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023 - The Old Squire's Troubles · Wives and Daughters

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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty two of Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell.
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Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter twenty two.
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Speaker 1: The old Squire's troubles affairs were going on worse at
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Speaker 1: the hall than Roger had liked to tell. Moreover, very
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Speaker 1: much of the discomfort there arose from mere manner, as
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Speaker 1: people express it, which is always indescribable and indefinable. Quiet
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Speaker 1: and passive. As Missus Hamley had always been in appearance,
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Speaker 1: she was the ruling spirit of the house as long
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Speaker 1: as she lived. The directions to the servants down to
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Speaker 1: the most minute particulars came from her sitting room or
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Speaker 1: from the sofa on which she lay. Her children always
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Speaker 1: knew where to find her, and to find her was
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Speaker 1: to find love and sympathy. Her husband, who was often
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Speaker 1: restless and angry from one cause or another, always came
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Speaker 1: to her to be smoothed down and put right. He
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Speaker 1: was conscious of her pleasant influence over him, and became
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Speaker 1: at peace with himself when in her presence, just as
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Speaker 1: a child is at ease when with some one who
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Speaker 1: is both firm and gentle. But the keystone of the
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Speaker 1: family arch was gone, and the stones of which it
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Speaker 1: was composed began to fall apart. It is always sad
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Speaker 1: when a sorrow of this kind seems to injure the
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Speaker 1: character of the mourning survivors. Yet perhaps this injury may
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Speaker 1: be only temporary or superficial. The judgments so constantly passed
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Speaker 1: upon the way in which people bear the loss of
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Speaker 1: those whom they have deeply loved appeared to be even
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Speaker 1: more cruel and wrongly meted out than human judgments generally
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Speaker 1: are to careless observers. For instance, it would seem as
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Speaker 1: though the Squire was rendered more capricious and exacting, more
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Speaker 1: passionate and authoritative by his wife's death. The truth was
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Speaker 1: that it occurred at a time when many things came
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Speaker 1: to harass him, and some to bitterly disappoint him.
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Speaker 2: And she was no longer there, to whom he used
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Speaker 2: to carry his sore heart for the gentle balm of
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Speaker 2: her sweet words.
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Speaker 1: So the sore heart ached and smarted intensely, and often.
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Speaker 1: When he saw how his violent conduct affected others, he
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Speaker 1: could have cried out for their pity instead of their
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Speaker 1: anger and resentment.
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Speaker 2: Have mercy upon me, for I am very miserable.
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Speaker 1: How often have such dumb thoughts gone up from the
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Speaker 1: hearts of those who have taken hold of their sorrow
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Speaker 1: by the wrong end, as prayers against sin. And when
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Speaker 1: the Squire saw that his servants were learning to dread him,
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Speaker 1: and his first born to avoid him, he did not
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Speaker 1: blame them. He knew he was becoming a domestic tyrant.
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Speaker 1: It seemed as if all circumstances conspired against him, and
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Speaker 1: as if he was too weak to struggle with them.
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Speaker 1: Elsewhy did everything indoors and out of doors go so
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Speaker 1: wrong just now? When all he could have done, had
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Speaker 1: things been prosperous, was to have submitted in very imperfect
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Speaker 1: patience to the loss of his wife. But just when
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Speaker 1: he needed ready money to pacify Osborne's creditors, the harvest
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Speaker 1: had turned out remarkably plentiful, and the price of corn
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Speaker 1: had sunk down to a level it had not touched
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Speaker 1: for years. The squire had insured his life at the
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Speaker 1: time of his marriage for a pretty large sum. It
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Speaker 1: was to be a provision for his wife if she
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Speaker 1: survived him, and for their younger children. Roger was the
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Speaker 1: only representative of those interests now, But the Squire was
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Speaker 1: unwilling to lose the insurance by ceasing to pay the
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Speaker 1: annual sum. He would not if he could have sold
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Speaker 1: any part of the estate which he had inherited from
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Speaker 1: his father, and besides it was strictly entailed. He had
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Speaker 1: sometimes thought how wise a step it would have been.
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Speaker 1: Could he have sold a portion of it, and with
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Speaker 1: the purchase money have drained and reclaimed the remainder, and
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Speaker 1: at length learning from some neighbor that the government would
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Speaker 1: make certain advances for drainage, et cetera, at a very
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Speaker 1: low rate of interest, on condition that the work was
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Speaker 1: done and the money repaid within a given time. His
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Speaker 1: wife had urged him to take advantage of the profit loan,
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Speaker 1: but now that she was no longer there to encourage
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Speaker 1: him and take an interest in the progress of the work,
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Speaker 1: he grew indifferent to it himself, and cared no more
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Speaker 1: to go out on his stout rown cob and sit
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Speaker 1: square on his seat, watching the laborers on the marshy land,
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Speaker 1: all overgrown with rushes, speaking to them from time to
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Speaker 1: time in their own strong, nervous country dialect. But the
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Speaker 1: interest to the government had to be paid all the same,
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Speaker 1: whether the men worked well or ill. Then the roof
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Speaker 1: of the hall let in the melted snow water this winter,
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Speaker 1: and on examination it turned out that a new roof
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Speaker 1: was absolutely required. The men who had come about the
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Speaker 1: advances made to Osborne by the London money lender had
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Speaker 1: spoken disparagingly of the timber on the estate.
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Speaker 3: Very fine trees sound perhaps two fifty years ago, but
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Speaker 3: gone to rot now, had wanted lopping and clearing. Was
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Speaker 3: there no wood ranger or forester. There were nothing like
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Speaker 3: the value young mister Hamley had presented them to be.
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Speaker 1: The remarks had come round to the Squire's ears. He
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Speaker 1: loved the trees he had played under as a boy,
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Speaker 1: as if there were living creatures. That was on the
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Speaker 1: romantic side of his nature, merely looking at them as
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Speaker 1: representing so many pounds sterling. He had esteemed them highly,
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Speaker 1: and had had until now no opinion of another by
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Speaker 1: which to correct his own judgment. So these words of
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Speaker 1: the valuers cut him sharp, although he affected to disbelieve them,
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Speaker 1: and tried to persuade himself that he did so. But
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Speaker 1: after all these cares and disappointments did not touch the
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Speaker 1: root of his deep resentment against Osborne. There is nothing
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Speaker 1: like wounded affection for giving poignancy to anger, and the
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Speaker 1: squire believed that Osborne and his advisers had been making
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Speaker 1: calculations based upon his own death. He hated the idea
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Speaker 1: so much it made him so miserable that he would
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Speaker 1: not face it and define it, and meet it with
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Speaker 1: full inquiry and investigation. He chose rather to cherish the
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Speaker 1: morbid fancy that he was useless in this world, born
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Speaker 1: under an unlucky star, that all things went badly under
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Speaker 1: his management, but he did not become humble. In consequence.
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Speaker 1: He put his misfortunes down to the score of fate,
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Speaker 1: not to his own, and he imagined that Osborne saw
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Speaker 1: his failures, and that his first born grudged him his
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Speaker 1: natural term of life. All these fancies would have been
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Speaker 1: set to rights, could he have talked them over with
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Speaker 1: his wife, or even had he been accustomed to mingle
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Speaker 1: much in the society of those whom he esteemed his equals.
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Speaker 1: But as has been stated, he was inferior in education
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Speaker 1: to those who should have been his mates. And perhaps
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Speaker 1: the jealousy and morvaisant that this inferiority had called out
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Speaker 1: long ago extended itself in some measure to the feelings
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Speaker 1: he entertained towards his sons, less to Roger than to Osborne,
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Speaker 1: though the former was turning out by far the most
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Speaker 1: distinguished man. But Roger was practical interested in all out
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Speaker 1: of doors things, and he enjoyed the details homely enough
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Speaker 1: which his father sometimes gave him of the everyday occurrences
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Speaker 1: which the latter had noticed in the woods and the fields. Osborne,
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Speaker 1: on the contrary, was what was commonly called fine, delicate,
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Speaker 1: almost to effeman in dress and manner, careful in small observances.
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Speaker 1: All this his father had been rather proud of in
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Speaker 1: the days when he looked forward to a brilliant career
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Speaker 1: at Cambridge for his son. He had at that time
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Speaker 1: regarded Osborne's fastidiousness and elegance as another stepping stone to
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Speaker 1: the high and prosperous marriage which was to restore the
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Speaker 1: ancient fortunes of the Hamley family. But now that Osborne
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Speaker 1: had barely obtained his degree, that all the boastings of
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Speaker 1: his father had proved vain, that the fastidiousness had led
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Speaker 1: to unexpected expenses. To attribute the most innocent cause to
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Speaker 1: Osborne's debts, the poor young man's ways and manners became
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Speaker 1: a subject of irritation to his father. Osborne was still
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Speaker 1: occupied with his books and his writings when he was
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Speaker 1: at home, and this mode of passing the greater part
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Speaker 1: of the day gave him but few subjects in common
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Speaker 1: with his father when they did meet at meal times
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Speaker 1: or in the evenings. Perhaps if Osborne had been able
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Speaker 1: to have more out of door amusements it would have
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Speaker 1: been better. But he was short sighted and cared little
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Speaker 1: for the carefully observant pursuits of his brother. He knew
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Speaker 1: but few young men of his own standing in the county.
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Speaker 1: His hunting, even of which he was passionately fond, had
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Speaker 1: been curtailed this season, as his father had disposed of
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Speaker 1: one of the two hunters he had hitherto been allowed.
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Speaker 1: The whole stable establishment had been reduced, perhaps because it
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Speaker 1: was the economy which told most on the enjoyment of
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Speaker 1: both the Squire and Osborne, and which therefore the former
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Speaker 1: took a savage pleasure in enforcing the old carriage. A
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Speaker 1: heavy family coach bought in the days of comparative prosperity,
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Speaker 1: was no longer needed after Madam's death, and fell to
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Speaker 1: pieces in the cobwebbed seclusion of the coach house. The
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Speaker 1: best of the two carriage horses was taken for a gig,
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Speaker 1: which the Squire now set up, saying many a time
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Speaker 1: to all who might care to listen to him that
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Speaker 1: it was the first time for generations that the Hamleys
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Speaker 1: of Hamley had not been able to keep their own coach.
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Speaker 1: The other carriage horse was turned out to grass, being
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Speaker 1: too old for regular work. Conqueror used to come whinnying
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Speaker 1: up to the park palings whenever he saw the Squire,
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Speaker 1: who had always a piece of bread or some sugar
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Speaker 1: or an apple for the old favorite, and would make
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Speaker 1: many a complaining speech to the dumb animal, telling him
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Speaker 1: of the change of times, since both were in their prime.
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Speaker 1: It had never been the squire's custom to encourage his
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Speaker 1: boys to invite their friends to the hall. Perhaps this too,
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Speaker 1: was owing to his morvais aunt, and was also an
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Speaker 1: exaggerated consciousness of the deficiencies of his establishment as compared
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Speaker 1: with what he imagined these lads were accustomed to at home.
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Speaker 1: He explained this once or twice to Osborne and Roger
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Speaker 1: when they were at Rugby.
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Speaker 2: You see, all you public schoolboys have a kind of
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Speaker 2: free masonry of your own, and outsiders are looked on
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Speaker 2: by you, much as I look on rabbits, and all
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Speaker 2: that isn't game. I you may laugh, but it is so,
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Speaker 2: and your friends will throw their eyes askance at me,
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Speaker 2: and never think on my ped which would be to
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Speaker 2: their result too cheverse. I'll be bound. No, I'll have
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Speaker 2: no one here at the hall who will look down
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Speaker 2: on a Hamley of Hamley, even if he only knows
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Speaker 2: how to make a cross instead of writer's name.
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Speaker 1: Then of course they must not visit at houses to
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Speaker 1: whose sons the Squire could not or would not return
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Speaker 1: a like hospitality. On all these points, Missus Hamley had
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Speaker 1: used her utmost influence without avail. His prejudices were immovable
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Speaker 1: as regarded his position as head of the oldest family
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Speaker 1: in three counties. His pride was invincible. As regarded himself personally,
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Speaker 1: ill at ease in the society of his equals, deficient
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Speaker 1: in manners and in education, his morbid sensitiveness was too
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Speaker 1: sore and too self conscious to be called humility. Take
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Speaker 1: one instance from among many similar scenes of the state
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Speaker 1: of feeling between him and his eldest son, which, if
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Speaker 1: it could not be called active discord, showed at least
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Speaker 1: passive a strange. It took place on an evening in
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Speaker 1: the March succeeding missus Hamley's death. Roger was at Cambridge.
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Speaker 1: Osborne had also been from home, and he had not
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Speaker 1: volunteered any information as to his absence. The squire believed
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Speaker 1: that Osborne had been either at Cambridge with his brother
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Speaker 1: or in London. He would have liked to hear where
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Speaker 1: his son had been, what he had been doing, and
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Speaker 1: whom he had seen, purely as pieces of news and
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Speaker 1: as some diversion from the domestic worries and cares which
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Speaker 1: were pressing him hard. But he was too proud to
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Speaker 1: ask any questions, and Osborne had not given him any
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Speaker 1: details of his journey. This silence had aggravated the squire's
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Speaker 1: internal dissatisfaction, and he came home to dinner, weary and
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Speaker 1: sore hearted. A day or two after Osborne's return. It
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Speaker 1: was just six o'clock and he went hastily into his
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Speaker 1: own little business room on the ground floor, and after
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Speaker 1: washing his hands, came into the drawing room, feeling as
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Speaker 1: if he were very late, but the room was empty.
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Speaker 1: He glanced at the clock over the mantel piece as
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Speaker 1: he tried to warm his hands at the fire. The
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Speaker 1: fire had been neglected and had gone out during the day.
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Speaker 1: It was now piled up with half dried wood, which
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Speaker 1: sputtered and smoked instead of doing its duty in blazing
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Speaker 1: and warming the room, through which the keen wind was
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Speaker 1: cutting its way in all directions. The clock had stopped.
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Speaker 1: No one had remembered to wind it up, but by
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Speaker 1: the squire's watch it was already past dinner time. The
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Speaker 1: old butler put his head into the room, but seeing
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Speaker 1: the squire alone, he was about to draw it back
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Speaker 1: and wait for mister Osborne before announcing dinner. He had
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Speaker 1: hoped to do this unperceived, but the squire caught him
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Speaker 1: in the act.
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Speaker 2: Why isn't dinner ready.
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Speaker 1: He called out sharply, it's.
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Speaker 2: Ten minutes past six, and pray, why are you using
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Speaker 2: this wood? It's impossible to get oneself warm by such
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Speaker 2: a fire as this.
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Speaker 4: I believe, sir, that Thomas.
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Speaker 2: Don't talk to me. Of Thomas sending dinner directly.
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Speaker 1: About five minutes elapsed, spent by the hungry squire in
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Speaker 1: all sorts of impatient ways, attacking Thomas, who came in
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Speaker 1: to look after the fire, knocking the logs about scattering
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Speaker 1: out sparks, but considerably lessening the chances of warmth touching
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Speaker 1: up the candles, which appeared to him to give a
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Speaker 1: light unusually insufficient for the large cold room. While he
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Speaker 1: was doing this, Osborne came in dressed in full evening dress.
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Speaker 1: He always moved slowly, and this, to begin with irritated
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Speaker 1: the squire. Then an uncomfortable consciousness of a black coat,
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Speaker 1: drab trousers, checked cotton cravat, and splashed boots forced itself
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Speaker 1: upon him as he saw Osborne's point device costume. He
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Speaker 1: chose to consider it affectation and finery in Osborne, and
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Speaker 1: was on the point of bursting out with some remark
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Speaker 1: when the butler, who had watched Osborne downstairs before making
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Speaker 1: the announcement, came in to say dinner was ready.
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Speaker 5: It surely isn't six o'clock.
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Speaker 1: Said Osborne, pulling out his dainty little watch. He was
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Speaker 1: scarcely more unaware than it of the storm that was brewing.
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Speaker 2: Six o'clock. It's more than a quarter.
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Speaker 1: Past, growled out his father.
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Speaker 5: I fancy your watch must be wrong, sir. I set
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Speaker 5: mine by the horse guards only two days ago.
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Speaker 1: Now impugning that old steady turnip shaped watch of the
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Speaker 1: squire's was one of the insults which, as it could
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Speaker 1: not reasonably be resented, was not to be.
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Speaker 2: Forgiven that watch had been given him by his father,
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Speaker 2: when watches were watches long ago. It had given the
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Speaker 2: law to house clocks, stable clock's, kitchen clocks, nay even
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Speaker 2: to Hamley Church clock in its day. And was it now,
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Speaker 2: in its respectable old age to be looked down upon
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Speaker 2: by a little whipper snapper of a French watch which
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Speaker 2: could go into a man's waistcoat pocket instead of having
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Speaker 2: to be extricated with due effort, like a respectable watch
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Speaker 2: of size and position, from a fob in the waistband. No,
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Speaker 2: not if there were if her snapper were backed by
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Speaker 2: all the horse guards that ever were with the lifeguards
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Speaker 2: to boot.
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Speaker 1: Poor Osborne might have known better than to cast this
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Speaker 1: slur on his father's flesh and blood, For so dear
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Speaker 1: did he hold his watch.
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Speaker 2: My watch is like myself.
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Speaker 1: Said the squire, gurning, as the Scotch say.
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Speaker 2: Plain but steady going at any rate, it gives the
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Speaker 2: law in my house. The king may go by the
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Speaker 2: horse guards if he likes.
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Speaker 5: I beg your pardon Sir.
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Speaker 1: Said Osborne, really anxious to keep the peace.
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Speaker 5: I went by my watch, which is certainly right by
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Speaker 5: London time. I'd no idea you were waiting for me.
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Speaker 5: Otherwise I should have dressed much quicker.
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Speaker 1: I should think, so, said the squire, looking sarcastically at
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Speaker 1: his son's attire.
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Speaker 2: When I was a young man, I should have been
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Speaker 2: ashamed to have spent as much time at my looking
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Speaker 2: glass as if i'd been a girl. I could make
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Speaker 2: myself as smart as any one when I was going
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Speaker 2: to a dance or to a part where I was
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Speaker 2: likely to meet pretty girls. But I should have laughed
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Speaker 2: myself to scorn if I'd stood fiddle faddling at a glass,
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Speaker 2: smirking at my own likeness, for all my own pleasure.
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Speaker 1: Osborne reddened and was on the point of letting fly
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Speaker 1: some caustic remark on his father's dress at the present moment,
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Speaker 1: but he contented himself with saying, in a low voice.
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Speaker 5: My mother always expected us all to dress for dinner.
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Speaker 5: I got into the habit of doing it to please her,
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Speaker 5: and I keep it up now.
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Speaker 1: Indeed, he had a certain kind of feeling of loyalty
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Speaker 1: to her memory in keeping up all the little domestic
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Speaker 1: habits and customs she had instituted or preferred. But the contrast,
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Speaker 1: which the Squire thought was implied by Osborne's remark put
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Speaker 1: him beside himself.
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Speaker 2: And I too try to attend to her wishes. I do,
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Speaker 2: and in more important things I did when she was alive,
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Speaker 2: and I do so now.
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Speaker 1: I never said you did, not, said Osborne, astonished at
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Speaker 1: his father's path words and manner.
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Speaker 2: Yes you did, sir, you meant it. I could see
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Speaker 2: by your looks. I saw you look at my morning cold.
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Speaker 2: At any rate, I never neglected any wish of hers
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Speaker 2: in her lifetime. If she wished me to go to
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Speaker 2: school again and then my A B C. I would
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Speaker 2: by I would, And I wouldn't have gone playing me
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Speaker 2: and lounging away my time for fear of vexing and
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Speaker 2: disappointing her. Yet some folks older than schoolboys.
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Speaker 1: The Squire choked here, But though the words would not come,
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Speaker 1: his passion did not diminish.
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Speaker 2: IW not have you casting up your mother's wishes to me, sir,
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Speaker 2: you who went near to break her heart?
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Speaker 1: At last, Osborne was strongly tempted to get up and
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Speaker 1: leave the room. Perhaps it would have been better if
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Speaker 1: he had, it might then have brought about an explanation
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Speaker 1: and a reconciliation between father and son. But he thought
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Speaker 1: he did well in sitting still and appearing to take
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Speaker 1: no notice. This indifference to what he was saying appeared
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Speaker 1: to annoy the squire still more, and he kept on
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Speaker 1: grumbling and talking to himself till Osborne, unable to bear
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Speaker 1: it any longer, said, very quietly, but very bitterly.
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Speaker 5: I am only a cause of irritation to you. And
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Speaker 5: home is no longer home to me, but a place
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Speaker 5: in which I am to be controlled in trifles and
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Speaker 5: scolded about trifles as if I were a child. Put
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Speaker 5: me in a way of making a living for myself.
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Speaker 5: That much your oldest son has the right to ask
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Speaker 5: of you, I will then leave this house, and you
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Speaker 5: shall no longer be vexed by my dress or my
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Speaker 5: want of punctuality.
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Speaker 2: You make your request pretty much as another son did
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Speaker 2: long ago. Give me the portion that farlest to me.
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Speaker 2: But I don't think what he did with his money
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Speaker 2: is much encouragement for me too.
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Speaker 1: Then the thought of how little he could give his
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Speaker 1: son his portion, or any part of it, stopped the squire.
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Speaker 1: Osborne took up the speech.
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Speaker 5: And as ready as any to earn my living. Only
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Speaker 5: the preparation for any profession will cost money. Money I
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Speaker 5: haven't got.
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Speaker 1: No more, have I, said the squire shortly. What is
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Speaker 1: to be done, then, said Osborne, only half believing his
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Speaker 1: father's words.
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Speaker 2: Why you must learn to stop at home and not
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Speaker 2: take expensive journeys, and you must reduce your tailor's bill.
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Speaker 2: I don't ask you to help me in the management
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Speaker 2: of the land. You're far too fine a gentleman for that.
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Speaker 2: But if you can't earn money, at least you needn't
19:34
Speaker 2: spend it.
19:35
Speaker 1: Told you, I'm willing enough to earn money, cried Osborne
19:38
Speaker 1: passionately at last.
19:40
Speaker 5: But how am I to do it? You really are
19:42
Speaker 5: very unreasonable, sir.
19:43
Speaker 1: Am, I said the squire, cooling in manner, though not
19:47
Speaker 1: in temper, as Osborne grew warm.
19:49
Speaker 2: But I don't set up for being reasonable. Men who
19:53
Speaker 2: have to pay away money that they haven't got for
19:57
Speaker 2: their extravagant sons aren't likely to be reasonable. There's two
20:01
Speaker 2: things that you've gone and done which put me beside
20:04
Speaker 2: myself when I think of them. You've turned out next
20:09
Speaker 2: door to a dunce at college, when your poor mother
20:13
Speaker 2: thought so much of you, and when you might have
20:16
Speaker 2: pleased and gratified her. So if you chose and well,
20:23
Speaker 2: I won't say what the other thing is.
20:25
Speaker 1: Tell me, sir, said Osborne, almost breathless with the idea
20:30
Speaker 1: that his father had discovered his secret marriage. But the
20:33
Speaker 1: father was thinking of the money lenders who were calculating
20:36
Speaker 1: how soon Osborne would come into the estate.
20:38
Speaker 2: No, said the Squire, I know what I know, and
20:42
Speaker 2: I'm not going to tell you how I know it.
20:46
Speaker 2: Only I'll just say this. Your friends no more know
20:49
Speaker 2: a piece of good timber when they see it than you,
20:52
Speaker 2: or I know how you could earn five pounds if
20:56
Speaker 2: it was to keep you from starving. Now there's Roger
21:00
Speaker 2: We none of us made an adieu about him, but
21:03
Speaker 2: he'll have his fellowship. Now I'll warrant him and be
21:08
Speaker 2: a bishop or a chancellor or something before we've found
21:11
Speaker 2: out he's clever. We've been so much taken up by
21:15
Speaker 2: thinking about you. I don't know what's come over me
21:18
Speaker 2: to speak of we we in this way.
21:22
Speaker 1: Said he, suddenly, dropping his voice a change of tone
21:25
Speaker 1: as sad as sad could be.
21:27
Speaker 2: I ought to say I, it will be I for
21:31
Speaker 2: evermore in this world.
21:33
Speaker 1: He got up and left the room in quick haste,
21:35
Speaker 1: knocking over his chair and not stopping to pick it up. Osborne,
21:38
Speaker 1: who was sitting and shading his eyes with his hand
21:41
Speaker 1: as he had been doing for some time, looked up
21:43
Speaker 1: at the noise, and then rose as quickly and hurried
21:46
Speaker 1: after his father, only in time to hear the study
21:49
Speaker 1: door locked on the inside. The moment he reached it.
21:51
Speaker 1: Osborne returned into the dining room chagrined and sorrowful, but
21:55
Speaker 1: he was always sensitive to any omission from the usual
21:58
Speaker 1: observances which might excite him, and even with his heavy heart,
22:02
Speaker 1: he was careful to pick up the fallen chair and
22:04
Speaker 1: restore it to its place near the bottom of the table,
22:07
Speaker 1: and afterwards so to disturb the dishes as to make
22:10
Speaker 1: it appear that they had been touched. Before ringing for Robinson.
22:14
Speaker 1: When the latter came in, followed by Thomas, Osborne thought
22:17
Speaker 1: it necessary to say to him that his father was
22:19
Speaker 1: not well and had gone into the study, and that
22:22
Speaker 1: he himself wanted no dessert, but would have a cup
22:24
Speaker 1: of coffee in the drawing room. The old butler sent
22:27
Speaker 1: Thomas out of the room and came up confidentially to Osborne.
22:31
Speaker 4: I thought Master wasn't justly himself, mister Osbourne, before dinner,
22:36
Speaker 4: and therefore I made excuses for him. I did. He
22:39
Speaker 4: spoke to Thomas about the fire, Sir, which is a
22:42
Speaker 4: thing I could in no wise put up with, unless
22:44
Speaker 4: by reason of sickness, which I am always ready to
22:47
Speaker 4: make allowances for.
22:49
Speaker 5: Why shouldn't my father speak to Thomas, said Osborne. But
22:53
Speaker 5: perhaps he spoke angrily, I dare say, for I'm sure
22:55
Speaker 5: he's not well.
22:56
Speaker 4: No, mister Osborne, it wasn't that. I myself. I'm given
23:00
Speaker 4: to anger, and I'm blessed with as good health as
23:03
Speaker 4: any man in my years. Besides, anger's a good thing
23:07
Speaker 4: for Thomas. He needs a deal of it. But it
23:10
Speaker 4: should come from the right quarter, and that is me myself,
23:14
Speaker 4: mister Osborne. I know my place, and I know my
23:18
Speaker 4: rights and duties as well as any butler that lives.
23:22
Speaker 4: And it's my duty to schoold Thomas, and not Master's.
23:26
Speaker 4: Master ought to have said Robinson, you must speak to
23:30
Speaker 4: Thomas about letting out the fire, and I'd have given
23:33
Speaker 4: it him well as I shall do now for that matter.
23:37
Speaker 4: But as I said before, I make excuses for Master
23:40
Speaker 4: as being in mental distress and bodily ill health. So
23:44
Speaker 4: I've brought myself round not to give warning, as I
23:48
Speaker 4: should have done for certain under happier circumstances.
23:51
Speaker 5: Really, Robinson, I think it's all great nonsense.
23:54
Speaker 1: Said Osborne, weary of the long story the butler had
23:57
Speaker 1: told him, and to which he had not half attended.
24:00
Speaker 5: What in the world does it signify whether my father
24:02
Speaker 5: speaks to you or to Thomas bringing coffee in the
24:04
Speaker 5: drawing room. And don't trouble your head any more about
24:06
Speaker 5: scolding Thomas.
24:07
Speaker 1: Robinson went away, offended at his grievance being called nonsense.
24:11
Speaker 1: He kept muttering to himself in the intervals of scolding
24:14
Speaker 1: Thomas and.
24:14
Speaker 4: Saying things, has a deal changed since poor missus Wynt.
24:18
Speaker 4: I don't wonder a master feels it, for I'm sure
24:21
Speaker 4: I do. She was a lady who had always a
24:24
Speaker 4: becoming respect for a butler's position, and could have understood
24:28
Speaker 4: how he might be heard in his mind. She'd now
24:31
Speaker 4: called his delicacies of feelings nonsense. Not she no more
24:37
Speaker 4: would mister Roger. He's a merry young gentleman, and over
24:41
Speaker 4: fond of bringing dirty, slimy creatures into the house. But
24:44
Speaker 4: he's always a kind word for a man who has
24:47
Speaker 4: heard in his mind. He'd cheer up the squire and
24:50
Speaker 4: keep him from getting so cross and wilful. I wish
24:54
Speaker 4: mister Roger was here. I do the.
24:56
Speaker 1: Poor squire shut up with his grief and his ill
24:59
Speaker 1: temper as well. In the dingy, dreary study, where he
25:02
Speaker 1: daily spent more and more of his indoors life, turned
25:05
Speaker 1: over his cares and troubles, till he was as bewildered
25:08
Speaker 1: with the process as a squirrel must be in going
25:10
Speaker 1: round in a cage. He had out day books and ledges,
25:14
Speaker 1: and was calculating up back rents, and every time the
25:17
Speaker 1: sum totals came to different amounts, he could have cried
25:21
Speaker 1: like a child over his sums. He was worn out
25:24
Speaker 1: and weary, angry and disappointed. He closed his books at
25:28
Speaker 1: last with a bang.
25:29
Speaker 2: I'm getting old, he said, and my head less clear
25:34
Speaker 2: than it used to be. I think sorrow for her
25:38
Speaker 2: has dazed me. I never was much to boast on,
25:42
Speaker 2: but she thought a deal of me. Bless sir. She
25:47
Speaker 2: never let me call myself stupid. But for all that
25:52
Speaker 2: I am stupid. Osborne not to help me. He's had
25:58
Speaker 2: money enough spent on his life, but instead he comes
26:02
Speaker 2: down dressed like a popinjay and never troubles his head
26:07
Speaker 2: to think how I'm to pay his debts. I wish
26:10
Speaker 2: I'd told him to earn his living as a dancing master.
26:14
Speaker 1: Said the squire, with a sad smile at his own wit. M.
26:18
Speaker 2: He's stressed for all the world, like one. And how
26:22
Speaker 2: he spent the money, no one knows. Perhaps Roger will
26:26
Speaker 2: turn up some day with a heap of creditors at
26:28
Speaker 2: his heels. No, he won't, not Roger. He may be slow,
26:35
Speaker 2: but he's steady. It's old Roger. I wish he was here.
26:41
Speaker 2: He's not the eldest son, but he'd take an interest
26:45
Speaker 2: in the estate, and he'd do up these weary accounts
26:49
Speaker 2: for me. I wish Roger were here.
26:53
Speaker 1: End of Chapter twenty two.