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027 - Chapter 27 · House with the Green Shutters

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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty seven of The House with the Green Shutters.
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Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Len Nicholson. The House
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Speaker 1: with the Green Shutters by George Douglas Brown, chapter twenty seven.
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Speaker 1: When John had gone, his mother roused herself to a
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Speaker 1: feverish industry. Even in the early days of her strength.
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Speaker 1: She had never been so busy in her home. But
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Speaker 1: her work was aimless and to no purpose. When tidying,
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Speaker 1: she would take a cup without its saucer from the
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Speaker 1: table and set off with it through the room, but
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Speaker 1: stopping suddenly in the middle of the floor, would fall
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Speaker 1: into a muse, with the dish in her hand, coming
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Speaker 1: to herself long afterwards to ask vaguely, what's this cup? For?
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Speaker 1: Janet Lassie? What was it? I was doing? Her energy
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Speaker 1: and its frustration had the same reason. The burden on
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Speaker 1: her mind constantly impelled her to do something to escape
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Speaker 1: from it, and the same burden paralyzed her mind and
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Speaker 1: everything she did so with another of her vacant whims.
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Speaker 1: Every morning she rose at an unearthly hour to fish
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Speaker 1: out of old closets. Rag bags bellied big with the
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Speaker 1: odds and ends of thirty years assemblage. I'll make a
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Speaker 1: patchwork quilta there, she explained, with a foolish, eager smile.
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Speaker 1: And she spent hours snatching up rags and vainly trying
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Speaker 1: to match them, But the quilt made no progress. She
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Speaker 1: would look at a patch for a while with her
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Speaker 1: head on one side, and pat it all over with
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Speaker 1: restless hands. Then she would turn it round to see
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Speaker 1: if it would look better that way, only to tear
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Speaker 1: it off when it was half sown, to try another,
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Speaker 1: and yet another. Often she would forget the work on
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Speaker 1: her lap and stare across the room, open mouthed, her
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Speaker 1: fingers plucking at her withered throat. Janet became afraid of
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Speaker 1: her mother once she saw her smiling to herself when
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Speaker 1: she thought nobody was watching her, an uncanny smile as
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Speaker 1: of one who hugged a secret to her breast, the
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Speaker 1: secret that eluding others would enable its holder to elude
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Speaker 1: them too. What can she have to laugh at? Janet wondered.
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Speaker 1: At times, the haze that seemed gathering round missus Gurley's
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Speaker 1: mind would be dispelled by sudden rushes of fear when
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Speaker 1: she would whimper lest her son be hanged or herself
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Speaker 1: come on the parish. In her old age, but that
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Speaker 1: was rarely. Her brain was mercifully dulled, and her days
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Speaker 1: were passed in a restless vacancy. She was sitting with
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Speaker 1: the rags scattered round her when John walked in on
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Speaker 1: the evening of the third day. There were rags everywhere,
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Speaker 1: on the table and all about the kitchen. She sat
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Speaker 1: in her midst like a witch among the autumn leaves.
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Speaker 1: When she looked towards his entrance, the smell of drink
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Speaker 1: was wafted from the door. John, She panted in surprise. John,
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Speaker 1: did ye not go to Glasgow? Boy? Aye? He said slowly.
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Speaker 1: I gained to Glasgow and the bond. John. Did ye
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Speaker 1: spear about the bond? Aye? He said, I speared about
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Speaker 1: the bond. The whole house is sunken. Oh, she gasped,
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Speaker 1: and the whole world seemed to go from beneath her.
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Speaker 1: So weak did she feel through her limbs, John, she said,
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Speaker 1: after a while, did you know, try to get something
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Speaker 1: to do that you might help me and Janet? Now
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Speaker 1: we're helpless. No, he said, for the inn would not
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Speaker 1: let me nicht, and day they follow me off. We
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Speaker 1: are nichten day. Are they follying ye yet, John, she whispered,
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Speaker 1: leaning forward seriously. She did not try to disabuse him.
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Speaker 1: Now she accepted what he said. Her mind was on
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Speaker 1: a level with his own. Are they follying ye yet?
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Speaker 1: She asked, with large eyes of sympathy, and awe. Aye,
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Speaker 1: and more than ever too. They're getting redder and redder.
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Speaker 1: It's not a dull red, he said, with a faint
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Speaker 1: return of his old interest in the curious physical. It's
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Speaker 1: a gleaming red. They low all, asked Nick. They wouldn't
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Speaker 1: let me sleep. There was nay gas in my room,
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Speaker 1: and when the candle went out, I could see them everywhere.
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Speaker 1: When I looked to one corner of the room, they
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Speaker 1: were there. And when I looked to another corner, they
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Speaker 1: were there too, glaring at me, glowering at me in
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Speaker 1: the darkness, glowering at me. You mind, what a glower?
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Speaker 1: He had hid from them a blow their clays, but
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Speaker 1: they followed me. They were burning in my brain. So
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Speaker 1: I gaded out and stood by a lamp post for company.
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Speaker 1: But a constable moved me on. He said, I was drunk,
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Speaker 1: because I muttered to myself. But I was not drunk, then, mother,
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Speaker 1: I was not. So I walk it on and on
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Speaker 1: and on the whole neckt but eye keep it to
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Speaker 1: the lamp posts for company. And then when the public
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Speaker 1: houses opened, I gazed in and drank, and I did
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Speaker 1: not like the drink, for whiskey has no taste to
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Speaker 1: me now, But it helps you to forget mother. He
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Speaker 1: went on, complainingly, is it no queer that a pair
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Speaker 1: of een should follow a man, just a pair of en.
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Speaker 1: It never happened to Onibidi but me, he said, dully,
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Speaker 1: never to onibide but me. His mother was panting, open mouthed,
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Speaker 1: as if she choked for air, both hands clutching at
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Speaker 1: her bosom aye. She whispered, it's queer, and kept on
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Speaker 1: gasping at intervals with staring eyes. It's guy queer, it's
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Speaker 1: guy queer, it's guy queer. She took up the needle
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Speaker 1: once more and tried to sew, but her hand was
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Speaker 1: trembling so violently that she pricked a left forefinger, which
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Speaker 1: upheld her work. She was content thereafter to make loose
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Speaker 1: stabs at the cloth with the result that she made
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Speaker 1: great stitches, which drew her seam together in a pucker. Vacantly,
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Speaker 1: she tried to smooth them out, stroking them over with
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Speaker 1: her hand, constantly stroking into no purpose. John watched aimless
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Speaker 1: work with dull and heavy eyes. For a while. There
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Speaker 1: was silence in the kitchen. Janet was coughing in the
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Speaker 1: room above. That's just a Thing'll end it, said John, mother,
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Speaker 1: give me three shillings. It was not a request and
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Speaker 1: not a demand. It was the dull statement of a need.
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Speaker 1: Yet the need appeared so relentless, uttered in the set
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Speaker 1: fixity of his impassive voice, that she could not gainsay it.
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Speaker 1: She felt that this was not merely her son making
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Speaker 1: a demand. It was a compulsion on him, greater than himself.
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Speaker 1: There's the money, she said, clinking it down on the table,
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Speaker 1: and flashed a resentful smile at him, close upon the
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Speaker 1: brink of tears. She had a fleeting anger. It was
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Speaker 1: scarcely at him, though it was at the fate that
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Speaker 1: drove him, nor was it for herself. For her own
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Speaker 1: mood was well well, a letic gang, but she had
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Speaker 1: a sense of unfairness and a flicker of quite impersonal
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Speaker 1: resentment that fate should wring the last few shillings from
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Speaker 1: a poor being. It was not fair. She had the
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Speaker 1: emotion of it, and it spoke in a strange look
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Speaker 1: at her son, and in the smiling flush with the
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Speaker 1: tears behind it. Then she sank into apathy. John took
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Speaker 1: up the money and went out, heedless of his mother
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Speaker 1: where she sat by the table. He had a doom
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Speaker 1: on him and could see nothing that did not lie
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Speaker 1: within his path. Nor did she take any note of
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Speaker 1: his going. She was callous. The tie between them was
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Speaker 1: being annulled by misery. She was ceasing to be his mother,
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Speaker 1: he to be her son. They were not younger and older.
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Speaker 1: They were the equal victims of necessity. Fate set each
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Speaker 1: of them apart to dree a separate weird In a
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Speaker 1: house of long years of misery, the weak become callous
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Speaker 1: to their dearest agony. The hard strung characters are kindest
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Speaker 1: in the end, they will help while their hearts are breaking,
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Speaker 1: But the weak fall asunder at the last. It was
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Speaker 1: not that missus Gurley was thinking of herself rather than
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Speaker 1: of him. She was stunned by fate as was he,
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Speaker 1: and could think of nothing ten minutes later, John came
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Speaker 1: out of the Black Bull with a bottle of whisky.
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Speaker 1: It was a mellow evening, one of those evenings when
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Speaker 1: Barbie the mean and dull is transfigured to a gem
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Speaker 1: like purity and catches a radiance. There was a dreaming
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Speaker 1: sky above the town, and its light less came to
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Speaker 1: the earth than was on it, shining in every path
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Speaker 1: with a gracious imminence. John came on through the glow
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Speaker 1: with his burden, undisguised, wrapped in a tissue paper which
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Speaker 1: showed its outlines. He stared right before him, like a
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Speaker 1: man walking in his sleep, and never once looked to
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Speaker 1: either side at word of his coming. The doors were
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Speaker 1: filled with mutchies and bald head kicking by the jams
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Speaker 1: to get a look. Many were indecent in their haste,
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Speaker 1: not waiting till he passed ere they peeped, which was
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Speaker 1: their usual way. Some even stood away out in front
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Speaker 1: of their doors to glower at him, advancing, turning slowly
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Speaker 1: with him as he passed, and glowering behind him as
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Speaker 1: he went. They saw they might do so with impunity
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Speaker 1: that he did not see them, but walked like a
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Speaker 1: man in a dream. He passed up the street and
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Speaker 1: through the square beneath a hundred eyes, the sun shining
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Speaker 1: softly round him. Every eye followed till he disappeared through
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Speaker 1: his own door. He went through the kitchen where his
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Speaker 1: mother sat, carrying the bottle openly, and entered the parlor
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Speaker 1: without speaking. He came back and asked her for the corkscrew,
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Speaker 1: But when she said ay, with a vague wildness in
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Speaker 1: her manner, and did not seem to understand, he went
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Speaker 1: and got it for himself. She continued making stabs at
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Speaker 1: her cloth and smoothing out the puckers in her seam.
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Speaker 1: John was heard moving in the parlor. There was a
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Speaker 1: sharp plunk of a cork being drawn, followed by a
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Speaker 1: clink of glass, and then came a heavy thud, like
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Speaker 1: a fall. To missus Gourley, the sounds meant nothing, She
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Speaker 1: heard him with her ear, not her mind. The world
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Speaker 1: around her had retreated to a hazy distance, so that
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Speaker 1: it had no meaning. She would have gazed vaguely at
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Speaker 1: a shell about to burst beside her. In the evening, Janet,
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Speaker 1: who had been in bed all the afternoon, came down
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Speaker 1: and lit the lamp for her mother. It was a
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Speaker 1: large lamp which Gurley had bought, and it shed a
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Speaker 1: rich light through the room. I heard John come in,
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Speaker 1: she said, turning wearily round. But I was too ill
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Speaker 1: to come down and ask what had happened? Where is he? John,
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Speaker 1: questioned her mother. John who ay? She panted, vaguely, recalling
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Speaker 1: who I I think I think he gave Ben the parlor.
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Speaker 1: The parlor, cried Janet. But he must be in the dark,
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Speaker 1: and he canna thole the darkness, John, she cried, going
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Speaker 1: to the parlor door. John, there was a silence of
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Speaker 1: the grave. She lit a candle and went into the room,
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Speaker 1: and then she gave a squeal like a rabbit and
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Speaker 1: a dog's jaws. Missus Gurley dragged her gaunt limbs wearily
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Speaker 1: across the floor. By the wavering light, which shook in
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Speaker 1: Janet's hand, She saw her son lying dead across the sofa.
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Speaker 1: The whisky bottle on the table was half empty, and
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Speaker 1: of a smaller bottle beside it. He had drunk a third.
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Speaker 1: He had taken all that whisky that he might deaden
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Speaker 1: his mind to the horror of swallowing the poison. His
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Speaker 1: legs had slipped to the floor when he died, but
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Speaker 1: his body was lying back across the couch, his mouth open,
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Speaker 1: his eyes staring horridly up up. They were not the
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Speaker 1: eyes of the quiet dead, but bulged and frozen fear,
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Speaker 1: as if his father's eyes had watched him from aloft
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Speaker 1: while he died. There's twelve thirds of the poison left,
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Speaker 1: commented missus Gurley. Mother Janet screamed and shook her mother.
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Speaker 1: John's deed, John's deed. Don't ye see John's deed? Ay,
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Speaker 1: He's deed, said missus Gurley, staring, Hey, whinne be hanged? Now?
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Speaker 1: Mother cried Janet, desperate before this apathy? What shall we do?
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Speaker 1: What shall we do? Shall I run and bring the neighbors,
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Speaker 1: the neighbors, said missus Gurley, rousing herself wildly, the neighbors.
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Speaker 1: What have we to do with the neighbors? We are
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Speaker 1: by ourselves, the gurlies whom God has cursed. We can
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Speaker 1: have no neighbors. Come bend the house and I'll tell
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Speaker 1: ye something. She whispered wildly. Aye, she nodded, smiling with
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Speaker 1: mad significance. I'll tell ye something. I'll tell you something,
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Speaker 1: And she dragged Janet to the kitchen. Janet's heart was
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Speaker 1: rent for her brother. But the frenzy on her mother
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Speaker 1: killed sorrow with a new fear, Janet smiled missus Gourley
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Speaker 1: with insane soft interest. Janet, do you mind, yon niched
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Speaker 1: lang sign when your father came in me a terrible
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Speaker 1: look in his een and struck me in the breast. Aye,
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Speaker 1: she whispered hoarsely, staring at the fire. He struck me
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Speaker 1: in the breast. But I did not ken what it
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Speaker 1: was for Janet. No, she shook her head. He never
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Speaker 1: telled me what it was for A mother whispered Janet,
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Speaker 1: I have mind it weel an absess, so some kind
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Speaker 1: formed I kenna wheel what it was. But it gathered
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Speaker 1: and broke and gathered and broke till my breast near
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Speaker 1: eating a wowet look, she cried, tearing open her bosom,
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Speaker 1: and Janet's head flung back in horror and disgust. Oh, mother,
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Speaker 1: she panted. Was it that that the wee clouds were for? Aye?
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Speaker 1: It was that, said her mother. Money a cloud I
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Speaker 1: had to wash, and money I nicked. I sat lonely
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Speaker 1: by mysell, plastering my withered breast. But I never let
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Speaker 1: onnibidy ken, she added, with pride. No, I never let
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Speaker 1: onnibidy ken. When your father knit me with his tongue,
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Speaker 1: it knit me where it's pain and woman, it consoled me.
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Speaker 1: Aye aye. I used to think, gaiba waw gayeba wah
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Speaker 1: by he a friend and my breast. It'll end it
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Speaker 1: some day. I like it to keep it to myself.
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Speaker 1: When it bit me, it seemed to whisper. I had
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Speaker 1: a friend that namee of them Kendo, a friend that
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Speaker 1: would deliver me. The mary badgered me, the closer I
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Speaker 1: hugged it, and when my heart was bracken, I enjoyed
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Speaker 1: a pain on it. Oh, my poor poor mother, cried
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Speaker 1: Janet with a bursting sob, her eyes raining hot tears.
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Speaker 1: Her very body seemed to feel compassion. It quivered and
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Speaker 1: crept near, as though it would over her mother and
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Speaker 1: protect her. She raised the poor hand and kissed it
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Speaker 1: and fondled it between her own. But her mother had
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Speaker 1: forgotten the world in one of her wild lapses, and
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Speaker 1: was staring fixedly. I'll no lang be a burden to onabidy,
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Speaker 1: she said to herself. It should soon be wearing to
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Speaker 1: a heed now. But I thought of something the day
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Speaker 1: John gade away. I have thought of something, she said vaguely, Janet,
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Speaker 1: what was it? I was thinking of a dinner, Ken,
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Speaker 1: whispered Janet. I was thinking of something, her mother mused.
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Speaker 1: Her voice all through was a far off voice, remote
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Speaker 1: from understanding. Yes, I remember you're young, Jenny, and you
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Speaker 1: learned the dressmaking. Do you think you could sew or
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Speaker 1: something to keep a bit garret ar my heed till
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Speaker 1: a d ay. It was that I was thinking of,
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Speaker 1: though it doesn't matter much now, Hey, Jenny, I'll no
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Speaker 1: bother you for very lang. But I'll no gang in
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Speaker 1: the parish, she said, in a passionless voice. I'll no
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Speaker 1: gang on the parish. I'm miss Richmond O ten Shillingland.
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Speaker 1: She had no interest in her own suggestion. It was
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Speaker 1: an idea that had flitted through her mind before, which
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Speaker 1: came back to her now in feeble recollection. She seemed
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Speaker 1: not to wait for an answer, to have forgotten what
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Speaker 1: she said. Oh, mother, cried Janet, there's a curse in
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Speaker 1: us all. I would work my fingers raw for ye
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Speaker 1: if I could. But I cannah, she screamed, I canna,
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Speaker 1: I cannah. My lungs are by weit on Tuesday and
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Speaker 1: Ski and the doctor telt me I would soon be dead.
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Speaker 1: He didn't a say it, but fine, I saw what
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Speaker 1: he was hinting. He advised me to gang to Ventnor
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Speaker 1: in the Isle of Wight, she added warmly, as if
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Speaker 1: I could gang to the Isle of Wight, I can
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Speaker 1: haim trembling and wanted to tell ye. But when I
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Speaker 1: came in, you were taying up with John, and oh,
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Speaker 1: Lassie said you did not bother me by your complaintsy Now,
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Speaker 1: I was hurt at that, and well, well, I thought,
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Speaker 1: if she doesn't want to hear, I'll no tell her.
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Speaker 1: I was huffed at ye. And then my father came
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Speaker 1: in and ye, ken what happened. I had not the
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Speaker 1: heart to speak of it after that, I didn't seemed
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Speaker 1: to care a ken what it is to nurse death
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Speaker 1: in my breast with pride too. Mother, she went on,
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Speaker 1: you never cared very much for me. It was John
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Speaker 1: was your favorite. I used to be angry because you
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Speaker 1: neglected my illness, and I never told you how heavily
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Speaker 1: I hosted blood. She'll be sorry for this when I'm dead,
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Speaker 1: I used to think, and I hoped you would be.
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Speaker 1: I had a kind of pride in saying nothing. But oh, mother,
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Speaker 1: adn't a ken, you were just the same, She looked.
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Speaker 1: Her mother was not listening. Suddenly, missus Gourley screamed with
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Speaker 1: wild laughter and laughing eyed with mirthless merriment the look
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Speaker 1: of horror with which which Janet was regarding her. Ha
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Speaker 1: ha ha, she screamed. It's to be a clean sweep
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Speaker 1: o' the girlies. Ha, ha ha, It's to be a
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Speaker 1: clean sweep o' the girlies. There is nothing uglier in
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Speaker 1: life than a woman's cruel laugh. But missus Gurley's laugh
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Speaker 1: was more than cruel. It was demoniac, the skurl of
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Speaker 1: a human being carried by misery beyond the confines of humanity.
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Speaker 1: Janet stared at her in speechless fear. Mother, she whispered,
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Speaker 1: at last, what are we to do? There's twa thirds
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Speaker 1: of the poison left, said missus Gurley. Mother cried Janet.
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Speaker 1: Girley's doctor may gang on the parish if she likes,
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Speaker 1: but his wife never will. You may host yourself to
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Speaker 1: death in a garret in the poorhouse, but I'll follow
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Speaker 1: my boy. The sudden picture of her own lonely death
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Speaker 1: as a pauper amongst strangers, when her mother and brother
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Speaker 1: should be gone, was so appalling to Janet that to
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Speaker 1: die with her mother seemed pleasanter. She could not bear
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Speaker 1: to be left alone mother, she cried in a frenzy.
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Speaker 1: I'll keep you company. Let us read a chapter, said
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Speaker 1: missus Gurley. She took down the Big Bible and the
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Speaker 1: thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. She announced, in a loud voice,
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Speaker 1: as if giving it out from the pulpit, the thirteenth
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Speaker 1: o the First Corinthians. Though I speak with the tongues
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Speaker 1: of men and of angels, and have not charity, I
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Speaker 1: am become a sounding brass or a tinkling symbol. And
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Speaker 1: though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all
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Speaker 1: mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith
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Speaker 1: so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity,
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Speaker 1: I am nothing. Missus Gurley's manner had changed. She was
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Speaker 1: in the high exultation of madness, callous. She still appeared
19:54
Speaker 1: so possessed by her general doom that she had no
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Speaker 1: sense of its particular woes. But she was listless, no
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Speaker 1: no more willing her death. She seemed to borrow its
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Speaker 1: greatness and become one with the law that punished her,
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Speaker 1: arrogating the almighties function to expedite her doom. She was
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Speaker 1: equal of the most high. It was her feebleness that
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Speaker 1: made her great, Because in her feebleness she yielded entirely
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Speaker 1: to the fate that swept her on. She was imbued
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Speaker 1: with its demoniac power. Charity suffereth long and is kind.
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Speaker 1: Charity envieth not. Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
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Speaker 1: doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own is
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Speaker 1: not easily provoked. Thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity,
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Speaker 1: but rejoiceth in the truth. Beareth all things, believeth, all things, hopeth,
20:43
Speaker 1: all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth. But whether
20:48
Speaker 1: there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues,
20:51
Speaker 1: they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
20:55
Speaker 1: For we know in part, and we profit I in part.
20:58
Speaker 1: But when that which is perfect has come, then that
21:00
Speaker 1: which is in part shall be done away. Her voice
21:03
Speaker 1: rose high and shrill as she read the Great verses,
21:07
Speaker 1: her large blue eyes shone with ecstasy. Janet looked at
21:12
Speaker 1: her in fear. This was more than her mother speaking.
21:15
Speaker 1: It was more than human. It was a voice from
21:18
Speaker 1: beyond the world. Alone, the timid girl would have shrunk
21:22
Speaker 1: from death, but her mother's inspiration held her. And now
21:26
Speaker 1: abideth faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of
21:30
Speaker 1: these is charity. Janet had been listening with such strained
21:35
Speaker 1: attention that the amen rang out of her, loud and involuntary,
21:39
Speaker 1: like an answer to a compelling deity. She had clung
21:43
Speaker 1: to this reading as the one thing left to her
21:45
Speaker 1: before death, and out of her nature. Thus strained to listen,
21:48
Speaker 1: the amen came, as sped by an inner will. She
21:52
Speaker 1: scarcely knew that she said it. They rose, and the
21:56
Speaker 1: scrunt of Janet's chair on the floor when she pushed
21:59
Speaker 1: it behind her, sent a thrilling shiver through her body.
22:02
Speaker 1: So tense was her mood. They stood with their hands
22:06
Speaker 1: on their chair backs and looked at each other in
22:09
Speaker 1: a curious palsy of the will. The first step to
22:13
Speaker 1: the parlor door would commit them to the deed. To
22:16
Speaker 1: take it was to take the poison, and they paused,
22:20
Speaker 1: feeling its significance. To move was to give themselves to
22:25
Speaker 1: the irrethacable. When they stirred at length, they felt as
22:29
Speaker 1: if the ultimate crisis had been passed. There could be
22:33
Speaker 1: no return. Missus Gourley had Janet by the wrist. She
22:37
Speaker 1: turned and looked at her daughter, and for one fleeting
22:40
Speaker 1: moment she ceased to be above humanity. Janet, she said wistfully,
22:46
Speaker 1: I have had a heap to thole. Maybe the Lord
22:50
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ'll no be our say on me, Oh mother,
22:54
Speaker 1: Janet screamed, yielding to her terror when her mother weakened.
22:58
Speaker 1: Oh mother, am feared. M Oh mother, I'm feared. Come,
23:03
Speaker 1: said her mother. Come, and drew her by the wrist.
23:06
Speaker 1: They went into the parlor. The post was a square built,
23:13
Speaker 1: bandy legged little man with a bristle of grizzled hair
23:16
Speaker 1: about his twisted mouth, perpetually cocking up an ill bred
23:20
Speaker 1: face in the sight of heaven. Physically and morally, he
23:24
Speaker 1: had in him something both of the Scotch terrier and
23:27
Speaker 1: a London sparrow, the shagginess of the one, the cocked
23:30
Speaker 1: eye of the other, the one's snarling temper, the other's
23:34
Speaker 1: assured impudence. In Gurley's day, he had never got by
23:38
Speaker 1: the gateway of the yard, much as he had wanted
23:41
Speaker 1: to come further. Gurley had an eye for a thing
23:43
Speaker 1: like him. Damn the girly brute, Posty complained once, when
23:48
Speaker 1: I passed a pleasant remark about the weather the other morning,
23:51
Speaker 1: he just looked at me and blew the reak of
23:53
Speaker 1: his pipe in my face. And that was his only answer.
23:57
Speaker 1: Now that Gurley was gone, however, post he clattered through
24:00
Speaker 1: the yard every morning, right up to the back door
24:04
Speaker 1: a heap of correspondence. Thir morning's he would simper, his
24:08
Speaker 1: greedy little eye, trying to glean revelations from the women's
24:11
Speaker 1: faces as they took the letters from his hand. On
24:15
Speaker 1: the morning after young Gurley came home for the last time,
24:18
Speaker 1: Posty was pelting along with his quick thudding step near
24:22
Speaker 1: the head of the square. When whom should he meet
24:24
Speaker 1: but Sandy Toddle, still unwashed and yawning from his bed.
24:28
Speaker 1: It was early and the streets were empty, except where
24:31
Speaker 1: in the distance the bent figure of an old man
24:34
Speaker 1: was seen hurtling off to his work, first twisting round
24:37
Speaker 1: stiffly to cock his eye right, and left at the
24:39
Speaker 1: sky to forecast the weather for the day. From the chimneys,
24:43
Speaker 1: the fair white spurllys of wreek were rising in the
24:46
Speaker 1: pure air. The gurlies did not seem to be stirring.
24:50
Speaker 1: Yet there was no smoke above their roof tree to
24:53
Speaker 1: show that there was life within. Posty jerked his thumb
24:57
Speaker 1: across his shoulder at the house with the green shutter.
25:01
Speaker 1: There'll be changes there the day, he said, chirping. What
25:06
Speaker 1: Toddle breathed in a hoarse whisper of astonishment. Seequestration. And
25:10
Speaker 1: he stared, big eyed, with his brows arched something of
25:14
Speaker 1: that kind, said the post carelessly. I'm no, we'll acquaint
25:17
Speaker 1: with the lawyer's LINGO. Will it be true? Think ye?
25:22
Speaker 1: Said Sandy God. It's true, said the post. I had
25:26
Speaker 1: it free Jock hutcheson the clark and ski and Goudies.
25:30
Speaker 1: He got fou yestreen on the road to Barbie and
25:32
Speaker 1: blabbed it. He'll lose his job beyond chap if he
25:36
Speaker 1: does not keep his mouth shut. True, Aye, it's true.
25:39
Speaker 1: There's damn the doubt. O that Toddle corrugated his mouth
25:43
Speaker 1: to whistle. He turned and stared at the house with
25:46
Speaker 1: the green shutters, gawky and substantial on its terrace. Beneath
25:50
Speaker 1: the tremulous beauty of the dawn, there was a glorious sunrise.
25:55
Speaker 1: Gaudy said, what a downcome for that hoose, No, chuckled Posty.
26:02
Speaker 1: Whose account is it on? Said Todle. Oh don't ken,
26:06
Speaker 1: said Posty carelessly. He had creditors owe our the country.
26:10
Speaker 1: How was I bringing the big blue envelopes from different ERTs?
26:14
Speaker 1: Don't mention this now, he added his finger up his
26:17
Speaker 1: eye significant. It shouldn't be known at all. He was
26:21
Speaker 1: unwilling that Toddle should get an unfair start and spoil
26:25
Speaker 1: his own market for the news. Nuts Me, Toddle assured him, grandly,
26:31
Speaker 1: shaking his head, as who should conduct of that kind
26:33
Speaker 1: a thousand miles off nuts me post. I'll no breathe
26:37
Speaker 1: it to a living soul. The post clattered into missus
26:42
Speaker 1: Gurley's back door. He had a heavy understamped letter on
26:45
Speaker 1: which there was threepence to pay. You might pick up
26:48
Speaker 1: an item or two while she was getting him the bawbees.
26:52
Speaker 1: He knocked, but there was no answer, As sluts said
26:56
Speaker 1: he with a humph of disgust. They're still in their backs,
26:58
Speaker 1: it seems. He knocked again, the sound of his knuckles
27:02
Speaker 1: and the door rang out hollowly, as if there was
27:04
Speaker 1: nothing but emptiness within. While he waited, he turned on
27:08
Speaker 1: the step and looked idly at the courtyard. The inwalled
27:12
Speaker 1: little place was curiously still. At last, in his impatience,
27:17
Speaker 1: he turned a handle, and to his surprise, the door
27:20
Speaker 1: opened and let him enter. The leaves of a bible
27:23
Speaker 1: fluttered in the fresh wind from the door. A large
27:27
Speaker 1: lamp was burning on the table. Its big yell of
27:30
Speaker 1: flame was unnatural in the sunshine, humph said Posty, tossing
27:35
Speaker 1: his chin in disgust. Little wonder everything gait to wreck
27:38
Speaker 1: and ruin in this house. The Slovens have left a
27:42
Speaker 1: lamp burning the whole neckt lang, But less little serve
27:45
Speaker 1: them now I'm thinking a few dead ashes were sticking
27:49
Speaker 1: from the lower bars of the range. Posty crossed to
27:52
Speaker 1: the fireplace and looked down at the fender. That bright
27:56
Speaker 1: spot would be the place now where allD Gourly killed him.
28:01
Speaker 1: The women must have rubbed it so bright and trying
28:03
Speaker 1: to get out the blood. It was an uncanny thing
28:06
Speaker 1: to keep in the house. That he stared at the
28:09
Speaker 1: fatal spot till he grew eerie in the strange stillness.
28:14
Speaker 1: Good wife, he cried, Janet, don't ye hear. They did
28:18
Speaker 1: not hear, it seemed God, said he. They sleep sound
28:23
Speaker 1: after all their misfortunes. At last, partly in impatience and
28:28
Speaker 1: partly from a wish to pry, he opened the door
28:31
Speaker 1: of the parlor. Oh my god, he screamed, leaping back,
28:36
Speaker 1: and with his bulky bag got stuck in the kitchen door.
28:39
Speaker 1: In his desperate hurry to be gone, he ran round
28:42
Speaker 1: to the square in front and down to Sandy Toddle,
28:45
Speaker 1: who was informing a bunch of unshaven bodies that the
28:48
Speaker 1: girlies were sequestered. Oh my god, post what have ye
28:53
Speaker 1: seemed to bring that look to your eyes? What have
28:55
Speaker 1: you seen? Man? Speak? For God's sake? What is it?
28:59
Speaker 1: The postghast and stammered. Then ooh, he shivered in horror
29:04
Speaker 1: and covered his eyes at a sudden picture in his brain, speak,
29:09
Speaker 1: said a man, solemnly. They have they have They have
29:13
Speaker 1: all killed themselves, stammered a postman, pointing to the girlies.
29:18
Speaker 1: Their loins were loosened beneath them. The scrape of their
29:22
Speaker 1: feet on the road as they turned to stare sounded monstrous.
29:25
Speaker 1: In the silence, no man dared to speak. They gazed
29:30
Speaker 1: with blanched faces at the House with the Green Shutters,
29:34
Speaker 1: sitting dark there and terrible beneath the radiant arch of
29:38
Speaker 1: the dawn. End of Chapter twenty seven. End of the
29:50
Speaker 1: House with the Green Shutters by George Douglas Brown