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034 - False And True · North and South

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty four, North and South. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information,
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  Speaker 1: ought to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. This reading
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  Speaker 1: by Lucy Burgoyne. North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell,
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  Speaker 1: chapter thirty four, False and true. Truth will fail thee.
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  Speaker 1: Never Never, thou thy bark be tempest driven. Thou'll each
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  Speaker 1: plank be rent and riven. Truth will bear THEE on
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  Speaker 1: forever and on the bearing up better than likely was
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  Speaker 1: a terrible strain upon Margaret. Sometimes she thought she must
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  Speaker 1: give way and cry out with pain as the sudden,
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  Speaker 1: sharp thought came across her, even during her apparently cheerful
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  Speaker 1: conversations with her father, that she had no longer a mother.
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  Speaker 1: About Frederick, too, there was great uneasiness. The Sunday Post
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  Speaker 1: intervened and interfered with their London letters, and on Tuesday
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  Speaker 1: Margaret was surprised and disheartened to find that there was
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  Speaker 1: still no letter. She was quite in the dark as
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  Speaker 1: to his plans, and her father was miserable at all
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  Speaker 1: this uncertainty. It broke in upon his lately acquired habit
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  Speaker 1: of sitting still in one easy chair for half a
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  Speaker 1: day together. He kept pacing up and down the room,
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  Speaker 1: then out of it, and she heard him upon the landing,
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  Speaker 1: opening and shutting the bedroom doors without any apparent object.
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  Speaker 1: She tried to tranquilize him by reading aloud, but it
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  Speaker 1: was evident he could not listen for long together. How
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  Speaker 1: thankful she was then that she had kept to herself
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  Speaker 1: the additional cause for anxiety produced by their encounter with
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  Speaker 1: Leonard's She was thankful to hear mister Thornton announced his
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  Speaker 1: visit would force her father's thoughts into another channel. He
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  Speaker 1: came up straight to her father, whose hands he took
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  Speaker 1: and wrung without a word, holding them in his for
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  Speaker 1: a minute or two, during which time his face, his eyes,
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  Speaker 1: his look told of more sympathy than could be put
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  Speaker 1: into words. Then he turned to Margaret. Not better than
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  Speaker 1: likely did she look. Her stately beauty was dimmed with
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  Speaker 1: much watching and with many tears. The expression on her
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  Speaker 1: countenance was of gentle patent sadness, nay a positive present suppery.
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  Speaker 1: He had not meant to greet her otherwise than with
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  Speaker 1: his late studied coldness of d'amenuel, But he could not
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  Speaker 1: help going up to her as she stood a little aside,
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  Speaker 1: rendered timid by the uncertainty of his manner of late,
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  Speaker 1: and saying the few necessary commonplace words in so tender
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  Speaker 1: a voice that her eyes filled with tears, and she
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  Speaker 1: turned away to hide her emotion. She took her work
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  Speaker 1: and sat down, very quiet and silent. Mister Thornton's heart
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  Speaker 1: beat quick and strong, and for the time he utterly
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  Speaker 1: forgot the outward lane. He tried to talk to mister Hale,
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  Speaker 1: and his presence always a certain kind of pleasure to
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  Speaker 1: mister Hale, as his power and decision made him and
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  Speaker 1: his opinions are so sure. Poor was unusually agreeable to
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  Speaker 1: her father, as Margaret saw. Presently, Dixon came to the
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  Speaker 1: door and said, miss Hale, you are wanted. Dixon's manner
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  Speaker 1: was so flurried that Margaret turned sick at heart. Something
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  Speaker 1: had happened to Fred. She had no doubt of that.
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  Speaker 1: It was well that her father and mister Thornton were
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  Speaker 1: so much occupied by their conversation. What is it, Dixon
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  Speaker 1: asked Margaret, the moment she had shut the drawing room door.
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  Speaker 1: Come this way, miss said Dixon, opening the door of
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  Speaker 1: what had been missus Hale's bed chamber now Margaret's, for
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  Speaker 1: her father refused to sleep there again after his wife's death.
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  Speaker 1: It's nothing, miss, said Dixon, choking a little. Only a
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  Speaker 1: police inspector. He wants to see you me, But I
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  Speaker 1: dare say it's about nothing at all. Did he name,
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  Speaker 1: asked Margaret, almost inaudibly. No, Miss, he named nothing. He
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  Speaker 1: only asked if you lived here, and if he could
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  Speaker 1: speak to you. Martha went to the door and led
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  Speaker 1: him in. She has shown him into master's study. I
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  Speaker 1: went to him myself to try if that would do,
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  Speaker 1: But no, it's you, miss, he wants. Margaret did not
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  Speaker 1: speak again till her hand was on the lock of
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  Speaker 1: the study door. Here she turned round and said, take care,
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  Speaker 1: Papa does not come down. Mister Thornton is with him now.
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  Speaker 1: The inspector was almost daunted by the haughtiness of her
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  Speaker 1: manner as she entered. There was something of indignation expressed
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  Speaker 1: in her countenance, but so kept down and controlled that
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  Speaker 1: it gave her a superb air of disdain. There was
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  Speaker 1: no surprise, no curiosity. She stood awaiting the opening of
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  Speaker 1: his business. There not a question, did she ask, I
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  Speaker 1: beg your pardon ma'am, But my duty obliges me to
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  Speaker 1: ask you a few plain questions. A man has died
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  Speaker 1: at the infirmary in consequence of a fall received at
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  Speaker 1: Outwood station between the hours of five and six on
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  Speaker 1: Thursday evening, the twenty sixth instant. At the time, this
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  Speaker 1: fall did not seem of much consequence, but it was
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  Speaker 1: rendered fatal, the doctor say, by the presence of some
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  Speaker 1: internal complaint and the man's own habit of drinking. The large,
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  Speaker 1: dark eyes gazing straight into the inspector's face dilated a little,
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  Speaker 1: Otherwise there was no perceptible till his experienced observation. Her
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  Speaker 1: lips swelled out into a richer curve than ordinary, owing
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  Speaker 1: to the enforced tension of the muscles, But he did
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  Speaker 1: not know what was their usual appearance. So as to
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  Speaker 1: recognize the unwonted, sullen defiance of the firm sweeping lines.
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  Speaker 1: She never blenched or trembled. She fixed him with her eye. Now,
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  Speaker 1: as he paused before going on, she said, almost as
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  Speaker 1: if she would encourage him in telling his tale. Well
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  Speaker 1: go on. It is supposed that an inquest will have
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  Speaker 1: to be held. There is some slight evidence to prove
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  Speaker 1: that The blow or push or scuffle that caused the
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  Speaker 1: fall was provoked by this poor fellow's half tipsy impertinence
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  Speaker 1: to a young lady walking with the man who pushed
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  Speaker 1: the deceased over the edge of the platform. This much
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  Speaker 1: was observed by someone on the platform, who, however, thought
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  Speaker 1: no more about the matter, as the blow seemed of
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  Speaker 1: slight consequence. There is also some reason to identify the
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  Speaker 1: lady with yourself, in which case I was not there,
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  Speaker 1: said Margaret, still keeping her expressionless eyes fixed on his face,
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  Speaker 1: with the unconscious look of a sleep walker. The inspector
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  Speaker 1: bowed but did not speak. The lady standing before him
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  Speaker 1: showed no emotion, no fluttering fear, no anxiety, no desire
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  Speaker 1: to end the interview. The information he had received was
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  Speaker 1: very vague. One of the porters, rushing out to be
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  Speaker 1: in readiness for the train, had seen scuffle at the
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  Speaker 1: other end of the platform between Leonards and a gentleman
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  Speaker 1: accompanied by a lady, but heard no noise, and before
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  Speaker 1: the train had got to its full speed after starting,
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  Speaker 1: he had been almost knocked down by the headlong run
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  Speaker 1: of the enraged, half intoxicated Leonards, swearing and cursing awfully
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  Speaker 1: he had not thought any more about it till his
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  Speaker 1: evidence was routed out by the inspector, who, on making
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  Speaker 1: some farther inquiry at the railroad station, had heard from
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  Speaker 1: the station master that a young lady and gentleman had
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  Speaker 1: been there about that hour. The lady remarkably handsome, and
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  Speaker 1: said by some grocer's assistant present at the time to
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  Speaker 1: be a miss Hale living at Crampton, whose family dealt
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  Speaker 1: at his shop. There was no certain that the one
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  Speaker 1: lady and gentleman were identical with the other pair, but
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  Speaker 1: there was a great probability. Leonards himself had gone half
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  Speaker 1: mad with rage and pain to the nearest gin palace
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  Speaker 1: for comfort, and his tipsy words had not been attended
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  Speaker 1: to by the busy waiters there. They, however, remembered he
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  Speaker 1: starting up and cursing himself for not having sooner thought
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  Speaker 1: of the electric telegraph for some purpose unknown, and they
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  Speaker 1: believed that he left with the idea of going there.
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  Speaker 1: On his way, overcome by pain or drink, he had
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  Speaker 1: lain down in the road, where the police had found
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  Speaker 1: him and taken him to the infirmary. There. He had
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  Speaker 1: never recovered sufficient consciousness to give any distinct account of
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  Speaker 1: his fall, although once or twice he had had glimmerings
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  Speaker 1: of since sufficient to make the authorities send for the
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  Speaker 1: nearest magistrate in hopes that he might be able to
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  Speaker 1: take down the dying man's deposition of the cause of
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  Speaker 1: his death. But when the magistrate had come, he was
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  Speaker 1: rambling about being at sea, and mixing up names of
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  Speaker 1: captains and lieutenants in an indistinct manner with those of
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  Speaker 1: his fellow porters at the railway, and his last words
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  Speaker 1: were a curse on the Cornish trick, which had he said,
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  Speaker 1: made him one hundred pounds poorer than he ought to
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  Speaker 1: have been. The inspector ran all this over in his mind,
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  Speaker 1: the vagueness of the evidence to prove that Margaret had
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  Speaker 1: been at the station, the unflinching, calm denial which she
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  Speaker 1: gave to such a supposition. She stood, awaiting his next
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  Speaker 1: word with a composure that appeared so then, madam, I
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  Speaker 1: have your denial that you were the lady accompanying the
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  Speaker 1: gentleman who struck the blow or gave the push which
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  Speaker 1: caused the death of this poor man. A quick, sharp
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  Speaker 1: pain went through Margaret's brain. Oh God, that I knew
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  Speaker 1: Frederick was safe a deep observer of human countenances might
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  Speaker 1: have seen the momentary agony shut out of her great
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  Speaker 1: gloomy eyes, like the torture of some creature brought to bay.
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  Speaker 1: But the inspector, though a very keen, was not a
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  Speaker 1: very deep observer. He was a little struck, notwithstanding, by
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  Speaker 1: the form of the answer, which sounded like a mechanical
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  Speaker 1: repetition of her first reply, not changed and modified in
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  Speaker 1: shape so as to meet his last question. I was
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  Speaker 1: not there, said she slowly and heavily, and all this
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  Speaker 1: time she never closed her eyes or ceased from that glassy,
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  Speaker 1: dream like stare. His quick suspicions were aroused by this
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  Speaker 1: dull echo of her former denial. It was as if
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  Speaker 1: she had forced herself to one untruth and had been
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  Speaker 1: stunned out of all power of varying it. He put
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  Speaker 1: up his book of notes in a very deliberate manner.
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  Speaker 1: Then he looked up. She had not moved any more
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  Speaker 1: than if she had been some great Egyptian statue. I
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  Speaker 1: hope you will not think me impertinent when I say
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  Speaker 1: that I may have to call on you again. I
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  Speaker 1: may have to summon you to appear on the inquest
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  Speaker 1: and prove an alibi. If my witnesses it was but
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  Speaker 1: one who had recognized her persist in deposing to you
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  Speaker 1: presence at the unfortunate event. He looked at her sharply.
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  Speaker 1: She was still perfectly quiet, no change of color or
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  Speaker 1: darker shadow of guilt on her proud face. He thought
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  Speaker 1: to have seen her WinCE. He did not know Margaret Hale.
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  Speaker 1: He was a little abashed by her regal composure. It
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  Speaker 1: must have been a mistake of identity, he went on.
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  Speaker 1: It is very unlikely, ma'am, that I shall have to
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  Speaker 1: do anything of the kind. I hope you will excuse
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  Speaker 1: me for doing what is only my duty, although it
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  Speaker 1: may appear impertinent. Margaret bowed her head as he went
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  Speaker 1: towards the door. Her lips were stiff and dry. She
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  Speaker 1: could not speak even the common words of farewell. But
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  Speaker 1: suddenly she walked forwards and opened the study door, and
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  Speaker 1: preceded him to the door of the house, which she
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  Speaker 1: threw wide open for his exit. She kept her eyes
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  Speaker 1: upon him in the same dull, fixed manner until he
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  Speaker 1: was fairly out of the house. She shut the door
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  Speaker 1: and went half way into the study, then turned back,
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  Speaker 1: as if moved by some passionate impulse and locked the
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  Speaker 1: door inside. Then she went into the study, paused, tottered forward,
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  Speaker 1: paused again, swayed for an instant where she stood and
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  Speaker 1: fell prone on the floor in a dead swoon. End
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  Speaker 1: of chapter thirty four.