WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:05.360 Section twenty five. He had reached his hotel. He crossed the hall with 2 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:09.320 its mounds of reddish chairs and sofas, its spiked, leaved, withered looking 3 00:00:09.359 --> 00:00:13.640 plants. He got his key off the hook. The young lady handed him 4 00:00:13.679 --> 00:00:17.519 some letters. He went upstairs. He saw her most often at Burton in 5 00:00:17.559 --> 00:00:21.039 the late summer, when he stayed there for a week or fortnight, even 6 00:00:21.320 --> 00:00:24.920 as people did in those days. First, on top of some hill there 7 00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:29.039 she would stand, hands clapped to her hair, her cloak blowing out, 8 00:00:29.199 --> 00:00:33.679 pointing, crying to them. She saw the seven beneath or in a wood, 9 00:00:34.039 --> 00:00:39.000 making the kettle boil very ineffective with her fingers, the smoke curtsying, 10 00:00:39.119 --> 00:00:43.600 blowing in their faces, her little pink face showing through, begging water from 11 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:46.679 an old woman in a cottage who came to the door to watch them go. 12 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:52.520 They walked always, the others drove. She was board driving, disliked 13 00:00:52.520 --> 00:00:57.240 all animals except that dog. They tramped miles along roads. She would break 14 00:00:57.240 --> 00:01:00.439 off to get her bearings pilot him back across country. And all the time 15 00:01:00.479 --> 00:01:06.400 they argued, discussed poetry, discussed people, discussed politics. She was a 16 00:01:06.519 --> 00:01:11.200 radical then, never noticing a thing except when she stopped, cried out at 17 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:14.840 a view or a tree, and made him look with her, and so 18 00:01:14.959 --> 00:01:19.079 on again through stubble fields, she walking ahead with a flower of her aunt, 19 00:01:19.640 --> 00:01:23.799 never tired of walking, for all her delicacy to drop down on Burton 20 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:26.680 in the dusk. Then after dinner, Old Bretkopf would open the piano and 21 00:01:26.719 --> 00:01:30.640 sing without any voice, and they would lie sunk in armchairs, trying not 22 00:01:30.719 --> 00:01:36.200 to laugh, but always breaking down and laughing, laughing, laughing at nothing 23 00:01:36.799 --> 00:01:40.599 brett Kopf was supposed not to see. And then in the morning, flirting 24 00:01:40.719 --> 00:01:44.200 up and down like a wagtail in front of the house. Oh, it 25 00:01:44.280 --> 00:01:48.680 was a letter from her, this blue envelope that was her hand, and 26 00:01:48.760 --> 00:01:52.640 he would have to read it. Here was another of those meetings, bound 27 00:01:52.680 --> 00:01:57.640 to be painful to read her letter needed the devil of an effort, how 28 00:01:57.680 --> 00:02:01.079 heavenly it was to see him. She must tell him that that was all. 29 00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:07.079 But it upset him, It annoyed him. He wished she hadn't written 30 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:08.919 it. Coming on top of his thoughts. It was like a nudge in 31 00:02:08.960 --> 00:02:13.879 the ribs. Why couldn't she let him be? After all, she had 32 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:17.840 married Dollaway and lived with him in perfect happiness all these years. These hotels 33 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:23.400 are not consoling places, far from it. Any number of people had hung 34 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:25.599 up their hats on those pegs. Even the flies, if you thought of 35 00:02:25.639 --> 00:02:30.439 it, had settled on other people's noses. As for the cleanliness which hit 36 00:02:30.520 --> 00:02:34.319 him in the face, it wasn't cleanliness so much as baareness, frigidity, 37 00:02:34.719 --> 00:02:38.080 a thing that had to be some arid matron made her rounds at dawn, 38 00:02:38.199 --> 00:02:43.520 sniffing, peering, causing blue nosed maids to scour for all the world, 39 00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:46.719 as if the next visitor were a joint of meat to be served on a 40 00:02:46.719 --> 00:02:51.639 perfectly clean platter. For sleep, one bed for sitting in, one armchair, 41 00:02:52.039 --> 00:02:54.840 for cleaning one's teeth and shaving one's chin, one tumbler, one looking 42 00:02:54.879 --> 00:03:00.639 glass, books, letters, dressing gowns slipped about on the imper personality of 43 00:03:00.680 --> 00:03:06.159 the horsehair like incongruous impertinences. And it was Clarissa's letter that made him see 44 00:03:06.159 --> 00:03:10.000 all this heavenly to see you, she must say. So he folded the 45 00:03:10.039 --> 00:03:14.719 paper, pushed it away. Nothing would induce him to read it again. 46 00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:17.840 To get that letter to him. By six o'clock she must have sat down 47 00:03:17.879 --> 00:03:23.439 and written it. Directly he left her stamped it sent somebody to the post. 48 00:03:23.960 --> 00:03:27.680 It was, as people say, very like her. She was upset 49 00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:30.240 by his visit. She had felt a great deal had for a moment when 50 00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:36.120 she kissed his hand, regretted, envied him, even remembered, possibly for 51 00:03:36.240 --> 00:03:38.879 he saw her look it something he had said, how they would change the 52 00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:45.360 world if she married him. Perhaps whereas it was this, it was middle 53 00:03:45.400 --> 00:03:50.840 age, it was mediocrity. Then forced herself, with her indomitable vitality, 54 00:03:50.879 --> 00:03:53.080 to put all that aside, there being in her a thread of life which 55 00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:59.000 for toughness, endurance, power to overcome obstacles and carry her triumphantly through. 56 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:02.439 He had never known the like of yes. But there would calm a reaction. 57 00:04:02.639 --> 00:04:06.520 Directly he left the room. She would be frightfully sorry for him. 58 00:04:06.919 --> 00:04:10.680 She would think what in the world she could do to give him pleasure, 59 00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:14.520 short always of the one thing. And he could see her, with the 60 00:04:14.599 --> 00:04:17.720 tears running down her cheeks, going to her writing table and dashing off that 61 00:04:17.839 --> 00:04:21.600 one line which he was to find, greeting him heavenly to see you, 62 00:04:23.279 --> 00:04:28.279 and she meant it. Peter walsho Hald now unlaced his boots, but it 63 00:04:28.319 --> 00:04:31.319 would not have been a success. Their marriage, the other thing, after 64 00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:36.759 all, came so much more naturally. It was odd, it was true, 65 00:04:36.920 --> 00:04:42.000 lots of people felt it. Peter Walsh, who had done just respectably, 66 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:46.439 filled the usual posts adequately, was liked, but thought a little cranky, 67 00:04:46.600 --> 00:04:49.560 gave himself airs. It was odd that he should have had, especially 68 00:04:49.560 --> 00:04:54.240 now that his hair was gray. A contented look, a look of having 69 00:04:54.319 --> 00:04:58.199 reserves. It was this that made him attractive to women, who liked the 70 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:01.399 sense that he was not altogether manly. There was something unusual about him, 71 00:05:01.639 --> 00:05:05.600 or something behind him. It might be that he was bookish, never came 72 00:05:05.639 --> 00:05:10.160 to see you without taking up the book on the table he was now reading 73 00:05:10.199 --> 00:05:13.600 with his bootlac's trailing on the floor, or that he was a gentleman, 74 00:05:13.720 --> 00:05:15.800 which showed itself in the way he knocked the ashes out of his pipe, 75 00:05:16.160 --> 00:05:19.360 and in his manners. Of course, to women, for it was very 76 00:05:19.439 --> 00:05:24.879 charming and quite ridiculous how easily some girl without a grain of sense could twist 77 00:05:24.959 --> 00:05:28.720 him round her finger. But at her own risk, that is to say, 78 00:05:29.240 --> 00:05:31.839 though he might be ever so easy, and indeed, with his gaiety 79 00:05:31.879 --> 00:05:35.600 and good breeding, fascinating to be with. It was only up to a 80 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:41.399 point she said something. No, no, He saw through that. He 81 00:05:41.439 --> 00:05:45.879 wouldn't stand that. No No. Then he could shout and rock and hold 82 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:48.839 his sides together over some joke with men. He was the best judge of 83 00:05:48.879 --> 00:05:54.040 cooking in India. He was a man, but not the sort of man 84 00:05:54.120 --> 00:05:58.000 one had to respect, which was a mercy, Not like Major Simmons, 85 00:05:58.079 --> 00:06:00.199 for instance, Not in the least like that, Daisy thought, when, 86 00:06:00.600 --> 00:06:05.160 in spite of her two small children she used to compare them. He pulled 87 00:06:05.160 --> 00:06:10.879 off his boots, he emptied his pockets. Out came with his pocket knife 88 00:06:10.920 --> 00:06:14.680 a snap shot of Daisy on the verandah, Daisy all in white with a 89 00:06:14.720 --> 00:06:18.040 fox terrier on her knee, very charming, very dark, the best he 90 00:06:18.040 --> 00:06:21.839 had ever seen of her. It did come, after all, so naturally, 91 00:06:23.319 --> 00:06:27.079 so much more naturally than Clarissa. No fuss, no bother, no 92 00:06:27.240 --> 00:06:30.959 finicking and fidgeting, all plain sailing and the dark, adorably pretty girl on 93 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:35.360 the veranda, exclaimed he could hear her. Of course, of course she 94 00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:39.839 would give him everything, she cried, She had no sense of discretion. 95 00:06:40.160 --> 00:06:43.600 Everything he wanted, she cried, running to meet him. Whoever might be 96 00:06:43.639 --> 00:06:47.240 looking and she was only twenty four, and she had two children. Well 97 00:06:47.279 --> 00:06:50.720 well, well, indeed, he had got himself into a mess at his 98 00:06:50.839 --> 00:06:55.319 age, and it came over him when he woke in the night pretty forcibly. 99 00:06:55.680 --> 00:06:58.839 Suppose they did marry for him, it would be all very well, 100 00:06:59.160 --> 00:07:02.680 But what about her, missus Burgess, a good sort and no chatterbox in 101 00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:08.000 whom he had confided. Thought this absence of his in England, ostensibly to 102 00:07:08.040 --> 00:07:12.879 see lawyers, might serve to make Daisy reconsider think what it meant. It 103 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:15.519 was a question of her position, missus Burgess, said, the social barrier, 104 00:07:15.639 --> 00:07:18.959 giving up her children, she'd be a widow with a past one of 105 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:25.439 these days, draggling about in the suburbs, or more likely indiscriminate, you 106 00:07:25.560 --> 00:07:28.800 know, she said, what such women get like with too much paint. 107 00:07:29.720 --> 00:07:32.319 But Peter Walsh poo pooed all that. He didn't mean to die yet. 108 00:07:32.879 --> 00:07:36.160 Anyhow, she must settle for herself, judge for herself. He thought, 109 00:07:36.480 --> 00:07:41.160 padding about the room in his socks, smoothing out his dress shirt. For 110 00:07:41.240 --> 00:07:44.240 he might go to Clarissa's party, or he might go to one of the 111 00:07:44.279 --> 00:07:46.959 halls, or he might settle in and read an absorbing book written by a 112 00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:50.160 man he used to know at Oxford. And if he did retire, that's 113 00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:55.199 what he'd do, write books. He would go to Oxford and poke about 114 00:07:55.240 --> 00:07:59.360 in the bodily and vainly. The dark, adorable pretty girl ran to the 115 00:07:59.439 --> 00:08:03.639 end of the terror, vainly waved her hand, vainly cried. She didn't 116 00:08:03.680 --> 00:08:07.680 care a straw what people said. There. He was the man she thought, 117 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:11.759 the world of the perfect gentleman, the fascinating that distinguished, and his 118 00:08:11.839 --> 00:08:15.480 age made not the least difference to her. Padding about a room in an 119 00:08:15.480 --> 00:08:20.160 hotel in Bloomsbury, shaving washing, continuing as he took up cairns, put 120 00:08:20.199 --> 00:08:24.040 down razors, to poke about in the Bodilian and get at the truth about 121 00:08:24.040 --> 00:08:26.519 one or two little matters that interested him. And he would have a chat 122 00:08:26.519 --> 00:08:31.839 with whoever it might be, and so come to disregard more and more precise 123 00:08:31.920 --> 00:08:35.120 hours for lunch and mise engagements. And when Daisy asked him as she would 124 00:08:35.240 --> 00:08:39.039 for a kiss, a scene failed to come up to the scratch, though 125 00:08:39.080 --> 00:08:43.080 he was genuinely devoted to her. In short, it might be happier as 126 00:08:43.080 --> 00:08:48.799 missus Burgess said that she should forget him or merely remember him as he was 127 00:08:48.840 --> 00:08:52.759 in August nineteen twenty two, like a figure standing at the cross roads at 128 00:08:52.840 --> 00:08:56.000 dusk, which grows more and more remote as the dog cart spins away, 129 00:08:56.039 --> 00:09:01.720 carrying her securely fastened to the back seat, though her arms are outstretched, 130 00:09:01.720 --> 00:09:05.639 and as she sees the figure dwindle and disappear, still she cries out how 131 00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:09.879 she would do anything in the world, anything, anything, anything. He 132 00:09:09.960 --> 00:09:15.120 never knew what people thought. It became more and more difficult for him to 133 00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:20.399 concentrate. He became absorbed, He became busied with his own concerns, now 134 00:09:20.480 --> 00:09:26.240 surly, now gay, dependent on women, absent minded, moody, less 135 00:09:26.279 --> 00:09:30.639 and less able. So he thought as he shaved, to understand why Clarissa 136 00:09:30.679 --> 00:09:33.679 couldn't simply find them a lodging and be nice to Daisy, introduce her, 137 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:39.919 and then he could just just do what, just haunt and hover. He 138 00:09:39.080 --> 00:09:43.799 was at the moment, actually engaged in sorting out various keys, papers, 139 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:50.159 swoop and taste, be alone, in short, sufficient to himself, and 140 00:09:50.279 --> 00:09:52.720 yet nobody, of course, was more dependent upon others. He buttoned his 141 00:09:52.759 --> 00:09:56.960 waistcoat. It had been his undoing. He could not keep out of smoking 142 00:09:58.039 --> 00:10:01.679 rooms, liked colonels, liked golf, liked bridge, and above all women's 143 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:07.000 society, and the fineness of their companionship, and their faithfulness and audacity and 144 00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:11.320 greatness in loving, which, though it had its drawbacks, seemed to him. 145 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:15.759 And the dark, adorably pretty face was on top of the envelopes, 146 00:10:16.399 --> 00:10:20.639 so wholly admirable, so splendid a flower to grow on the crest of human 147 00:10:20.679 --> 00:10:24.200 life, And yet he could not come up to the scratch, being always 148 00:10:24.279 --> 00:10:28.159 apt to see round things. Clarissa had sapped something in him permanently, and 149 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:33.120 to tire very easily of mute devotion, and to want variety in love, 150 00:10:33.480 --> 00:10:37.720 though it would make him furious if Daisy loved anybody else, furious, for 151 00:10:37.799 --> 00:10:41.519 he was jealous, and controllably jealous. By temperament. He suffered tortures. 152 00:10:43.120 --> 00:10:46.200 But where was his knife, his watch, his seals, his note case, 153 00:10:46.320 --> 00:10:48.360 and Clarissa's letter, which he would not read again but liked to think 154 00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:54.440 of, and Daisy's photograph? And now for dinner. They were eating, 155 00:10:54.480 --> 00:10:58.440 sitting at little tables round vases, dressed or not dressed, with their shawls 156 00:10:58.440 --> 00:11:03.440 and bags laid beside them, with their air of false composure, for they 157 00:11:03.480 --> 00:11:07.360 were not used to so many courses at dinner and confidence, for they were 158 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:09.600 able to pay for it and strain, for they had been running about London 159 00:11:09.639 --> 00:11:15.320 all day, shopping, sightseeing, and their natural curiosity, for they looked 160 00:11:15.399 --> 00:11:18.360 round and up as the nice looking gentlemen in horn rimmed spectacles came in, 161 00:11:18.759 --> 00:11:22.639 and their good nature, for they would have been glad to do any little 162 00:11:22.639 --> 00:11:28.200 service such as lender, timetable or impart useful information, and their desire pulsing 163 00:11:28.200 --> 00:11:33.039 in them, tugging at them subterraneously, somehow to establish connections, if it 164 00:11:33.080 --> 00:11:37.840 were only a birthplace Liverpool, for example, in common or friends of the 165 00:11:37.879 --> 00:11:43.200 same name, with their furtive glances, odd silences and sudden withdrawals into family 166 00:11:43.279 --> 00:11:48.080 jocularity and isolation. There they sat eating dinner when mister Walsh came in and 167 00:11:48.120 --> 00:11:52.080 took his seat at a little table by the curtain. It was not that 168 00:11:52.159 --> 00:11:54.759 he had said anything, for being solitary, he could only address himself to 169 00:11:54.799 --> 00:11:58.399 the waiter. It was his way of looking at the menu, of pointing 170 00:11:58.399 --> 00:12:03.200 his forefings to a particular whine, of hitching himself up to the table, 171 00:12:03.399 --> 00:12:07.879 of addressing himself seriously, not gluttonously, to dinner that won him their respect, 172 00:12:09.440 --> 00:12:11.720 which, having to remain unexpressed for the greater part of the meal, 173 00:12:13.039 --> 00:12:16.240 flared up at the table where the Morrises sat when mister Walsh was heard to 174 00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:20.679 say, at the end of the meal bartlet Pears, why he should have 175 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:24.720 spoken so moderately yet firmly, with the air of a disciplinarian, well within 176 00:12:24.759 --> 00:12:30.000 his rights which are founded upon justice. Neither Young Charles Morris nor Old Charles, 177 00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:33.679 neither Miss Elaine nor Missus Morris knew. But when he said Bartlet Pears, 178 00:12:33.799 --> 00:12:37.360 sitting alone at his table, they felt that he counted on their support 179 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:41.679 in some lawful demand, was champion of a cause which immediately became their own, 180 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:46.000 So that their eyes met his eyes sympathetically, And when they all reached 181 00:12:46.039 --> 00:12:52.360 the smoking room simultaneously, a little talk between them became inevitable. It was 182 00:12:52.399 --> 00:12:56.559 not very profound, only to the effect that London was crowded, had changed 183 00:12:56.559 --> 00:13:00.600 in thirty years, that mister Morris preferred Liverpool, that Missus as Marris had 184 00:13:00.600 --> 00:13:03.240 been to the Westminster Flower Show, and that they had all seen the Prince 185 00:13:03.279 --> 00:13:07.919 of Wales. Yet, thought Peter Walsh, no family in the world could 186 00:13:07.960 --> 00:13:11.480 compare with the Morrises none whatever, and their relations to each other are perfect, 187 00:13:11.720 --> 00:13:15.759 and they don't care a hang for the upper classes, and they like 188 00:13:15.840 --> 00:13:18.159 what they like. And Elane is training for the family business, and the 189 00:13:18.200 --> 00:13:22.600 boy has won a scholarship at Leeds, and the old lady, who is 190 00:13:22.639 --> 00:13:26.120 about his own age, had three more children at home, and they have 191 00:13:26.200 --> 00:13:30.200 two motor cars. But mister Morris still mends the boots on Sunday. It 192 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:33.720 is superb. It is absolutely superb, thought Peter Walsh, swaying a little 193 00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:37.159 backwards and forwards with his liqueur glass in his hand, among the hairy red 194 00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:41.720 chairs and ashtrays, feeling very well pleased with himself. For the Morrises liked 195 00:13:41.759 --> 00:13:46.840 him. Yes, they liked a man who said Bartlet pears. They liked 196 00:13:46.919 --> 00:13:50.039 him. He felt he would go to Clarissa's party. The Morris has moved 197 00:13:50.039 --> 00:13:54.559 off, but they would meet again. He would go to Clarissa's party because 198 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:58.840 he wanted to ask Richard what they were doing in India, the conservative Duffers, 199 00:13:58.360 --> 00:14:03.879 and what's being acted? And music, oh yes, and mere gossip. 200 00:14:03.759 --> 00:14:07.480 For this is the truth about our soul, he thought, ourself. 201 00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:13.159 Who fish like inhabits deep seas and plies among obscurities, threading her way between 202 00:14:13.159 --> 00:14:16.679 the bowls of giant weeds, over sun flickered spaces, and on and on 203 00:14:16.799 --> 00:14:22.919 into gloom, cold, deep, inscrutable. Suddenly she shoots to the surface 204 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:26.639 and sports on the wind wrinkled waves that has a positive need to brush, 205 00:14:26.879 --> 00:14:33.639 scrape, kindle herself, gossiping what did the government mean Richard Dollaway would know 206 00:14:33.080 --> 00:14:41.000 to do about India? End of section twenty five read by Hannadorma, London, 207 00:14:41.480 --> 00:14:48.240 twenty fourth of October twenty twenty one.