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The Wheels of Chance Chapters 38 to 41 · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Section fifteen of the Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Tom Watts. The Wheels
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  Speaker 1: of Chance by H. G. Wells, Chapter thirty eight. At
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  Speaker 1: the Rufus Stone, he folded his arms as Dangle and
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  Speaker 1: Phipps returned towards him. Phipps was abashed by his inability
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  Speaker 1: to cope with the tandem which he was now wheeling.
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  Speaker 1: But Dangle was inclined to be quarrelsome Miss Milton, he
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  Speaker 1: said briefly. Mister Hoopdriver bowed over his folded arms. Miss
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  Speaker 1: Milton within, said Dangle, and not to be disturbed, said
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  Speaker 1: mister Hoopdriver. You are a scoundrel, sir, said mister Dangle.
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  Speaker 1: At your service, said mister Hoopdriver. She awaits her step mother, Sir.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Dangle hesitated. She will be here immediately, he said,
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  Speaker 1: Here is her friend, Miss Murgle. Mister Hoopdriver unfolded his
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  Speaker 1: arms slowly, and with an air of intense calm, thrust
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  Speaker 1: his hands into his breeches pockets, then with one of
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  Speaker 1: those fatal hesitations of his. It occurred to him that
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  Speaker 1: this attitude was merely vulgarly defiant. He withdrew both returned
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  Speaker 1: one and pulled at the insufficient mustache with the other.
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  Speaker 1: Miss Burgle caught him in confusion. Is this the man?
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  Speaker 1: She said, to dangle and forthwith How dare you, sir?
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  Speaker 1: How dare you face me that poor girl? You will
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  Speaker 1: permit me to observe? Began mister Hoopdriver with a splendid drawl,
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  Speaker 1: seeing himself for the first time in all this business
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  Speaker 1: as a romantic villain, Hugh said, Miss Murgle unexpectedly striking
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  Speaker 1: him about the midriff with her extended palms and sending
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  Speaker 1: him staggering backwards into the hall of the hotel. Let
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  Speaker 1: me passaid Miss Mergle, in towering indignation. How dare you
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  Speaker 1: resist my passage? And so swept by him and into
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  Speaker 1: the dining room, wherein Jesse had sought refuge. As mister
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  Speaker 1: Hoopdriver struggled for equilibrium with the umbrella, stand Dangle and Phipps,
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  Speaker 1: roused from their inertia by Miss Mergle's activity, came in
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  Speaker 1: upon her heels, Phipps, leading how dare you prevent that
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  Speaker 1: lady passing? Said Phipps. Mister Hoopdriver looked obstinate, and to
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  Speaker 1: Dangle's sense, dangerous, but he made no answer. A waiter
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  Speaker 1: in full bloom appeared at the end of the passage.
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  Speaker 1: Gardened it is men of your stamp, sir, said Phipps,
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  Speaker 1: whose discredit manhood? Mister hoopdriver thrust his hands into his pockets.
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  Speaker 1: Who the deuce are you, shouted mister hoopdriver fiercely. Who
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  Speaker 1: are you, sir? Retorted Phipps. Who are you? That's the question?
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  Speaker 1: Who are you? And what are you doing wandering at
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  Speaker 1: large with a young lady under age? Don't speak to him,
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  Speaker 1: said Dangle. I'm not a goin to tell all my
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  Speaker 1: secrets to any one who comes at me, said Hoopdriver.
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  Speaker 1: Not likely, and he added fiercely, and that I tell you, sir.
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  Speaker 1: He and Phipps stood legs apart, and both looking exceedingly
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  Speaker 1: fierce at one another. And Heaven alone knows what might
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  Speaker 1: not have happened if the long clergyman had not appeared
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  Speaker 1: in the doorway. Heed it but deliberate, petticoated an achronism,
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  Speaker 1: said the long clergyman in the doorway, apparently still suffering
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  Speaker 1: from the antiquated prejudice that demanded a third wheel and
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  Speaker 1: a black coat from a clerical rider. He looked at
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  Speaker 1: Phipps and Hoopdriver for a moment, then, extending his hand
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  Speaker 1: toward the ladder, he waved it up and down three times,
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  Speaker 1: saying check chack, chack, very deliberately as he did so. Then,
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  Speaker 1: with a concluding ugh and a gesture of repugnance, he
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  Speaker 1: passed on into the living room, from which the voice
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  Speaker 1: of miss Mrgle was distinctly audible, remarking that the weather
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  Speaker 1: was extremely hot, even for the time of year. This
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  Speaker 1: expression of extreme disapprobation had a very demoralizing effect upon Hoopdriver,
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  Speaker 1: a demoralization that was immediately completed by the advent of
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  Speaker 1: the massive widgery. Is this the man said Widgery, very grimly,
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  Speaker 1: and producing a special voice for the occasion from somewhere
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  Speaker 1: deep in his neck. Don't hurt him, said missus Milton
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  Speaker 1: with clasped hands. However much wrong he has done her,
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  Speaker 1: no violence, How many more of you, said Hoopdriver at
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  Speaker 1: bay before the umbrella stand. Where is she? What has
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  Speaker 1: he done with her? Said missus Milton. I'm not going
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  Speaker 1: to stand here and be insulted by a lot of strangers,
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  Speaker 1: said mister Hoopdriver. So you needn't think it. Please don't worry,
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  Speaker 1: mister Hoopdriver, said Jesse, suddenly appearing in the door of
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  Speaker 1: the dining room. I'm here, mother. Her face was white.
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  Speaker 1: Missus Milton said something about her child and made an
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  Speaker 1: emotional charge at Jesse. The embrace vanished into the dining room.
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  Speaker 1: Widgery moved as if to follow, and hesitated. You'd better
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  Speaker 1: make yourself scarce, he said to mister Hoopdriver. I shan't
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  Speaker 1: do anything of the kind, said mister Hoopdriver, with a
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  Speaker 1: catching of the breath. I'm here defending that young lady.
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  Speaker 1: You've done her enough mischief, I should think, said Widgery,
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  Speaker 1: suddenly walking toward the dining room and closing the door
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  Speaker 1: behind him, leaving Dangle and Phipps with Hoopdriver clear. Said
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  Speaker 1: Phipps threateningly, I shall go and sit out in the garden,
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  Speaker 1: said mister Hoopdriver with dignity there I shall remain. Don't
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  Speaker 1: make a row with him, said Dangle, and mister Hoopdriver retired, unassaulted,
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  Speaker 1: in almost sobbing Dignity, Chapter thirty nine so here is
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  Speaker 1: the world with us again, and our sentimental excursion is over.
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  Speaker 1: In the front of the rufous Stone Hotel, conceive a
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  Speaker 1: remarkable collection of wheeled instruments, watched over by Dangle and
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  Speaker 1: Phipps in grave and stately attitudes, and by the driver
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  Speaker 1: of a stylish dog cart from Ringwood in the garden behind,
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  Speaker 1: in an attitude of nervous prostration. Mister hoopdriver was seated
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  Speaker 1: on a rustic seat. Through the open window of a
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  Speaker 1: private sitting room. Came a murmur of voices, as of
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  Speaker 1: men and women in conference, occasionally something that might have
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  Speaker 1: been a girlish sob. I fail to see what status
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  Speaker 1: Widgery has, says Dangle, thrusting himself in there. He takes
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  Speaker 1: too much upon himself, said Phipps. I've been noticing little
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  Speaker 1: things yesterday and to day, said Dangle, and stopped. They
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  Speaker 1: went to the cathedral together in the afternoon. Financially it
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  Speaker 1: would be a good thing for her, of course, said Dangle,
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  Speaker 1: with a gloomy magnanimity. He felt drawn to Phipps now
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  Speaker 1: by the common trouble in spite of the man's checkered legs.
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  Speaker 1: Financially it wouldn't be half bad. He's so dull and heavy,
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  Speaker 1: said Phipps. Meanwhile, within the clergyman had, by promptitude and dexterity,
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  Speaker 1: taken the chair and was opening the case against the
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  Speaker 1: unfortunate Jesse. I regret to have to say that my
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  Speaker 1: heroine had been appalled by the visible array of public
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  Speaker 1: opinion against her excursion to the pitch of tears. She
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  Speaker 1: was sitting with flushed cheeks and swimming eyes, at the
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  Speaker 1: end of a table opposite to the clergyman. She held
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  Speaker 1: her handkerchief crumpled up in her extended hand. Missus Milton
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  Speaker 1: sat as near to her as possible, and occasionally made
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  Speaker 1: little dabs with her hand at Jesse's hand to indicate forgiveness.
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  Speaker 1: These advances were not reciprocated, which touched Widgery very much.
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  Speaker 1: The lady in Green, Miss mergle b A, sat at
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  Speaker 1: the opposite side, near the clergyman. She was the strong
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  Speaker 1: minded schoolmistress to whom Jessee had written and who had
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  Speaker 1: immediately precipitated the pursuit upon her. She had picked up
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  Speaker 1: the clergyman in Ringwood and had told him everything forthwith,
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  Speaker 1: having met him once at a British Association meeting. He
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  Speaker 1: had immediately constituted himself administrator of the entire business. Widgery,
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  Speaker 1: having been foiled in an attempt to conduct the proceedings,
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  Speaker 1: stood with its legs wide apart in front of the
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  Speaker 1: fireplace ornament, and looked profound and sympathetic. Jesse's account of
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  Speaker 1: her adventures was a cheery one, and given amidst frequent interruptions,
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  Speaker 1: she surprised herself by skillfully omitting any allusion to the
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  Speaker 1: Bechamel episode. She completely exonerated Hoopdriver from the charge of
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  Speaker 1: being more than an accessory to her escapade, but public
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  Speaker 1: feeling was heavy against Hoopdriver. Her narrative was inaccurate and sketchy,
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  Speaker 1: but happily the others were too anxious to pass opinions
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  Speaker 1: to pin her down to particulars. At last they had
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  Speaker 1: all the facts they would permit. My dear young lady,
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  Speaker 1: said the clergyman. I can only ascribe this extravagant and
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  Speaker 1: regrettable expedition of yours to the wildest misconceptions of your
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  Speaker 1: place in the world and of your duties and responsibilities.
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  Speaker 1: Even now, it seems to me your present emotion is
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  Speaker 1: due not so much to a real and sincere penitence
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  Speaker 1: for your disobedience and folly as to a positive annoyance
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  Speaker 1: at our most fortunate interference. Not that, said Missus Milton
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  Speaker 1: in a low tone. Not that, But why did she
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  Speaker 1: go off like this? Said Widgery. That's what I want
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  Speaker 1: to know. Jesse made an attempt to speak, but Missus
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  Speaker 1: Milton said hush, and the ringing tenor of the clergyman
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  Speaker 1: rode triumphantly over the meeting. I cannot understand this spirit
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  Speaker 1: of unrest that has seized upon the more intelligent portion
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  Speaker 1: of the feminine community. You had a pleasant home, a
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  Speaker 1: most refined and intelligent lady, in the position of your
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  Speaker 1: mother to cherish and protect you. If I had a mother,
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  Speaker 1: gulped Jesse, succumbing to the obvious snare of self pity
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  Speaker 1: and sobbing to cherish, protect and advise you. And you
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  Speaker 1: must needs go out of it all alone, into the
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  Speaker 1: strange world of unknown dangers. I wanted to learn, said Jesse.
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  Speaker 1: You wanted to learn. You never have anything to unlearn,
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  Speaker 1: ah from missus Milton. Very sadly, it isn't fair for
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  Speaker 1: all of you to argue at me at once, submitted Jesse, irrelevantly.
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  Speaker 1: A world full of unknown dangers, resumed the clergyman. Your
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  Speaker 1: proper place was surely the natural surroundings that are part
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  Speaker 1: of you. You have been unduly influenced, and it is
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  Speaker 1: only too apparent by a class of literature, which, with
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  Speaker 1: all due respect to distinguished authoress, that shall be nameless,
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  Speaker 1: I must call the new woman literature in that deleterious
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  Speaker 1: ingredient of our book boxes. I don't altogether agree with
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  Speaker 1: you there, said miss Mergle, throwing her head back and
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  Speaker 1: regarding him firmly through her spectacles. And mister Widgery coughed.
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  Speaker 1: What has all this to do with me? Asked Jesse,
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  Speaker 1: availing herself of the interruption. The point is, said missus Milton,
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  Speaker 1: on her defense, that in my books, all I want
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  Speaker 1: to do, said Jesse, is to go about freely by myself.
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  Speaker 1: Girls do so in America. Why not here? Social conditions
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  Speaker 1: are entirely different in America, said miss Myrgle. Here we
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  Speaker 1: respect class distinctions. It's very unfortunate. What I want to
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  Speaker 1: know is why I cannot go away for a holiday
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  Speaker 1: if I want to with a strange young man socially
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  Speaker 1: Your inferior, said Widgery, and made her flush by his tone.
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  Speaker 1: Why not, she said, with anybody. They don't do that,
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  Speaker 1: even in America, said miss Mergle. My dear young lady,
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  Speaker 1: said the clergyman, the most elementary principles of decorum. A
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  Speaker 1: day will come when you will better understand how entirely
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  Speaker 1: subservient your ideas are to the very fundamentals of our
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  Speaker 1: present civilization, when you will better understand the harrowing anxiety
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  Speaker 1: you have given, Missus Milton by this inexplicable flight of yours,
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  Speaker 1: We can only put things down at present in charity
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  Speaker 1: to your ignorance. You have to consider the general body
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  Speaker 1: of opinion too. Widgery precisely, said miss Mergle. There is
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  Speaker 1: no such thing as conduct in the absolute. If once
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  Speaker 1: this most unfortunate business gets about, said the clergyman, it
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  Speaker 1: will do you infinite harm. But I've done nothing wrong.
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  Speaker 1: Why should I be responsible for other peoples? The world
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  Speaker 1: has no charity, said Missus Milton. For a girl, said Jesse. No. Now,
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  Speaker 1: do let us stop arguing, my dear young lady, and
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  Speaker 1: let us listen to reason. Never mind how or why
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  Speaker 1: this conduct of yours will do you infinite harm if
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  Speaker 1: once it is generally known, and not only that, it
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  Speaker 1: will cause infinite pain to those who care for you.
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  Speaker 1: But if you will return at once to your home,
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  Speaker 1: causing it to be understood that you have been with
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  Speaker 1: friends for these last few days, tell lies, said Jesse.
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  Speaker 1: Certainly not, most certainly not. But I understand that is
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  Speaker 1: how your absence is understood at present, and there is
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  Speaker 1: no reason. Jesse's grip tightened on her handkerchief. I do't
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  Speaker 1: go back, she said, to have it as I did before.
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  Speaker 1: I want a room of my own. What books I
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  Speaker 1: need to read, to be free to go out by
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  Speaker 1: myself alone teaching anything, said missus Milton, anything in reason.
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  Speaker 1: But how will you keep your promise? Said Jesse. Surely
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  Speaker 1: you won't dictate to your mother, said Widgery, my stepmother.
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to dictate. I want definite promises. Now
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  Speaker 1: this is most unreasonable, said the clergyman. Very well, said Jesse,
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  Speaker 1: swallowing a sob, but with unusual resolution. Then I won't
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  Speaker 1: go back. My life is being frittered away. Let her
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  Speaker 1: have her way, said Widgery. A room, then, all your men,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not to come down and talk away half my days,
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  Speaker 1: my dear child. If only to save you, said missus Milton.
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  Speaker 1: If you don't keep your promise, then I take it.
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  Speaker 1: The matter is practically concluded, said the clergyman, and that
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  Speaker 1: you very properly submit to return to your rop her home.
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  Speaker 1: And now, if I may offer a suggestion, it is
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  Speaker 1: that we take tea freed of its tannin. Nothing I
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  Speaker 1: think is more refreshing and stimulating. There's a train from
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  Speaker 1: Lyndehurst at thirteen minutes to six, said Widgery, unfolding a
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  Speaker 1: timetable that gives us about half an hour or three
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  Speaker 1: quarters here if a conveyance is obtainable. That is a
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  Speaker 1: gelatine lozenge dropped into the tea cup precipitates the tannin
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  Speaker 1: in the form of tannate of gelatine, said the clergyman
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  Speaker 1: to Miss Mergle in a confidential bray. Jesse stood up
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  Speaker 1: and saw through the window a depressed head and shoulders
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  Speaker 1: over the top of the back of a garden seat.
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  Speaker 1: She moved towards the door. While you have tea, mother,
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  Speaker 1: she said, I must tell mister hoopdriver of our arrangements.
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  Speaker 1: Don't you think, I began the clergyman. No, said Jesse,
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  Speaker 1: very rudely. I don't. But Jesse, haven't you already you
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  Speaker 1: are already breaking the capitulation, said Jesse. Will you want
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  Speaker 1: the whole half hour? Said Widgery? At the bell every minute,
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  Speaker 1: said Jesse. In the doorway, he's behaved very nobly to me.
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  Speaker 1: There's tea, said Widgery. I've had tea. He may not
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  Speaker 1: have behaved badly, said the clergyman, but he's certainly an
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  Speaker 1: astonishingly weak person to let a wrong headed young girl.
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  Speaker 1: Jesse closed the door into the garden. Meanwhile, mister hoopdriver
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  Speaker 1: made a sad figure in the sunlight outside. It was
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  Speaker 1: over this wonderful excursion of his so far as she
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  Speaker 1: was concerned. And with the swift blow that separated them,
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  Speaker 1: he realized all that those days had done for him.
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  Speaker 1: He tried to grasp the bearings of their position. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: they would take her away to those social altitudes of hers.
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  Speaker 1: She would become an inaccessible young lady again. Would they
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  Speaker 1: let him say good bye to her? How extraordinary it
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  Speaker 1: had all been. He recalled a moment when he had
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  Speaker 1: first seen her, riding with the sunlight behind her along
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  Speaker 1: the riverside road. He recalled that wonderful night at Bognor,
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  Speaker 1: remembering it as if everything had been done of his
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  Speaker 1: own initiative. Brave, brave, she had called him, and afterwards,
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  Speaker 1: when she came down to him in the morning, kindly quiet,
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  Speaker 1: But ought he to have persuaded her then to return
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  Speaker 1: to her home. He remembered some intention of the sort.
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  Speaker 1: Now these people snatched her away from him, as though
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  Speaker 1: he was scarcely fit to live in the same world
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  Speaker 1: with her. No more he was, he felt he had
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  Speaker 1: presumed upon her worldly ignorance. In traveling with her day
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  Speaker 1: after day, she was so dainty, so delightful, so serene.
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  Speaker 1: He began to recapitulate her expressions, the light of her eyes,
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  Speaker 1: the turn of her face. He wasn't good enough to
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  Speaker 1: walk in the same road with her. Nobody was suppose
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  Speaker 1: they let him say goodbye to her? What could he
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: say that? But they were sure not to let her
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  Speaker 1: talk to him alone. Her mother would be there, as
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  Speaker 1: what it was, it chaperone. He'd never once had a
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  Speaker 1: chance of saying what he felt. Indeed, it was only
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  Speaker 1: now that he was beginning to realize what he felt love.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: He wouldn't presume it was worship. If only he could
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  Speaker 1: have one more chance. He must have one more chance
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  Speaker 1: somewhere somehow, then, he would pour out his soul to
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: her eloquently, he felt eloquently, and words would come. He
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: was dust under her feet. His meditation was interrupted by
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: the click of a door handle, and Jesse appeared in
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  Speaker 1: the sunlight under the verandah. Come away from here, she
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: said to Hoopdriver as he rose to meet her. I'm
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  Speaker 1: going home with them. We have to say good bye.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Mister Hoopdriver winced, opened and shut his mouth, and rose
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  Speaker 1: without a word, Chapter forty. At first, Jesse, Milton and
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: mister Hoopdriver walked away from the hotel in silence. He
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: heard a catching in her breath and glanced at her
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: and saw her lips pressed tight and a tear on
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: her cheek. Her face was hot and bright. She was
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  Speaker 1: looking straight before her. He could think of nothing to say,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: and thrust his hands into his pockets and looked away
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  Speaker 1: from her intentionally. After a while, she began to talk.
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  Speaker 1: They dealt disjointedly, with scenery first, and then with the
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: means of self education. She took his address at Antererbus's
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: and promised to send him some books. But even with
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: that it was spiritless aching talk. Hoopdriver felt for the
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: fighting mood was over. She seemed to him preoccupied with
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: the memories of her late battle, and that appearance hurt him.
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  Speaker 1: It's the end, he whispered to himself. It's the end.
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  Speaker 1: They went into a hollow and up a gentle wooded slope,
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  Speaker 1: and came at last to a high and open space,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: overlooking a wide expanse of country. There By a common impulse,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: they stopped. She looked at her watch a little ostentatiously.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: They stared at the billows of forest rolling away beneath them,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: crest beyond crest of leafy trees, fading at last into blue.
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  Speaker 1: The end ran through his mind, to the exclusion of
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: all speakable thoughts, And so she said, presently, breaking the silence,
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  Speaker 1: it comes to goodbye. For half a minute he did
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  Speaker 1: not answer. Then he gathered his resolution. There is one
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  Speaker 1: thing I must say, well, she said, surprised and abruptly
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: forgetting the recent argument, I ask no return. But then
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  Speaker 1: he stopped. I won't say it. It's no good. It
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: would be rot from me. Now. I wasn't going to
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: say anything goodbye. She looked at him with a startled
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: expression in her eyes. No, she said, but don't forget.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: You are going to work, Remember brother, Chris, you are
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: my friend. You will work. You are not a very
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: strong man. You know now you will forgive me, nor
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: do you know all you should? But what will you
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: be in six years time? He stared hard in front
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: of him still, and the lines about his weak mouth
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: seemed to strengthen. He knew she understood what he could
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: not say. I'll work, he said concisely. They stood side
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: by side for a moment. Then he said, with a
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: motion of his head, I won't come back to them.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Do you mind going back alone? She took ten seconds
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: to think. No, she said, and held out her hand,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: biting her nether lip. Goodbye, she whispered. He turned with
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: a white face, looked into her eyes, took her hand limply,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: and then, with a sudden impulse, lifted it up to
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: his lips. She would have snatched it away, but his
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: grip tightened to her movement. She felt the touch of
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: his lips, and then he had dropped her fingers and
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: turned from her and was striding down the slope a
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: dozen paces away. His foot turned in the lip of
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: a rabbit hole, and he stumbled forward and almost fell.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: He recovered his balance and went on, not looking back.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: He never once looked back. She stared at his receding
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: figure until it was small and far below her, and
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: then the tears running over her eyelids. Now turned slowly
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: and walking with her hands gripped hard together behind her
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: towards stony cross Again. I did not know, she whispered
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: to herself. I did not understand even now, No, I
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: do not understand. Chapter forty one, The Envoy. So the
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: story ends, dear reader, Mister Hoopdriver, sprawling down there among
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: the bracken, must sprawl without our prying, I think, or
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: listening to what chances to his breathing, and of what
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: came of it, all of the six years and afterwards.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: This is no place to tell. In truth, there is
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: no telling it, for the years have still to run.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: But if you see how a mere counter jumper, a
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: cat on casters, and a fool to boot may come
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: to feel the little insufficiencies of life, and if he has,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: to any extent, won your sympathies, my end is attained.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: If it is not attained, may Heaven forgive us both.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Nor will we follow this adventurous young lady of ours
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: back to her home in Surbiton, to her new struggle,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: against widgery and missus Milton combined. For as she will
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: presently hear, that devoted man has got his reward for her. Also,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: your sympathies are invited the rest of this great holiday too,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: five days there are left of it is beyond the
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: limits of our design. You see, fitfully, a slender figure
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: in a dusty brown suit and heather mixture stockings and
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: brown shoes not intended to be cycled in flitting London
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: ward through Hampshire and Berkshire and Surrey, going economically for
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: excellent reasons. Day by day he goes on riding fitfully
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: and for the most part through by roads, but getting
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: a few miles to the northeastward every day. He is
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: a narrow chested person with a nose hot and tanned
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: at the bridge, with unwonted exposure, and brown red knuckled fists.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: A musing expression sits upon the face of this rider,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: you observe. Sometimes he whistles noiselessly to himself. Sometimes he
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: speaks aloud a juiced good try anyhow you hear. And sometimes,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: and that is too often for my liking, he looks
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: irritable and hopeless. I know, he says, I know it's
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: over and done. It isn't in me. You ain't man enough, hoopdriver,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: look at your silly hands. Oh my god. And a
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: gust of passion comes upon him, and he rides furiously
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: for a space. Sometimes again his face softens. Anyhow, if
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to see her, She's going to lend
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: me books, he thinks, and get such comfort as he can.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Then again books, what's books? Once or twice. Triumphant memories
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: of the earlier incidents nerve his face for a while.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: I put the caabash on his little game, he remarks,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: I did that, And one might even call him happy
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: in these phases. And by the by the machine you
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: notice has been enamo painted gray and carries a sonorous gong.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: This figure passes through Basingstoke and Bagshot Staines, Hampton and Richmond,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: at last in Putney High Street, glowing with the warmth
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: of an August sunset, and with all the Prentice boys
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: busy shutting up shop, and the work girls going home,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: and the shop folks peeping abroad, and the white buses
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: full of late clerks and city folk rumbling home to
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: their dinners, we part from him. He is back tomorrow
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: the early rising, the dusting and drudgery began again, but
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: with a difference, with wonderful memories and still more wonderful
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: desires and ambitions replacing those discrepant dreams. He turns out
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: of the high street at the corner, dismounts with a sigh,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: and pushes his machine through the gates of the Antravus
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: stable yard. As the apprentice with the high collar holds
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: them open. There are words of greeting, south coast you
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: hear and splendid weather, splendid He sighs, yes, swapped him
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: off for a couple of sobs. It's a juiced good machine.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: The gate closes upon him with a slam, and he
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: vanishes from our ken. End of section recording by Tom Watts,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Peachtree City, Georgia, u s A. End of the Wheels
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: of Chance by H. G. Wells