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041 - The Journey's End · North and South

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  Speaker 1: Chapter forty one of North and South. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by le Anne Howlett. North and South by Elizabeth
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  Speaker 1: Cleghorn Gaskell, Chapter forty one, The Journey's End. I see
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  Speaker 1: my way as birds their trackless way. I shall arrive.
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  Speaker 1: What time? What circuit first? I ask not? But unless
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  Speaker 1: God sent his hail or blinding fireballs, sleet, or stifling
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  Speaker 1: snow in some time his good time, I shall arrive.
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  Speaker 1: He guides me and the bird in his good time
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  Speaker 1: Browning's Paracelsus. So the winter was getting on, and the
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  Speaker 1: days were beginning to lengthen, without bringing with them any
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  Speaker 1: of the brightness of hope which usually accompanies the rays
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  Speaker 1: of a February sun. Missus Thornton had, of course entirely
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  Speaker 1: ceased to come to the house. Mister Thornton came occasionally,
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  Speaker 1: but his visits were addressed to her father and were
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  Speaker 1: confined to the study. Mister Hale spoke of him as
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  Speaker 1: always the same. Indeed, the very rarity of their intercourse
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  Speaker 1: seemed to make mister Hale set only the higher value
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  Speaker 1: on it, and from what Margaret could gather of what
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  Speaker 1: mister Thornton had said, there was nothing in the cessation
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  Speaker 1: of his visits which could arise from any umbrage or vexation.
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  Speaker 1: His business affairs had become complicated during the strike and
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  Speaker 1: required closer attention than he had given to them last winter. Nay,
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  Speaker 1: Margaret could even discover that he spoke from time to
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  Speaker 1: time of her, and always, as far as she could learn,
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  Speaker 1: in the same calm, friendly way, never avoiding and never
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  Speaker 1: seeking any mention of her name. She was not in
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  Speaker 1: spirit to raise her father's tone of mind. The dreary
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  Speaker 1: peacefulness of the present time had been preceded by so
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  Speaker 1: long a period of anxiety and care, even intermixed with storms,
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  Speaker 1: that her mind had lost its elasticity. She tried to
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  Speaker 1: find her self occupation in teaching the two younger Boucher children,
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  Speaker 1: and worked hard at goodness, hard, I say most truly,
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  Speaker 1: for her heart seemed dead to the end of all
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  Speaker 1: her efforts, and though she made them punctually and painfully,
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  Speaker 1: yet she stood as far off as ever from any cheerfulness.
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  Speaker 1: Her life seemed still bleak and dreary. The only thing
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  Speaker 1: she did well was what she did out of unconscious piety.
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  Speaker 1: The silent comforting and consoling of her father, not a
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  Speaker 1: mood of his, but what found a ready sympathizer in Margaret,
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  Speaker 1: not a wish of his that she did not strive
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  Speaker 1: to forecast and to fulfill. They were quiet wishes, to
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  Speaker 1: be sure, and hardly named without hesitation and apology. All
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  Speaker 1: the more complete and beautiful was her meek spirit of obedience.
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  Speaker 1: March brought the news of Frederick's marriage. He and Dolores wrote,
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  Speaker 1: she in Spanish English, as was but natural, and he
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  Speaker 1: with little turns and inversions of words, which proved how
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  Speaker 1: far the idioms of his bride's country were infecting him.
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  Speaker 1: On the receipt of Henry Lennox's letter announcing how little
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  Speaker 1: hope there was of his ever clearing himself at a
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  Speaker 1: court martial in the absence of the missing witnesses, Frederick
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  Speaker 1: had written to Margaret a pretty vehement letter containing his
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  Speaker 1: renunciation of England as his country. He wished he could
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  Speaker 1: unnative himself, and declared that he would not take his
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  Speaker 1: pardon if it were offered him, nor live in the
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  Speaker 1: country if he had permission to do so, all of
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  Speaker 1: which made Margaret cry sorely. So unnatural did it seem
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  Speaker 1: to her at the first opening, But on consideration, she
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  Speaker 1: saw rather in such expression the poignancy of the disappointment
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  Speaker 1: which had thus crushed his hopes, and she felt that
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  Speaker 1: there was nothing for it but patience. In the next letter,
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  Speaker 1: Frederick spoke so joyfully the future that he had no
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  Speaker 1: thought for the past, and Margaret found a use in
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  Speaker 1: herself for the patience she had been craving for him.
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  Speaker 1: She would have to be patient. But the pretty, timid,
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  Speaker 1: girlish letters of Dolores were beginning to have a charm
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  Speaker 1: for both Margaret and her father. The young spaniard was
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  Speaker 1: so evidently anxious to make a favorable impression upon her
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  Speaker 1: lover's English relations that her feminine care peeped out at
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  Speaker 1: every erasure, and the letters announcing the marriage were accompanied
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  Speaker 1: by a splendid black lace mantilla, chosen by Dolores herself
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  Speaker 1: for her unseen sister in law, whom Frederick had represented
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  Speaker 1: as a paragon of beauty, wisdom, and virtue. Frederick's worldly
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  Speaker 1: position was raised by this marriage on to as high
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  Speaker 1: a level as they could desire. Barbar and company was
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  Speaker 1: one of the most extensive Spanish houses, and into it
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  Speaker 1: he was received as a junior partner. Margaret smiled a
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  Speaker 1: little and then sighed as she remembered afresh her old
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  Speaker 1: trades against trade. Here was her preux chevalier of a
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  Speaker 1: brother turned merchant trader. But then she rebelled against herself
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  Speaker 1: and protested silently against the confusion implied between a Spanish
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  Speaker 1: merchant and a Milton mill owner. Well trade or no trade.
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  Speaker 1: Frederick was very very happy. Dolores must be charming, and
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  Speaker 1: the mantella was exquisite, and then she returned to the
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  Speaker 1: present life. Her father had occasionally experienced a difficulty in
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  Speaker 1: breathing this spring, which had for the time distressed him exceedingly.
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  Speaker 1: Margaret was less alarmed as his difficulty went off completely
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  Speaker 1: in the intervals, but she still was so desirous of
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  Speaker 1: his shaking off the liability altogether as to make her
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  Speaker 1: very urgent that he should accept mister Bell's invitation to
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  Speaker 1: visit him at Oxford this April. Mister Bell's invitation included
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  Speaker 1: Margaret nay More. He wrote a special letter commanding her
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  Speaker 1: to come, but she felt as if it would be
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  Speaker 1: a greater relief to her to remain quietly at home,
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  Speaker 1: entirely free from any responsibility whatever, and so to rest
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  Speaker 1: her her mind and heart and a manner which she
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  Speaker 1: had not been able to do for more than two
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  Speaker 1: years past. When her father had driven off on his
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  Speaker 1: way to the railroad, Margaret felt how great and long
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  Speaker 1: had been the pressure on her time and her spirits.
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  Speaker 1: It was astonishing, almost stunning, to feel herself so much
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  Speaker 1: at liberty, no one depending on her for sharing care,
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  Speaker 1: if not for positive happiness, no invalid to plan and
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  Speaker 1: think for, she might be idle and silent and forgetful.
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  Speaker 1: And what seemed worth more than all the other privileges,
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  Speaker 1: she might be unhappy if she liked. For months past,
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  Speaker 1: all her own personal cares and troubles had had to
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  Speaker 1: be stuffed away into a dark cupboard. But now she
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  Speaker 1: had leisure to take them out and mourn over them,
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  Speaker 1: and study their nature and seek the true method of
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  Speaker 1: subduing them into the elements of peace. All these weeks
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  Speaker 1: she had been conscious of their existence in a dull
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  Speaker 1: kind of way, though they were hidden out of sight.
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  Speaker 1: Now once for all, she would consider them, and a
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  Speaker 1: point to each of them its right work in her life.
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  Speaker 1: So she sat almost motionless for hours in the drawing room,
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  Speaker 1: going over the bitterness of every remembrance with an unwincing resolution.
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  Speaker 1: Only once she cried aloud at the stinging thought of
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  Speaker 1: the faithlessness which gave birth to that abasing falsehood. She
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  Speaker 1: now would not even acknowledge the force of the temptation.
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  Speaker 1: Her plans for Frederick had all failed, and the temptation
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  Speaker 1: lay there a dead mockery, a mockery which had never
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  Speaker 1: had life in it. The lie had been so despicably foolish,
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  Speaker 1: seen by the light of the ensuing events, and faith
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  Speaker 1: in the power of truth so infinitely the greater wisdom.
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  Speaker 1: In her nervous agitation, she unconsciously opened a book of
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  Speaker 1: her father's that lay upon the table. The words that
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  Speaker 1: caught her eye in it seemed almost made for her
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  Speaker 1: present state of acute self abasement.
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  Speaker 2: Revomquere, said dessaert marda aunt avald apudint tretrie deloya, la
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  Speaker 2: tontiu a some bla blochos major voudrella parvos de compassion
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  Speaker 2: austu monpor RecA nuvola torbidoona first laquen jotan resolue de
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  Speaker 2: chapi ah releavonnu iqitola purgemein ric Lamola, misser Ricordo di
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  Speaker 2: diu esperon honel can Usa, sistra borde etre plufern irometonu
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  Speaker 2: u chamea de lumiliti corrag sy masuis no gan jiu uzeda.
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  Speaker 1: The way of humility, Ah, thought Margaret, that is what
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  Speaker 1: I have missed. But courage, little heart, we will turn
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  Speaker 1: back and buy God's help, we may find the last path.
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  Speaker 1: So she rose up and determined at once to set
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  Speaker 1: to on some work which should take her out of herself.
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  Speaker 1: To begin with, she called in Martha as she passed
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  Speaker 1: the drawing room door, and going upstairs, and tried to
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  Speaker 1: find out what was below the grave respectful servant like
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  Speaker 1: manner which prested over her individual character with an obedience
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  Speaker 1: that was almost mechanical. She found it difficult to induce
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  Speaker 1: Martha to speak of any of her personal interests. But
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  Speaker 1: at last she touched the right chord and naming Missus Thornton,
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  Speaker 1: Martha's whole face brightened, and on a little encouragement, out
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  Speaker 1: came a long story of how her father had been
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  Speaker 1: in early life connected with Missus Thornton's husband. Nay had
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  Speaker 1: even been in a position to show him some kindness
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  Speaker 1: what Martha hardly knew, for it had happened when she
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  Speaker 1: was quite a little child, and circumstances had intervened to
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  Speaker 1: separate the two families until Martha was nearly grown up,
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  Speaker 1: when her father having sunk lower and lower from his
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  Speaker 1: original occupation as clerk and a warehouse, and her mother
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  Speaker 1: being dead, she and her sister, she used Martha's own expression,
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  Speaker 1: would have been lost but for Missus Thornton, who sought
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  Speaker 1: them out and thought for them and cared for them.
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  Speaker 1: I had had the fever and was but delicate, and
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  Speaker 1: Missus Thornton and mister Thornton too, they never rested till
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  Speaker 1: they had nursed me up in their own house and
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  Speaker 1: sent me to the sea. And all the doctors said
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  Speaker 1: the fever was catching, but they cared none for that
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  Speaker 1: only miss Fanny, and she went a visiting these folk
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  Speaker 1: that she is going to marry into. So though she
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  Speaker 1: was afraid at the time, it is all ended well.
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  Speaker 1: Miss Fanny going to be married, exclaimed Margaret. Yes, and
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  Speaker 1: to a rich gentleman too, Only he's a deal older
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  Speaker 1: than she is, his name is Watson, and his milk
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  Speaker 1: are somewhere out beyond Hayley. It's a very good marriage,
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  Speaker 1: for all he's got such gray hair. At this piece
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  Speaker 1: of information, Margaret was silent long enough for Martha to
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  Speaker 1: recover her propriety and with it her habitual shortness of answer.
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  Speaker 1: She swept up the hearth, asked at what time she
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  Speaker 1: should prepare tea, and quitted the room with the same
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  Speaker 1: wooden face with which she had entered it. Margaret had
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  Speaker 1: to pull herself up from indulging a bad trick which
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  Speaker 1: she had lately fallen into, of trying to imagine how
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  Speaker 1: every event that she heard of in relation to mister
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  Speaker 1: Thornton would affect him, whether he would like it or
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  Speaker 1: dislike it. The next day, she had the little Boucher
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  Speaker 1: children for their lessons and took a long walk and
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  Speaker 1: ended by a visit to Mary Higgins. Somewhat to Margaret's surprise,
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  Speaker 1: she found Nicholas already come home from his work. The
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  Speaker 1: lengthening light had deceived her as to the lateness of
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  Speaker 1: the evening. He too, seemed by his manners, to have
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  Speaker 1: entered a little more on the way of humility. He
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  Speaker 1: was quieter and less self asserting. So the old gentleman's
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  Speaker 1: away on his travels Izzie said he little uns telled
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  Speaker 1: me so eh, but they're sharpens. They are. I almost
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  Speaker 1: think they beat my own wenches for sharpness, though mappen
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  Speaker 1: it's wrong to say so. And one autumn in her grave,
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  Speaker 1: there's summat in the weather. I reckon a set, spoke
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  Speaker 1: a wandering my master him at the shop Yonder is
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  Speaker 1: spending about the world somewhere. Is that the reason you're
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  Speaker 1: so soon at home to night? Asked Margaret innocently. Thou
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  Speaker 1: knowest nought about it, That's all, said he contemptuously. I'm
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  Speaker 1: not one with two faces, one for my master and
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  Speaker 1: another for his back. I counted the clocks in the
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  Speaker 1: town a striking afore I'd leave my work. No, Yon,
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  Speaker 1: Thornton's good enough for to fight with, but too good
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  Speaker 1: for to be cheated. It were you as getting me
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  Speaker 1: the place, and I thank you for it. Thornton's is
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  Speaker 1: not a bad mill as times go, stand down, lad
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  Speaker 1: and say you're pretty hymn to miss Margaret, that's right
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  Speaker 1: steady on thy legs and right arm out as straight
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  Speaker 1: as a steward one to stop two to stay, three
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  Speaker 1: make ready, and four away. The little fellow repeated a
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  Speaker 1: Methodist hymn far above his comprehension and point of language,
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  Speaker 1: but of which the swinging rhythm had caught his ear,
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  Speaker 1: and which he repeated with all the developed cadence of
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  Speaker 1: a member of Parliament. When Margaret had duly applauded, Nicholas
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  Speaker 1: called for another and yet another, much to her surprise,
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  Speaker 1: as she found him thus oddly and unconsciously led to
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  Speaker 1: take an interest in the sacred things which he had
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  Speaker 1: formerly scouted. It was past the usual tea time when
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  Speaker 1: she reached home, but she had the comfort of feeling
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  Speaker 1: that no one had been kept waiting for her, and
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  Speaker 1: of thinking her own thoughts while she rested, instead of
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  Speaker 1: anxiously watching another person to learn whether to be grave
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  Speaker 1: or gay. After tea, she resolved to examine a large
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  Speaker 1: packet of letters and pick out those that were to
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  Speaker 1: be destroyed. Among them, she came to four or five
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  Speaker 1: of mister Henry Lennox's relating to Frederick's affairs, and she
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  Speaker 1: carefully read them over again with the sole intention when
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  Speaker 1: she began to ascertain exactly on how fine a chance
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  Speaker 1: the justification of her brother hung. But when she had
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  Speaker 1: finished the last and weighed the pros and cons, the
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  Speaker 1: little personal revelation of character contained in them forced itself
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  Speaker 1: on her notice. It was evident enough from the stiffness
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  Speaker 1: of the wording that mister Lennox had never forgotten his
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: relation to her in any interest he might feel in
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  Speaker 1: the subject of the correspondence. They were clever letters, Margaret
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  Speaker 1: saw that in a twinkling, but she missed out of
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: them all hearty and genial atmosphere. They were to be preserved, however,
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  Speaker 1: as valuable, so she laid them carefully on one side.
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  Speaker 1: This little piece of business was ended. She fell into
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  Speaker 1: a reverie, and the thought of her absent father ran
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  Speaker 1: strangely in Margaret's head. This night she almost blamed herself
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  Speaker 1: for having felt her solitude and consequently his absence as
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  Speaker 1: a relief. But these two days had set her up
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  Speaker 1: afresh with new strength and brighter hope. Plans which had
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  Speaker 1: lately appeared to her in the guise of tasks now
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: appeared like pleasures. The morbid scales had fallen from her eyes,
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  Speaker 1: and she saw her position in her work more truly.
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  Speaker 1: If only mister Thornton would restore her the lost friendship. Nay,
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  Speaker 1: if he would only come from time to time to
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  Speaker 1: cheer her father as in former days, though she should
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  Speaker 1: never see him, she felt as if the course of
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: her future life, though not brilliant in prospect, might lie
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  Speaker 1: clear and even before her she sighed as she rose
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  Speaker 1: up to go to bed, In spite of the one
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  Speaker 1: steps enough for me, in spite of the one plain
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  Speaker 1: duty of devotion to her father, there lay at her
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  Speaker 1: heart and anxiety and a pang of sorrow. And mister
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: Hale thought out of Margaret that April evening, just as
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  Speaker 1: strangely and as persistently as she was thinking of him.
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  Speaker 1: He had been fatigued by going about among his old
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: friends and old familiar places. He had had exaggerated ideas
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  Speaker 1: of the change which his altered opinions might make in
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  Speaker 1: his friend's reception of him. But although some of them
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: might have felt shocked or grieved or indignant at his
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: falling off in the abstract, as soon as they saw
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: the face of the man whom they had once loved,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: they forgot his opinions and himself, or only remembered them
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: enough to give an additional tender gravity to their manner,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: For mister Hale had not been known to many. He
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: had belonged to one of the smaller colleges and had
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: always been shy and reserved. But those who in youth
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: had cared to penetrate to the delicacy of thought and
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: feeling that lay below his silence and indecision took him
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: to their hearts with something of the protecting kindness which
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: they would have shown to a woman. And the renewal
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  Speaker 1: of this kindliness after the lapse of years and an
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  Speaker 1: interval of so much change, overpowered him more than any
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: roughness or expression of disapproval could have done. I'm afraid
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: we've done too much, said mister Bell. You're suffering now
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  Speaker 1: from having lived so long in that Milton Air. I
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: am tired, said mister Hale. But it is not, Milton Air.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: I'm fifty five years of age, and that little fact
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: of itself accounts for any loss of strength. Nonsense. I'm
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: upwards of sixty and feel no loss of strength, either
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  Speaker 1: bodily or mental. Don't let me hear you talking so
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: fifty five. Why you're quite a young man. Mister Hale
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: shook his head. These last few years, said he. But
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: after a minute's pause, he raised himself from his half
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: recumbent position in one of mister Bell's luxurious easy chairs
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  Speaker 1: and said, with a kind of trembling earnestness, Bell, You're
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  Speaker 1: not to think that if I could have foreseen all
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  Speaker 1: that would come of my change of opinion and my
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: resignation of my living. No, not even if I could
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  Speaker 1: have known how she would have suffered, that I would
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: undo it the act of open acknowledgment that I no
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: longer held the same faith as the church in which
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: I was a priest. As I think now, even if
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  Speaker 1: I could have foreseen that cruelest martyrdom of suffering through
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  Speaker 1: the sufferings of one whom I loved, I would have
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  Speaker 1: done just the same as far as that step of
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  Speaker 1: openly leaving the church went. I might have done differently
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  Speaker 1: and acted more wisely in all that I subsequently did
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  Speaker 1: for my family. But I don't think God endued me
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  Speaker 1: with over much wisdom or strength, he added, falling back
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  Speaker 1: into his old position. Mister Bell blew his nose ostentatiously
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  Speaker 1: before answering. Then, he said, he gave you strength to
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  Speaker 1: do what your conscience told you was right, And I
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  Speaker 1: don't see that we need any higher or holier strength
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  Speaker 1: than that, or wisdom either. I know I have not
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  Speaker 1: that much, and yet men set me down in their
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: fool's books as a wise man, an independent character, strong
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  Speaker 1: minded and all that can't the veriest idiot who obeys
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  Speaker 1: his own simple law of right, if it be, but
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: in wiping his shoes on a door, mat is wiser
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  Speaker 1: and stronger than I. But what gulls men are? There
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: was a pause. Mister Hale spoke first in continuation of
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: his thought about Margaret, Well, about Margaret, What then if
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  Speaker 1: I die? Nonsense? What will become of her? I often think,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: I suppose Lennoxes will ask her to live with them.
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  Speaker 1: I try to think they will. Her Aunt Shaw loved
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  Speaker 1: her well in her own quiet way, but she forgets
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: to love the absent, a very common fault. What sort
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: of people are the Lennoxes? He handsome, fluent and agreeable.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Edith a sweet, little spoiled beauty. Margaret loves her with
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: all her heart, and Edith with as much of her
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: heart as she can spare. Now, Hale, you know that
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: girl of yours has got pretty nearly all my heart.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: I told you that before, of course, as your daughter
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: as my god daughter. I took great interest in her
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: before I saw her the last time. But this visit
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: that I paid to you at Milton made me her slave.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: I went a willing old victim following the car of
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: the conqueror. For indeed she looks as grand and serene
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: as one who has struggled and may be struggling, and
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: yet has the victory secure in sight. Yes, in spite
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: of all her present anxieties. That was the look on
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: her face. And so all I have is at her
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: service if she needs it, and will be hers, whether
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: she will or no. When I die. Moreover, I myself
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: will be her prue Chevalier sixty and gouty. Though I
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: be seriously old friend, your daughter shall be my principal
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: charge in life, and all the help that either my wit,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: or my wisdom or my willing heart can give shall
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: be hers. I don't choose her out as a subject
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: for fretting something I know of old you must have
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: to worry yourself about, or you wouldn't be happy. But
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: you're going to outlive me by many a long year.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: You spare of thin men are always tempting and always
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: cheating death. It's the stout florid fellows like me that
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: always go off first. If mister Bell had had a
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: prophetic eye, he might have seen the torch all but inverted,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: and the angel with the grave and composed face, standing
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: very nigh. Beckoning to his friend. That night, mister Hale
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: laid his head down on the pillow on which it
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: never more should stir with life. The servant who entered
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: his room in the morning received no answer to his speech,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: drew near the bed and saw the calm, beautiful face
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: lying white and cold under the ineffaceable seal of death.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: The attitude was exquisitely easy. There had been no pain,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: no struggle. The action of the heart must have ceased
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: as he lay down. Mister Bell was stunned by the shock,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: and only recovered when the time came for being angry
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: at every suggestion of his man's a coroner's inquest, pooh,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: you don't think I poisoned him? Doctor Forbes says, it
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: is just the natural end of a heart complaint, Poor
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: old Hale, you wore out that tender heart of yours
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: before its time. Poor old friend, how he talked of
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: his wallace. Pack up a carpet bag for me in
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: five minutes here have I been talking? Pack it up?
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: I say, I must go to Milton by the next train.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: The bag was packed, the cab ordered, the railway reached
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: in twenty minutes. From the moment of this decision, the
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: London train whizzed by, drew back some yards and in
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: mister Bell was hurried by the impatient guard. He threw
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: himself back in his seat to try, with closed eyes
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: to understand how one in life yesterday could be dead
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: to day, and shortly tears stole out between his grizzled
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: eyelashes at the feeling of which he opened his keen
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: eyes and looked as severely cheerful as his set determination
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: could make him. He was not going to blubber before
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: a set of strangers, not he There was no set
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: of strangers, only one sitting far from him on the
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: same side by and bye. Mister Bell peered at him
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: to discover what manner of man it was that might
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: have been observing his emotion, And behind the great sheet
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: of the outspread times, he recognized, mister Thornton. Why Thornton
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: is that you said? He removing hastily to a closer proximity,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: he shook mister Thornton vehemently by the hand until the
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: grip ended in a sudden relaxation, for the hand was
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: wanted to wipe away tears he had last seen mister
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: Thornton and his friend Hale's company. I'm going to Milton
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: bound on a melancholy errand going to break to Hale's
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: daughter the news of his sudden death death. Mister Hale dead. Ay,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: I keep saying it to myself, Hale is dead, but
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: it doesn't make it any the more real. Hale is
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: dead for all that he went to bed well to
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: all appearance last night, and was quite cold this morning.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: When my servant went to call hum where I don't understand,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: at Oxford he came to stay with me. Hadn't been
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: in Oxford this seventeen years. And this is the end
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: of it. Not one word was spoken for above a
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: quarter of an hour. Then mister Thornton said, and she
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: and short Margaret, you mean yes, I'm going to tell her,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: poor fellow, how full his thoughts were of her all
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: last night, good God, last night only, and how immeasurably
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: distant he is now. But I take Margaret as my
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: child for his sake, I said last night, I would
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: take her for her own sake. Well, I take her
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: for both. Mister Thornton made one or two fruitless attempts
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: to speak before he could get out the words what
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: would become of her? I rather fancy there will be
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: two people waiting for her, myself, for one, I would
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: take a live dragon into my house to live if
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: by hiring such a chaperone and setting up an establishment
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: of my own, I could make my old age happy
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: with having Margaret for a daughter. But there are those Lennoxes.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Who are they asked mister Thornton with trembling interest, Oh,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: smart London, people who very likely will think they've the
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: best right to her. Captain Lennox married her cousin, the girl.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: She was brought up with, good enough people, I dare say.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: And there's her aunt, missus Shaw. There might be a
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: way open, perhaps by my offering to marry that worthy lady,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: but that would be quite a piss holler. And then
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: there's that brother. What brother a brother of her aunt's? No, No,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: a clever Lennox. The Captain's a fool. You must understand,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: a young barrister who will be setting his cap at Margaret.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: I know he has had her in his mind this
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: five years or more. One of his chums told me
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: as much, and he was only kept back by her
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: want of fortune. Now that will be done away with,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: how asked mister Thornton, too earnestly curious to be aware
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: of the impertinence of his question. I shall have my
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: money at my death. And if this Henry Lennox is
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: half good enough for her and she likes him, well,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: I might find another way of getting home through a marriage.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: I'm dreadfully afraid of being tempted at an unguarded moment
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: by the aunt. Neither mister Bell nor mister Thornton was
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: in a laughing humor, so the oddity of any of
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: the speeches which the though former maid, was unnoticed by them.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Mister Bell whistled, without emitting any sound beyond a long
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: hissing breath, changed his seat without finding comfort or rest,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: while mister Thornton sat immovably still, his eyes fixed on
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: one spot in the newspaper, which he had taken up
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: in order to give himself leisure to think. Where have
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: you been? Asked mister Bell at length to have rey
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: trying to detect the secret of the great rise in
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: the price of cotton. Ooh, cotton speculations and smoke, well
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: cleansed and well cared for machinery, and unwashed and neglected hands.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: Poor old Hale, Poor old Hale. If you could have
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: known the change which it was to him from Helstone?
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Do you know the new forest at all? Yes, very shortly?
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Then you can fancy the difference between Ed and Milton.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: What part were you in? Were you ever at Helstone?
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: A little picturesque village like some in the olden walled?
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: You know Helstone? I have seen it. It was a
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: great change to leave it and come to Milton. He
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: took up his newspaper with a determined air, as if
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: resolved to avoid further conversation, and mister Bell was fain
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: to resort to his former occupation of trying to find
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: out how he could best break the news to Margaret.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: She was at an upstairs window. She saw him alight.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: She guessed the truth with an instinctive flash. She stood
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the drawing room, as if arrested
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: in her first impulse to rush downstairs, and as if
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: by the same restraining thought she had been turned to Stone.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: So white and immovable, was she? Oh, don't tell me.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: I know it from your face. You would have sent
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: You would not have left him if he were alive. Oh, Papa, Papa.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: End of chapter forty two. Recording by Leanne Howlett.