WEBVTT
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Uncle Abraham's Romance by Edith Nesbitt This is a LibriVox recording.
2
00:00:07.519 --> 00:00:11.500
All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information,
3
00:00:11.720 --> 00:00:19.100
or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Uncle Abraham's Romance by
4
00:00:19.199 --> 00:00:24.550
Edith Nesbitt No, my dear, my Uncle Abraham answered me. No,
5
00:00:25.140 --> 00:00:29.030
nothing romantic ever happened to me, unless... But no, that
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00:00:29.070 --> 00:00:34.070
wasn't romantic either. I was. To me, I being eighteen,
7
00:00:34.450 --> 00:00:38.869
romance was the world. My Uncle Abraham was old and lame.
8
00:00:39.969 --> 00:00:42.340
I followed the gaze of his faded eyes, and my
9
00:00:42.450 --> 00:00:45.219
own rested on a miniature that hung at his elbow-chair's
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00:00:45.259 --> 00:00:49.299
right hand. A portrait of a woman whose loveliness even
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00:00:49.340 --> 00:00:53.039
the miniature painter's art had been powerless to disguise. A
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00:00:53.079 --> 00:00:57.909
woman with large, lustrous eyes and perfect, oval face. I
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00:00:57.969 --> 00:01:00.189
rose to look at it. I'd looked at it a
14
00:01:00.229 --> 00:01:03.429
hundred times. Often enough in my baby days I had asked,
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Who's that, uncle? Always receiving the same answer, A lady
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who died long ago, my dear. As I looked again
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at the picture I asked, Was she like this? Who?
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Your romance? Uncle Abraham looked hard at me. Yes, he
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said at last. Very, very like. I sat down on
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the floor by him. Won't you tell me about her?
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There's nothing to tell, he said. I think it was fancy, mostly,
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and folly, but it's the realest thing in my long life,
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my dear. A long pause. I kept silence. Hurry, no
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man's cattle, is a good motto, especially with old people.
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I remember... He said in the dreamy tone, always promising
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so well to the ear that a story delighteth. I
27
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remember when I was a young man. I was very
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00:02:09.370 --> 00:02:13.840
lonely indeed. I never had a sweetheart. I was always lame,
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00:02:13.900 --> 00:02:16.819
my dear, from quite a boy, and the girls used
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00:02:16.840 --> 00:02:22.060
to laugh at me. He sighed, and presently he went on.
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And so I got into the way of mooning off
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by myself in lonely places. and one of my favourite
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walks was up through our churchyard, which was set high
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on a hill in the middle of the marsh country.
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I liked that because I never met anyone there. It's
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all over. Years ago. I was a silly lad, but
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I couldn't bear of a summer evening to hear a
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rustle and a whisper from the other side of the hedge,
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or maybe a kiss as I went by. Well, I
40
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used to go and sit all by myself in the churchyard,
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which was always sweet with time. and quite light on
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account of its being so high, long after the marshes
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were dark. I used to watch the bats flitting about
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in the red light and wonder why God didn't make
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everyone's legs straight and strong, and wicked follies like that.
46
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But by the time the light was gone I had
47
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always worked it off, so to speak, and could go
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home quietly and say my prayers without any bitterness. Well,
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one hot night in August, when I had watched the
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sunset fade and the crescent moon grow golden, I was
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just stepping over the low stone wall of the churchyard
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when I heard a rustle behind me. I turned around,
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expecting it to be a rabbit or a bird. It
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was a woman. He looked at the portrait. So did I.' Yes,'
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he said. That was her face. I was a bit
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scared and said something I don't know what, and she
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laughed and said,' Did I think she was a ghost?'
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And I answered back, and I stayed talking to her
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over the churchyard wall till t'was quite dark, and the
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glowworms were out in the wet grass all along the
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way home. Next night I saw her again, and the
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00:04:02.569 --> 00:04:07.219
next night, and the next, always at twilight time. And
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if I passed any lovers leaning on the stiles in
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the marshes, it was nothing to me now. Again my
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uncle paused. It's very long ago. He said slowly. And
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I'm an old man. But I know what youth means,
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and happiness, though I was always lame, and the girls
68
00:04:28.449 --> 00:04:31.730
used to laugh at me. I don't know how long
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00:04:31.769 --> 00:04:34.850
it went on. You don't measure time in dreams. But
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at last your grandfather said I looked as if I
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had one foot in the grave, and he would be
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sending me to stay with our kin at Bath and
73
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take the waters. I had to go. I could not
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tell my father why I would rather have died than go.
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What was her name, uncle? I asked. She never would
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tell me her name, and why should she? I had
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names enough in my heart to call her by. Marriage?
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My dear, even then I knew marriage was not for me.
79
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But I met her night after night, always in our churchyard,
80
00:05:06.439 --> 00:05:09.800
where the yew trees were, and the lichened gravestones. It
81
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was there we always met, and always parted. The last
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time was the night before I went away. She was
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00:05:17.269 --> 00:05:20.519
very sad, and... dearer than life itself, and she said,
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If you come back before the new moon, I shall
85
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meet you here, just as usual. But if the new
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moon shines on this grave and you are not here,
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you will never see me again, any more. She laid
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her hand on the yellow lichen tomb against which we
89
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had been leaning. It was an old weather-worn stone, and
90
00:05:38.709 --> 00:05:42.360
borne at the inscription, Susanna King's North, O.B. 1713. I
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00:05:42.740 --> 00:05:49.250
shall be here, I said. I mean it. she said,
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with deep and sudden seriousness. It is no fancy. You
93
00:05:53.040 --> 00:05:56.339
will be here when the new moon shines. I promised,
94
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and after a while we parted. I had been with
95
00:06:00.620 --> 00:06:03.540
my kinsfolk at Bath nearly a month. I was to
96
00:06:03.579 --> 00:06:06.250
go home on the next day when, turning over a
97
00:06:06.290 --> 00:06:12.509
case in the parlour, I came upon that miniature. I
98
00:06:12.550 --> 00:06:15.569
could not speak for a minute, and at last I
99
00:06:15.649 --> 00:06:18.579
said with Dry tongue and heart beating to the tune
100
00:06:18.600 --> 00:06:26.300
of heaven and hell. Who is this? That, said my aunt. Oh,
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she was betrothed to one of our family many years ago,
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but she died before the wedding. They say she was
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a bit of a witch. A handsome one, wasn't she?
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I looked again at the face, the lips, the eyes
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of my dear and lovely love, whom I was to
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meet tomorrow night when the new moon shone on that
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00:06:44.740 --> 00:06:48.680
tomb in our churchyard. Did you say she was dead?
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I asked, and I hardly knew my own voice. Years
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and years ago, her name's on the back and her date.
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I took the portrait from its faded red velvet bed
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and read on the back, Susanna Kingsnorth, O.B., 1713. That
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was in 1813. My uncle stopped short. What happened? I
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asked breathlessly. I believe I had a fit, my uncle
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answered slowly. At any rate, I was very ill. And
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you missed the new moon on the grave? I missed
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the new moon on the grave. And you never saw
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her again? I never saw her again. But uncle, do
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you really believe? Can the dead? Was she? Did you...
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My uncle took out his pipe and filled it. It's
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a long time ago, he said, and many, many years.
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Old man's tales, my dear, old man's tales. Don't you
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take any notice of them? He lighted the pipe, puffed
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silently a moment or two, and then added, But I
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know what youth means, and happiness, though I was lame
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and the girls used to laugh at me. End of
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Uncle Abraham's Romance Recording by Linda Jenner.
1
00:00:01.659 --> 00:00:06.879
Uncle Abraham's Romance by Edith Nesbitt This is a LibriVox recording.
2
00:00:07.519 --> 00:00:11.500
All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information,
3
00:00:11.720 --> 00:00:19.100
or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Uncle Abraham's Romance by
4
00:00:19.199 --> 00:00:24.550
Edith Nesbitt No, my dear, my Uncle Abraham answered me. No,
5
00:00:25.140 --> 00:00:29.030
nothing romantic ever happened to me, unless... But no, that
6
00:00:29.070 --> 00:00:34.070
wasn't romantic either. I was. To me, I being eighteen,
7
00:00:34.450 --> 00:00:38.869
romance was the world. My Uncle Abraham was old and lame.
8
00:00:39.969 --> 00:00:42.340
I followed the gaze of his faded eyes, and my
9
00:00:42.450 --> 00:00:45.219
own rested on a miniature that hung at his elbow-chair's
10
00:00:45.259 --> 00:00:49.299
right hand. A portrait of a woman whose loveliness even
11
00:00:49.340 --> 00:00:53.039
the miniature painter's art had been powerless to disguise. A
12
00:00:53.079 --> 00:00:57.909
woman with large, lustrous eyes and perfect, oval face. I
13
00:00:57.969 --> 00:01:00.189
rose to look at it. I'd looked at it a
14
00:01:00.229 --> 00:01:03.429
hundred times. Often enough in my baby days I had asked,
15
00:01:04.030 --> 00:01:08.469
Who's that, uncle? Always receiving the same answer, A lady
16
00:01:08.510 --> 00:01:12.019
who died long ago, my dear. As I looked again
17
00:01:12.060 --> 00:01:16.239
at the picture I asked, Was she like this? Who?
18
00:01:17.060 --> 00:01:25.549
Your romance? Uncle Abraham looked hard at me. Yes, he
19
00:01:25.590 --> 00:01:31.370
said at last. Very, very like. I sat down on
20
00:01:31.409 --> 00:01:34.189
the floor by him. Won't you tell me about her?
21
00:01:35.769 --> 00:01:40.319
There's nothing to tell, he said. I think it was fancy, mostly,
22
00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:43.900
and folly, but it's the realest thing in my long life,
23
00:01:43.980 --> 00:01:50.260
my dear. A long pause. I kept silence. Hurry, no
24
00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:53.469
man's cattle, is a good motto, especially with old people.
25
00:01:56.230 --> 00:02:00.530
I remember... He said in the dreamy tone, always promising
26
00:02:00.620 --> 00:02:05.090
so well to the ear that a story delighteth. I
27
00:02:05.170 --> 00:02:09.129
remember when I was a young man. I was very
28
00:02:09.370 --> 00:02:13.840
lonely indeed. I never had a sweetheart. I was always lame,
29
00:02:13.900 --> 00:02:16.819
my dear, from quite a boy, and the girls used
30
00:02:16.840 --> 00:02:22.060
to laugh at me. He sighed, and presently he went on.
31
00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:25.659
And so I got into the way of mooning off
32
00:02:25.710 --> 00:02:28.889
by myself in lonely places. and one of my favourite
33
00:02:28.930 --> 00:02:31.430
walks was up through our churchyard, which was set high
34
00:02:31.469 --> 00:02:33.370
on a hill in the middle of the marsh country.
35
00:02:34.349 --> 00:02:38.009
I liked that because I never met anyone there. It's
36
00:02:38.090 --> 00:02:41.960
all over. Years ago. I was a silly lad, but
37
00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:44.159
I couldn't bear of a summer evening to hear a
38
00:02:44.240 --> 00:02:46.479
rustle and a whisper from the other side of the hedge,
39
00:02:46.740 --> 00:02:50.000
or maybe a kiss as I went by. Well, I
40
00:02:50.099 --> 00:02:52.439
used to go and sit all by myself in the churchyard,
41
00:02:52.659 --> 00:02:55.830
which was always sweet with time. and quite light on
42
00:02:55.870 --> 00:02:58.379
account of its being so high, long after the marshes
43
00:02:58.409 --> 00:03:02.039
were dark. I used to watch the bats flitting about
44
00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:04.580
in the red light and wonder why God didn't make
45
00:03:04.659 --> 00:03:08.060
everyone's legs straight and strong, and wicked follies like that.
46
00:03:09.199 --> 00:03:10.979
But by the time the light was gone I had
47
00:03:11.020 --> 00:03:13.439
always worked it off, so to speak, and could go
48
00:03:13.500 --> 00:03:17.259
home quietly and say my prayers without any bitterness. Well,
49
00:03:17.520 --> 00:03:19.740
one hot night in August, when I had watched the
50
00:03:19.780 --> 00:03:22.800
sunset fade and the crescent moon grow golden, I was
51
00:03:22.840 --> 00:03:25.159
just stepping over the low stone wall of the churchyard
52
00:03:25.199 --> 00:03:28.490
when I heard a rustle behind me. I turned around,
53
00:03:28.590 --> 00:03:31.349
expecting it to be a rabbit or a bird. It
54
00:03:31.389 --> 00:03:38.840
was a woman. He looked at the portrait. So did I.' Yes,'
55
00:03:38.750 --> 00:03:42.909
he said. That was her face. I was a bit
56
00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:45.759
scared and said something I don't know what, and she
57
00:03:45.800 --> 00:03:48.370
laughed and said,' Did I think she was a ghost?'
58
00:03:49.090 --> 00:03:51.490
And I answered back, and I stayed talking to her
59
00:03:51.530 --> 00:03:55.009
over the churchyard wall till t'was quite dark, and the
60
00:03:55.030 --> 00:03:57.490
glowworms were out in the wet grass all along the
61
00:03:57.550 --> 00:04:02.530
way home. Next night I saw her again, and the
62
00:04:02.569 --> 00:04:07.219
next night, and the next, always at twilight time. And
63
00:04:07.259 --> 00:04:09.840
if I passed any lovers leaning on the stiles in
64
00:04:09.860 --> 00:04:13.500
the marshes, it was nothing to me now. Again my
65
00:04:13.560 --> 00:04:20.990
uncle paused. It's very long ago. He said slowly. And
66
00:04:21.110 --> 00:04:24.629
I'm an old man. But I know what youth means,
67
00:04:24.850 --> 00:04:28.350
and happiness, though I was always lame, and the girls
68
00:04:28.449 --> 00:04:31.730
used to laugh at me. I don't know how long
69
00:04:31.769 --> 00:04:34.850
it went on. You don't measure time in dreams. But
70
00:04:34.889 --> 00:04:36.670
at last your grandfather said I looked as if I
71
00:04:36.709 --> 00:04:38.790
had one foot in the grave, and he would be
72
00:04:38.850 --> 00:04:40.649
sending me to stay with our kin at Bath and
73
00:04:40.709 --> 00:04:44.620
take the waters. I had to go. I could not
74
00:04:44.639 --> 00:04:47.100
tell my father why I would rather have died than go.
75
00:04:48.670 --> 00:04:52.550
What was her name, uncle? I asked. She never would
76
00:04:52.610 --> 00:04:55.629
tell me her name, and why should she? I had
77
00:04:55.709 --> 00:04:59.269
names enough in my heart to call her by. Marriage?
78
00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:02.319
My dear, even then I knew marriage was not for me.
79
00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:06.399
But I met her night after night, always in our churchyard,
80
00:05:06.439 --> 00:05:09.800
where the yew trees were, and the lichened gravestones. It
81
00:05:09.839 --> 00:05:14.050
was there we always met, and always parted. The last
82
00:05:14.129 --> 00:05:17.230
time was the night before I went away. She was
83
00:05:17.269 --> 00:05:20.519
very sad, and... dearer than life itself, and she said,
84
00:05:21.310 --> 00:05:23.629
If you come back before the new moon, I shall
85
00:05:23.649 --> 00:05:26.290
meet you here, just as usual. But if the new
86
00:05:26.350 --> 00:05:28.449
moon shines on this grave and you are not here,
87
00:05:28.750 --> 00:05:33.529
you will never see me again, any more. She laid
88
00:05:33.569 --> 00:05:35.750
her hand on the yellow lichen tomb against which we
89
00:05:35.790 --> 00:05:38.670
had been leaning. It was an old weather-worn stone, and
90
00:05:38.709 --> 00:05:42.360
borne at the inscription, Susanna King's North, O.B. 1713. I
91
00:05:42.740 --> 00:05:49.250
shall be here, I said. I mean it. she said,
92
00:05:49.350 --> 00:05:53.000
with deep and sudden seriousness. It is no fancy. You
93
00:05:53.040 --> 00:05:56.339
will be here when the new moon shines. I promised,
94
00:05:56.459 --> 00:06:00.579
and after a while we parted. I had been with
95
00:06:00.620 --> 00:06:03.540
my kinsfolk at Bath nearly a month. I was to
96
00:06:03.579 --> 00:06:06.250
go home on the next day when, turning over a
97
00:06:06.290 --> 00:06:12.509
case in the parlour, I came upon that miniature. I
98
00:06:12.550 --> 00:06:15.569
could not speak for a minute, and at last I
99
00:06:15.649 --> 00:06:18.579
said with Dry tongue and heart beating to the tune
100
00:06:18.600 --> 00:06:26.300
of heaven and hell. Who is this? That, said my aunt. Oh,
101
00:06:26.819 --> 00:06:29.129
she was betrothed to one of our family many years ago,
102
00:06:29.189 --> 00:06:31.470
but she died before the wedding. They say she was
103
00:06:31.509 --> 00:06:34.230
a bit of a witch. A handsome one, wasn't she?
104
00:06:35.569 --> 00:06:39.129
I looked again at the face, the lips, the eyes
105
00:06:39.209 --> 00:06:42.480
of my dear and lovely love, whom I was to
106
00:06:42.519 --> 00:06:44.680
meet tomorrow night when the new moon shone on that
107
00:06:44.740 --> 00:06:48.680
tomb in our churchyard. Did you say she was dead?
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I asked, and I hardly knew my own voice. Years
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and years ago, her name's on the back and her date.
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I took the portrait from its faded red velvet bed
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and read on the back, Susanna Kingsnorth, O.B., 1713. That
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was in 1813. My uncle stopped short. What happened? I
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asked breathlessly. I believe I had a fit, my uncle
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answered slowly. At any rate, I was very ill. And
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you missed the new moon on the grave? I missed
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the new moon on the grave. And you never saw
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her again? I never saw her again. But uncle, do
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you really believe? Can the dead? Was she? Did you...
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My uncle took out his pipe and filled it. It's
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a long time ago, he said, and many, many years.
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Old man's tales, my dear, old man's tales. Don't you
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take any notice of them? He lighted the pipe, puffed
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silently a moment or two, and then added, But I
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know what youth means, and happiness, though I was lame
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and the girls used to laugh at me. End of
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Uncle Abraham's Romance Recording by Linda Jenner.
