Full Transcript for Chapter XX, Beyond These Voices, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Audiobook

WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:35.159 CHAPTER XXII It was a little less than three weeks 2 00:00:35.399 --> 00:00:43.909 after the meeting in the House of Silence, but to 3 00:00:45.729 --> 00:00:50.890 Vera the interval seemed an endless procession of slow, grey 4 00:00:50.969 --> 00:00:56.509 days and fevered nights, nights of intolerable length, in which 5 00:00:56.570 --> 00:01:00.189 she listened to the beating of the blood against her skull, 6 00:01:00.890 --> 00:01:09.450 now slow and rhythmical, now tempestuous and irregular. Endless nights 7 00:01:09.709 --> 00:01:14.530 in which sleep seemed the most unlikely thing that could happen, 8 00:01:15.230 --> 00:01:19.209 a miracle for which she had left off hoping. In 9 00:01:19.510 --> 00:01:23.930 all that time she had heard no more of Mrs. Rutherford, 10 00:01:24.629 --> 00:01:29.150 though the daily chronicle that kept note of every stranger 11 00:01:29.290 --> 00:01:38.090 in Rome still printed her name among the inmates of 12 00:01:38.189 --> 00:01:45.849 Hotel Margarita. She was angry and unforgiving. Unhappy mother, unhappy son. 13 00:01:46.829 --> 00:01:50.769 Two pairs of horses had to be exercised daily, but 14 00:01:50.870 --> 00:01:55.790 Vera had no orders for the stables. The monotonous parade 15 00:01:55.989 --> 00:02:00.599 in the Pincio which every other woman of means in 16 00:02:00.680 --> 00:02:04.250 Rome made a part of her daily life, had no 17 00:02:04.340 --> 00:02:12.210 attraction for Signor Provena's wife. The villa gardens, funeral in 18 00:02:12.250 --> 00:02:17.150 their winter foliage of ilex and arbutus, suffice for relief 19 00:02:17.370 --> 00:02:21.389 from their long hours within four walls. Wrapped in her 20 00:02:21.449 --> 00:02:25.729 sable coat, with the wind blowing upon her uncovered head, 21 00:02:26.569 --> 00:02:30.710 She paced the long terraces for hours on end, or 22 00:02:30.810 --> 00:02:34.430 sat like a statue on the marble bench that had 23 00:02:34.469 --> 00:02:38.750 been dug out of the ruins of Imperial Baths. But 24 00:02:38.849 --> 00:02:42.259 though she spent half her days in the gardens, she 25 00:02:42.340 --> 00:02:46.300 took no interest in them. She never stopped to watch 26 00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:50.879 the gardeners at work upon the flower beds, never questioned 27 00:02:50.919 --> 00:02:55.849 them about their preparations for the spring. Thousands of bulbs 28 00:02:55.990 --> 00:03:00.030 were planted daily, but she never wanted to learn what 29 00:03:00.150 --> 00:03:05.509 resurrection of vivid colors would come from those brown balls 30 00:03:06.030 --> 00:03:09.900 which the men were dropping into the earth. She walked 31 00:03:10.189 --> 00:03:14.379 about like a corpse alive. The men almost shrank from 32 00:03:14.460 --> 00:03:18.939 her as she passed them, as if they had seen 33 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:24.530 a ghost. She knew She could never forget that last 34 00:03:24.629 --> 00:03:30.000 meeting with her lover, the last, the very last. She 35 00:03:30.120 --> 00:03:34.000 sat with her arms folded on the marble balustrade, and 36 00:03:34.039 --> 00:03:37.919 her head resting on the folded arms, with her face 37 00:03:38.020 --> 00:03:42.310 hidden from the clear, cold light of a December afternoon. 38 00:03:44.509 --> 00:03:48.370 Her gaze was turned inward, and it was only with 39 00:03:48.430 --> 00:03:53.990 that inward gaze that she saw things distinctly. The outside 40 00:03:54.039 --> 00:03:58.409 world was blurred and dim, but the pictures memory made 41 00:03:58.610 --> 00:04:07.729 were vivid. She saw Claude's agonized look, saw the melancholy 42 00:04:08.050 --> 00:04:14.969 eyes gazing at her, the yearning love, the despairing renunciation. Mrs. 43 00:04:15.050 --> 00:04:19.329 Rutherford had called her cruel, but was not the cruelty 44 00:04:19.509 --> 00:04:25.910 far greater than submitted her to that heart-rending ordeal to 45 00:04:26.029 --> 00:04:30.790 sit brooding thus with her arms upon the cold marble 46 00:04:31.370 --> 00:04:35.180 had been so much a habit with her of late 47 00:04:35.720 --> 00:04:40.519 that in these melancholy reveries she had often lost count 48 00:04:40.660 --> 00:04:45.639 of time till the sound of some convent bell startled 49 00:04:45.699 --> 00:04:49.269 her as it told the lateness of the hour or 50 00:04:51.029 --> 00:04:55.129 till the creeping cold of sundown awoke her with a shiver. 51 00:04:55.990 --> 00:04:59.550 In that city of the church there were many bells, 52 00:05:00.310 --> 00:05:04.089 all with their particular call to prayer, and she could 53 00:05:04.170 --> 00:05:08.370 have told the progress of the day and night without 54 00:05:08.430 --> 00:05:12.149 the help of a clock. Now it was the bell 55 00:05:12.379 --> 00:05:17.500 of the Trinita de Mont for the office of benediction, 56 00:05:17.939 --> 00:05:22.449 distant and silvery sweet, in the clear air it was 57 00:05:22.670 --> 00:05:26.790 warning to go back to the house yet she did 58 00:05:26.850 --> 00:05:31.490 not stir solitude here with the cold wind blowing up 59 00:05:31.790 --> 00:05:35.750 upon her and the twitter of birds among the branches 60 00:05:36.350 --> 00:05:40.959 was better than the atmosphere of those silent rooms she 61 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:44.339 raised her head at the sound of a footstep not 62 00:05:44.420 --> 00:05:48.120 the leisurely tread of one of the gardeners heavy and 63 00:05:48.220 --> 00:05:52.790 slow This step was light and rapid, so rapid that 64 00:05:52.819 --> 00:05:56.529 before she had time to wonder, it had stopped close 65 00:05:56.649 --> 00:06:00.730 beside her, and two strong arms were holding her, and quick, 66 00:06:01.329 --> 00:06:06.689 sobbing breath was fluttering in her hair. Don't be frightened, Vera, 67 00:06:06.730 --> 00:06:11.490 my angel, my beloved. She tried to release herself, tried 68 00:06:11.529 --> 00:06:15.579 to stand upright, but the passionate arms