Latest / The Scorpion by Anna Elisabet Weirauch. / 17 - The Scorpion.

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17 - The Scorpion. · The Scorpion by Anna Elisabet Weirauch.

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Myra sat beside Gwen in the car. My hair looks
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: something terrible, doesn't it? said Gwen. If Mama sees me
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: like this, she'll begin to lecture me. How do you
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: manage to keep your hair in place? You dance too.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Mama would be delighted with you. In fact, Mama likes
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: you a whole lot. She's always holding you up to
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: me as a model. But even that doesn't make me
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: dislike you. I'm really quite smitten with you, really. But
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I think you don't like me. Myra laid her arms
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: lightly around her shoulder.' Silly little Gwen,' she said, smiling.'
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: You don't know what you're chattering.'' That' s nice,' said Gwen,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: cuddling up to her like a little kitten.' Leave your
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: arm there, it feels nice. I know very well what
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about. Mama always says don't talk, you're dizzy
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: with dancing, because she insists that I talk so much
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: nonsense after a dance, more than usual.' But I'm really
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: not dizzy with dancing and I know that I like
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: you a lot and I know too that you don't
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: like me. And you don't contradict me either, you're much
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: too honest for that. You say, don't talk nonsense little Gwen.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Which is what people always tell little children when they
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: happen to hit on the truth. But I don't want
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: to embarrass you. Your eyes look very sad now because
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: you don't know how you're going to get out of
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: this mess. I was thinking, said Myra honestly. that you
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: are a very charming little creature and that I like
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: you very much indeed, and that nevertheless I disavowed you
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: today and said you were not my friend. At the table,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: said Gwen seriously, I felt it, but it doesn't make
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: me angry with you. She smiled. You oughtn't to admit
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: it either, if you want to keep in the good
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: graces of my dear Henry. Did he tell you what
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: a beast I am? He said nothing at all, replied Myra, shocked.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: How on earth did you know that I said it
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: to Ransaw? Because I know him, said Gwen triumphantly. He
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: hates me like, like sin would hardly be the proper expression.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: But I know he does and I know why. By
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: these words and by the expression of Gwen's face Myra
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: felt somewhat repelled. She's like every other woman, she thought contemptuously.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: She thinks that Henry Ransaw hates her because he loves
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: her and she doesn't love him. Now she'll tell me
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: that she broke with him on some occasion. It's the
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: only thing that these little creatures can get through their heads.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Shall I tell you why your friend hates me? A
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: thousand little imps were dancing on Gwen's face. If you like,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: said Myra somewhat coolly, I've taken his friend away from him.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: What does that mean, taking a friend away? Can a
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: woman take a man's friend away from him? From Henry?
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Oh yes, for he wants his friend all to himself.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Hair and hide, body and soul. Don't try to pretend,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: dear little Miss Innocence, that you haven't noticed what the
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: whole town knows. Strange, Myra shook her head. All that
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: a town knows. Stranger yet is all that it doesn't know,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: said Gwen with a laugh. All that goes on in
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: its midst without anybody suspecting it. But Ransaw is known
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: because he's a public menace. He has an influence over
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: young men that is nothing short of uncanny. He's always
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: got a circle around him that idolizes him. And I
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: don't like that. You mean when somebody else is idolized?
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Teased Myra. Yes, exactly, declared Gwen defiantly. That one thing
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: I can't stand at all is to see a man
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: idolized by men. I don't know if I can explain it,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: but you see the essential thing about human beings is
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: their sex. The great two-fold division of all life. It's
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: not my own idea, of course. Later on there's the
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: division into races, with the races dividing into nations, the
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: nations into classes and families, each of them struggling against
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: the others. I am a bourgeois as compared with the
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: nobility and an aristocrat as compared with the plebs. But
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: first and foremost I am a woman in contrast to
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: a man, and the most unpardonable insult that can be
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: offered me is one to my sex. Don't you understand that?
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: If a man can't see me because he worships another woman,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: That doesn't wound my vanity. But a man for whom
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: no woman is good enough, who prefers men, who is
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: contemptuous of my whole sex. Oh, it drives me almost
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: insane with anger. Ransaw is incorruptible, I know that, but
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: I lure away his favorites one after the other. Ever
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: since I could think, no, ever since I could feel,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: we've waged a bitter war. Do you know, Myra, sometimes
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: it seems like a holy mission to me and not
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: just an amusing game. There was a strange light in
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: her eyes, they blazed like blue jewels. He loved Fred Reimer,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: for example, loved him insanely. But Fred is very happily
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: married today. What do I get out of it? Well,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: sometimes when I see his wife I think, you owe
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: it to me and you never even suspect it. What
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: a queer mixture you are. Myra looked at her, shaking
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: her head reflectively. A well-bred, sheltered girl and yet... And yet?
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Go ahead and say it. Oh, nothing. But tell me,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: how does it happen that your parents don't notice anything?
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Henry Ransaw, for instance, whose reputation the whole town knows.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Don't you know, Myra, said Gwen with a superior smile,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: that parents have an unerring eye only for what doesn't exist?
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: I'm coming out directly, called Gwen from behind the door
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: of the bathroom where one could hear the splashing of
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: water and the pelting of a shower. Take a seat, Myra,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: and pick up a book. I'll be ready in five minutes.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: I have time, said Myra quietly. But Gwen wished to
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: shorten her wait for her. You'll find something to look at.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: There's a package on the table. I bought myself some
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: stockings today. See if you don't think they're stunning. But
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: you mustn't open what's under them, something flat in tissue paper.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: I'll show it to you anyhow. Go ahead and open it.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: I'm not curious. Go on, go on, open it. It's
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: better that you should look at it when I'm not there.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Then I won't have to blush at least. Hurry up,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: I'll be out in two minutes. Do you hear? I'm
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: already emerging from the crystal flood, and when I'm halfway dry,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: I'll be out there. Myra removed the tissue paper. She
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: looked into Fred Weidinghoff's face, lifelike and expressive. She felt
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: a flash of pleasure pass over her as she studied
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: the handsome features of and almost at the same moment
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: a childish desire to steal the picture so that she
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: could always have it before her eyes, and could delight
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: in it when she was far from here. For she
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: was perfectly conscious at that moment, without thinking about it
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: at all, that she would leave Hamburg in a very
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: short time. She had never yet thought of the change,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: but suddenly she saw herself with visionary distinctness, so self-evidently
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: that there was nothing terrifying about it, in a state
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: of loneliness in which this picture would make pleasant company
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: for her. She started when Gwen leaned over her shoulder.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Handsome picture what? She laughed. You started so just now
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: that I might imagine you have a little weakness for
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: the gentleman. Confess the truth Myra. Out with it. You
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: were so lost in the picture. So lost that you
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: didn't hear me coming. Myra put down the picture without
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: glancing at it again. Because my thoughts were somewhere else entirely,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: she said, still rather distractedly. Too bad, teased Gwen. Where
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: else if not with Fred? Certainly not with me, I'm afraid.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Very far off? Don't you want to tell me where?
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: She laid her soft bare arm around Myra's neck, pressing
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: it against her cheeks. I don't know where myself, said Myra.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Not in the past and not in the present. Somewhere
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: I've never yet been. Perhaps in the future. I have
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: a feeling quite indistinct and hazy of a snowed-up lonely house.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Myra did not want to reply. I don't know much
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: more about him. He is discreet and trustworthy, said Gwen
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: after hesitating a moment. Then she laughed through her teeth.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: And he has very good taste. Perhaps, said Myra somewhat guardedly.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Sometimes she had a feeling of fear in the presence
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: of this fair-haired child. Frequently she was afraid to put
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: a question because she did not want to hear the answer.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: An answer that would tear off the thin covering of
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: the abyss. Suddenly Gwen stroked her cheeks with a childish gesture.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Don't be angry, she said gently. Myra laid her lips
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: against that soft little fragrant hand. Why should I be
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: angry at you, you child? She asked smiling. But she
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: knew very well that she had been angry. Tell me something,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: begged Gwen. Yes, sit right down beside me here and
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: tell me something. I'll lie down, I'm a little tired
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: from my bath, and you sit beside me and we'll
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: jaw a little. With one hand she drew Myra fawningly
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: to the divan, with the other she held together her
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: kimono of peach-bloom china crepe which showed every line of
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: her slim, soft body. She adjusted her mountain of pillows
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: and made herself comfortable on it. Myra sat quiet and
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: erect beside her on a chair. She always felt rather
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: stiff in the presence of so much sinuous grace, and
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: a little frosty in the warm breath of this sunny creature.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Do you know, Myra, said Gwen after a while, that
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: I haven't got a step closer to you since the
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: first day you came here? You allow me to call
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: you by your first name. Sometimes you call me by mine,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: but mostly you omit it because it's so counter to
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: your nature. No, no, you don't have to make a
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: polite denial. You are quite a stranger to me. Never
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: never never do you tell me anything of your own volition.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you'll answer one out of ten of my questions.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: I don't even trust myself to ask you questions anymore
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: for fear I'll frighten you away so that you'll never
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: come back again. And what do I know of you either?
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: asked Myra without looking at her. You are just as
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: much of a stranger to me. You have a very
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: childlike and open nature. My own perhaps is more reserved
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: and cold, but there may be a hundred times bigger
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: and more serious secrets hidden behind your innocent little mask
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: than behind my reticence. That's still another matter, Gwen interrupted sharply.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: I can't ever tell you anything either, because you always
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: put me off. Many times I feel the need of
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: confiding in you, something that is worrying me, or simply
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: occupying my attention. But you always turn me aside, or
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: you make such a face that the words stick in
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: my throat. As if, heaven help you, you didn't want
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: to know anything about me, in order not to despise me.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Or as if you already knew too much and were
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: afraid of permitting any affection. Then again I feel that
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: you really are not cold and lacking in understanding, You
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: are not a prude and you have no right to be. Oh, Myra,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: don't be angry with me for saying that. But you
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: can never make me believe that you've spent your life
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: sitting and knitting in a quiet, friendly way with a
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: lot of old ladies. Myra laughed. I've never tried to
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: make you think so. But you act that way, said
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Gwen hopelessly. You're like a stone that won't give off
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: a spark no matter how hard you strike it. Oh, Myra.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: I can't get rid of the feeling that I could
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: strike a whole series of fireworks out of you. Such
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: glorious fireworks. Am I not steel enough or what is
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: the matter? It torments me terribly. She was so shaken
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: with emotion that the tears came into her eyes. She
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: stretched her limbs as if in convulsions and tore the
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: silk cushions with her teeth. Suddenly she sat up and
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: throwing her arms around Myra's neck, rubbed her face between
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: tears and laughter against her shoulder. Tell me, Myra, she wheedled.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Tell me what I've known for a long time. Sometime
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: in your life you have been in love with a woman.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: You know how it can be. How heavenly it can be.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Why don't you like me, Myra? Am I not good
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: enough for you? Not beautiful enough? Or do you think
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: I haven't had any experience? Or do you think I'd
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: betray you? Why don't you say something? Do you despise
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: me so that you don't think I'm worth an answer?
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Myra gritted her teeth and sat a little more stiffly.'
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: I don't know, my child,' she said with a labored
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: smile and lifeless eyes.' I don't know what you're talking about.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Why do you suspect me of such a thing?'' Stop,'
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: said Gwen almost angrily, laying her hand on Myra's mouth.'
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: I don't suspect anything, I know. You can keep quiet
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: as long as you like. I'll never force you to
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: tell me, but I won't let myself be deceived.' And
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: I won't let myself be pointed out as a mad woman.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: I know that I'm right. Not because, as you're thinking now,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: I've heard some gossip. I have a feeling for such things.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Dear little Myra, if you were to sit in front
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: of your mirror for a week and practice a face
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: for me like a stone mask, it would still bear
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: the stamp. Your hands would have it, and your eyelids
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: in the corner of your mouth. Here this corner of
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: your dear proud yearning mouth. Promise me, Myra, promise me
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: one thing. I believe that you live like a saint
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: and want to live that way, but I know too
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: that you can't. You can't do it much longer. But
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: when it gets too much for you call me. I
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: would like to kiss you until your yearning mouth is
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: quite sated. I would like to see you bloom in
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: all your tenderness you rose of Jericho. And if I
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: could not bring it about, at least I should like
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: to be present. Oh Myra, you're making a face as
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: if I were saying hateful things. The ecstasy of the
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: beautiful human body is beautiful. and the throbbing pulse and
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: the gasping breath of someone we love is the most
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: beautiful music in the world. Everything else, art and sport
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: and alcohol and morphine, are just miserable attempts at substitutes
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: for the one real thing, for love. So many things
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: are called love, said Myra with a bitter taste in
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: her mouth. I call love the thrill of the blood
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: and the ravishment of the senses, and it is something
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: I should like to give everybody. Gwen sat up and
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: the soft silk slid from her wonderfully mottled shoulders. Her
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: eyes blazed with blue fire. Well, not everybody, but the beautiful,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: the profound, the warm, the sensitive, those who hunger and
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: those who thirst. And I would like to give it
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: to them because I am capable of giving it, because
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: I am rich, because God has given it to me.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: And God gives no man anything to keep for himself,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: but he cannot be too lavish because he has to
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: give to so many. We are here as God's stewards.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: We are here to save him trouble. That is why
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: he gives us so much, in order that we may
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: share it with the most worthy. Myra shook her head.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: You talk like the angel in a Christmas story, and
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: you come out with these lovely theories in a Christmas
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: story voice. Sometimes I have a feeling that you have
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: no idea what you are saying. You are like a
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: strip of garden in which a strange hand has strewn
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: all possible seeds, so that it has surprised itself at
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: all the gay flowers that come to light. But I
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: am afraid I know the gardener who has made such
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: a wildflower garden out of you. Myra, wheedled Gwen. Tell
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: me one thing, please, please tell me. Are you in
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: love with Fred? Nonsense, said Myra in a hard voice.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: What makes you think such a thing? Perhaps not love,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: said Gwen hesitantly. Perhaps you call love something else. But
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: don't you feel that he's wonderfully stimulating? Myra made a
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: face and without answering, rose and went to the window.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: She heard the soft silk behind her rustle and crinkle.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Gwen thrust her sinuous body between Myra and the windowpane,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: beyond which lay the wintry garden. Her angelic face was
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: suffused with red. Her large eyes under their long lashes
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: were filled with tears. Her blonde hair, tousled and damp
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: from her bath, trembled in ringlets and curls about her
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: childish face. She pursed her lips as if she were
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: struggling against violent tears and clung to the folds of
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Myra's waist with her soft little hands. Do you dislike
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: me so much? she asked shyly. Do you? Am I
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: really so distasteful to you? Laughing, Myra kissed her round
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: firm cheeks with their peach bloom complexion. You are very sweet,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: she said sincerely. I'd rather not, said Myra, knitting her
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: brows slightly. Myra! Gwen stamped her foot angrily. I can't
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: understand you. How can it hurt you to go too?
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: And you would be pleasing me so much. We had
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: it planned so nicely. Really no sensible person can see
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: anything wrong in our going together. But your parents, Myra objected.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: You will simply be doing them a favor if you
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: don't let me go alone to visit a bachelor in
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: his apartment. For I'm going anyway. But it would be
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: much nicer if you'd come too. and Fred will show
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: you his library. That was the only thing that could
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: tempt Myra as Gwen knew very well. Myra would very
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: much have liked to see the rooms and the books.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: She felt something akin to envy when she thought that
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Gwen and Fred would enjoy tea and a pleasant hour
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: of conversation in what was undoubtedly a very pretty and
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: tasteful apartment, while she would not be there. Because of stubbornness,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: because of obstinacy, because of a silly shyness. She had
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: done many other things which had still less to do
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: with conventionality and propriety. She had done them from passion,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: from caprice, from pity, or from stupidity. For the first
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: time in her life she was anxiously resisting an innocent
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: dereliction from the conventional such as this tea with a
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: young unmarried man. Suddenly all her defiance rose within her.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: Why should she deny herself a pleasure because these well-born
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: and highly conventional families could thenceforth refuse to receive her
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: in their expensively furnished and meticulously clean houses? Let these
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: families first so educate their sons and daughters that they
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: did not wantonly strive to disturb the hard one piece
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: of a poor defenseless Myra Rudloff. I'll go with you,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: she said, gritting her teeth. I thought I was supposed
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: to go with you so that you could explore this place,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: she murmured. But you really seem to be quite at
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: home here. Gwen laughed, not in the least offended or embarrassed.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Haven't I ever told you that I was here before?
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Not alone, of course. I came to tea then, too.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: Old Mrs. Weidinghoff was here and Mama. Wait, some member
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: of my family was with me. Fred, who was with
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: me when I had tea here before? A newspaper rustled
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: in the next room. What did you say, dear? Came
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Fred's voice. Idiot, she said in a low voice. Myra
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: laughed too. It was very easy to see through the
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: whole affair and take in at a glance the tangle
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: that a word had uncovered. She told herself that it
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: was all right, but she did not feel any sincere pleasure.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Her feelings said to her, Go, you are superfluous here,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: perhaps even in the way. You are playing a part
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: which has been forced upon you and which doesn't suit you.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: but she would have scolded herself for being a silly
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: prude if she had given in to this feeling and gone.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Gwen put her arm around Myra and drew her toward
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: the door.' What does Fred mean?' she asked as she
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: stood in the door.' I don't recall that we ever
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: herded swine together.' Fred laid down the paper with some embarrassment.'
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Why the image, Miss Peters? I trust you will pardon
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: me for glancing at the paper a moment while you
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: ladies were out of the room.' Have I absentmindedly said
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: something improper? Gwen sat on the arm of a leather
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: chair and dangled her legs. Improper? Oh no, it's all right,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: she said magnanimously. You only addressed me familiarly through an error.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: You are so accustomed to having visitors whom you address
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: familiarly that it never even occurs to you to do
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: anything else. Moreover, I just observed in the next room
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: that you are an idiot. which clarifies matters perfectly. Fred
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: bowed slightly. But my dear Miss Rudloff, he turned to Myra,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: let us make the extraordinary and highly improbable assumption that
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: I did not make a mistake in identity, but really
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: blurted something out, as they say. It would simply be
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: a further proof of how much inferior men are to
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: women in the arts of lying and deception. A woman
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: simply could not blurt out something and address someone familiarly.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: She simply couldn't carry damaging letters around in her coat
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: pocket for a week, just because she forgot to take
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: them out and destroy them. She simply couldn't be trapped
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: under any circumstances. But a man is so simple, so transparent,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: so trusting, so innocent. His manner was intentionally sanctimonious. Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho!
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Gwen interrupted. Stop, my friend. The woman may be more discreet,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: more distrustful, more anxious, but only because she has more
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: to fear. Once let a man get caught, let him
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: be observed, or let him blurt out something, or let
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: his correspondence be found, what then? He denies it. With
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: a coolness, with a face as if well with cheek
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: in short. I know hundreds of cases. From your own experience? No,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: thank God. It simply couldn't happen to me in any case.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: But let me go on. You're just afraid that I'll
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: say something to the point. And that's why you're trying
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: to get me off the track. Why should I be afraid?
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: Because you're vain like all men. In the first place,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: you don't like anybody but you to say something good.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: And in the second, you don't like to feel that
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: somebody sees through and through you. But you haven't let
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: me go on. I was going to say, why should
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: I be afraid that you would say something good, something
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: to the point? The fear would not be well-founded. Oh Myra,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: he's common. Don't you think he's simply frightfully common to
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: talk to me like that? But I'm going to say
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: just what I wanted now, straight out. I know hundreds
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: of cases of men who deceive their wives. And when
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: the wife thinks she has finally got some irrefutable proof
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: in her hands, when she has jealously watched her husband
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: for weeks, and has finally seen him or found a letter,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: what happens then? Then the husband explains that his wife
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: is blind or stupid, she is mistaken. or it was
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Miss Mayer with whom she saw him, or the letter
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: is quite innocent, or it is a practical joke on
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: the part of a crony. He goes into a rage
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: or he laughs. In any event, he's in the right.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: I'm astonished. Fred leaned far back in his easy chair,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: crossed his legs, joined his fingertips and shook his head
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: at her. I am astonished. Such fullness of wisdom and
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: such a little curly head. You must have had all
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: the assembled washwomen, Cooks and children's maids of all your
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: acquaintances instruct you in their marital experiences. Good heavens! Gwen's
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: delicate nostrils twitched contemptuously, as if the upper ten were
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: any different. To be sure, they call their hangout a club,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: but they deceive their wives just the same. Those less
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: decent souls accept it, said Fred in his measured way,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: who do not marry in order to escape that embarrassment.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: But may I add an observation to your argument, young lady?
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: Why is the husband believed when he offers the most
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: threadbare explanations, when he declares the most striking proof of
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: his infidelity to be innocent? Because women are so anxious
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: to believe. Why do the wives look for proofs? Because
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: they want divorces? Oh no, because they want their fears quieted.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: How is a matter of no moment? There is no
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: more ghastly bare brutality than to tell a jealous woman
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: to her face. You are quite right, I love somebody else.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: A fig for the man who could do such a thing.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: But why are women so petty and so, so horribly silly?
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Ask Gwen, her face blazing. Why do they let themselves
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: be deceived and rejoice when they are deceived still further?
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: Fred joined his fingertips and reflected for a moment. Perhaps
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: it can be explained in a single sentence. he said
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: with a rather malicious smile. Women always love most that
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: which is closest to them, and men that which is
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: farthest from them. Or to put it more clearly, a
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: woman loves that man the most who has most often
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: possessed her, and a man loves that woman the most
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: whom he will never possess. A shade of melancholy passed
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: quickly over his face. Shall we look at some illustrations?
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: he asked springing up. Have you any special preferences? Dor
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: or Rackham, Cornelius of Beiros? They're all here. See, this
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: is beautiful. Do you feel the same enjoyment in handling buckskin?
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Or do you understand anyone's taking a really insane delight
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: in it? Just feel this. He handed Myra a flexible
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: volume in red leather. Isn't it splendid? Yes, it's just
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: like velvet, said Gwen Crossley, swinging her dangling legs faster. Velvet.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: He shrugged his shoulders indignantly. This low little person is
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: trying to provoke me. There are silly people who mean
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: to flatter such leather by saying it's like velvet. As
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: a result, I have a real aversion to velvet. It
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: always gives me a horrible dusty feeling under my fingertips.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Myra opened the book. Her glance chanced on the graceful
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: curlicues of an illustrator whose peculiar style was unfamiliar to her.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: For God's sake! Fred laid both hands with fingers spread
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: on the pages of the book. You may feel the books,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: but you mustn't look at the pictures. They are not
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: for young ladies. Afterwards, you'll tell Auntie that I've been
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: showing you improper pictures, but I really have young ladies'
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: books in my library and only keep this single volume
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: because of its beautiful binding. Are they pictures that one
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: shouldn't look at? asked Myra calmly. I know a great
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: many such and they always fascinate me. Of course, you
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: may look at them. Fred took his hands away and
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: drew himself up. I was only jesting. Any sensible person
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: may look at and enjoy them. Look at them as
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: much as you like. Moreover, the book is a rarity.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: It has been suppressed. You probably know that the illustrator
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: has been banished. No, said Myra in surprise. I didn't
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: know it. But why? She eagerly snatched at any subject
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: of conversation that would permit her to take her eyes
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: from the book. She was rather afraid to turn over
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: the page, and even more afraid, if anything, of appearing
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: prudish and cowardly if she put it down without looking
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: through it. So she laid it open on her knees,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: glancing rather deliberately in the other direction, for example at
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Fred's assured and reassuring face. Why? Fred shrugged his shoulders.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: Probably a temperance union would expel Cotanillanos too. Not because
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: he drinks but because he manufactures paprika and paprika helps
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: along the thirst. Mankind is divided into four classes. Two
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: of these classes the extremes belong together. The first class,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: sequence has nothing to do with rank or I would
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: begin elsewhere, are those who thirst but do not drink.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: They are the happy ones. The second class comprises those
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: who have thirst but nothing to drink. They are the revolutionists.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: The third class. Those who have all they can drink
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: but are not thirsty. The hypocrites and the bourgeois. The
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: fourth class. Those who drink and who are thirsty. They
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: are the happiest of all. Then, of course, there are
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: numerous smaller subdivisions. For example, those who stand before a
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: spring but cannot drink because they have no glass. Or
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: those who drink and suffer stomach aches afterwards. Or those
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: who have a perfectly marvelous thirst. but eat something hot
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: anyway so that the hock will taste all the better afterwards.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: Or those who sit in a wine cellar and go
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: thirsty because there is no white burgundy. And there are
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: people to whom champagne only tastes good mixed with port,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: or with Angostura, who like the sweetness only because there
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: is a trace of bitterness along with it. Or people
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: who pour dark and pale wines together, who mix heavy
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: warm Bordeaux with thin blooded bubbling champagne in order to
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: make it fizz. Ah yes, there are Tiplers of all
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: sorts and each believes that his taste is the best.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Here is Frederick the Great with Menzel's illustrations. That looks
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: better in your thoughtful hands. But first and foremost, there's
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: our tea inside, gentle, mild, friendly, thought-provoking tea. It will
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: stimulate us to more profitable conversation. This way, ladies. When
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: two hours had passed, it was Gwen and not Myra
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: who first glanced at her watch and said that they
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: must go. Fred helped them on with their coaching. and
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: kissed their hands in gratitude. They had to promise to
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: come soon again. Myra promised gladly. The distinguished beauty of
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: these rooms fascinated her. And Fred made a good impression
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: like most people when seen among his own things. She
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: looked forward with pleasure to the next chat they would
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: have together. All the fear that had originally restrained her
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: had disappeared. But as she opened the heavy street door,
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: she started and turned pale with terror. For God's sake, Gwen,
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: stay back. Your uncle, Senator Borgeson, is passing. Suppose he
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: sees us. What shall we tell him if he asks
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: us where we're coming from? From the dentist, said Gwen
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: with a laugh, pushing Myra out onto the street. People
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: like Fred always live in houses where there are dentists.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: But Borgeson. Why should I be afraid of Borgeson? He
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: has at least as much reason to be afraid of
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: me as I of him. The whole town knows that
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: he has an affair with his cook. Moreover, he goes
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: to the city every three weeks and throws away his
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: money gambling. He can't do it so well here. His
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: money and Aunt Fanchette's. Poor Aunt Fanchette. but she smells
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: of sweat from the armpit spur. Haven't you ever noticed it?
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: Such women deserve their fate. The air was full of
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: early spring. There had been terrible storms so that one
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: could not sleep at night, but sat up in bed
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: with a beating heart and listened to the clatter of
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: the tiles on the roof, to the shaking of the windows,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: and the banging of doors and thought with a shiver
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: of the ships at sea. Suddenly the storms had stopped
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: for breath. So abruptly, so without warning. that the silence
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: was even more uncanny than the commotion. The air was heavy,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: full of sunlight and sweetness, and a strange fragrance as
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: if it had been born over fields of hyacinths and
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: had never known tar, fish or salt water. The people
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: on the street looked at each other as if to say, Well,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: what on earth do you think of the weather? And
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: wherever two acquaintances met on the street, in the streetcar
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: or in a shop, they said, Well, what on earth
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: do you think of the weather? And all who heard it,
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: made an effort to conceal a smile on their wooden faces,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: for they had just heard their innermost thoughts revealed. Myra
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: could not conceal her smile. But there was something so ingratiating,
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: so deluding, about this still soft air, this caressing sunlight,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: all this quite improbable and impossible spring, that she was
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: suffused with a warm happiness which sought some expression. And
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: as she could not sing, she smiled. This was not
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: occasioned by the spring alone. It was the feeling too
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: that she could endure the spring without suffering. She felt well,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: like someone who moves his limbs for the first time
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: after a long illness and thinks every breath is a
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: heavenly grace. I'm well again, she told herself over and
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: over like the refrain of a song. I'm well again,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: well again.