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The Shuttle Chapter 33 - For Lady Jane · The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library

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Speaker 1: CHAPTER XXXIII FOR LADY JANE There is no one thing
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Speaker 1: on earth of such interest as the study of the
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Speaker 1: laws of temperament, which impel, support, or entrap into folly
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Speaker 1: and danger the being they rule. As a child, not
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Speaker 1: old enough to give a definite name to the things
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Speaker 1: she watched and pondered on, in child fashion, Bettina Vanderpool
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Speaker 1: had thought much on this subject— As she had grown older,
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Speaker 1: she had never been ignorant of the workings of her
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Speaker 1: own temperament, and she had looked on for years at
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Speaker 1: the laws which had wrought in her father's being, the
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Speaker 1: laws of strength, executive capacity, and that pleasure in great
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Speaker 1: schemes which is roused less by a desire for gain
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Speaker 1: than for a strongly felt necessity for action resulting in success.
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Speaker 1: She mentally followed other people on their way, sometimes asking
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Speaker 1: herself how far the individual was to be praised or
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Speaker 1: blamed for his treading of the path he seemed to choose.
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Speaker 1: and now there was given her the opportunity to study
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Speaker 1: the workings of the nature of Nigel Anstruthers, which was
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Speaker 1: a curious thing. He was not an individual to be envied.
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Speaker 1: Never was man more tormented by lack of power to
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Speaker 1: control his special devil at the right moment of time,
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Speaker 1: and therefore never was there one so inevitably his own frustration.
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Speaker 1: This Betty saw after the passing of but a few days,
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Speaker 1: and wondered how far he was conscious or unconscious of
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Speaker 1: the thing. At times it appeared to her, that he
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Speaker 1: was in a state of unrest, that he was as
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Speaker 1: a man wavering between lines of action, swayed at one
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Speaker 1: moment by one thought, at another by an idea quite different,
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Speaker 1: and that he was harried because he could not hold
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Speaker 1: his own with himself. This was true. The ball at
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Speaker 1: Dunham Castle had been enlightening, and had wrought some changes
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Speaker 1: in his points of view. Also other factors had influenced him.
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Speaker 1: In the first place, the changed atmosphere of Stornham, The
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Speaker 1: fitness and luxury of his surroundings, the new dignity given
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Speaker 1: to his position by the altered aspect of things, rendered
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Speaker 1: external amiability more easy. To ride about the country on
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Speaker 1: a good horse, to drive in a smart Fiat or
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Speaker 1: no suitable carriage, and to find that people who a
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Speaker 1: year ago had passed him with the merest recognition saluted
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Speaker 1: him with polite intention, was, to a certain degree, stimulating
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Speaker 1: to a vanity which had been long ill-fed. The power
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Speaker 1: which produced these results should, of course, have been in
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Speaker 1: his own hands. His money-making father-in-law should have seen that
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Speaker 1: it was his affair to provide for that. But since
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Speaker 1: he had not done so, it was rather entertaining that
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Speaker 1: it should be for the present in the hands of
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Speaker 1: this extraordinarily good-looking girl. He had begun by merely thinking
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Speaker 1: of her in this manner, as this extraordinarily good-looking girl,
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Speaker 1: and had not for a moment hesitated before the edifying
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Speaker 1: idea of its not being impossible to arrange a lively
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Speaker 1: flirtation with her, She was at an age when, in
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Speaker 1: his opinion, girlhood was poised for flight with adventure, and
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Speaker 1: his tastes had not led him in the direction of
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Speaker 1: youth which was fastidious. His Riviera episode had left his
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Speaker 1: vanity blistered and requiring some soothing application. His life had
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Speaker 1: worked evil with him, and he had fallen ill on
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Speaker 1: the hands of a woman who had treated him as
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Speaker 1: a shattered useless thing whose day was done, and with
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Speaker 1: whom strength and bloom could not be burdened. He had
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Speaker 1: kept his illness a hidden secret on his return to Stornham,
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Speaker 1: his one desire having been to forget, even to disbelieve
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Speaker 1: in it, but dreams of its suggestion sometimes awakened him
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Speaker 1: at night with shudders and cold sweat. He was hideously
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Speaker 1: afraid of death and pain, and he had had monstrous pain,
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Speaker 1: and while he had lain battling with it upon his
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Speaker 1: bed in the villa on the Mediterranean, he had been
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Speaker 1: able to hear in the garden outside the low voices
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Speaker 1: and laughter of the Spanish dancer and the healthy, strong
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Speaker 1: young fool who was her new adorer. When he had
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Speaker 1: found himself face to face with Betty in the avenue,
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Speaker 1: after the first leap of annoyance, which had suddenly died
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Speaker 1: down into perversely interested curiosity, he could have laughed outright
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Speaker 1: at the novelty and odd unexpectedness of the situation. The ill-mannered,
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Speaker 1: impudently staring little New York beast had developed into this.
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Speaker 1: Hang it! No man could guess what the embryo female
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Speaker 1: creature might result in. His mere shakiness of physical condition
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Speaker 1: added strength to her attraction. She was like a young
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Speaker 1: goddess of health and life and fire. The very spring
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Speaker 1: of her firm foot upon the moss beneath it was
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Speaker 1: a stimulating thing to a man whose nerves sprang secret
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Speaker 1: fears upon him. There were sparks between the sweep of
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Speaker 1: her lashes, but she managed to carry herself with the
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Speaker 1: air of being as cool as a cucumber, which gave
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Speaker 1: spice to the effort to upset her. If she did
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Speaker 1: not prove suitably amenable, there would be piquancy in getting
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Speaker 1: the better of her, in stirring up unpleasant little things
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Speaker 1: which would make it easier for her to go away
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Speaker 1: than remain on the spot, if one should end by
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Speaker 1: choosing to get rid of her. But for the moment
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Speaker 1: he had no desire to get rid of her. He
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Speaker 1: wanted to see what she intended to do, to see
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Speaker 1: the thing out, in fact. It amused him to hear
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Speaker 1: that Mount Dunstan was on her track. There exists for
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Speaker 1: persons of a certain type a pleasure full-fed by the
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Speaker 1: mere sense of having got even with an opponent. Throughout
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Speaker 1: his life he had made a point of getting even
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Speaker 1: with those who had irritatingly crossed his path or much
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Speaker 1: disliked him. The working out of small or large plans
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Speaker 1: to achieve this end had formed one of his most
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Speaker 1: agreeable recreations. He had long owed Mount Dunstan a debt
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Speaker 1: which he had always meant to pay. He had not
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Speaker 1: intended to forget the episode of the nice little village girl,
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Speaker 1: with whom Teneman himself had been getting along so enormously well,
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Speaker 1: when the raging young ass had found them out, and
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Speaker 1: made an absurdly exaggerated scene, even going so far as
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Speaker 1: threatening to smash the pair of them, marching off to
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Speaker 1: the father and mother, and setting the vicar on, and
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Speaker 1: then scratching together, God knows how, money enough to pack
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Speaker 1: the lot off to America, where they had since done well.
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Speaker 1: Why should a man forgive another who had made him
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Speaker 1: look like a schoolboy and a fool?' so to find
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Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan rushing down a steep hill into this thing
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Speaker 1: was edifying. You cannot take much out of a man
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Speaker 1: if you never encounter him. If you meet him you
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Speaker 1: are provided by heaven with opportunities. You can find out
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Speaker 1: what he feels most sharply, and what he will suffer
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Speaker 1: most by being deprived of. His impression was that there
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Speaker 1: was a good deal to be got out of Mount Dunstan.
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Speaker 1: He was an obstinate, haughty devil, and just the fellow
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Speaker 1: to conceal with a fury of pride a score of
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Speaker 1: tender places in his hide. At the ball he had
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Speaker 1: seen that the girl's effect had been of a kind
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Speaker 1: which even money and good looks, uncombined with another thing,
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Speaker 1: might not have produced. And she had the other thing,
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Speaker 1: whatsoever it might be. He observed the way in which
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Speaker 1: the Dunhams met and greeted her. He marked the glance
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Speaker 1: of the royal personage, and his manner when after her
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Speaker 1: presentation he conversed with her and detained her. He saw
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Speaker 1: the turning of heads and exchange of remarks as she
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Speaker 1: moved through the rooms. Most especially he took in the
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Speaker 1: bearing of the very grand old lady's, led by Lady
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Speaker 1: Allenby of Dole. Barriers had thrown themselves down. These portentous,
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Speaker 1: rigorous old pussycats admired her, even liked her. Upon my word,
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Speaker 1: he said to himself, she has a way with her,
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Speaker 1: you know. She's a combination of Ethel Newcomb and Becky Sharp,
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Speaker 1: but she's more level-headed than either of them. There's a
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Speaker 1: touch of Trix Esmond, too. The sense of the success
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Speaker 1: which followed her, and the gradually growing excitement of looking
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Speaker 1: on at her light whirls of dance, The carnation of
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Speaker 1: her cheek and the laughter and pleasure she drew about
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Speaker 1: her had affected him in a way by which he
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Speaker 1: was secretly a little exhilarated. He was conscious of a
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Speaker 1: rash desire to force his way through these laughing, vaunting
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Speaker 1: young idiots, juggle or snatch their dancers away from them,
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Speaker 1: and seize on the girl himself. He had not for
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Speaker 1: so long a time been impelled by such agreeable folly
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Speaker 1: that he had sometimes felt the stab of the thought
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Speaker 1: that he was past it. That it should rise in
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Speaker 1: him again made him feel young. There was nothing which
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Speaker 1: so irritated him against Mount Dunstan as his own rebelling
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Speaker 1: recognition of the man's youth, the strength of his fine body,
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Speaker 1: his high-held head and clear eye. These things and others
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Speaker 1: it was which swayed him, as was plain to Betty
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Speaker 1: in the time which followed, to many changes of mood.'
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Speaker 1: Are you sorry for a man who is ill and depressed?'
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Speaker 1: he asked one day.' Or do you despise him?'' I
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Speaker 1: am sorry.'' Then be sorry for me.' He had come
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Speaker 1: out of the house to her as she sat on
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Speaker 1: the lawn under a broad level branched tree, and had
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Speaker 1: thrown himself upon a rug with his hands clasped behind
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Speaker 1: his head.' Are you ill?'' When I was on the
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Speaker 1: Riviera I had a fall,' he lied simply.' I strained
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Speaker 1: some muscle or other, and it has left me rather lame.'
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Speaker 1: Sometimes I have a good deal of pain.'' I am
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Speaker 1: very sorry,' said Betty, very.' A woman who can be
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Speaker 1: made sorry is rarely impossible to manage.' to dwell with
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Speaker 1: pathetic patience on your grievances if she is weak and unintelligent,
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Speaker 1: to deplore with honest regret your faults and blunders if
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Speaker 1: she is strong, are not bad ideas. He looked at
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Speaker 1: her reflectively.' Yes, you are capable of being sorry,' he decided.
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Speaker 1: For a few moments of silence his eyes rested upon
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Speaker 1: the view spread before him. To give the expression of
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Speaker 1: dignified reflection was not a bad idea either.' Do you know,'
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Speaker 1: he said at length, that you produce an extraordinary effect
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Speaker 1: upon me, Betty. She was occupying herself by adding a
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Speaker 1: few stitches to one of Rosie's ancient strips of embroidery,
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Speaker 1: and as she answered she laid it flat upon her
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Speaker 1: knee to consider its effect. Good or bad, she inquired
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Speaker 1: with delicate abstraction. He turned his face towards her again,
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Speaker 1: this time quickly. Both, he answered, both. His tone held
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Speaker 1: the flash of a heat which he felt should have
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Speaker 1: startled her slightly, but apparently it did not. I do
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Speaker 1: not like both with composed likeness. If you had said
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Speaker 1: that you felt yourself develop angelic qualities when you were
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Speaker 1: near me, I should feel flattered and swell with pride.
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Speaker 1: But both leaves me unsatisfied. It interferes with the happy
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Speaker 1: little conceit that one is an all-pervading, beneficent power. One
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Speaker 1: likes to contemplate a large picture of oneself, not plain,
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Speaker 1: but coloured, as a wholesale reformer. I see. Thank you,
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Speaker 1: stiffly and flushing, you do not believe me. Her effect
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Speaker 1: upon him was such that, for the moment, he found
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Speaker 1: himself choosing to believe that he was in earnest. His
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Speaker 1: desire to impress her with his mood had actually led
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Speaker 1: to this result. She ought to have been rather moved,
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Speaker 1: a little fluttered, perhaps, at hearing that she disturbed his equilibrium.
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Speaker 1: You set yourself against me as a child, Betty, he said,
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Speaker 1: and you set yourself against me now. You will not
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Speaker 1: give me fair play. You might give me fair play.
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Speaker 1: He dropped his voice at the last sentence, and knew
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Speaker 1: it was well done. A touch of hopelessness is not
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Speaker 1: often lost on a woman.' What would you consider fair play?'
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Speaker 1: she inquired.' It would be fair to listen to me
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Speaker 1: without prejudice, to let me explain how it has happened
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Speaker 1: that I have appeared to you a— a blackguard, I have
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Speaker 1: no doubt you would call it, and a fool.' He
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Speaker 1: threw out his hand in an impatient gesture, impatient of himself,
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Speaker 1: his fate, The tricks of bad fortune which it implied
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Speaker 1: had made of him a more erring mortal than he
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Speaker 1: would have been if left to himself and treated decently.
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Speaker 1: Don't put it so strongly with conservative politeness. I don't
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Speaker 1: refuse to admit that I am handicapped by a devil
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Speaker 1: of a temperament. That is an inherited thing. Ah, said Betty,
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Speaker 1: one of the temperaments one reads about, for which no
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Speaker 1: one is to be blamed but one's deceased relatives. After all,
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Speaker 1: that is comparatively easy to deal with. one can just
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Speaker 1: go on doing what one wants to do, and then
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Speaker 1: condemn one's grandparents severely. A repellent quality in her, which
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Speaker 1: had also the trick of transforming itself into an exasperating attraction,
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Speaker 1: was that she deprived him of the luxury he had
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Speaker 1: been most tenacious of throughout his existence. If the injustice
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Speaker 1: of fate has failed to bestow upon a man fortune,
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Speaker 1: good looks, or brilliance, his exercise of the power to disturb,
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Speaker 1: to enrage those who dare not resent, to wound and
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Speaker 1: take the nonsense out of those about him will at
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Speaker 1: all events preclude the possibility of his being passed over
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Speaker 1: as a factor not to be considered if to charm
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Speaker 1: and bestow gives a sense of power to thwart and
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Speaker 1: humiliate may be found not wholly unsatisfying but in her
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Speaker 1: case the inadequacy of the usual methods had forced itself
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Speaker 1: upon him it was as if the dart being aimed
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Speaker 1: at her she caught it in her hand in its
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Speaker 1: flight broke off its point and threw it lightly aside
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Speaker 1: without comment Most women cannot resist the temptation to answer
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Speaker 1: a speech containing a sting or a reproach. It was
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Speaker 1: part of her abnormality that she could let such things
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Speaker 1: go by in detached silence, which did not express even
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Speaker 1: the germ of comment or opinion upon them. This, he said,
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Speaker 1: was the result of her beastly sense of security, which
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Speaker 1: in its turn was the result of the atmosphere of
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Speaker 1: wealth she had breathed since her birth. There had been
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Speaker 1: no obstacle which could not be removed for her. No
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Speaker 1: law of limitation had laid its reign on her neck,
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Speaker 1: She had not been taught by her existence the importance
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Speaker 1: of propitiating opinion. Under such conditions, how was fear to
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Speaker 1: be learned? She had not learned it. But for the
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Speaker 1: devil in the blue between her lashes, he realized that
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Speaker 1: he should have broken loose long ago. I suppose I
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Speaker 1: deserved that for making a stupid appeal to sympathy, he remarked.
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Speaker 1: I will not do it again. If she had been
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Speaker 1: the woman who can be gently goaded into reply, she
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Speaker 1: would have made answer to this. but she allowed the
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Speaker 1: observation to pass, giving it free flight into space where
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Speaker 1: it lost itself after the annoying manner of its kind.'
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Speaker 1: Have you any objection to telling me why you decided
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Speaker 1: to come to England this year?' he inquired with a
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Speaker 1: casual air, after the pause which she did not fill in.
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Speaker 1: The bluntness of the question did not seem to disturb her.
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Speaker 1: She was not sorry, in fact, that he had asked it.
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Speaker 1: She let her work lie upon her knee and leaned
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Speaker 1: back in her low garden chair, her hands resting upon
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Speaker 1: its wicker arms. She turned on him a clear, unprejudiced gaze.'
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Speaker 1: I came to see Rosie. I have always been very
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Speaker 1: fond of her. I did not believe that she had
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Speaker 1: forgotten how much we had loved her, or how much
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Speaker 1: she had loved us. I knew that if I could
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Speaker 1: see her again I should understand why she had seemed
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Speaker 1: to forget us.'' And when you saw her you, of course,
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Speaker 1: decided that I had behaved, to quote my own words,
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Speaker 1: like a blackguard and a fool.' It is, of course,
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Speaker 1: very rude to say you have behaved like a fool, but,
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Speaker 1: if you'll excuse my saying so, that is what has
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Speaker 1: impressed me very much. Don't you know, with a moderation
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Speaker 1: which singularly drove itself home, that if you had been
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Speaker 1: kind to her and had made her happy, you could
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Speaker 1: have had anything you wished for without trouble?' This was
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Speaker 1: one of the unadorned facts which are like bullets. Disgustedly
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Speaker 1: he found himself veering towards an outlook which forced him
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Speaker 1: to admit that there was probably truth in what she said.
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Speaker 1: and he knew he heard more truth as she went on.
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Speaker 1: She would have wanted only what you wanted, and she
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Speaker 1: would not have asked much in return. She would not
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Speaker 1: have asked as much as I should. What you did
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Speaker 1: was not businesslike. She paused a moment to give thought
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Speaker 1: to it. You paid too high a price for the
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Speaker 1: luxury of indulging the inherited temperament. Your luxury was not
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Speaker 1: to control it, but it was a bad investment. That
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Speaker 1: figure of speech is rather commercial, coldly. It is curious
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Speaker 1: that most things are as a rule. There is always
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Speaker 1: the parallel of profit and loss, whether one sees it
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Speaker 1: or not. The profits are happiness and friendship, enjoyment of
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Speaker 1: life and approbation. If the inherited temperament supplies one with
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Speaker 1: all one wants of such things, it cannot be called
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Speaker 1: a loss, of course. You think, however, that mine has
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Speaker 1: not brought me much. I do not know. It is
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Speaker 1: you who know. Well, viciously. There has been a sort
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Speaker 1: of luxury in it, in lashing out with one's heels
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Speaker 1: and smashing things, and in knowing that people prefer to
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Speaker 1: keep clear.' She lifted her shoulders a little.' Then perhaps
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Speaker 1: it has paid?'' No,' suddenly and fiercely.' Dammit, it has not!'
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Speaker 1: And she actually made no reply to that.' What do
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Speaker 1: you mean to do?' he questioned as bluntly as before.
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Speaker 1: He knew she would understand what he meant.' Not much,
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Speaker 1: to see that Rosie is not unhappy any more.' We
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Speaker 1: can prevent that. She was out of repair, as the
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Speaker 1: house was. She is being rebuilt and decorated. She knows
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Speaker 1: that she will be taken care of. I know her
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Speaker 1: better than you do, with a laugh. She will not
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Speaker 1: go away. She is too frightened of the row it
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Speaker 1: would make, of what I would say. I should have
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Speaker 1: plenty to say. I can make her shake in her shoes.
16:50
Speaker 1: Betty let her eyes rest full upon him, and he
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Speaker 1: saw that she was softly summing him up, quite without prejudice.
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Speaker 1: merely an interested speculation upon the workings of type.' You
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Speaker 1: are letting the inherited temperament run away with you at
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Speaker 1: this moment,' she reflected aloud, her quiet scrutiny almost abstracted.'
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Speaker 1: It was foolish to say that.' He had known it
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Speaker 1: was foolish two seconds after the words had left his lips,
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Speaker 1: but a temper which has been allowed to leap hedges
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Speaker 1: unchecked throughout life is in peril of forming a habit
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Speaker 1: of taking them even at such times as a leap
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Speaker 1: may land its owner in a ditch.' This last was
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Speaker 1: what her interested eyes were obviously saying. It suited him
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Speaker 1: best at the moment to try to laugh. Don't look
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Speaker 1: at me like that, he threw off, as if you
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Speaker 1: were calculating that two and two make four. No prejudice
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Speaker 1: of mine can induce them to make five or six,
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Speaker 1: or three and a half, she said. No prejudice of
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Speaker 1: mine or of yours. The two and two she was
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Speaker 1: calculating with were the likelihoods and unlikelihoods of the inherited
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Speaker 1: temperament and the practical powers she could absolutely count on
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Speaker 1: if difficulty arose with regard to Rosie. He guessed at this,
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Speaker 1: and began to make calculations himself. But there was no
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Speaker 1: further conversation for them, as they were obliged to rise
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Speaker 1: to their feet to receive visitors. Lady Allenby of Dole
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Speaker 1: and Sir Thomas, her grandson, were being brought out of
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Speaker 1: the house to them by Rosalie. He went forward to
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Speaker 1: meet them, his manner that of the graceful host. Lady Allenby,
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Speaker 1: having been welcomed by him and led to the most
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Speaker 1: comfortable tree-shaded chair, found his bearing so elegantly chastened that
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Speaker 1: she gazed at him with private curiosity. To her far-seeing
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Speaker 1: and highly experienced old mind it seemed the bearing of
18:38
Speaker 1: a man who was up to something. What special thing
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Speaker 1: did he chance to be up to? His glance certainly
18:44
Speaker 1: lurked after Miss Vanderpool oddly. Was he falling in unholy
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Speaker 1: love with this girl under his stupid little wife's very nose?'
18:52
Speaker 1: She could not, however, give her undivided attention to him,
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Speaker 1: as she wished to keep her eye on her grandson.
18:57
Speaker 1: And outrageously enough it happened that just as tea was
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Speaker 1: brought out, and Tommy was beginning to cheer up and
19:03
Speaker 1: quite come out a little under the spur of the
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Speaker 1: activities of handing bread and butter and cress sandwiches, who
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Speaker 1: should appear but the two Lithcom girls escorted by their
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Speaker 1: Aunt Mrs. Manners with whom they lived. As they were
19:15
Speaker 1: orphans without money, if the Manners, who were rather well off,
19:18
Speaker 1: had not taken them in, they would have had to
19:20
Speaker 1: go to the workhouse, or into genteel amateur shops, as
19:23
Speaker 1: they were not clever enough for governesses. Mary, with her
19:26
Speaker 1: turned-up nose, looked just about as usual, but Jane had
19:30
Speaker 1: a new frock on, which was exactly the colour of
19:32
Speaker 1: the big appealing eyes, with their trick of following people about.
19:36
Speaker 1: She looked a little pale and pathetic, which somehow gave
19:39
Speaker 1: her a specious air of being pretty, which she really
19:42
Speaker 1: was not at all. The swaying young thinness of those
19:45
Speaker 1: very slight girls whose soft summer muslins made them look
19:48
Speaker 1: like delicate bags tied in the middle with fluttering ribbons,
19:52
Speaker 1: has almost invariably a foolish attraction for burly young men
19:55
Speaker 1: whose characters are chiefly marked by lack of forethought. And
19:59
Speaker 1: Lady Allenby saw Tommy's robust young body give a sort
20:02
Speaker 1: of jerk as the party of three was brought across
20:05
Speaker 1: the grass. After it he pulled himself together hastily and
20:09
Speaker 1: looked stiff and pink, shaking hands as if his elbow
20:12
Speaker 1: joint was out of order, being at once too loose
20:14
Speaker 1: and too rigid. He began to be clumsy with the
20:17
Speaker 1: bread and butter, and ceasing his talk with Miss Vanderpool
20:21
Speaker 1: fell into silence. Why should he go on talking, he thought.
20:25
Speaker 1: Miss Vanderpool was a cracking handsome girl, but she was
20:28
Speaker 1: too clever for him, and he had to think of
20:30
Speaker 1: all sorts of new things to say when he talked
20:32
Speaker 1: to her. and, well, a fellow could never imagine himself
20:36
Speaker 1: stretched out on the grass puffing happily away at a
20:38
Speaker 1: pipe with a girl like that sitting near him, smiling,
20:42
Speaker 1: the hot turf smelling almost like hay, the hot blue
20:45
Speaker 1: sky curving overhead, and both the girl and himself perfectly happy,
20:49
Speaker 1: chock full of joy, though neither of them were saying
20:52
Speaker 1: anything at all. You could imagine it with some girls,
20:55
Speaker 1: you did imagine it when you wakened early on a
20:57
Speaker 1: summer morning and lay in luxurious stillness listening to the
21:00
Speaker 1: birds singing like mad. Lady Jane was a nicely behaved girl,
21:05
Speaker 1: and she tried to keep her following blue eyes fixed
21:07
Speaker 1: on the grass, or on Lady Anstruthers or Miss Vanderpool,
21:11
Speaker 1: but there was something like a string which sometimes pulled
21:13
Speaker 1: them in another direction, and once, when this happened, quite
21:17
Speaker 1: against her will, she was terrified to find Lady Allenby's
21:20
Speaker 1: glass lifted and fixed upon her. as Lady Allenby's opinion
21:24
Speaker 1: of Mrs. Manners was but a poor one, and as Mrs.
21:27
Speaker 1: Manners was stricken dumb by her combined dislike and awe
21:30
Speaker 1: of Lady Allenby, a slight stiffness might have settled upon
21:34
Speaker 1: the gathering if Betty had not made an effort. She
21:36
Speaker 1: applied herself to Lady Allenby and Mrs. Manners at once,
21:40
Speaker 1: and ended by making them talk to each other. When
21:43
Speaker 1: they left the tea-table under the trees to look at
21:45
Speaker 1: the garden, she walked between them, playing upon the primeval
21:49
Speaker 1: horticultural passions which dominate the existence of all respectable and
21:53
Speaker 1: normal country ladies, until the gulf between them was temporarily bridged.
21:58
Speaker 1: This being achieved, she adroitly passed them over to Lady Anstruthers, who,
22:02
Speaker 1: Nigel observed with some curiosity, accepted the casual responsibility without
22:07
Speaker 1: manifest discomfiture. to the aching Tommy, the manner in which,
22:11
Speaker 1: a few minutes later, he found himself standing alone with
22:14
Speaker 1: Jane Lithcombe in a path of clipped laurels, was almost
22:17
Speaker 1: bewilderingly simple. At the end of the laurel walk was
22:20
Speaker 1: a pretty peep of the country, and Miss Vanderpool had
22:23
Speaker 1: brought him to see it. Nigel Amstruthers had been loitering
22:26
Speaker 1: behind with Jane and Mary. As Miss Vanderpool turned with
22:30
Speaker 1: him into the path, she stooped and picked a blossom
22:32
Speaker 1: from a clump of speedwell growing at the foot of
22:34
Speaker 1: a bit of wall.' Lady Jane's eyes are just the
22:38
Speaker 1: colour of this flower,' she said.' Yes, they are,' he answered,
22:42
Speaker 1: glancing down at the lovely little blue thing as she
22:45
Speaker 1: held it in her hand. And then, with a thump
22:47
Speaker 1: of the heart,' Most people do not think she is pretty,
22:51
Speaker 1: but I, quite desperately, I do!' His mood had become rash.'
22:55
Speaker 1: So do I,' Betty Vanderpool answered. Then the others joined them,
23:01
Speaker 1: and Miss Vanderpool paused to talk a little, and when
23:03
Speaker 1: they went on she was with Mary and Nigel Anstruthers,
23:06
Speaker 1: and he was with Jane, walking slowly, and somehow the
23:10
Speaker 1: others melted away, turning in a perfectly natural manner into
23:13
Speaker 1: a side path. Their own slow pace became slower. In fact,
23:18
Speaker 1: in a few moments they were standing quite still between
23:20
Speaker 1: the green walls. Jane turned a little aside and picked
23:24
Speaker 1: off some small leaves nervously. He saw the muslin on
23:28
Speaker 1: her chest lift quiveringly.' Oh, little Jane,' he said in
23:32
Speaker 1: a big shaky whisper. The following eyes incontinently brimmed over,
23:37
Speaker 1: some shining drops fell on the softness of the blue muslin.' Oh, Tommy,'
23:42
Speaker 1: giving up,' it' s no use talking at all.'' You mustn't
23:47
Speaker 1: think— you mustn't think anything,' he falteringly commanded, drawing nearer, because
23:52
Speaker 1: it was impossible not to do it. What he really meant,
23:56
Speaker 1: though he did not know how decorously to say it,
23:58
Speaker 1: was that you must not think that he could be
24:00
Speaker 1: moved by any tall beauty towards the splendour of whose
24:03
Speaker 1: possessions his revered grandmother might be driving him.' I' m not
24:08
Speaker 1: thinking anything,' cried Jane in answer.' But she is everything,
24:12
Speaker 1: and I am nothing. Just look at her, and then
24:14
Speaker 1: look at me, Tommy.'' I' ll look at you as long
24:17
Speaker 1: as you'll let me,' gulped Tommy, and he was boy
24:20
Speaker 1: enough and man enough to put a hand on each
24:22
Speaker 1: of her shoulders and drown his longing in her brimming eyes.
24:27
Speaker 1: Mary and Miss Vanderpool were talking with a curious intimacy
24:30
Speaker 1: in another part of the garden where they were alone together,
24:33
Speaker 1: Sir Nigel having been reattached to Lady Allenby.' You have
24:37
Speaker 1: known Sir Thomas a long time,' Betty had just said.'
24:40
Speaker 1: Since we were children. Jane reminded me at the Dunham's
24:44
Speaker 1: ball that she had played cricket with him when she
24:46
Speaker 1: was eight.'' They have always liked each other,' Miss Vanderpool suggested.
24:51
Speaker 1: Mary looked up at her, and the meeting of their
24:54
Speaker 1: eyes was frank to revelation. But for the clear girlish
24:57
Speaker 1: liking for herself she saw in Betty Vanderpool's, Mary would
25:00
Speaker 1: have known her next speech to be of imbecile bluntness.'
25:04
Speaker 1: She had heard that Americans often had a queer, delightful
25:07
Speaker 1: understanding of unconventional things. This splendid girl was understanding her. Oh,
25:13
Speaker 1: you see, she broke out, you left them together on purpose. Yes,
25:18
Speaker 1: I did. And there was a comprehension so deep in
25:21
Speaker 1: her look that Mary knew it was deeper than her own,
25:24
Speaker 1: and somehow founded on some subtler feeling than her own.
25:28
Speaker 1: When two people want so much, care so much, to
25:31
Speaker 1: be together— Miss Vanderpool added quite slowly, even as if
25:35
Speaker 1: the words rather forced themselves from her.' It seems as
25:38
Speaker 1: if the whole world ought to help them. Everything in
25:41
Speaker 1: the world— the very wind and rain, the sun and stars— oh,
25:45
Speaker 1: things have no right to keep them apart.' Mary stared
25:49
Speaker 1: at her, moved and fascinated. She scarcely knew that she
25:52
Speaker 1: caught at her hand.' I have never been in the
25:55
Speaker 1: state that Jane is,' she poured forth,' and I can't
25:58
Speaker 1: understand how she can be such a fool.' but we
26:01
Speaker 1: care about each other more than most girls do, perhaps
26:04
Speaker 1: because we have had no people. And it's the kind
26:07
Speaker 1: of thing there is no use talking against, it seems.
26:10
Speaker 1: It's killing the youngness in her. If it ends miserably,
26:13
Speaker 1: it will be as if she had had an illness
26:15
Speaker 1: and got up from it a faded Dunforce spinster with
26:19
Speaker 1: a stretch of hideous years to live. Her blue eyes
26:22
Speaker 1: will look like boiled gooseberries because she will have cried
26:25
Speaker 1: all the colour out of them. Oh, you understand, I
26:28
Speaker 1: see you do. Before she had finished, both Miss Vanderpool's
26:32
Speaker 1: hands were holding hers.' I do, I do,' she said.
26:36
Speaker 1: And she did, as a year before she had not
26:39
Speaker 1: known she could.' Is it Lady Allenby?' she ventured.' Yes,
26:43
Speaker 1: Tommy will be hopelessly poor if she doesn't leave him
26:46
Speaker 1: her money, and she won't if he makes her angry.
26:49
Speaker 1: She's very determined. She will leave it to an awful
26:52
Speaker 1: cousin if she gets in a rage. And Tommy is
26:55
Speaker 1: not clever. He could never earn his living. Neither could Jane.'
26:58
Speaker 1: They could never marry. You can't defy relatives and marry
27:02
Speaker 1: on nothing unless you're a character in a book.'' Has
27:05
Speaker 1: she liked Lady Jane in the past?' Miss Vanderpool asked,
27:08
Speaker 1: as if she was mentally, rapidly going over the ground,
27:11
Speaker 1: that she might quite comprehend everything.' Yes, she used to
27:15
Speaker 1: make rather a pet of her. She didn't like me.
27:18
Speaker 1: She was taken by Jane's meek, attentive, obedient ways. Jane
27:22
Speaker 1: was born a sweet little affectionate worm. Lady Allenby can't
27:25
Speaker 1: hate her even now. She just pushes her out of
27:28
Speaker 1: her path. Because, said Betty Vanderpool. Mary prefaced her answer
27:34
Speaker 1: with a brief, half-embarrassed laugh. Because of you. Because she thinks.
27:41
Speaker 1: I don't see how she can believe he has much
27:43
Speaker 1: of a chance. I don't think she does, but she
27:45
Speaker 1: will never forgive him if he doesn't make a try
27:47
Speaker 1: at finding out whether he has one or not. It's
27:51
Speaker 1: very businesslike, Betty made observation. Mary laughed.' We talk of
27:56
Speaker 1: American business outlook,' she said,' but very few of us
28:00
Speaker 1: English people are dreamy idealists.' We are of a coolness
28:03
Speaker 1: and a daring when we're dealing with questions of this sort.'
28:06
Speaker 1: I don't think you can know the thing you've brought here.'
28:09
Speaker 1: You descend on a dull country place with your money
28:12
Speaker 1: and your looks,' and you simply stay and amuse yourself
28:15
Speaker 1: by doing extraordinary things' as if there was no London
28:18
Speaker 1: waiting for you.' Everyone knows this won't last.' Next season
28:23
Speaker 1: you'll be presented and have a huge success.' You will
28:26
Speaker 1: be whirled about in a vortex, and people will sit
28:28
Speaker 1: on the edge and cast big strong lines, baited with
28:32
Speaker 1: the most glittering things they can get together. You won't
28:35
Speaker 1: be able to get away. Lady Allenby knows there would
28:38
Speaker 1: be no chance for Tommy then. It would be too
28:40
Speaker 1: idiotic to expect it. He must make his try now.
28:44
Speaker 1: Their eyes met again, and Miss Vanderpool looked neither shocked
28:48
Speaker 1: nor angry, but an odd small shadow swept across her face. Mary,
28:52
Speaker 1: of course, didn't know that she was thinking of the
28:54
Speaker 1: things she had realised so often, that it was not
28:57
Speaker 1: easy to detach oneself from the fact that one was
28:59
Speaker 1: Ruben S. Vanderpool's daughter. As a result of it, here
29:03
Speaker 1: one was, indecently and unwillingly disturbing the lives of innocent,
29:07
Speaker 1: unassuming lovers. And so long as Sir Thomas has not
29:10
Speaker 1: tried and found out, Lady Jane will be made unhappy.
29:15
Speaker 1: If he were to let you escape without trying, he
29:17
Speaker 1: would not be forgiven. His grandmother has had her own
29:19
Speaker 1: way all her life.' but suppose after i went away
29:23
Speaker 1: someone else came mary shook her head people like you
29:27
Speaker 1: don't happen in one neighbourhood twice in a lifetime i
29:31
Speaker 1: am twenty-six and you are the first i have seen
29:34
Speaker 1: and he will only be safe if mary lithcom nodded
29:38
Speaker 1: yes if she answered.' It' s silly and frightful, but it's true.'
29:44
Speaker 1: Miss Vanderpool looked down on the grass a few moments,
29:47
Speaker 1: then seemed to arrive at a decision.' He likes you.
29:50
Speaker 1: You can make him understand things,' she inquired.' Yes. Then
29:56
Speaker 1: go and tell him that if he will come here
29:57
Speaker 1: and ask me a direct question—' I will give him
30:00
Speaker 1: a direct answer which will satisfy Lady Allenby.' Lady Mary
30:04
Speaker 1: caught her breath.' Do you know you're the most wonderful
30:08
Speaker 1: girl I ever saw?' she exclaimed.' But if you only
30:11
Speaker 1: knew what I feel about Janie!' And tears rushed into
30:15
Speaker 1: her eyes.' I feel just the same thing about my sisters,'
30:19
Speaker 1: said Miss Vanderpool.' I think Rosie and Lady Jane are
30:22
Speaker 1: rather alike.' When Tommy tramped across the grass towards her,
30:26
Speaker 1: he was turning red and white by turns, and looking
30:29
Speaker 1: somewhat like a young man who was being marched up
30:31
Speaker 1: to a cannon's mouth. It struck him that it was
30:34
Speaker 1: an American kind of thing he was called upon to do,
30:37
Speaker 1: and he was not an American, but British from the
30:40
Speaker 1: top of his closely cropped head to the rather thick
30:42
Speaker 1: soles of his boots. He was, in truth, overwhelmed by
30:46
Speaker 1: his sense of his inadequacy to the demands of the
30:48
Speaker 1: brilliantly conceived but unheard-of situation. Joy and terror swept over
30:53
Speaker 1: his being in waves. The tall, proud, wood-nymph look of
30:57
Speaker 1: her as she stood under a tree waiting for him
30:59
Speaker 1: would have struck his courage dead on the spot, and
31:02
Speaker 1: caused him to turn and flee in anguish, if she
31:05
Speaker 1: had not made a little move towards him, with the
31:07
Speaker 1: heavenly everyday humanness in her eyes. The way she managed
31:11
Speaker 1: it was an amazing thing, he could never have managed
31:14
Speaker 1: it at all himself. She came forward and gave him
31:18
Speaker 1: her hand, and really it was her hand which held
31:20
Speaker 1: his own comparatively steady.' It is for Lady Jane,' she said.'
31:25
Speaker 1: That prevents it from being ridiculous or improper.' It is
31:29
Speaker 1: for Lady Jane.' Her eyes,' with a soft-touched laugh,' are
31:34
Speaker 1: the colour of the blue speedwell I showed you.' It
31:36
Speaker 1: is the colour of babies' eyes,' and hers look as
31:39
Speaker 1: theirs do,' as if they asked everybody not to hurt them.''
31:42
Speaker 1: He actually fell upon his knee,' and bending his head
31:46
Speaker 1: over her hand,' kissed it half a dozen times with adoration.'
31:49
Speaker 1: Good Lord, how she saw and knew!'' If Jane were
31:54
Speaker 1: not Jane, and you were not you,' the words rushed
31:57
Speaker 1: from him,' it would be the most outrageous, the most
31:59
Speaker 1: impudent thing a man ever had the cheek to do.''
32:02
Speaker 1: But it is not.' She did not draw her hand away, and, oh,
32:07
Speaker 1: the girlish kindness of her smiling, supporting look,' you came
32:11
Speaker 1: to ask me if—'' If you would marry me, Miss Vanderpool,'
32:15
Speaker 1: his head bending over her hand again,' I beg your pardon,
32:19
Speaker 1: I beg your pardon, oh, Lord, I do.'' I thank
32:22
Speaker 1: you for the compliment you pay me,' she answered.' I
32:25
Speaker 1: like you very much, Sir Thomas. I like you just
32:28
Speaker 1: now more than ever, but I could not marry you.
32:31
Speaker 1: I should not make you happy, and I should not
32:33
Speaker 1: be happy myself. The truth is,' thinking a moment,' each
32:37
Speaker 1: of us really belongs to a different kind of person,
32:40
Speaker 1: and each of us knows the fact.'' God bless you,'
32:44
Speaker 1: he said.' I think you know everything in the world
32:46
Speaker 1: a woman can know, and remain an angel.' It was
32:50
Speaker 1: an outburst of eloquence, and she took it in the
32:53
Speaker 1: prettiest way, with the prettiest laugh which had in it
32:55
Speaker 1: no touch of mockery or disbelief in him.' What I
32:59
Speaker 1: have said is quite final, if Lady Allenby should inquire,'
33:03
Speaker 1: she said, adding rather quickly, 'someone is coming.' It pleased
33:07
Speaker 1: her to see that he did not hurry to his
33:09
Speaker 1: feet clumsily, but even stood upright with a shade of
33:12
Speaker 1: boyish dignity, and did not release her hand before he
33:15
Speaker 1: had bent his head low over it again. Sir Nigel
33:19
Speaker 1: was bringing with him Lady Allenby, Mrs. Manners, and his wife,
33:22
Speaker 1: and when Betty met his eyes she knew at once
33:24
Speaker 1: that he had not made his way to this particular
33:26
Speaker 1: garden without intention. He had discovered that she was with Tommy,
33:31
Speaker 1: and it had entertained him to break in upon them.'
33:33
Speaker 1: I did not intend to interrupt Sir Thomas at his devotions,'
33:37
Speaker 1: he remarked to her after dinner,' except my apologies.'' It
33:42
Speaker 1: did not matter in the least, thank you,' said Betty.'
33:46
Speaker 1: I am glad to be able to say, Thomas, that
33:48
Speaker 1: you did not look an entire fool when you got
33:50
Speaker 1: up from your knees as we came into the Rose Garden,
33:53
Speaker 1: thus Lady Allenby, as their carriage turned out of Stornham Village.
33:57
Speaker 1: I am glad myself, Tommy answered. What were you doing there?
34:02
Speaker 1: Even if you were asking her to marry you, it
34:04
Speaker 1: was not necessary to go that far. We are not
34:07
Speaker 1: in the seventeenth century. Then Tommy flushed. I did not
34:12
Speaker 1: intend to do it. I couldn't help it. She was
34:14
Speaker 1: so— so nice about everything. That girl is an angel, I
34:18
Speaker 1: told her so.'' Very right and proper spirit to approach
34:22
Speaker 1: her in,' answered the old woman, watching him keenly.' Was
34:25
Speaker 1: she angel enough to say she would marry you?' Tommy,
34:29
Speaker 1: for some occult reason, had the courage to stare back
34:31
Speaker 1: into his grandmother's eyes, quite as if he were a
34:34
Speaker 1: man and not a hobbledy-hoy expecting to be bullied.' She
34:38
Speaker 1: does not want me,' he answered, and I knew she wouldn't.
34:41
Speaker 1: Why should she?' I did what you ordered me to do,
34:44
Speaker 1: and she answered me as I knew she would. She
34:47
Speaker 1: might have snubbed me, but she had such a way
34:49
Speaker 1: with her, such a way of saying things and understanding that— well,
34:53
Speaker 1: I found myself on one knee, kissing her hand as
34:56
Speaker 1: if I was being presented at court. Old Lady Allenby
34:59
Speaker 1: looked out on the passing landscape.' Well, you did your best,'
35:04
Speaker 1: she summed the matter up at last.' If you went
35:06
Speaker 1: down on your knees involuntarily, if you had done it
35:09
Speaker 1: on purpose, it would have been unpardonable.' End of chapter
35:14
Speaker 1: 33