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The Shuttle Chapter 50 - The Primeval Thing · The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library

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  Speaker 1: CHAPTER FIFTY THE PRIMEVAL THING When Mr. Vanderpool landed in
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  Speaker 1: England his wife was with him. This quiet-faced woman, who
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  Speaker 1: was known to be on her way to join her
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  Speaker 1: daughter in England, was much disgust envied and glanced at
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  Speaker 1: when she promenaded the deck with her husband, or sat
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  Speaker 1: in her chair softly wrapped in wonderful furs. Gradually, during
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  Speaker 1: the past months, she had been told certain modified truths
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  Speaker 1: connected with her elder daughter's marriage. They had been painful truths,
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  Speaker 1: but had been so softened and expurgated of their worst
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  Speaker 1: features it had been possible to bear them, when one
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  Speaker 1: realised that they did not, at least, mean that Rosie
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  Speaker 1: had forgotten or ceased to love her mother and father,
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  Speaker 1: or wished to visit her home. The steady clearness of
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  Speaker 1: foresight and readiness of resource which were often spoken of
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  Speaker 1: as being specially characteristic of Rubin S. Vanderpool, were all required,
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  Speaker 1: and employed with great tenderness in the management of the situation.
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  Speaker 1: As little as it was possible that his wife should
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  Speaker 1: know was the utmost she should hear and be hurt by.
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  Speaker 1: Unless ensuing events compelled further revelations, the rest of it
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  Speaker 1: should be kept from her. As further protection, her husband
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  Speaker 1: had frankly asked her to content herself with a degree
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  Speaker 1: of limited information. I have meant all our lives, Annie,
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  Speaker 1: to keep you from the unpleasant things a woman need
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  Speaker 1: not be troubled with, he had said. I promised myself
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  Speaker 1: I would when you were a girl. I knew you
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  Speaker 1: would face things if I needed your help, but you
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  Speaker 1: were a gentle little soul like Rosie, and I never
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  Speaker 1: intended that you should bear what was useless. Anne Struthers
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  Speaker 1: was a Blaggard, and girls of all nations have married
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  Speaker 1: Blaggards before. When you have Rosie safe at home and
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  Speaker 1: know nothing can hurt her again, you both may feel
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  Speaker 1: you would like to talk it over. Till then we
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  Speaker 1: won't go into detail. You trust me, I know, when
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  Speaker 1: I tell you that you shall hold Rosie in your
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  Speaker 1: arms very soon. We may have something of a fight,
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  Speaker 1: but there can only be one end of it in
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  Speaker 1: a country as decent as England. Anstruthers isn't exactly what
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  Speaker 1: I should call an Englishman. Men like him are to
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  Speaker 1: be found in two or three places. His good-looking, shrewd,
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  Speaker 1: elderly face lighted with a fine smile. My handsome Betty
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  Speaker 1: has saved us a good deal by carrying out her
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  Speaker 1: fifteen-year-old plan of going to find her sister,' he ended.
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  Speaker 1: Before they landed they had decided that Mrs. Vanderpool should
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  Speaker 1: be comfortably established in a hotel in London, and that
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  Speaker 1: after this was arranged her husband should go to Stornham
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  Speaker 1: Court alone. If Sir Nigel could be induced to listen
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  Speaker 1: to logic, Rosalie, her child, and Betty should come at
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  Speaker 1: once to town.' And if he won't listen to logic,'
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  Speaker 1: added Mr. Vanderpool, with a dry composure, They shall come
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  Speaker 1: just the same, my dear. And his wife put her
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  Speaker 1: arms round his neck and kissed him, because she knew
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  Speaker 1: what he said was quite true, and she admired him,
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  Speaker 1: as she had always done, greatly. But when the pilot
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  Speaker 1: came on board, and there began to stir in the
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  Speaker 1: ship the agreeable and exciting bustle of the delivery of
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  Speaker 1: letters and welcoming telegrams, among Mr. Vanderpool's many yellow envelopes
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  Speaker 1: he opened one, the contents of which caused him to
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  Speaker 1: stand still for some moments, so still indeed that some
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  Speaker 1: of the bystanders began to touch each other's elbows and whisper.
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  Speaker 1: He certainly read the message two or three times before
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  Speaker 1: he folded it up, returned it to its receptacle, and
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  Speaker 1: walked gravely to his wife's sitting-room.' Rubin!' she exclaimed after
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  Speaker 1: her first look at him.' Have you bad news? Oh,
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  Speaker 1: I hope not!' He came and sat down quietly beside her,
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  Speaker 1: taking her hand.' Don' t be frightened, Annie, my dear,' he said.'
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  Speaker 1: I have just been reminded of a verse in the
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  Speaker 1: Bible—' about vengeance not belonging to mere human beings. Nigel
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  Speaker 1: Anstruthers has had a stroke of paralysis, and it is
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  Speaker 1: not his first. Apparently, even if he lies on his
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  Speaker 1: back for some months thinking of harm, he won't be
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  Speaker 1: able to do it. He is finished. When he was
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  Speaker 1: carried by the express train through the country, he saw
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  Speaker 1: all that Betty had seen, though the summer had passed,
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  Speaker 1: and there were neither green trees nor hedges. He knew
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  Speaker 1: all that the long letters had meant of stirred emotion
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  Speaker 1: and affection, and he was strongly moved, though his mind
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  Speaker 1: was full of many things. There were the farmhouses, the
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  Speaker 1: square-towered churches, the red-pointed hop-posts, and the village children. How
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  Speaker 1: distinctly she had made him see them! His Betty, his
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  Speaker 1: splendid Betty! His heart beat at the thought of seeing
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  Speaker 1: her high, young, black head, and holding her safe in
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  Speaker 1: his arms again. Safe, he resented having used the word,
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  Speaker 1: because there was a shock in seeming to admit the
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  Speaker 1: possibility that anything in the universe could do wrong to her.
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  Speaker 1: Yet one man had been villain enough to mean her
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  Speaker 1: harm and to threaten her with it. He slightly shuddered
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  Speaker 1: as he thought of how the man was finished, done for.
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  Speaker 1: The train began to puff more loudly as it slackened
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  Speaker 1: its pace. It was drawing near to a rustic little station,
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  Speaker 1: and as it passed in he saw a carriage standing outside,
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  Speaker 1: waiting on the road, and a footman in a long coat,
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  Speaker 1: glancing into each window as the train went by. Two
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  Speaker 1: or three country people were watching it intently. Miss Vanderpool's
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  Speaker 1: father was coming up from London on it. The stationmaster
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  Speaker 1: rushed to open the carriage door, and the footman hastened forward,
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  Speaker 1: but a tall lovely thing in grey was opposite the
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  Speaker 1: step as Mr. Vanderpool descended it onto the platform. She
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  Speaker 1: did not recognise the presence of any other human being
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  Speaker 1: than himself. For the moment she seemed to forget even
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  Speaker 1: the broad-shouldered man who had plainly come with her. As
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  Speaker 1: Ruben S. Vanderpool folded her in his arms, she folded
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  Speaker 1: him and kissed him as he was not sure she
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  Speaker 1: had ever kissed him before.' My splendid Betty, my own
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  Speaker 1: fine girl!' he said. And when she cried out,' Father, father!'
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  Speaker 1: she bent and kissed the breast of his coat. He
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  Speaker 1: knew who the big young man was before she turned
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  Speaker 1: to present him.' This is Lord Mount Dunstan, father,' she said.
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  Speaker 1: Since Nigel was brought home he's been very good to us.'
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  Speaker 1: Rubin S. Vanderpool looked well into the man's eyes as
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  Speaker 1: he shook hands with him warmly, and this is what
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  Speaker 1: he said to himself,' Yes, she's safe, this is quite safe.
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  Speaker 1: It is to be trusted with the whole thing.' Not
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  Speaker 1: many days after her husband's arrival at Stornham Court, Mrs.
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  Speaker 1: Vanderpool travelled down from London, and during her journey scarcely
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  Speaker 1: saw the wintry hedges and bare trees, because as she
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  Speaker 1: sat in her cushioned corner of the railway carriage she
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  Speaker 1: was inwardly offering up gentle, pathetically ardent prayers of gratitude.
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  Speaker 1: She was the woman who prays, and the many sad
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  Speaker 1: petitions of the past years were being answered at last.
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  Speaker 1: She was being allowed to go to Rosie. Whatsoever happened,
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  Speaker 1: she could never be really parted from her girl again.
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  Speaker 1: She asked pardon many times, because she had not been
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  Speaker 1: able to be really sorry when she'd heard of her
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  Speaker 1: son-in-law's desperate condition. She could feel pity for him and
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  Speaker 1: his awful case, she told herself, but she could not
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  Speaker 1: wish for the thing which perhaps she ought to wish for.
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  Speaker 1: She had confided this to her husband with innocent, penitent tears,
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  Speaker 1: and he had stroked her cheek, which had always been
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  Speaker 1: his comforting way since they had been young things together.'
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  Speaker 1: My dear,' he said,' if a tiger with hydrophobia were
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  Speaker 1: loose among a lot of decent people, or indecent ones
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  Speaker 1: for the matter of that, you would not feel it
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  Speaker 1: your duty to be very sorry,' if in springing on
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  Speaker 1: a group of them he impaled himself on an iron
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  Speaker 1: fence don't reproach yourself too much and though the realism
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  Speaker 1: of the picture he presented was such as to make
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  Speaker 1: her exclaim no no there were still occasional moments when
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  Speaker 1: she breathed the request for pardon if she was hard
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  Speaker 1: of heart this softest of creatures human it was arranged
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  Speaker 1: by the two who best knew and loved her that
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  Speaker 1: her meeting with rosalie should have no spectators and that
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  Speaker 1: their first hour together should be wholly unbroken in upon'
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  Speaker 1: You have not seen each other for so long,' Betty said,
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  Speaker 1: when on her arrival she led her at once to
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  Speaker 1: the morning-room where Rosie waited, pale with joy, but when
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  Speaker 1: the door was opened, though the two figures were swept
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  Speaker 1: into each other's arms by one wild tremulous rush of movement,
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  Speaker 1: there were no sounds to be heard, only caught breaths
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  Speaker 1: until the door had closed again.' The talks which took
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  Speaker 1: place between Mr. Vanderpool and Lord Mount Dunstan were many
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  Speaker 1: and long, and were of absorbing interest to both,' H.
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  Speaker 1: presented to the other a new world, and a type
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  Speaker 1: of which his previous knowledge had been but incomplete.' I wonder,' Mr.
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  Speaker 1: Vanderpool said in the course of one of them,' if
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  Speaker 1: my world appeals to you as yours appeals to me. Naturally,
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  Speaker 1: from your standpoint, it scarcely seems probable. Perhaps the up-building
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  Speaker 1: of large financial schemes presupposes a certain degree of imagination.
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  Speaker 1: I am becoming a romantic New York man of business,
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  Speaker 1: and I revel in it. Gedges, for instance.' with the
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  Speaker 1: smile which somehow suggested Betty, Kedgers and the Lilium Gigantium, Mrs.
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  Speaker 1: Weldon and old Dobie threatened to develop into quite necessary
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  Speaker 1: factors in the scheme of happiness. What Betty has felt
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  Speaker 1: is even more comprehensible than it seemed at first. They
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  Speaker 1: walked and rode together about the countryside. When Mount Dunstan
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  Speaker 1: itself was swept clean of danger, and only a few
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  Speaker 1: convalescents lingered to be taken care of in the huge ballroom,
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  Speaker 1: they spent many days in going over the estate. The
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  Speaker 1: desolate beauty of it appealed to and touched Mr. Vanderpool
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  Speaker 1: as it had appealed to and touched his daughter, and
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  Speaker 1: also wakened in him much new and curious delight. But
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  Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan, with a touch of his old obstinacy, insisted
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  Speaker 1: that he should ignore the beauty and look closely at
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  Speaker 1: less admirable things.' You must see the worst of this,'
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  Speaker 1: he said.' You must understand that I can put no
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  Speaker 1: good face upon things, that I offer nothing because I
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  Speaker 1: have nothing to offer.' If he had not been swept
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  Speaker 1: through and through by a powerful and rapturous passion, he
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  Speaker 1: would have detested and abhorred those days of deliberate proudly.
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  Speaker 1: bare of the nakedness of the land. But in the
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  Speaker 1: hours he spent with Betty Vanderpool the passion gave him
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  Speaker 1: knowledge of the things which, being elemental, do not concern
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  Speaker 1: themselves with pride and obstinacy, and do not remember them.
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  Speaker 1: Too much had ended, and too much begun to leave
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  Speaker 1: space or thought for poor things. In their eyes, when
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  Speaker 1: they were together, and even when they were apart, dwelt
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  Speaker 1: a glow which was deeply moving to those who, looking on,
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  Speaker 1: were sufficiently profound of thought to understand. Watching the two
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  Speaker 1: walking slowly side by side down the leafless avenue on
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  Speaker 1: a crystal winter day, Mr. Vanderpool conversed with the vicar
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  Speaker 1: whom he greatly liked.' A young man by the name
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  Speaker 1: of Selden,' he remarked,' told me more of this than
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  Speaker 1: he knew.'' Gee, Selden!' said the vicar, with affectionate smiling.
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  Speaker 1: is not aware that he was largely concerned in the
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  Speaker 1: matter in fact without g selden i do not know
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  Speaker 1: how exactly we should have got on how is he
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  Speaker 1: nice fellow extremely well and these days in my employ
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  Speaker 1: his of the honest indefatigable stuff which makes its way
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  Speaker 1: his own smiles as he watched the two tall figures
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  Speaker 1: in the distance settled into an expression of speculative absorption
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  Speaker 1: because he was reflecting upon profoundly interesting matters' There is
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  Speaker 1: a great primeval thing which sometimes, not often, only sometimes,
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  Speaker 1: occurs to two people,' he went on.' When it leaps
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  Speaker 1: into being, it is well if it is not thwarted
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  Speaker 1: or done to death.' It has happened to my girl
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  Speaker 1: and Mount Dunstan.' If they had been two young tinkers
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  Speaker 1: by the roadside, they would have come together and defied
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  Speaker 1: their beggary.' As it is, I recognise, as I sit here,
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  Speaker 1: that the outcome of what is to be may reach
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  Speaker 1: far and open up broad new ways.' Yes, said the vicar.
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  Speaker 1: She will live here and fill a strong man's life
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  Speaker 1: with wonderful human happiness. Her splendid children will be born here,
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  Speaker 1: and among them will be those who lead the van
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  Speaker 1: and make history. For some time Nigel and Struthers lay
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  Speaker 1: in his room at Stornham Court, surrounded by all of
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  Speaker 1: aid and luxury that wealth and exalted medical science could
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  Speaker 1: gather about him. Sometimes he lay a livid unconscious mask,
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes his nurses and doctors knew that in his hollow
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  Speaker 1: eyes there was the light of a raging half-reason, and
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  Speaker 1: they saw that he struggled to utter coherent sounds which
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  Speaker 1: they might comprehend. This he never accomplished, and one day
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  Speaker 1: in the midst of such an effort he was stricken
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  Speaker 1: dumb again, and soon afterwards sank into stillness and died.
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  Speaker 1: And the shuttle in the hand of fate, through every
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  Speaker 1: hour of every day, and through the slow deep breathing
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  Speaker 1: of all the silent nights, weaves to and fro, to
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  Speaker 1: and fro, drawing with it the threads of human life
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  Speaker 1: and thought which strengthen its web, and trace the figures
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  Speaker 1: of its yet vague and uncompleted design.