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The Shuttle Chapter 28 - Setting Them Thinking · The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library

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  Speaker 1: CHAPTER XXVIII. SETTING THEM THINKING Old Dobie, sitting at his
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  Speaker 1: open window with his pipe and illustrated papers on the
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  Speaker 1: table by his side, began to find life a series
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  Speaker 1: of thrills. The advantage of a window giving upon the
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  Speaker 1: village street unspeakably increased. For many years he had preferred
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  Speaker 1: the chimney-corner greatly, and had rejoiced at the drawing-in of
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  Speaker 1: winter days when a fire must be well kept up,
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  Speaker 1: and a man might bend over it and rub his
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  Speaker 1: hand slowly, gazing into the red coals or little pointed flames,
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  Speaker 1: which seemed the only things alive and worthy the watching.
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  Speaker 1: The flames were blue at the base and yellow at
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  Speaker 1: the top, and jumped, looking merry, and caught at bits
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  Speaker 1: of black coal and set them crackling and throwing off
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  Speaker 1: splinters until they were ablaze and as much alive as
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  Speaker 1: the rest. a man could get comfort and entertainment therefrom.
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  Speaker 1: There was naught else so good to live with. Nothing
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  Speaker 1: happened in the street, and every dull face that passed
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  Speaker 1: was an old story, and told an old tale of
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  Speaker 1: stupefying hard labour and hard days. But now the window
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  Speaker 1: was a better place to sit near. Carts went by
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  Speaker 1: with men whistling as they walked by the horses' heads.
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  Speaker 1: Loads of things wanted for work at the court. New
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  Speaker 1: faces passed, faces of workmen, sometimes grinning impudent youngsters who
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  Speaker 1: larked with the young women, and called out to them
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  Speaker 1: as they passed their cottages if a good-looking one was
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  Speaker 1: loitering about her garden gate. Old Dobie chuckled at their
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  Speaker 1: love-making chaff, remembering dimly that seventy years ago he'd been
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  Speaker 1: just as proper a young chap, and had made love
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  Speaker 1: in the same way. Lord, Lord, yes, he'd been a
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  Speaker 1: bold young chap as ever winked an eye. Then, too,
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  Speaker 1: there were the vans, heavy-loaded and closed, and coming along slowly.
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  Speaker 1: Every few days at first there had come a van
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  Speaker 1: from Lunnan, going to the court, of course, and to
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  Speaker 1: sit there and hear the women talk about what might
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  Speaker 1: be in them, and to try to guess oneself, that
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  Speaker 1: was a rare pastime. Fine things going to the court
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  Speaker 1: these days, furniture and grandeur filling up the shabby or
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  Speaker 1: empty old rooms, and making them look like other big houses,
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  Speaker 1: same as Westerbridge even, so the women said. The women
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  Speaker 1: were always talking and getting bits of news somehow, and
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  Speaker 1: were beginning to be worth listening to, because they had
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  Speaker 1: something more interesting to talk about than children's worn-out shoes
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  Speaker 1: and whooping-cough. Dobie heard everything first from them. Dang the women,
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  Speaker 1: they always knowed things fast. It was them as knowed
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  Speaker 1: about the smart carriages as began to roll through the
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  Speaker 1: one village street. They were gentry's carriages with fine stamping
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  Speaker 1: horses and jingling silver harnesses and big coachmen and tall footmen,
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  Speaker 1: and such like had long ago dropped off showing themselves
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  Speaker 1: at Stornham. But now the gentry has heard about Miss
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  Speaker 1: Vanderpool and what's being done at the court, and they
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  Speaker 1: know what it means, said young Mrs. Dobie, and they
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  Speaker 1: want to see her and find out what she's like.
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  Speaker 1: It's her brings them. Old Dobie chuckled and rubbed his hands.
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  Speaker 1: He knew what she was like, that straight slim back
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  Speaker 1: of hers and the thick twist of black hair, and
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  Speaker 1: the way she had of laughing at you as cheery
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  Speaker 1: as if a bell was ringing. Aye, he knew all
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  Speaker 1: about that.' When they see her once, they'll come again
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  Speaker 1: for sure,' he quavered shrilly, and day by day he
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  Speaker 1: watched for the grand carriages with vivid eagerness. If a
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  Speaker 1: day or two passed without his seeing one, he grew
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  Speaker 1: fretful and was injured, feeling that his beauty was being neglected.'
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  Speaker 1: None to-day, nor yet yesterday,' he would cackle.' What be
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  Speaker 1: they folk a-doing?' Old Mrs. Weldon, having heard of the
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  Speaker 1: pipe and come to see it, had struck up an
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  Speaker 1: acquaintance with him, and dropped in almost every day to
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  Speaker 1: talk and sit at his window. She was a young
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  Speaker 1: thing by comparison, and could bring him lively news, and
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  Speaker 1: indeed so stir him up with her gossip that he
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  Speaker 1: was in danger of becoming a young thing himself. Her
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  Speaker 1: groceries and his tobacco were subjects whose interest was undying.
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  Speaker 1: A great curiosity had been awakened in the county, and
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  Speaker 1: visitors came from distances greater than such as ordinarily include
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  Speaker 1: usual calls. Naturally one was curious about the daughter of
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  Speaker 1: the Vanderpool, who was a sort of national institution in
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  Speaker 1: his own country. His name had not been so much
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  Speaker 1: heard of in England when Lady Anstruthers had arrived, but
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  Speaker 1: there had at first been felt an interest in her.
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  Speaker 1: But she had been a failure, a childish-looking girl, whose
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  Speaker 1: thin fair prettiness had no distinction, and who was obviously
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  Speaker 1: overwhelmed by her surroundings. She had evidently had no influence
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  Speaker 1: over Sir Nigel, and had not been able to prevent
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  Speaker 1: his making ducks and drakes of her money. which of
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  Speaker 1: course ought to have been spent on the estate. Besides which,
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  Speaker 1: a married woman represented fewer potentialities than a handsome unmarried
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  Speaker 1: girl entitled to expectations from huge American wealth. So the
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  Speaker 1: carriages came and came again, and stately or unstately far-off
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  Speaker 1: neighbours sat at tea upon the lawn under the trees,
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  Speaker 1: and it was observed that the methods and appointments of
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  Speaker 1: the court had entirely changed. Nothing looked new and American.
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  Speaker 1: The silently moving menservants could not have been improved upon.
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  Speaker 1: There was plainly an excellent chef somewhere, and the massive
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  Speaker 1: silver was old and wonderful. Upon everybody's word, the change
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  Speaker 1: was such as it was worth a long drive merely
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  Speaker 1: to see. The most wonderful thing, however, was Lady Anstruthers herself.
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  Speaker 1: She had begun to grow delicately plump, her once drawn
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  Speaker 1: and haggard face had rounded out, her skin had smoothed
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  Speaker 1: and was actually becoming pink and fair, a nimbus of
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  Speaker 1: fine pale hair puffed airily over her forehead, and she
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  Speaker 1: wore the most charming little clothes, all of which made
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  Speaker 1: her look fifteen years younger than she seemed when on
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  Speaker 1: the grounds of ill health she had retired into seclusion.
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  Speaker 1: The renewed relations with her family, the atmosphere by which
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  Speaker 1: she was surrounded, had evidently given her a fresh lease
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  Speaker 1: of life and awakened in her a new courage. When
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  Speaker 1: the summer epidemic of garden parties broke forth, old Dobie
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  Speaker 1: gleefully beheld, day after day, the court carriage drive by,
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  Speaker 1: bearing her ladyship and her sister attired in fairest shades
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  Speaker 1: and tints, same as if there was flowers. Their delicate
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  Speaker 1: vaporousness and rare colours were sweet delights to the old man,
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  Speaker 1: and he and Mrs. Weldon spent happy evenings discussing them
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  Speaker 1: as personal possessions. To these two Betty was a personal possession,
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  Speaker 1: bestowing upon them a marked distinction. They were hers, and
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  Speaker 1: she was theirs. No one else so owned her. Heaven
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  Speaker 1: had given her to them so that their last years
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  Speaker 1: might be lighted with splendour. On her way to one
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  Speaker 1: of the garden parties she stopped the carriage before old
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  Speaker 1: Dobie's cottage, and went in to him to speak a
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  Speaker 1: few words. She was of pale convolvulus blue that afternoon,
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  Speaker 1: and Dobie, standing up, touching his forelock, and Mrs. Weldon, curtsying,
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  Speaker 1: gazed at her with prayer in their eyes. She had
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  Speaker 1: a few flowers in her hand, and a book of
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  Speaker 1: coloured photographs of Venice.' These are pictures of the city
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  Speaker 1: I told you about, the city built in the sea
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  Speaker 1: where the streets are water.'' You and Mrs. Weldon can
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  Speaker 1: look at them together,' she said as she laid flowers
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  Speaker 1: and book down.' I am going to Dunham Castle to
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  Speaker 1: a garden party this afternoon. Someday I will come and
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  Speaker 1: tell you about it.' The two were at the window
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  Speaker 1: staring spellbound as she swept back to the carriage between
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  Speaker 1: the Sweet Williams and Canterbury Bells bordering the narrow garden path.'
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  Speaker 1: Do you know, I really went in to let them
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  Speaker 1: see my dress,' she said when she rejoined Lady Anstruthers.
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  Speaker 1: Old Dobie's granddaughter told me that he and Mrs. Weldon
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  Speaker 1: have little quarrels about the colours I wear. It seems
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  Speaker 1: that they find my wardrobe an absorbing interest. When I
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  Speaker 1: put the book on the table I felt Dobie touch
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  Speaker 1: my sleeve with his trembling old hand. He thought I
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  Speaker 1: didn't know.'' What will they do with Venice?' asked Rosie.'
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  Speaker 1: They will believe the water as blue as the photographs
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  Speaker 1: make it, and the palaces as pink. It will seem
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  Speaker 1: like a chapter out of Revelations which they can believe
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  Speaker 1: is true and not merely Scripture.' because I have been there.
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  Speaker 1: I wish I had been to the city of the
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  Speaker 1: Gates of Pearl, and I could tell them about that.
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  Speaker 1: On the lawns of the garden party she was much
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  Speaker 1: gazed at and commented upon. Her height and her long
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  Speaker 1: slender neck held her head above those of other girls.
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  Speaker 1: The dense black of her hair made a rich note
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  Speaker 1: of shadow amid the prevailing English blondness. Her mere colouring
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  Speaker 1: set her apart. Rosie used to watch her with tender wonder,
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  Speaker 1: recalling her memory of nine-year-old Betty with the long slim
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  Speaker 1: legs and the demanding and accusing child-eyes. She had always
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  Speaker 1: been this creature, even in those far-off days. At the
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  Speaker 1: garden-party at Dunham Castle it became evident that she was,
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  Speaker 1: after a manner, unusually the central figure of the occasion.'
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  Speaker 1: It was not at all surprising,' people said to each other.'
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  Speaker 1: Nothing could have been more desirable for Lord Westholt. He
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  Speaker 1: combined rank with fortune.' and the Vanderpool wealth almost constituted
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  Speaker 1: rank in itself. Both Lord and Lady Dunham seemed pleased
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  Speaker 1: with the girl. Lord Dunham showed her great attention. When
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  Speaker 1: she took part in the dancing on the lawn, he
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  Speaker 1: looked on delightedly. He walked about the gardens with her,
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  Speaker 1: and it was plain to see that their conversation was
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  Speaker 1: not the ordinary polite effort to accord, usually marking the
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  Speaker 1: talk between a mature man and a merely pretty girl.
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  Speaker 1: Lord Dunham sometimes laughed with unfeigned delight, and sometimes the
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  Speaker 1: two seem to talk of grave things. Such occasions as
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  Speaker 1: these are a sort of yearly taking of the social
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  Speaker 1: census of the county, Lord Dunham explained. One invites all
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  Speaker 1: one's neighbours, and is invited again. It is a friendly
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  Speaker 1: duty one owes. I do not see Lord Mount Dunstan,
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  Speaker 1: Betty answered. Is he here? She had never denied to
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  Speaker 1: herself her interest in Mount Dunstan, and she had looked
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  Speaker 1: for him. lord dunholm hesitated a second as his son
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  Speaker 1: had done at miss vanderpoel's mention of the tabooed name
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  Speaker 1: but being an older man he felt more at liberty
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  Speaker 1: to speak and gave her a rather long kind look
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  Speaker 1: my dear young lady he said did you expect to
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  Speaker 1: see him here yes i think i did betty replied
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  Speaker 1: with slow softness.' I believe I rather hoped I should.'' Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: you are interested in him?'' I know him very little,
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  Speaker 1: but I am interested. I will tell you why.' She
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  Speaker 1: paused by a seat beneath a tree, and they sat
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  Speaker 1: down together. She gave, with a few swift, vivid touches,
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  Speaker 1: a sketch of the red-haired second-class passenger on the Meridiana,
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  Speaker 1: of whom she had only thought that he was an unhappy,
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  Speaker 1: rough-looking young man, until the brief moment in which they
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  Speaker 1: had stood face to face, each comprehending that the other
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  Speaker 1: was to be relied on if the worst should come
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  Speaker 1: to the worst. She had understood his prompt disappearance from
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  Speaker 1: the scene, and had liked it. When she related the
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  Speaker 1: incident of her meeting with him when she thought him
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  Speaker 1: a mere keeper on his own lands— Lord Dunham listened
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  Speaker 1: with a changed and thoughtful expression. The effect produced upon
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  Speaker 1: her imagination by what she had seen, her silent wandering
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  Speaker 1: through the sad beauty of the wrong place, led by
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  Speaker 1: the man who tried stiffly to bear himself as a servant,
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  Speaker 1: his unintended self-revelations, her clear, well-argued point of view, charmed him.
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  Speaker 1: She had seen the thing set apart from its county scandal,
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  Speaker 1: and so had read possibilities others had been blind to.
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  Speaker 1: He was immensely touched by certain things she had said
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  Speaker 1: about the first man.' He is one of them,' she said.'
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  Speaker 1: They find their way in the end, they find their way.
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  Speaker 1: But just now he thinks there is none. He is
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  Speaker 1: standing in the dark where the roads meet.'' You think
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  Speaker 1: he will find his way,' Lord Dunham said.' Why do
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  Speaker 1: you think so?'' Because I know he will,' she answered.'
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  Speaker 1: But I cannot tell you why I know.' What you
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  Speaker 1: have said has been interesting to me because of the
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  Speaker 1: light your own thought threw upon what you saw.' It
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  Speaker 1: has not been Mount Dunstan I have been caring for,
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  Speaker 1: but for the light you saw him in. You met
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  Speaker 1: him without prejudice, and you carried the light in your hand.
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  Speaker 1: You always carry a light, my impression is, very quietly.
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  Speaker 1: Some women do. The prejudice you speak of must be
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  Speaker 1: a bitter thing for a proud man to bear. Is
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  Speaker 1: it a just prejudice? What has he done? Lord Dunham
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  Speaker 1: was gravely silent for a few moments. It is an
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  Speaker 1: extraordinary thing to reflect his words came slowly, that it
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  Speaker 1: may not be a just prejudice. I do not know
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  Speaker 1: that he has done anything, but seem rather sulky and
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  Speaker 1: be the son of his father and the brother of
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  Speaker 1: his brother.'' And go to America,' said Betty. He could
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  Speaker 1: have avoided doing that, but he cannot be called to
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  Speaker 1: account for his relations. If that is all, the prejudice
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  Speaker 1: is not just.'' No, it is not,' said Lord Dunham,
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  Speaker 1: and one feels rather awkward at having shared it. You
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  Speaker 1: have set me thinking again, Miss Vanderpool. End of chapter
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  Speaker 1: 28