Latest / North and South / 049 - Breathing Tranquillity

Transcript

049 - Breathing Tranquillity · North and South

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Chapter forty nine of North and South. This is a
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Recording by le Anne Howlett. North and South by Elizabeth
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Cleghorn Gaskell, chapter forty nine. Breathing tranquility and down the
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: sunny beach, she paces slowly, with many doubtful pauses. By
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: the way, grief hath an influence so hushed, and holy
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: hood is not Margaret the Heiress, whispered Edith to her husband,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: as they were in their room alone at night after
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the sad journey to Oxford. She had pulled his tall
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: head down and stood upon tiptoe and implored him not
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: to be shocked. Before she had ventured to ask this question,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Captain Lennox was, how however, quite in the dark. If
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: he had ever heard, he had forgotten. It could not
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: be much that a fellow of a small college had
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: to leave. But he had never wanted her to pay
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: for her board, and two hundred and fifty pounds a
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: year was something ridiculous, considering that she did not take wine.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Edith came down upon her feet a little bit sadder,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: with the romance blown to pieces. A week afterwards, she
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: came prancing towards her husband and made him a low curtsey.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: I am right, and you are wrong, most noble Captain.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Margaret has had a lawyer's letter, and she is residuary legatee,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: the legacies being about two thousand pounds and the remainder
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: about forty thousand at the present value of property in Milton. Indeed,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: and how does she take her good fortune? Oh? It
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: seems she knew she was to have it all along,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: only she had no idea. It was so much. She
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: looks very white and pale, and says she's afraid of it.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: But that's nonsense, you know, and we'll soon go off.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: I left Mamma pouring congratulations down her throat, and stole
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: away to tell you. It seemed to be supposed by
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: general consent that the most natural thing was to consider
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: mister Lennox henceforward, as Margaret's legal adviser. She was so
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: entirely ignorant of all forms of business that in nearly
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: everything she had to refer to him, he chose out
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: her attorney. He came to her with papers to be signed.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: He was never so happy as when teaching her of
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: what all these mysteries of the law were, the signs
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: and types? Henry said Edith one day, archly, do you
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: know what I hope and expect all these long conversations
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: with Margaret will end in No, I don't, said he, reddening,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: And I desire you not to tell me. Oh very well,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: then I need not tell Sholto not to ask mister
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Montague so often to the house. Just as you choose,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: said he, with forced coolness. What you are thinking of
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: may or may not happen. But this time, before I
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: commit myself, I will see my ground clear. Ask whom
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: you choose. It may not be very civil, Edith, but
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: if you meddle in it, you will mar it. She
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: has been very farouche with me for a long time,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: is only just beginning to thaw a little from her zenobia. Ways.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: She has the making of a Cleopatra in her if
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: only she were a little more pagan. For my part,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: said Edith a little maliciously. I am very glad she
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: is a Christian. I know so very few. There was
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: no Spain for Margaret that autumn, although to the last
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: she hoped that some fortunate occasion would call Frederick to Paris,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: whither she could easily have met with a convoy instead
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: of Cadiz. She had to content herself with Cromer to
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: that place where Aunt Shaw and the Lennoxes were bound.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: They had all along wished her to accompany them, and
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: consequently with their characters. They made but lazy efforts to
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: forward her own separate wish. Perhaps Cromer was, in one
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: sense of the expression, the best for her. She needed
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: bodily strengthening and bracing, as well as rest. Among other
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: hopes that had vanished was the hope, the trust she
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: had had that mister Bell would have given mister Thornton
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: the simple facts of the family circumstances which had preceded
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: the unfortunate accident that led to Leonard's death. Whatever opinion,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: however changed, it might be from what mister Thornton had
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: once entertained, she had wished it to be based upon
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: a true understanding of what she had done and why
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: she had done it. It would have been a pleasure
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: to her, would have given her rest on a point
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: on which she should now all her life be restless
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: unless she could resolve not to think upon it. It
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: was now so long after the time of these occurrences
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: that there was no possible way of explaining them, save
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: the one which she had lost by mister Bell's death.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: She must just submit, like many another, to be misunderstood.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: But though reasoning herself into the belief that in this
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: hers was no uncommon lot, her heart did not ache
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the less with longing that some time, years and years
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: hence before he died, at any rate, he might know
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: how much she had been tempted. She thought that she
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: did not want to hear that all was explained to him,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: if only she could be sure that he would know.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: But this wish was vain, like so many others, And
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: when she had schooled herself into this conviction, she turned
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: with all her heart and strength to the life that
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: lay immediately before her, and resolved to strive and make
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: the best of that. She used to sit long hours
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: upon the beach, gazing intently on the waves as they
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: chafed with perpetual motion against the pebbly shore. Or she
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: looked out upon the more distant heave and sparkle against
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: the sky, and heard, without being conscious of hearing, the
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: eternal psalm which went up continually. She was soothed, without
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: knowing how or why. Listlessly she sat there on the ground,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: her hands clasped round her knees, while her aunt Shaw
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: did small shoppings, and Edith and Captain Lennox rode far
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: and wide on shore and inland. The nurses, sauntering on
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: with their charges, would pass and repass her, and wonder
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: in whispers what she could find to look at so long,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: day after day, and when the family gathered at dinner time,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Margaret was so silent and absorbed that Edith voted her
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: mote and hailed a proposal of her husband's with great satisfaction,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: that mister Henry Lennox should be asked to take Cromer
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: for a week on his return from Scotland in October.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: But all this time for thought enabled Margaret to put
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: events in their right places as to origin and significance,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: both as regarded her past life and her future. Those
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: hours by the sea side were not lost, as any
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: one might have seen who had had the perception to
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: read or the care to understand the look that Margaret's
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: face was gradually acquiring. Mister Henry Lennox was excessively struck
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: by the change the sea has done Miss Hale an
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: immense deal of good. I should fancy, said he when
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: she first left the room after his arrival. In their
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: family circle, she looks ten years younger than she did
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: in Harley Street. That's the bonnet I got her, said
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Edith triumphantly. I knew it would suit her the moment
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: I saw it. I beg your pardon, said mister Lennox,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: and the half contemptuous, half indulgent tone he generally used
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: to Edith. But I believe I know the difference between
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: the charms of a dress and the charms of a woman.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: No mere bonnet would have made miss Hale's eyes so
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: lustrous and yet so soft, or her lips so ripe
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: and red, and her face altogether so full of peace
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: and light. She is like and yet more, he dropped
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: his voice, like the Margaret Hale of Helstone. From this time,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: the clever and ambitious man bent all his powers to
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: gaining Margaret. He loved her sweet beauty. He saw the
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: latent sweep of her mind which could easily, he thought,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: be led to embrace all the objects on which he
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: had set his heart. He looked upon her fortune only
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: as a part of the complete superb character of herself
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: and her position. Yet he was fully aware of the
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: rise which it would immediately enable him, the poor barrister,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: to take. Eventually he would earn such success and such
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: honors as would enable him to pay her back with
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: interest that first advance in wealth which he should owe
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: to her. He had been to Milton on business connected
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: with her property on his return from Scotland, and with
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: the quick eye of a skilled lawyer, ready ever to
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: take in and weigh contingencies, he had seen that much
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: additional value was yearly accruing to the lands and tenements
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: which she owned in that prosperous and increasing town. He
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: was glad to find that the present relationship between Margaret
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: and himself of client and legal adviser was gradually superseding
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: the recollection of that unlucky, mismanaged day at Helstone. He
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: had thus unusual opportunities of intimate intercourse with her, besides
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: those that arose from the connection between the families. Margaret
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: was only too willing to listen as long as he
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: talked of Milton, though he had seen none of the
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: people whom she more especially knew. It had been the
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: tone with her aunt and cousin to speak of Milton
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: with dislike and contempt, just such feelings as Margaret was
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: ashamed to remember she had expressed and felt on first
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: going to live there. But mister Lennox almost exceeded Margaret,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: and his appreciation of the character of Milton and its inhabitants,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: their energy, their power, their indomitable courage in struggling and fighting,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: their lurid vividness of existence, captivated and arrested his attention.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: He was never tired of talking about them, and had
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: never perceived how selfish and material were too many of
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: the ends they proposed to themselves as the result of
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: all their mighty, untiring endeavor. Till Margaret, even in the
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: midst of her gratification, had the candor to point this
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: out as the tainting sin in so much that was noble,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: and to be admired still when other subjects palled upon her,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: and she gave but short answers to many questions, Henry
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Lennox found out that an inquiry as to some darkshire
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: peculiarity of character called back the light into her eye,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: the glow into her cheek. When they returned to town,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Margaret fulfilled one of her seaside resolves and took her
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: life into her own hands. Before they went to Cromer,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: she had been as docile to her aunt's laws as
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: if she were still the scared little stranger who cried
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: herself to sleep that first night in the Harley Street nursery.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: But she had learnt in those solemn hours of thought
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: that she herself must one day answer for her own
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: life and what she had done with it. And she
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: tried to settle that most difficult problem for women, how
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: much was to be utterly merged in obedience to authority,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: and how much might be set apart for freedom in working.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Missus Shaw was as good tempered as could be, and
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Edith had inherited this charming domestic quality. Margaret herself had
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: probably the worst temper of the three, for her quick
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: perceptions and over lively imagination made her hasty, and her
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: early isolation from sympathy had made her proud. But she
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: had an indescribable childlike sweetness of heart, which made her manners,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: even in her rarely wilful moods, irresistible of old, and
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: now chastened even by what the world called her good fortune,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: she charmed her reluctant aunt into acquiescence with her will.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: So Margaret gained the acknowledgment of her right to follow
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: her own ideas of duty. Only, don't be strong minded, pleaded, Edith.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Mamma wants you to have a footman of your own,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: and I'm sure you're very welcome for their great plagues.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Only to please me, darling, don't go and have a
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: strong mind. It's the only thing I ask. Footman or
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: no footman. Don't be strong minded. Don't be afraid, Edith.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: I'll faint on your hands at the servant's dinner time
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: the very first opportunity. And then what with sholto playing
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: with the fire and the baby crying, You'll begin to
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: wish for a strong minded woman equal to any emergency,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: and you'll not grow too good to joke and be merry.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Not I I shall be merrier than I have ever been.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Now I have got my own way, and you'll not
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: go a figure. But let me buy your dresses for you. Indeed,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: I mean to buy them for myself. You shall come
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: with me if you like, But no one can please
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: me but myself. Oh, I was afraid you'd dress in
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: brown and dust color. Not to show the durch you'll
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: pick up in all those places. I'm glad you're going
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: to keep one or two vanities just by way of
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: specimens of the old atom. I'm going to be just
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: the same, Edith, if you and my aunt could but
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: fancy so. Only as I have neither husband nor child
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: to give me natural duties, I must make myself some
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: in addition to ordering my gowns. In the family conclave,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: which was made up of Edith, her mother, and her husband,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: it was decided that perhaps all these plans of hers
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: would only secure her the more for Henry Lennox. They
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: kept her out of the way of other friends who
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: might have eligible sons or brothers, and it was also
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: agreed that she never seemed to take much pleasure in
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: the society of anyone but Henry out of their own family.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: The other admirers attracted by her appearance or the reputation
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: of her fortune, were swept away by her unconscious smiling disdain,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: and to the paths frequented by other beauties less fastidious,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: or other heiresses with a larger amount of gold. Henry
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: and she grew slowly into closer intimacy, but neither he
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: nor she were people to brook the slightest notice of
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: their proceedings. End of Chapter forty nine, recording by Leanne Howlett,