways I can
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Speaker 6: look after my own interests pretty keenly. You know enough
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Speaker 6: of her position as a penniless girl and at that time,
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Speaker 6: with no influential connections, to take the place of war
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Speaker 6: and help me on in the world. It was as
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Speaker 6: sincere and unworldly a passion as ever man felt. She
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Speaker 6: must say so herself. I might have married two or
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Speaker 6: three girls with plenty of money. One of them was
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Speaker 6: handsome enough and not at all reluctant.
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Speaker 1: Molly interrupted him. She was chafed at the conceit of
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Speaker 1: his manner.
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Speaker 5: I beg your pardon, but I do not want to
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Speaker 5: hear accounts of young ladies whom you might have married.
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Speaker 5: I came here simply on behalf of Cynthia, who does
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Speaker 5: not like you, and who does not wish to marry you.
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Speaker 6: Well, then I must make her like me. As you
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Speaker 6: call it. She did like me once and made promises
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Speaker 6: which you will find it requires the consent of two
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Speaker 6: people to break. I don't despair of making her love
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Speaker 6: me as much as she ever did according to her letters.
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Speaker 6: At least when we are married.
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Speaker 5: She will never.
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Speaker 1: Marry you, said Molly firmly.
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Speaker 6: Then if she ever honors any one else with her preference,
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Speaker 6: he shall be allowed the perusal of her letters to me.
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Speaker 1: Molly almost could have laughed. She was so secure and
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Speaker 1: certain that Roger would never read letters offered to him
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Speaker 1: under these circumstance answers. But then she thought that he
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Speaker 1: would feel such pain at the whole affair and at
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Speaker 1: the contact with mister Preston especially if he had not
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Speaker 1: heard of it from Cynthia first. And if she, Molly,
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Speaker 1: could save him pain, she would before she could settle
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Speaker 1: what to say. Mister Preston spoke again.
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Speaker 6: You said the other day that Cynthia was engaged. May
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Speaker 6: I ask whom to No.
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Speaker 1: Said Molly.
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Speaker 5: You may not you heard her say it was not
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Speaker 5: an engagement. It is not exactly And if it were
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Speaker 5: a full engagement, do you think after what you last said?
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Speaker 5: I should tell you to whom? But you may be
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Speaker 5: sure of this. He would never read a line of
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Speaker 5: your letters. He is too No, I won't speak of
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Speaker 5: him before you. You could never understand him.
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Speaker 6: Seems to me that this mysterious. He is a very
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Speaker 6: fortunate person to have such a warm defender in miss Gibson,
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Speaker 6: to whom he is not at all engaged.
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Speaker 1: Said mister Preston, with so disagreeable a look on his face,
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Speaker 1: that Molly suddenly found herself on the point of bursting
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Speaker 1: into tears. But she rallied herself and worked on for
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Speaker 1: Cynthia first, and for Roger as well.
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Speaker 5: No, honorable man, a woman will read your letters, and
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Speaker 5: if any people do read them, they will be so
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Speaker 5: much ashamed of it that they won't dare to speak
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Speaker 5: of them? What use can they be of to you?
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Speaker 6: They contain Cynthia's reiterated promises of.
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Speaker 1: Marriage, replied he.
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Speaker 5: She says she will rather leave Hollingford forever and go
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Speaker 5: out to earn her bread than marry you.
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Speaker 1: His face fell a little. He looked so bitterly mortified
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Speaker 1: that Molly was almost sorry for him.
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Speaker 6: Does she say that to you in cold blood? Do
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Speaker 6: you know you are telling me very hard truth, miss Gibson?
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Speaker 6: If they are truth, that is to say.
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Speaker 1: He continued, recovering himself a little.
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Speaker 6: Young ladies are very fond of the words hate and detest.
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Speaker 6: I've known many who have applied them to men whom
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Speaker 6: they were all the time hoping to marry.
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Speaker 5: I cannot tell about other people, said Molly. I only
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Speaker 5: know that Cynthia does.
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Speaker 1: Here. She hesitated for a moment. She felt for his pain,
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Speaker 1: and so she hesitated, but then she brought it out.
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Speaker 5: Does as nearly hate you as anybody like her? Ever
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Speaker 5: does hate like her?
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Speaker 1: Said he, repeating the words almost unconsciously, seizing on anything
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Speaker 1: to try and hide his mortification.
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Speaker 5: I mean I should hate worse, said.
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Speaker 1: Molly, in a low voice, but he did not attend
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Speaker 1: much to her answer. He was working the point of
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Speaker 1: his stick into the turf, and his eyes were bent
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Speaker 1: on it.
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Speaker 5: So now would you mind sending her back to letters
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Speaker 5: by me? I do assure you that you cannot make
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Speaker 5: her marry you.
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Speaker 6: You are very simple, miss, Gibson.
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Speaker 1: Said, he suddenly lifting up his head.
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Speaker 6: I suppose you don't know that there is any other
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Speaker 6: feeling that can be gratified except love. Have you never
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Speaker 6: heard of revenge? Cynthia has cajoled me with promises, and
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Speaker 6: little as you or she may believe me, well, it's
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Speaker 6: no use speaking of that. I don't mean to let
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Speaker 6: her go unpunished. You may tell her that I shall
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Speaker 6: keep the letters and make use of them as I
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Speaker 6: see fit when the occasion arises.
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Speaker 1: Molly was miserably angry with herself for her mismanagement of
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Speaker 1: the affair.
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Speaker 5: She had hoped to succeed. She had only made matters worse.
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Speaker 5: What you are can she use?
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Speaker 1: Meanwhile, he went on lashing himself up as he thought
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Speaker 1: how the two girls must have talked him over, bringing
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Speaker 1: in wounded vanity to add to the rage of disappointed love.
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Speaker 6: Mister Osborne Hamley may hear of their contents, though he
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Speaker 6: may be too honorable to read them. Nay, even your
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Speaker 6: father may hear whispers. And if I remember them rightly,
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Speaker 6: Miss Cynthia Kirkpatrick does not always speak in the most
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Speaker 6: respectful terms of the lady who is now missus Gibson.
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Speaker 5: There are stop, said Molly, I won't hear anything out
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Speaker 5: of these letters, written when she was almost without friends,
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Speaker 5: to you, whom she looked upon as a friend. But
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Speaker 5: I have thought or what I will do next. I
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Speaker 5: give you fair warning. If I had not been foolish,
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Speaker 5: I should have told my father, but Cynthia made me
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Speaker 5: promise that I would not. So I will tell it
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Speaker 5: all from beginning to end to Lady Harriet and ask
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Speaker 5: her to speak to her father. I feel sure that
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Speaker 5: she will do it, and I don't think you will.
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Speaker 5: Dare to refuse Lord Cumnor.
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Speaker 1: He felt at once that he should not dare that
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Speaker 1: clever land age, and as he was and high up
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Speaker 1: in the Earl's favor on that account, yet that the
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Speaker 1: conduct of which he had been guilty in regard to
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Speaker 1: the letters, and the threats which he had held out
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Speaker 1: respecting them, were just what no gentleman, no honorable man,
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Speaker 1: no manly man could put up with in any one
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Speaker 1: about him. He knew that much, and he wondered how she,
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Speaker 1: the girl standing before him, had been clever enough to
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Speaker 1: find it out. He forgot himself for an instant in
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Speaker 1: admiration of her. There she stood, frightened yet brave, not
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Speaker 1: letting go her hold on what she meant to do,
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Speaker 1: even when things seemed most against her. And besides, there
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Speaker 1: was something that struck him most of all, perhaps, and
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Speaker 1: which shows the kind of man he was. He perceived
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Speaker 1: that Molly was as unconscious that he was a young
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Speaker 1: man and she a young woman, as if she had
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Speaker 1: been a pure angel of heaven. Though he felt that
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Speaker 1: he would have to yield and give up the letters,
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Speaker 1: he was not going to do it at once. And
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Speaker 1: while he was thinking what to say, so as still
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Speaker 1: to evade making any concession till he had had time
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Speaker 1: to think over it, he, with his senses all about him,
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Speaker 1: heard the trotting of a horse cranching quickly along over
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Speaker 1: the gravel of the drive. A moment afterwards, Molly's perception
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Speaker 1: overtook his. He could see the startled look overspread her face,
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Speaker 1: and in an instant she would have run away, but
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Speaker 1: before the first rush was made, mister Preston laid his
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Speaker 1: hand firmly on her arm.
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Speaker 6: Keep quiet, you must be seen, you, at any rate,
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Speaker 6: have done nothing to be ashamed of.
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Speaker 1: As he spoke, mister Sheepshanks came round the bend of
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Speaker 1: the road and was close upon them. Mister Preston saw
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Speaker 1: if Molly did not the sudden look of intelligence that
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Speaker 1: dawned upon the shrewd ruddy face of the old gentleman sore,
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Speaker 1: but did not much heed. He went forwards and spoke
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Speaker 1: to mister Sheepshanks, who made a halt right before them.
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Speaker 7: Miss Gibson, your servant, Rather a blustering day for a
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Speaker 7: young lady to be out and cold, I should say,
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Speaker 7: for standing still too long, ere Preston.
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Speaker 1: Poking his whip at the latter in a knowing manner. Yes,
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Speaker 1: said mister Preston.
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Speaker 6: And I'm afraid I have kept Miss Gibson too long standing.
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Speaker 1: Molly did not know what to say or do, so
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Speaker 1: she only bowed a silent farewell and turned away to
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Speaker 1: go home, feeling very heavy at heart in the non
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Speaker 1: success of her undertaking, for she did not know how
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Speaker 1: she had conquered in fact, although mister Preston might not
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Speaker 1: as yet acknowledge it even to himself. Before she was
17:17
Speaker 1: out of hearing, she heard mister Sheepshanks say.
17:19
Speaker 7: Sorry to have disturbed your teenity, Preston.
17:22
Speaker 1: But though she heard the words, their implied sense did
17:25
Speaker 1: not sink into her mind. She was only feeling how
17:28
Speaker 1: she had gone out glorious and confident, and was coming
17:31
Speaker 1: back to Cynthia defeated. Cynthia was on the watch for
17:34
Speaker 1: her return, and, rushing downstairs, dragged Molly into the dining room.
17:38
Speaker 4: Well, Molly, oh, I see you haven't gotten them after all.
17:41
Speaker 4: I never expected it.
17:43
Speaker 1: She sat down, as if she could get over her
17:45
Speaker 1: disappointment better in that position, and Molly stood like a
17:48
Speaker 1: guilty person before her.
17:50
Speaker 5: I am so sorry. I did all I could. We
17:53
Speaker 5: were interrupted at last mister Sheepshanks rode.
17:56
Speaker 4: Up, provoking old man. Do you think you should have
17:59
Speaker 4: persuaded him to give her the letters if you had
18:01
Speaker 4: had more time?
18:02
Speaker 5: I don't know. I wish mister Sheepshanks hadn't come up
18:05
Speaker 5: just then. I didn't like his finding me standing talking
18:08
Speaker 5: to mister Preston.
18:09
Speaker 4: Oh I dare say he'd never think anything about it.
18:12
Speaker 4: What did he, mister Preston say.
18:15
Speaker 5: He seemed to think you were fully engaged to him,
18:17
Speaker 5: and that these letters were the only proof he had.
18:20
Speaker 5: I think he loves you in his way, his way.
18:22
Speaker 1: Indeed, said Cynthia scornfully.
18:24
Speaker 5: The more I think of it, the more I see
18:26
Speaker 5: it would be better for Papa to speak to him.
18:29
Speaker 5: I did say I would tell it all to Lady
18:31
Speaker 5: Harriet and get Lord Cumnor to make him give up
18:33
Speaker 5: the letters. But it would be very awkward.
18:36
Speaker 1: Very said Cynthia gloomily.
18:39
Speaker 4: But he would see it was only a threat.
18:41
Speaker 5: But I will do it in a moment, if you like.
18:43
Speaker 5: I meant what I said, only I feel that Papa
18:45
Speaker 5: would manage it best of all, and more privately. I'll
18:49
Speaker 5: tell you what, Molly. You're bound by a promise you know,
18:51
Speaker 5: and cannot tell mister Gibson without breaking your solemn word.
18:54
Speaker 4: But it's just this. I'll leave Hollingford and never come
18:57
Speaker 4: back again if ever your father hears of this affair.
19:00
Speaker 1: There, Cynthia stood up now and began to fold up
19:03
Speaker 1: Molly's shawl in her nervous excitement. Oh, Cynthia, Roger was
19:08
Speaker 1: all that Molly said.
19:09
Speaker 4: Yes, I know you need not remind me of him,
19:11
Speaker 4: but I'm not going to live in a house with
19:13
Speaker 4: any one who may be always casting up in his
19:15
Speaker 4: mind the things he had heard against me, things aughts, perhaps,
19:20
Speaker 4: which sounds so much worse than they really are. I
19:22
Speaker 4: was so happy when I first came here. You all
19:24
Speaker 4: liked me and admired me and thought well of me.
19:26
Speaker 4: And now, why, Molly, I can see the difference in
19:30
Speaker 4: you already. You carry your thoughts in your face. I
19:33
Speaker 4: have read them there. These two days, you've been thinking
19:36
Speaker 4: how Cynthia must have deceived me, keeping up a correspondence
19:39
Speaker 4: all this time, having half engagements to two men.
19:43
Speaker 5: You've been more full of.
19:44
Speaker 4: That than of pity for me, as a girl who
19:45
Speaker 4: has always been obliged to manage for herself without any
19:48
Speaker 4: friend to help her and protect her.
19:50
Speaker 1: Molly was silent. There was a great deal of truth
19:53
Speaker 1: in what Cynthia was saying, and yet a great deal
19:55
Speaker 1: of falsehood. For through all this long forty eight hours,
19:59
Speaker 1: Molly had loved Cynthia dearly, and had been more weighed
20:02
Speaker 1: down by the position the latter was in than Cynthia herself.
20:05
Speaker 1: She also knew, but This was a second thought, following
20:08
Speaker 1: on the other that she had suffered much pain in
20:11
Speaker 1: trying to do her best in this interview with mister Preston.
20:14
Speaker 1: She had been tried beyond her strength, and the great
20:17
Speaker 1: tears welled up into her eyes and fell slowly down
20:20
Speaker 1: her cheeks.
20:21
Speaker 4: Oh what a brute I am.
20:23
Speaker 1: Said Cynthia, kissing them away.
20:24
Speaker 4: I see, I know it is the truth, and I
20:27
Speaker 4: deserve it. But I need not reproach you.
20:30
Speaker 5: You did not reproach me, said Molly, trying to smile.
20:33
Speaker 5: I have thought something of what you said, but I
20:36
Speaker 5: do love you, dearly, Dearly Cynthia. I should have done
20:39
Speaker 5: just the same as you did. No, you would not.
20:42
Speaker 4: Your grain is different somehow.
20:45
Speaker 1: End of chapter forty four.