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07 - The Flying Inn - GK Chesterton · Daily Sci-Fi Books

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Speaker 1: Chapter seven, The Society of Simple Souls under sunset at
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Speaker 1: once softer and more somber, under which the leaden sea
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Speaker 1: took on a linten purple, a tint appropriate to tragedy.
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Speaker 1: Lady Joan Brett was once more drifting moodily along the
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Speaker 1: sea front. The evening had been rainy and lowering. The
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Speaker 1: watering place season was nearly over, and she was almost
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Speaker 1: alone on the shore. But she had fallen into the
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Speaker 1: habit of restlessly pacing the place, and it seemed to
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Speaker 1: satisfy some sub conscious hunger in her rather mixed psychology.
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Speaker 1: Through all her brooding, her animal senses always remained abnormally active.
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Speaker 1: She could smell the sea when it had ebbed almost
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Speaker 1: to the horizon, and in the same way she heard,
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Speaker 1: through every whisper of waves or wind, the swish or
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Speaker 1: flutter of another woman's skirt behind her. There is she
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Speaker 1: felt something unmistakable about the movement of a lady who
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Speaker 1: is generally very dignified and rather slow, and who happens
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Speaker 1: to be in a hurry. She turned to look at
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Speaker 1: the lady who was thus hastening to overtake her, lifted
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Speaker 1: her eyebrows a little and held out her hand. The
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Speaker 1: interruption was known to her as Lady Enid Wimpole, cousin
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Speaker 1: of Lord Ivywood, a tall and graceful lady who unbalanced
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Speaker 1: her own elegance by a fashionable costume that was at
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Speaker 1: once funereal and fantastic. Her fair hair was pale but plentiful.
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Speaker 1: Her face was not only handsome and fastidious in an
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Speaker 1: aquiline style, but when considered seriously, was sensitive, modest, and
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Speaker 1: even pathetic. But her wand blue eyes seemed slightly prominent,
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Speaker 1: with that expression of cold eagerness that is seen in
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Speaker 1: the eyes of ladies who asked questions at public meetings.
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Speaker 1: Joan Brett was herself, as she had said, a connection
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Speaker 1: of the ivy Wood family. But Lady Enid was Ivywood's
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Speaker 1: first cousin, and for all practical purposes, his sister, for
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Speaker 1: she kept house for him and his mother, who was
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Speaker 1: now so incredibly old that she only survived to satisfy
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Speaker 1: conventional opinion in the character of a speechless and useless chaperone,
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Speaker 1: and Ivywood was not the sort who would be likely
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Speaker 1: to call out any activity in an old lady exercising
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Speaker 1: that office, nor for that matter, was Lady Enid wimpole.
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Speaker 1: There seemed to shine on her the face of some
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Speaker 1: kind of inhuman absent minded common sense that shone on
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Speaker 1: her cousins. Oh, I'm so glad I've caught you up,
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Speaker 1: she said to Joan. Lady Ivywood wants you so much
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Speaker 1: to come to us for the weekend or so while
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Speaker 1: Philip is still there. He always admired your sonnet on
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Speaker 1: Cyprus so much, and he wants to talk to you
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Speaker 1: about this policy of his in Turkey. Of course, he's
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Speaker 1: awfully busy, but I shall be seeing him to know
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Speaker 1: after the meeting. No living creature, said Lady Joan, with
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Speaker 1: a smile, ever saw him except before or after a meeting.
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Speaker 1: Are you a simple soul? Asked Lady Enid carelessly. Am
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Speaker 1: I a simple soul? Asked Joan, drawing her black brows together.
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Speaker 1: Merciful heavens know what can you mean? They're meeting's on
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Speaker 1: to night at the small Universal Hall, and Philip's taking
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Speaker 1: the chair, explained the other lady. He's very annoyed that
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Speaker 1: he has to leave early to get up to the house,
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Speaker 1: but mister Levison can take the chair for the last bit.
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Speaker 1: They've got messisra Ammon, got missus, who asked Joan in
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Speaker 1: honest doubt, you make a game of everything, said Lady
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Speaker 1: Enid in cheerless amiability. It's the man everyone's talking about,
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Speaker 1: you know as well as I do. It's really his
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Speaker 1: influence that has made the simple souls, Oh, said Lady
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Speaker 1: Joan Brett. Then, after a long silence, she added, who
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Speaker 1: are the simple souls? I should be interested in them
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Speaker 1: if I could meet any. And she turned her dark,
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Speaker 1: brooding face on the darkening purple sea. Do you mean
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Speaker 1: to say, my dear, asked Lady Enid wimpole, that you
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Speaker 1: haven't met any of them yet? No, said Joan, looking
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Speaker 1: at the last dark line of sea. I never met
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Speaker 1: but one simple soul in my life. But you must
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Speaker 1: come to the meeting, cried Lady Enid, with frosty and
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Speaker 1: sparkling gayety. You must come at once. Philip is certain
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Speaker 1: to be eloquent on a subject like this, And of
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Speaker 1: course messisra Emmon is always so wonderful. Without any very
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Speaker 1: distinct idea of where she was going or why she
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Speaker 1: was going there, Joan allowed herself to be piloted to
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Speaker 1: a low lead or tin shed beyond the last straggling
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Speaker 1: hotels out of the echoing shell of which she could
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Speaker 1: prematurely hear a voice that she thought she recognized. When
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Speaker 1: she came in, Lord Ivywood was on his feet in
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Speaker 1: exquisite evening dress, but with a light overcoat thrown over
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Speaker 1: the seat behind him. Beside him, in less tasteful but
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Speaker 1: more obvious evening dress, was the little old man she
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Speaker 1: had heard on the beach. No one else was on
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Speaker 1: the platform, but just under it. Rather, to Joone's surprise,
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Speaker 1: sat Miss Browning, her old typewriting friend, in her old
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Speaker 1: black dress, industriously taking down Lord Ivywood's words in shorthand
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Speaker 1: a yard or two off. Even More to her surprise,
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Speaker 1: sat Miss Browning's more domestic sister, also taking down the
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Speaker 1: same words in shorthand. That is, messisra ammon, whispered Lady Enid, earnestly,
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Speaker 1: pointing a delicate finger at the little old man beside
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Speaker 1: the chairman. I know him, said Joan, where's the umbrella?
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Speaker 1: At least evident, Lord Ivywood was saying that one of
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Speaker 1: those ancestral impossibilities is no longer impossible. The East and
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Speaker 1: the west are one. The east is no longer east
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Speaker 1: nor the west west, for a small isthmus has been broken,
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Speaker 1: and the Atlantic and Pacific are a single sea. No man,
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Speaker 1: assuredly has done more of this mighty work of unity
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Speaker 1: than the brilliant and distinguished philosopher to whom you will
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Speaker 1: have the pleasure of listening to night. And I profoundly
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Speaker 1: wish that affairs more practical, for I will not call
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Speaker 1: them more important. Did not prevent my remaining to enjoy
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Speaker 1: his eloquence as I have so often enjoyed it before.
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Speaker 1: Mister Levison has kindly consented to take my place, and
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Speaker 1: I can do no more than express my deep sympathy
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Speaker 1: with the aims and ideals which will be developed before
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Speaker 1: you tonight. I have long been increasingly convinced that underneath
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Speaker 1: a certain mask of stiffness which the Mohammedan religion has
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Speaker 1: worn through certain centuries, as a somewhat similar mask has
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Speaker 1: been worn by the religion of the Jews, Islam has
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Speaker 1: in it the potentialities of being the most progressive of
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Speaker 1: all religions, so that a century or two to come
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Speaker 1: we may see the cause of peace, of science, and
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Speaker 1: of reform everywhere supported by Islam. As it is everywhere
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Speaker 1: supported by Israel, not in vain, I think, is the
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Speaker 1: symbol of that faith, the crescent the growing thing, While
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Speaker 1: other creeds carry emblems implying more or less of finality.
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Speaker 1: For this great creed of Hope, its very imperfection is
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Speaker 1: its pride. And men shall walk fearlessly in new and
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Speaker 1: wonderful paths, following the increasing curve which contains and holds
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Speaker 1: up before them the eternal promises of the orb. It
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Speaker 1: was characteristic of Lord Ivywood that, though he was really
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Speaker 1: in a hurry, he sat down slowly and gravely amid
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Speaker 1: the outburst of applause. The quiet resumption of the speaker's seat,
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Speaker 1: like the applause itself, was an artistic part of the peroration.
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Speaker 1: When the last clap or stamp had subsided, he sprang
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Speaker 1: up alertly, his light greatcoat over his arm, shook hands
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Speaker 1: with the lecturer, bowed to the audience, and slid quickly
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Speaker 1: out of the hall. Mister Levison, the swarthy young man
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Speaker 1: with the drooping double eye glass, rather bashfully to the front,
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Speaker 1: took the empty seat on the platform, and in a
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Speaker 1: few words presented the eminent Turkish mystic messisra Ammon, sometimes
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Speaker 1: called the Prophet of the Moon. Lady Joan found the
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Speaker 1: prophet's English accent somewhat improved by good society, but he
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Speaker 1: still elongated the letter you in the same bleeding manner,
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Speaker 1: and his remarks had exactly the same rapidly wrong headed
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Speaker 1: ingenuity as his lecture upon English ends. It appeared that
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Speaker 1: he was speaking on the higher polygamy, but he began
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Speaker 1: with a sort of general defense of the Moslem civilization,
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Speaker 1: especially against the charge of sterility and worldly ineffectiveness. It
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Speaker 1: is just in the practical things, he was saying. It
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Speaker 1: is just in the practical things, if you could to
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Speaker 1: consider them in a manner quite equal, that our methods
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Speaker 1: are better than your methods. My ancestors invented the curved swords,
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Speaker 1: because one cuts better with a curved sword. Your ancestors
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Speaker 1: possessed the straight swords out of some romantic fancy of
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Speaker 1: being what you call straight. Or I will take a
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Speaker 1: more plain example of which I have myself experienced. When
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Speaker 1: I first had the honor of meeting Lord Ivywood, I
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Speaker 1: was unused to your various ceremonies and had a little difficulty,
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Speaker 1: just a little difficulty in entering mister Clarridge's hotel, where
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Speaker 1: his lordship had invited me. A servant of the hotel
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Speaker 1: was standing just beside me on the doorstep. I stooped
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Speaker 1: down to take off my boots, and he asked me
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Speaker 1: what I was doing. I said to him, my friend,
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Speaker 1: I am taking off my boots. A smothered sound came
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Speaker 1: from Lady Joan Brett. The lecturer did not notice it
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Speaker 1: and went on with a beautiful simplicity. I told him
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Speaker 1: that in my country, when showing respect for any spot,
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Speaker 1: we do not take off our hats, we take off
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Speaker 1: our boots. And because I would keep on my hat
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Speaker 1: and take off my boots, he suggested to me that
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Speaker 1: I had been afflicted by Allah in the head. Now
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Speaker 1: was not that funny, very, said Lady Joan inside her handkerchief,
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Speaker 1: for she was choking with laughter. Something like a faint
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Speaker 1: smile passed over the earnest faces of the two or
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Speaker 1: three most intelligent of the simple souls. But for most
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Speaker 1: part the souls seemed very simple, indeed helpless looking people
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Speaker 1: with limp hair and gowns like green curtains, and their
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Speaker 1: dry faces were as dry as ever. But I explained
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Speaker 1: to him. I explained to him for a long time,
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Speaker 1: for a carefully occupied time, that it was more practical,
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Speaker 1: more business like, or altogether for utility to take off
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Speaker 1: the boots than to remove the hat. Let Us I
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Speaker 1: said to him, consider what many complaints are made against
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Speaker 1: the footwear? What few complaints against the head ware? You complain?
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Speaker 1: If in your drawing rooms is the marching a boat
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Speaker 1: of muddy boots, are any of your drawing rooms marked
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Speaker 1: thus with the marching about of muddy hats? How very
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Speaker 1: many of your husbands kick you with the boot? Yet,
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Speaker 1: how few of your husbands, on any occasion but you
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Speaker 1: with the hat. He looked round with a radiant seriousness,
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Speaker 1: which made Lady Joan almost as speechless for sympathy as
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Speaker 1: she was for amusement. With all that was most sound
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Speaker 1: in his too complicated soul, she realized the presence of
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Speaker 1: a man really convinced the man on the door step.
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Speaker 1: He would not listen to me, went on messisra Emma pathetically.
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Speaker 1: He said, there would be a crowd if I stood
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Speaker 1: on the doorstep holding in my hand my boots. Well,
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Speaker 1: I do not know why in your country you always
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Speaker 1: send the young males to be the first of your crowds.
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Speaker 1: They certainly were making a number of noises the young males.
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Speaker 1: Lady Jone Brett stood up suddenly and displayed enormous interest
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Speaker 1: in the rest of the audience in the back parts
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Speaker 1: of the hall. She felt that if she looked for
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Speaker 1: one moment more at the serious face with the Jewish
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Speaker 1: nose and the Persian beard, she would publicly disgrace herself
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Speaker 1: for what was quite as bad, For she was the
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Speaker 1: generous sort of aristocrat publicly insult the lecturer. She had
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Speaker 1: a feeling that the sight of all the simple souls
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Speaker 1: in bulk might have a soothing effect. It had, It
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Speaker 1: had what might have been mistaken for a depressing effect.
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Speaker 1: Lady Jane resumed her seat with a controlled countenance. Now, why,
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Speaker 1: asked the Eastern philosopher, do I tell so simple a
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Speaker 1: little story of your London streets, a thing happening any day?
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Speaker 1: The little mistake had no prejudicial effect. Lord Ivywood came
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Speaker 1: out at the end. He made no attempt to explain
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Speaker 1: the true view of so important matters to mister Clereridge's servant,
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Speaker 1: though mister Cleridge's servant remained on the door step, but
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Speaker 1: he commanded mister Clereridge's servant to restore to me one
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Speaker 1: of my boots, which had fallen down the front steps
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Speaker 1: while I was explaining this harmlessness of the hat in
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Speaker 1: the home. So all was for me very well. But
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Speaker 1: why do I tell such little tales? He spread out
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Speaker 1: his hands again in his fan like Eastern style. Then
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Speaker 1: he clapped them together so suddenly that jone jumped and
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Speaker 1: looked instinctively for the entrance of five hundred Negro slaves
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Speaker 1: lay with jewels. But it was only his emphatic gesture
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Speaker 1: of eloquence. He went on with an excited thickening of
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Speaker 1: the accent. Because, my friends, this is the best example
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Speaker 1: I could give of the wrong and slenderous character of
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Speaker 1: the charge that we fail in our domesticities, that we fail,
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Speaker 1: especially in our treatment of the womankind. I appeal to
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Speaker 1: any lady, to any Christian lady. Is not the boot
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Speaker 1: more devastating, more dreaded in the home than the hat?
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Speaker 1: The boot jumps, he bound, he ran about, He breaks things,
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Speaker 1: he leave on the carpet the earths of the garden.
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Speaker 1: The hat here remained quiet on his hat. Pig. Look
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Speaker 1: at him on his hat, pig, How quiet and good
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Speaker 1: he remain, Why not let him remain quiet also on
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Speaker 1: his head. Lady Joan applauded warmly, as did several other ladies,
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Speaker 1: and the sage went on encouraged. Can you not therefore, trust,
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Speaker 1: dear ladies, this great religion to understand you concerning other things,
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Speaker 1: as it understands you regarding boots. What is the common
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Speaker 1: objection our worthy enemies make against our polygamy, that it
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Speaker 1: is disdainful of womanhood? But how can this be so,
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Speaker 1: my friends, when it allows the womanhood to be present
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Speaker 1: in so large numbers. When in your House of Commons
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Speaker 1: you put a hundred English members and just one little
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Speaker 1: Welsh member, you do not say the welchman is on top.
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Speaker 1: He is are Sultan, May he live forever. If your
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Speaker 1: jewury contained eleven great large ladies and one lettle man,
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Speaker 1: you would not say this is unfair to the great
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Speaker 1: large ladies. Why should you shrink, then, ladies, from this
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Speaker 1: great polygamacal experiment which Lord Ivywood himself. Joan's dark eyes
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Speaker 1: were still fixed on the wrinkled, patient face of the lecturer,
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Speaker 1: but every word of the rest of the lecture was
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Speaker 1: lost to her under her glowing Spanish tint. She had
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Speaker 1: turned pale with extraordinary emotions, but she did not stir
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Speaker 1: a hair. The door of the hall stood open, and
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Speaker 1: occasional sounds came even from that deserted end of the town.
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Speaker 1: Two men seemed to be passing along the distant parade.
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Speaker 1: One of them was singing. It was common enough for
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Speaker 1: workmen to sing going home at night, and the voice,
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Speaker 1: though a loud one, would have been too far off
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Speaker 1: for Joan to hear the words. Only Joan happened to
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Speaker 1: know the words. She could almost see them before her,
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Speaker 1: written in a round, swaggering hand on a pink page
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Speaker 1: of an old schoolgirl album. At home. She knew the
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Speaker 1: words and the voice. They come from Castlepatrick, and my
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Speaker 1: heart is on my sleeve. And any sword or pissed
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Speaker 1: the book and hit it with me, I leave it
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Speaker 1: shines therefore, and up a lit as golden as the flame,
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Speaker 1: as naked as me, and sisters as noble as me.
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Speaker 1: Name for I come from Casseilpatrick, in my heart is
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Speaker 1: on my sleeve, but a lady stole it from me
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Speaker 1: on Saint Gatle of glasses Eve. Startlingly and with strong pain,
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Speaker 1: there sprang up before Jones's eyes a patch of broken
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Speaker 1: heath with a very deep hollow of white sand, blinding
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Speaker 1: in the sun. No words, no name, only the place.
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Speaker 1: The folks that live in Liverpool, their heart is in
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Speaker 1: their boots. They go to hell like lambs. They do
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Speaker 1: because they're hoot or hoots where men may not be dancin,
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Speaker 1: though the wheels may dance all day, and men may
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Speaker 1: not be smoking, but only chimneys may. But I come
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Speaker 1: from Castlepatrick in my heart is on my sleeve, but
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Speaker 1: a lady stole it from me on Saint Paul the
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Speaker 1: Under's Eve. The folks that live in Black though Fast,
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Speaker 1: their heart is in their mouth. They see is making
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Speaker 1: murders in the meadows up the south. They think a
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Speaker 1: plows a wreck they do, and cattle calls our creeds,
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Speaker 1: and they think we're burn in witches, when we're only
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Speaker 1: burn and weeds. But I come from Casilpatrick and me
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Speaker 1: hard is on me sleeve, but a lady stole it
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Speaker 1: from me on Saint Barnabas secieve the voice had stopped suddenly,
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Speaker 1: but the last lines were so much more distinct that
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Speaker 1: it was certain the singer had come nearer and was
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Speaker 1: not marching away. It was only after all this, and
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Speaker 1: through a sort of cloud that Lady Joan heard the
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Speaker 1: indomitable Oriental bringing his whole eloquent address to a conclusion.
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Speaker 1: And if you do not refuse the sun that returns
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Speaker 1: and rises in the east with every morning, you will
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Speaker 1: not refuse either this great social experiment, this great polygamocal method,
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Speaker 1: which also arose out of the east and always returns.
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Speaker 1: For this is that hyger polygamy, which always comes, like
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Speaker 1: the sun itself, out of the audience, but is only
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Speaker 1: at its noontide splendor when the sun is high in heaven.
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Speaker 1: But she was vaguely conscious of mister Levison, the man
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Speaker 1: with the dark face and the eyeglasses, acknowledging the entrancing
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Speaker 1: lecture in suitable terms, and calling on any of the
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Speaker 1: simple souls who might have questions to ask to ask them.
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Speaker 1: It was only when the simple souls had displayed their
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Speaker 1: simplicity with the usual parade of well bred reluctance and
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Speaker 1: fussy self effacement, that any one addressed the chair. And
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Speaker 1: it was only after somebody had been addressing the chair
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Speaker 1: for some time that Joan gradually awoke to the fact
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Speaker 1: that the address was somewhat unusual. End of Chapter seven,