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009 - Uncle Cornelius His Story Part 1 · Six Stories

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  Speaker 1: Section nine of six stories by George mac Donald. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Matt Braemeller. Six Stories by
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  Speaker 1: George mac Donald, Section nine. Uncle Cornelius His Story, Part one.
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  Speaker 1: It was a dull evening in November. A drizzling mist
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  Speaker 1: had been falling all day about the old farm. Harry
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  Speaker 1: Haywood and his two sisters sat in the house place,
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  Speaker 1: expecting a visit from their uncle, Cornelius Heywood. This uncle
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  Speaker 1: lived alone, occupying the first floor above a chemist's shop
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  Speaker 1: in the town, and had just enough of money over
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  Speaker 1: to buy books that nobody seemed ever to have heard
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  Speaker 1: of but himself, for he was a student in all
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  Speaker 1: those regions of speculation in which anything to be called
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  Speaker 1: is impossible. What a dreary night, said Kate. I wish
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  Speaker 1: uncle would come and tell us a story. A cheerful wish,
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  Speaker 1: said Harry. Uncle Corney is a lively companion, isn't he.
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  Speaker 1: He can't even blunder through a Joe Miller without tacking
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  Speaker 1: a moral to it, and then trying to persuade you
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  Speaker 1: that the joke of it depends on the moral. Here
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  Speaker 1: he comes, said Kate, as three distinct blows with the
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  Speaker 1: knob of his walking stick announced the arrival of Uncle Cornelius.
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  Speaker 1: She ran to the door to open it. The air
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  Speaker 1: had been very still all day, but as he entered,
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  Speaker 1: he seemed to have brought the wind with him, for
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  Speaker 1: the first moan of it pressed against, rather than shook,
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  Speaker 1: the casement of the low ceiling room. Uncle Cornelius was
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  Speaker 1: very tall, and very thin, and very pale, with large
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  Speaker 1: gray eyes that looked greatly larger because he wore spectacles
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  Speaker 1: of the most delicate hair steel with the largest pebble
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  Speaker 1: eyes that ever were seen. He gave them a kindly greeting,
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  Speaker 1: but too much in earnest, even in shaking hands to
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  Speaker 1: smile over it. He sat down in the arm chair
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  Speaker 1: by the chimney corner. I have been particular in my
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  Speaker 1: description of him, in order that my reader may give
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  Speaker 1: due weight to his words. I am such a believer
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  Speaker 1: in words that I believe everything depends on who says them.
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  Speaker 1: Uncle Cornelius Heywood's story, told word for word by Uncle
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  Speaker 1: Timothy Warren would not have been the same story at all.
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  Speaker 1: Not one of the listeners would have believed a syllable
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  Speaker 1: of it from the lips of round bodied, red faced,
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  Speaker 1: small eyed little Uncle Tim, whereas from Uncle Corny, disbelieve
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  Speaker 1: one of his stories if you could one more word
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  Speaker 1: concerning him. His interest in everything conjectured or believed relative
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  Speaker 1: to the awful borderland of this world and the next
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  Speaker 1: was only equalled by his disgust at the vulgar, unimaginative
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  Speaker 1: forms which curiosity about such such objects has assumed in
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  Speaker 1: the present day. With a yearning after the unseen, like
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  Speaker 1: that of a child for the lifting of the curtain
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  Speaker 1: of a theater, he declared that, rather than accept such
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  Speaker 1: a spirit world as the would be seers of the
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  Speaker 1: nineteenth century thought or pretended to reveal the profits of
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  Speaker 1: a pauperized workhouse immortality invented by a poverty stricken soul
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  Speaker 1: and a sense so greedy that it would gorge on carrion,
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  Speaker 1: he would rejoice to believe that a man had just
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  Speaker 1: as much of a soul as the cabbage of the Amblicus,
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  Speaker 1: namely an aerial double of his body. I'm so glad
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  Speaker 1: you're come, uncle, said Kate. Why wouldn't you come to dinner.
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  Speaker 1: We have been so gloomy. Well, Katie, you know I
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  Speaker 1: don't admire eating. I never could bear to see a
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  Speaker 1: cow tearing up the grass with her long tongue. As
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  Speaker 1: he spoke, he looked very much like a cow. He
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  Speaker 1: had a way of opening his jaws while he kept
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  Speaker 1: his lips closely pressed together. That made his cheeks fall
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  Speaker 1: in and his face look awfully long and dismal. I
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  Speaker 1: consider eating. He went on such an animal exercise that
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  Speaker 1: it ought always to be performed in private. You never
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  Speaker 1: saw me dying, Kate, never, uncle, But I have seen
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  Speaker 1: you drink nothing but water. I must confess, yes, that
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  Speaker 1: is another affair. According to one eye witness, that is
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  Speaker 1: no more than the disembodied can do. I must confess, however,
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  Speaker 1: that although well attested, the story is to me scarcely credible.
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  Speaker 1: Fancy a glass of Bavarian beer lifted into the air
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  Speaker 1: without a visible hand, turned upside down, and sat empty
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  Speaker 1: on the table, and no splash on the floor or
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  Speaker 1: anywhere else. A solitary gleam of humor shone through the
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  Speaker 1: great eyes of the spectacles as he spoke. Oh, uncle,
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  Speaker 1: how can you believe such nonsense? Said Jane, I did
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  Speaker 1: not say I believed it, did I? But why not?
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  Speaker 1: The story has at least a touch of imagination in it.
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  Speaker 1: That is a strange reason for believing a thing, Uncle
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  Speaker 1: said Harry. You might have a worse Harry. I grant
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  Speaker 1: it is not sufficient, but it is better than that
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  Speaker 1: commonplace aspect, which is the ground of most faith. I
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  Speaker 1: believe I did say that the story puzzled me. But
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  Speaker 1: how can you give it any quarter at all? Uncle?
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  Speaker 1: It does me no harm. There it is between the
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  Speaker 1: boards of an old German book. There, let it remain well.
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  Speaker 1: You will never persuade me to believe such things, said Janet.
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  Speaker 1: Wait till I ask you, Janet returned her uncle gravely.
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  Speaker 1: I have not the slightest desire to convince you. How
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  Speaker 1: did we get into this unprofitable current of talk. We
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  Speaker 1: will change it at once. How are consoles, Harry, oh, uncle,
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  Speaker 1: said Kate. We are longing for a story. And just
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  Speaker 1: as I thought you were coming coming to one, off
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  Speaker 1: you go to consoles. I thought a ghost story at
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  Speaker 1: least was coming, said Janet. You did your best to
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  Speaker 1: stop it, Janet, said Harry. Janet began an angry retort,
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  Speaker 1: but Cornelius interrupted her. You never heard me tell a
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  Speaker 1: ghost story, Janet, You have just told one about a
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  Speaker 1: drinking ghost, uncle, said Janet, in such a tone that
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  Speaker 1: Cornelius replied, Well, take that for your story, and let
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  Speaker 1: us talk of something else. Janet apparently saw that she
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  Speaker 1: had been rude and said, as sweetly as she might. Ah,
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  Speaker 1: but you didn't make that one, Uncle, You got it
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  Speaker 1: out of a German book. Make it make a ghost story,
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  Speaker 1: repeated Cornelius. No, that I never did. Such things are
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  Speaker 1: not to be trifled with, are they said Janet. I
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  Speaker 1: at least have no inclination to trifle with them. But
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  Speaker 1: really and truly, Uncle persisted Jane, you don't believe in
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  Speaker 1: such things? Why should I either believe or disbelieve in them?
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  Speaker 1: They are not essential to salvation. I presume you must
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  Speaker 1: do one or the other. I suppose I beg your pardon.
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  Speaker 1: You suppose wrong. It would take twice the proof I
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  Speaker 1: ever had to make me believe in them, and exactly
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  Speaker 1: your prejudice, and allow me to say ignorance to make
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  Speaker 1: me disbelieve in them. Neither is within my reach. I
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  Speaker 1: postpone judgment. But you young people, of course, are wiser
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  Speaker 1: and know all about the question. Oh uncle, I'm so sorry,
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  Speaker 1: said Kate. I'm sure I did not mean to vex you,
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  Speaker 1: not at all, Not at all, my dear, It wasn't you.
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  Speaker 1: Do you know? Kate went on anxious to prevent anything unpleasant,
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  Speaker 1: for there was something very black perched on Janet's forehead.
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  Speaker 1: I have taken to reading about that kind of thing.
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  Speaker 1: I beg you will give it up that once. You
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  Speaker 1: will bewilder your brains till you are ready to believe anything,
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  Speaker 1: if only it be absurd enough. Nay, you may come
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  Speaker 1: to find the element of vulgarity essential to belief. I
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  Speaker 1: should be sorry to the heart to believe concerning a
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  Speaker 1: horse or dog what they tell you nowadays about Shakespeare
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  Speaker 1: and Burns. What have you been reading, my girl? Don't
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  Speaker 1: be alarmed, uncle, only some Highland legends which are too absurd,
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  Speaker 1: either for my belief or for your theories. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know that, Kate. Why what could you do with such
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  Speaker 1: shapeless creatures as haunt their fords and pools? For instance?
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  Speaker 1: They are as featureless as the faces of the mountains,
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  Speaker 1: and so much the more terrible. But that does not
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  Speaker 1: make it easier to believe in them, said Harry. I
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  Speaker 1: only said, returned his uncle, that their shapelessness adds to
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  Speaker 1: their horror. But you allowed almost at least, Uncle, said Kate,
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  Speaker 1: that you could find a place in your theory even
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  Speaker 1: for those shapeless creatures. Cornelius sat silent for a moment, then,
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  Speaker 1: having first doubled the length of his face and restored
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  Speaker 1: it to its natural condition, said thoughtfully, I suspect, Katie,
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  Speaker 1: if you were to come upon an Ichtheosaurus or a
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  Speaker 1: pterodactyl asleep in the shrubbery, you would hardly expect your
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  Speaker 1: report of it to be believed all at once, either
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  Speaker 1: by Harry or Janet. I suppose not, Uncle, But I
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  Speaker 1: can't see what. Of course such a thing could not
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  Speaker 1: happen here and now. But there was a time when
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  Speaker 1: and a place where such a thing may have happened. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: in my time a traveler or two have got pretty
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  Speaker 1: soundly disbelieved for reporting what they saw the last of
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  Speaker 1: an expiring race, which had strayed over the natural verge
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  Speaker 1: of its history, coming to life in some neglected swamp,
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  Speaker 1: itself a remnant of the slime chaos. I've never heard
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  Speaker 1: you talk like that before. Uncle said, Harry, if you
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  Speaker 1: go on like that, you'll land me in a swamp.
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  Speaker 1: I'm afraid I wasn't talking to you at all, Harry
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  Speaker 1: Kate challenged me to find a place for kelpies and
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  Speaker 1: such like in the theories. She does me the honor
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  Speaker 1: of supposing I cultivate. Then you think, uncle, that all
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  Speaker 1: these stories are only legends, which, if you could follow
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  Speaker 1: them up, would lead you back to some one of
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  Speaker 1: the awful monsters that have since quite disappeared from the Earth.
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  Speaker 1: It is possible those stories may be such legends, but
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  Speaker 1: that was not what I intended to lead you to.
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  Speaker 1: I gave you that only as something like what I
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  Speaker 1: am going to say now? What if? Mind? I only suggested,
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  Speaker 1: What if the direful creatures whose report lingers in these
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  Speaker 1: tales should have an origin far older still? What if
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  Speaker 1: they were the remnants of a vanishing period of the
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  Speaker 1: Earth's history, long andcedent to the birth of Mastodon and
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  Speaker 1: iguanadon a stage, namely, when the world as we call
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  Speaker 1: it had not yet become quite visible, was not yet
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  Speaker 1: so far finished as to part from the invisible world
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  Speaker 1: that was its mother, and which on its part, had
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  Speaker 1: not then become quite invisible, was only almost such, and when,
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  Speaker 1: as a credible consequence, strange shapes of those now invisible regions,
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  Speaker 1: gorgons and chimeras dire might be expected to gloom out
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  Speaker 1: occasionally from the awful fauna of an ever generating world
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  Speaker 1: upon that one which was being born of it. Hence
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  Speaker 1: the life periods of a world being long and slow.
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  Speaker 1: Some of these huge, unformed bulks of half created matter might, somehow,
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  Speaker 1: like the megatherium of later times, a baby creation to
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  Speaker 1: them roll at age long intervals, clothed in a mighty
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  Speaker 1: terror of shapelessness, into the half recognition of human beings,
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  Speaker 1: whose consternation at the uncertain vision were barrier enough to
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  Speaker 1: prevent all further knowledge of its substance. I begin to
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  Speaker 1: have some notion of your meaning, uncle, said Kate. But
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  Speaker 1: then said Janet, all that must be over by this time.
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  Speaker 1: That world has been invisible now for many years, ever
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  Speaker 1: since you were born. I suppose, Janet, the changes of
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  Speaker 1: a world are not to be measured by the changes
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  Speaker 1: of its generations. Oh but uncle, there can't be any
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  Speaker 1: such things. You know that as well as I do, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: just as well, and no better. There can't be any ghosts. Now,
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  Speaker 1: nobody believes such things. Oh as to ghosts, that is
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  Speaker 1: quite another thing. I did not know you were talking
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  Speaker 1: with reference to them. It is no wonder if one
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  Speaker 1: can get nothing sensible out of you, Janet, when your
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  Speaker 1: discrimination is no greater than to lump everything marvel kelpies, ghosts, vampires, doubles, witches, fairies, nightmares,
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  Speaker 1: and I don't know what all under the one head
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  Speaker 1: of ghosts, and we haven't been saying a word about them.
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  Speaker 1: If one were to disprove to you the existence of
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  Speaker 1: the affrits of Eastern tales, you would consider the whole
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  Speaker 1: argument concerning the reappearance of the departed upset. I congratulate
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  Speaker 1: you on your powers of analysis and induction, miss Janet,
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  Speaker 1: But it matters very little whether we believe in ghosts,
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  Speaker 1: as you say or not, provided we believe that we
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  Speaker 1: are ghosts. That within this body, which so many people
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  Speaker 1: are ready to consider their own very selves, there lies
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  Speaker 1: a ghostly embryo, at least which has an inner side
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  Speaker 1: to it. God only can see, which says I concerning itself,
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  Speaker 1: and which will soon have to know whether or not
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  Speaker 1: it can appear to those whom it is left behind,
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  Speaker 1: and thus solve the question of ghosts for itself. At least,
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  Speaker 1: then you do believe in ghosts, uncle, said Janet, in
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  Speaker 1: a tone that was certainly not respectful. Surely I said
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  Speaker 1: nothing of the sort, Janet. The man most convinced that
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  Speaker 1: he had himself had such an interview as you hint at,
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  Speaker 1: would find ought to find it impossible to convince anyone
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  Speaker 1: else of it. You are quite out of my depth, uncle,
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  Speaker 1: said Harry. Surely any honest man ought to be believed.
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  Speaker 1: Honesty is not all by any means that is necessary
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  Speaker 1: to being believed. It is impossible to convey a conviction
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  Speaker 1: of anything. All you can do is to convey a
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  Speaker 1: conviction that you are convinced. Of course, what satisfied you
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  Speaker 1: might satisfy another. But till you can present him with
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  Speaker 1: the sources of your conviction, you cannot present him with
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  Speaker 1: the conviction. And perhaps not even then you can tell
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  Speaker 1: him all about it, can't you? Is telling a man
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  Speaker 1: about a ghost affording him the source of your is
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  Speaker 1: it the same as a ghost appearing to him? Really, Harry,
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  Speaker 1: you cannot even convey the impression a dream is made
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  Speaker 1: upon you. But isn't that just because it is only
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  Speaker 1: a dream, not at all. The impression may be deeper
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  Speaker 1: and clearer on your mind than any fact of the
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  Speaker 1: next morning will make. You will forget the next day altogether,
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  Speaker 1: but the impression of the dream will remain through all
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  Speaker 1: the following whirl and storm of what you call facts. Now,
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  Speaker 1: a conviction may be likened to a deep impression on
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  Speaker 1: the judgment or the reason, or both. No one can
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  Speaker 1: feel it, but the person who is convinced it cannot
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  Speaker 1: be conveyed. I fancy that is just what those who
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  Speaker 1: believe in spirit rapping would say. There are the true
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  Speaker 1: and false of convictions, as of everything else. I mean
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  Speaker 1: that a man may take that for a conviction in
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  Speaker 1: his own mind, which is not a conviction, but only
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  Speaker 1: resembles one. But those to whom you refer profess to
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  Speaker 1: appeal to facts. It is on the ground of those facts,
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  Speaker 1: and of the more earnestness, the more reason they can
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  Speaker 1: give for receiving them as facts, that I refuse all
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  Speaker 1: their deductions with abhorrence. I mean that if what they
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  Speaker 1: say is true, the thinker must reject with contempt the
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  Speaker 1: claim to anything like revelation. Therein, then you do not
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  Speaker 1: believe in ghosts, after all, said Kate, in a tone
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  Speaker 1: of surprise. I did not say so, my dear. Will
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  Speaker 1: you be reasonable or will you not? Dear uncle, do
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  Speaker 1: tell us what you really think. I have been telling
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  Speaker 1: you what I think ever since I came, Katy, and
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  Speaker 1: you won't take in a word I say. I have
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  Speaker 1: been taking in every word, Uncle, and trying hard to
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  Speaker 1: understand it as well. Did you ever see a ghost? Uncle?
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  Speaker 1: Cornelius Heywood was silent. He shut his lips and opened
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  Speaker 1: his jaws till his cheeks almost met in the vacuum.
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  Speaker 1: A strange expression crossed the strange countenance, and the great
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  Speaker 1: eyes of his spectacles looked as if, at the very
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  Speaker 1: moment they were seeing something no other spectacles could see.
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  Speaker 1: Then his jaws closed with a snap, his countenance brightened,
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  Speaker 1: A flash of humor came through the goggle eyes of Pebble,
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  Speaker 1: and at length he actually smiled as he said, Really, Katy,
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  Speaker 1: you must take me for a simpleton. How uncle to
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  Speaker 1: think if I had ever seen a ghost? I would
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  Speaker 1: confess the fact before a set of creatures like you,
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  Speaker 1: all spinning your webs like so many spiders to catch
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  Speaker 1: and devour. Old Daddy long legs By this time Harry
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  Speaker 1: had grown quite grave. Indeed, I am very sorry, uncle,
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  Speaker 1: he said, if I have deserved such a rebuke. No, no,
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  Speaker 1: my boy, said Cornelius. I did not mean it more
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  Speaker 1: than half. If I had meant it, I would not have.
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  Speaker 1: If you really would like here, he paused. Indeed we should, uncle,
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  Speaker 1: said Kate earnestly. You should have heard what we were
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  Speaker 1: saying just before you came in. All you were saying, Katy, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: answered Kate thoughtfully. The worst we said was that you
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  Speaker 1: could not tell a story without well we did say,
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  Speaker 1: tacking a moral to it. Well, well, I mustn't push it.
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  Speaker 1: A man has no right to know what people say
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  Speaker 1: about him. It unfits him for occupying his real position
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  Speaker 1: amongst them. He least of all, has anything to do
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  Speaker 1: with it. If his friends won't defend him, he can't
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  Speaker 1: defend himself. Besides, what people say is so often untrue.
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  Speaker 1: I don't mean to others, but to themselves. Their hearts
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  Speaker 1: are more honest than their mouths. But Janet doesn't want
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  Speaker 1: a strange story. I am sure Janet certainly was not
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  Speaker 1: one to have chosen for a listener to such a tale.
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  Speaker 1: Your eyes were so small that no satisfaction could possibly
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  Speaker 1: come of it. Oh, I don't mind, uncle, she said,
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  Speaker 1: with half affected indifference, as she searched in her box
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  Speaker 1: for silk to mender gloves. You are not very encouraging,
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  Speaker 1: I must say, returned her uncle, making another cowface. I
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  Speaker 1: will go away if you like, said Janet, pretending to rise. No,
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  Speaker 1: never mind, said her uncle hastily. If you don't want
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  Speaker 1: me to tell it, I want you to hear it.
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  Speaker 1: And before I have done that may have come to
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  Speaker 1: the same thing. Perhaps then you really are going to
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  Speaker 1: tell us a ghost story, said Kate, drawing her chair
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  Speaker 1: nearer to her uncle's, and then finding this did not
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  Speaker 1: satisfy her sense of propinquity to the source of the
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  Speaker 1: expected pleasure, drawing a stool from the corner and seating
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  Speaker 1: herself almost on the hearth rug at his knee. I
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  Speaker 1: did not say, so, returned Cornelius. Once more. I said,
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  Speaker 1: I would tell you a strange story. You may call
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  Speaker 1: it a ghost story if you like. I do not
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  Speaker 1: pretend to determine what it is. I confess it will
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  Speaker 1: look like one. Though after so many delays, Uncle Cornelius
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  Speaker 1: now plunged almost hurriedly into his narration in the year
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  Speaker 1: eighteen twenty, he said, in the month of August, I
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  Speaker 1: fell in love. Here the girls glanced at each other.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: The idea of Uncle Corny in love and in the
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: very same century in which they were now listening to
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: the confession was too astonishing to pass without ocular remark.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: But if he observed it, he took no notice of it.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: He did not even pause. In the month of September
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: I was refused. Consequently, in the month of October, I
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: was ready to fall in love again. Take particular care
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: of yourself, Harry, for a whole month, at least after
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: your first disappointment, for you will never be more likely
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: to do a foolish thing. Please yourself after the second.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: If you are silly, then you may take what you get,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: for you will deserve it, except it be good fortune.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Did you do a foolish thing, then, Uncle asked Harry demurely.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: I did, as you will see, for I fell in
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: love again. I don't see anything so very foolish in that.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: I have repented it since, though, don't interrupt me again, please.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: In the middle of October. Then, in the year eighteen twenty,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: in the evening, I was walking across Russell Square on
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: my way home from the British Museum, where I had
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: been reading all day. You see, I have a full
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: intention of being precise, Janet. I'm sure I don't know
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: why you make the remark to me, uncle, said Janet,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: with an involuntary toss of her head. Her uncle only
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: went on with his narrative. I begin at the very
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: beginning of my story, he said, for I want to
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: be particular as to everything that can appear to have
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: had anything to do with what came afterwards. I had
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: been reading, i say, all the morning in the British Museum,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: and as I walked, I took off my spectacles to
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: ease my eyes. I need not tell you that I
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: am short sighted now, for that you know well enough.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: But I must tell you that I was short sighted
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: then and helpless enough without my spectacles, although I was
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: not quite so much so as I am now, For
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: I find it all nonsense about short sighted eyes improving
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: with age. Well, I was walking along the south side
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: of Russell Square with my spectacles in my hand, and
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: feeling a little bewildered in consequence, for it was quite
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: the dusk of evening, and short sighted people require more
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: light than others. I was feeling, in fact, almost blind.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: I had got more than half way to the other side,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: when from the crossing that cuts off the corner in
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: the direction of Montague Place, just as I was about
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: to turn towards it, an old lady stepped upon the
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: curbstone of the pavement, looked at me for a moment,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: and passed an occurrence. Not very remarkable, certainly, but the
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: lady was remarkable, and so was her dress. I am
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: not good at observing, and I am still worse at
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: describing dress. Therefore, I can only say that hers reminded
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: me of an old picture. That is, I had never
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: seen anything like it except in old pictures. She had
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: no bonnet and looked as if she had walked straight
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: out of an ancient drawing room in her evening attire.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Of her face, I shall say nothing now. The next
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: instant I met a man on the crossing who stopped
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: and addressed me. So short sighted was I that although
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: I recognized his voice as one I ought to know,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: I could not identify him until I had put on
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: my spectacles, which I did instinctively in the act of
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: returning his greeting. At the same moment I glanced over
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: my shoulder after the old lady. She was nowhere to
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: be seen. What are you looking at, asked James Heitheridge.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: I was looking after that old lady, I answered, But
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: I can't see her. What old lady? Said Heitheridge, with
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: just a touch of impatience. You must have seen her,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: I returned, You were not more than three yards behind her.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Where is she? Then? She must have gone down one
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: of the areas, I think, But she looked a lady,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: though an old fashioned one. Have you been dining, asked James,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: in a tone of doubtful inquiry. No, I replied, not
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: suspecting the insinuation. I have only just come from the museum.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Then I advise you to call on your medical man
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: before you go home. Medical man, I returned, I have
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: no medical man. What do you mean I never was
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: better in my life. I mean that there was no
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: old lady. It was an illusion, and that indicates something wrong. Besides,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: you did not know me when I spoke to you.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: That is nothing, I returned. I had just taken off
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: my spectacles, and without them, I shouldn't know my own father.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: How was it you saw the old lady? Then? The
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: affair was growing serious under my friend's cross questioning. I
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: did not at all like the idea of his supposing
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: me subject to hallucinations, so I answered with a laugh, Ah,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: to be sure, that explains it. I am so blind
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: without my spectacles that I shouldn't know an old lady
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: from a big dog. There was no big dog, said Heitheridge,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: shaking his head, as the fact for the first time
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: dawned upon me that although I had seen the old
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: lady clearly enough to make a sketch of her, even
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: to the features of her careworn, eager old face, I
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: had not been able to recognize the well known countenance
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: of James Hetheridge. That's what comes of reading till the
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: optic nerve is weakened. He went on, you will cause
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: yourself serious injury if you do not pull up in time.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what I'm going home next week. Will
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: you go with me? You are very kind, I answered,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: not altogether rejecting the proposal, for I felt that a
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: little change to the country would be pleasant, and I
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: was quite my own master, for I had, unfortunately means
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: equal to my wants, and had no occasion to follow
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: any profession, not a very desirable thing for a young man,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: I can tell you, Master Harry, I need not keep
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: you over the commonplaces of pressing and yielding. It is
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: enough to say that he pressed and that I yielded.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: The day was fixed for our departure together, but something
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: or other I forget what occurred to make him advance
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: the date, and it was resolved that I should follow
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: later in the month end of Section nine.