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050 - Ch 49 - Breathing Tranquillity · North and South (version 2)

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  Speaker 1: Chapter forty nine of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Marianne,
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  Speaker 1: chapter forty nine, Breathing tranquility and down the sunny beach,
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  Speaker 1: she passes slowly, with many doubtful pauses. By the way,
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  Speaker 1: grief hath an influence so hushed, and holy hood is not.
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  Speaker 1: Margaret the heiress, whispered Edith to her husband as they
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  Speaker 1: were in their room alone at night after the sad
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  Speaker 1: journey to Oxford. She had pulled his tall head down
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  Speaker 1: and stood upon tiptoe and implored him not to be shocked.
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  Speaker 1: Before she had ventured to ask this question, Captain Lennox was, however,
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  Speaker 1: quite in the dark. If he had ever heard, he
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  Speaker 1: had forgotten. It could not be much that a fellow
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  Speaker 1: of a small college had to leave, But he had
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  Speaker 1: never wanted her to pay for her board, and two
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  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty pounds a year was something ridiculous, considering
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  Speaker 1: that she did not take wine. Edith came down upon
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  Speaker 1: her feet a little bit sadder, with a romance blown
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  Speaker 1: to pieces. A week afterwards, she came prancing towards her
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  Speaker 1: husband and made him a low courtesy. I am right,
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  Speaker 1: and you are wrong. Most noble Captain. Margaret has had
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  Speaker 1: a lawyer's letter, and she is residuary legatee, the legacies
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  Speaker 1: being about two thousand pounds and the remainder about forty
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  Speaker 1: thousand at the present value of property in Milton. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: and how does she take her good fortune? Oh? It
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  Speaker 1: seems she knew she was to have it all along,
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  Speaker 1: only she had no idea. It was so much. She
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  Speaker 1: looks very white and pale and says she's afraid of it.
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  Speaker 1: But that's nonsense, you know, And we'll soon go off.
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  Speaker 1: I left Mamma pouring congratulations down her throat, and stole
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  Speaker 1: away to tell you. It seemed to be supposed by
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  Speaker 1: general consent that the most natural thing was to consider
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  Speaker 1: mister Lennox henceforward as Margaret's legal adviser. She was so
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  Speaker 1: entirely ignorant of all forms of business that in nearly
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  Speaker 1: everything she had to refer to him. He chose out
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  Speaker 1: her attorney. He came to her with papers to be signed.
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  Speaker 1: He was never so happy as when teaching her of
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  Speaker 1: what all these mysteries of the law were. The signs
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  Speaker 1: and types, Henry said Edith one day archly do you
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  Speaker 1: know what I hope and expect all these long conversations
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  Speaker 1: with Margaret will end in No, I don't, said he, reddening,
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  Speaker 1: and I desire you not to tell me. Oh very well,
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  Speaker 1: then I need not tell Sholto not to ask mister
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  Speaker 1: Montague so often to the house. Just as you choose,
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  Speaker 1: said he, with forced coolness. What you are thinking of
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  Speaker 1: may or may not happen. But this time, before I
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  Speaker 1: commit myself, I will see my ground clear. Ask whom
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  Speaker 1: you choose. It may not be very civil, Edith, but
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  Speaker 1: if you meddle in it, you will mart She has
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  Speaker 1: been very faroche with me for a long time, and
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  Speaker 1: is only just beginning to thaw a little from her zenobia. Ways,
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  Speaker 1: she has the making of a Cleopatra in her if
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  Speaker 1: only she were a little more pagan. For my part,
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  Speaker 1: said Edith a little maliciously. I am very glad she
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  Speaker 1: is a Christian. I know so very few. There was
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  Speaker 1: no Spain for Margaret that autumn, although to the last
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  Speaker 1: she hoped that some fortunate occasion would call Frederick to Paris,
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  Speaker 1: whither she could easily have met him with a convoy
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  Speaker 1: instead of Cadiz. She had to content herself with Cromer
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  Speaker 1: to that place her aunt Shaw and the Lennoxes were bound.
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  Speaker 1: They had all along wished her to accompany them, and consequently,
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  Speaker 1: with their care characters, they made but lazy efforts to
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  Speaker 1: forward her own separate wish. Perhaps Cromer was, in one
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  Speaker 1: sense of the expression the best for her. She needed
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  Speaker 1: bodily strengthening and bracing, as well as rest. Among other
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  Speaker 1: hopes that had vanished was the hope, the trust she
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  Speaker 1: had had that mister Bell would have given mister Thornton
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  Speaker 1: the simple facts of the family circumstances which had preceded
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  Speaker 1: the unfortunate accident that led to Leonard's death. Whatever opinion,
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  Speaker 1: however changed it might be from what mister Thornton had
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  Speaker 1: once entertained, she had wished it to be based upon
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  Speaker 1: a true understanding of what she had done and why
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  Speaker 1: she had done it. It would have been a pleasure
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  Speaker 1: to her. It would have given her rest on a
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  Speaker 1: point on which she should now all her life be
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  Speaker 1: restless unless she could resolve not to think upon it.
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  Speaker 1: It was now so long after the time of these
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  Speaker 1: occurrences that there was no possible way of explaining them,
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  Speaker 1: save the one which she had lef lost by mister
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  Speaker 1: Bell's death, she must just submit, like many another, to
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  Speaker 1: be misunderstood. But though reasoning herself into the belief that
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  Speaker 1: in this hers was no uncommon lot, her heart did
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  Speaker 1: not ache the less with longing that some time, years
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  Speaker 1: and years hence, before he died, at any rate, he
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  Speaker 1: might know how much she had been tempted. She thought
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  Speaker 1: that she did not want to hear that all was
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  Speaker 1: explained to him, if only she could be sure that
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  Speaker 1: he would know. But this wish was vain, like so
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  Speaker 1: many others, And when she had schooled herself into this conviction,
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  Speaker 1: she turned with all her heart and strength to the
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  Speaker 1: life that lay immediately before her, and resolved to strive
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  Speaker 1: and make the best of that. She used to sit
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  Speaker 1: long hours upon the beach, gazing intently on the waves
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  Speaker 1: as they chafed with perpetual motion against the pebbly shore.
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  Speaker 1: Or she looked out upon the more distant heave and
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  Speaker 1: sparkle against the sky, and heard, without being conscious of hearing,
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  Speaker 1: the eternal psalm which went up continually. She was soothed,
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  Speaker 1: without knowing how or why. Listlessly she sat there on
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  Speaker 1: the ground, her hands clasped round her knees, while her
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  Speaker 1: aunt Shaw did small shoppings, and Edith and Captain Lennox
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  Speaker 1: rode far and wide on shore and inland. The nurses
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  Speaker 1: sauntering on with their charges, would pass and repass her,
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  Speaker 1: and wonder in whispers what she could find to look
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  Speaker 1: at so long, day after day, and when the family
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  Speaker 1: gathered at dinner time, Margaret was so silent and absorbed
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  Speaker 1: that Edith voted her moped and hailed a proposal of
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  Speaker 1: her husband's with great satisfaction that mister Henry Lennox should
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  Speaker 1: be asked to take Cromer for a week on his
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  Speaker 1: return from Scotland in October. But all this time for
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  Speaker 1: thought enabled Margaret to put events in their right places
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  Speaker 1: as to origin and significance, both as regarded her past
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  Speaker 1: life and her future. Those hours by the sea side
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  Speaker 1: were not lost, as any one might have seen who
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  Speaker 1: had the perception to read or the care to understand
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  Speaker 1: the look that Margaret's face was gradually acquiring. Mister Henry
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  Speaker 1: Lennox was excessively struck by the change the sea has
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  Speaker 1: done Miss Hale an immense deal of good, I should fancy,
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  Speaker 1: said he when she first left the room after his
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  Speaker 1: arrival in their family circle. She looks ten years younger
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  Speaker 1: than she did in Harley Street. That's the bonnet I
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  Speaker 1: got her, said Edith triumphantly. I knew it would suit
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  Speaker 1: her the moment I saw it. I beg your pardon,
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  Speaker 1: said mister Lennox, in the half contemptuous, half indulgent tone
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  Speaker 1: he generally used to Edith. But I believe I know
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  Speaker 1: the difference between the charms of a dress and the
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  Speaker 1: charms of a woman. No mere bonnet would have made
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  Speaker 1: miss Hale's eyes so lustrous and yet so soft, or
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  Speaker 1: her lips so ripe and red, and her face altogether
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  Speaker 1: so full of peace and light. She is like and
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  Speaker 1: yet more, he dropped his voice like the Margaret Hale
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  Speaker 1: of Helstone. From this time, the clever and ambitious man
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  Speaker 1: bent all his powers to gaining Margaret. He loved her
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  Speaker 1: sweet beauty. He saw the latent sweep of her mind
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  Speaker 1: which could easily, he thought, be led to embrace all
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  Speaker 1: the objects on which he had set his heart. He
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  Speaker 1: looked upon her fortune only as a part of the
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  Speaker 1: complete and superb character of herself and her position. Yet
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  Speaker 1: he was fully aware of the rise which it would
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  Speaker 1: immediately enable him. The poor barrister to take. Eventually he
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  Speaker 1: would earn such success and such honors as would enable
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  Speaker 1: him to pay her back with interest that first advance
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  Speaker 1: in wealth which he should owe to her. He had
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  Speaker 1: been to Milton on business connected with her property on
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  Speaker 1: his return from Scotland, and with the quick eye of
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  Speaker 1: a skilled lawyer, ready ever to take in and weigh contingencies,
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  Speaker 1: he had seen that much additional value was yearly accruing
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  Speaker 1: to the lands and tenements which she owned in that
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  Speaker 1: prosperous and increasing town. He was glad to find that
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  Speaker 1: the present relationship between Margaret and himself of client and
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  Speaker 1: legal adviser was gradually superseding the recollection of that unlucky,
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  Speaker 1: mismanaged day at Helstone. He had thus unusual opportunities of
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  Speaker 1: intimate intercourse with her, besides those that arose from the
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  Speaker 1: connection between the families. Margaret was only too willing to
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  Speaker 1: listen as long as he talked of Milton, though he
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  Speaker 1: had seen none of the people whom she, more especially knew.
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  Speaker 1: It had been the tone with her aunt and cousin
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  Speaker 1: to speak of Milton with dislike contempt. Just such feelings,
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  Speaker 1: as Margaret was ashamed to remember, she had expressed and
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  Speaker 1: felt on first going to live there. But mister Lennox
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  Speaker 1: almost exceeded Margaret in his appreciation of the character of
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  Speaker 1: Milton and its inhabitants. Their energy, their power, their indomitable
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  Speaker 1: courage and struggling and fighting, their lurid vividness of existence
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  Speaker 1: captivated and arrested his attention. He was never tired of
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  Speaker 1: talking about them, and had never perceived how selfish and
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  Speaker 1: material were too many of the ends they proposed to
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  Speaker 1: themselves as the result of all their mighty, untiring endeavor.
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  Speaker 1: Till Margaret, even in the midst of her gratification, had
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  Speaker 1: the candor to point this out as the tainting sin
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  Speaker 1: in so much that was noble, and to be admired
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  Speaker 1: still when other subjects palled upon her, and she gave
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  Speaker 1: but short answers to many questions, Henry Lennox found out
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  Speaker 1: that an inquiry as to some dark share particularity of
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  Speaker 1: carecharacter called back the light into her eye, the glow
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  Speaker 1: into her cheek. When they returned to town, Margaret fulfilled one
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  Speaker 1: of her seaside resolves and took her life into her
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  Speaker 1: own hands. Before they went to Cromer, she had been
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  Speaker 1: as docile to her aunt's laws, as if she were
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  Speaker 1: still the scared little stranger who cried herself to sleep
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  Speaker 1: that first night in the Harley Street nursery. But she
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  Speaker 1: had learnt in those solemn hours of thought that she
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  Speaker 1: herself must one day answer for her own life and
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  Speaker 1: what she had done with it. And she tried to
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  Speaker 1: settle that most difficult problem for women, how much was
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  Speaker 1: to be utterly merged in obedience to authority, and how
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  Speaker 1: much might be set apart for freedom in working. Missus
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  Speaker 1: Shaw was as good tempered as could be, and Edith
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  Speaker 1: had inherited this charming domestic quality. Margaret herself had probably
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  Speaker 1: the worst temper of the three. For her quick perceptions
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  Speaker 1: and over lively imagination made her hasty, and her early
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  Speaker 1: isolation from sympathy had made her proud. But she had
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  Speaker 1: an indescribable childlike sweetness of heart, which made her manners,
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  Speaker 1: even in her rarely wilful moods, irresistible of old, and
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  Speaker 1: now chastened even by what the world called her good fortune,
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  Speaker 1: she charmed her reluctant aunt into acquiescence with her will.
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  Speaker 1: So Margaret gained the acknowledgment of her right to follow
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  Speaker 1: her own ideas of duty. Only don't be strong minded, pleaded, Edith.
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  Speaker 1: Mamma wants you to have a footman of your own,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm sure you're very welcome, for they're great plagues.
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  Speaker 1: Only to please me, darling, don't go and have a
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  Speaker 1: strong mind. It's the only thing I ask. Footman or
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  Speaker 1: no footman. Don't be strong minded. Don't be afraid, Edith.
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  Speaker 1: I'll faint on your hands at the servants dinner time
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  Speaker 1: the very first opportunity, and then what was sholto playing
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  Speaker 1: with the fire and the baby crying. You'll begin to
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  Speaker 1: wish for atrong minded woman equal to any emergency, and
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  Speaker 1: you'll not grow too good to joke and be merry.
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  Speaker 1: Not I I shall be merrier than I ever have been.
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  Speaker 1: Now I have got my own way, and you'll not
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  Speaker 1: go a figure. But let me buy your dresses for you. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: I mean to buy them for myself. You shall come
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  Speaker 1: with me if you like, But no one can please
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  Speaker 1: me but myself. Oh, I was afraid you'd dress in
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  Speaker 1: brown and dust color, not to show the dirt you'll
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  Speaker 1: pick up in all those places. I'm glad you're going
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  Speaker 1: to keep one or two vanities, just by way of
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  Speaker 1: specimens of the old Adam. I'm going to be just
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  Speaker 1: the same, Edith, if you and my aunt could but
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  Speaker 1: fancy so. Only as I have neither husband nor child
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  Speaker 1: to give me natural duties, I must make myself some
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  Speaker 1: in addition to ordering my gowns. In the family conclave,
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  Speaker 1: which was made up of Edith, her mother, and her husband,
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  Speaker 1: it was decided that perhaps all these plans of hers
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  Speaker 1: would only secure her the more for Henry Lennox. They
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  Speaker 1: kept her out of the way of other friends who
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  Speaker 1: might have eligible sons or brothers, and it was also
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  Speaker 1: agreed that she never seemed to take much pleasure in
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  Speaker 1: the society of any one but Henry out of their
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  Speaker 1: own family. The other admirers attracted by her appearance or
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  Speaker 1: the reputation of her fortune, were swept away by her
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  Speaker 1: unconscious smiling disdain, into the paths frequented by other beauties
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  Speaker 1: less fastidious, or other heiresses with a larger amount of gold.
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  Speaker 1: Henry and She grew slowly into closer intimacy. But neither
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  Speaker 1: he nor she were people to brook the slightest notice
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  Speaker 1: of their proceedings. End of chapter forty nine