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The Wheels of Chance Chapters 4 & 5 · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Section two, The Wheels of Chance. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by Patty Cunningham. The Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter four, The Riding fourth of Mister Hoopdriver. Only those
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  Speaker 1: who toil six long days out of the seven, and
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  Speaker 1: all the year round, save for one brief, glorious fortnight
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  Speaker 1: or ten days in the summer time, know the exquisite
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  Speaker 1: sensations of the first holiday morning. All the dreary, uninteresting
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  Speaker 1: routine drops from you. Suddenly your chains fall about your feet.
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  Speaker 1: All at once. You are lord of yourself, lord of
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  Speaker 1: every hour in the long vacant day. You may go
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  Speaker 1: where you please, call none sir or madam. Have a
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  Speaker 1: lapel free of pins, doff your black morning coat and
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  Speaker 1: wear the color of your heart, and be a man.
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  Speaker 1: You grudge sleep, You grudge eating and drinking, even their
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  Speaker 1: intrusion on those exquisite moments. There will be no more
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  Speaker 1: rising before breakfast in casual old clothing to go, dusting
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  Speaker 1: and getting ready in a cheerless shutter, darkened, wrappered up shop.
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  Speaker 1: No more imperious cries of forward, Hoopdriver, no more hasty
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  Speaker 1: meals and weary attendants on fitful old women. For ten
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  Speaker 1: blessed days. The first morning is by far the most glorious,
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  Speaker 1: for you hold your whole fortune in your hands. Thereafter
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  Speaker 1: every night comes a pang, a specter that will not
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  Speaker 1: be exercised. The premonition of the return, the shadow of
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  Speaker 1: going back, of being put in the cage again for
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  Speaker 1: another twelve months, lies blacker and blacker across the sunlight.
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  Speaker 1: But on the first morning of the ten the holiday
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  Speaker 1: has no past, and ten days seems as good as infinity.
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  Speaker 1: And it was fine, full of a promise of gloryarious days.
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  Speaker 1: A deep blue sky with dazzling piles of white cloud
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  Speaker 1: here and there, as though celestial haymakers had been piling
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  Speaker 1: the swaths of last night's clouds into cocks for a
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  Speaker 1: coming cartage. There were thrushes in the Richmond Road, and
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  Speaker 1: a lark on Putney Heath. The freshness of dew was
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  Speaker 1: in the air. Dew or the relics of an overnight shower,
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  Speaker 1: glittered on the leaves and grass. Hoopdriver had breakfasted early
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  Speaker 1: by missus Gunn's complaisance. He wheeled his machine up Putney Hill,
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  Speaker 1: and his heart sang within him. Half way up, the
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  Speaker 1: dissipated looking black cat rushed home across Fleely Road and
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  Speaker 1: vanished under a gate. All the big red brick houses
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  Speaker 1: behind the variegated shrubs and trees had their blinds down still,
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  Speaker 1: and he would not have changed places with a soul
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  Speaker 1: in any one of them for a hundred pounds. He
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  Speaker 1: had on his new brown cycling suit, a handsome Norfolk
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  Speaker 1: jacket thing for thirty pounds, and his legs, those martyr legs,
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  Speaker 1: were more than consoled by thick checkered stock then in
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  Speaker 1: the foot, thick in the leg for all they had endured.
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  Speaker 1: A neat packet of American cloth behind the saddle contained
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  Speaker 1: his change of raiment, and the bell and the handlebar,
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  Speaker 1: and the hubs and lamp, albeit a trifle freckled by wear,
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  Speaker 1: glittered blindingly in the rising sunlight. And at the top
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  Speaker 1: of the hill. After only one unsuccessful attempt, which somehow
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  Speaker 1: terminated on the green hoopdriver mounted and with a stately
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  Speaker 1: and cautious restraint in his pace and a dignified curvature
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  Speaker 1: of path, began his great cycling tour along the Southern coast.
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  Speaker 1: There is only one phrase to describe his course at
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  Speaker 1: this stage, and that is voluptuous curves. He did not
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  Speaker 1: ride fast, he did not ride straight. An exacting critic
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  Speaker 1: might say he did not ride well. But he rode generously, opulently,
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  Speaker 1: using the whole road, and even nibbling at the footpath.
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  Speaker 1: The excitement never flagged. So far he had never passed
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  Speaker 1: or been passed by anything. But as yet the day
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  Speaker 1: was young and the road was clear. He doubted his
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  Speaker 1: steering so much that for the present he had resolved
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  Speaker 1: to dismount at the approach of anything else upon wheels.
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  Speaker 1: The shadows of the trees lay very long and blue
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  Speaker 1: across the road. The morning sunlight was like amber fire.
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  Speaker 1: At the cross roads. At the top of West Hill,
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  Speaker 1: where the cattle trough stands, he turned towards Kingston and
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  Speaker 1: set himself to scale the little bit of a scent.
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  Speaker 1: An early heath keeper in his velveteen jacket marveled at
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  Speaker 1: his efforts, and while he yet struggled, the head of
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  Speaker 1: a carter rose over the brow at the sight of him.
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  Speaker 1: Mister hoopdriver, according to his previous determination resolved to dismount.
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  Speaker 1: He tightened the brake, and the machine stopped dead. He
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  Speaker 1: was trying to think what he did with his right
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  Speaker 1: leg whilst getting off. He gripped the handles and released
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  Speaker 1: the brake, standing on the left pedal and waving his
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  Speaker 1: right foot in the air. Then these things take so
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  Speaker 1: long long in the telling, He found the machine was
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  Speaker 1: falling over to the right while he was deciding upon
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  Speaker 1: a plan of action. Gravitation appears to have been busy.
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  Speaker 1: He was still irresolute when he found the machine on
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  Speaker 1: the ground, himself kneeling upon it, and a vague feeling
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  Speaker 1: in his mind that again Providence had dealt harshly with
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  Speaker 1: his shin. This happened when he was just leveled with
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  Speaker 1: the heath keeper. The man in the approaching cart stood
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  Speaker 1: up to see the ruins better. That ain't the way
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  Speaker 1: to get off, said the heath keeper. Mister Hoopdriver picked
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  Speaker 1: up the machine. The handle was twisted askew. Again, he
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  Speaker 1: said something under his breath. He would have to unscrew
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  Speaker 1: the beastly thing. That ain't the way to get off,
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  Speaker 1: repeated the heath keeper. After a silence, I know that,
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  Speaker 1: said mister hoopdriver. Testily, determined to overlook the new specimen
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  Speaker 1: on his shin at any cost, he unbuckled the wallet
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  Speaker 1: behind the saddle to get out the screw hammer. If
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  Speaker 1: you know it ain't the way to get off, what
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  Speaker 1: do you do it for, said the heath keeper, in
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  Speaker 1: a tone of friendly controversy. Mister hoopdriver got out his
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  Speaker 1: screw hammer and went to the handle. He was annoyed.
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  Speaker 1: That's my business, I suppose, he said, fumbling with the screw.
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  Speaker 1: The unusual exertion had made his hands shake frightfully. The
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  Speaker 1: heath keeper became meditative and twisted his stick in his
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  Speaker 1: hands behind his back. You've broken your handle, ain't yer,
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  Speaker 1: he said presently. Just then the screw hammer slipped off
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  Speaker 1: the nut. Mister hoopdriver used a nasty low word. They're
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  Speaker 1: trying things, them bicycles, said the heath keeper charitably, Very trying.
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  Speaker 1: Mister hoopdriver gave the nut a vicious turn and suddenly
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  Speaker 1: stood up. He was holding the front wheel between his knees.
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  Speaker 1: I wish, said he with a catch in his voice.
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  Speaker 1: I wish you'd leave off staring at me. Then, with
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  Speaker 1: the air of one who has delivered an ultimatum, he
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  Speaker 1: began replacing the screw hammer in the wallet. The heath
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  Speaker 1: keeper never moved. Possibly he raised his eyebrows, and certainly
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  Speaker 1: he stared harder than he did before. You're pretty unsociable,
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  Speaker 1: he said slowly, as mister Hoopdriver seized the handles and
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  Speaker 1: stood ready to mount. As soon as the cart had passed,
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  Speaker 1: the indignation gathered slowly. But surely, why don't you ride
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  Speaker 1: on a private road of your own? If no one
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  Speaker 1: ain't to speak to you? Asked the heath keeper, perceiving
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  Speaker 1: more and more clearly the bearing of the matter. Can't
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  Speaker 1: no one make a passin remark to you? Touchy? Ain't
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  Speaker 1: I good enough to speak to you? Bin struck Wooden.
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  Speaker 1: All of a sudden, mister Hoopdriver stared into the immensity
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  Speaker 1: of the future. He was rigid with emotion. It was
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  Speaker 1: like abusing the lions in Trafalgar Square. But the heath
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  Speaker 1: keeper felt his honor was at stake. Don't you make
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  Speaker 1: no remarks to him? Said the keeper, as the carter
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  Speaker 1: came up broadside to them. He's a bluemin dook, he is.
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  Speaker 1: He don't converse with no one under a earl. He's
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  Speaker 1: off de wenser. He is. That's why he's stickin' his
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  Speaker 1: behind out so haughty pride, why he's got so much
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  Speaker 1: of it, He has to carry some of it in
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  Speaker 1: that there bundled there for furried bust if he didn't
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  Speaker 1: ease his self a bed e. But mister hoopdriver heard
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  Speaker 1: no more. He was hopping vigorously along the road in
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  Speaker 1: a spasmodic attempt to remount. He missed the treddle once
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  Speaker 1: and swore viciously, to the keeper's immense delight. Naw no,
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  Speaker 1: said the heath keeper. In another moment, mister hoopdriver was up,
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  Speaker 1: and after one terrific lurch of the machine, the heath
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  Speaker 1: Keeper dropped out of earshot. Mister Hoopdriver would have liked
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  Speaker 1: to look back at his enemy, but he usually twisted
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  Speaker 1: round an upset. If he tried that, he had to
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  Speaker 1: imagine the indignant heath keeper telling the carter all about it.
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  Speaker 1: He tried to infuse as much disdain as possible into
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  Speaker 1: his retreating aspect. He drove on his sinuous way down
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  Speaker 1: the dip by the new mirror and up the little
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  Speaker 1: rise to the crest of the hill that drops into
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  Speaker 1: Kingston Vale. And so remarkable is the psychology of cycling,
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  Speaker 1: that he rode all the straighter and easier because the
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  Speaker 1: emotions the heath keeper had aroused relieved his mind of
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  Speaker 1: the constant expectation of collapse that had previously unnerved him.
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  Speaker 1: To ride a bicycle properly is very like a love affair. Chiefly,
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  Speaker 1: it is a matter of faith. Believe you do it,
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  Speaker 1: and the thing is done. Doubt, and for the life
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  Speaker 1: of you you cannot now. You may perhaps imagine that
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  Speaker 1: as he rode on, his feelings toward the heath keeper
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  Speaker 1: were either vindictive or remorseful, vindictive for the aggravation, or
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  Speaker 1: remorseful for his own injudicious display of ill temper. As
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  Speaker 1: a matter of fact, they were nothing of the sort.
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  Speaker 1: A sudden, a wonderful gratitude possessed him. The glory of
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  Speaker 1: the holidays had resumed its sway with a sudden accession
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  Speaker 1: of splendor. At the crest of the hill, he put
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  Speaker 1: his feet upon the foot rests, and, now riding moderately straight,
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  Speaker 1: went with a palpitating break down that excellent descent. A
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  Speaker 1: new delight was in his eyes, quite over and above
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  Speaker 1: the pleasure of rushing through the keen, sweet morning air.
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  Speaker 1: He reached out his thumb and twanged his bell out
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  Speaker 1: of sheer happiness. He's a bloomin duke, he is, said
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  Speaker 1: mister Hoopdriver to himself in a soft undertone, as he
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  Speaker 1: went soaring down the hill. And again, he's a bloomin duke.
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  Speaker 1: He opened his mouth in a silent laugh. It was
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  Speaker 1: having a decent cut, did it. His social superiority had
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  Speaker 1: been so evident that even a man like that noticed
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  Speaker 1: it no more Manchester Department, for ten days out of
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  Speaker 1: Manchester a man the draper Hoopdriver the hand had vanished
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  Speaker 1: from existence. Instead was a gentleman, a man of pleasure,
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  Speaker 1: with a five pound note, two sovereigns, and some silver
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  Speaker 1: at various convenient points of his person, at any rate,
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  Speaker 1: as good as a duke, if not precisely in the peerage. Involuntarily,
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  Speaker 1: at the thought of his funds, Hoopdriver's right hand left
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  Speaker 1: the handle and sought his breast pocket, to be immediately
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  Speaker 1: recalled by a violent swoop the machine towards the cemetery. Whew,
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  Speaker 1: just missed that half brick. Mischievous brutes there were in
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  Speaker 1: the world to put such a thing in the road.
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  Speaker 1: Some bloominary or other ought to prosecute a few of
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  Speaker 1: these ruffs, and the rest would know better. That must
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  Speaker 1: be the buckle of the wallet rattling on the mud guard,
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  Speaker 1: how cheerfully the wheels buzzed. The cemetery was very silent
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  Speaker 1: and peaceful, but the veil was waking, and windows rattled
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  Speaker 1: and squeaked up, and a white dog came out of
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  Speaker 1: one of the houses and yelped at him. He got
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  Speaker 1: off rather breathless at the foot of Kingston Hill and
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  Speaker 1: pushed up. Half way up, an early milk chariot rattled
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  Speaker 1: by him. Two dirty men with bundles came hurrying down.
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  Speaker 1: Hoopdriver felt sure they were burglars, carrying home the swag.
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  Speaker 1: It was up Kingston Hill that he first noticed a
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  Speaker 1: peculiar feeling, a slight tightness at his knees. But he
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  Speaker 1: noticed too, at the top that he rode straighter than
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  Speaker 1: he did before. The pleasure of riding straight blotted out
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  Speaker 1: these first intimations of fatigue. A man on horseback appeared. Hoopdriver,
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  Speaker 1: in a tumult of soul at his own temerity, passed
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  Speaker 1: him then down the hill into Kingston, with the screw
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  Speaker 1: hammer behind in the wallet rattling against the oil can,
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  Speaker 1: he passed without misadventure, a fruiterer's van and a sluggish
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  Speaker 1: cartload of bricks. And in Kingston, Hoopdriver, with the most
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  Speaker 1: exquisite sensations, saw the shutters half removed from a draper's shop,
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  Speaker 1: and two yawning youths in dusty old black jackets and
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  Speaker 1: with dirty white comforters about their necks, clearing up the
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  Speaker 1: planks and boxes and wrappers in the window preparatory to
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  Speaker 1: dressing it out. Even so had Hoopdriver been on the
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  Speaker 1: previous day, but now was he not a bloomin duke
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  Speaker 1: palpably in the sight of common men. Then round the
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  Speaker 1: corner to the right bell banged furiously, and so along
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  Speaker 1: the road to Surbiton, whoop for freedom and adventure. Every
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  Speaker 1: now and then a house with an expression of sleepy
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  Speaker 1: surprise would open its eye as he passed, and to
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  Speaker 1: the right of him, for a mile or so the
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  Speaker 1: weltering Thames flashed and glittered talk of your joy de verve,
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  Speaker 1: albeit with a certain cramping sensation about the knees and calves,
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  Speaker 1: slowly forcing itself upon his attention. End of chapter four,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter five, the shameful episode of the young Lady in Gray.
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  Speaker 1: Now you must understand that mister Hoopdriver was not one
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  Speaker 1: of your fast young men. If he had been King Lemuel,
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  Speaker 1: he could not have profited more by his mother's instructions.
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  Speaker 1: He regarded the feminine sex as something to bow to
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  Speaker 1: and smirk at from a safe distance. Years of the
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  Speaker 1: intimate remoteness of a counter leave their mark upon a man.
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  Speaker 1: It was an adventure for him to take one of
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  Speaker 1: the young ladies of the establishment to church on a Sunday.
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  Speaker 1: Few modern young men could have merited less the epithet dorg.
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  Speaker 1: But I have thought at times that his machine may
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  Speaker 1: have had something of the blade in its metal. Decidedly
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  Speaker 1: it was a machine with a past. Mister Hoopdriver had
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  Speaker 1: bought it second hand from Hares in Putney, and Hare
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  Speaker 1: said it had had several owners. Second Hand was scarcely
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  Speaker 1: the word for it, and a Lair was mildly puzzled
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  Speaker 1: that he should be selling such an antiquity. He said
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  Speaker 1: it was perfectly sound, if a little old fashioned, but
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  Speaker 1: he was absolutely silent about its moral character. It may
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  Speaker 1: even have begun its career with a poet, say in
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  Speaker 1: his glorious youth. It may have been the bicycle of
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  Speaker 1: a really bad man. No one who has ever ridden
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  Speaker 1: a cycle of any kind but will witness that the
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  Speaker 1: things are unaccountably prone to pick up bad habits and
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  Speaker 1: keep them. It is undeniable that it became convulse with
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  Speaker 1: the most violent emotions. Directly the young lady in gray appeared.
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  Speaker 1: It began an absolutely unprecedented wobble, unprecedented so far as
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  Speaker 1: Hoopdriver's experienceans went. It showed off the most decadent sinuosity.
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  Speaker 1: It left a track like one of Beardsley's feathers. He
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  Speaker 1: suddenly realized, too, that his cap was loose on his head,
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  Speaker 1: and his breath a mere remnant. The young lady in
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  Speaker 1: gray was also riding a bicycle. She was dressed in
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  Speaker 1: a beautiful bluish gray, and the sun behind her drew
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  Speaker 1: her outline in gold and left the rest in shadow.
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  Speaker 1: Hoopdriver was dimly aware that she was young, rather slender, dark,
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  Speaker 1: and with a bright color and bright eyes. Strange doubts
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  Speaker 1: possessed him as to the nature of her nether costume.
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  Speaker 1: He had heard of such things, of course French. Perhaps
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  Speaker 1: her handles glittered. A jet of sunlight splashed off her bell. Blindingly,
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  Speaker 1: she was approaching the high road along and affluent from
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  Speaker 1: the villas of Surbiton View roads converged slantingly. She was
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  Speaker 1: traveling at about the same pace as mister Hoopdriver. The
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  Speaker 1: appearances pointed to a meeting at the fork of the roads.
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  Speaker 1: Hoopdriver was seized with a horrible conflict of doubts. By
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  Speaker 1: contrast with her, he rode disgracefully. Had he not better
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  Speaker 1: get off at once and pretend something was wrong with
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  Speaker 1: his treddle. Yet even the end of getting off was
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  Speaker 1: an uncertainty that last occasion on Putney Heath. On the
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  Speaker 1: other hand, what would happen if he kept on? To
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  Speaker 1: go very slowly seemed the abnegation of his manhood to
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  Speaker 1: crawl after a mere schoolgirl. Besides, she was not riding
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  Speaker 1: very fast. On the other hand, to thrust himself in
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  Speaker 1: front of her, consuming the road in his tendril like
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: advance seemed an incivility greed. He would leave her such
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  Speaker 1: a very little His business training made him prone to
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  Speaker 1: bow and step aside. If only one could take one's
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: hands off the handles, one might pass with a silent
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: elevation of the hat, of course, but even that was
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  Speaker 1: a little suggestive of a funeral. Meanwhile, the roads converged.
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  Speaker 1: She was looking at him. She was flushed, a little thin,
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  Speaker 1: and had very bright eyes. Her red lips fell apart.
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  Speaker 1: She may have been writing hard, but it looked uncommonly
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  Speaker 1: like a faint smile, and the things were yes rationals.
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  Speaker 1: Suddenly an impulse to bolt from the situation became clamorous.
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  Speaker 1: Mister hoopdriver peddled convulsively, intending to pass her. He jerked
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  Speaker 1: against some tin thing in the road, and it flew
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  Speaker 1: up between front wheel and mud guard. He twisted round
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  Speaker 1: towards her, had the machine a devil? At that supreme moment,
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  Speaker 1: it came across him that he would have done wiser
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  Speaker 1: to dismount. He gave a frantic whoop and tried to
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  Speaker 1: get round. Then, as he seemed falling over, he pulled
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  Speaker 1: the handle straight again into the left by an instinctive motion,
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  Speaker 1: and shot behind her hind wheel, missing her by a
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  Speaker 1: hair's breadth. The pavement curb awaited him. He tried to
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: recover and found himself jumped up on the pavement and
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: writing squarely at a neat wooden paling. He struck this
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  Speaker 1: with a terrific impact and shot forward off his saddle
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: into a clumsy entanglement. Then he began to tumble over
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  Speaker 1: sideways and completed the entire figure in a sitting position
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  Speaker 1: on the gravel, with his feet between the fork and
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  Speaker 1: the stay of the machine. The concussion on the gravel
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  Speaker 1: shook his entire being. He remained in that position, wishing
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  Speaker 1: that he had broken his neck, wishing even more heartily
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  Speaker 1: that he had never been born. The glory of life
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  Speaker 1: had departed blumen Duke, Indeed, these unwomanly women. There was
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  Speaker 1: a soft whirr, the click of a brake, two footfalls,
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  Speaker 1: and the young lady in gray stood holding her machine.
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  Speaker 1: She had turned round and come back to him. The
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  Speaker 1: warm sunlight now was in her face. Are you hurt?
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  Speaker 1: She said? She had a pretty clear girlish voice. She
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  Speaker 1: was really very young, quite a girl, in fact, and
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: rode so well. It was a bitter draft. Mister hoopdriver
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: stood up at once. Not a bit, he said, a
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: little ruefully. He became painfully aware that large patches of
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: gravel scarcely improved the appearance of a Norfolk suit. I'm
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: very sorry, indeed, it's my fault, she said, interrupting and
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: so saving him on the very verge of calling her miss.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: He knew miss was wrong, but it was a deep
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: seated habit with him. I tried to pass you on
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: the wrong side. Her face and eyes seemed all alive.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: It's my place to be sorry, but it was my steering.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: I ought to have seen you were a novice with
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: a touch of superiority, but you rode so straight coming
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: along there. She really was dashed pretty. Mister Hoopdriver's feelings
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: passed the nadir. When he spoke again, there was the
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: faintest flavor of the aristocratic in his voice. It's my
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: first ride, as a matter of fact, but that's no
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: excuse for my uh blundering. Your finger's bleeding, she said abruptly.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: He saw his knuckle was barked. I didn't feel it,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: he said, feeling manly. You don't at first, have you
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: any sticking plaster? If not, she balanced her machine against herself.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: She had a little side pocket, and she whipped out
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: a small packet of sticking plaster with a pair of
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: scissors in a sheath at the side, and cut off
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: a generous portion. He had a wild impulse to ask
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: her to stick it on for him. Controlled thank you,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: he said, machine all right, she asked, looking past him
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: at the prostrate vehicle, her hands on her handlebar. For
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: the first time, Hoopdriver did not feel proud of his machine.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: He turned and began to pick up the fallen fabric.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: He looked over his shoulder and she was gone. Turned
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: his head over the other shoulder, down the road, and
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: she was riding off. Orf said, mister Hoopdriver, while I'm blowed,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: talk about slap up. His aristocratic refinement rarely adorned his
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: speech in his private soliloquies. His mind was whirling. One
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: fact was clear. A most delightful and novel human being
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: had flashed across his horizon and was going out of
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: his life again. The holiday madness was in his blood.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: She looked round at that. He rushed his machine into
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: the road and began a hasty ascent. Unsuccessful. Try again,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: confound it will he never be able to get up
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: on the thing again. She will be round the corner
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: in a minute. Once more, Ah pedal wobble. No right,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: this time, he gripped the handles and put his head down.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: He would overtake her. The situation was primordial. The man
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: beneath prevailed for a moment over the civilized superstructure, the draper.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: He pushed at the pedals with archaic violence, so paleolithic
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: man may have ridden his simple bicycle of chip flint
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: in pursuit of his exogamous affinity. She vanished round the corner.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: His effort was titanic. What should he say when he
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: overtook her? That scarcely disturbed him at first? How fine
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: she had looked, flushed with the exertion of riding, breathing
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: a little fast, but elastic and active. Talk about your
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: ladylike homekeeping girls with complexions like cold beal. But what
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: should he say to her? That was a bother, and
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: he could not lift his cap without risking a repetition
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: of his previous ignominy. She was a real young lady,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: no mistake about that, None of your blooming shop girls.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: There is no greater contempt in the world than that
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: of shop men for shop girls, unless it be that
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: of shop girls for shop men. Phew, this was work.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: A certain numbness came and went at his knees. May
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: I ask to whom I am indebted? He panted to himself,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: trying it over. That might do lucky. He had a
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: card case a hundred a shilling while you wait, he
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: was getting wended. The road was certainly a bit up hill.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: He turned the corner and saw a long stretch of
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: road and a gray dress vanishing. He set his teeth,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: had he gained on her at all? Unky on a
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: grid iron yelped a small boy. Hoopdriver redoubled his efforts.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: His breath became audible, his steering unsteady, his peddling positively ferocious.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: A drop of perspiration ran into his eye, irritant as acid.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: The road really was uphill, beyond dispute. All his physiology
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: began to cry out at him. A last tremendous effort
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: brought him to the corner and showed yet another extent
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: of shady roadway, empty save for a baker's van. His
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: front wheels suddenly shrieked aloud, Oh Lord, said hoopdriver, relaxing anyhow,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: she was not in sight. He got off unsteadily, and
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: for a moment his legs felt like wisps of cotton.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: He balanced his machine against the grassy edge of the
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: path and sat down, panting. His hands were gnarled with
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: swollen veins and shaking palpably. His breath became vicid. I'm
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: hardly in training, yet, he remarked, His legs had gone leaden.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: I don't feel as though I'd had a mouthful of breakfast. Presently,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: he slapped his side pocket and produced therefrom, a brand
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: new cigarette case and a packet of Vansidart's Red Herring cigarettes.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: He filled the case. Then his eye fell with a
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: sudden approval on the ornamental checkering of his new stockings.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: The expression in his eyes faded slowly to abstract meditation.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: She was a stunning girl, he said, I wonder if
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: I shall ever set eyes on her again. And she
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: knew how to ride, too, Wonder what she thought of me?
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: The phrase bloomin Duke floated into his mind with a
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: certain flavor of comfort. He lit a cigarette and sat
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: smoking and meditating. He did not even look up when
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: vehicles passed. It was perhaps ten minutes before he roused himself,
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: what rot it is? What's the good of thinking such things?
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: He said, I'm only a blessed draper's assistant. To be exact,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: he did not say blessed. The service of a shop
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: may polish a man's exterior ways, but the princess's dormitory
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: is an indifferent school for either manners or morals. He
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: stood up and began wheeling his machine towards esher. It
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: was going to be a beautiful day, and the hedges
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: and trees and the open country were all glorious to
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: his town tired eyes. But it was a little different
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: from the elation of his start. Look at the gentleman.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Was a bike, it all, said, A nursemaid on the
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: path to a personage in a her ambulator. That healed
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: him a little, gentlemen, was her biketol bloomin Duke. I
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: can't look so very seedy, he said to himself. I
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: wonder I should just like to know. There was something
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: very comforting in the track of her pneumatic running straight
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: and steady along the road before him. It must be hers.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: No other pneumatic had been along the road that morning.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: It was just possible, of course, that he might see
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: her once more, or coming back, should he try and
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: say something smart. He speculated what manner of girl she
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: might be. Probably she was one of these here new women.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: He had a persuasion. The cult had been maligned. Anyhow,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: she was a lady, and rich people too. Her machine
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: couldn't have cost much under twenty pounds. His mind came
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: round and dwelt some time on her visible self. Rational
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: dress didn't look a bit unwomanly, However, he disdained to
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: be one of your fortune hunters. Then his thoughts drove
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: off at a tangent. He would certainly have to get
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: something to eat at the next public house. End of
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Section two. Recording by Patty Cunningham,