Basil Netherby By A C Benson

WEBVTT
1
00:00:07.799 --> 00:00:15.599
Everybody dies, doesn't that? So you've tried to get into
2
00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:18.399
the long room today, didn't you try? How do the
3
00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:23.120
date come back? Basil Never Be By A. C. Benson.
4
00:00:24.359 --> 00:00:27.079
It was five o'clock in the afternoon of an October
5
00:00:27.160 --> 00:00:31.320
day that Basil Neverby's letter arrived. I remember that my
6
00:00:31.399 --> 00:00:34.280
little clock had just given its warning click when the
7
00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:37.399
footsteps came to my door, And just as the clock
8
00:00:37.479 --> 00:00:41.560
began to strike, came a hesitating knock. I called out,
9
00:00:41.640 --> 00:00:44.960
come in, and after some fumbling with the handle, there
10
00:00:45.039 --> 00:00:49.039
stepped into the room. I think the shyest clergyman I
11
00:00:49.039 --> 00:00:53.079
have ever seen. He shook hands like an automaton, looking
12
00:00:53.119 --> 00:00:56.920
over his left shoulder. He wouldn't sit down, and yet
13
00:00:56.920 --> 00:00:59.880
looked about the room as he stood, as if wondering
14
00:01:00.039 --> 00:01:03.759
why the ordinary civility of a chair was not offered him.
15
00:01:03.960 --> 00:01:06.719
He spoke in the husky voice, out of which he
16
00:01:06.840 --> 00:01:11.079
endeavored at intervals to cast some viscous obstruction by loud hawkings.
17
00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:14.799
And when after one of these interludes he caught my eye,
18
00:01:15.120 --> 00:01:18.439
he went a sudden pink in the face. However, the
19
00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:22.040
letter got handed to me, and I gradually learned from
20
00:01:22.040 --> 00:01:25.359
my visitors incoherent talk, that it was from my friend
21
00:01:25.439 --> 00:01:30.000
Basil Netherby, and that he was well, remarkably well, quite
22
00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:32.000
a different man from what he had been when he
23
00:01:32.040 --> 00:01:35.280
came to Trehel. That he himself Vivian was His name
24
00:01:35.719 --> 00:01:38.640
was curate of Saint Sibi. Treheel was the name of
25
00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:42.120
the house where mister Netherby lived. The letter had been
26
00:01:42.200 --> 00:01:45.680
most important, he thought, for mister Netherby had asked him,
27
00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:48.239
as he was going up to town, to convey the
28
00:01:48.319 --> 00:01:51.920
letter himself, and to deliver it without fail into mister
29
00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:56.400
Ward's own hands. He could not, however, account here. He
30
00:01:56.439 --> 00:01:59.280
turned away from me and hummed, and beat his fingers
31
00:01:59.319 --> 00:02:02.640
on the table for the extraordinary condition in which he
32
00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:05.359
was compelled to hand it to me, as it had never,
33
00:02:05.560 --> 00:02:09.520
so far as he knew, left his own pocket. And presently,
34
00:02:09.879 --> 00:02:13.759
with a gasp, mister Vivian was gone, refusing all profits
35
00:02:13.759 --> 00:02:17.039
of entertainment, and falling briskly down. To judge from the
36
00:02:17.080 --> 00:02:21.719
sounds which came to me outside my door, I, Leonard
37
00:02:21.759 --> 00:02:24.000
d Ward, was then living in rooms in a little
38
00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:27.439
street out of Hoburn, a poor place enough. I was
39
00:02:27.479 --> 00:02:30.919
an organist of Saint Bartholomew's Houburn, and I was trying
40
00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:33.400
to do what is described as getting up a connection
41
00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:37.120
in the teaching line. But it was slow work, and
42
00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:39.960
I must confess that my prospects did not appear to
43
00:02:40.039 --> 00:02:44.080
me very cheerful. However, I taught one of the Vickars
44
00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:47.120
little daughters, and a whole family, the children of a
45
00:02:47.240 --> 00:02:51.199
rich tradesman in a neighboring street, the piano and singing,
46
00:02:51.719 --> 00:02:55.960
so that I contrived to struggle on basil. Netherby had
47
00:02:55.960 --> 00:02:58.879
been with me at the College of Music. His line
48
00:02:58.919 --> 00:03:03.199
was composing. He was a pleasant, retiring fellow, voluble enough
49
00:03:03.240 --> 00:03:06.080
and even rhetorical in tete a tete talk with an
50
00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:09.719
intimate but dumb in company with an odd streak of
51
00:03:09.800 --> 00:03:14.280
something genius. Saw eccentricity about him, which made him different
52
00:03:14.280 --> 00:03:18.240
from other men. We had drifted into an intimacy, and
53
00:03:18.319 --> 00:03:21.639
had indeed lodged together for some months. Netherby used to
54
00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:25.439
show me his works in mostly short studies, and though
55
00:03:25.479 --> 00:03:28.039
I used to think that they were always rather oddly
56
00:03:28.159 --> 00:03:32.360
broke down in unexpected places, yet there was always an
57
00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:35.759
air of aiming high about them, an attempt to realize
58
00:03:35.759 --> 00:03:39.520
the ideal. He left the college before I did, saying
59
00:03:39.560 --> 00:03:41.879
that he had learnt all he could learn, and that
60
00:03:41.960 --> 00:03:45.000
now he must go quietly into the country somewhere and
61
00:03:45.080 --> 00:03:49.360
work alone. He should do no good otherwise I heard
62
00:03:49.400 --> 00:03:53.800
from him fitfully. He was in Wales, in Devonshire, in Cornwall.
63
00:03:54.360 --> 00:03:56.960
And then some three months before the day on which
64
00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:00.759
I got the letter, the correspondence had ceased altogether. The
65
00:04:00.919 --> 00:04:03.439
I didn't know his address, and was always expecting to
66
00:04:03.479 --> 00:04:06.360
hear from him. I took up the letter from the
67
00:04:06.360 --> 00:04:09.560
place where mister Vivian had laid it down. It was
68
00:04:09.599 --> 00:04:12.560
a bulky envelope, and it was certainly true that, as
69
00:04:12.560 --> 00:04:16.720
mister Vivian had said, the packet was in an extraordinary condition.
70
00:04:17.639 --> 00:04:20.000
One of the corners was torn off with a ragged
71
00:04:20.079 --> 00:04:22.800
edge that looked like the nibbling of mice, and there
72
00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:26.079
were disagreeable stains both on the front and the back,
73
00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:29.519
so that I should have inferred that mister Vivian's pocket
74
00:04:29.720 --> 00:04:34.040
had been filled with raspberries. The theory, though improbable, and
75
00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:37.839
did not appear impossible. But what surprised me most was
76
00:04:37.879 --> 00:04:40.519
that near each of the corners in front, a rough
77
00:04:40.560 --> 00:04:43.560
cross of ink was drawn, and one at the back
78
00:04:43.600 --> 00:04:46.839
of the flap. I had little doubt, however, that mister
79
00:04:46.920 --> 00:04:50.439
Vivian had, in a nervous and absent mood, harried the
80
00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:52.959
poor letter into the condition in which I saw it,
81
00:04:53.360 --> 00:04:55.399
and that he had been unable to bring himself to
82
00:04:55.480 --> 00:05:00.000
confess to the maltreatment. I tore the letter open. Therefore
83
00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:03.519
fell out several pages of manuscript music and a letter
84
00:05:03.879 --> 00:05:07.480
in which Basil dating from Treheel, and writing in a bold,
85
00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:10.600
firm hand, bolder and firmer, I thought than of old.
86
00:05:11.240 --> 00:05:13.319
Said that he had been making a good deal of
87
00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:17.120
progress and working very hard, which must account for his silence,
88
00:05:17.560 --> 00:05:20.120
And he ventured to enclose some of his last work,
89
00:05:20.399 --> 00:05:23.839
which he hoped I would like, but he wanted a
90
00:05:23.879 --> 00:05:27.079
candid opinion. He added that he had got quarters at
91
00:05:27.079 --> 00:05:32.879
the delightful farmhouse not far from gram Pound. That was all, stay,
92
00:05:33.079 --> 00:05:36.519
That was not all. The letter finished on the third side.
93
00:05:36.560 --> 00:05:39.720
But as I closed it, I saw written on the
94
00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:44.879
fourth page very small, in a weak, loose hand, and
95
00:05:44.959 --> 00:05:47.920
as if scribbled in a ferocious haste, as a man
96
00:05:48.040 --> 00:05:51.199
might write. So it came oddly into my head, who
97
00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:54.319
was escaped for a moment from the villagance of a
98
00:05:54.439 --> 00:05:59.600
careful jailer. A single sentence Vivian will take this and
99
00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:02.600
forgot Godd's sake. Dear Leonard, if you would help a
100
00:06:02.600 --> 00:06:05.160
friend who is on the edge, I dare not say
101
00:06:05.160 --> 00:06:10.639
of what come to me tomorrow uninvited? You will think
102
00:06:10.639 --> 00:06:15.040
this very strange that do not mind that only come unannounced?
103
00:06:15.519 --> 00:06:20.319
Do you see? The line broke off in an unintelligible flourish.
104
00:06:20.720 --> 00:06:23.079
Then on each corner of the last page had been
105
00:06:23.079 --> 00:06:27.160
scrawled across with the same ugly and slovenly haste as
106
00:06:27.160 --> 00:06:30.600
the crosses on the envelope. My first thought was that
107
00:06:30.680 --> 00:06:34.399
Basil was mad. My next thought that he had drifted
108
00:06:34.439 --> 00:06:40.160
into some awkward situation, fallen under some unfortunate influence, was
109
00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:45.079
perhaps being blackmailed, And I knew his sensitive character well
110
00:06:45.240 --> 00:06:48.079
enough to feel sure that whatever the trouble was, it
111
00:06:48.120 --> 00:06:51.759
would be exaggerated ten times over by his lively and
112
00:06:51.920 --> 00:06:58.360
apprehensive mind. Slowly a situation shaped itself. Basil was a man,
113
00:06:58.399 --> 00:07:02.560
as I knew, of an extraordinary, austere standard of morals,
114
00:07:02.600 --> 00:07:08.360
singularly guileless and innocent of worldly matters. Someone I ordered,
115
00:07:08.560 --> 00:07:12.680
some unscrupulous woman had in the remote spot where he
116
00:07:12.759 --> 00:07:16.600
was living, taken a guileful fancy to my poor friend,
117
00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:21.759
and had doubtless, after veiled overtures, resolved on a bolder policy,
118
00:07:22.279 --> 00:07:25.000
and was playing on his sensitive and timid nature by
119
00:07:25.040 --> 00:07:31.959
some threat of nameless discourse, some vile and harrowing innuendo.
120
00:07:32.560 --> 00:07:34.920
I read the letter again, and still more clear did
121
00:07:34.920 --> 00:07:37.600
it seemed to me that he was in some strange
122
00:07:37.720 --> 00:07:43.480
durance and suffering and abominable fears. I rose from my
123
00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:45.879
chair and went to find a timetable that I might
124
00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:49.480
see when I could get to Grampound, When again a
125
00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:53.560
shuffling footstep drew to my door. An uncertain hand knocked
126
00:07:53.600 --> 00:07:58.279
at the panel, and mister Vivian again entered the room.
127
00:07:58.600 --> 00:08:01.639
This time his confusion was even grater, if that were possible,
128
00:08:01.959 --> 00:08:05.040
than it had been previously. He had forgotten to give
129
00:08:05.040 --> 00:08:08.040
me a further message, and he thereupon gave me a
130
00:08:08.079 --> 00:08:12.199
filthy scrap of paper, nibbled and stained like the envelope,
131
00:08:12.560 --> 00:08:18.879
apologized with unnecessary vehemence, uttered a strangled cough, and stumbled
132
00:08:18.920 --> 00:08:22.759
from the room. It was difficult enough to decipher the paper,
133
00:08:23.240 --> 00:08:26.160
but I saw that a musical phrase had been written
134
00:08:26.199 --> 00:08:28.680
on it, and then in a moment I saw that
135
00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:31.199
it was a phrase from an old extravagant work of
136
00:08:31.240 --> 00:08:35.600
Basil's own a Cradle, which we had often discussed together,
137
00:08:36.399 --> 00:08:41.559
the grim and fantastic accompaniment of the sentence he descended
138
00:08:42.440 --> 00:08:46.360
into Hell. This came to me as a message of
139
00:08:46.399 --> 00:08:50.799
even greater urgency, and I hesitated no longer. I sat
140
00:08:50.840 --> 00:08:52.679
down to write a note to the father of my
141
00:08:52.759 --> 00:08:57.120
family of pupils, in which I said that important business
142
00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:00.519
called me away for two or three days. Looked out
143
00:09:00.519 --> 00:09:03.279
a train and found that by catching the ten o'clock
144
00:09:03.360 --> 00:09:06.200
limited mail, I could be at Grandpa by six in
145
00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:09.840
the morning. I ordered a hasty dinner, and I packed
146
00:09:09.879 --> 00:09:12.600
a few things into a bag with the oppressive sense
147
00:09:12.600 --> 00:09:16.679
of haste. But as generally happens on such occasions, I
148
00:09:16.840 --> 00:09:19.679
found that I still had two or three hours in hand.
149
00:09:20.440 --> 00:09:24.039
So I took up Netherby's music and read it through carefully.
150
00:09:25.080 --> 00:09:28.879
Certainly he had improved wonderfully in handling. But what music
151
00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:31.519
it was. It was like nothing of which I had
152
00:09:31.519 --> 00:09:36.519
ever even dreamed. There was a wild, intemperate, voluptuousness about it,
153
00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:39.879
a kind of evil relish of beauty, which gave me
154
00:09:39.919 --> 00:09:43.519
a painful thrill to make sure that I wasn't mistaken.
155
00:09:43.759 --> 00:09:46.480
Owing to the nervous tension which the strange event had
156
00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:49.600
produced in me. I put the things in my pocket
157
00:09:49.840 --> 00:09:53.000
and went out to the house of a friend, Dr. Grierson,
158
00:09:53.480 --> 00:09:56.799
an accomplished and critical musician who lived not far away.
159
00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:00.840
I found the great man at Herme's smoke, king leisurely.
160
00:10:01.480 --> 00:10:05.039
He had a birdlike demeano, like an ancient stork, as
161
00:10:05.039 --> 00:10:08.720
he sat blinking through spectacles astride of a long pointed nose.
162
00:10:09.440 --> 00:10:12.159
He had a slight acquaintance with Nethervey, and when I
163
00:10:12.279 --> 00:10:14.879
mentioned that I had received some new music from him
164
00:10:15.039 --> 00:10:18.279
which I wished to submit to him, he showed obvious interest.
165
00:10:18.919 --> 00:10:23.919
A promising fellow, he said, only, of course, too transcendental.
166
00:10:24.799 --> 00:10:27.120
He took the music in his hand. He settled his
167
00:10:27.159 --> 00:10:31.759
spectacles and read Presently. He looked up, and I saw,
168
00:10:31.840 --> 00:10:35.600
in the kind of shamefaced glance with which he regarded me,
169
00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:41.159
that he had found something of the same incomprehensible sensuality
170
00:10:41.639 --> 00:10:46.240
which has so oddly affected myself in the music. Come, Come,
171
00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:49.960
he said, rather severely. This is very strange stuff. This
172
00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:52.279
won't do it all, you know, so he must just
173
00:10:52.360 --> 00:10:55.600
hear this. He rose and went to his piano, and
174
00:10:55.759 --> 00:10:59.480
peering into the music. He played the pieces deliberately, and
175
00:11:01.120 --> 00:11:04.919
heard upon the piano the accent of subtle evil that
176
00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:09.200
ran through the music became even more obvious. I seemed
177
00:11:09.240 --> 00:11:14.000
to struggle between two feelings, an overpowering admiration and a
178
00:11:14.039 --> 00:11:17.080
sense of shame at my own capacity for admiring it.
179
00:11:17.919 --> 00:11:20.320
But the great Man was still more moved. He broke
180
00:11:20.360 --> 00:11:22.080
off in the middle of a bar and tossed the
181
00:11:22.159 --> 00:11:25.679
music to me. This is filthy stuff, he said, I
182
00:11:25.679 --> 00:11:29.000
shall say to you burn it. It's clever, of course,
183
00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:33.720
hideously devilishly clever. Look at the progression F sharp against
184
00:11:33.799 --> 00:11:37.320
f natural you observe. And then he added some technical
185
00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:40.559
details with which I need not trouble my readers. He
186
00:11:40.639 --> 00:11:43.320
went on, But the man has no business to think
187
00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:46.759
of such things. I don't like it. Tell him from
188
00:11:46.799 --> 00:11:51.159
me that it won't do. There must be some reticence
189
00:11:51.200 --> 00:11:54.960
in our you know, and there is none here. Tell
190
00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:57.919
nether Be that he is on the wrong tack altogether.
191
00:11:58.480 --> 00:12:01.200
Good heavens, he added, How could the man write it?
192
00:12:02.159 --> 00:12:05.440
He used to be a decent sort of fellow. It
193
00:12:05.519 --> 00:12:08.919
may seem extravagant to write thus of music, but I
194
00:12:08.919 --> 00:12:11.320
can only say that it affected me as nothing I
195
00:12:11.360 --> 00:12:14.759
had ever heard before I put it away. We tried
196
00:12:14.799 --> 00:12:17.120
to talk of other things, but we couldn't get the
197
00:12:17.159 --> 00:12:20.159
stuff out of our heads. Presently, I rose to go,
198
00:12:20.320 --> 00:12:25.559
and the doctor reiterated his warnings still more emphatically. The
199
00:12:25.639 --> 00:12:28.159
man is a criminalin art, he said, and there must
200
00:12:28.200 --> 00:12:30.360
be an end once and for all for this. Tell
201
00:12:30.440 --> 00:12:35.320
him it's abominable. I went back, caught my train, and
202
00:12:35.480 --> 00:12:40.159
was whirled sleepless and excited to the west. Towards morning,
203
00:12:40.279 --> 00:12:43.320
I fell into a troubled sleep, in which I saw
204
00:12:43.480 --> 00:12:48.159
entangled dreams, the figure of a man running restlessly among
205
00:12:48.360 --> 00:12:52.759
stony hills, over and over again. The dream came to me,
206
00:12:53.679 --> 00:12:56.720
and it was with a grateful heart, though very weary,
207
00:12:57.360 --> 00:13:00.240
that I saw a pale light of dawn in the east,
208
00:13:00.840 --> 00:13:04.679
and the dark trees and copses along the line becoming
209
00:13:04.720 --> 00:13:09.559
more and more defined by swift gradations. In the chilly
210
00:13:09.759 --> 00:13:14.120
autumn air, it was very still and peaceful. When we
211
00:13:14.200 --> 00:13:18.320
drew up at Granpound station, I inquired my way to Trehel,
212
00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:20.960
and I was told it was three or four miles away.
213
00:13:21.639 --> 00:13:25.120
The porter looked rather inquiringly at me. There was no
214
00:13:25.240 --> 00:13:28.679
chance of obtaining a vehicle, so I resolved to walk,
215
00:13:29.120 --> 00:13:33.159
hoping that I should be freshened by the morning air. Presently,
216
00:13:33.159 --> 00:13:35.639
a lane struck off from the main road, which led
217
00:13:35.720 --> 00:13:39.039
up a wooded valley, with a swift stream rushing along.
218
00:13:39.840 --> 00:13:42.159
In one or two places, the chimney of a deserted
219
00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:45.960
mine with desolate rubbish heaps stood beside the road. At
220
00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:50.200
one place, a square church tower with pinnacles looked solemnly
221
00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:55.720
over the wood. The road rose gradually. At last I
222
00:13:55.799 --> 00:13:58.480
came into a little hamlet perched high up on the
223
00:13:58.519 --> 00:14:03.399
side of the valley. The scene was incomparably beautiful. The
224
00:14:03.480 --> 00:14:06.879
leaves were yellowing fast, and I could see a succession
225
00:14:06.919 --> 00:14:10.240
of wooded ridges, with a long line of moorland closing
226
00:14:10.240 --> 00:14:13.960
the view. The little place was just waking into quiet activity.
227
00:14:14.759 --> 00:14:17.200
I found the bustling man taking down shutters from a
228
00:14:17.240 --> 00:14:20.600
general shop which was also the post office, and inquired
229
00:14:20.600 --> 00:14:23.840
where mister Netherby lived. The man told me that he
230
00:14:23.879 --> 00:14:27.720
was in lodgings at Treheel, the big house itself where
231
00:14:27.600 --> 00:14:30.399
a farmer hall loves. Now, if you go straight along
232
00:14:30.399 --> 00:14:33.200
the road, he added, you will pass the lodge, and
233
00:14:33.240 --> 00:14:36.360
Trehel lies up in the wood. I was by this
234
00:14:36.440 --> 00:14:40.000
time very tired. It was now nearly seven, but I
235
00:14:40.039 --> 00:14:42.200
took up my bag again and walked along a road
236
00:14:42.279 --> 00:14:46.639
passing between high hedges. Presently, the wood closed in again,
237
00:14:47.039 --> 00:14:49.759
and I saw a small plastered lodge with a thatched
238
00:14:49.840 --> 00:14:53.960
roof standing on the left among some firs. The gate
239
00:14:54.240 --> 00:14:57.279
stood wide open, and the road which led into the
240
00:14:57.279 --> 00:15:00.799
wood was grass grown, though with deep ruts along which
241
00:15:00.879 --> 00:15:05.159
heavy laden carts seemed to have passed recently. The lodge
242
00:15:05.240 --> 00:15:10.759
seemed deserted, and I accordingly struck off into the wood. Presently,
243
00:15:10.759 --> 00:15:15.039
the undergrowth grew thicker, and huge sprawling laurels rose in
244
00:15:15.120 --> 00:15:19.919
all directions. Then the track took a sudden turn, and
245
00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:22.360
I saw straight in front of me the front of
246
00:15:22.399 --> 00:15:25.879
a large Georgian house of brown stone, with a gravel
247
00:15:26.039 --> 00:15:30.039
sweep up to the door, but all overgrown with grass.
248
00:15:30.799 --> 00:15:37.919
I confess that the house displeased me strangely. It was substantial,
249
00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:41.120
homely and large, but the wood came up close to
250
00:15:41.159 --> 00:15:44.840
it on all sides, and it seemed to stare at
251
00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:50.039
me with its shuttered windows, with a look of dumb resentment,
252
00:15:50.919 --> 00:15:55.320
like a great creature at bay. I walked on and
253
00:15:55.360 --> 00:15:57.679
saw that the smoke went up from a chimney to
254
00:15:57.720 --> 00:16:00.679
the left. The house, as I came close, presented a
255
00:16:00.759 --> 00:16:04.519
front with a stone portico crowned with a pediment. To
256
00:16:04.559 --> 00:16:07.200
the left and right were two wings which were built
257
00:16:07.200 --> 00:16:09.559
out in advance from the main part of the house.
258
00:16:10.039 --> 00:16:14.080
Throwing the door back into shadow, I pulled a large
259
00:16:14.120 --> 00:16:17.399
handle which hung beside the door, and a dismal bell
260
00:16:17.639 --> 00:16:21.279
rang somewhere in the house, rang on and on, as
261
00:16:21.320 --> 00:16:25.440
if unable to cease. Then footsteps came along the floor within,
262
00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:31.879
and the door was slowly and reluctantly unbarred. There stood
263
00:16:31.960 --> 00:16:36.399
before me a little pale woman with a timid, downcast air.
264
00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:41.879
Does mister Netherbee live here? I said, yes, he lodges here, Sir?
265
00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:46.080
Can I see him? I said, well, sir, he is
266
00:16:46.120 --> 00:16:50.519
not up yet. Does he expect you? Well, not exactly,
267
00:16:50.559 --> 00:16:53.320
I said, faltering, but he will know my name, and
268
00:16:53.399 --> 00:16:56.399
I have come a long way to see him. The
269
00:16:56.440 --> 00:16:59.600
woman raised her eyes and looked at me, and I
270
00:16:59.679 --> 00:17:03.320
was away by some swift intuition that I was in
271
00:17:03.360 --> 00:17:09.079
the presence of a distressed spirit laboring under some melancholy prepossession.
272
00:17:09.880 --> 00:17:14.160
Will you be here long? She asked? Suddenly No, I said,
273
00:17:14.759 --> 00:17:16.440
but I shall have to stay the night. I think
274
00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:19.279
I traveled all last night, and I am very tired.
275
00:17:19.559 --> 00:17:21.920
In fact, I shall ask to sit down and wait
276
00:17:22.400 --> 00:17:25.640
till I can see mister Netherby. She seemed to consider
277
00:17:25.640 --> 00:17:28.160
for a moment, and then led me into the house.
278
00:17:28.920 --> 00:17:32.079
We entered a fine hall with stone flags and pillars
279
00:17:32.119 --> 00:17:34.960
on each side. There hung, so far as I could
280
00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:38.599
see in the half flight, grim and faded portraits on
281
00:17:38.640 --> 00:17:43.319
the walls, and there were some indistinct pieces of furniture,
282
00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:47.079
like couched beasts in the corners. We went through a
283
00:17:47.119 --> 00:17:50.039
door and down a passage and turned into a large,
284
00:17:50.119 --> 00:17:53.839
rather bare room, which showed, however, some signs of human habitation.
285
00:17:54.319 --> 00:17:57.640
There was a table laid for a meal, an old
286
00:17:57.759 --> 00:18:00.759
piano stood in a corner, and there were few books
287
00:18:00.839 --> 00:18:05.240
lying about. On the walls hung large pictures in tarnished frames.
288
00:18:06.039 --> 00:18:08.160
I put down my bag and sat down by the
289
00:18:08.200 --> 00:18:11.880
fire in an old armchair, and almost instantly fell into
290
00:18:11.880 --> 00:18:15.880
a drowse. I have an indistinct idea of the woman
291
00:18:15.960 --> 00:18:18.559
returning to ask if I would like some breakfast or
292
00:18:18.599 --> 00:18:22.480
wait for mister Netherby. I said hastily that I would wait,
293
00:18:22.960 --> 00:18:26.279
Being in the oppressed condition of drowsiness when one's only
294
00:18:26.319 --> 00:18:28.480
idea is to get a respite from the presence of
295
00:18:28.519 --> 00:18:33.799
any person, and fell again into a heavy sleep. I awoke
296
00:18:33.839 --> 00:18:36.359
suddenly with the start, conscious of a movement in the room.
297
00:18:37.240 --> 00:18:40.640
Basil Netherby was standing close beside me, with his back
298
00:18:40.680 --> 00:18:43.119
to the fire, looking down at me with a look
299
00:18:43.240 --> 00:18:45.720
which I can only say seemed to me to betoken
300
00:18:45.799 --> 00:18:49.799
a deep annoyance of spirit. But seeing me awake, there
301
00:18:49.839 --> 00:18:52.039
came on to his face a smile of a reluctant
302
00:18:52.039 --> 00:18:56.000
and diplomatic kind. I started to my feet, giddy and bewildered,
303
00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:59.960
and shook hands my word, he said, who sleeps out?
304
00:19:01.039 --> 00:19:03.960
So you've found me out? Well, I'm very glad to
305
00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:06.920
see you. But what made you think of coming? And
306
00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:09.200
why didn't you let me know? I would have sent
307
00:19:09.240 --> 00:19:12.599
someone to meet you. I was a good deal, nettled
308
00:19:12.720 --> 00:19:16.079
at this ungenial address, after the trouble to which I
309
00:19:16.119 --> 00:19:19.319
had put myself, I said, well, really, Basil, I think
310
00:19:19.319 --> 00:19:22.480
it's rather strong. Mister Vivian called me yesterday with a
311
00:19:22.559 --> 00:19:25.319
letter from you and some music, and of course I
312
00:19:25.400 --> 00:19:29.039
came away at once, of course, he said, looking on
313
00:19:29.079 --> 00:19:34.039
the ground, and then added rather hastily. Now, how did
314
00:19:34.039 --> 00:19:36.960
the stuff strike you? I have improved, I think, and
315
00:19:37.039 --> 00:19:39.079
it's really very good of you to come off at
316
00:19:39.079 --> 00:19:42.680
once to criticize the music. Very good of you, he said,
317
00:19:42.680 --> 00:19:46.680
with some emphasis. And man, you look wretchedly tired. Let
318
00:19:46.759 --> 00:19:50.119
us have breakfast. I was just about to remonstrate and
319
00:19:50.200 --> 00:19:53.480
to speak about the PostScript, when he looked at me
320
00:19:53.759 --> 00:19:58.079
suddenly with so peculiar and disagreeable a glance that the
321
00:19:58.200 --> 00:20:02.240
words literally stuck in my throat. I thought to myself
322
00:20:02.279 --> 00:20:05.480
that perhaps the subject was too painful to enter upon
323
00:20:05.519 --> 00:20:07.799
at once, and that he probably wished to tell me
324
00:20:07.839 --> 00:20:12.079
at his own time what was in the background. We breakfasted,
325
00:20:12.640 --> 00:20:14.880
and now that I had leisure to look at Basil,
326
00:20:15.400 --> 00:20:19.200
I was surprised beyond measure the change in him. I
327
00:20:19.240 --> 00:20:22.960
had last seen him a pale, rather haggard youth, loose
328
00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:27.160
limbed and untidy. I saw before me a strongly built
329
00:20:27.160 --> 00:20:31.039
and firmly knit man with a ruddy color and bronzed cheek.
330
00:20:31.599 --> 00:20:35.559
He looked the embodiment of health and well being. His talk, too,
331
00:20:35.640 --> 00:20:40.079
after the first impression of surprise, Waroff was extraordinarily cheerful
332
00:20:40.160 --> 00:20:44.799
and amusing. Again and again he broke out into loud laughter,
333
00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:49.440
not the laughter of an excited or hectic person, but
334
00:20:49.559 --> 00:20:52.759
the firm, brisk laugh of a man full to the
335
00:20:52.799 --> 00:20:56.559
brim of good spirits and health. He talked of his work,
336
00:20:56.880 --> 00:21:00.160
of the country people that surrounded him, who was peculiar.
337
00:21:00.519 --> 00:21:03.680
He seemed to observe it with much relish. He asked me,
338
00:21:04.039 --> 00:21:07.279
but without any appearance of interest, what I thought about
339
00:21:07.279 --> 00:21:10.920
his work. I tried to tell him what doctor Grierson
340
00:21:10.960 --> 00:21:13.920
had said and what I had felt. But I was
341
00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:19.799
conscious of being at a strange disadvantage before this genial personality.
342
00:21:20.720 --> 00:21:24.559
He laughed loudly at our criticisms. Oh Grierson, he said, why,
343
00:21:24.599 --> 00:21:27.680
he's no better than a clergyman's widow. He would stop
344
00:21:27.720 --> 00:21:30.799
his ears if you read Shakespeare to him. My dear man,
345
00:21:30.880 --> 00:21:33.519
I have traveled a long way since I saw you last.
346
00:21:34.200 --> 00:21:39.039
I have found my tongue. What is more, I can
347
00:21:39.079 --> 00:21:42.279
say what I mean, and I mean it Christen. Indeed,
348
00:21:42.839 --> 00:21:45.880
I can see him looking shocked like a pelican with
349
00:21:45.920 --> 00:21:50.799
a stomach ache. This was the felicitous thought, though not
350
00:21:50.880 --> 00:21:54.000
a courteous description of our old friend. But I could
351
00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:56.960
find no words to combat it. Indeed, Basil's talk and
352
00:21:57.000 --> 00:22:00.200
whole bearing seemed to carry me away like a swift stream,
353
00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:03.039
and in my weary condition, I found that I could
354
00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:08.079
not stand up to his radiant personality. After breakfast, he
355
00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:11.000
advised me to have a good sleep, and he took me,
356
00:22:11.359 --> 00:22:15.039
with some show of solicitude, to a little bedroom which
357
00:22:15.079 --> 00:22:18.079
had been got ready for me. He unpacked my things
358
00:22:18.119 --> 00:22:20.599
and told me to undress and go to bed, that
359
00:22:20.680 --> 00:22:22.880
he had some work to do that he was anxious
360
00:22:22.920 --> 00:22:25.960
to finish, and that after luncheon we would have a
361
00:22:26.079 --> 00:22:30.119
stroll together. I was too tired to resist and fell
362
00:22:30.160 --> 00:22:34.119
at once into a deep sleep. I rose a new man, and,
363
00:22:34.200 --> 00:22:36.680
finding no one in Basil's room, I strolled out for
364
00:22:36.720 --> 00:22:39.440
a moment on to the drive, and presently saw the
365
00:22:39.519 --> 00:22:42.799
odd and timid figure of Missus Hall coming along in
366
00:22:42.839 --> 00:22:46.000
a big, white, flapping sort of sun bonnet with a
367
00:22:46.039 --> 00:22:49.640
basket in her hand. She came straight up to me
368
00:22:49.640 --> 00:22:52.160
in a curious, resolute sort of way, and it came
369
00:22:52.200 --> 00:22:54.000
into my mind that she had come out for the
370
00:22:54.160 --> 00:22:57.880
very purpose of meeting me. I praised the beauty of
371
00:22:57.920 --> 00:23:00.759
the place and said that I supposed she knew it. Well, Yes,
372
00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:03.400
she said, adding that she was born in the village,
373
00:23:03.799 --> 00:23:05.920
and her mother had been as a girl a servant
374
00:23:05.960 --> 00:23:08.519
at Trehel. But she went on to tell me that
375
00:23:08.599 --> 00:23:11.000
she and her husband had lived till recently at a
376
00:23:11.039 --> 00:23:13.440
farm down in the valley, and had only been a
377
00:23:13.519 --> 00:23:16.759
year or so in the house itself. Old mister Heel,
378
00:23:16.960 --> 00:23:19.839
the last owner, had died three or four years before,
379
00:23:20.119 --> 00:23:23.000
and it had proved impossible to let the house. It
380
00:23:23.119 --> 00:23:25.759
seemed that when the trustees gave up all idea of
381
00:23:25.799 --> 00:23:27.960
being able to get a tenant, they had offered it
382
00:23:28.039 --> 00:23:31.839
to the Halls at a nominal rent to act as caretakers.
383
00:23:32.279 --> 00:23:35.839
She spoke in a cheerless way, with her eyes cast down,
384
00:23:36.279 --> 00:23:38.880
with the same strained look as of one carrying a
385
00:23:38.880 --> 00:23:42.279
heavy burden. You will have heard of mister Heel, perhaps,
386
00:23:42.440 --> 00:23:45.400
she said, with a sudden look at me, the old squire, Sir,
387
00:23:45.640 --> 00:23:48.359
she said, But I think people here are unfair to him.
388
00:23:48.799 --> 00:23:51.599
He lived a wild life enough, but he was a
389
00:23:51.720 --> 00:23:55.039
kind gentleman in his way, and I have often thought
390
00:23:55.039 --> 00:23:58.920
it was not his fault altogether. He married soon after
391
00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:02.400
he came into the estate, a Miss Tregascus, from downs
392
00:24:02.440 --> 00:24:05.039
to Urn, and they were a very happy couple for
393
00:24:05.079 --> 00:24:07.960
a little but she died after they'd been married a
394
00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:11.319
couple of years, and they had no child. And then
395
00:24:11.359 --> 00:24:14.000
I think mister Heel shut himself up a good deal
396
00:24:14.039 --> 00:24:17.880
amongst his books. He was very clever gentlemen, and then
397
00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:21.279
he got into bad ways. But it was the sorrow
398
00:24:21.359 --> 00:24:23.960
in his heart that made him bad. And we must
399
00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:26.640
not blame people too much, must we. She looked at
400
00:24:26.640 --> 00:24:29.759
me with a rather pitiful look. You mean, I said
401
00:24:29.759 --> 00:24:31.759
that he tried to forget his grief and did not
402
00:24:31.880 --> 00:24:35.799
choose the best way to do it, Yes, sir, said
403
00:24:35.839 --> 00:24:39.839
missus holl Simply. I think he blamed God for taking
404
00:24:39.880 --> 00:24:43.039
away what he loved instead of trusting him, and no
405
00:24:43.160 --> 00:24:46.839
good comes of that. The people here got to hate him.
406
00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:49.680
He used to spoil the young people, sir, you know
407
00:24:49.720 --> 00:24:52.119
what I mean, and they were afraid of seeing him
408
00:24:52.119 --> 00:24:55.839
about their houses. I remember, sir, as if it were yesterday,
409
00:24:56.039 --> 00:24:58.839
seeing him in the lane to Saint Sibbi. He was
410
00:24:58.960 --> 00:25:03.000
marching along very upright, with his white hair went white early,
411
00:25:03.720 --> 00:25:06.759
and he passed old mister Miles as a churchwarden who
412
00:25:06.759 --> 00:25:09.319
had been a wild young man too. But he found
413
00:25:09.319 --> 00:25:14.519
religion with the Wesleyans, and after that was hard on everyone.
414
00:25:14.799 --> 00:25:16.799
It was the first time they had met since mister
415
00:25:16.920 --> 00:25:20.240
Miles had become serious. And mister Heel stopped in his
416
00:25:20.359 --> 00:25:23.319
pleasant way and held out his hand to mister Miles,
417
00:25:23.839 --> 00:25:26.000
who put his hands behind him and said something I
418
00:25:26.039 --> 00:25:29.240
was close to them, which I couldn't quite catch, but
419
00:25:29.359 --> 00:25:32.839
it was about fellowship with the words of darkness. And
420
00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:36.599
then mister Miles turned and went on his way, and
421
00:25:36.680 --> 00:25:40.400
mister Heel stood looking after him, with a curious smile
422
00:25:40.480 --> 00:25:44.759
on his face. And I have pitied him ever since then.
423
00:25:45.400 --> 00:25:48.200
He turned and saw me. He always took notice of me.
424
00:25:48.720 --> 00:25:51.640
I was a girl, and he said to me, there, Mary,
425
00:25:51.920 --> 00:25:54.680
you see that I am not good enough, it seems
426
00:25:54.680 --> 00:25:59.039
for mister Miles. Well, I didn't blame him, but remember, child,
427
00:25:59.319 --> 00:26:02.039
that the religion which makes a man turn his back
428
00:26:02.119 --> 00:26:05.559
on an old friend, he is not a good religion.
429
00:26:06.759 --> 00:26:09.279
But I could say was distressed that we spoke quietly,
430
00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:12.359
and as I went on, he gave a sigh, which
431
00:26:12.400 --> 00:26:15.759
somehow stays in my mind. Perhaps, sir, you would like
432
00:26:15.799 --> 00:26:18.319
to look at his picture. He was painted at the
433
00:26:18.359 --> 00:26:20.599
same time as Missus Heal, in the first year of
434
00:26:20.640 --> 00:26:23.920
their marriage. I said I should like to see it,
435
00:26:24.480 --> 00:26:27.880
and we turned to the house. She led me to
436
00:26:27.880 --> 00:26:30.519
a little room that seemed like a study. There was
437
00:26:30.519 --> 00:26:33.799
a big bookcase full of books, mostly of a scientific kind,
438
00:26:34.240 --> 00:26:37.079
and there was a large knee hold table, much dotted
439
00:26:37.119 --> 00:26:40.000
with ink spots. It was here, she said, he used
440
00:26:40.039 --> 00:26:43.400
to work hour after hour. On the wall hung a
441
00:26:43.440 --> 00:26:47.119
pair of pictures, one that of a young woman hardly
442
00:26:47.160 --> 00:26:50.920
more than a girl, with a delightful expression, both beautiful
443
00:26:51.000 --> 00:26:54.960
and good. She was dressed in some white material, and
444
00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.200
there was a glimpse of sunlit fields beyond. Then I
445
00:26:59.279 --> 00:27:02.519
turned to the poor trait of mister Heel. It represented
446
00:27:02.519 --> 00:27:05.480
a young man in a claret colored coat, very slim
447
00:27:05.519 --> 00:27:08.599
and upright. It showed a face of great power, a
448
00:27:08.680 --> 00:27:13.000
big forehead, clear cut features, and a determined chin with
449
00:27:13.079 --> 00:27:17.640
extraordinarily bright large eyes. Evidently the portrait of a man
450
00:27:17.640 --> 00:27:20.960
of great physical and mental force, who would do whatever
451
00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:23.720
he took in his hand with all his might. It
452
00:27:23.799 --> 00:27:27.119
was very finely painted, with a dark background of woods
453
00:27:27.160 --> 00:27:31.640
against the stormy sky. I was immensely struck by the picture,
454
00:27:32.079 --> 00:27:33.920
and not less by the fact that there was an
455
00:27:33.920 --> 00:27:40.200
extraordinary though indefinable likeness to missus Hall herself. I felt
456
00:27:40.200 --> 00:27:43.599
somehow that She perceived that I had noticed this, for
457
00:27:43.759 --> 00:27:46.799
she made as though to leave the room. I couldn't
458
00:27:46.880 --> 00:27:49.640
help the inference that I was compelled to draw. I
459
00:27:49.759 --> 00:27:52.440
lingered for a moment, looking at the portrait, which was
460
00:27:52.519 --> 00:27:55.200
so life like as to give an almost painful sense
461
00:27:55.240 --> 00:27:58.200
of the presence of a third person in the room.
462
00:27:58.519 --> 00:28:01.480
Missus Hall went out, and I understood that I was
463
00:28:01.519 --> 00:28:04.599
meant to follow her. She led the way into their
464
00:28:04.640 --> 00:28:07.799
own sitting room, and then, with some agitation, she turned
465
00:28:07.839 --> 00:28:10.319
on me. I understand that you are an old friend
466
00:28:10.319 --> 00:28:14.200
of mister Netherby, sir. She said, yes, I said, here
467
00:28:14.279 --> 00:28:18.279
is my greatest friend. Could you persuade him, sir, to
468
00:28:18.400 --> 00:28:21.160
leave this place? She went on, You will think it
469
00:28:21.240 --> 00:28:23.359
a strange thing to say. And I'm glad enough to
470
00:28:23.400 --> 00:28:26.359
have a lodger, and I like mister Netherby, But do
471
00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:28.079
you think it is a good thing for a young
472
00:28:28.160 --> 00:28:31.119
gentleman to live so much alone? I saw that nothing
473
00:28:31.200 --> 00:28:33.440
was to be gained by reticence, so I said, now,
474
00:28:33.519 --> 00:28:37.000
missus Hall, I think we had better speak plainly. I
475
00:28:37.079 --> 00:28:40.200
am I confess anxious about mister Netherby. I don't mean
476
00:28:40.240 --> 00:28:41.960
that he is not well, for I have never seen
477
00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:44.880
him look better. But I think that there's something going
478
00:28:44.920 --> 00:28:48.200
on which I don't wholly understand. She looked at me
479
00:28:48.279 --> 00:28:50.960
suddenly with a quick look, and then, as if deciding
480
00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:53.359
that I was to be trusted, she said, in a
481
00:28:53.400 --> 00:28:58.359
low voice, Yes, sir, that is it. This house is
482
00:28:58.400 --> 00:29:02.400
not like other houses, mister Hale, how shall I say? It?
483
00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:05.359
Was a very determined gentleman. And he used to say
484
00:29:05.880 --> 00:29:08.799
that he would never leave the house. And you'll think
485
00:29:08.839 --> 00:29:11.240
it very strange that I should speak thus to a stranger.
486
00:29:12.559 --> 00:29:15.680
I don't think he has left it. We stood there
487
00:29:15.680 --> 00:29:18.319
for a moment, silent, and I knew that she had
488
00:29:18.319 --> 00:29:21.599
spoken the truth. While we thus stood, I can only
489
00:29:21.640 --> 00:29:25.519
say what I felt. I became aware that we were
490
00:29:25.559 --> 00:29:29.480
not alone. The sun was bright in the woods outside.
491
00:29:29.680 --> 00:29:32.960
The clock ticked peacefully in a corner. But there was
492
00:29:33.079 --> 00:29:37.799
something unseen all about us, which lay very heavily on
493
00:29:37.880 --> 00:29:41.359
my mind. Missus Hall put out her hands in a
494
00:29:41.400 --> 00:29:44.680
deprecating way, and then said, in a low and hurried voice,
495
00:29:44.880 --> 00:29:47.519
he would do no harm to me, sir. We are
496
00:29:47.559 --> 00:29:50.039
too near for that. She looked up at me, and
497
00:29:50.119 --> 00:29:53.000
I nodded. But I can't help it, can I? If
498
00:29:53.039 --> 00:29:57.039
he is different with other people. Now, mister Hall is
499
00:29:57.079 --> 00:29:59.359
not like that, sir. He's a plain good man and
500
00:29:59.400 --> 00:30:01.839
would think what I am saying no better than madness.
501
00:30:02.720 --> 00:30:04.599
But as sure as there is a God in heaven,
502
00:30:05.640 --> 00:30:11.000
mister Hale is here. And though he is too fine
503
00:30:11.039 --> 00:30:13.519
a gentleman to take advantage of my talk, yet he
504
00:30:13.720 --> 00:30:16.720
liked to command other people and went his own way
505
00:30:16.839 --> 00:30:21.319
too much. While she spoke, the sense of oppression which
506
00:30:21.359 --> 00:30:23.359
I had felt a moment before, drew off all of
507
00:30:23.400 --> 00:30:26.000
a sudden, and it seemed again as though we were alone.
508
00:30:26.480 --> 00:30:30.279
Missus Hall, I said, you're a good woman. These things
509
00:30:30.319 --> 00:30:32.599
are very dark to me, and though I've heard of
510
00:30:32.640 --> 00:30:36.400
such things in stories, I never expected to meet them
511
00:30:36.400 --> 00:30:39.200
in the world. But I will try what I can
512
00:30:39.240 --> 00:30:42.559
do to get my friend away. Oh he's a wilful fellow,
513
00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:45.920
and I think he will go his own way too.
514
00:30:46.839 --> 00:30:50.480
While I spoke, I heard Basil's voice outside calling me,
515
00:30:50.960 --> 00:30:53.319
and I took Missus Hall's hand in my own. She
516
00:30:53.400 --> 00:30:56.720
pressed it and gave me a very kind, sad look,
517
00:30:57.319 --> 00:31:00.440
and so I went out. We lunched together, Basil and
518
00:31:00.480 --> 00:31:03.319
I of simple fare. He pointed with an air of
519
00:31:03.359 --> 00:31:06.240
satisfaction to the score which he had brought into the room,
520
00:31:06.440 --> 00:31:09.519
written out with wonderful precision, just finished, he said, and
521
00:31:09.640 --> 00:31:12.119
you shall hear it later on. But now we will
522
00:31:12.119 --> 00:31:14.599
go and look around the place. Was there ever such
523
00:31:14.839 --> 00:31:17.359
luck as to get a harbridge like this? I've been
524
00:31:17.400 --> 00:31:20.400
here two months and feel like staying forever. The place
525
00:31:20.480 --> 00:31:23.759
is in chancery old Heel of Trehel, the last of
526
00:31:23.799 --> 00:31:27.839
the stock, a rare old blaggard died here. They tried
527
00:31:27.839 --> 00:31:30.279
to let the house and failed, and put farmer hall
528
00:31:30.319 --> 00:31:32.960
in at last. The whole place belongs to a girl
529
00:31:33.039 --> 00:31:36.240
ten years old. It's a fine house. We look at
530
00:31:36.240 --> 00:31:39.799
that tomorrow, but today we will walk round outside by
531
00:31:39.839 --> 00:31:42.759
the way. How long can you stay? I must get
532
00:31:42.759 --> 00:31:45.599
back on Friday latest, they said. I have a choir
533
00:31:45.680 --> 00:31:49.319
practice and a lesson on Saturday. Basil looked at me
534
00:31:49.359 --> 00:31:52.799
with a good natured smile. Pretty poor business, isn't it?
535
00:31:52.839 --> 00:31:56.559
He said? I would rather pig oakum myself here. I
536
00:31:56.640 --> 00:31:59.400
live in a fine house for next to nothing, and right,
537
00:31:59.599 --> 00:32:03.640
right right, there's a life for a man. Don't you
538
00:32:03.680 --> 00:32:07.599
find it? Lonely? Said I? Lonely, said Basil, laughing loud.
539
00:32:07.720 --> 00:32:09.519
Not a bit of it. What do I want with
540
00:32:09.559 --> 00:32:12.279
a pack of twaddlers all about me. I treed a
541
00:32:12.319 --> 00:32:15.640
path among the stars, and I have the best of
542
00:32:15.759 --> 00:32:20.200
company too. He stopped and broke off suddenly. I should
543
00:32:20.200 --> 00:32:23.480
have thought missus hall very enlivening company. I said, by
544
00:32:23.519 --> 00:32:26.400
the way, what an odd looking woman. She seems as
545
00:32:26.440 --> 00:32:30.559
if she were frightened. At that innocent remark, Basil looked
546
00:32:30.559 --> 00:32:33.920
at me suddenly with the same expression of indefinable anger
547
00:32:34.319 --> 00:32:36.559
that I had seen in his face at our first meeting.
548
00:32:37.160 --> 00:32:40.480
But he said nothing for a moment. Then he resumed, No,
549
00:32:40.799 --> 00:32:43.480
I want no company by myself and my thoughts. I'd
550
00:32:43.519 --> 00:32:46.200
tell you ward, if you had done as I have done,
551
00:32:46.240 --> 00:32:49.240
opened a door into the very treasure house of music,
552
00:32:49.759 --> 00:32:53.279
and had only just to step in and carry away
553
00:32:53.319 --> 00:32:55.799
as much as one can manage at a time, you
554
00:32:55.880 --> 00:32:59.599
wouldn't want company. I could make no reply to this
555
00:32:59.640 --> 00:33:03.359
stranger talk, and he presently took me out. I was
556
00:33:03.400 --> 00:33:06.559
astonished at the beauty of the place. The ground fell
557
00:33:06.640 --> 00:33:08.839
sharply at the back, and there was a terrace with
558
00:33:08.880 --> 00:33:11.480
a view over a little valley with pasture fields at
559
00:33:11.480 --> 00:33:15.720
the bottom, crowned with low woods, beyond a wide prospect
560
00:33:15.759 --> 00:33:19.440
over uplands which lost themselves in the haze. The day
561
00:33:19.559 --> 00:33:21.920
was still and clear, and we could hear the running
562
00:33:21.960 --> 00:33:24.839
of the stream below, the cooing of doves, and the
563
00:33:24.880 --> 00:33:27.640
tinkling of a sheep bell. To the left of the
564
00:33:27.720 --> 00:33:30.559
house lay large stables and barns, which were in the
565
00:33:30.559 --> 00:33:33.759
possession of the farmer. We wandered up and down by
566
00:33:33.799 --> 00:33:38.039
paths and lanes, sometimes through the yellowing woods, sometimes on
567
00:33:38.119 --> 00:33:41.519
open ground. Are the most perfect views bursting upon us
568
00:33:41.559 --> 00:33:46.559
on every side, everything lying in a rich, still peace,
569
00:33:47.039 --> 00:33:51.480
which came upon my tired and bewildered mind like soft music.
570
00:33:52.640 --> 00:33:54.720
In the course of our walk we suddenly came upon
571
00:33:54.759 --> 00:33:58.880
a churchyard, surrounded by a low wall. At the farther end,
572
00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:02.039
beyond the graves stood a small church consisting of two
573
00:34:02.119 --> 00:34:06.920
aisles with a high perpendicular tower. Saint Sibby said Basil,
574
00:34:07.359 --> 00:34:10.239
Whether he or she I know not, but no doubt
575
00:34:10.239 --> 00:34:13.440
a very estimable person. Would you like to look at this?
576
00:34:13.840 --> 00:34:17.199
The church is generally open. He went up a gravel
577
00:34:17.239 --> 00:34:20.199
path and entered the porch. The door was open, and
578
00:34:20.239 --> 00:34:23.360
there was an odd, close smell in the building. It
579
00:34:23.440 --> 00:34:26.000
was a very plain place, with the remains of a
580
00:34:26.079 --> 00:34:29.000
rude loft and some ancient woodwork, but the walls were
581
00:34:29.079 --> 00:34:33.360
mildewed and green in the place. Look neglected. Vivian is
582
00:34:33.400 --> 00:34:36.440
a good fellow, said Basil, looking round, But he's single handed.
583
00:34:36.480 --> 00:34:39.639
Here the rector is an invalid and lives in Penzance,
584
00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:43.960
and Vivian is a wretched stipend. Look here, Leonard, here
585
00:34:44.039 --> 00:34:46.760
is the old heel vault. He led me into a
586
00:34:46.800 --> 00:34:49.400
little chapel near the tower, which opened onto the church
587
00:34:49.440 --> 00:34:53.119
by a single arch. The place was very dark, but
588
00:34:53.159 --> 00:34:55.639
I could see a monument or two of an ancient type,
589
00:34:55.679 --> 00:34:58.480
and some brasses. There were a couple of helmets on
590
00:34:58.519 --> 00:35:01.760
iron supports, and the remains of a moldering banner. But
591
00:35:01.920 --> 00:35:05.480
just opposite to us was a tall modern marble monument
592
00:35:05.519 --> 00:35:09.360
on the wall. That's old Heels monument, said Basil, with
593
00:35:09.440 --> 00:35:13.239
a long, pious inscription by the old rector. Just look
594
00:35:13.280 --> 00:35:17.320
at it. Do you ever see such vandalism? I drew near.
595
00:35:17.880 --> 00:35:20.559
Then I saw that the monument had been defaced in
596
00:35:20.599 --> 00:35:24.119
a hideous and horrible way. There were deep dints in
597
00:35:24.199 --> 00:35:27.000
the marble, like the marks of a hammer, and there
598
00:35:27.000 --> 00:35:30.119
were red stains over the inscription, which reminded me in
599
00:35:30.159 --> 00:35:32.559
a dreadful way of the stains on the letter given
600
00:35:32.559 --> 00:35:37.039
to me by Vivian Good heavens, I said, what inconceivable brutality?
601
00:35:37.360 --> 00:35:40.119
Who on earth did this? That's just what no one
602
00:35:40.119 --> 00:35:43.320
can find out, said Basil, smiling. But the inscription was
603
00:35:43.400 --> 00:35:47.519
rather too much, I confess. Look at this, who discharged
604
00:35:47.719 --> 00:35:52.000
in an exemplary way the duties of a landowner and
605
00:35:52.039 --> 00:35:55.480
a Christian old heels ideas of the duties of a
606
00:35:55.559 --> 00:35:57.920
landowner was to screw as much as he could out
607
00:35:57.920 --> 00:35:59.960
of his farmers. And he had more of a so
608
00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:03.039
some old ideas, which we may call feudal about his
609
00:36:03.119 --> 00:36:06.159
relations with the more attractive of his tenants. He was
610
00:36:06.199 --> 00:36:08.840
a cheerful old boy. And as to the Christian part
611
00:36:08.880 --> 00:36:11.159
of it, well, he had about as much of that
612
00:36:11.440 --> 00:36:13.320
I gather as you may take up on a two
613
00:36:13.360 --> 00:36:17.119
pronged fork. Still they might have left the old man alone.
614
00:36:17.920 --> 00:36:19.960
I dare say he sleeped sound enough in spite of
615
00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:22.639
it all. He stamped his foot on the pavement as
616
00:36:22.639 --> 00:36:26.480
he did so, which returned a hollow sound. Are you inside,
617
00:36:26.719 --> 00:36:30.880
said Basil laughingly. Perhaps not at home. Don't talk like that,
618
00:36:31.000 --> 00:36:34.079
I said to Basil, whose levity seemed to me disgusting.
619
00:36:34.519 --> 00:36:37.000
Certainly not my boy, he said, if you don't like it,
620
00:36:37.599 --> 00:36:39.639
I dare say, the old man can look after himself,
621
00:36:40.119 --> 00:36:44.559
And so we left the church. We returned home about
622
00:36:44.559 --> 00:36:47.800
four o'clock. Basil left me on the terrace and went
623
00:36:47.840 --> 00:36:50.119
into the house to interview Missus Hall on the subject
624
00:36:50.119 --> 00:36:54.039
of dinner. I hung for a time over the balustrade,
625
00:36:54.400 --> 00:36:57.280
getting chilly, and still not feeling inclined to go in,
626
00:36:57.679 --> 00:37:00.199
I strolled to the farther end of the terrace, which
627
00:37:00.280 --> 00:37:02.960
ran up to the wood. On reaching the end, I
628
00:37:03.000 --> 00:37:06.280
found a stone seat, and behind it, between two ewes,
629
00:37:06.679 --> 00:37:10.159
a little, dark, sinister path that led into the copse.
630
00:37:11.280 --> 00:37:14.400
I do not know exactly what feeling it was which
631
00:37:14.480 --> 00:37:17.440
drew me to enter. Upon the exploration of the place,
632
00:37:18.119 --> 00:37:21.719
the path was slippery and overgrown with moss, and the
633
00:37:21.760 --> 00:37:24.480
air of the shrubbery into which it led was close
634
00:37:24.519 --> 00:37:28.559
and moist, full of the breath of rotting leaves. The
635
00:37:28.599 --> 00:37:31.920
path ran with snake like windings, so that at no
636
00:37:32.079 --> 00:37:34.199
point was it possible to see more than a few
637
00:37:34.239 --> 00:37:38.199
feet ahead. Above the close boughs held hands as if
638
00:37:38.239 --> 00:37:41.280
to screen the path from the light. Then the path
639
00:37:41.320 --> 00:37:43.519
suddenly took a turn to the left and went straight
640
00:37:43.559 --> 00:37:47.480
to the house. Two ewes flanked the way, and a
641
00:37:47.519 --> 00:37:51.440
small flight of granite steps, slimy and mildewed, led up
642
00:37:51.480 --> 00:37:53.320
to a little door in the corner of the house,
643
00:37:53.760 --> 00:37:56.599
a door which had been painted brown, like the color
644
00:37:56.599 --> 00:37:59.320
of the stone, and which was let into its frame
645
00:37:59.440 --> 00:38:02.360
so as to be flush with the wall. The upper
646
00:38:02.360 --> 00:38:04.400
part of it was pierced with a couple of apertures,
647
00:38:04.440 --> 00:38:07.440
like eyes, filled with glass to give light to the
648
00:38:07.480 --> 00:38:11.880
passage within. The steps had evidently not been trodden for
649
00:38:11.960 --> 00:38:15.519
many months, even years. But upon the door, near the
650
00:38:15.599 --> 00:38:19.679
keyhole were odd marks, looking as if scratched by the
651
00:38:19.719 --> 00:38:23.920
hoofs of some beast a goat. I thought, as if
652
00:38:23.960 --> 00:38:28.280
the door had been impatiently struck by something awaiting entrance there.
653
00:38:29.440 --> 00:38:31.800
I do not know what was the obsession which fell
654
00:38:31.840 --> 00:38:34.719
on me at the sight of this place. A cold
655
00:38:34.960 --> 00:38:38.639
dismay seemed to spring from the dark and clutch me.
656
00:38:39.840 --> 00:38:43.679
There are places which seemed so soaked, as it were,
657
00:38:43.679 --> 00:38:45.840
in malign memories, that they give out a kind of
658
00:38:46.280 --> 00:38:50.760
spiritual aroma of evil. I have seen in my life
659
00:38:50.840 --> 00:38:53.360
things which might naturally seem to produce in the mind
660
00:38:53.400 --> 00:38:57.000
associations of terror and gloom. I have seen men die.
661
00:38:57.280 --> 00:38:59.480
I have seen a man writhe in pain on the
662
00:38:59.519 --> 00:39:05.760
ground from mortal injury. But I never experienced anything like
663
00:39:05.800 --> 00:39:09.480
the thrill of horror which passed through my shuddering mind
664
00:39:09.960 --> 00:39:13.280
at the sight of the little door with its dark
665
00:39:13.639 --> 00:39:17.320
eye holes. I went in chili hayste down the path,
666
00:39:17.360 --> 00:39:20.039
and came out upon the terrace, looking out over the
667
00:39:20.079 --> 00:39:23.440
peaceful woods. The sun was now setting in the west
668
00:39:23.480 --> 00:39:27.199
among cloud fiords and bays of rosy light. But the
669
00:39:27.239 --> 00:39:30.400
thought of the dark path, lying like a snake among
670
00:39:30.400 --> 00:39:34.719
the thickets dwelt in my mind and poisoned all my senses.
671
00:39:35.719 --> 00:39:38.519
Presently I heard the voice of Basil call me cheerfully
672
00:39:38.519 --> 00:39:41.519
from the corner of the house. We went in. A
673
00:39:41.599 --> 00:39:44.639
simple meal was spread for us, half tea, half dinner,
674
00:39:44.920 --> 00:39:47.679
to which we did the full justice. But afterwards, though
675
00:39:47.760 --> 00:39:50.440
Basil was fuller than ever so it seemed to me
676
00:39:50.639 --> 00:39:55.280
of talk and laughter, I was seized with so extreme
677
00:39:55.320 --> 00:39:57.480
a fatigue that I drowsed off several times in the
678
00:39:57.519 --> 00:40:01.119
course of our talk, till at last, laughing, he ordered
679
00:40:01.159 --> 00:40:05.480
me to bed. I slept profoundly. When I awoke, it
680
00:40:05.519 --> 00:40:08.199
was a bright day. My curtains had been drawn, and
681
00:40:08.199 --> 00:40:12.000
the materials from my toilet arranged where I slept, I
682
00:40:12.119 --> 00:40:15.000
dressed hastily and hurried down to find Basil awaiting me.
683
00:40:16.079 --> 00:40:19.400
That morning we gave up to exploring the house. It
684
00:40:19.519 --> 00:40:22.360
was a fine old place, full from end to end
685
00:40:22.519 --> 00:40:26.880
of the evidences of long and ancestral habitation. The place
686
00:40:26.960 --> 00:40:30.039
was full of portraits. Who was a great old dining room.
687
00:40:30.480 --> 00:40:33.360
Basil had had the whole house unshuttered for my inspection,
688
00:40:33.880 --> 00:40:38.519
A couple of large drawing rooms, long passages, bedrooms, all
689
00:40:38.639 --> 00:40:42.400
full of ancient furniture and pictures, as if the family
690
00:40:42.480 --> 00:40:46.440
life had been suddenly suspended. I noticed that he did
691
00:40:46.519 --> 00:40:49.440
not take me to the study, but led me upstairs.
692
00:40:50.280 --> 00:40:53.280
This is my room, said Basil suddenly, and we turned
693
00:40:53.320 --> 00:40:55.360
into a big room in the left hand corner of
694
00:40:55.400 --> 00:40:58.679
the garden front. There was a big four post bedroom. Here,
695
00:40:59.039 --> 00:41:01.519
a large table in the window, a sofa, and some
696
00:41:01.559 --> 00:41:05.719
fine chairs. But what at once attracted my observation was
697
00:41:05.760 --> 00:41:08.079
a low door in the corner of the room, half
698
00:41:08.159 --> 00:41:11.519
hidden by a screen. It seemed to me as if,
699
00:41:11.599 --> 00:41:15.199
by a sudden gleam of perception, that this door must
700
00:41:15.239 --> 00:41:18.840
communicate with the door I had seen below. And presently,
701
00:41:19.559 --> 00:41:22.239
while I stood looking out at the great window upon
702
00:41:22.280 --> 00:41:25.800
the valley, I said to Basil, and that door in
703
00:41:25.840 --> 00:41:28.679
the corner does that communicate with the little door in
704
00:41:28.679 --> 00:41:32.280
the wood. When I said this, Basil was standing by
705
00:41:32.280 --> 00:41:36.519
the table, bending over some manuscripts. He suddenly turned to
706
00:41:36.559 --> 00:41:40.360
me and gave me a very long, penetrating look, and then,
707
00:41:40.719 --> 00:41:44.559
as if suddenly recollecting himself, said, my dear ward, you
708
00:41:44.599 --> 00:41:47.280
are a very observant fellow. Yes, there is a little
709
00:41:47.280 --> 00:41:49.840
staircase there that goes down into the shrubbery and leads
710
00:41:49.840 --> 00:41:52.760
to the terrace. You remember that old heel of whom
711
00:41:52.760 --> 00:41:55.679
I told you, Well, he had this room, and he
712
00:41:55.719 --> 00:41:58.800
had visitors at times whom I dare say it was
713
00:41:58.840 --> 00:42:01.440
not convenient to admit to the house. They came and
714
00:42:01.519 --> 00:42:04.480
went this way, and he too, no doubt, used the
715
00:42:04.519 --> 00:42:08.199
stairs to leave the house and return unseen. How curious,
716
00:42:08.239 --> 00:42:11.480
I said, I confess I should not care to have
717
00:42:11.559 --> 00:42:15.719
this room. I didn't like the look of the shrubbery door. Well,
718
00:42:15.800 --> 00:42:18.039
said Basil, I do not feel with you. To me,
719
00:42:18.840 --> 00:42:21.599
it's rather agreeable to have the association of the room.
720
00:42:22.280 --> 00:42:25.039
He was a loose old fish, no doubt, but he
721
00:42:25.079 --> 00:42:28.119
lived his life, and I expect enjoyed it, and that
722
00:42:28.440 --> 00:42:30.840
is more than most of us can claim. As he
723
00:42:30.880 --> 00:42:33.119
said the words, he crossed the room, and opening the
724
00:42:33.119 --> 00:42:35.519
little door, he said, come and look down. It's a
725
00:42:35.559 --> 00:42:38.760
simple place enough. I went across the room, and looking
726
00:42:38.800 --> 00:42:42.079
in saw a small flight of stairs going down into
727
00:42:42.159 --> 00:42:44.719
the dark, at the end of which the two square
728
00:42:44.760 --> 00:42:47.880
panes of the little shrubbery door were outlined in the shadow.
729
00:42:48.639 --> 00:42:51.519
I cannot account for what happened next. There was a
730
00:42:51.519 --> 00:42:54.280
sound in the passage, and something seemed to rush up
731
00:42:54.280 --> 00:42:58.000
the stairs and passed me. A strange, dull smell came
732
00:42:58.000 --> 00:43:00.559
from the passage. I know that fell on me a
733
00:43:00.639 --> 00:43:04.320
sort of giddiness and horror, and I went back into
734
00:43:04.320 --> 00:43:07.119
the room with hands outstretched like el me as the sorcerer,
735
00:43:07.320 --> 00:43:10.800
seeking someone to guide me. Looking up, I saw Basil
736
00:43:11.280 --> 00:43:14.760
regarding me with a baleful look and a strange smile
737
00:43:14.840 --> 00:43:18.000
on his face. What was that, I said, Surely something
738
00:43:18.039 --> 00:43:20.840
came up there. I don't know what it was. There
739
00:43:20.880 --> 00:43:24.400
was a silence, then my dear ward said, Basil, you
740
00:43:24.440 --> 00:43:28.119
are behaving very oddly. I want to think he had
741
00:43:28.159 --> 00:43:31.199
seen a ghost. He looked at me with a sort
742
00:43:31.199 --> 00:43:34.719
of gleeful triumph, like a man showing the advantages of
743
00:43:34.760 --> 00:43:37.199
a house or the beauties of a view to an
744
00:43:37.199 --> 00:43:41.239
astonished friend. But again I could find no words to
745
00:43:41.280 --> 00:43:45.000
express my sense of what I had experienced. Basil went
746
00:43:45.079 --> 00:43:47.360
swiftly to the door and shut it, and then said
747
00:43:47.400 --> 00:43:50.199
to me, with a certain sternness, Come, we have been
748
00:43:50.239 --> 00:43:52.880
here long enough. Let us go on. I'm afraid i'm
749
00:43:52.880 --> 00:43:56.519
boring you. We went downstairs, and the rest of the
750
00:43:56.519 --> 00:43:59.119
morning passed, so far as I can remember, in a
751
00:43:59.199 --> 00:44:03.599
species of fis talk. I was endeavoring to recover from
752
00:44:03.599 --> 00:44:08.039
the events of the morning, and Basile, well, it seemed
753
00:44:08.039 --> 00:44:09.920
to me like a man who was fencing with some
754
00:44:10.360 --> 00:44:15.760
difficult question. Though his talk seemed spontaneous, I felt somehow
755
00:44:15.840 --> 00:44:18.800
that it was that of a weak antagonist endeavoring to
756
00:44:18.840 --> 00:44:24.079
parry the strokes of a persistent assailant. After luncheon, Basil
757
00:44:24.159 --> 00:44:27.480
proposed a walk again. We went out on a long ramble,
758
00:44:27.519 --> 00:44:30.000
as we had done the previous day, but I remember
759
00:44:30.039 --> 00:44:33.360
little of what happened. He directed me upon a stream
760
00:44:33.360 --> 00:44:36.239
of indifferent talk. But I labored, I think, under a
761
00:44:36.280 --> 00:44:39.960
heavy depression of spirit, and my conversation was held up
762
00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:43.199
merely as it might have been as a shield against
763
00:44:43.199 --> 00:44:47.159
the insistent demands of my companion. Anyone who has been
764
00:44:47.199 --> 00:44:49.800
through a similar experience in which he wrestles with some
765
00:44:49.880 --> 00:44:53.239
tragic fact and endeavors merely to meet and answer the
766
00:44:53.320 --> 00:44:57.719
sprightly suggestions of some cheerful companion can imagine what I felt.
767
00:44:58.559 --> 00:45:02.719
At last, the e began to close in we retraced
768
00:45:02.760 --> 00:45:06.039
our steps. Basil told me that we should dine at
769
00:45:06.079 --> 00:45:10.079
an early hour, and I was left alone in my room.
770
00:45:10.599 --> 00:45:13.760
I became the prey for the most distressing and poignant reflections.
771
00:45:14.239 --> 00:45:17.639
What I had experienced convinced me that there was something
772
00:45:17.679 --> 00:45:22.199
about the whole place that was uncanny and abnormal. The
773
00:45:22.239 --> 00:45:26.880
attitude of my companion, his very geniality, seemed to me
774
00:45:27.000 --> 00:45:30.400
to be forced and unnatural, and my only idea was
775
00:45:30.440 --> 00:45:33.000
to gain if I could, some notion of how I
776
00:45:33.000 --> 00:45:37.679
should proceed. I felt that questions were useless, and I
777
00:45:37.719 --> 00:45:41.280
committed myself into the hands of providence. I felt that
778
00:45:41.440 --> 00:45:44.159
here was a situation that I could not deal with,
779
00:45:44.719 --> 00:45:46.800
and that I must leave it in stronger hands than
780
00:45:46.840 --> 00:45:52.119
my own. This reflection brought me some transitory comfort, and
781
00:45:52.159 --> 00:45:55.400
when I heard Basil's voice calling me to dinner, I
782
00:45:55.440 --> 00:45:58.320
felt as sooner or later the conflict would have to
783
00:45:58.320 --> 00:46:01.320
be fought out, and that I I could not myself
784
00:46:01.480 --> 00:46:06.639
precipitate matters. After dinner, Basil for the first time showed
785
00:46:06.679 --> 00:46:10.199
some signs of fatigue, and after a little conversation, he
786
00:46:10.280 --> 00:46:13.920
sank back in a chair, lit a cigar, and presently
787
00:46:13.960 --> 00:46:17.679
asked me to play something. I went to the piano still,
788
00:46:17.840 --> 00:46:21.519
I must confess, seeking for some possible opportunity of speech,
789
00:46:22.199 --> 00:46:25.559
and let my fingers stray as they moved along the keys.
790
00:46:26.400 --> 00:46:29.960
For a time I extemporized, and then fell into some
791
00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:33.920
familiar music. I do not know whether the instinctive thought
792
00:46:34.000 --> 00:46:36.360
of what he had scrawled upon his note to me
793
00:46:36.599 --> 00:46:41.000
influenced me, but I began to play Mendelssohn's anthem Here
794
00:46:41.159 --> 00:46:45.719
my Prayer. While I played the initial phrase, I became
795
00:46:45.800 --> 00:46:50.119
aware that some change was making itself felt in my companion,
796
00:46:51.039 --> 00:46:52.960
and I had hardly come to the end of the
797
00:46:53.000 --> 00:46:58.280
second phrase when a sound from Basil made me turn round.
798
00:47:00.119 --> 00:47:03.639
I do not think that I ever received so painful
799
00:47:03.679 --> 00:47:07.119
a shock in my life as that which I experienced
800
00:47:07.119 --> 00:47:10.440
at the sight that met my eyes. Basil was still
801
00:47:10.480 --> 00:47:13.440
in the chair where he had seated himself but instead
802
00:47:13.440 --> 00:47:16.400
of the robust personality which he had presented to me
803
00:47:16.519 --> 00:47:20.559
during our early interviews, I saw in a sudden flash
804
00:47:20.639 --> 00:47:24.719
the Basle that I knew, only infinitely more tired and
805
00:47:24.840 --> 00:47:27.480
haggard than I had known him in life. It was
806
00:47:27.559 --> 00:47:30.440
like a man who had cast aside a mask and
807
00:47:30.519 --> 00:47:34.519
had suddenly appeared in his own part. He sat before
808
00:47:34.559 --> 00:47:37.920
me as I had often seen him, sit, leaning forward
809
00:47:38.039 --> 00:47:42.440
in an intensity of emotion. I stopped, suddenly wheeled round
810
00:47:42.440 --> 00:47:45.719
in my chair, and said, Basil, tell me what has happened.
811
00:47:46.679 --> 00:47:50.599
He looked at me, cast an agitated glance around the room,
812
00:47:50.960 --> 00:47:53.159
and then all of a sudden began to speak in
813
00:47:53.199 --> 00:47:56.920
a voice that was familiar to me of old. What
814
00:47:57.039 --> 00:48:00.360
he said is hardly for me to recount, but led
815
00:48:00.400 --> 00:48:04.480
me step by step through a story so dark in
816
00:48:04.679 --> 00:48:08.280
horrors that I can hardly bring myself to reproduce it. Here,
817
00:48:09.519 --> 00:48:15.599
imagine an untainted spirit entering cheerfully upon some simple entourage,
818
00:48:16.119 --> 00:48:20.880
finding himself little by little within the net of some
819
00:48:21.639 --> 00:48:28.519
overpowering influence of evil. He told me that he had
820
00:48:28.519 --> 00:48:31.440
settled at Trehel in his normal frame of mind, that
821
00:48:31.519 --> 00:48:34.079
he had intended to tell me of his whereabouts, but
822
00:48:34.199 --> 00:48:37.559
that that had gradually stolen into his mind a sort
823
00:48:37.599 --> 00:48:42.400
of unholy influence. At first, he said, I resisted it,
824
00:48:43.199 --> 00:48:46.320
but it was accompanied by so extraordinary an access of
825
00:48:46.360 --> 00:48:49.440
mental power and vigor that he had accepted the conditions
826
00:48:49.519 --> 00:48:53.079
under which he found himself. I had better perhaps try
827
00:48:53.119 --> 00:48:56.800
to recount his own experience. He had come to Grampound
828
00:48:56.840 --> 00:48:59.920
in the course of his wanderings, and had inquired about lodgings.
829
00:49:00.440 --> 00:49:03.320
He had been referred to the farmer of Trehel. He
830
00:49:03.360 --> 00:49:07.199
had settled himself there, only congratulating himself upon the mixture
831
00:49:07.199 --> 00:49:10.719
of quiet and dignity which surrounded him. He had arranged
832
00:49:10.760 --> 00:49:14.440
his life for tranquil study, had chosen his rooms, and
833
00:49:14.480 --> 00:49:17.599
had made the best disposition he could of his affairs.
834
00:49:18.280 --> 00:49:21.679
The second night he said that I was here. I
835
00:49:21.719 --> 00:49:23.960
had gone to bed thinking of nothing but my music.
836
00:49:24.639 --> 00:49:27.760
I had extinguished my light and was lying quietly in bed,
837
00:49:27.800 --> 00:49:30.679
watching the expiring glimmer of the embers on my hearth.
838
00:49:31.159 --> 00:49:34.280
I was wondering, as one does, waiting all kinds of
839
00:49:34.320 --> 00:49:36.360
fancies about the house and the room in which I
840
00:49:36.360 --> 00:49:39.840
found myself, lying with my head on my hand. When
841
00:49:39.840 --> 00:49:43.280
I saw, to my intense astonishment the little door in
842
00:49:43.320 --> 00:49:47.800
the corner of the bedroom half open and closed again.
843
00:49:48.800 --> 00:49:50.960
I thought to myself that it was probably missus Hall,
844
00:49:51.039 --> 00:49:53.840
coming to see whether I was comfortable, and I thereupon
845
00:49:53.880 --> 00:49:58.280
said who Who's there? There was no sound in answer,
846
00:49:58.880 --> 00:50:01.519
but presently a moment or two after there followed a
847
00:50:01.559 --> 00:50:04.760
disagreeable laughter, I thought from the lower regions of the
848
00:50:04.800 --> 00:50:07.840
house in the direction of the corner. Come in, whoever
849
00:50:07.880 --> 00:50:11.400
you are, I said, And in a moment the door
850
00:50:12.199 --> 00:50:18.800
opened and closed, and I became aware that there was
851
00:50:18.800 --> 00:50:22.960
someone in the room. Further than that, said Basil to
852
00:50:23.039 --> 00:50:25.880
me in that dreadful hour, it is impossible to go.
853
00:50:26.079 --> 00:50:28.239
I can only say that I became aware in a
854
00:50:28.320 --> 00:50:31.599
moment of the existence of a world outside of and
855
00:50:31.760 --> 00:50:37.239
intertwined with our own, a world of far stronger influences
856
00:50:37.280 --> 00:50:40.679
and powers. How far riching I know not, but I
857
00:50:40.760 --> 00:50:44.760
know this that all the mortal difficulties and dilemmas that
858
00:50:44.840 --> 00:50:48.280
I had hitherto been obliged to meet melted away in
859
00:50:48.360 --> 00:50:52.079
the face of a force to which I had hitherto
860
00:50:52.239 --> 00:50:57.000
been a stranger. The dreadful recital ended about midnight, and
861
00:50:57.039 --> 00:51:00.159
the strange part was to me that our position and
862
00:51:00.239 --> 00:51:03.639
seemed in some fearful manner to have now been reversed.
863
00:51:04.519 --> 00:51:09.000
Basil was now the shrinking, timorous creature who could only
864
00:51:09.039 --> 00:51:12.000
implore me not to leave him. It was in such
865
00:51:12.039 --> 00:51:14.360
a mood as this that he had written the letter.
866
00:51:16.159 --> 00:51:20.719
I asked him what there was to fear everything. He said,
867
00:51:20.760 --> 00:51:23.239
with a shocking look. He would not go to bed,
868
00:51:23.559 --> 00:51:26.760
He would not allow me to leave the room. Step
869
00:51:26.760 --> 00:51:30.360
by step I unraveled the story which his incoherent statement
870
00:51:30.360 --> 00:51:33.320
had only hinted at. His first emotion had been that
871
00:51:33.440 --> 00:51:37.039
of intense fright. But he became aware almost at once
872
00:51:37.119 --> 00:51:40.679
that the spirit who thus so inmistakably came to him,
873
00:51:41.119 --> 00:51:44.840
was not inimical to him. The very features of the being,
874
00:51:44.960 --> 00:51:47.920
if such a word can be used about so shadowy
875
00:51:47.920 --> 00:51:52.079
a thing, appear to wear a smile. Little by little,
876
00:51:52.079 --> 00:51:54.840
the presence of the visitant had become habitual to Basil.
877
00:51:55.440 --> 00:51:58.239
There was a certain pride in his own fearlessness, which
878
00:51:58.280 --> 00:52:05.280
helped him. Then there was intense and eager curiosity. And then, too,
879
00:52:05.360 --> 00:52:08.000
said the unhappy man, the influence began to affect me
880
00:52:08.039 --> 00:52:11.119
in other ways. I will not tell you how, but
881
00:52:11.199 --> 00:52:14.199
the very necessaries of life were provided for me in
882
00:52:14.239 --> 00:52:16.519
a manner which I should formerly have condemned with the
883
00:52:16.599 --> 00:52:21.559
utmost scorn, but which now I was given confidence to disregard.
884
00:52:22.639 --> 00:52:26.639
The dejection. The languorous reflections we used to hang about
885
00:52:26.679 --> 00:52:32.000
me gradually drew off and left me cheerful, vigorous, and
886
00:52:32.079 --> 00:52:36.280
I must say it delighting in evil imaginations. But so
887
00:52:36.639 --> 00:52:39.840
subtle was the evil influence that it was not into
888
00:52:39.920 --> 00:52:43.440
any gross corruption or flagrant deeds that I flung myself.
889
00:52:43.880 --> 00:52:47.760
It was into my music that the poison flowed. I
890
00:52:47.840 --> 00:52:50.280
do not, of course, mean that evil then appeared to me,
891
00:52:50.360 --> 00:52:53.320
as I can humbly say it does now as evil,
892
00:52:53.840 --> 00:52:57.639
but rather as a vision of perfect beauty, glorifying every
893
00:52:57.719 --> 00:53:02.679
natural function and every corporeal desire. The springs of music
894
00:53:02.800 --> 00:53:05.840
rose clear and strong within me, and with the fountain
895
00:53:05.960 --> 00:53:09.119
I mingled from my own stores, the subtle venom of
896
00:53:09.119 --> 00:53:13.440
the corrupted mind. How glorious I thought to sway as
897
00:53:13.480 --> 00:53:16.880
with a magic wand the souls of men, to interpret
898
00:53:16.880 --> 00:53:19.840
for each all the eager and leaping desires which maybe
899
00:53:20.199 --> 00:53:24.280
he had duly and dutifully controlled, to make all things fair.
900
00:53:24.800 --> 00:53:27.920
While so potent with the whispers of the spirit that
901
00:53:28.039 --> 00:53:31.159
talked to my ear, that I believed in my heart
902
00:53:31.719 --> 00:53:34.840
that all that was natural in man was also permissible
903
00:53:35.039 --> 00:53:38.960
and even beautiful, That it was nothing but a fantastic
904
00:53:39.000 --> 00:53:43.639
asceticism that forbids it. Though now I see as I
905
00:53:43.679 --> 00:53:47.639
saw before, that the evil that thwarts mankind is but
906
00:53:47.760 --> 00:53:50.760
the slime of the pit, out of which he is
907
00:53:50.800 --> 00:53:56.280
but gradually extricating himself. But what is the thing I said,
908
00:53:56.440 --> 00:53:59.320
of which you speak? Is it a spirit of evil?
909
00:54:00.039 --> 00:54:03.519
Or a human spirit? Or what? Good? God? He said,
910
00:54:03.559 --> 00:54:06.639
how can I tell? And then with lifted hand he sang,
911
00:54:06.639 --> 00:54:10.840
in a strange voice, a bar or two from Stanford's Revenge,
912
00:54:11.400 --> 00:54:18.519
what he deviled? Or man he was devil? For all
913
00:54:19.039 --> 00:54:25.559
they knew, this dreadful interlude, the very flippancy of it,
914
00:54:26.000 --> 00:54:28.760
that might have moved my laughter at any other time,
915
00:54:29.199 --> 00:54:34.280
had acted upon me an indescribably sickening effect. I stared
916
00:54:34.280 --> 00:54:39.000
at Basil. He relapsed into a moody silence, with clasped
917
00:54:39.039 --> 00:54:43.239
hands and knotted brow. To draw him away from the
918
00:54:43.280 --> 00:54:46.719
nether darkness of his thoughts, I asked him how and
919
00:54:46.800 --> 00:54:50.760
in what shape the spirit had made itself plain to him. Oh,
920
00:54:51.199 --> 00:54:56.079
no shape at all, said he He's there. That is enough.
921
00:54:56.639 --> 00:54:59.880
I seem sometimes to see a face, to catch the
922
00:55:00.039 --> 00:55:02.360
glance of an eye, to see a hand raised to
923
00:55:02.519 --> 00:55:08.079
warn or to encourage. But it is all impossibly remote.
924
00:55:08.960 --> 00:55:12.119
I could never explain to you how I see him.
925
00:55:12.760 --> 00:55:15.840
Do you see him now, I asked, Yes, said Basil,
926
00:55:15.880 --> 00:55:18.719
A long way off, and he is running swiftly to me.
927
00:55:19.400 --> 00:55:22.159
But he has far to go yet. He is angry,
928
00:55:22.920 --> 00:55:26.320
He threatens me. He beats the air with his hands.
929
00:55:26.880 --> 00:55:31.000
But where is this, I asked? For Basil's eyes were
930
00:55:31.079 --> 00:55:34.239
upon the ground. For for God's sake, man be silent,
931
00:55:34.280 --> 00:55:36.639
said Basil. It is in the region of which you
932
00:55:36.719 --> 00:55:39.960
and others know little, But it has been revealed to me.
933
00:55:41.199 --> 00:55:44.079
It lies all about us. It has its capes and
934
00:55:44.119 --> 00:55:47.920
shadowy peaks, and a leaden sea full of sound. It
935
00:55:48.000 --> 00:55:50.840
is there that I ramble with him. There was a
936
00:55:50.880 --> 00:55:54.960
silence between us, and I said, but, dear Basil, I
937
00:55:55.119 --> 00:55:59.119
must ask you this. How was it that you wrote
938
00:55:59.159 --> 00:56:01.760
as you did to me? Oh? He made me write,
939
00:56:01.800 --> 00:56:05.039
he said, And I think he overreached himself. All my angel,
940
00:56:05.480 --> 00:56:09.039
he that beholds the Father's face, smote him down. I
941
00:56:09.159 --> 00:56:12.719
was myself again on a sudden, the miserable and abject
942
00:56:12.760 --> 00:56:16.000
wretch whom you see before you, and knowing that I
943
00:56:16.079 --> 00:56:19.000
had been as a man in a dream, then I
944
00:56:19.039 --> 00:56:21.800
wrote the despairing words and guarded the letter so that
945
00:56:21.920 --> 00:56:24.360
he could not come near me. And then, at mister
946
00:56:24.440 --> 00:56:28.079
Vivian's visit to me that was not by chance, I
947
00:56:28.159 --> 00:56:30.679
gave him the letter, and he promised to bear it faithfully.
948
00:56:31.079 --> 00:56:33.119
And what attempts were made to tear it from him,
949
00:56:33.119 --> 00:56:36.159
I do not know, but that my adversary tried his best,
950
00:56:36.239 --> 00:56:39.199
I do not doubt. But Vivian is a good man
951
00:56:39.239 --> 00:56:43.039
and could not be harmed. And then I fell back
952
00:56:43.280 --> 00:56:47.440
into the old spell and worked still more abundantly and diligently,
953
00:56:47.480 --> 00:56:52.719
and produced this, this a cursed thing, which shall not
954
00:56:52.960 --> 00:56:57.159
live to scatter evil abroad. As he said these words,
955
00:56:57.159 --> 00:56:59.679
he rose and tore the score that lay on the
956
00:56:59.719 --> 00:57:02.400
table into shreds, and crammed the pieces in the fire.
957
00:57:03.440 --> 00:57:06.480
As he thrust the last pieces down, the poker he
958
00:57:06.599 --> 00:57:10.840
was holding fell from his hands. I saw him white
959
00:57:10.920 --> 00:57:15.119
as a sheet and trembling. What is the matter, I said.
960
00:57:16.079 --> 00:57:19.599
He turned a terrible look on me and said, he
961
00:57:19.679 --> 00:57:25.000
is here. He has arrived. Then all at once I
962
00:57:25.239 --> 00:57:28.920
was aware that there was a sort of darkness in
963
00:57:28.960 --> 00:57:32.599
the room, And then, with a growing horror, I gradually
964
00:57:32.639 --> 00:57:36.239
perceived that in and through the room there ran a
965
00:57:36.400 --> 00:57:40.239
thing like the front of a precipice, with some dark
966
00:57:40.360 --> 00:57:43.199
strand at its foot, on which beat a surge of
967
00:57:43.280 --> 00:57:48.360
phantom waves. The two scenes struggled together. At one time
968
00:57:48.400 --> 00:57:50.960
I could plainly see the cliff front close beside me,
969
00:57:51.519 --> 00:57:54.239
and then the lamp and the violet room was all dimmed,
970
00:57:54.280 --> 00:57:57.320
even to vanishing. And then suddenly the room would come
971
00:57:57.360 --> 00:58:01.320
back and the cliff die into a steep shadow. But
972
00:58:01.440 --> 00:58:04.239
in either of the scenes, Basil and I were there,
973
00:58:04.760 --> 00:58:10.039
he standing irresolute and despairing, glancing from side to side
974
00:58:10.119 --> 00:58:13.320
like a hair when the hounds close in. And once
975
00:58:13.320 --> 00:58:15.880
he said this was when the cliff loomed up. Suddenly
976
00:58:17.159 --> 00:58:20.239
there are others with him. Then in a moment it
977
00:58:20.360 --> 00:58:22.760
seemed as if the room in which we sat died
978
00:58:22.760 --> 00:58:26.519
away altogether, and I was in that other place. There
979
00:58:26.559 --> 00:58:29.320
was a faint light, as from under a stormy sky.
980
00:58:30.320 --> 00:58:32.280
When a little farther up the strand there stood a
981
00:58:32.320 --> 00:58:37.880
group of dark figures which seemed to consult together. All
982
00:58:37.920 --> 00:58:40.480
at once, the group broke and came suddenly towards us.
983
00:58:40.760 --> 00:58:43.519
I do not know what to call them. They were
984
00:58:43.599 --> 00:58:46.800
human in a sense, that is, they walked upright and
985
00:58:46.840 --> 00:58:50.960
had heads and hands, but the faces were all blurred
986
00:58:51.000 --> 00:58:56.000
and fretted, like half rotted skulls. But there was no
987
00:58:56.039 --> 00:58:59.159
sense of comparison in me. I only knew that I
988
00:58:59.159 --> 00:59:03.360
had seen uglyiness and corruption at the very source, and
989
00:59:03.559 --> 00:59:09.800
looked into the darkness of the pit itself. The forms
990
00:59:09.800 --> 00:59:12.639
eluded me and rushed upon Basil, who made emotion as
991
00:59:12.639 --> 00:59:15.360
though to seize hold of me, and then turned and
992
00:59:15.400 --> 00:59:19.320
fled his arms outstretched, glancing behind him as he ran,
993
00:59:19.679 --> 00:59:21.599
and in a moment he was lost to view, though
994
00:59:21.639 --> 00:59:24.480
I could see along the shore of that formless sea
995
00:59:24.719 --> 00:59:29.519
something like a pursuit. I do not know what happened
996
00:59:29.519 --> 00:59:33.400
after that. I think I tried to pray, but I
997
00:59:33.440 --> 00:59:36.519
presently became aware that I was myself menaced by danger,
998
00:59:37.199 --> 00:59:40.239
it seems, but I speak in parables, as though one
999
00:59:40.239 --> 00:59:43.400
had separated himself from the rest and had returned to
1000
00:59:43.440 --> 00:59:48.320
seek me. But all was over. I knew the figure
1001
00:59:48.360 --> 00:59:51.840
indeed carried something which he swung and shook in his hand,
1002
00:59:52.199 --> 00:59:54.599
which I thought was a token to be shown to me.
1003
00:59:55.400 --> 00:59:57.480
And then I found my voice and cried out with
1004
00:59:57.519 --> 01:00:00.599
all my strength to God to save me. And in
1005
01:00:00.639 --> 01:00:03.960
a moment there was the violet room again, and the lamp,
1006
01:00:04.760 --> 01:00:08.840
the most peaceful looking room in England. The basle had
1007
01:00:08.920 --> 01:00:12.159
left me. The door was wide open, and in a
1008
01:00:12.239 --> 01:00:14.639
moment the farmer and his wife came hurrying along with
1009
01:00:14.719 --> 01:00:17.800
blanched faces, to ask who it was that had cried
1010
01:00:17.840 --> 01:00:21.880
out and what had happened. I made some pitiful excuse
1011
01:00:21.960 --> 01:00:24.559
that I had dozed in my chair and had awoken
1012
01:00:24.800 --> 01:00:28.360
crying out some unintelligible words, for in the quest I
1013
01:00:28.440 --> 01:00:30.880
was about to engage in, I did not wish that
1014
01:00:31.039 --> 01:00:35.360
any mortal should be with me. They left me, asking
1015
01:00:35.400 --> 01:00:40.320
for mister Netherby, and still not satisfied. Indeed, missus Hall
1016
01:00:40.599 --> 01:00:43.719
looked at me with so penetrating a look that I
1017
01:00:43.840 --> 01:00:48.119
felt that she understood something of what had happened. And
1018
01:00:48.159 --> 01:00:51.079
then at once I went up to Basil's room. I
1019
01:00:51.199 --> 01:00:53.159
do not know where I found the courage to do it,
1020
01:00:53.960 --> 01:00:58.559
but the courage came. The room was dark and the
1021
01:00:58.599 --> 01:01:01.079
strong wind was blowing through it from the little door.
1022
01:01:02.199 --> 01:01:06.280
I stepped across the room, feeling my way, went down
1023
01:01:06.320 --> 01:01:11.280
the stairs, and finding the door open at the bottom,
1024
01:01:11.719 --> 01:01:16.719
I went out into the snakelike path. I went some
1025
01:01:16.920 --> 01:01:20.960
yards along it. The moon had risen. Now there came
1026
01:01:21.000 --> 01:01:23.519
a sudden gap in the trees to the left, through
1027
01:01:23.559 --> 01:01:25.760
which I could see the pale fields in the corner
1028
01:01:25.800 --> 01:01:28.719
of the wood, casting its black shadow on the ground.
1029
01:01:29.599 --> 01:01:33.840
The shrubs were torn, broken and trampled, as though some
1030
01:01:34.039 --> 01:01:38.159
heavy thing had crashed through. I made my way cautiously down,
1031
01:01:38.679 --> 01:01:41.719
endowed with a more than human strength. It was a
1032
01:01:41.760 --> 01:01:45.920
steep bank covered with trees. And then in a moment
1033
01:01:46.599 --> 01:01:50.800
I saw Basil. He lay some distance out in the
1034
01:01:50.840 --> 01:01:55.159
field on his face. I knew at a glance that
1035
01:01:55.239 --> 01:01:58.159
it was all over, and when I lifted him, I
1036
01:01:58.199 --> 01:02:01.760
became aware that he was in some way I strangely mangled,
1037
01:02:02.559 --> 01:02:05.960
And indeed it was found afterwards that though the skin
1038
01:02:06.039 --> 01:02:09.480
of his body was hardly confused, yet that almost every
1039
01:02:09.639 --> 01:02:14.159
bone of the body was broken into fragments. I managed
1040
01:02:14.199 --> 01:02:16.719
to carry him to the house. I closed the doors
1041
01:02:16.719 --> 01:02:19.519
of the staircase, and then I managed to tell Farmer
1042
01:02:19.599 --> 01:02:24.119
Hall that Basil had I thought a fall and was dead.
1043
01:02:25.480 --> 01:02:28.519
And then my own strength failed me, and for three
1044
01:02:28.679 --> 01:02:31.360
days and nights I lay in a kind of stupor.
1045
01:02:33.880 --> 01:02:36.800
When I recovered my consciousness. I found myself in bed
1046
01:02:36.800 --> 01:02:39.480
in my own room. Missus Hall nursed me with a
1047
01:02:39.559 --> 01:02:43.280
motherly care and tenderness, which moved me very greatly. But
1048
01:02:43.360 --> 01:02:46.000
I could not speak of the matter to her until
1049
01:02:46.719 --> 01:02:49.320
just before my departure. She came in, as she did
1050
01:02:49.320 --> 01:02:51.719
twenty times a day, to see if I wanted anything.
1051
01:02:52.840 --> 01:02:57.360
I made a great effort and said, missus Hall, I'm
1052
01:02:57.480 --> 01:03:00.480
very sorry for you. This has been a terrible business,
1053
01:03:00.559 --> 01:03:04.719
and I'm afraid he won't easily forget it. You ought
1054
01:03:04.760 --> 01:03:08.039
to leave the house, I think. Missus Hall turned her
1055
01:03:08.119 --> 01:03:12.079
frozen gaze upon me and said, yes, sir, indeed, I
1056
01:03:12.119 --> 01:03:14.760
can't speak about it or think of it. I feel
1057
01:03:14.960 --> 01:03:17.440
as if I might have prevented it, And yet I
1058
01:03:17.480 --> 01:03:19.960
have been over and over in my mind, and I
1059
01:03:20.000 --> 01:03:23.400
can't see where I was wrong. But my duty is
1060
01:03:23.440 --> 01:03:25.719
to the house now, and I shall never leave it.
1061
01:03:26.440 --> 01:03:28.320
But I will ask you, sir, to try and find
1062
01:03:28.360 --> 01:03:32.239
a thought of pity in your heart for him. I
1063
01:03:32.320 --> 01:03:35.519
knew she didn't mean Basil. I don't think he clearly
1064
01:03:35.599 --> 01:03:38.320
knows what he has done. He must have his will,
1065
01:03:38.480 --> 01:03:41.480
as he always did. He stopped at nothing if it
1066
01:03:41.559 --> 01:03:44.239
was for his pleasure, and he didn't know what harm
1067
01:03:44.320 --> 01:03:47.679
he did, but he's in God's hands, and though I
1068
01:03:47.719 --> 01:03:51.159
cannot understand why, yet there are things in this life
1069
01:03:51.239 --> 01:03:54.280
which He allows to be and we must try not
1070
01:03:54.360 --> 01:03:58.159
to be judges. We must try to be merciful. But
1071
01:03:58.239 --> 01:04:00.719
I have not done what I could have done, and
1072
01:04:00.760 --> 01:04:03.559
if God gives me strength, there shall be an end
1073
01:04:03.599 --> 01:04:07.079
of this. A few hours later, mister Vivian called to
1074
01:04:07.119 --> 01:04:10.079
see me. He was a very different person to the
1075
01:04:10.119 --> 01:04:13.320
Vivian that had showed himself to me in Oburn. I
1076
01:04:13.360 --> 01:04:15.880
couldn't talk with him much, but I could see that
1077
01:04:15.960 --> 01:04:18.960
he had some understanding of the case. He asked me
1078
01:04:19.039 --> 01:04:23.079
no questions, but he told me a few details. He
1079
01:04:23.199 --> 01:04:26.119
said that they had decided that the inquest that he
1080
01:04:26.159 --> 01:04:29.039
had fallen from the terrace. But the doctor who was
1081
01:04:29.079 --> 01:04:31.840
attending me seemed to have said to mister Vivian that
1082
01:04:31.920 --> 01:04:35.239
a fall it must have been, but a fall of
1083
01:04:35.320 --> 01:04:39.639
a most unconceivable character. And what is more, the old
1084
01:04:39.679 --> 01:04:42.280
doctor had added, the man was neither in pain nor
1085
01:04:42.320 --> 01:04:46.920
agitation of mind when he died. The faith was absolutely
1086
01:04:47.039 --> 01:04:51.679
peaceful and tranquil, and the doctor's theory was that he
1087
01:04:51.760 --> 01:04:56.440
had died from some sudden seizure before the fall, and
1088
01:04:56.519 --> 01:05:00.199
so I held my tongue. One thing I did used
1089
01:05:00.199 --> 01:05:02.000
to have a little slab put over the body of
1090
01:05:02.000 --> 01:05:05.199
my dead friend, a simple slab with name and date.
1091
01:05:06.039 --> 01:05:09.280
And I venture to add one line, because I have
1092
01:05:09.360 --> 01:05:12.239
no doubt in my own mind that Basil was suddenly delivered,
1093
01:05:12.719 --> 01:05:16.159
though not from death. He had, I suppose, gone too
1094
01:05:16.320 --> 01:05:19.519
far upon the dark path, and he could not, I think,
1095
01:05:19.599 --> 01:05:23.559
have freed himself from the spell. And so the chord
1096
01:05:23.679 --> 01:05:27.840
was loosed, but loosed in mercy. And so I made
1097
01:05:27.880 --> 01:05:32.480
them add the words, and in their hands they shall
1098
01:05:32.519 --> 01:05:37.960
bear thee up. I must add one further word. About
1099
01:05:37.960 --> 01:05:41.360
a year after the events above recorded, I received a
1100
01:05:41.480 --> 01:05:45.159
letter from mister Vivian, which I give without further comment
1101
01:05:47.159 --> 01:05:52.199
since Sibby December eighteenth, eighteen nineteen. Dear mister Ward, I
1102
01:05:52.199 --> 01:05:54.480
wish to tell you that our friend, Missus Hall died
1103
01:05:54.519 --> 01:05:57.119
a few days ago. She was a very good woman,
1104
01:05:57.480 --> 01:06:00.320
one of the few that had chosen. I was much
1105
01:06:00.360 --> 01:06:02.760
with her in her last days, and she told me
1106
01:06:02.800 --> 01:06:06.079
a strange thing which I cannot bring myself to repeat
1107
01:06:06.079 --> 01:06:08.880
to you. But she sent you a message which she
1108
01:06:08.920 --> 01:06:13.360
repeated several times, which she said you would understand. It
1109
01:06:13.440 --> 01:06:19.159
is simply this tell mister Ward, I have prevailed. I
1110
01:06:19.199 --> 01:06:21.639
may add that I have no doubt of the truth
1111
01:06:21.679 --> 01:06:24.400
of her words, as you will know to what I
1112
01:06:24.480 --> 01:06:28.440
am alluding. The day after she died there was a
1113
01:06:28.519 --> 01:06:32.519
fire at Trahel. Mister Hall was absolutely distracted with grief
1114
01:06:32.599 --> 01:06:35.039
the loss of his wife, and I do not quite
1115
01:06:35.119 --> 01:06:39.280
know what happened, but it was impossible to save the house.
1116
01:06:40.000 --> 01:06:42.239
All that is left of it is a mass of
1117
01:06:42.400 --> 01:06:47.199
charred ruins, with a few walls standing up. Nothing was saved,
1118
01:06:47.480 --> 01:06:51.239
not even a picture. There is a wholly inadequate insurance,
1119
01:06:51.239 --> 01:06:53.920
and I believe it is not intended to rebuild the house.
1120
01:06:54.800 --> 01:06:57.000
I hope you were bearess in mind. Though I know
1121
01:06:57.119 --> 01:06:59.480
you so little, I shall always feel that we have
1122
01:06:59.519 --> 01:07:02.639
a common experience which will hold us together. You will
1123
01:07:02.639 --> 01:07:04.880
try to visit us someday when the memory of what
1124
01:07:05.000 --> 01:07:08.480
took place is less painful to you. The grass is
1125
01:07:08.519 --> 01:07:11.320
now green on your poor friend's grave, and I will
1126
01:07:11.360 --> 01:07:13.920
only add that you will have a warm welcome here.
1127
01:07:14.519 --> 01:07:16.880
I'm just moving into the rectory, as my old rector
1128
01:07:16.920 --> 01:07:20.719
died a fortnight ago, and I have accepted the living God.
1129
01:07:20.760 --> 01:07:27.039
Bless you, dear mister ward yours very sincerely, James Vivian.
1130
01:07:33.320 --> 01:07:37.599
That was Basil Nethervey obviously by A. C. Benson, and
1131
01:07:37.679 --> 01:07:39.960
I got this from in a collection called Ghosts in
1132
01:07:40.000 --> 01:07:44.800
the House, which is in the Collins Chillers collection the series.
1133
01:07:44.880 --> 01:07:47.880
They've got quite a few good ones in that, and
1134
01:07:48.519 --> 01:07:51.360
it contains the tales of Terror by A. C. Benson
1135
01:07:51.400 --> 01:07:54.519
and our Age Benson, who were the brothers of E. F. Benson.
1136
01:07:55.039 --> 01:07:57.199
I'm guessing it just didn't call each other by initials
1137
01:07:57.199 --> 01:07:59.559
at home or us. It could have gone very awkward
1138
01:08:00.159 --> 01:08:03.679
that they were. The three boys were sons of the
1139
01:08:03.679 --> 01:08:06.440
Bishop of Trurou, hence the Cornish connections in lots of
1140
01:08:06.440 --> 01:08:11.239
their stories, and who later became Archbishop of Canterbury, apparently
1141
01:08:11.320 --> 01:08:15.840
Queen Victorious. He was Queen Victoria's favorite bishop. The book
1142
01:08:16.600 --> 01:08:18.720
I've just been talking about Ghosts in the House from
1143
01:08:18.720 --> 01:08:21.640
which this was taken has a really good introduction by
1144
01:08:21.720 --> 01:08:27.079
Hugh Lamb and he says Arthur, Fred and Hugh, so
1145
01:08:27.159 --> 01:08:31.960
obviously they're not going by A. C. R. H. And E. F.
1146
01:08:32.399 --> 01:08:34.880
Were the surviving sons of Edward White Benson, one of
1147
01:08:34.920 --> 01:08:38.800
Queen Victoria's favorite archbishops of Canterbury. Another son, Martin, died
1148
01:08:38.840 --> 01:08:41.079
in his teens. The whole family was, to put it
1149
01:08:41.239 --> 01:08:44.760
mildly odd to all appearances, the epitome of an upper
1150
01:08:44.760 --> 01:08:48.119
class Victorian family. The history reads like a TV soap
1151
01:08:48.119 --> 01:08:53.319
opera child bride, a ruthless patriarch, lesbianism, homosexuality, child death,
1152
01:08:53.359 --> 01:08:59.720
religious mania, and homicidal lunacy. Arthur, who wrote this story,
1153
01:09:00.000 --> 01:09:02.399
became a schoolmaster, teaching for US as Eaton and then
1154
01:09:02.439 --> 01:09:05.479
moving to Cambridge. And I say that's m R James
1155
01:09:05.880 --> 01:09:07.680
did both of those, didn't He was at Cambridge and
1156
01:09:07.720 --> 01:09:11.920
at Eton. Apparently he wrote a lot of Homily's religious
1157
01:09:11.920 --> 01:09:14.279
homilies full of sweetness and light. This is Arthur and
1158
01:09:14.319 --> 01:09:16.560
he had a huge audience. So all of the events
1159
01:09:16.600 --> 01:09:20.119
and brothers were really successful in their lifetime as writers.
1160
01:09:20.359 --> 01:09:24.399
Of course E. F. Fred is the one who we
1161
01:09:24.479 --> 01:09:28.800
know most about. But apparently Arthur was broke and he
1162
01:09:28.880 --> 01:09:32.000
had this wealthy anonymous American woman who is married to
1163
01:09:32.039 --> 01:09:34.760
a rich man, and she offered him a large sum
1164
01:09:34.800 --> 01:09:37.520
of money to improve the college at Modeling College. So
1165
01:09:37.640 --> 01:09:39.800
he did a lot of because he suffered from depression
1166
01:09:40.479 --> 01:09:44.039
and his sister Maggie. Their sister Maggie was insane and
1167
01:09:44.039 --> 01:09:47.680
that was a great trial and tribulation to the family.
1168
01:09:48.079 --> 01:09:51.760
He wrote the words to a Land of Hope and Glory,
1169
01:09:51.760 --> 01:09:54.279
which if you're British you will know because it's the
1170
01:09:54.399 --> 01:10:00.000
kind of second national anthem of It is very imperialis
1171
01:10:00.039 --> 01:10:01.760
and stuff like that, and it gets criticized. I'm not
1172
01:10:01.800 --> 01:10:07.000
going to sing it. I enjoyed singing that in the story. Now, Hugh,
1173
01:10:07.119 --> 01:10:09.760
the other brother, and Arthur, I see, was also a
1174
01:10:09.800 --> 01:10:12.439
friend of m R James, which makes sense, doesn't it
1175
01:10:12.439 --> 01:10:17.720
in a small Cambridge circle. His brother Hugh became a
1176
01:10:17.720 --> 01:10:22.560
Catholic priest, I think, and his stories in this collection
1177
01:10:23.079 --> 01:10:26.239
they have a lot of buoyant religious messages, which kind
1178
01:10:26.239 --> 01:10:29.079
of spoils them, I think. You know, fred E F.
1179
01:10:29.119 --> 01:10:31.840
Benson doesn't get you know, he was a religious guy
1180
01:10:31.840 --> 01:10:34.800
as well, but he doesn't. His stories are to entertain
1181
01:10:34.920 --> 01:10:38.239
and not to enlighten, not to improve us morally, although
1182
01:10:38.479 --> 01:10:40.479
you know, I have a theory with all stories in
1183
01:10:40.520 --> 01:10:44.800
a subtle way moral stories. We could discuss this. We
1184
01:10:44.920 --> 01:10:47.479
had the book club, getting ahead of myself, but on
1185
01:10:47.520 --> 01:10:49.479
the Discord server for the members. We have a book
1186
01:10:49.479 --> 01:10:51.479
club and we had the first one on Friday and
1187
01:10:51.479 --> 01:10:54.399
discussed the phantom coach and it was absolutely delightful and
1188
01:10:54.439 --> 01:10:57.359
we all got to have a chat. I try not
1189
01:10:57.439 --> 01:10:59.920
to speak too much, and that is an effort for me.
1190
01:11:00.119 --> 01:11:03.479
You can gather, but I'm gonna really. I once said
1191
01:11:03.479 --> 01:11:07.039
a patient who was in fact insane, but at one
1192
01:11:07.079 --> 01:11:08.680
point he turned to me and said it was a
1193
01:11:08.720 --> 01:11:11.399
tough guy. He turned to me, said you talk a
1194
01:11:11.439 --> 01:11:14.199
lot for a fellow, don't you, And I said, well, yes,
1195
01:11:14.279 --> 01:11:17.039
I do, actually always have, but the whole family do.
1196
01:11:17.279 --> 01:11:19.920
So I'm a bit hyper today. I don't know why.
1197
01:11:20.520 --> 01:11:22.600
So what do I think about that story? I thought
1198
01:11:22.640 --> 01:11:25.279
it was good. A lot of the stories in this
1199
01:11:25.359 --> 01:11:29.199
collection of ac and URH they're nowhere near as good
1200
01:11:29.199 --> 01:11:33.960
as a f but this one is probably Arthur's best story,
1201
01:11:34.000 --> 01:11:37.800
and I think that's well acknowledged, and such luminaries as
1202
01:11:37.800 --> 01:11:41.239
Matt Cowan and Jay Rothmol can advise on that. And
1203
01:11:41.239 --> 01:11:43.039
if you look on their sides, you'll find that they've
1204
01:11:43.079 --> 01:11:49.520
discussed this story in far greater academic knowledge than I
1205
01:11:49.560 --> 01:11:53.000
have a knowledge of the genre. Anyway, It's good atmosphere,
1206
01:11:53.039 --> 01:11:56.079
isn't it. There are stories that music hath charms. If
1207
01:11:56.119 --> 01:11:59.760
you remember it's also set in Cornwall. If you look
1208
01:11:59.800 --> 01:12:01.640
on the channel you'll find out. And that's the story
1209
01:12:01.640 --> 01:12:03.520
about a man who gets possessed by the spirit of
1210
01:12:03.560 --> 01:12:06.399
a music box in Cornwall. So there's this idea that
1211
01:12:06.439 --> 01:12:10.039
the spirits of places can change our character. There's also
1212
01:12:10.359 --> 01:12:13.520
Full Circle by John Buckan. If you remember, there's the house,
1213
01:12:13.560 --> 01:12:16.319
this lovely house in the Cotswolds, near where I stayed
1214
01:12:16.359 --> 01:12:21.760
last week, and it has a genial ghost. The people
1215
01:12:21.760 --> 01:12:25.319
who move into it the kind of do kind of
1216
01:12:26.199 --> 01:12:29.000
do gooders, who have no sense of humor, and they
1217
01:12:29.039 --> 01:12:32.800
get turned into genial, sort of easy going folk by
1218
01:12:32.800 --> 01:12:35.159
the spirit of the house. So this is similar to that,
1219
01:12:35.239 --> 01:12:38.319
except the spirit of the house is rather nasty. The
1220
01:12:38.359 --> 01:12:41.680
old mister Trehel mister Heel. Of course, Trehel is Cornish
1221
01:12:41.720 --> 01:12:45.239
for Hell's farm or Heels town trayer, being British for
1222
01:12:45.880 --> 01:12:48.920
when I say British, I mean Welsh, Cornish, Breton for
1223
01:12:49.239 --> 01:12:53.560
and Cumbrian for a village means a village now but
1224
01:12:53.680 --> 01:12:56.279
used to make a farm Anyway, I digress again. So
1225
01:12:56.319 --> 01:12:58.479
the atmosphere is good, this remote place, it's all done
1226
01:12:58.600 --> 01:13:04.960
very very well. I thought that it was made better
1227
01:13:05.600 --> 01:13:09.840
by the fact that the old squire, mister Treheel has
1228
01:13:10.000 --> 01:13:13.439
a spokesperson in Missus Hall. Missus Hall is a local lass,
1229
01:13:14.159 --> 01:13:18.000
and she kind of makes allowances for him and says,
1230
01:13:18.199 --> 01:13:21.039
it isn't really bad. He's more an elemental spirit. He
1231
01:13:21.199 --> 01:13:24.680
just lived a loose life, had his way with the
1232
01:13:24.680 --> 01:13:26.600
young women, probably drank too much, and was a bit
1233
01:13:26.600 --> 01:13:29.880
of a hell raiser. But she finds place in her
1234
01:13:29.880 --> 01:13:32.600
heart to forgive him for that and not hold him guilty.
1235
01:13:32.680 --> 01:13:34.720
So I think that adds a subtleness. You know, we
1236
01:13:34.800 --> 01:13:39.039
think that the most subtle stories, it's a more mature
1237
01:13:39.079 --> 01:13:43.279
position to be able to hold a person who is
1238
01:13:43.439 --> 01:13:46.159
neither holy good or holy bad, that is, honestly, and
1239
01:13:46.159 --> 01:13:49.640
that's actually Melanie Klein says that the so called depressive position.
1240
01:13:50.239 --> 01:13:53.319
So first of all, we tend to envy children. Either
1241
01:13:53.600 --> 01:13:57.680
everybody's either fully evil black as the devil himself or
1242
01:13:57.720 --> 01:14:00.720
the angels and can do no. And the truth is,
1243
01:14:00.760 --> 01:14:03.479
of course that people everybody meet his mixed. And then
1244
01:14:03.479 --> 01:14:06.479
then a lot of genre fiction the bad are bad
1245
01:14:06.520 --> 01:14:08.399
and the good of good. But in this I think,
1246
01:14:08.479 --> 01:14:12.199
you know, it's refreshing because she is the spokesperson for
1247
01:14:12.760 --> 01:14:16.239
the bad guy, and we see him that he isn't
1248
01:14:16.239 --> 01:14:21.960
fully evil, and even His effect on Basil is to
1249
01:14:22.039 --> 01:14:28.640
make him genial, productive, but there is a dark quality
1250
01:14:28.680 --> 01:14:32.039
to what he produces, so he's not wholly bad, you know,
1251
01:14:32.119 --> 01:14:36.279
this tre Heel, although there is something monstrously tainted about
1252
01:14:36.319 --> 01:14:41.880
him as well, and there is this unbridled passion. So
1253
01:14:41.960 --> 01:14:47.520
that leads us to this idea that Trehil is a
1254
01:14:47.720 --> 01:14:54.239
romantic creature. He's natural, he's the natural man. He obeys
1255
01:14:54.319 --> 01:14:58.640
his natural urges, and part of us as people think
1256
01:14:58.720 --> 01:15:01.960
that's good, but then frightened of it because we've spent
1257
01:15:02.039 --> 01:15:05.680
most of our history dominating nature, dominating nature, going out
1258
01:15:05.760 --> 01:15:10.880
building roads and tilling fields, but also dominating our natures.
1259
01:15:11.600 --> 01:15:15.399
So the natural instincts of a two year old, you know,
1260
01:15:15.439 --> 01:15:17.359
you've seen them having a tantrum. They're not They're having
1261
01:15:17.399 --> 01:15:19.479
had the chocolate or the toy truck, so they're going
1262
01:15:19.520 --> 01:15:24.119
to carry on and they are full of rage and destruction,
1263
01:15:25.039 --> 01:15:27.119
and they are. If they were bigger, they would cause
1264
01:15:27.199 --> 01:15:32.880
immense damage. Now, most of us we learn through society
1265
01:15:32.880 --> 01:15:36.079
and our families to manage those things. Now, I have
1266
01:15:36.319 --> 01:15:39.760
many patients who struggle to regulate their emotions and it
1267
01:15:39.800 --> 01:15:42.800
causes the massive problems, and mainly those fall into two
1268
01:15:42.800 --> 01:15:46.920
groups where we diagnostically call the dissocial personality or antisocial
1269
01:15:46.960 --> 01:15:50.720
personality disorders, which are overwhelmingly men, but not always, and
1270
01:15:50.800 --> 01:15:54.880
they mostly go to jail. They're mostly violent and law breakers.
1271
01:15:54.880 --> 01:16:00.439
They can't can regulate the emotion of anger. They're full
1272
01:16:00.479 --> 01:16:03.159
of resentment and hurt and sadness as well when you
1273
01:16:03.199 --> 01:16:06.079
get under it. And then typically women, but not all women.
1274
01:16:06.760 --> 01:16:08.359
You know, there does seem to be a split like this,
1275
01:16:08.720 --> 01:16:13.880
which is the emotional so called emotionally unstable personality disorder.
1276
01:16:14.319 --> 01:16:18.159
It's probably about seventy female thirty percent male. And that
1277
01:16:18.359 --> 01:16:21.399
is that I've just plucked that figure out. But look
1278
01:16:21.399 --> 01:16:25.399
into it whereby the emotions there are usually despair and
1279
01:16:25.720 --> 01:16:28.199
so you know, they feel rejected and they feel they
1280
01:16:28.239 --> 01:16:30.159
want to die, and so they try and kill themselves
1281
01:16:30.199 --> 01:16:33.119
a lot. So you know, both of those groups are
1282
01:16:33.119 --> 01:16:37.800
given to outbursts in a sense for most of us
1283
01:16:38.600 --> 01:16:45.439
that is filtered out. And one argument would be that
1284
01:16:45.560 --> 01:16:48.359
by I think if Freud would say this, we stamp
1285
01:16:48.359 --> 01:16:52.239
on the libido and we lose our naturalness, so we
1286
01:16:52.319 --> 01:16:55.239
lose some vigor, so we do not and so we
1287
01:16:55.279 --> 01:16:58.439
see this in the basil who's possessed by the old Squire,
1288
01:16:58.720 --> 01:17:02.600
he gains a vigor and the geniality and the life force,
1289
01:17:02.680 --> 01:17:05.680
a libido really, And of course I don't think it's
1290
01:17:05.680 --> 01:17:08.720
a therefore a coincidence that one of the hints is
1291
01:17:08.760 --> 01:17:13.439
that the old Squire was free with in a feudal
1292
01:17:13.479 --> 01:17:16.239
way with the attractive members. You know, it's about life,
1293
01:17:16.279 --> 01:17:19.399
it's about vigor, it's about libido, it's about those kind
1294
01:17:19.439 --> 01:17:21.960
of things that we're not going to mention by name,
1295
01:17:22.479 --> 01:17:26.239
but we know what I mean. But it's tainted. Now
1296
01:17:26.359 --> 01:17:30.920
if we switch into Yumion thinking, we would say that
1297
01:17:31.680 --> 01:17:36.960
the old Squire is Basil netherpiece shadow. So he the shadow,
1298
01:17:37.000 --> 01:17:40.800
and Yumian psychology is all those parts of ourselves that
1299
01:17:40.840 --> 01:17:43.920
we repress, that we can't tolerate, and we put away,
1300
01:17:44.000 --> 01:17:49.199
we dissociate them, and we project them. This is Anna Freud.
1301
01:17:49.239 --> 01:17:52.039
Actually we project them out as defense mechods. We get
1302
01:17:52.199 --> 01:17:56.680
rid of that unpleasantness. We can't tolerate that badness, so
1303
01:17:56.760 --> 01:17:59.520
we shove it out into the world. And so all
1304
01:17:59.560 --> 01:18:03.039
the things we hate, generally our shadow that we've just
1305
01:18:03.119 --> 01:18:06.840
projected out into the world. One loses vigor, one loses
1306
01:18:06.880 --> 01:18:09.880
on the life force that they're going into life and
1307
01:18:10.000 --> 01:18:12.520
seizing it and saying, I don't care what you think,
1308
01:18:12.680 --> 01:18:16.439
I'm having this that power there, but we feel it's tainted.
1309
01:18:16.600 --> 01:18:20.119
So what Jung said was, we have all these archetypes,
1310
01:18:20.159 --> 01:18:23.199
one of which is the shadow that lurk in the unconscious.
1311
01:18:23.239 --> 01:18:25.239
They are not conscious to us. We have not made
1312
01:18:25.239 --> 01:18:30.079
them conscious. They are still lurking below our awareness. So
1313
01:18:30.119 --> 01:18:33.199
we see them in the world and you know, and
1314
01:18:33.399 --> 01:18:36.720
they're all together, and they are tainted with evil. So
1315
01:18:37.439 --> 01:18:40.039
often one of the other figures that we can have
1316
01:18:40.159 --> 01:18:44.359
is the divine feminine, the anima figure, and she if
1317
01:18:44.359 --> 01:18:47.960
she's not conscious, but she's also the devouring mother. She's
1318
01:18:48.119 --> 01:18:50.000
I don't know if you saw the Lord of the Rings,
1319
01:18:50.520 --> 01:18:53.560
not that Rings of Power, but the movie where Galadriel
1320
01:18:53.560 --> 01:18:57.960
suddenly transforms into the dark Queen. When the anima is
1321
01:18:58.000 --> 01:19:01.800
not surfaced, she is tainted with evil. So all the
1322
01:19:01.920 --> 01:19:05.600
archetypes that we do we're not aware of, they're tainted
1323
01:19:05.600 --> 01:19:07.319
with And when I'm talking about evil, I'm talking about
1324
01:19:07.520 --> 01:19:10.800
bone shaking terror. I'm talking about not just a concept
1325
01:19:10.840 --> 01:19:14.560
of evil. We experience them as terrifying and I think
1326
01:19:14.680 --> 01:19:19.600
this is what we're seeing here. So Basil it is
1327
01:19:19.640 --> 01:19:23.520
possessed by the shadow, which we personifies as the ghost
1328
01:19:24.119 --> 01:19:27.000
of the old bloke, and it gives him this power,
1329
01:19:27.199 --> 01:19:32.760
but it is tainted with evil, and he struggles to
1330
01:19:32.760 --> 01:19:35.399
to not be possessed and retain his ego, retain his
1331
01:19:35.439 --> 01:19:39.399
own individual individuality because the shadow is not particularly The
1332
01:19:39.520 --> 01:19:43.600
archetypes aren't personal, they are universal, and so we lose
1333
01:19:43.640 --> 01:19:46.199
ourselves in the mob, in the crowd, we lose our
1334
01:19:46.239 --> 01:19:48.760
individuality when we're possessed by them. So when we fall
1335
01:19:48.800 --> 01:19:51.399
in love, we're possessed by that archetype and we lose
1336
01:19:51.479 --> 01:19:57.520
our rationality and our ability to stand by. So the
1337
01:19:58.119 --> 01:20:01.680
devil is the same thing. The devil is. The shadow
1338
01:20:01.840 --> 01:20:04.840
is the archetype of evil, you know, and the devil
1339
01:20:05.720 --> 01:20:08.000
it doesn't always get a totally bad press. Look at Milton.
1340
01:20:08.079 --> 01:20:09.960
I've done Milton's Paradise Lost somewhere if you want to
1341
01:20:09.960 --> 01:20:11.960
go and look at it. It's one of the poetry channels.
1342
01:20:12.319 --> 01:20:14.439
But yeah, the devil in Milton's not a bad guys.
1343
01:20:14.560 --> 01:20:18.279
And you know, in Faust and Gerta's Faust, Mephistopheles isn't
1344
01:20:18.319 --> 01:20:21.760
totally he's quite funny. Yeah, they're not not purely evil,
1345
01:20:21.760 --> 01:20:25.000
and neither is this character but the struggle is for
1346
01:20:25.079 --> 01:20:28.880
one's individual soul, I suppose, and remember these men were
1347
01:20:28.920 --> 01:20:34.199
deeply Christian. Definitely, the struggle is to not be possessed
1348
01:20:34.239 --> 01:20:38.039
by this shadow, archetypal shadow, and to retain one. And
1349
01:20:38.079 --> 01:20:40.399
I think that is the victory. In the end. It
1350
01:20:40.600 --> 01:20:44.560
kills him, but he prevails in the end, and that's
1351
01:20:44.600 --> 01:20:47.279
the meaning of that. He whatever happens to him. These
1352
01:20:47.439 --> 01:20:49.039
you know, as I said, Christians, so they believe in
1353
01:20:49.079 --> 01:20:52.039
the afterlife. So as he's going forward, he's not possessed
1354
01:20:52.079 --> 01:20:54.760
by the devil who is he's not possessed by the shadow.
1355
01:20:55.000 --> 01:20:59.239
He retains his humanity. And I think that's what that's about.
1356
01:20:59.439 --> 01:21:03.159
So I think a very very complex, psychologically complex story
1357
01:21:03.600 --> 01:21:08.079
in that we see the shadow figure in its truth,
1358
01:21:08.279 --> 01:21:12.199
which is that it has both good and bad, and
1359
01:21:12.239 --> 01:21:14.479
we see the struggle that we all go through to
1360
01:21:14.560 --> 01:21:19.600
assimilate these archetypes. They're very powerful and we can lose
1361
01:21:19.640 --> 01:21:24.239
our individuality to them if we're possessed by them. And
1362
01:21:24.279 --> 01:21:26.800
the real struggle is to remain human in the face
1363
01:21:26.840 --> 01:21:29.880
of these inhuman forces. And there we go. So there
1364
01:21:29.880 --> 01:21:32.800
you are. I am probably going to drop another day
1365
01:21:32.880 --> 01:21:35.359
from my work, so I'm going to go to two
1366
01:21:35.479 --> 01:21:38.359
days from three because I've just got so much to do.
1367
01:21:38.439 --> 01:21:42.800
I'm doing my Haunted Places channel in addition to this
1368
01:21:42.840 --> 01:21:45.359
one too. It's kind of not putting my eggs in
1369
01:21:45.439 --> 01:21:47.680
up one basket because it can STI happen that YouTube
1370
01:21:47.720 --> 01:21:50.920
suddenly decides, right, you're going to demonetize your channel because
1371
01:21:50.960 --> 01:21:53.760
you've broken. This happened to the Sholock hom stories and
1372
01:21:53.800 --> 01:21:56.600
Bite Sized Audio and they have had the devil's own
1373
01:21:56.680 --> 01:21:59.960
job to get the monetization back a much bigger channel
1374
01:22:00.039 --> 01:22:02.880
something we're probably relying on the income. So I thought, right,
1375
01:22:02.920 --> 01:22:06.079
I'm gonna develop another one. So it's going, okay, you
1376
01:22:06.159 --> 01:22:08.439
nearly got a thousand subs. I just need a bit
1377
01:22:08.439 --> 01:22:10.760
more watch time and then that will be another income stream.
1378
01:22:11.079 --> 01:22:13.720
But in anticipation of that, I'm cutting down my days
1379
01:22:13.840 --> 01:22:19.920
to two days a week. It's not without some sadness because,
1380
01:22:20.239 --> 01:22:22.520
as you can tell, as I was talking about shadows
1381
01:22:22.560 --> 01:22:25.479
and all that kind of thing, I've never never been
1382
01:22:25.600 --> 01:22:30.239
bored in my work. It's just hard. It's emotionally hard.
1383
01:22:30.279 --> 01:22:33.000
It's emotional labor. On a Friday, when I just do
1384
01:22:33.079 --> 01:22:37.439
all telephone calls, I speak to thirty patients and they're
1385
01:22:37.479 --> 01:22:42.479
all bereaved, desperate, anxious, suicidal, and when they get better,
1386
01:22:42.600 --> 01:22:44.319
they don't speak to me anymore. I just get a
1387
01:22:44.319 --> 01:22:47.119
new one, that is and it is hard, and I'm
1388
01:22:47.119 --> 01:22:49.840
getting older, and my heart is now being drawn to
1389
01:22:49.880 --> 01:22:54.159
doing storytelling more storytelling, very interested in stories. I don't
1390
01:22:54.199 --> 01:22:56.800
think I will stop being interested in mental health and
1391
01:22:56.840 --> 01:22:59.600
psychology and all this kind of stuff, but I think
1392
01:22:59.640 --> 01:23:03.479
the time has come to pivot and to move more
1393
01:23:03.520 --> 01:23:06.359
towards my storytelling. So that's what I'm doing. I'm doing
1394
01:23:06.359 --> 01:23:08.640
my late and I talk ready. I'm doing too many things. Really.
1395
01:23:09.279 --> 01:23:11.760
I wake in the night and I'm like, I'm downloading
1396
01:23:11.840 --> 01:23:16.239
ideas I've now had with the Haunted Places website I
1397
01:23:16.359 --> 01:23:19.079
used to run back in nineteen ninety nine, I had
1398
01:23:19.079 --> 01:23:22.479
a website I've had adventures on the Internet before that
1399
01:23:22.800 --> 01:23:25.680
was called Haunted Britain and Island. I may have mentioned
1400
01:23:25.680 --> 01:23:29.279
it on this commentary before, and it used to bring
1401
01:23:29.279 --> 01:23:31.000
in a little bit of money. It paid for a
1402
01:23:31.039 --> 01:23:34.960
holiday to crack off. That website did back in nineteen
1403
01:23:35.000 --> 01:23:40.840
ninety nine, and it was basically a gazetteer of haunted
1404
01:23:40.840 --> 01:23:43.960
places castle's hotels that you could stay in in Britain,
1405
01:23:44.000 --> 01:23:45.880
and Ireland, and I used to get a little bit
1406
01:23:45.880 --> 01:23:48.359
of money from when I booked people there. That's harder
1407
01:23:48.439 --> 01:23:51.239
these days because mainly it's all through these giants like booking,
1408
01:23:51.279 --> 01:23:53.560
dot Com etc. But I thought, well, I can do
1409
01:23:53.640 --> 01:23:57.039
that again, and I can create a blog. And I've
1410
01:23:57.039 --> 01:23:59.079
been listening to loads of stuff on YouTube about how
1411
01:23:59.119 --> 01:24:03.239
to run a profitable blog. Mine is just in the infancy. Anyway,
1412
01:24:03.359 --> 01:24:07.000
last night I'm sitting there half asleep and this idea comes.
1413
01:24:07.079 --> 01:24:10.640
What you could do? Is itineries of it'd have to
1414
01:24:10.640 --> 01:24:12.720
be the UK and Ireland because I know that best,
1415
01:24:12.760 --> 01:24:14.920
but ideally if somebody could, if it branched out and
1416
01:24:14.960 --> 01:24:17.680
somebody could do something for the USA or Australia or
1417
01:24:18.119 --> 01:24:21.000
New Zealand or other places that people listen to the podcast.
1418
01:24:21.479 --> 01:24:25.399
So basically, in two thousand and four, before I started
1419
01:24:25.399 --> 01:24:29.119
my nursing just No two thousand and three, the year before,
1420
01:24:29.520 --> 01:24:34.319
I was running a ghost tour business and I did
1421
01:24:34.960 --> 01:24:38.039
ghost tours of England and I did this fantastic ghost
1422
01:24:38.039 --> 01:24:41.159
too with a bus full of the Royle Americans as
1423
01:24:41.199 --> 01:24:42.880
it turned out, and we had a great time in
1424
01:24:43.079 --> 01:24:45.760
Billy the Driver, and we did this itronery. We went
1425
01:24:45.760 --> 01:24:49.439
to haunted London, and then we went up to Balley
1426
01:24:49.520 --> 01:24:53.239
Rectory in Essex, most haunted house in England, to up
1427
01:24:53.279 --> 01:24:56.840
to Norwich to the castle there which whether the the
1428
01:24:56.960 --> 01:25:01.000
she Wolf Queen Eleanor's ghost supposed to be Castle Rising
1429
01:25:01.039 --> 01:25:04.920
outside Norwich. Ghosts two around Norwich. Then we went to
1430
01:25:05.159 --> 01:25:07.880
King's Lynn, where there was ghosts. Obviously, we stayed another
1431
01:25:07.880 --> 01:25:10.199
haunted hotel there. We made a way to York. It
1432
01:25:10.239 --> 01:25:13.600
was blisteringly hot. York's a fantastic place, went in another
1433
01:25:13.680 --> 01:25:16.880
haunted hotel, I had a medium show, went to Whitby
1434
01:25:17.119 --> 01:25:19.760
where Dracula was supposed to be. Then we hurried down,
1435
01:25:19.800 --> 01:25:21.600
stopped at Saint Alban's on the way and put them
1436
01:25:21.640 --> 01:25:26.920
back on the airplane. And I was younger then, and
1437
01:25:27.039 --> 01:25:29.520
I ended, you know a lot of these haunted hotels
1438
01:25:29.520 --> 01:25:32.279
don't have all mod cons and so I had to
1439
01:25:32.439 --> 01:25:35.960
lug people's suitcases up third floor as they were the guests,
1440
01:25:35.960 --> 01:25:39.439
and I was the help, and I couldn't do that. Now,
1441
01:25:39.479 --> 01:25:41.079
I wouldn't want to do that, and I'm too old,
1442
01:25:41.600 --> 01:25:43.439
so I'm not sure I'll do the tours myself. But
1443
01:25:43.640 --> 01:25:46.199
I thought I could put itineries together for people who
1444
01:25:46.239 --> 01:25:48.319
wanted to do these things, you know, and then I
1445
01:25:48.319 --> 01:25:51.079
could kind of maybe collaborate with somebody in other countries
1446
01:25:51.119 --> 01:25:53.720
and do the same thing. So this was being downloaded
1447
01:25:53.720 --> 01:25:54.880
to me in the middle of the night and I
1448
01:25:54.880 --> 01:25:58.039
couldn't sleep. But it's a good idea, I think. Anyway, I
1449
01:25:58.039 --> 01:26:01.800
could talk forever I'm alone. I've just seen my delightful
1450
01:26:01.880 --> 01:26:04.760
daughter Katherine this morning. She was in town and she
1451
01:26:04.880 --> 01:26:06.359
was out with her friend last night. So we had
1452
01:26:06.399 --> 01:26:08.560
a long chat put the world to right. She's a teacher,
1453
01:26:09.279 --> 01:26:14.800
and we were talking about the mess the country is in,
1454
01:26:16.000 --> 01:26:18.880
not the world, and the health system and the education
1455
01:26:19.000 --> 01:26:24.279
system where we seem to treat people like units rather
1456
01:26:24.359 --> 01:26:27.680
than people, and we both agree that what we need
1457
01:26:27.720 --> 01:26:30.319
is to treat people like people and have The best
1458
01:26:30.359 --> 01:26:32.760
thing in healthcare is the quality of the relationship you
1459
01:26:32.800 --> 01:26:35.119
have with your patient, and the best thing in teaching
1460
01:26:35.239 --> 01:26:38.000
is the quality of the relationship you have with your pupil,
1461
01:26:38.319 --> 01:26:42.039
an authentic, nurturing relationship, not you know, a tick box
1462
01:26:42.199 --> 01:26:46.319
exercise with loads of regulations from on high. We're in
1463
01:26:46.319 --> 01:26:48.760
a different position Catering and I because we think the
1464
01:26:48.800 --> 01:26:50.960
same about it. But I'm like, yeah, I don't care.
1465
01:26:51.039 --> 01:26:53.439
Suspend me go on, suspend me for a year on
1466
01:26:53.520 --> 01:26:56.880
full pay while you investigate something or other where she's
1467
01:26:57.039 --> 01:27:00.159
you know, she's just twenty six, I think, and not
1468
01:27:00.199 --> 01:27:04.359
able to do that anyway. So there we are. Bas
1469
01:27:04.359 --> 01:27:08.359
will never be a good one. I think I'm thinking
1470
01:27:08.399 --> 01:27:12.960
of doing sad Donicus by Ray Russell next, another fantastic
1471
01:27:13.000 --> 01:27:16.000
story similar length to this, maybe time a bit longer.
1472
01:27:16.479 --> 01:27:18.760
And then we're coming up to Halloween and I've got
1473
01:27:18.760 --> 01:27:22.039
a commission by Gavin Critchley to do the stores of
1474
01:27:22.079 --> 01:27:24.600
Barchester Cathedral by Mr James. I'm going to do that
1475
01:27:24.600 --> 01:27:29.119
and put that on Halloween. So Gavin is my patron
1476
01:27:29.159 --> 01:27:31.720
in the proper sense, you know, like not that I'm
1477
01:27:31.760 --> 01:27:35.079
Michael Angelo. But he says to me, look there's some money,
1478
01:27:35.079 --> 01:27:37.239
do a story and release it to the world. And
1479
01:27:37.279 --> 01:27:41.359
he said the thing that actually got me thinking. I thought, ooh,
1480
01:27:41.479 --> 01:27:44.840
and that thing was he said, listen, I'm doing this
1481
01:27:44.920 --> 01:27:47.800
because neither you nor I are going to be here forever,
1482
01:27:48.520 --> 01:27:50.239
but the stories will be. And I thought, you know
1483
01:27:50.279 --> 01:27:53.920
the way the internet is, that's probably true. After Gavin
1484
01:27:53.920 --> 01:27:57.600
and I are gone, these stories will linger. And that
1485
01:27:57.680 --> 01:28:02.760
made me feel quite funny. Anyway, Hope you're all well,
1486
01:28:02.800 --> 01:28:14.880
take care season. Everybody dies standing. That's what he felt about.
1487
01:28:16.399 --> 01:28:19.359
Isn't that SI? You tried to get into the locker
1488
01:28:19.479 --> 01:28:22.119
room to day, didn't you try? How do that they'd
1489
01:28:22.119 --> 01:28:24.359
come back? What's the secret