Chapter IV, Beyond These Voices, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Audiobook

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CHAPTER IV. SHADOWS OF A NOVEMBER TWILIGHT ARE GATHERING IN
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THE TWO GREAT DRAWING ROOMS OF THE LARGEST HOUSE IN
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PORTLAND PLACE. rooms that have the grandeur of space and
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a certain gloomy splendour that has nothing in common with
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the caprices and elegances of a modern London drawing-room. The
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furniture is large and massive. There are tables in Florentine mosaic,
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cabinets of ebony inlaid with ivory, dower chests painted by
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Pol Veronese or his pupils, the richness of arts that
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are dead, walls hung with italian tapestry the work of
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cloistered nuns whose fingers have been lying in the dust
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for three centuries silver lamps suggestive of mortuary chapels i
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love the provana drawing-rooms because they are romantic and i
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hate them because they give me the horrors little lady
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susan amflit told people romantic was one of her pet
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words her vocabulary was made up of pet words a
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jargon of divers' tongues, and she used them without mercy.
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She was very small, very whimsical and pretty, as neat
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and dainty as a Dresden shepherdess, but she got upon
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some people's nerves and was occasionally accused of posing, though
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she was actually as spontaneous as a tropical parasite in
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a South American forest, a little egotist who thought spoken
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acted only on the impulse of the moment. and whose
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mind had no room for the idea of an external
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world except as its people and scenery were of consequence
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to herself the people she did not know or care
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about were non-existent romantic was her word for madame provana
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she adored madame provana with whom she had some thin
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thread of affinity the kind of distant connection that pervades
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the peerage and makes it perilous for an outsider to
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talk of any recent scandal in high life, lest he
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should fall upon a cousin of the delinquents. Vera and
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I are connections. Her grandmother was a disbra. Lady Susan
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told people. But it is not on that account I
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adore her. I love her because she is romantic, and
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so few of the people one knows are romantic. If
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asked where the romance came in, Susan was ready with
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her reasons. Can there be anything more romantic than the
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idea of a lovely, ethereal creature who looks as if
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a zephyr might blow her off her feet, married to
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an ugly giant whose sole thought and business in this
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life is to heap up riches, a man who cares
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for nothing but money, whose brain is a ledger, and
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whose heart is a checkbook? can anything be more romantic
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when one considers the woman she is and the man
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he is and that they absolutely dote upon each other
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provana may dote some one would say but i question
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the lady's feelings that an impassioned italian should be fond
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of a pretty woman young enough to be his daughter
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and whom he married without a penny for the sake
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of her sweet looks all the world can understand but
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that Madame Provana worships her money-merchant is another story. Did
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not Desdemona dote upon Othello, cried Susan? At least Provana
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is not black, and adoration such as his would melt
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a statue. To be worshipped by a case-hardened money-dealer, a
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man who trades in millions and holds the sinews of
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war when nations are spoiling for a fight, a man
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who is a greater master of finance than half the
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chancellors of the exchequer, who have helped to make history,
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to see how he worships that child-wife of his. It
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is absolutely pathetic. Pathetic was the pretty Susie's word for
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Mario Provana. She used the adjective at the slightest provocation.
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You are absolutely pathetic, she said when he brought his
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wife a necklet of priceless cat's eyes set with brilliance
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and handed her the velvet case across the tea-table. as
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carelessly as if it had been a box of bonbons
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he was pathetic employable stupendo all the big adjectives in
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little lady susy's vocabulary susan amphlett was susy or lady
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susy for everybody who knew her socially and for a
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good many people who had never seen her little minois
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chiffonier nearer than in a photograph people who spelled over
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the society papers in their snug suburban drawing-rooms and loved
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to follow the flight of those migratory birds the mr
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and mrs willies and jimmies and lady bettys and lord
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tommies who were always flitting from branch to branch in
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the only world that seemed worth living in when one
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read the society papers those shiny surfaced richly illustrated sixpennies
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which brought the flavour of that other world across the
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muffin dishes and savoury sandwiches of suburban tea-tables mr amphlett
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was something in the city or that was his description
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when people wanted to describe him he was briefly described
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as rolling and yet a pauper if you weighed him
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against that mountain of gold mario provana the international money-dealer
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if ever provana goes under half europe will have to
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go under with him susy's cousin claude rutherford ex guardsman
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ex traveller ex artist ex lion-shooter said when he discussed
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the great financier with inquisitive outsiders claude was in the
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portland place drawing-room this afternoon lounging against the mantelpiece near
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the lamp-lit tea-tables at one of which madame provana presided
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his tall slender figure half lost in a deepening gloom
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above that island of bright light made by the lamps
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on the tea-table It was easy for Claude to be
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lost in shadow since there was so little of him
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to lose. Euclid's definition of a line, length without breadth,
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was his description, but his slender figure was a line
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that showed race in every inch. His scientific acquaintance called
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him a crystallization. Everything that was ever in the disbrows
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and the Rutherfords, good or bad, he has in its quintessence.
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The poet Eustace Lyon said of him, Whatever the worst
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of the Rutherfords or the disbrows from King Stephen downwards
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ever did, Claude is capable of doing. Whatever the best
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of them ever accomplished, he could do if he had
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a mind to. Unhappily, Claude had a mind to do
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nothing more with his life than lounge through it in
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placid idleness. He had done so much with life that
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it seemed to him that the inconsiderable remnant at his
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disposal was not enough for action, and so nothing mattered.
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He had been a soldier and had seen active service,
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not without a certain distinction. He had hunted lions and
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shot harmless elephants with still more distinction. Indeed, in the
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exploring lion-annihilating line, he had made himself almost a celebrity.
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He had painted and exhibited pictures that had pleased the
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public and the critics, and had been told that he
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might excel in the world of art. But though he
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loved art, he had not tried to excel. The success
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of a season satisfied him, nothing pleased or interested him long.
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He had no staring power. He painted occasionally to distract himself,
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but in an amateurish way, and he no longer exhibited.
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His pictures had not work enough in them to be shown,
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and indeed rarely went beyond the impression of an hour,
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but the impression was vivid and vigorous, and always suggested
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how much the painter might have done if he had cared.
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he had not long passed the third milestone on the
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road of life but he had left off caring for
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things before his thirtieth birthday languor light sarcasm and unfailing
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good temper were among the qualities that had made him
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everybody's favourite young man the very first a smart hostess
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thought of when she was counting heads for a dinner-party
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one incentive that has helped some indolent young men to
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success was wanting in this case he was not obliged
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to earn his daily bread The Rutherfords had coal mines
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on the Scottish border and were rich enough to provide
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for indolent scions of the family tree. Six or seven
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years ago, before he left the army, Claude Rutherford had
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been an arbiter of fashion among the men of his age.
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In those days he had taken the business of his
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outer clothing more seriously than the cultivation of a mind
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in which fancy had ever predominated over thought. and in
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those days that element of fancy had entered even into
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his transactions with tailor and bootmaker, and he had allowed
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himself some flights of imagination in form and colour. Of
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all the names given to golden youth, the old-fashioned name
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of exquisite was the one that fitted Captain Rutherford. It
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seemed to have been invented for him. He was exquisite
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in everything, in his habiliments and his surroundings and speech
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and manner, in every detail of his butterfly life but
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when he left the grenadiers to the infinite regret of
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his brother officers who were all his fast friends he
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flung foppery from him as it were a cast-off garment
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and from the time he worked seriously at his easel
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and began to exhibit his pictures he had become remarkable
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for the careless grace of clothes that were scrupulously unoriginal
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and in the rear rather than in the van of
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fashion the sleeves and coat-tails and checks and stripes of
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the year before last but he was still exquisite the
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grace and the charm were in his own slender form
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and not in the stuff that clothed him he was
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not handsome he was not like david ruddy and fair
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to see he had very little colour and his pale
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grey eyes were only brilliant in moments of mirth or
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strong feeling he had a long thin nose and thin
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flexible lips and his mouth which was supposed to be
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the disbrow mouth and a speciality of that ancient race
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was strong in character and expressiveness his hair was light
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brown with a natural wave in that small portion which
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modern barbers allow to remain on the masculine head a
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rippling line above his brow indicated that claude rutherford might
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have been as curly as absalom if he had let
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his hair grow in the afternoon shadows that small head
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and slim form contrasted curiously with the spacious brow of
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the tall and commanding figure at the other end of
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the mantelpiece the imposing presence of father cyprian hammond at
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that time a famous personage in london society the morals
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and manners whereof he had of late made it his
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chief business to satirise and denounce but the people of
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pleasure and leisure the butterflies and humming-birds of the world
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the creatures of light and colour have a keen relish
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for reproof and denunciation, though they may wince under the
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lash of irony, for them anything is better than not
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being talked about. It had been asked of Father Cyprian
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why he who was so scathing a critic of the
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follies and general worthlessness of the idle rich was yet
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not infrequently to be met in their houses. If I
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did not go among my flock, I could not put
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my finger upon the festering spot, he said, i am
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a student of humanity if lord avebury could devote his
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days to watching bees and wasps do you wonder that
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i am interested in watching my fellow-creatures a professional beauty
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affords a noble scope for observation than a queen-bee a
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gambler on the stock exchange offers more points of interest
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than the industrious If insects are wonderful, is not the
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man or the woman who hazards eternal bliss for the
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trivial pleasures of a London season a creature infinitely more incomprehensible?
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And if, while I watch and listen, I can discover
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where these creatures are assailable, if I can find some
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penetrable spot in their armour of pride, I may be
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able to preach to them with better chance of being heard.
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Father Cyprian was a conspicuous figure in that crowd of
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pretty women and nice boys. Tall even among guardsmen, he
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held himself like a soldier. He had a fair complexion,
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light brown hair and blue eyes, a Saxon of the
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finest Saxon type, and coming of a family whose genealogical
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tree had put forth its earliest branches before the Heptarchy.
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It was the consciousness of superior race, perhaps, that made
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his fashionable flock tolerant of his stinging denunciation and unmeasured
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scorn of vice and folly in high places. Everything relating
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to him was superior. His vestments were superb. His chapel
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was a thing of beauty. The genius of a bossuet
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would hardly have persuaded him. that world of the successful
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rich to listen to a withering analysis of its vices
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and pettinesses from the lips of some little irish priest
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reared in a hovel and nourished on potatoes and potheen
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but it bowed the neck before father cyprian's good birth
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and grand manner Anglicans who met him in society, mostly
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in the houses of the powerful or the rich, talked
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of him as a worldling, but his own flock knew better.
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They knew that wherever the brilliant Jesuit might be seen,
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however light his manner or trivial his conversation, one deeply
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seated purpose was at the back of his mind, the
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making of proselytes, the aggrandizement of his church, that invincible, indestructible, incomparable,
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supreme and unquestionable power. to which he had given the
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service and the devotion of his whole being. If he
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went much among statesmen and rulers, it was because his
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church wanted influence. If he cultivated the friendship of millionaires,
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it was because his church wanted money. For himself he
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wanted nothing, for he had been born to independence, and
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though he had given much of his fortune to the
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necessities of his order, his income was still ample for
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the only scheme of life that was possible for him.
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He was not a man who could have lived in
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sordid surroundings, though he could go down into the nethermost
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depths of East End poverty and give his days and
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nights to carrying the lamp of faith into dark places.
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He had a refinement of sense that would have made
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squalor or even shabby, genteel ugliness unbearable, and he had
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an ardent and artistic imagination which made some touch of
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beauty in his surroundings as needful to him as fresh
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air and cold water. the attention of both these men
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the priest and the man about town was concentrated upon
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the lady of the house who just at this moment
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was taking very little notice of either of them she
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was surrounded by the smartest and prettiest women in the
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room chief amongst them lady susan amphlett who was always
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to be found near vera at these friendly tea-parties vera
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let lady susan and the other women do almost all
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the talking she sat looking straight before her dreamily silent
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amidst the animated chatter about trivialities that had ceased to
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interest her she was still as delicately slender as she
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had been six years ago at san marco when the
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parsons had called her ethereal and the spinsters had called
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her half starved but those six years had made a
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transformation and she was not the same vera She had
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tasted of the tree of knowledge. She had enjoyed all
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the amusements and excitements that great cities can give to
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rich and beautiful women. She had been flattered and followed
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in Rome and Paris and London, had been written about
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in the New York Herald, had been the fashion everywhere,
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a person whom not to know was to confess oneself
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as knowing nobody and going nowhere. indeed it was a
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kind of confession of outsiderism not to be able to
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talk of madame provana as vera she had accepted the
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position with a kind of languid acquiescence taking all things
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for granted after the first year when everything amused her
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in this sixth year of marriage and wealth without limit
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she was tired of everything except the society of authors
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and painters and actors and musicians the people who appealed
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to her imagination she had inherited from her father the
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yearning for things that earth cannot give the eau de
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la the light that never was on sea or land
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the glory and the dream she admired and respected father
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cyprian hammond and she liked him to talk to her
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though she could divine that steadfast purpose at the back
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of his head the determination to bring her into the
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papal fold She argued with him from her Anglican standpoint
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and pleaded for that via media that might reconcile old
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things with new, and she felt the weakness of her
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struggle against that skilled dialectician, but she refused to be converted.
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Half the pleasure of her intimacy with this eagle of
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Monk Street would be lost if she surrendered and had
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to exchange the struggle for the attitude of passive submission.
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His arguments sometimes went near to convincing her, but the
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faith he offered did not satisfy those vague longings for
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the something beyond. It was too simple, too matter-of-fact to
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arrest her imagination. It offered little more than she had
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already in the ritual of her own church. The change
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did not seem worthwhile. She looked up suddenly in the
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midst of the silvery treble talk about theatres and frocks. Claude,
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do you ever keep a promise, she asked. Always, I hope.
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You promised to bring Mr. Simeon to see me. Did I?
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Indeed you did, ages ago. Ages? Well, nearly three weeks.
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It was at the Hellstones dinner. Three weeks. Mr. Simeon
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is not at the call of the first comer. There
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was a little cry from the women who had left
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off talking in order to listen. he calls madame provana
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the first-comer exclaimed the youngest and pertest of the circle
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i call myself the first-comer where simeon is concerned i
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am not one of his initiated i belong to the
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outer herd of wretches who eat birch's meat and attach
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importance to dinner mr simeon condescends when he gives me
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half an hour of a life that is spent mostly
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in the clouds I would give worlds to know him,
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said Lady Susan. I have taken his quarterly, the unseen,
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from the beginning. His articles upon the spiritual life are adorable,
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but I am not conceited enough to pretend to understand him.
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If people understood him, he would be less admired, said Rutherford.
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What does he do? asked the youngest and flippantest. I
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am always hearing of Mr. Simeon. and his spook magazine
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but what does he do is it thought-reading slate-writing materialisation
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does he float up to the ceiling as home did
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my grannie swears she saw him yes positively floating in
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that large house by the marble arch mr simeon does
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nothing replied claude he is the high priest of the
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transcendental he talks how disappointing most people find that enough
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they are bored no they are fascinated mr simeon is
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more magnetic than gladstone was he must have stolen those
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green eyes of his from a mermaid his disciples get
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nothing but his eyes and his talk and they believe
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in him as orientals believe in buddha i've heard people
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say he is buddha gautama's latest incarnation that's rather lovely
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exclaimed miss flippant i would give worlds to see him
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we'll excuse you the worlds even if you own them
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said claude in his lazy voice you may see him
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within the next ten minutes unless he is a promise
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breaker i had not forgotten your commands vera i spent
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half a day in hunting simeon and did not leave
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him till he promised to come to tea with you
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i believe tea is the most material refreshment he takes
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you are ever so much better than i thought you
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said vera with one look up at rutherford before she
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turned to gaze at the distant door heedless of the
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talk that went on round her until after some minutes
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a servant announced mr simeon claude rutherford left his station
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by the mantelpiece and went to meet the visitor the
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spacious rooms were mostly in shadow by this time all
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the lamps being so tempered by artistic shades in sea-green
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silk that they gave faint patches of colour rather than
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light and some people started at the sound of mr
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simeon's name almost as if they had seen a ghost
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It was a name that all cultured people knew, even
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when they did not know the man. Francis Simeon was
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a leader in the spiritual world, and there were no
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depths in the mysteries of occultism from ancient Egypt to
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modern India that he had not sounded. He was the
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editor and proprietor of The Unseen, a quarterly magazine to
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which only the most advanced thinkers were allowed to contribute,
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a magazine which the subscriber opened with a thrill. of
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anticipation wondering what new revelation of the life beyond was
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to find in those shining hot-press pages where the matter
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was often more dazzling than the gloss on the paper
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vera watched with eager interest and a faint flush of
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pleasure as rutherford and simeon came through the shadows towards
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her You see, I've kept my promise, and here is Mr.
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Simeon to answer some of those far-reaching questions with which
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you often bewilder my poor brain. Vera left her table,
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where there had come a sudden lull in the soprano
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voices as Mr. Simeon drew near, a pause in the
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discussion of frocks and hats in the new comedy at
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the St. James's, She stood up to talk to Mr. Simeon,
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telling him how she had been reading the last number
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of the unseen, and more especially his own contribution, an
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essay on the other life, as understood by Tennyson and Browning.
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In that half-light which makes all beautiful things more beautiful,
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she had a spirit look, and might have seemed the
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materialization of Mr. Simeon's thought. as she stood before him
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fragile and slender with glimmering lamplight on her cloud of
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brown hair and on the simple white gown of some
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transparent fabric loosely draped over satin that flashed through its
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fleecy whiteness her only ornament was a necklace of aqua
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marina in a tiffany setting she wears that thing when
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she wants to look like a mermaid miss pert whispered
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to her pal no she wears it to remind us
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that she has some of the finest jewels in london
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and that she despises them said the pal who had
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reached that critical age which is described as getting on
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and was inclined to take a sour view of a
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young woman who had married millions simeon and vera talked
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for some time she with a suppressed eagerness earnest almost
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impassioned simeon grave and reserved yet obviously interested We cannot
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talk of these things in a crowd, he said, if
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I had known you had a party. It is not
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a party. People come every afternoon in the winter, when
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there is not much for them to do. But if
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you will be so kind as to come early some day,
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at three o'clock, for instance, I will not be at
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home to anybody, unless it were Claude, who loves to
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hear you talk. i will come to-morrow said simeon and
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then with briefest adieu he walked slowly through the crowd
387
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acknowledging the greetings of a few intimates with a distant
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bend of his iron-grey head and walking amongst the pretty
389
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faces and smart frocks as he might have done through
390
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so many sparrows pecking on a lawn lady susan came
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to vera excited and eager why didn't you keep him
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i wanted you to introduce him to me i have
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been pining to know him i read every line of
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his review he is wonderful i believe he has secrets
395
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that ward off age you must ask me to meet
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him at luncheon a party of four with claude claude
397
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has been horrid about him i value his friendship too
398
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much to introduce him to tom dick and harry said
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claude beer and he are elective affinities father cyprian and
400
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claude rutherford left the house together may i walk with
401
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you as far as your lodgings claude asked by all
402
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means and come in with me if you can it
403
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is early yet and i have long wanted to talk
404
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with you yes even serious when one cares as much
405
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for a young man as i do for you there
406
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is always room for seriousness you look alarmed but there's
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no occasion i don't preach long sermons especially not to
408
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young men they walked to the end of the street
409
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in silence they were old friends and though claude was
410
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the most lax among papists cyprian hammered had never lost
411
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hope of bringing him back to the fold he was
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emotional and imaginative and he had a heart sooner or
413
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later there would come a day when he would want
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the utmost the church could do for him You can't
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wonder if I am a little afraid, Claude said presently.
416
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There has been some hard hitting from your pulpit within
417
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the last year. You have heard my moralities. I won't
418
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call them sermons. Yes, I have heard, but I doubt
419
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if I have enjoyed your diatribes as much as the
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other sinners, especially the women of your flock. They love
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to be told they are a shade worse than Semiramis,
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if you will only imply that they are as fascinating
423
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as Cleopatra. Poor worms, said the priest with a long,
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drawn sigh. They are such very poor creatures, even their
425
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sins are petty. Would you prefer them if they were
426
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poisoners like the Borgia? No, but I might despise them less,
427
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and I should have more hope of their repentance. These
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00:27:17.170 --> 00:27:20.990
creatures don't know they are sinners. They gamble, they squander
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00:27:21.009 --> 00:27:25.190
their husbands' fortunes, shipwreck their sons' inheritance, and When the
430
00:27:25.250 --> 00:27:29.390
domestic ship goes down, they are injured innocents, surprised to
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find that things are so expensive. I have talked with them,
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not in the confessional, and I have sounded the shallows
433
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of their silly minds. There are no depths unless it
434
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were a depth of self-love. They come to Mass and
435
00:27:43.210 --> 00:27:47.450
sit fanning themselves and sniffing eau de cologne while I
436
00:27:47.650 --> 00:27:50.750
expostulate with them and try to turn their thoughts into
437
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new channels. and then they get tired of the creed
438
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in which they were brought up tired of hearing hard
439
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things and of tasting wormwood instead of honey is modern
440
00:28:01.329 --> 00:28:05.970
london so like babylon i doubt if the city with
441
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a hundred gates was much worse and your substitutes for
442
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the church you have deserted your Christian science, pragmatism, humanism,
443
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your letters from the dead, your philanthropy expressed in oranges
444
00:28:19.339 --> 00:28:24.000
and buns for workhouse children and in fashionable bazaars, charities
445
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that overlap each other and popularize more than they relieve,
446
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and all for want of that one tremendous central power
447
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that could harmonize every effort, bring every man and woman's
448
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work into line and rule. In the history of God's
449
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chosen people, The one unpardonable sin was the worship of
450
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strange gods. Their creator knew that religion was the only
451
00:28:47.380 --> 00:28:51.390
basis of conduct and that the worshippers of evil gods
452
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must themselves become infamous. But this is the age of
453
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strange gods. You all have your groves and high places,
454
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your Baal and Ashtar, your Kali or your Shiva, your
455
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shrines upon mountaintops and under green trees, your Buddha, your
456
00:29:08.990 --> 00:29:13.559
nicci your spinoza your comte you run after the teachers
457
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of fantastic things the high priests of materialism you worship
458
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anywhere but in your church you believe anything but the
459
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faith of your forefathers they were at father cyprian's door
460
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by this time in one of those wide streets west
461
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of portland place and north of the world of fashion
462
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streets that may still be described as quiet save for
463
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the ceaseless roar of traffic in the marylebone road a
464
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sound diminished by distance the ebb and flow of life
465
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in an artery of the great city it was in
466
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a street parallel with this that the great cardinal who
467
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defied the law of england had lived and died half
468
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a century before they had been walking slowly through the
469
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thickening mist of a fine november evening a grey vapour
470
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across which street lamps and lighted windows glimmered in faint
471
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flashes of gold an atmosphere that claude rutherford loved all
472
00:30:07.150 --> 00:30:09.720
the more perhaps because he had never been able to
473
00:30:09.839 --> 00:30:12.859
satisfy himself in painting it what is the good of
474
00:30:12.920 --> 00:30:16.539
trying when one must always fall short of turner he
475
00:30:16.579 --> 00:30:19.500
had said to himself in those younger and more eager
476
00:30:19.660 --> 00:30:22.980
days when he still tried to do things father cyprian
477
00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:25.539
had talked with a kind of suppressed passion as they
478
00:30:25.660 --> 00:30:29.259
walked through solitary streets and now he laughed lightly as
479
00:30:29.359 --> 00:30:32.259
he turned the key in his door you have had
480
00:30:32.339 --> 00:30:35.839
the sermon after all he said it didn't touch me
481
00:30:35.859 --> 00:30:39.720
i am not an extravagant bridge-playing woman and i worship
482
00:30:39.799 --> 00:30:43.869
no strange god i shall touch you presently your withers
483
00:30:43.940 --> 00:30:47.319
are not unwrung suppose i say good-night and give you
484
00:30:47.380 --> 00:30:50.400
the slip you won't do that i was your father's
485
00:30:50.460 --> 00:30:53.660
friend that was enough claude bent his head a little
486
00:30:53.859 --> 00:30:56.740
as if at a sacred name and followed the priest
487
00:30:56.839 --> 00:30:59.799
up the uncarpeted stone staircase to a large room on
488
00:30:59.819 --> 00:31:03.500
the first floor the conventional london drawing-room with its three
489
00:31:03.539 --> 00:31:08.359
long windows and chilling white linen blinds but except the
490
00:31:08.400 --> 00:31:10.369
shape of the room and the white blinds there was
491
00:31:10.440 --> 00:31:13.140
nothing to offend the eye that looked for beauty the
492
00:31:13.180 --> 00:31:16.839
floor was cheaply covered with sea-blue felt which echoed the
493
00:31:16.900 --> 00:31:20.119
colouring of the sea-blue walls and the central space was
494
00:31:20.240 --> 00:31:25.079
occupied by a massive knee-hole desk of ebony inlaid with
495
00:31:25.279 --> 00:31:30.240
ivory evidently of italian workmanship and picturesque enough to please
496
00:31:30.289 --> 00:31:34.490
without being a chef-d'oeuvre there were only two objects of
497
00:31:34.589 --> 00:31:37.910
art in the spacious room but each was supreme after
498
00:31:37.970 --> 00:31:43.400
its kind a carved ivory crucifix of considerable size mounted
499
00:31:43.500 --> 00:31:46.400
on black velvet was centred on the wall facing the
500
00:31:46.480 --> 00:31:50.680
windows and over the marble mantelpiece there hung a holy
501
00:31:50.960 --> 00:31:56.279
family by fra angelico these which were exquisite were the
502
00:31:56.460 --> 00:31:59.480
only ornaments that father cyprian had given himself in his
503
00:31:59.569 --> 00:32:03.309
ten years residence in this house where this spacious sitting-room
504
00:32:03.349 --> 00:32:06.009
with a large bedroom for himself and a small room
505
00:32:06.369 --> 00:32:12.380
for his servant comprised all his accommodation six high-backed arm-chairs
506
00:32:12.460 --> 00:32:16.279
covered with old stamped leather and a massive gate-leg table
507
00:32:16.599 --> 00:32:19.880
black with age on which he dined completed his furniture
508
00:32:20.259 --> 00:32:23.440
to some visitors the sparsely furnished room might have seemed
509
00:32:23.519 --> 00:32:26.920
cold and cheerless but there was an air of repose
510
00:32:27.460 --> 00:32:32.069
in its simplicity that satisfied the artistic mind It looked
511
00:32:32.089 --> 00:32:35.660
like a room designed for prayer and meditation, not a
512
00:32:35.670 --> 00:32:38.859
room for study, for the one bookcase with its neat
513
00:32:38.920 --> 00:32:42.259
range of theological works would not have sufficed for the
514
00:32:42.299 --> 00:32:45.720
poorest student. It looked like a room meant for solitude
515
00:32:45.779 --> 00:32:49.099
and thought, and for only the most serious, the most
516
00:32:49.220 --> 00:32:54.589
confidential conversation. I have always a sense of rest when
517
00:32:54.650 --> 00:32:58.289
I come into this room, Rutherford said, while Father Cyprian
518
00:32:58.329 --> 00:33:01.859
was lighting the candles in a bronze chamber. candelabrum on
519
00:33:01.900 --> 00:33:05.839
his desk you should come here oftener claude you might
520
00:33:05.900 --> 00:33:08.779
make a retreat here once or twice a week sit
521
00:33:08.839 --> 00:33:10.579
on the bank for a few hours and let that
522
00:33:10.619 --> 00:33:13.619
tumultuous river of modern life go by you while you
523
00:33:13.660 --> 00:33:16.380
think of the land where there is no tumult only
524
00:33:16.420 --> 00:33:19.740
a divine repose or an agony of regret when did
525
00:33:19.779 --> 00:33:23.579
you make your last confession claude i have a bad
526
00:33:23.880 --> 00:33:27.829
memory father don't tax it too severely The priest was
527
00:33:27.890 --> 00:33:31.390
not to be satisfied by a flippant answer. He pressed
528
00:33:31.430 --> 00:33:35.980
the question with authority. What have I to confess? An empty,
529
00:33:36.079 --> 00:33:42.700
dissatisfied soul. A useless life, no positive wickedness, only negative worthlessness.
530
00:33:43.799 --> 00:33:46.950
I am not an infidel, Claude added eagerly. If I
531
00:33:47.009 --> 00:33:50.609
were an unbeliever, I would not presume to claim your friendship.
532
00:33:51.130 --> 00:33:54.109
I should think it an insolence to cross your threshold.
533
00:33:54.799 --> 00:33:57.380
I have been slack. I have fallen into a languid
534
00:33:57.579 --> 00:34:02.819
acceptance of my own shortcomings. You have fallen in love
535
00:34:02.960 --> 00:34:06.589
with another man's wife, said the priest gravely. That is
536
00:34:06.660 --> 00:34:10.769
the name of your sin. The thin face paled ever
537
00:34:10.849 --> 00:34:14.489
so slightly, but there was no indignant protest. Indeed, the
538
00:34:14.530 --> 00:34:17.570
head drooped a little as if the sinner had whispered
539
00:34:17.670 --> 00:34:21.679
mea culpae. I've never made love to her, he said
540
00:34:21.719 --> 00:34:25.000
in a low voice, but I am human and can't
541
00:34:25.099 --> 00:34:29.280
help loving her. You can help going to her house.
542
00:34:29.320 --> 00:34:32.070
You can help hanging over her as she sits among
543
00:34:32.110 --> 00:34:35.250
her friends. When it comes to making love, the Rubicon
544
00:34:35.429 --> 00:34:38.869
is passed, and the chances of retreat are as one
545
00:34:38.929 --> 00:34:42.150
in fifty. You are on the downward slope, Claude. Every
546
00:34:42.190 --> 00:34:44.429
time you enter that house, you go there at the
547
00:34:44.489 --> 00:34:49.269
hazard of your soul. She has so few real friends.
548
00:34:49.349 --> 00:34:52.030
She is alone among a crowd. She and I were
549
00:34:52.090 --> 00:34:54.789
friends as children, or at least when she was a child.
550
00:34:55.250 --> 00:34:57.170
I should be a cur if I kept away from
551
00:34:57.250 --> 00:35:00.409
her when she needs my friendship just because of the
552
00:35:00.449 --> 00:35:03.800
risk to myself. I am too fond of her ever
553
00:35:03.860 --> 00:35:06.659
to hazard a situation that would mean danger for her.
554
00:35:07.059 --> 00:35:09.219
I know how much a woman in her position has
555
00:35:09.280 --> 00:35:11.900
to lose. She is not the kind of woman who
556
00:35:11.940 --> 00:35:15.030
could pass through the furnace alone. of the divorce court
557
00:35:15.090 --> 00:35:17.949
and hold up her head and be happy afterwards she
558
00:35:18.050 --> 00:35:21.630
is a creature of spirit not of flesh passion would
559
00:35:21.670 --> 00:35:25.969
never make amends to her for shame yet knowing this
560
00:35:26.050 --> 00:35:31.539
you make yourself her intimate companion I shall never betray myself.
561
00:35:31.599 --> 00:35:34.559
She will never know what you know. For her I
562
00:35:34.699 --> 00:35:38.760
am a feather-brained amateur of life, interested in many things,
563
00:35:38.840 --> 00:35:42.579
caring for nothing, a saunterer through the world, without much
564
00:35:42.659 --> 00:35:46.699
heart and without any serious purpose. She often scolds me
565
00:35:46.760 --> 00:35:50.619
for my frivolity. I admit that she has a certain
566
00:35:50.659 --> 00:35:54.690
childlike innocence which might keep her unconscious of your feelings
567
00:35:55.070 --> 00:35:59.139
till the fatal moment in which you will fling principle
568
00:35:59.239 --> 00:36:02.639
prudence honour to the winds and declare yourself her lover
569
00:36:03.719 --> 00:36:07.619
that moment will never come the day i feel myself
570
00:36:07.699 --> 00:36:10.639
in danger i shall leave her for ever in the
571
00:36:10.699 --> 00:36:14.119
meantime if i am essential to her happiness i shall
572
00:36:14.199 --> 00:36:17.650
stop how can you be essential she has crowds of
573
00:36:17.710 --> 00:36:21.590
friends and a husband who adores her a husband of
574
00:36:21.670 --> 00:36:26.079
fifty years of age grave silent with his mind concentrated
575
00:36:26.139 --> 00:36:30.059
upon international finance a man who is thinking of another
576
00:36:30.219 --> 00:36:33.780
turkish loan while he sits opposite her with his stony
577
00:36:33.980 --> 00:36:36.800
eyes fixed upon space a man whose brain is a
578
00:36:36.940 --> 00:36:42.300
calculating machine and his heart a handful of ashes has
579
00:36:42.440 --> 00:36:46.639
she complained of him never but things have leaked out
580
00:36:47.000 --> 00:36:50.019
she was not eighteen little more than a child when
581
00:36:50.079 --> 00:36:52.619
she married him she gave herself to him in a
582
00:36:52.699 --> 00:36:57.380
romantic impulse admiring his force of character her heart touched
583
00:36:57.440 --> 00:37:00.980
by his affection for a dying daughter to be so
584
00:37:01.079 --> 00:37:04.360
loved by that strong nature seemed to her enough for
585
00:37:04.420 --> 00:37:07.440
happiness but that was six years ago and she has
586
00:37:07.480 --> 00:37:10.260
lived six years in the world the romance has gone
587
00:37:10.550 --> 00:37:13.550
out of her love what can she have in common
588
00:37:13.590 --> 00:37:17.809
with such a man the bond of marriage his love
589
00:37:18.289 --> 00:37:22.710
and her sense of duty answered the priest she has
590
00:37:22.789 --> 00:37:26.599
a keen sense of a wife's duty she preaches sermons
591
00:37:27.079 --> 00:37:30.519
upon her husband's goodness of heart his fine character and
592
00:37:30.579 --> 00:37:33.960
she ends with a sigh and regrets that for some
593
00:37:34.019 --> 00:37:36.800
mysterious reason she has not been able to make him
594
00:37:36.880 --> 00:37:41.469
happy she is too rich and too much indulged and
595
00:37:41.530 --> 00:37:44.769
she is without a saving creed poor child i would
596
00:37:44.789 --> 00:37:47.849
give much to save her from herself and from you
597
00:37:48.920 --> 00:37:51.380
Don't be afraid of me, father. Men of my stamp
598
00:37:51.440 --> 00:37:54.699
may be trusted. We are too feather-brained to be intense,
599
00:37:54.840 --> 00:37:58.699
even in sin. Good night. I hear the jingle of
600
00:37:58.739 --> 00:38:00.960
glass and silver, and I think it must be near
601
00:38:01.039 --> 00:38:05.179
your dinner time. Good night. The priest gave him his hand,
602
00:38:05.440 --> 00:38:10.019
but not his blessing. That was withheld for a better moment.
603
00:38:11.059 --> 00:38:12.639
End of chapter four.