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The Shuttle Chapter 48 - The Moment · The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library

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Speaker 1: CHAPTER XLVIII. THE MOMENT In the unnatural unbearableness of her
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Speaker 1: anguish she lost sight of objects as she passed them.
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Speaker 1: She lost all memory of what she did. She did
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Speaker 1: not know how long she had been out, or how
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Speaker 1: far she had ridden. When the thought of time or
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Speaker 1: distance vaguely flitted across her mind, it seemed that she
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Speaker 1: had been riding for hours, and might have crossed one
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Speaker 1: county and entered another. She had long left familiar places behind.
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Speaker 1: Riding through and enclosed by the mist, she herself might
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Speaker 1: have been a wandering ghost lost in unknown places. Where
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Speaker 1: was he now? Where was he now? Afterward she could
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Speaker 1: not tell how or when it was that she found
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Speaker 1: herself becoming conscious of the evidences that her horse had
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Speaker 1: been ridden too long and hard, and that he was
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Speaker 1: worn out with fatigue. She did not know that she
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Speaker 1: had ridden round and round over the marshes, and had
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Speaker 1: passed several times through the same lanes. Childe Harold, the
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Speaker 1: sure of foot, actually stumbled out of sheer weariness of limb.
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Speaker 1: Perhaps it was this which brought her back to earth,
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Speaker 1: and led her to look around her with eyes which
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Speaker 1: saw material objects with comprehension. She had reached the lonely
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Speaker 1: places indeed, and the evening was drawing on. She was
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Speaker 1: at the edge of the marsh, and the land about
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Speaker 1: her was strange to her and desolate. At the side
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Speaker 1: of a steep lane, overgrown with grass and seeming a
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Speaker 1: mere cart-path, stood a deserted-looking black-and-white timbered cottage which was
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Speaker 1: half a ruin. Close to it was a dripping spinny,
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Speaker 1: its trees forming a darkling background to the tumbledown house,
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Speaker 1: whose thatch was rotting into holes and its walls sagging
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Speaker 1: forward perilously. The bit of garden about it was neglected
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Speaker 1: and untidy. Here and there windows were broken and stuffed
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Speaker 1: with pieces of ragged garments.' altogether a sinister and repellent
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Speaker 1: place enough. She looked at it with heavy eyes. Where
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Speaker 1: was he now, where was he now, this repeating itself
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Speaker 1: in the far chambers of her brain? Her sight seemed dimmed,
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Speaker 1: not only by the mist, but by a sinking faintness
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Speaker 1: which possessed her. She did not remember how little food
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Speaker 1: she had eaten during more than twenty-four hours. Her habit
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Speaker 1: was heavy with moisture, and clung to her body, She
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Speaker 1: was conscious of a hot tremor passing over her, and
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Speaker 1: saw that her hand shook as they held the bridle
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Speaker 1: on which they had lost their grip. She had never
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Speaker 1: fainted in her life, and she was not going to
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Speaker 1: faint now. Women did not faint in these days, but
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Speaker 1: she must reach the cottage and dismount to rest under
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Speaker 1: shelter for a short time. No smoke was rising from
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Speaker 1: the chimney, but surely someone was living in the place
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Speaker 1: and could tell her where she was, and give her
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Speaker 1: at least water for herself and her horse. Poor beast!'
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Speaker 1: How wickedly she must have been riding him in her
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Speaker 1: utter absorption in her thoughts. He was wet, not alone
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Speaker 1: with rain, but with sweat. He snorted out hot, smoking breaths.
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Speaker 1: She spoke to him, and he moved forward at her command.
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Speaker 1: He was trembling, too. Not more than two hundred yards,
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Speaker 1: and she turned him into the lane. But it was
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Speaker 1: wet and slippery and strewn with stones. His trembling and
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Speaker 1: her uncertain hold on the bridle combined to produce disaster.
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Speaker 1: he set his foot upon a stone which slid beneath it,
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Speaker 1: he stumbled, and she could not help him to recover,
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Speaker 1: so he fell, and only by heaven's mercy not upon
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Speaker 1: her with his crushing big-boned weight, and she was able
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Speaker 1: to drag herself free of him before he began to
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Speaker 1: kick in his humiliated efforts to rise. But he could
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Speaker 1: not rise because he was hurt, and when she herself
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Speaker 1: got up she staggered and caught at the broken gate,
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Speaker 1: because in her wrenching leap for safety she had twisted
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Speaker 1: her ankle, and for a moment was in cruel pain.
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Speaker 1: When she recovered from her shock sufficiently to be able
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Speaker 1: to look at the cottage, she saw that it was
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Speaker 1: more of a ruin than it had seemed, even at
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Speaker 1: a short distance. Its door hung open on broken hinges,
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Speaker 1: no smoke rose from the chimney, because there was no
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Speaker 1: one within its walls to light a fire. It was
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Speaker 1: quite empty. Everything about the place lay in dead and
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Speaker 1: utter silence. In a normal mood she would have liked
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Speaker 1: the mystery of the situation— and would have set about
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Speaker 1: planning her way out of her difficulty. But now her
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Speaker 1: mind made no effort, because normal interest in things had
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Speaker 1: fallen away from her. She might be twenty miles from Stornham,
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Speaker 1: but the possible fact did not at the moment seem
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Speaker 1: to concern her. Where is he now? Where is he now?
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Speaker 1: Childe Harold was trying to rise despite his hurt, and
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Speaker 1: his evident determination touched her. He was too proud to
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Speaker 1: lie in the mire. She limped to him and tried
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Speaker 1: to steady him by his bridle. He was not badly injured,
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Speaker 1: though plainly in pain.' Poor boy, it was my fault,'
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Speaker 1: she said to him as he at last struggled to
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Speaker 1: his feet.' I did not know I was doing it.
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Speaker 1: Poor boy!' He turned a velvet dark eye upon her
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Speaker 1: and nosed her forgivingly with a warm velvet muzzle, but
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Speaker 1: it was plain that for the time he was done for.
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Speaker 1: They both moved haltingly to the broken gate, and Betty
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Speaker 1: fastened him to a thorn tree near it, where he
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Speaker 1: stood on three feet, his fine head drooping. She pushed
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Speaker 1: the gate open and went into the house through the
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Speaker 1: door which hung on its hinges. Once inside, she stood
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Speaker 1: still and looked about her. If there was silence and
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Speaker 1: desolateness outside, there was within the deserted place a stillness
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Speaker 1: like the unresponsive death. It had been long since anyone
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Speaker 1: had lived in the cottage, but tramps or gypsies had
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Speaker 1: at times passed through it. Dead blackened embers lay on
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Speaker 1: the hearth, A bundle of dried grass which had been
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Speaker 1: slept on was piled in the corner. An empty nail-keg
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Speaker 1: and a wooden box had been drawn before the big
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Speaker 1: chimney-place for some wanderer to sit on when the black
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Speaker 1: embers had been hot and red. Betty gave one glance
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Speaker 1: around her, and sat down upon the box standing on
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Speaker 1: the bare hearth, her head sinking forward, her hands falling
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Speaker 1: clasped between her knees, her eyes on the brick floor.'
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Speaker 1: Where is he now?' broke from her in a loud whisper,
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Speaker 1: whose sound was mechanical and hollow. is he now and
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Speaker 1: she sat there without moving while the grey mist from
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Speaker 1: the marshes crept close about the door and through it
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Speaker 1: and stole about her feet so she sat long long
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Speaker 1: in a heavy far-off dream along the road a man
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Speaker 1: was riding with a lowering fretted face he had come
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Speaker 1: across country on horseback because to travel by train meant
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Speaker 1: wearisome stops and changes and endlessly slow journeying annoying beyond
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Speaker 1: endurance to those who have not patience to spare His
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Speaker 1: ride would have been pleasant enough, but for the slow,
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Speaker 1: mist-like rain. Also, he had taken a wrong turning, because
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Speaker 1: he did not know the roads he travelled. The last
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Speaker 1: sign-post he had passed, however, had given him his cue again,
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Speaker 1: and he began to feel something of security. Confound the rain!
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Speaker 1: The best road was slippery with it, and the haze
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Speaker 1: of it made a man's mind feel befogged and lowered
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Speaker 1: his spirits horribly, discouraged him, would worry him into an ill-humour,
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Speaker 1: even if he had reason to be in a good one.
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Speaker 1: As for him, he had no reason for cheerfulness. He
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Speaker 1: never had for the matter of that, and just now—
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Speaker 1: What was the matter with his horse? He was lifting
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Speaker 1: his head and sniffing the damp air restlessly, as if
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Speaker 1: he scented or saw something. Beasts often seem to have
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Speaker 1: a sort of second sight, horses particularly. What ailed him
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Speaker 1: that he should pick up his ears and snort after
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Speaker 1: his sniffing the mist? Did he hear anything? Yes, he did,
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Speaker 1: it seemed. He gave forth suddenly a loud, shrill whinny,
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Speaker 1: turning his head toward the rough lane they were approaching,
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Speaker 1: and immediately from the vicinity of a deserted-looking cottage behind
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Speaker 1: a hedge came a sharp but mournful-sounding neigh in answer.'
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Speaker 1: Whose horse is that?' said Nigel Anstruthers, drawing in at
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Speaker 1: the entrance to the lane and looking down it.' There
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Speaker 1: is a fine brute with a side-saddle on,' he added sharply.'
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Speaker 1: He is waiting for someone. What is a woman doing
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Speaker 1: there at this time?'' Is it a rendezvous, a good place?'
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Speaker 1: He broke off short and rode forward.' I' m hanged if
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Speaker 1: it's not Charles Harold,' he broke out, and he had
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Speaker 1: no sooner assured himself of the fact than he threw
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Speaker 1: himself from the saddle, tethered his horse, and strode up
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Speaker 1: the path to the broken hinged door. He stood on
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Speaker 1: the threshold and stared. What a hole it was, what
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Speaker 1: a hole! And there she sat, alone, eighteen or twenty
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Speaker 1: miles from home, on a turned-up box near the black embers,
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Speaker 1: her hands clasped loosely between her knees, her face rather awful,
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Speaker 1: her eyes staring at the floor as if she did
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Speaker 1: not see it.' Where is he now?' he heard her
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Speaker 1: whisper to herself with soft weirdness.' Where is he now?'
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Speaker 1: Sir Nigel stepped into the place and stood before her.
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Speaker 1: He had smiled with a wry unpleasantness when he had
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Speaker 1: heard her evidently unconscious words.' My good girl,' he said.
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Speaker 1: I am sure I do not know where he is,
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Speaker 1: but it is very evident that he ought to be here,
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Speaker 1: since you have amiably put yourself to such trouble. It
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Speaker 1: is fortunate for you, perhaps, that I am here before him.
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Speaker 1: What does this mean?' The question breaking from him with
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Speaker 1: savage authority. He had dragged her back to earth. She
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Speaker 1: sat upright and recognised him with a hideous sense of shock,
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Speaker 1: but he did not give her time to speak. His
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Speaker 1: instinct of male fury leapt within him.' You!' he cried out.
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Speaker 1: It takes a woman like you to come and hide
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Speaker 1: herself in a place of this sort, like a trolloping
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Speaker 1: gypsy wench. It takes a New York millionaireess or a
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Speaker 1: Roman empress or one of Charles II's duchesses to plunge
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Speaker 1: as deep as this. You with your golden pedestal, you
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Speaker 1: with your ostentatious airs and graces, you with your condescending
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Speaker 1: to give a man a chance to repent his sins
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Speaker 1: and turn over a new leaf. Damn it! rising to
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Speaker 1: a sort of frenzy.' What are you doing, waiting in
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Speaker 1: a hole like this, in this weather, at this hour? You, you!'
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Speaker 1: The fool's flame leapt high enough to make him start
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Speaker 1: forward as if to seize her by the shoulder and
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Speaker 1: shake her. But she rose and stepped back to lean
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Speaker 1: against the side of the chimney to brace herself against
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Speaker 1: it so that she could stand in her lame foot's despite.
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Speaker 1: Every drop of blood had been swept from her face
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Speaker 1: and her eyes looked immense. His coming was a good
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Speaker 1: thing for her, though she didn't know it. It brought
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Speaker 1: her back from unearthly places. All her child-hatred woke and
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Speaker 1: blazed in her. Never had she hated a thing so,
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Speaker 1: and it set her slow cold blood running like something molten.'
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Speaker 1: Hold your tongue,' she said in a clear, awful young
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Speaker 1: voice of warning,' and take care not to touch me.
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Speaker 1: If you do, I have my whip here. I shall
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Speaker 1: lash you across your mouth.' He broke into ribald laughter.
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Speaker 1: A certain sudden thought, which had cut into him like
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Speaker 1: a knife thrust into flesh, drove him on.' Do!' he cried.'
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Speaker 1: I should like to carry your mark back to Stornham
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Speaker 1: and tell people why it was given. I know who
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Speaker 1: you're here for. Only such fellows are such things of women.
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Speaker 1: But he was determined to be safe if you hid
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Speaker 1: in a ditch. You were here for Mount Dunstan, and
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Speaker 1: he's failed you.' But she only stood and stared at him,
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Speaker 1: holding her whip behind her, knowing that at any moment
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Speaker 1: he might snatch it from her hand. and she knew
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Speaker 1: how poor a weapon it was, to strike out with
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Speaker 1: it would only infuriate him and make him a wild beast,
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Speaker 1: and it was becoming an agony to stand upon her foot,
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Speaker 1: and even if it had not been so, if she
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Speaker 1: had been strong enough to make a leap and dash
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Speaker 1: past him, her horse stood outside disabled. Nigel Anstruthers' eyes
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Speaker 1: ran over her from head to foot, down the side
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Speaker 1: of her mud-stained habit, while a curious light dawned in them.'
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Speaker 1: You have had a fall from your horse,' he exclaimed.'
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Speaker 1: You' re lame!' then quickly. That was why Childe Harold was
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Speaker 1: trembling and standing on three feet. By Jove! Then he
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Speaker 1: sat down on the nail-keg and began to laugh. He
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Speaker 1: laughed for a full minute, but she saw he did
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Speaker 1: not take his eyes from her.' You are in as
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Speaker 1: unpleasant a situation as a young woman can well be,'
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Speaker 1: he said when he stopped.' You came to a dirty
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Speaker 1: hole to be alone with a man who felt it
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Speaker 1: safest not to keep his appointment. Your horse stumbled and
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Speaker 1: disabled himself, and you—' You are twenty miles from home
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Speaker 1: in a deserted cottage in a lane no one passes down,
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Speaker 1: even in good weather. You are frightened to death, and
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Speaker 1: you have given me even a better story to play
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Speaker 1: with than your sister gave me. By Jove!' His face
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Speaker 1: was an unholy thing to look upon. The situation and
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Speaker 1: her powerlessness were exciting him.' No,' she answered, keeping her
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Speaker 1: eyes on his, as she might have kept them on
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Speaker 1: some wild animals,' I am not frightened to death.' His
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Speaker 1: ugly dark flush rose.' Well, if you're not,' he said,
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Speaker 1: 'don't tell me. That kind of defiance is not your
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Speaker 1: best line just now. You have been disdaining me from
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Speaker 1: magnificent New York Heights for some time. Do you think
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Speaker 1: that I'm not enjoying this?' I cannot imagine anyone else
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Speaker 1: who would enjoy it so much.' And she knew the
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Speaker 1: answer was daring, but would have made it if he
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Speaker 1: had held a knife's point at her throat. He got
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Speaker 1: up and, walking to the door, drew it back on
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Speaker 1: its crazy hinges and managed to shut it close. There
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Speaker 1: was a big wooden bolt inside, and he forced it
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Speaker 1: into its socket.' Presently I shall go and put the
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Speaker 1: horses into the cow-shed,' he said.' If I leave them
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Speaker 1: standing outside they'll attract attention. I do not intend to
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Speaker 1: be disturbed by any gypsy tramp who wants shelter. I
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Speaker 1: have never had you quite to myself before.' He sat
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Speaker 1: down again and nursed his knee gracefully.' And I have
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Speaker 1: never seen you look as attractive,' biting his underlip in
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Speaker 1: cynical enjoyment. Today's adventure has aroused your emotions and actually
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Speaker 1: beautified you, which was not necessary. I dare say you
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Speaker 1: have been furious and have cried. Your eyes do not
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Speaker 1: look like mere eyes, but like splendid blue pools of tears.
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Speaker 1: Perhaps I shall make you cry sometime, my dear Betty. No,
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Speaker 1: you will not. Don't tempt me. Women always cry when
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Speaker 1: men annoy them. They rage, but they cry as well.
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Speaker 1: I shall not.' It is true that most women would
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Speaker 1: have begun to cry before this.' That' s what stimulates me.'
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Speaker 1: You will swagger to the end.' You put the devil
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Speaker 1: into me.' Half an hour ago I was jogging along
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Speaker 1: the road languid and bored to extinction,' and now—' he
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Speaker 1: laughed outright in actual exultation.' By Jove!' he cried out.'
14:30
Speaker 1: Things like this don't happen to a man in these
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Speaker 1: dull days.' There' s no such luck going about.' We' ve gone
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Speaker 1: back five hundred years and we've taken New York with us.'
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Speaker 1: His laugh shut off in the middle, and he got
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Speaker 1: up to thrust his heavy congested face close to hers.'
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Speaker 1: Here you are, as safe as if you were in
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Speaker 1: a feudal castle, and here is your ancient enemy given
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Speaker 1: his chance, given his chance. Do you think by the
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Speaker 1: Lord he is going to give it up? No, to
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Speaker 1: quote your own words, you may place entire confidence in that.'
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Speaker 1: Exaggerated as it all was, somehow the melodrama dropped away
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Speaker 1: from it and left bare simple hideous fact for her
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Speaker 1: to confront. The evil in him had risen rampant and
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Speaker 1: made him lose his head. He might see his senseless
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Speaker 1: folly to-morrow, and know he must pay for it, but
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Speaker 1: he would not see it to-day. The place was not
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Speaker 1: a feudal castle, but what he said was insurmountable truth.
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Speaker 1: A ruined cottage on the edge of miles of marshland,
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Speaker 1: a seldom trodden road, and night upon them. A wind
15:31
Speaker 1: was rising on the marshes now, and making low, steady moan.
15:35
Speaker 1: Horrible things had happened to women before— One heard of
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Speaker 1: them with shudders when they were recorded in the newspapers.
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Speaker 1: Only two days ago she had remembered that sometimes there
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Speaker 1: seemed blunderings in the great scheme of things. Was all
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Speaker 1: this real, or was she dreaming that she stood here
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Speaker 1: at bay, her back against the chimney-wall, and this degenerate
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Speaker 1: exulting over her, while Rosie was waiting for her at Stornham,
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Speaker 1: and at this very hour her father was planning his
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Speaker 1: journey across the Atlantic? Why did you not behave yourself?
16:06
Speaker 1: demanded Nigel Anstruthers, shaking her by the shoulder. Why did
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Speaker 1: you not realise that I should get even with you
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Speaker 1: one day, as sure as you were woman and I
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Speaker 1: was man? She did not shrink back, though the pupils
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Speaker 1: of her eyes dilated. Was it the wildest thing in
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Speaker 1: the world which happened to her, or was it not?
16:25
Speaker 1: Without warning, the sudden rush of a thought, immense and strange,
16:29
Speaker 1: swept over her body and soul and possessed her. 'so
16:31
Speaker 1: possessed her that it changed her pallor to white flame.'
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Speaker 1: It was actually Anstruthers who shrank back a shade' because
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Speaker 1: for the moment she looked so near unearthly.' I am
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Speaker 1: not afraid of you,' she said in a clear, unshaken voice.'
16:45
Speaker 1: I am not afraid.' Something is near me which will
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Speaker 1: stand between us, 'something which died to-day.'' He almost gasped
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Speaker 1: before the strangeness of it,' but caught back his breath
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Speaker 1: and recovered himself.'' Died to-day, that's recent enough,' he jeered.'
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Speaker 1: Let' s hear about it. Who was it?'' It was Mount Dunstan,'
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Speaker 1: she flung at him.' The church bells were tolling for
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Speaker 1: him when I rode away.' I could not stay to
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Speaker 1: hear them.' It killed me. I loved him.' You were
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Speaker 1: right when you said it.' I loved him, though he
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Speaker 1: never knew.' I shall always love him, though he never knew.'
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Speaker 1: He knows now.' Those who died cannot go away when
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Speaker 1: that is holding them. They must stay, because I loved him,
17:28
Speaker 1: he may be in this place. I call on him,
17:31
Speaker 1: raising her clear voice, I call on him to stand
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Speaker 1: between us.' He backed away from her, staring an evil
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Speaker 1: and raptured stare.' What, there is that much temperament in you?'
17:43
Speaker 1: he said.' That was what I half suspected when I
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Speaker 1: saw you first.' but you have hidden it well. Now
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Speaker 1: it bursts forth in spite of you. Good Lord, what luck,
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Speaker 1: what luck!' He moved to the door and opened it.'
17:56
Speaker 1: I am a very modern man, and I enjoy this
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Speaker 1: to the utmost,' he said.' What I like best is
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Speaker 1: the melodrama of it, in connection with Fifth Avenue. I
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Speaker 1: am perfectly aware that you will not discuss this incident
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Speaker 1: in the future. You are a clever enough young woman
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Speaker 1: to know that it will be more to your interest
18:13
Speaker 1: than to mine that it should be kept exceedingly quiet.'
18:18
Speaker 1: The white fire had not died out of her, and
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Speaker 1: she stood straight.' What I have called on will be
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Speaker 1: near me, and will stand between us,' she said. Old
18:28
Speaker 1: though it was, the door was massive and heavy to lift.
18:30
Speaker 1: To open it cost him some muscular effort.' I am
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Speaker 1: going to the horses now,' he explained, before he dragged
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Speaker 1: it back into its frame and shut her in.' It
18:39
Speaker 1: is safe enough to leave you here. You will stay
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Speaker 1: where you are.' He felt himself secure in leaving her,
18:46
Speaker 1: because he believed she could not move and because his
18:48
Speaker 1: arrogance made it impossible for him to count on strength
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Speaker 1: and endurance greater than his own. Of endurance he knew nothing,
18:55
Speaker 1: and in his keen and cynical exultance his devil made
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Speaker 1: a fool of him. As she heard him walk down
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Speaker 1: the path to the gate, Betty stood amazed at his
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Speaker 1: lack of comprehension of her.' He thinks I will stay here.
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Speaker 1: He absolutely thinks I will wait until he comes back,'
19:11
Speaker 1: she whispered to the emptiness of the bare room. Before
19:15
Speaker 1: he had arrived she had loosened her boot, and now
19:17
Speaker 1: she stooped and touched her foot. If I were safe
19:21
Speaker 1: at home I should think I could not walk, but
19:23
Speaker 1: I can walk now. I can, I can, because I
19:26
Speaker 1: will bear the pain. In such cottages there is always
19:30
Speaker 1: a door opening outside from the little bricked kitchen where
19:33
Speaker 1: the copper stands. She would reach that, and passing through
19:36
Speaker 1: would close it behind her. After that something would tell
19:39
Speaker 1: her what to do, something would lead her. She put
19:43
Speaker 1: her lame foot upon the floor and rested some of
19:45
Speaker 1: her weight upon it, not all. A jagged pain shot
19:49
Speaker 1: up from it through her whole side, it seemed, and
19:51
Speaker 1: for an instant she swayed and ground her teeth.' That
19:55
Speaker 1: is because it is the first step,' she said.' But
19:57
Speaker 1: if I am to be killed, I will die in
19:59
Speaker 1: the open. I will die in the open.' The second
20:03
Speaker 1: and third steps brought cold sweat out upon her, but
20:06
Speaker 1: she told herself that the fourth was not quite so unbearable,
20:09
Speaker 1: and she stiffened her whole body and muttered some words
20:12
Speaker 1: while she took a fifth and sixth, which carried her
20:15
Speaker 1: into the tiny back kitchen.' Father,' she said,' Father, think
20:19
Speaker 1: of me now, think of me. Rosie, love me, love me,
20:22
Speaker 1: and pray that I may come home. You, you who
20:25
Speaker 1: have died, stand very near.' If her father ever held
20:29
Speaker 1: her safe in his arms again, if she ever awoke
20:32
Speaker 1: from this nightmare, it would be a thing never to
20:34
Speaker 1: let one's mind hark back to again, to shut out
20:37
Speaker 1: of memory with iron doors. The pane had shot up
20:41
Speaker 1: and down, and her forehead was wet by the time
20:44
Speaker 1: she had reached the small back door. Was it locked
20:46
Speaker 1: or bolted? Was it? She put her hand gently upon
20:50
Speaker 1: the latch and lifted it without making any sound. Thank
20:53
Speaker 1: God Almighty, it was neither bolted nor locked. The latch lifted,
20:57
Speaker 1: the door opened, and she slid through it into the
21:00
Speaker 1: shadow of the grey, which was already almost the darkness
21:03
Speaker 1: of night. Thank God for that, too. She flattened herself
21:07
Speaker 1: against the outside wall and listened. He was having difficulty
21:11
Speaker 1: in managing Childe Harold, who snorted and pulled back, offended
21:14
Speaker 1: and made rebellious by his savagely impatient hand. Good Childe Harold,
21:19
Speaker 1: good boy! She could see the massed outline of the
21:22
Speaker 1: trees of the spinny, if she could bear this long
21:24
Speaker 1: enough to get there, even if she crawled part of
21:27
Speaker 1: the way. Then it darted through her mind that he
21:29
Speaker 1: would guess that she would be sure to make for
21:31
Speaker 1: its cover, and that he would go there first to search. Father,
21:36
Speaker 1: think for me, you were so quick to think, her
21:38
Speaker 1: brain cried out for her, as if she were speaking
21:41
Speaker 1: to one who could physically hear. She almost feared she
21:44
Speaker 1: had spoken aloud, and the thought which flashed upon her
21:46
Speaker 1: like lightning seemed to be an answer given. He would
21:49
Speaker 1: be convinced that she would at once try to get
21:52
Speaker 1: away from the house. If she kept near it, somewhere,
21:55
Speaker 1: somewhere quite close, and let him search the spinny, she
21:58
Speaker 1: might get away to its cover after he gave up
22:00
Speaker 1: the search and came back. The jagged pain had settled
22:03
Speaker 1: in a sort of impossible anguish, and once or twice
22:06
Speaker 1: she felt sick, but she would die in the open,
22:09
Speaker 1: and she knew Rosalie was frightened by her absence and
22:12
Speaker 1: was praying for her. Prayers counted, and yet they had
22:15
Speaker 1: all prayed yesterday.' If I were not very strong I
22:18
Speaker 1: should faint,' she thought,' but I have been strong all
22:21
Speaker 1: my life. That great French doctor, I have forgotten his name,
22:25
Speaker 1: said that I had the physique to endure anything.' She
22:28
Speaker 1: said these things that she might gain steadiness and convince
22:31
Speaker 1: herself that she was not merely living through a nightmare.
22:34
Speaker 1: Twice she moved her foot suddenly because she found herself
22:37
Speaker 1: in a momentary respite from pain, beginning to believe that
22:40
Speaker 1: the thing was a nightmare, that nothing mattered, because she
22:43
Speaker 1: would wake up presently, so she need not try to hide.
22:47
Speaker 1: But in a nightmare one has no pain. It is real,
22:50
Speaker 1: and I must go somewhere, she said after the foot
22:53
Speaker 1: was moved. Where could she go? She had not looked
22:56
Speaker 1: at the place as she rode up. She had only
22:58
Speaker 1: half-consciously seen the spinny. Nigel was swearing at the horses.
23:02
Speaker 1: Having got child Harold into the shed, there seemed to
23:05
Speaker 1: be nothing to fasten his bridle to. And he had
23:08
Speaker 1: yet to bring his own horse in and secure him.
23:10
Speaker 1: She must get away somewhere before the delay was over.
23:14
Speaker 1: How dark it was growing! Thank God for that again!
23:17
Speaker 1: What was the rather high, dark object she could trace
23:20
Speaker 1: in the dimness near the hedge? It was sharply pointed,
23:23
Speaker 1: as if it were a narrow tent. Her heart began
23:26
Speaker 1: to beat like a drum as she recalled something. It
23:29
Speaker 1: was the shape of the sort of wigwam structure made
23:31
Speaker 1: of hop-poles after they were taken from the fields. If
23:35
Speaker 1: there was a space between it and the hedge, even
23:37
Speaker 1: a narrow space, and she could crouch there. Nigel was
23:41
Speaker 1: furious because Childe Harold was backing, plunging, and snorting dangerously.
23:45
Speaker 1: She halted forward, shutting her teeth in her terrible pain.
23:49
Speaker 1: She could scarcely see. and did not recognise that near
23:52
Speaker 1: the wigwam was a pile of hop-poles laid on top
23:54
Speaker 1: of each other horizontally. It was not quite as high
23:57
Speaker 1: as the hedge, whose dark background prevented its being seen.
24:01
Speaker 1: Only a few steps more. No, she was awake. In
24:05
Speaker 1: a nightmare one felt only terror, not pain.' You who
24:09
Speaker 1: died to-day!' she murmured. She saw the horizontal poles too late.
24:14
Speaker 1: One of them had rolled from its place and lay
24:16
Speaker 1: on the ground, and she trod on it, was thrown
24:18
Speaker 1: forward against the heap, and in her blind effort to
24:21
Speaker 1: recover herself slipped and fell into a narrow grassed hollow
24:24
Speaker 1: behind it, clutching at the hedge. The great French doctor
24:27
Speaker 1: had not been quite right. For the first time in
24:30
Speaker 1: her life she felt herself sinking into bottomless darkness, which
24:33
Speaker 1: was what happened to people when they fainted. When she
24:37
Speaker 1: opened her eyes she could see nothing, because on one
24:39
Speaker 1: side of her rose the low mass of the hop-poles,
24:42
Speaker 1: and on the other was the long untrimmed hedge, which
24:45
Speaker 1: had grown out of thick sheltering growth and curved above
24:48
Speaker 1: her like a penthouse. Was she awakening after all? No,
24:52
Speaker 1: because the pain was awakening with her, and she could
24:55
Speaker 1: hear what seemed at first to be quite loud sounds.
24:58
Speaker 1: She could not have been unconscious long, for she almost
25:01
Speaker 1: immediately recognized that they were the echo of a man's
25:04
Speaker 1: hurried footsteps upon the bare wooden stairway leading to the
25:07
Speaker 1: bedrooms in the empty house. Having secured the horses, Nigel
25:11
Speaker 1: had returned to the cottage, and finding her gone, had
25:13
Speaker 1: rushed to the upper floor in search of her. He
25:16
Speaker 1: was calling her name angrily, his voice resounding in the
25:18
Speaker 1: emptiness of the rooms.' Betty, don't play the fool with me!'
25:23
Speaker 1: She cautiously drew herself further under cover, making sure that
25:27
Speaker 1: no end of her habit remained in sight. The overgrowth
25:30
Speaker 1: of the hedge was her salvation. If she had seen
25:33
Speaker 1: the spot by daylight, she would not have thought it
25:35
Speaker 1: a possible place for concealment. Once she had read an
25:39
Speaker 1: account of a woman's frantic flight from a murderer who
25:41
Speaker 1: was hunting her to her death, while she slipped from
25:44
Speaker 1: one poor hiding-place to another, sometimes crouching behind walls or bushes,
25:49
Speaker 1: sometimes lying flat in long grass, once wading waist-deep through
25:53
Speaker 1: a stream, and at last finding a miserable little fastness
25:56
Speaker 1: where she hid shivering for hours until her enemy gave
25:59
Speaker 1: up his search. One never felt the reality of such histories,
26:03
Speaker 1: but there was actually a sort of parallel in this.
26:07
Speaker 1: Bad and crude things were let loose, and the world
26:09
Speaker 1: of ordinary life seemed thousands of miles away. She held
26:13
Speaker 1: her breath. for he was leaving the house by the
26:16
Speaker 1: front door. She heard his footsteps on the bricked path,
26:19
Speaker 1: and then in the lane. He went to the road,
26:22
Speaker 1: and the sound of his feet died away for a
26:23
Speaker 1: few moments. Then she heard them returning. He was back
26:27
Speaker 1: in the lane, on the bricked path, and stood listening,
26:30
Speaker 1: or perhaps reflecting. He muttered something exclamatory, and she heard
26:34
Speaker 1: a match struck, and shortly afterwards he moved across the
26:37
Speaker 1: garden patch towards the little spinny. He had thought of it,
26:40
Speaker 1: as she had believed he would. He would not think
26:43
Speaker 1: of this place, and in the end he might get
26:46
Speaker 1: tired or awaken to a sense of his lurid folly,
26:49
Speaker 1: and realise that it would be safer for him to
26:51
Speaker 1: go back to Stornham with some clever lie, trusting to
26:54
Speaker 1: his belief that there existed no girl but would shrink
26:56
Speaker 1: from telling such a story in connection with a man
26:59
Speaker 1: who would brazenly deny it with contemptuous dramatic detail. If
27:04
Speaker 1: he would but decide on this she would be safe,
27:07
Speaker 1: and it would be so like him that she dared
27:08
Speaker 1: to hope. But if he did not she would lie close,
27:12
Speaker 1: even if she must wait until morning, when some labourer's
27:15
Speaker 1: cart would surely pass, and she would hear it jolting,
27:18
Speaker 1: and drag herself out and call aloud, in such a
27:21
Speaker 1: way that no man could be deaf. There was more
27:24
Speaker 1: room under her hedge than she had thought, and she
27:27
Speaker 1: found that she could sit up by clasping her knees
27:29
Speaker 1: and bending her head, while she listened to every sound,
27:32
Speaker 1: even to the rustle of the grass in the wind
27:34
Speaker 1: sweeping across the marsh. She moved very gradually and slowly.
27:40
Speaker 1: and had just settled into utter motionlessness when she realised
27:43
Speaker 1: that he was coming back through the garden, the straggling
27:46
Speaker 1: currant and gooseberry bushes were being trampled through.' Betty, go home!'
27:51
Speaker 1: Rosalie had pleaded.' Go home! Go home!' And she had refused,
27:55
Speaker 1: because she could not desert her. She held her breath
27:59
Speaker 1: and pressed her hand against her side, because her heart beat,
28:02
Speaker 1: as it seemed to her, with an actual sound. He
28:05
Speaker 1: moved with unsteady steps from one point to another, more
28:08
Speaker 1: than once he stumbled, and his angry oath reached her.
28:12
Speaker 1: At last he was so near her hiding-place that his short,
28:15
Speaker 1: hard breathing was a distinct sound. A moment later he spoke,
28:19
Speaker 1: raising his voice, which fact brought to her a rush
28:22
Speaker 1: of relief, through its signifying that he had not even
28:25
Speaker 1: guessed her nearness.' My dear Betty,' he said,' you have
28:29
Speaker 1: the pluck of the devil, but circumstances are too much
28:32
Speaker 1: for you. You are not on the road, and I
28:34
Speaker 1: have been through the spinny. Mere logic convinces me that
28:38
Speaker 1: you cannot be far away.' You may as well give
28:41
Speaker 1: the thing up. It will be better for you.'' You
28:44
Speaker 1: who died to-day do not leave me,' was Betty's inward cry,
28:48
Speaker 1: and she dropped her face on her knees.' I am
28:51
Speaker 1: not a pleasant-tempered fellow, as you know, and I am
28:53
Speaker 1: losing my hold on myself. The wind is blowing the
28:57
Speaker 1: mist away, and there will be a moon. I shall
28:59
Speaker 1: find you, my good girl, in half an hour's time,
29:02
Speaker 1: and then we shall be jolly well even.' She had
29:06
Speaker 1: not dropped her whip, and she held it tight. if,
29:09
Speaker 1: when the moonlight revealed the pile of hot poles to him,
29:12
Speaker 1: he suspected and sprang at them to tear them away,
29:15
Speaker 1: she would be given strength to make one spring, even
29:17
Speaker 1: in her agony, and she would strike at his eyes, awfully,
29:20
Speaker 1: without one touch of compunction, she would strike, strike. There
29:26
Speaker 1: was a brief silence, and then a match was struck again,
29:28
Speaker 1: and almost immediately she inhaled the fragrance of an excellent cigar.
29:34
Speaker 1: I am going to have a comfortable smoke and stroll about,
29:37
Speaker 1: always within sight and hearing. I dare say you are
29:40
Speaker 1: watching me and wondering what will happen when I discover you.
29:43
Speaker 1: I can tell you what will happen. You are not
29:46
Speaker 1: a hysterical girl, but you will go into hysterics, and
29:49
Speaker 1: no one will hear you.' All the power of her
29:52
Speaker 1: body and soul in one leap on him, and then
29:55
Speaker 1: a lash that would cut to the bone! And it
29:57
Speaker 1: was not a nightmare.' and Rosie was at Stornham and
30:00
Speaker 1: her father looking over steamer lists and choosing his staterooms.
30:05
Speaker 1: He walked about, slowly, the scent of his cigar floating
30:07
Speaker 1: behind him. She noticed, as she had done more than
30:10
Speaker 1: once before, that he seemed to slightly drag one foot,
30:13
Speaker 1: and she wondered why. The wind was blowing the mist away,
30:17
Speaker 1: and there was a faint growing of light. The moon
30:20
Speaker 1: was not full but young, and yet it would make
30:22
Speaker 1: a difference. But the upper part of the hedge grew
30:25
Speaker 1: thick and close to the heap of wood, and but
30:28
Speaker 1: for her fall she would never have dreamed of the refuge.
30:31
Speaker 1: She could only guess at his movements, but his footsteps
30:33
Speaker 1: gave some clue. He was examining the ground in as
30:36
Speaker 1: far as the darkness would allow. He went into the
30:39
Speaker 1: shed and round about it. He opened the door of
30:42
Speaker 1: the tiny coal lodge and looked again into the small
30:44
Speaker 1: back kitchen. He came near, nearer, so near once that
30:49
Speaker 1: bending sideways she could have put out a hand and
30:51
Speaker 1: touched him. He stood quite still, then made a step
30:54
Speaker 1: or so away, stood still again, and burst into a
30:58
Speaker 1: laugh once more.' Oh, you're here, are you?' he said.'
31:02
Speaker 1: You' re a fine big girl to be able to crowd
31:04
Speaker 1: yourself into a place like that.' Hot and cold dew
31:07
Speaker 1: stood out on her forehead and made her hair damp
31:10
Speaker 1: as she held her whip hard.' Come out, my dear,' alluringly.'
31:14
Speaker 1: It is not too soon, or do you prefer that
31:17
Speaker 1: I should assist you?' Her heart stood quite still, quite.
31:21
Speaker 1: He was standing by the wigwam of hot poles and
31:24
Speaker 1: thought she had hidden herself inside it. Her place under
31:27
Speaker 1: the hedge he had not even glanced at. She knew
31:30
Speaker 1: he bent down and thrust his arm into the wigwam,
31:32
Speaker 1: for his fury at the result expressed itself plainly enough.
31:36
Speaker 1: That he had made a fool of himself was worse
31:38
Speaker 1: to him than all else. He actually wheeled about and
31:41
Speaker 1: strode away to the house. Because minutes seemed hours, she
31:45
Speaker 1: thought he was long gone, but he was not away
31:47
Speaker 1: for twenty minutes. He had, in fact, gone into the
31:50
Speaker 1: bare front room again, and sitting upon the box near
31:53
Speaker 1: the hearth let his head drop in his hands, and
31:56
Speaker 1: remained in this position thinking. In the end he got
31:59
Speaker 1: up and went out to the shed where he had
32:01
Speaker 1: left the horses. Betty was feeling that before long she
32:05
Speaker 1: might find herself making that strange swoop into the darkness
32:08
Speaker 1: of space again, and that it did not matter much,
32:11
Speaker 1: as one apparently lay quite still when one was unconscious,
32:14
Speaker 1: when she heard that one horse was being led out
32:17
Speaker 1: into the lane. What did that mean? Had he got
32:20
Speaker 1: tired of the chase as the other man did, and
32:23
Speaker 1: was he going away because discomfort and fatigue had cooled
32:26
Speaker 1: and disgusted him, perhaps even made him feel that he
32:29
Speaker 1: was playing the part of a sensational idiot who was
32:32
Speaker 1: laying himself open to derision? That would be like him, too.
32:37
Speaker 1: Presently she heard his footsteps once more, but he did
32:39
Speaker 1: not come as near her as before. In fact, he
32:42
Speaker 1: stood at some yards' distance when he stopped and spoke
32:45
Speaker 1: in quite a new manner.' Betty!' His tone was even
32:49
Speaker 1: cynically cool.' I shall stalk you no more. The chase
32:52
Speaker 1: is at an end. I think I have taken all
32:55
Speaker 1: of you that I intended to. Perhaps it was a
32:58
Speaker 1: bad joke and was carried too far. I wanted to
33:01
Speaker 1: prove to you that there were circumstances which might be
33:03
Speaker 1: too much even for a young woman from New York.
33:06
Speaker 1: I have done it. Do you suppose I am such
33:09
Speaker 1: a fool as to bring myself within reach of the law?
33:12
Speaker 1: I am going away and will send assistance to you
33:15
Speaker 1: from the next house I pass.' I have left some
33:17
Speaker 1: matches and a few broken sticks on the hearth in
33:20
Speaker 1: the cottage. Be a sensible girl. Limp in there and
33:23
Speaker 1: build yourself a fire as soon as you hear me
33:25
Speaker 1: gallop away. You must be chilled through. Now I'm going.'
33:30
Speaker 1: He tramped across the bit of garden, down the brick path,
33:33
Speaker 1: mounted his horse and put it to a gallop at once, clack-clack-clacking,
33:38
Speaker 1: fainter and fainter into the distance. And he was gone.
33:42
Speaker 1: When she realised that the thing was true, the effect
33:45
Speaker 1: upon her of her sense of relief was that the
33:47
Speaker 1: growing likelihood of a second swoop into darkness died away,
33:51
Speaker 1: but one curious sob lifted her chest as she leaned
33:54
Speaker 1: back against the rough growth behind her. As she changed
33:57
Speaker 1: her position for a better one, she felt the jagged
34:00
Speaker 1: pain again and knew that in the tenseness of her
34:02
Speaker 1: terror she had actually for some time felt next to
34:05
Speaker 1: nothing of her hurt. She had not even been cold,
34:08
Speaker 1: for the hedge behind and over her and the barricade
34:11
Speaker 1: before her had protected her from both wind and rain.
34:15
Speaker 1: the grass beneath her was not damp for the same reason.
34:18
Speaker 1: The weary thought rose in her mind that she might
34:20
Speaker 1: even lie down and sleep, but she pulled herself together
34:24
Speaker 1: and told herself that this was like the temptation of
34:26
Speaker 1: believing in the nightmare. He was gone, and she had
34:30
Speaker 1: a respite, but was it to be anything more? She
34:33
Speaker 1: did not make any attempt to leave her place of concealment,
34:36
Speaker 1: remembering the strange things she had learned in watching him,
34:39
Speaker 1: and the strange terror in which Rosalie lived. one never
34:43
Speaker 1: knows what he will do next. I will not stir,
34:45
Speaker 1: she said through her teeth. No, I will not stir
34:48
Speaker 1: from here. And she did not, but sat still while
34:52
Speaker 1: the pain came back to her body and the anguish
34:54
Speaker 1: to her heart, and sometimes such heaviness that her head
34:57
Speaker 1: dropped forward upon her knees again, and she fell into
35:00
Speaker 1: a stupefied half-doze. From one such doze she awakened with
35:05
Speaker 1: a start, hearing a slight click of the gate. After
35:08
Speaker 1: it there were several seconds of dead silence. It was
35:12
Speaker 1: the slightness of the click which was startling. If it
35:15
Speaker 1: had not been caused by the wind, it had been
35:17
Speaker 1: caused by somebody's having cautiously moved it, and this someone
35:21
Speaker 1: wishing to make a soundless approach had immediately stood still
35:24
Speaker 1: and was waiting. There was only one person who would
35:27
Speaker 1: do that. By this time, the mist being blown away,
35:31
Speaker 1: the light of the moon began to make a growing clearness.
35:34
Speaker 1: She lifted her hand, and delicately held aside a few
35:37
Speaker 1: twigs that she might look out. She had been quite
35:41
Speaker 1: right in deciding not to move. Nigel Anstruthers had come back,
35:45
Speaker 1: and after his paws turned and avoiding the brick path,
35:48
Speaker 1: stole over the grass to the cottage door. His going
35:52
Speaker 1: had merely been an inspiration to trap her, and the
35:55
Speaker 1: wood and matches had been intended to make a beacon
35:57
Speaker 1: light for him. That was like him as well. His
36:01
Speaker 1: horse he had left down the road. But the relief
36:04
Speaker 1: of his absence had been good for her, and she
36:06
Speaker 1: was able to check the shuddering fit which threatened her
36:09
Speaker 1: for a moment, The next her ears awoke to a
36:12
Speaker 1: new sound. Something was stumbling heavily about the patch of garden,
36:16
Speaker 1: some animal. A cropping of grass, a snorting breath, and
36:19
Speaker 1: more stumbling hooves, and she knew that child Harold had
36:22
Speaker 1: managed to loosen his bridle and limp out of the shed.
36:25
Speaker 1: The mere sense of his nearness seemed a sort of protection.
36:29
Speaker 1: He had limped and stumbled to the front part of
36:31
Speaker 1: the garden before Nigel heard him. When he did hear,
36:34
Speaker 1: he came out of the house in the humour of
36:36
Speaker 1: a man the inflaming of whose mood has been cumulative.
36:39
Speaker 1: Childe Harold's temper was also not to be trifled with.
36:43
Speaker 1: He threw up his head, swinging the bridle out of reach.
36:46
Speaker 1: He snorted, and even reared with an ugly lashing of
36:48
Speaker 1: his forefeet.' Good boy,' whispered Betty.' Do not let him
36:52
Speaker 1: take you. Do not.' If he remained where he was,
36:57
Speaker 1: he would attract attention if anyone passed by.' Fight, Childe Harold.
37:01
Speaker 1: Be as vicious as you choose. Do not allow yourself
37:04
Speaker 1: to be dragged back.' And fight he did. with an
37:07
Speaker 1: ugliness of temper he had never shown before, with snortings
37:11
Speaker 1: and tossed head and lashed out heels, as if he
37:13
Speaker 1: knew he was fighting to gain time and with a purpose.
37:17
Speaker 1: But in the midst of the struggle Nigel Anstruthers stopped suddenly.
37:21
Speaker 1: He had stumbled again and risen raging and stained with
37:23
Speaker 1: damp earth. Now he stood still, panting for breath, as
37:27
Speaker 1: still as he had stood after the click of the gate.
37:30
Speaker 1: Was he listening? What was he listening to? Had she
37:34
Speaker 1: moved in her excitement? and was it possible he had
37:37
Speaker 1: caught the sound? No, he was listening to something else.
37:41
Speaker 1: Far up the road it echoed, but coming nearer every moment,
37:44
Speaker 1: and very fast. Another horse, a big one, galloping hard.
37:49
Speaker 1: Whosoever it was would pass this place, it could only
37:52
Speaker 1: be a man. God grant that he would not go
37:54
Speaker 1: by so quickly that his attention would not be arrested
37:57
Speaker 1: by a shriek. Cry out she must, and if he
38:00
Speaker 1: did not hear and went galloping on his way, she
38:02
Speaker 1: would have betrayed herself and be lost.' She bit off
38:06
Speaker 1: a groan by biting her lip.' You who died to-day, now, now!'
38:12
Speaker 1: Nearer and nearer. No human creature could pass by a
38:14
Speaker 1: thing like this. It would not be possible. And child Harold,
38:18
Speaker 1: backing and fighting, centred the other horse and neighed fiercely
38:21
Speaker 1: and high. The rider was slackening his pace. He was
38:25
Speaker 1: near the lane. He had turned into it and stopped.
38:28
Speaker 1: Now for her one frantic cry. But before she could
38:31
Speaker 1: gather power to give it forth, The man who had
38:34
Speaker 1: stopped had flung himself from his saddle and was inside
38:36
Speaker 1: the garden speaking, a big voice and a clear one,
38:39
Speaker 1: with a ringing tone of authority.' What are you doing here?
38:43
Speaker 1: And what's the matter with Miss Vanderpool's horse?' it called out.
38:47
Speaker 1: Now there was danger of the swoop into the darkness,
38:50
Speaker 1: great danger, though she clutched at the hedge that she
38:53
Speaker 1: might feel its thorns and hold herself to the earth.' You!'
38:57
Speaker 1: Nigel Anstruthers cried out.' You!' and flung forth a shout
39:01
Speaker 1: of laughter. Where is she? fiercely. Lady Anstruthers is terrified.
39:06
Speaker 1: We've been searching for hours. Only just now I heard
39:09
Speaker 1: on the marsh that she had been seen to ride
39:11
Speaker 1: this way. Where is she, I say? A strong, angry,
39:15
Speaker 1: earthly voice, not part of the melodrama, not part of
39:18
Speaker 1: a dream, but a voice she knew, and whose sound
39:21
Speaker 1: caused her heart to leap to her throat while she
39:23
Speaker 1: trembled from head to foot, and a light, cold dampness
39:26
Speaker 1: broke forth on her skin. Something had been a dream,
39:30
Speaker 1: her wild desolate ride, the slow tolling, for the voice
39:33
Speaker 1: which commanded with such human fierceness was that of the
39:36
Speaker 1: man for whom the heavy bell had struck forth from
39:39
Speaker 1: the church tower. Sir Nigel recovered himself brilliantly, not that
39:44
Speaker 1: he did not recognise that he had been a fool
39:46
Speaker 1: again and was in a nasty place, but it was
39:48
Speaker 1: not for the first time in his life, and he
39:51
Speaker 1: had learned how to brazen himself out of nasty places.
39:54
Speaker 1: My dear Mount Dunstan, he answered with tolerant irritation, I
39:58
Speaker 1: have been having a devil of a time with female hysterics.
40:02
Speaker 1: She heard the bell toll and ran away with the
40:04
Speaker 1: idea that it was for you, and paid you the
40:06
Speaker 1: compliment of losing her head. I came on her here
40:09
Speaker 1: when she had ridden her horse half to death and
40:11
Speaker 1: they had both come a cropper. Confound women's hysterics! I
40:15
Speaker 1: could do nothing with her. When I left her for
40:18
Speaker 1: a moment she ran away and hid herself. She is
40:20
Speaker 1: concealed somewhere on the place or has limped off onto
40:23
Speaker 1: the marsh. I wish some New York millionaireess would work
40:26
Speaker 1: herself into hysteria on my humble account. Those are lies,
40:30
Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan answered, every damned one of them. He wheeled
40:35
Speaker 1: around to look about him, attracted by a sound, and
40:38
Speaker 1: in the clearing moonlight saw a figure approaching which might
40:41
Speaker 1: have risen from the earth, so far as he could
40:43
Speaker 1: guess where it had come from. He strode over to it,
40:46
Speaker 1: and it was Betty Vanderpool holding her whip in a
40:49
Speaker 1: clenched hand, and showing to his eagerness such hunted face
40:52
Speaker 1: and eyes as were barely human. He caught her unsteadiness
40:56
Speaker 1: to support it, and felt her fingers clutch at the
40:59
Speaker 1: tweed of his coat-sleeve, and moved there as if the
41:01
Speaker 1: mere feeling of its rough texture brought heavenly comfort to
41:04
Speaker 1: her and gave her strength.' Yes, they are lies, Lord
41:08
Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan,' she panted.' He said that he meant to
41:11
Speaker 1: get what he called even with me.' He told me
41:14
Speaker 1: I could not get away from him, and that no
41:16
Speaker 1: one would hear me if I cried out for help.
41:19
Speaker 1: I have hidden like some hunted animal.' Her shaking voice broke,
41:23
Speaker 1: and she held the cloth of his sleeve tightly.' You
41:26
Speaker 1: are alive, alive!' with a sudden sweet wildness.' But it
41:31
Speaker 1: is true the bell told. While I was crouching in
41:34
Speaker 1: the dark I called to you who died to-day to
41:37
Speaker 1: stand between us.' The man absolutely shuddered from head to foot.
41:43
Speaker 1: I was alive, and you see I heard you and came,
41:46
Speaker 1: he answered hoarsely. He lifted her in his arms and
41:50
Speaker 1: carried her into the cottage. Her cheek felt the enrapturing
41:53
Speaker 1: roughness of his tweed shoulder as he did it. He
41:55
Speaker 1: laid her down on the couch of hay and turned away.
41:59
Speaker 1: Don't move, he said. I will come back. You are safe.
42:03
Speaker 1: If there had been more light she would have seen
42:05
Speaker 1: that his jaw was set like a bulldog's, and there
42:07
Speaker 1: was a red spark in his eyes, a fearsome one.
42:10
Speaker 1: But though she did not clearly see, she knew— and
42:13
Speaker 1: the nearness of the last hours swept away all relenting.
42:17
Speaker 1: Nigel Anstruthers, having discreetly waited until the two had passed
42:21
Speaker 1: into the house, and feeling that a man would be
42:23
Speaker 1: an idiot who did not remove himself from an atmosphere
42:26
Speaker 1: so highly charged, was making his way toward the lane,
42:29
Speaker 1: and was indeed halfway through the gate when heavy feet
42:32
Speaker 1: were behind him, and a grip of ugly strength wrenched
42:34
Speaker 1: him backward.' Your horse is cropping the grass where you
42:38
Speaker 1: left him, but you're not going to him,' said a
42:41
Speaker 1: singularly meaning voice. You are coming with me.' Anstruthers endeavoured
42:46
Speaker 1: to convince himself that he did not at that moment
42:48
Speaker 1: turn deadly sick, and that the brute would not make
42:51
Speaker 1: an ass of himself.' Don' t be a bally fool!' he
42:55
Speaker 1: cried out, trying to tear himself free. The muscular hand
42:59
Speaker 1: on his shoulder being reinforced by another which clutched his collar,
43:02
Speaker 1: dragged him back, stumbling ignominiously through the gooseberry bushes toward
43:06
Speaker 1: the cart-shed. Betty, lying upon her bed of hay, heard
43:10
Speaker 1: the scuffling, mingled with raging and gasping curses. Childe Harold,
43:14
Speaker 1: lifting his head from his cropping of the grass, looked
43:17
Speaker 1: after the violently jerking figures and snorted slightly, snuffing with
43:21
Speaker 1: dilated red nostrils. As a war-horse scenting blood and battle,
43:24
Speaker 1: he was excited. When Mount Dunstan got his captive into
43:29
Speaker 1: the shed, the blood which had surged in Red Godwin's
43:31
Speaker 1: veins was up and leaping, and Struthers, his collar held
43:35
Speaker 1: by a hand with fingers of iron, writhed about and
43:38
Speaker 1: turned a livid ghastly face upon his captor you have
43:41
Speaker 1: twice my strength and half my age you beast and
43:44
Speaker 1: devil he foamed in a half shriek and poured forth
43:48
Speaker 1: frightful blasphemies that counts between man and man but not
43:52
Speaker 1: between vermin and executioner gave back mount dunstan the heavy
43:57
Speaker 1: whip flung upward whistled down through the air cutting through
44:00
Speaker 1: cloth and linen as though it would cut through flesh
44:02
Speaker 1: to bone by god shrieked the writhing thing he held
44:07
Speaker 1: leaping like a man who has been shot.' Don' t do
44:09
Speaker 1: that again, damn you!' as the unswerving lash cut down again, again.
44:15
Speaker 1: What followed would not be good to describe. Betty, through
44:18
Speaker 1: the open door, heard wild and awful things, and more
44:21
Speaker 1: than once a sound as if a dog were howling.
44:24
Speaker 1: When the thing was over, one of the two, his
44:26
Speaker 1: clothes cut to ribbons, his torn white linen exposed, lay
44:30
Speaker 1: a writhing huddled worm, hiccuping frenzied sobs upon the earth
44:34
Speaker 1: in a corner of the cart-shed. The other man stood
44:37
Speaker 1: over him, breathless and white, but singularly exalted.' You won't
44:41
Speaker 1: want your horse to-night because you can't use him,' he said.'
44:44
Speaker 1: I shall put Miss Vanderpool's saddle upon him and ride
44:47
Speaker 1: with her back to Stornham.' You think you're cut to pieces,
44:50
Speaker 1: but you're not, and you'll get over it. I ask
44:53
Speaker 1: you to mark, however, that if you open your foul
44:56
Speaker 1: mouth to insinuate lies concerning either Lady Anstruthers or her sister,
45:00
Speaker 1: I will do this thing again in public some day,
45:03
Speaker 1: on the steps of your club, and do it more thoroughly.
45:07
Speaker 1: He walked into the cottage soon afterwards, looking to Betty
45:10
Speaker 1: Vanderpool's eyes, pale and exceptionally big, and also more a
45:14
Speaker 1: man than it is often given to even the most
45:16
Speaker 1: virile male creature to look, and he walked to the
45:19
Speaker 1: side of her resting-place and stood there looking down. I
45:23
Speaker 1: thought I heard a dog howl, she said. You did
45:26
Speaker 1: hear a dog howl, he answered. He said no other word,
45:30
Speaker 1: and she asked no further question. She knew what he
45:33
Speaker 1: had done, and he was well aware that she knew it.
45:36
Speaker 1: It was a long, strangely tense silence. The light of
45:39
Speaker 1: the moon was growing. She made at first no effort
45:43
Speaker 1: to rise, but lay still and looked up at him
45:45
Speaker 1: from under splendid lifted lashes, while his own gaze fell
45:48
Speaker 1: into the depth of hers like a plummet into a
45:50
Speaker 1: deep pool. This continued for almost a full minute, when
45:54
Speaker 1: he turned quickly away and walked to the hearth, indrawing
45:57
Speaker 1: a heavy breath. He could not endure that which beset him.
46:01
Speaker 1: It was unbearable, because her eyes had maddeningly seemed to
46:05
Speaker 1: ask him some wistful question. Why did she let her
46:08
Speaker 1: loveliness so call to him? She was not a trifler
46:11
Speaker 1: who could play with meanings. Perhaps she did not know
46:14
Speaker 1: what her power was. Sometimes he could believe that beautiful
46:17
Speaker 1: women did not. In a few moments, almost before he
46:22
Speaker 1: could reach her, she was rising, and when she got
46:24
Speaker 1: up she supported herself against the open door, standing in
46:27
Speaker 1: the moonlight. If he was pale, she was pale also,
46:31
Speaker 1: and her large eyes would not move from his face,
46:34
Speaker 1: so drawing him that he could not keep away from her. Listen,
46:38
Speaker 1: he broke out suddenly. Penzance told me, warned me, that
46:42
Speaker 1: some time a moment would come which would be stronger
46:45
Speaker 1: than all else in a man, than all else in
46:47
Speaker 1: the world. It has come now. Let me take you home.''
46:51
Speaker 1: Then what else?' she said slowly, and became even paler
46:56
Speaker 1: than before. He strove to release himself from the possession
47:00
Speaker 1: of the moment, and in his struggle answered with a
47:03
Speaker 1: sort of savagery.' Than scruple, than power, even than a
47:07
Speaker 1: man's determination and decent pride.'' Are you proud?' she half whispered,
47:13
Speaker 1: quite brokenly.' I am not, since I waited for the
47:17
Speaker 1: ringing of the church bell.' 'since I heard it toll.'
47:20
Speaker 1: After that the world was empty,' and it was as
47:24
Speaker 1: empty of decent pride as of everything else.' There was
47:28
Speaker 1: nothing left.' I was the humblest broken thing on earth.' You,'
47:33
Speaker 1: he gasped, 'do you know I think I shall go
47:36
Speaker 1: mad directly.' Perhaps it's happening now.' You were humble and broken.'
47:40
Speaker 1: Your world was empty, because—'' Look at me, Lord Mount Dunstan.'
47:46
Speaker 1: and the sweetest voice in the world was a tender
47:48
Speaker 1: wild little cry to him, Oh, look at me! He
47:53
Speaker 1: caught her outthrown hands and looked down into the beautiful
47:56
Speaker 1: passionate soul of her. The moment had come, and the
47:59
Speaker 1: tidal wave rising to its height swept all the common
48:02
Speaker 1: earth away, when with a savage sob he caught and
48:05
Speaker 1: held her close and hard against that which thudded racing
48:09
Speaker 1: in his breast. And they stood and swayed together, folded
48:13
Speaker 1: in each other's arms, while the wind from the marshes
48:16
Speaker 1: lifted its voice like an exulting human thing as it
48:19
Speaker 1: swept about them. End of chapter 48