Latest / The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library / The Shuttle Chapter 26 - What It Must Be to You - Just You
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: CHAPTER XXVI. WHAT IT MUST BE TO YOU, JUST YOU G. SELDEN,
- 0:13Speaker 1: AWAKENING TO CONSCIOUSNESS TWO DAYS LATER, LAY INSTEAD AT THE
- 0:17Speaker 1: CHINCE COVERING OF THE TOP OF HIS FOUR-POSTS BED THROUGH
- 0:19Speaker 1: A FEW MINUTES OF VACANT AMAZEMENT. IT WAS A FOUR-POSTS
- 0:23Speaker 1: BED HE WAS LYING IN, WASN'T IT? AND HIS LEG
- 0:26Speaker 1: WAS BANDAGED AND FELT IMMOVABLE. The last thing he remembered
- 0:30Speaker 1: was going down an incline in a tree-bordered avenue. There
- 0:33Speaker 1: was nothing more. He'd been all right then. Was this
- 0:37Speaker 1: a four-post bed, or was it not? Yes, it was.
- 0:41Speaker 1: And was it part of the furnishings of a swell bedroom,
- 0:43Speaker 1: the kind of bedroom he'd never been in before? Tip-top,
- 0:46Speaker 1: in fact. He stared and tried to recall things, but
- 0:49Speaker 1: could not, and in his bewilderment exclaimed aloud,' Well,' he said,'
- 0:54Speaker 1: if this ain't the limit, you can search me.' A
- 0:59Speaker 1: respectable person in a white apron came to him from
- 1:01Speaker 1: the other side of the room. It was Buttle's wife,
- 1:04Speaker 1: who had been hastily called in.' Shh!' she said soothingly.'
- 1:08Speaker 1: Don' t you worry. Nobody ain't gonna search you, nobody ain't. There! Shh!'
- 1:15Speaker 1: Rather as if he were a baby. Beginning to be
- 1:18Speaker 1: conscious of a curious sense of weakness, Selden lay and
- 1:21Speaker 1: stared at her in helplessness which might have been considered pathetic.
- 1:25Speaker 1: Perhaps he'd got bats in his belfry, and there was
- 1:27Speaker 1: no use in talking. At that moment, however, the door
- 1:31Speaker 1: opened and a young lady entered. She was a looker.
- 1:34Speaker 1: Gee Selden's weakness did not interfere with his perceiving. A looker,
- 1:38Speaker 1: by gee! She was dressed as if for going out
- 1:42Speaker 1: in softly tinted exquisite things, and a large strange hydrangea-blue
- 1:46Speaker 1: flower under the brim of her hat rested on soft
- 1:49Speaker 1: and full black hair. The black hair gave him a clue.
- 1:53Speaker 1: It was hair like that he had seen as Reuben S.
- 1:55Speaker 1: Vanderpool's daughter rode by when he stood at the park
- 1:58Speaker 1: gates at Mount Dunstan,' That' s in his belfry, of course.''
- 2:01Speaker 1: How is he?' she said to the nurse.' He' s been
- 2:06Speaker 1: seeming comfortable all day, miss,' the woman answered,' but he's
- 2:09Speaker 1: light-headed yet.' He opened his eyes, quite sensible-looking, a bit ago,
- 2:13Speaker 1: but he spoke queer.' He said something was the limit,
- 2:16Speaker 1: and that we might search him.'' Betty approached the bedside
- 2:20Speaker 1: to look at him,' and meeting the disturbed inquiry in
- 2:22Speaker 1: his uplifted eyes, laughed,' because seeing that he was not delirious,
- 2:26Speaker 1: she thought she understood.' She had not lived in New
- 2:29Speaker 1: York without hearing it's Argo, and she realized that the
- 2:32Speaker 1: exclamation which had appeared delirium to Mrs. Buttle had probably
- 2:36Speaker 1: indicated that the unexplainableness of the situation in which G.
- 2:39Speaker 1: Selden found himself struck him as reaching the limit of probability,
- 2:44Speaker 1: and that the most extended search of his person would
- 2:46Speaker 1: fail to reveal any clue to satisfactory explanation. She bent
- 2:51Speaker 1: over him, with her laugh still shining in her eyes.'
- 2:53Speaker 1: I hope you feel better. Can you tell me?' she said.
- 2:58Speaker 1: His voice was not strong, but his answer was that
- 3:00Speaker 1: of a young man who knew what he was saying.'
- 3:02Speaker 1: If I'm not off my head, ma'am, I'm quite comfortable,
- 3:05Speaker 1: thank you,' he replied.' I' m glad to hear that,' said Betty.'
- 3:09Speaker 1: Don' t be disturbed. Your mind is quite clear.'' All I want,'
- 3:14Speaker 1: said G. Selton impartially,' is just to know where I'm
- 3:17Speaker 1: at and how I blew in here.' It would help
- 3:20Speaker 1: me to rest better.'' You met with an accident,' the
- 3:23Speaker 1: looker explained, still smiling with both lips and eyes. Your
- 3:27Speaker 1: bicycle chain broke and you were thrown and hurt yourself.
- 3:30Speaker 1: It happened in the avenue in the park. We found
- 3:33Speaker 1: you and brought you in. You're at Stornham Court, which
- 3:36Speaker 1: belongs to Sir Nigel Anstruthers. Lady Anstruthers is my sister.
- 3:40Speaker 1: I am Miss Vanderpool.' Holly gee!' ejaculated G. Selden inevitably.'
- 3:46Speaker 1: Holly gee!' The splendour of the moment was such that
- 3:50Speaker 1: his brain whirled, as it was not yet in the
- 3:52Speaker 1: physical condition to whirl with any comfort. He found himself
- 3:56Speaker 1: closing his eyes weakly.' That' s right,' Miss Vanderpool said.' Keep
- 4:00Speaker 1: them closed. I must not talk to you until you
- 4:02Speaker 1: are stronger. Lie still and try not to think. The
- 4:06Speaker 1: doctor says you're getting on very well. I'll come and
- 4:09Speaker 1: see you again.' As the soft sweep of her dress
- 4:12Speaker 1: reached the door, he managed to open his eyes.' Thank you,
- 4:16Speaker 1: Miss Vanderpool,' he said.' Thank you, ma'am.' And as his
- 4:19Speaker 1: eyelids closed again, he murmured in luxurious peace,' Well, if
- 4:24Speaker 1: that's her, she can have me, and welcome.' She came
- 4:27Speaker 1: to see him again each day, sometimes in a linen
- 4:30Speaker 1: frock and garden hat, sometimes in her soft tints and
- 4:34Speaker 1: lace and flowers before or after her drive in the afternoon,
- 4:37Speaker 1: and two or three times in the evening, with lovely
- 4:40Speaker 1: shoulders and wonderfully trailing draperies, looking like the women he
- 4:44Speaker 1: had caught far-off glimpses of on the rare occasion of
- 4:47Speaker 1: his having indulged himself in the highest and most remotely
- 4:50Speaker 1: placed seat in the gallery at the opera, which inconvenience
- 4:53Speaker 1: he had borne not through any ardent desire to hear
- 4:56Speaker 1: the music, but because he wanted to see the show
- 4:59Speaker 1: and get a look in at the four hundred. He
- 5:01Speaker 1: believed very implicitly in his four hundred, and privately, though
- 5:05Speaker 1: perhaps almost unconsciously, cherished the distinction his share of them
- 5:09Speaker 1: conferred upon him, as fondly as the English young man
- 5:12Speaker 1: of his rudimentary type cherishes his dukes and duchesses. The
- 5:16Speaker 1: English young man may revel in his coroneted beauties in
- 5:19Speaker 1: photograph shops, The young American dwells fondly on flattering, or
- 5:24Speaker 1: very unflattering, reproductions of his multimillionaire's wives and daughters in
- 5:28Speaker 1: the voluminous illustrated sheets of his Sunday paper, without which
- 5:32Speaker 1: life would be a wretched and savourless thing. Selden had
- 5:36Speaker 1: never seen Miss Vanderpool in his Sunday paper, and here
- 5:39Speaker 1: he was lying in a room in the same house
- 5:41Speaker 1: with her, and she coming in to see him and
- 5:44Speaker 1: talk to him as if he was one of the
- 5:46Speaker 1: four hundred himself. The comfort and luxury with which he
- 5:50Speaker 1: found himself surrounded sank into insignificance when compared with such
- 5:54Speaker 1: unearthly luck as this. Lady Anstruthers came in to see
- 5:58Speaker 1: him also, and she several times brought with her a
- 6:01Speaker 1: queer little lame fellow who was spoken of as Master Uhtred.
- 6:05Speaker 1: Master was supposed by G. Selden to be a sort
- 6:08Speaker 1: of title conferred upon the small sons of baronets and
- 6:11Speaker 1: the like. The children he knew in New York and
- 6:14Speaker 1: elsewhere answered to the names of Bob or Jimmy or Bill.
- 6:18Speaker 1: No parallel to Master had been in vogue among them.
- 6:21Speaker 1: Lady Anstruthers was not like her sister. She was a
- 6:24Speaker 1: little thing, and both she and Master Uhtred seemed fond
- 6:27Speaker 1: of talking of New York. She had not been home
- 6:30Speaker 1: for years, and the youngster had never seen it at all.
- 6:34Speaker 1: He had some queer ideas about America, and seemed never
- 6:37Speaker 1: to have seen anything but Stornham and the village. She
- 6:40Speaker 1: seldom liked him, and was vaguely sorry for a little
- 6:43Speaker 1: chap to whom a description of the festivities attendant upon
- 6:46Speaker 1: the 4th of July in a presidential election was seemed
- 6:49Speaker 1: like stories from the Arabian Nights.' Tell me about the
- 6:53Speaker 1: Tammany Tiger, if you please,' he said once.' I want
- 6:56Speaker 1: to know what kind of an animal it is.' From
- 6:59Speaker 1: a point of view somewhat different from that of Mount
- 7:02Speaker 1: Dunstan and Mr. Penzance, Betty Vanderpool found talk with him interesting.
- 7:07Speaker 1: To her he did not wear the aspect of a
- 7:09Speaker 1: foreign product. She had not met and conversed with young
- 7:12Speaker 1: men like him, but she knew of them. Stringent precautions
- 7:16Speaker 1: were taken to protect her father from their ingenious enterprises.
- 7:20Speaker 1: They were not permitted to enter his offices, they were
- 7:22Speaker 1: even discouraged from hovering about their neighbourhood when seen and suspected.
- 7:27Speaker 1: The atmosphere, it was understood, was to be, if possible,
- 7:30Speaker 1: disinfected of agents. This one, lying softly in the four-post bed,
- 7:35Speaker 1: cheerfully grateful for the kindness shown him, and plainly filled
- 7:39Speaker 1: with delight in his adventure, despite the physical discomforts attending it,
- 7:43Speaker 1: gave her, as he began to recover, new views of
- 7:46Speaker 1: the life he lived in common with his kind. It
- 7:49Speaker 1: was like reading scenes from a realistic novel of New
- 7:52Speaker 1: York life to listen to his frank, slangy conversation. To her,
- 7:57Speaker 1: as well as to Mr. Penzance, sidelights were thrown upon
- 8:00Speaker 1: existence in the hall bedroom, and upon previously unknown phases
- 8:04Speaker 1: of business life in Broadway and roaring downtown streets. His determination,
- 8:09Speaker 1: his sharp readiness, his control of temper under rebuff and
- 8:12Speaker 1: superfluous harshness, his odd impersonal summing up of men and things,
- 8:17Speaker 1: and good-natured patience with the world in general, were, she knew,
- 8:21Speaker 1: business assets. She was even moved, no less, by the
- 8:25Speaker 1: remote connection of such a life with that of the
- 8:27Speaker 1: first Reuben Vanderpool, who had laid the huge, solid foundations
- 8:31Speaker 1: of their modern fortunes. The first Reuben Vanderpool must have
- 8:35Speaker 1: seen and known the faces of men as G. Selden
- 8:38Speaker 1: saw and knew them, fighting his way step by step,
- 8:41Speaker 1: knocking pertinaciously at every gateway which might give ingress to
- 8:44Speaker 1: some passage, leading to even the smallest gain, meeting with
- 8:48Speaker 1: rebuff and indifference, only to be overcome by steady and
- 8:51Speaker 1: continued assault. If G. Selden was a nuisance, the first
- 8:55Speaker 1: Vanderpool had without doubt worn that aspect upon innumerable occasions.
- 9:00Speaker 1: No one desires the presence of the man— who, while
- 9:03Speaker 1: having nothing to give, must persist in keeping himself in evidence,
- 9:06Speaker 1: even if by strategy or force. From stories she was
- 9:10Speaker 1: familiar with, she had gathered that the first Reuben Vanderpool
- 9:13Speaker 1: had certainly lacked a certain youth of soul, she felt,
- 9:15Speaker 1: in this modern struggler for life. He had been the
- 9:18Speaker 1: cleverer man of the two. Gee, seldom she secretly liked
- 9:22Speaker 1: the better. The curiosity of Mrs. Buttle, who was the nurse,
- 9:26Speaker 1: had been awakened by a singular feature of her patient's
- 9:29Speaker 1: feverish wanderings. He keeps muttering, Miss, things I can't make
- 9:33Speaker 1: out about Lord Mount Dunstan and Mr. Penzance, and some
- 9:36Speaker 1: child he calls Little Willie. He talks to them the
- 9:39Speaker 1: same as if he knew them, same as if he
- 9:41Speaker 1: was with them, and they were talking to him quite friendly.
- 9:45Speaker 1: One morning, Betty coming to make her visit of inquiry,
- 9:48Speaker 1: found the patient looking thoughtful, and when she commented upon
- 9:52Speaker 1: his air of pondering, his reply cast light upon the mystery. Well,
- 9:56Speaker 1: Miss Vanderpool, he explained, I was lying here thinking of
- 9:59Speaker 1: Lord Mount Dunstan and Mr. Penzance, and how well they'd
- 10:02Speaker 1: treated me. I haven't told you about that, have I?''
- 10:05Speaker 1: That explains what Mrs. Buttle said,' she answered.' When you
- 10:10Speaker 1: were delirious, you talked frequently to Lord Mount Dunstan and Mr. Penzance.
- 10:14Speaker 1: We both wondered why.' Then he told her the whole story.'
- 10:18Speaker 1: beginning with his sitting on the grassy bank outside the
- 10:21Speaker 1: park listening to the song of the robin, he ended
- 10:23Speaker 1: with the adieu at the entrance gates, when the sound
- 10:26Speaker 1: of her horse's trotting hooves had been heard by each
- 10:28Speaker 1: of them.' What I've been lying here thinking of,' he said,'
- 10:32Speaker 1: is how queer it was it happened just that way.'
- 10:35Speaker 1: If I hadn't stopped just that minute, and if you
- 10:37Speaker 1: hadn't gone by,' and if Lord Mount Dunstan hadn't known
- 10:41Speaker 1: you and said who you were,' little Willie would have
- 10:43Speaker 1: been in London by this time,' hustling to get a
- 10:46Speaker 1: cheap bunk back to New York in.'' Because?' inquired Miss Vanderpool. G.
- 10:52Speaker 1: Selden laughed and hesitated a moment. Then he made a
- 10:55Speaker 1: clean breast of it.' Say, Miss Vanderpool,' he said,' I
- 10:59Speaker 1: hope it won't make you mad if I own up.
- 11:02Speaker 1: Ladies like you don't know anything about chaps like me.
- 11:05Speaker 1: On the square and straight out, when I seen you
- 11:08Speaker 1: and heard your name, I couldn't help remembering whose daughter
- 11:11Speaker 1: you was. Ruben S. Vanderpool spells a big thing.' Why,
- 11:15Speaker 1: when I was in New York, we fellas used to
- 11:17Speaker 1: get together and talk about what it'd mean to the
- 11:19Speaker 1: chap who could get next to Reuben S. Vanderpool. We
- 11:23Speaker 1: used to count up all the business he does and
- 11:25Speaker 1: all the clerks he's got under him, pounding away on typewriters,
- 11:29Speaker 1: and how they'd be bound to get worn out and
- 11:31Speaker 1: need new ones. And we'd make calculations how many a
- 11:35Speaker 1: man could unload if he could get next. It was
- 11:38Speaker 1: a kind of typewriting junior assistant fairy story, and we
- 11:41Speaker 1: knew it couldn't happen really. we used to chin about
- 11:44Speaker 1: it just for the fun of the thing. One of
- 11:47Speaker 1: the boys made up a thing about one of us
- 11:48Speaker 1: saving Ruben S. 's life, dragging him from under a
- 11:51Speaker 1: runaway auto, and when he says, What can I do
- 11:54Speaker 1: to show my gratitude, young man? him handing out his
- 11:57Speaker 1: catalogue and saying, I should like to call your attention
- 12:01Speaker 1: to the Delcoff, sir, and getting him to promise he'd
- 12:03Speaker 1: never use any other so long as he lived. Ruben S.
- 12:07Speaker 1: Vanderpool's daughter laughed as spontaneously as any girl might have done. G.
- 12:12Speaker 1: Selden laughed with her, At any rate, she hadn't got
- 12:15Speaker 1: mad so far.' That was what did it,' he went on.'
- 12:18Speaker 1: When I rode away on my bike, I got thinking
- 12:21Speaker 1: about it and couldn't get it out of my head.
- 12:24Speaker 1: The next day I just stopped on the road and
- 12:26Speaker 1: got off my wheel, and I says to myself,' Look here,
- 12:29Speaker 1: business is business. If you are travelling in Europe and
- 12:33Speaker 1: lunching at Buckingham Palace with a main squeeze, get busy.
- 12:36Speaker 1: What'll the boys say if they hear you've missed a
- 12:39Speaker 1: chance like this?' You hit the pike for Stornham Castle,
- 12:42Speaker 1: or whatever it's called, and take your nerve with you.
- 12:45Speaker 1: She can't do more than have you fired out, and
- 12:47Speaker 1: you've been fired before and got your breath after it.
- 12:50Speaker 1: So I turned round and made time, and that was
- 12:53Speaker 1: how I happened on your avenue. And perhaps it was
- 12:56Speaker 1: because I was feeling a bit rattled I lost my
- 12:58Speaker 1: hold when the chain broke and pitched over on my head. There,
- 13:03Speaker 1: I've got it off my chest. I was thinking I
- 13:05Speaker 1: should have to explain somehow.' Something akin to her feeling
- 13:09Speaker 1: of affection for the nice long-legged Westerner she had seen
- 13:12Speaker 1: rambling in Bond Street touched Betty again. The Delcoff was
- 13:16Speaker 1: the centre of G. Selden's world, as the flowers were
- 13:19Speaker 1: of Kedges, and the little home was of Mrs. Weldon's.'
- 13:22Speaker 1: Were you going to try and sell me a typewriter?'
- 13:25Speaker 1: she asked.' Well,' G. Selden admitted,' I don't know but
- 13:30Speaker 1: what there might be use for one,' writing business letters
- 13:32Speaker 1: on a big place like this.' Straight, I won't say
- 13:36Speaker 1: I wasn't going to try pretty hard, It may look
- 13:38Speaker 1: like Gaul, but you see a fella has to rush
- 13:41Speaker 1: things or he'll never get there. A chap like me
- 13:43Speaker 1: has to get there somehow.' She was silent a few
- 13:47Speaker 1: moments and looked as if she was thinking something over.
- 13:50Speaker 1: Her silence and this look on her face actually caused
- 13:53Speaker 1: to dawn in the breast of Selden a gleam of
- 13:55Speaker 1: daring hope. He looked around at her with a faint
- 13:58Speaker 1: rising of colour.' Say, Miss Vanderpool, say—' he began and
- 14:03Speaker 1: then broke off.' Yes,' said Betty, still thinking.'' Could you
- 14:08Speaker 1: use one, anywhere?' he said.' I don't want to rush
- 14:11Speaker 1: things too much, but could you?'' Is it easy to
- 14:15Speaker 1: learn to use it?'' Easy!' his head lifted from his pillow.'
- 14:19Speaker 1: It' s as easy as falling off a log.' A baby
- 14:22Speaker 1: in a perambulator could learn to tick off orders for
- 14:25Speaker 1: its bottle.' And on the square there isn't its equal
- 14:28Speaker 1: on the market, Miss Vanderpool, there isn't.' He fumbled beneath
- 14:31Speaker 1: his pillow and actually brought forth his catalogue. I asked
- 14:35Speaker 1: the nurse to put it there. I wanted to study
- 14:38Speaker 1: it now and then and think up arguments. See, adjustable
- 14:41Speaker 1: to hold with perfect ease an envelope, an index card,
- 14:44Speaker 1: or a strip of paper no wider than a postage stamp.
- 14:48Speaker 1: Unsurpassed paper feed, practical ribbon mechanism, perfect and permanent alignment.
- 14:54Speaker 1: As Mount Dunstan had taken the book, Betty Vanderpool took it.
- 14:57Speaker 1: Never had G. Selden beheld such smiling in eyes about
- 15:00Speaker 1: to bend upon his catalogue. You will raise your temperature,
- 15:04Speaker 1: she said, if you excite yourself. You mustn't do that.
- 15:08Speaker 1: I believe there are two or three people on the
- 15:10Speaker 1: estate who might be taught to use a typewriter. I
- 15:13Speaker 1: will buy three. Yes, we will say three. She would
- 15:17Speaker 1: buy three. He soared to heights. He didn't know how
- 15:21Speaker 1: to thank her, though he did his best. Dizzying visions
- 15:24Speaker 1: of what he would have to tell the boys when
- 15:26Speaker 1: he returned to New York flashed across his mind.' the
- 15:29Speaker 1: daughter of Ruben S. Vanderpool had bought three Delcoffs,' and
- 15:33Speaker 1: he was the junior assistant who had sold them to her.'
- 15:36Speaker 1: You don't know what it means to me, Miss Vanderpool,'
- 15:39Speaker 1: he said,' but if you were a junior salesman you'd know.'
- 15:42Speaker 1: It' s not only the sale, though that's a rake-off of
- 15:45Speaker 1: fifteen dollars to me,' but it's because it's you that
- 15:49Speaker 1: bought them.' Gee!' gazing at her with frank awe,' whose
- 15:53Speaker 1: obvious sincerity held a queer touch of pathos.' What it
- 15:57Speaker 1: must be to be you, just you!' She did not laugh.
- 16:02Speaker 1: She felt as if a hand had lightly touched her
- 16:04Speaker 1: on her naked heart. She had thought of it so often,
- 16:08Speaker 1: had been bewildered restlessly by it as a mere child,
- 16:11Speaker 1: this difference in human lot, this chance. Was it chance
- 16:15Speaker 1: which had placed her entity in the centre of Bettina
- 16:18Speaker 1: Vanderpool's world, instead of in that of some little cash
- 16:21Speaker 1: girl with hair raked back from a sallow face, who
- 16:24Speaker 1: stared at her as she passed in a shop? or
- 16:26Speaker 1: in that of the young Frenchwoman whose life was spent
- 16:29Speaker 1: in serving her, in caring for delicate dresses and keeping
- 16:32Speaker 1: guard over ornaments whose price would have given to her
- 16:35Speaker 1: own humbleness ease for the rest of existence? What did
- 16:39Speaker 1: it mean, and what law was laid upon her? What law,
- 16:42Speaker 1: which could only work through her and such as she,
- 16:45Speaker 1: who had been born with almost unearthly power, laid in
- 16:48Speaker 1: their hands, the reins of monstrous wealth which guided or
- 16:51Speaker 1: drove the world? Sometimes fear touched her, as with this
- 16:55Speaker 1: light touch at her heart, because she did not know
- 16:58Speaker 1: the law, and could only pray that her guessing at
- 17:00Speaker 1: it might be right. And even as she thought these things, G.
- 17:04Speaker 1: Selden went on.' You never can know,' he said,' because
- 17:08Speaker 1: you've always been in it, and the rest of the
- 17:10Speaker 1: world can't know because they've never been anywhere near it.'
- 17:14Speaker 1: He stopped and evidently fell to thinking.' Tell me about
- 17:18Speaker 1: the rest of the world,' said Betty, quietly. He laughed again. Why,
- 17:23Speaker 1: I was just thinking to myself you didn't know a
- 17:25Speaker 1: thing about it. And it's queer, it's the rest of
- 17:28Speaker 1: us that mounts up when you come to numbers. I
- 17:31Speaker 1: guess it'd run into millions. I'm not thinking of beggars
- 17:35Speaker 1: and starving people. I've been rushing the delcoff too steady
- 17:38Speaker 1: to get on to any swell charity organisation, so I
- 17:41Speaker 1: don't know about them. I'm just thinking of the millions
- 17:44Speaker 1: of fellas, and women too for the matter of that,
- 17:47Speaker 1: that waken up every morning and know they've got to
- 17:50Speaker 1: hustle for their ten per or their fifteen per. if
- 17:53Speaker 1: they can stir it up as thick as that. If
- 17:56Speaker 1: it's as much as fifty per, of course, seems to
- 17:58Speaker 1: me they're on easy street. But sometimes those that's got
- 18:02Speaker 1: to fifty per, or even more, have got more things
- 18:04Speaker 1: to do with it— kids, you know, and more rent and clothes.
- 18:08Speaker 1: They've got to get at it just as hard as
- 18:10Speaker 1: we have. Why, Miss Vanderpool, how many people do you
- 18:13Speaker 1: suppose there are in a million that don't have to
- 18:16Speaker 1: worry over their next month's grocery bills and the rent
- 18:18Speaker 1: of their flat? I bet there's not ten, and I
- 18:21Speaker 1: don't know the ten.' He did not state his case uncheerfully.
- 18:26Speaker 1: The rest of the world represented to him the normal
- 18:29Speaker 1: condition of things. Most married men's a bit afraid to
- 18:33Speaker 1: look an honest grocery bill in the face, and they
- 18:35Speaker 1: will come in as regular as spring hats. And I
- 18:39Speaker 1: tell you, when a man's got a lip on seventy-five
- 18:41Speaker 1: a month, a thing that'll take all the strength and
- 18:43Speaker 1: energy out of a twenty-dollar bill sort of gets him
- 18:46Speaker 1: down on the mat. Like old Mrs. Weldon's, his roughly
- 18:50Speaker 1: sketched picture was a graphic one.' It ain't the working
- 18:54Speaker 1: that bothers most of us. We were born to that,
- 18:56Speaker 1: and most of us would feel like deadbeats if we
- 18:59Speaker 1: were doing nothing. It's the earning less than you can
- 19:02Speaker 1: live on, and getting a sort of tired feeling over it.
- 19:05Speaker 1: It's the having to make a dollar bill look like two,
- 19:08Speaker 1: and watching every other fellow trying to do the same thing,
- 19:11Speaker 1: and not often make the trip. There's millions of us,
- 19:14Speaker 1: just millions, every one of us with his delkoff to sell.'
- 19:19Speaker 1: His figure of speech pleased him, and he chuckled at
- 19:21Speaker 1: his own cleverness. and thinking of it, and talking about it,
- 19:26Speaker 1: and under his vest half afraid that he can't make it.
- 19:29Speaker 1: And what you say in the morning when you open
- 19:31Speaker 1: your eyes and stretch yourself is,' Holy gee, I've got
- 19:35Speaker 1: to sell a Delcoff today, and suppose I shouldn't and
- 19:38Speaker 1: couldn't hold down my job. I began it over my
- 19:41Speaker 1: feeding bottle, so did all the people I know. It's
- 19:45Speaker 1: what gave me a sort of jolt just now when
- 19:47Speaker 1: I looked at you and I thought about you being you.'
- 19:50Speaker 1: and what it meant. When their conversation ended, she had
- 19:54Speaker 1: a much more intimate knowledge of New York than she
- 19:56Speaker 1: had ever had before, and she felt it a rich possession.
- 20:00Speaker 1: She had heard of the hall bedroom previously, and she
- 20:03Speaker 1: had seen from the outside the quick-lunch counter. but she
- 20:06Speaker 1: seldom unconsciously escorted her inside and threw upon faces and
- 20:10Speaker 1: lives the glare of a flashlight.' There was a thing
- 20:14Speaker 1: I'd been thinking I'd ask you, Miss Vanderpool,' he said
- 20:17Speaker 1: just before she left him.' I' d like you to tell me,
- 20:20Speaker 1: if you please. It's like this. You see, those two
- 20:24Speaker 1: fellows treated me as fine as silk. I mean Lord
- 20:27Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan and Mr. Penzance. I never expected it. I
- 20:32Speaker 1: never saw a lord before, much less spoke to one.'
- 20:35Speaker 1: but I can tell you that one's just about all right,
- 20:38Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan, and the other one, the old vicar, I've
- 20:41Speaker 1: never taken to anyone since I was born like I
- 20:44Speaker 1: took to him. The way he puts on his eyeglasses
- 20:47Speaker 1: and looks at you, sort of kind and curious about
- 20:50Speaker 1: you at the same time, and his voice and his
- 20:53Speaker 1: way of saying his words, well, they just got me, sure,
- 20:56Speaker 1: and they both of them did say they'd like to
- 20:59Speaker 1: see me again. now do you think miss vanderpoel that
- 21:02Speaker 1: it would look too fresh if i was to write
- 21:04Speaker 1: a polite note and ask if either of them could
- 21:07Speaker 1: make it convenient to come and take a look at
- 21:09Speaker 1: me if it wouldn't be too much trouble i don't
- 21:12Speaker 1: want to be too fresh and perhaps they wouldn't come
- 21:15Speaker 1: anyhow and if it is please won't you tell me
- 21:18Speaker 1: miss vanderpoel betty thought of mount dunstan as he had
- 21:21Speaker 1: stood and talked to her in the deepening afternoon sun
- 21:25Speaker 1: she didn't know much of him but she thought having
- 21:27Speaker 1: heard g selden's story of the lunch that he would
- 21:30Speaker 1: come She had never seen Mr. Penzance, but she knew
- 21:33Speaker 1: she should like to see him. I think you might
- 21:36Speaker 1: write the note, she said. I believe they would come
- 21:39Speaker 1: to see you. Do you? With eager pleasure. Then I'll
- 21:42Speaker 1: do it. I'd give a good deal to see them again.
- 21:45Speaker 1: I tell you they are just it, both of them.
- 21:50Speaker 1: End of chapter 26