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The Triumph of Night by Edith Wharton, Chapter one. It was clear that

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the sleigh from Waymore had not come, and the shivering young traveler from Boston,

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who had so confidently counted on jumping
into it when he left the train

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at Northridge Junction, found himself standing
alone on the open platform, exposed to

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the full assault of nightfall and winter. The blast that swept him came off

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New Hampshire snow fields and ice hung
forests. It seemed to have traversed interminable

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leagues of frozen silence, filling them
with the same cold roar, and sharpening

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its edge against the same bitter black
and white landscape. Dark, searching and

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sword like, it alternately muffled and
harried its victim, like a bullfighter,

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now whirling his cloak and now planting
his darts. This analogy brought home to

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the young man the fact that he
himself had no cloak, and that the

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overcoat in which he had faced the
relatively temperate airs of Boston seemed no thicker

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than a sheet of paper. On
the bleak heights of Northridge, George Faxon

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said to himself that the place was
uncommonly well named. It clung to an

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exposed ledge over the valley from which
the train had lifted him, and the

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wind combed it with teeth of steel
that he seemed actually to hear scraping against

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the wooden sides of the station other
building there was none. The village lay

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far down the road, and thither
since the Waymore sleigh had not come,

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Faxxon saw himself under the immediate necessity
of plodding through several feet of snow.

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He understood well enough what had happened
at Waymore. His hostess had forgotten that

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he was coming. Young as Faxon
was, this sad lucidity of soul had

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been acquired as the result of long
experience, and he knew that the visitors

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who can least afford to hire a
carriage are almost always those whom their hosts

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forget to send for Yet to say
missus Colmbe had forgotten him was perhaps too

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crude a way of putting it.
Similar incidents led him to think that she

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had probably told her maid to tell
the butler to telephone the coachman to tell

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one of the grooms if no one
else needed him to drive over to Northridge

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to fetch the new secretary. But
on a night like this what groom who

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respected his rights would fail to forget
the order. Faxxon's obvious course was to

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struggle through the drifts to the village
and their route out a slay to convey

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him to way More. But if
on his arrival at Missus Colmbs no one

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remembered to ask him what this devotion
to duty had cost, that again,

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was one of the contingencies he had
expensively learned to look out for, and

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the perspicacity so acquired told him it
would be cheaper to spend the night at

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the north Ridge Inn and advise Missus
Colm of his presence thereby telephone. He

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had reached this decision and was about
to entrust his luggage to a vague man

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with a lantern who seemed to have
some loose connection with the railway company,

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when his hopes were raised by the
sound of sleigh bells. Two vehicles were

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just dashing up to the station,
and from the foremost there sprang a young

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man swathed in furs Way Moore,
No, these are not the way More

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sleighs. The voice was that of
the youth who had jumped to the platform,

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a voice so agreeable that in spite
of the words, it fell reassuringly

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on Faxxon's ears. At the same
moment, the wandering station lantern, casting

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a transient light on the speaker,
showed his features to be in the pleasantest

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harmony with his voice. He was
very fair and very young, hardly in

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the twenties, Facsen thought, But
his face, though full of a morning

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freshness, was a trifle too thin
and fine drawn, as though a vivid

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spirit contended in him with a strain
of physical weakness. Faxxon was perhaps the

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quicker to notice such delicacies of balance, because his own temperament hung on lightly

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vibrating nerves, which, yet,
as he believed, would never quite swing

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him beyond the arc of a normal
sensibility. You expected a slave from waymore.

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The youth continued standing beside Faxxon like
a slender column of fur. Missus

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Colmb's secretary explained his difficulty, and
the newcomer brushed it aside with a contemptuous

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oh, missus Colmb that carried both
speakers a long way toward reciprocal understanding.

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But then you must be, the
youth broke off with a smile of interrogation.

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The new secretary, yes, but
apparently there are no notes to be

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answered. This evening. Faxon's laugh
deepened the sense of solidarity which had so

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promptly established itself between the two.
The newcomer laughed also. Missus colmb,

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he explained, was lunching at my
uncle's today, and she said you were

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due this evening. But seven hours
is a long time for missus Colmbe to

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remember anything. Well, said Faxon, philosophically, I suppose that's one of

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the reasons why she needs a secretary. And I've always the inn at Northridge,

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he concluded. The youth laughed again. He was at the age when

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predicaments are food for gaiety. Oh
but you haven't, though it burned down

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last week the deuce it did,
said Faxon. But the humor of the

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situation struck him also before its inconvenience. His life for years past had been

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mainly a succession of resigned adaptations,
and he had learned, before dealing practically

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with his embarrassments, to extract from
most of them a small tribute of amusement.

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Oh well, there's sure to be
somebody in the place who can put

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me up. No one you could
put up with. Besides, Northridge is

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three miles off, and our place
in the opposite direction is a little nearer.

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Through the darkness, Faxon saw his
friend sketch a gesture of self introduction.

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My name's Frank Rayner, and I'm
staying with my uncle at Overdale.

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I've driven over to meet two friends
of his who are due in a few

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minutes from New York. If you
don't mind waiting till they arrive, I'm

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sure Overdale can do you better than
Northridge. We're only down from town for

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a few days, but the house
is always is ready for a lot of

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people. But your uncle Faxon could
only object with the odd sense through his

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embarrassment, that it would be magically
dispelled by his invisible friends. Next words,

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Oh my uncle, you'll see I
answer for him. I dare say

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you've heard of him? John Lavington, John Lavington. There was a certain

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irony in asking if one had heard
of John Lavington, even from a post

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of observation as obscure as that of
Missus Colmbe's secretary. The rumor of John

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Lavington's money, of his pictures,
his politics, his charities, and his

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hospitality was as difficult to escape as
the roar of a cataract in a mountain

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solitude. It might almost have been
said that the one place in which one

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would not have expected to come upon
him was in just such a solitude as

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now surrounded the speakers, at least
in this deepest hour of its desertedness.

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But it was just like Avington's brilliant
ubiquity to put one in the wrong even

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there. Oh, yes, I've
heard of your uncle. Then you will

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come, won't you. We've only
five minutes to wait. Young Rayner urged

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in the tone that dispels scruples by
ignoring them, and Faxxon found himself accepting

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the invitation as simply as it was
offered. A delay in the arrival of

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the New York train lengthened their five
minutes to fifteen, and as they paced

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the icy platform, Faxxon began to
see why it had seemed the most natural

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thing in the world to accede to
his new acquaintance's suggestion. It was because

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Frank Rayner was one of the privileged
beings who simplify human intercourse by the atmosphere

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of confidence and good humor they diffuse. He produced this effect, Faxxon noted

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by the exercise of no gift save
his youth, of no art save his

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sincerity. But these qualities were revealed
in a smile of such appealing sweetness that

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Faxon felt as never before what nature
can achieve when she deigns to match the

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face with the mind. He learned
that the young man was the ward and

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only nephew of John Lavington, with
whom he had made his home since the

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death of his mother. The great
man's sister, Mister Lavington, Rayner said,

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had been a regular brick to him, But then he is to everyone

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you know, And the young fellow's
situation seemed, in fact to be perfectly

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in keeping with his person. Apparently
the only shade that had ever rested on

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him was cast by the physical weakness
which Faxon had already detected. Young Rayner

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had been threatened with a disease of
the lungs, which, according to the

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highest authorities, made banishment to Arizona
or New Mexico inevitable. But luckily my

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uncle didn't pack me off as most
people would have done without getting another opinion.

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Whose Oh, an awfully clever chap, a young doctor with a lot

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of new ideas, who simply laughed
at my being sent away and said I'd

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do perfectly well in New York,
if I didn't dine out too much,

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and if I dashed off occasionally to
Northridge for little fresh air. So it's

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really my uncle's doing that. I'm
not in exile, and I feel no

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end better since the new chap told
me I needn't bother young Rayner went on

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to confess that he was extremely fond
of dining out, dancing, and other

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urban distractions, and facts and listening
to him, concluded that the physician who

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had refused to cut him off altogether
from these pleasures was probably a better psychologist

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than his seniors. All the same, you ought to be careful, you

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know, the sense of elder brotherly
concern that forced the words from facts and

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made him, as he spoke,
slip his arm impulsively through Frank Rayner's.

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The latter met the movement with a
responsive pressure. Oh, I am awfully,

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awfully, And then my uncle has
such an eye on me. But

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if your uncle has such an eye
on you, what does he say to

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your swallowing knives out here in the
Siberian wild? Rayner raised his fur coat

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with a careless gesture. It's not
that that does it. The cold's good

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for me, and it's not the
dinners and dances. What is it,

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then, Faxxon good humoredly insisted,
to which his companion answered with a laugh,

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Well, my uncle says it's being
bored, and I rather think he's

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right. His laugh ended in a
spasm of coughing and a struggle for breath

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that made Facxen, still holding his
arm, guide him hastily into the shelter

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of the fireless waiting room. Young
Rainer had dropped down on the bench against

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the wall and pulled off one of
his fur gloves to grope for a handkerchief.

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He tossed aside his cap and drew
the handkerchief across his forehead, which

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was intensely white and beaded with moisture, though his face retained a healthy glow.

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But Faxxen's gaze remained fastened to the
hand he had uncovered. It was

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so long, so colorless, so
wasted, so much older than the brow.

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He passed it over. It's queer, a healthy face, but dying

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hands. The secretary mused, he
somehow wished Young Rainer had kept on his

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glove. The whistle of the express
drew the young men to their feet,

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and the next moment two heavily furred
gentlemen had descended to the platform and were

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breasting the rigor of the night.
Frank Rayner introduced to them as mister Grisbon

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and mister Balch and Faxxen while their
luggage was being lifted into the second sleigh,

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discerned them by the roving lantern gleam
to be an elderly, gray headed

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pair, apparently of the average prosperous
business cut. They saluted their host's nephew

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with friendly familiarity, and mister Grisbon, who seemed the spokesman of the two,

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ended his greeting with a genial and
many more of them dear boy,

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which suggested to Faxon that their arrival
coincided with an anniversary, but he could

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not express the inquiry for the seat
allotted him was at the coachman's side,

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while Frank Rayner joined his uncle's guests
inside the sleigh. A swift flight behind

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such horses as one could be sure
of, John Lavington's having brought them to

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tall gate posts, an illuminated lodge, and an avenue on which the snow

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had been leveled to the smoothness of
marble. At the end of the avenue.

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The long house loomed through trees,
its principal bulk dark, but one

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wing sending out a ray of welcome, and the next moment Faxon was receiving

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a violent impression of warmth and light, of hot house plants, hurrying servants,

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a vast spectacular oak hall like a
stage setting, and in its unreal

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middle distance, a small, concise
figure, correctly dressed, conventionally featured,

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and utterly unlike his rather floored conception
of the great John Lavington. The shock

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of the contrast remained with him through
his hurried dressing in the large, impersonally

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luxurious bedroom to which he had been
shown. I don't see where he comes

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in was the only way he could
put it. So difficult was it to

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fit the exuberance of Lavington's public personality
into his host's contracted frame and manner.

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Mister Lavington, to whom Faxon's case
had been rapidly explained by young Rayner,

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had welcomed him with a sort of
dry and stilted cordiality that exactly matched his

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narrow face, his stiff hand,
the whiff of scent on his evening handkerchief.

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Make yourself at home, at home, he had repeated, in a

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tone that suggested on his own part
a complete inability to perform the feat.

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He urged on his visitor, any
friend of Frank's, delighted, make yourself

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thoroughly at home Chapter two. In
spite of the balmy temperature and complicated conveniences

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of Faxon's bedroom, the injunction was
not easy to obey. It was wonderful

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luck to have found a night's shelter
under the opulent roof of Overdale, and

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he tasted the physical satisfaction to the
full. But the place, for all

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its ingenuities of comfort, was oddly
cold and unwelcoming. He couldn't have said

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why, and could only suppose that
mister Lavington's intense personality, intensely negative,

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but intense all the same, must, in some occult way have penetrated every

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corner of his dwelling. Perhaps,
though, it was merely that Faxon himself

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was tired and hungry, more deeply
chilled than he had known till he came

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in from the cold and unutterably sick
of all strange houses and of the prospect

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of perpetually treading other people's stairs.
I hope you're not famished. Rayner's slim

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figure was in the doorway. My
uncle has a little business to attend to

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with mister Grisbon, and we don't
dine for half an hour. Shall I

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fetch you or can you find your
way down? Come straight to the dining

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room the second floor, on the
left of the long gowry. He disappeared,

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leaving a ray of warmth behind him, and Faxxen relieved, lit a

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cigarette and sat down by the fire. Looking about with less haste, he

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was struck by a detail that had
escaped him. The room was full of

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flowers, a mere bachelor's room in
the wing of a house opened only for

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a few days in the dead middle
of a new Hampshire winter. Flowers were

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everywhere, not in senseless profusion,
but placed with the same conscious art he

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had remarked in the grouping of the
blossoming shrubs that filled the hall. A

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vase of rams stood on the writing
table, a cluster of strange hued carnations

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on the stand at his elbow,
and from wide bowls of glass and porcelain,

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clumps of freesia bulbs diffused their melting
fragrance. The fact implied acres of

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glass, but that was the least
interesting part of it. The flowers themselves,

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their quality, selection and arrangement,
attested on someone's part, and on

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whose but John Lavington's a solicitous and
sensitive passion for that particular embodiment of beauty.

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Well, it simply made the man, as he had appeared to Faxon,

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00:17:59,759 --> 00:18:03,920
all the harder to understand. The
half hour elapsed, and Faxxen,

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00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:08,480
rejoicing at the near prospect of food, set out to make his way to

203
00:18:08,559 --> 00:18:14,839
the dining room. He had not
noticed the direction he had followed in going

204
00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:18,279
to his room, and was puzzled
when he left it to find that two

205
00:18:18,319 --> 00:18:26,119
staircases of apparently equal importance invited him. He chose the one to the right

206
00:18:26,400 --> 00:18:30,920
and reached at its foot a long
gallery such as Rayner had described. The

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00:18:32,039 --> 00:18:37,559
gallery was empty, the doors down
its length were closed, but Rayner had

208
00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:41,720
said the second to the left,
and Faxxon, after pausing for some chance

209
00:18:41,880 --> 00:18:47,720
enlightenment, which did not come,
laid his hand on the second knob to

210
00:18:47,799 --> 00:18:52,920
the left. The room he entered
was square, with dusky picture hung walls

211
00:18:52,960 --> 00:18:59,720
in its center, about a table
lit by veiled lamps. He fancied mister

212
00:18:59,839 --> 00:19:06,119
Lavington and his guests to be already
seated at dinner. Then he perceived that

213
00:19:06,200 --> 00:19:10,680
the table was covered not with viands, but with papers, and that he

214
00:19:10,759 --> 00:19:15,440
had blundered into what seemed to be
his host's study. As he paused in

215
00:19:15,519 --> 00:19:22,240
the irresolution of embarrassment, Frank Rayner
looked up. Oh, there's mister Faxon.

216
00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:26,359
Why not ask him? Mister Lavington, from the end of the table,

217
00:19:26,559 --> 00:19:32,119
reflected his nephew's smile in a glance
of impartial benevolence. Certainly come in,

218
00:19:32,200 --> 00:19:36,319
mister Faxon, if you won't think
it a liberty. Mister Grisbon,

219
00:19:36,519 --> 00:19:41,240
who sat opposite his host, turned
his solid head toward the door. Of

220
00:19:41,279 --> 00:19:45,240
course, mister Faxon's an American citizen. Frank Rayner laughed, that's all right,

221
00:19:45,519 --> 00:19:48,799
Oh no, not one of your
pin pointed pens, Uncle Jack.

222
00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:53,920
Haven't you got a quill somewhere.
Mister Balch, who spoke slowly and as

223
00:19:53,960 --> 00:19:59,759
if reluctantly, in a muffled voice
of which there seemed to be very little

224
00:19:59,799 --> 00:20:03,960
le left, raised his hand to
say, one moment you acknowledge this to

225
00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:08,960
be my last will and testament.
Rayner's laugh redoubled. Well, I won't

226
00:20:10,039 --> 00:20:12,880
answer for the last. It's the
first one. Anyway, it's a mere

227
00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:18,160
formula. Mister Balch explained, well, here goes. Rayner dipped his quill

228
00:20:18,319 --> 00:20:23,119
in the inkstand his uncle had pushed
in his direction, and asked a gallant

229
00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:30,440
signature across the document. Facson,
understanding what was expected of him and conjecturing

230
00:20:30,519 --> 00:20:36,160
that the young man was signing his
will on the attainment of his majority,

231
00:20:36,440 --> 00:20:41,599
had placed himself behind mister Grisbon and
stood awaiting his turn to affix his name

232
00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:47,759
to the instrument. Rayner, having
signed, was about to push the paper

233
00:20:47,799 --> 00:20:52,440
across the table to mister Balch,
but the latter, again raising his hand,

234
00:20:52,839 --> 00:20:56,960
said in his sad, imprisoned voice, the seal. Oh does there

235
00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:03,079
have to be a seal? Facsen, looking over mister Grisbon at John Lavington,

236
00:21:03,359 --> 00:21:07,640
saw a faint frown between his impassive
eyes. Really Frank, he seemed,

237
00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:12,480
Faxon thought, slightly irritated by his
nephew's for a volity. Who's got

238
00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:17,799
a seal? Frank Rayner continued,
glancing about the table. There doesn't seem

239
00:21:17,839 --> 00:21:22,079
to be one here, mister Grisbon
interposed. A wafer will do, Lavington,

240
00:21:22,279 --> 00:21:27,240
You have a wafer mister Lavington had
recovered his serenity. There must be

241
00:21:27,319 --> 00:21:30,720
some in one of the drawers,
but I'm ashamed to say I don't know

242
00:21:30,759 --> 00:21:34,640
where my secretary keeps these things.
He ought, of course, to have

243
00:21:34,759 --> 00:21:40,039
seen to it that a wafer was
sent with the document. Oh hang it,

244
00:21:40,200 --> 00:21:42,799
Frank Rainer pushed the paper side.
It's the hand of God, and

245
00:21:42,880 --> 00:21:47,880
I'm hungry as a wolf. Let's
dine first, Uncle Jack, I think

246
00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:52,599
I've a seal upstairs, said Faxon. Suddenly mister Lavington sent him a barely

247
00:21:52,680 --> 00:21:57,440
perceptible smile. So sorry to give
you the trouble. Oh, I say,

248
00:21:57,480 --> 00:22:00,559
don't send him after it. Now, let's wait till after dinner.

249
00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:07,240
Mister Lavington continued to smile on his
guest, and the latter, as if

250
00:22:07,319 --> 00:22:11,599
under the faint coercion of the smile, turned from the room and ran upstairs.

251
00:22:12,119 --> 00:22:17,519
Having taken the seal from his writing
case, he came down again and

252
00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:22,400
once more opened the door of the
study. No one was speaking when he

253
00:22:22,640 --> 00:22:26,920
entered. They were evidently awaiting his
return with the mute impatience of hunger,

254
00:22:27,079 --> 00:22:33,759
and he put the seal in Rayner's
reach and stood watching while mister Grisbon struck

255
00:22:33,759 --> 00:22:37,839
a match and held it to one
of the candles flanking the inkstand. As

256
00:22:37,839 --> 00:22:44,759
the wax descended on the paper,
Faxon remarked again the singular emaciation, the

257
00:22:44,839 --> 00:22:51,000
premature physical weariness of the hand that
held it. He wondered if mister Lavington

258
00:22:51,160 --> 00:22:56,079
had ever noticed his nephew's hand,
and if it were not poignantly visible to

259
00:22:56,160 --> 00:23:00,680
him. Now. With this thought
in his mind, Faxon raised his eyes

260
00:23:00,759 --> 00:23:06,079
to look at mister Lavington. The
great man's gaze rested on Frank Rayner with

261
00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:12,119
an expression of untroubled benevolence, and
at the same instant Faxon's attention was attracted

262
00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:17,519
by the presence in the room of
another person who must have joined the group

263
00:23:17,680 --> 00:23:22,759
while he was upstairs searching for the
seal. The newcomer was a man of

264
00:23:22,799 --> 00:23:27,680
about mister Lavington's age and figure,
who stood directly behind his chair, and

265
00:23:27,799 --> 00:23:33,599
who, at the moment when Faxon
first saw him, was gazing at young

266
00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:38,079
Rainer with an equal intensity of attention. The likeness between the two men,

267
00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:44,880
perhaps increased by the fact that the
hooded lamps on the table left the figure

268
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:49,519
behind the chair in shadow, struck
Faxon the more because of the strange contrast

269
00:23:49,839 --> 00:23:56,000
in their expression. John Lavington,
during his nephew's blundering attempt to drop the

270
00:23:56,079 --> 00:24:02,319
wax and apply the seal, continued
to fasten on him a look of half

271
00:24:02,359 --> 00:24:07,519
amused affection, while the man behind
the chair, so oddly reduplicating the lines

272
00:24:07,559 --> 00:24:14,319
of his features and figure, turned
on the boy a face of pale hostility.

273
00:24:14,839 --> 00:24:19,319
The impression was so startling Faxon forgot
what was going on about him.

274
00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:25,440
He was just dimly aware of young
reigners exclaiming your turn, mister Grisbon,

275
00:24:25,640 --> 00:24:30,720
of mister Grisbon's ceremoniously protesting no,
no, mister Faxxon first, and of

276
00:24:30,759 --> 00:24:37,119
the pen's being thereupon transferred to his
own hand. He received it with a

277
00:24:37,200 --> 00:24:41,799
deadly sense of being unable to move
or even to understand what was expected of

278
00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:48,680
him, till he became conscious of
mister Grisbon's paternally pointing out the precise spot

279
00:24:48,920 --> 00:24:53,920
on which he was to leave his
autograph. The effort to fix his attention

280
00:24:55,200 --> 00:25:00,400
and steady his hand prolonged the process
of signing, and when he st up

281
00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:06,200
a strange weight of fatigue on all
his limbs. The figure behind mister Lavington's

282
00:25:06,319 --> 00:25:11,279
chair was gone. Faxxon felt an
immediate sense of relief. It was puzzling

283
00:25:11,319 --> 00:25:17,079
that the man's exit should have been
so rapid and noiseless. But the door

284
00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:22,000
behind mister Lavington was screened by a
tapestry hanging, and Faxxon concluded that the

285
00:25:22,079 --> 00:25:26,960
unknown looker on had merely had to
raise it to pass out. At any

286
00:25:27,079 --> 00:25:33,240
rate. He was gone, and
with his withdrawal the strange weight was lifted.

287
00:25:33,759 --> 00:25:38,640
Young Rainer was lighting a cigarette,
Mister Balch meticulously inscribing his name at

288
00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:42,799
the foot of the document. Mister
Lavington, his eyes no longer on his

289
00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:48,279
nephew, examining a strange white winged
orchid in the vase at his elbow.

290
00:25:48,799 --> 00:25:56,279
Everything suddenly seemed to have grown natural
and simple again, and Faxxon found himself

291
00:25:56,319 --> 00:26:02,279
responding with a smile to the affable
gesture, which's host declared, And now

292
00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:07,880
mister Faxon will dine Chapter three.
I wonder how I blundered into the wrong

293
00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:11,319
room Just now, I thought you
told me to take the second door to

294
00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:15,400
the left, Faxon said to Frank
Rainer, as they followed the older men

295
00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:19,480
down the gallery. So I did, but I probably forgot to tell you

296
00:26:19,519 --> 00:26:25,000
which staircase to take coming from your
bedroom. I ought to have said the

297
00:26:25,079 --> 00:26:29,960
fourth door to the right. It's
a puzzling house because my uncle keeps adding

298
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:33,640
to it from year to year.
He built this room last summer for his

299
00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:38,000
modern pictures. Young Rainer, pausing
to open another door, touched an electric

300
00:26:38,079 --> 00:26:44,160
button which sent a circle of light
about the walls of a long room hung

301
00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:49,720
with canvases of the French Impressionist school. Faxxon advanced, attracted by a shimmering

302
00:26:49,799 --> 00:26:53,519
monet, but Rainer laid a hand
on his arm. He bought that last

303
00:26:53,559 --> 00:26:57,799
week for a thundering price. But
come along, I'll show you all of

304
00:26:57,880 --> 00:27:02,960
this after dinner, or he will
rather he loves it. Does he really

305
00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:08,359
love things? Rayner stared clearly perplexed
at the question, Rather flowers and pictures

306
00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:14,359
especially, haven't you noticed the flowers? I suppose you think his manner's cold.

307
00:27:14,559 --> 00:27:18,119
It seems so at first, but
he's really awfully keen about things.

308
00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:22,440
Faxxon looked quickly at the speaker.
Has your uncle a brother, brother?

309
00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:26,960
No? Never had. He and
my mother were the only ones or any

310
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:33,160
relation who looks like him who might
be mistaken for him, not that I

311
00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:37,160
ever heard of. Does he remind
you of someone? Yes, that's queer.

312
00:27:37,359 --> 00:27:40,839
We'll ask him if he's got a
double come on. But another picture

313
00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:45,480
had arrested Faxxon, and some minutes
elapsed before he and his young host reached

314
00:27:45,599 --> 00:27:52,599
the dining room. It was a
large room with the same conventionally handsome furniture

315
00:27:52,839 --> 00:27:59,319
and delicately grouped flowers, and Faxxon's
first glance showed him that only three men

316
00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:04,000
were seated about the dining table.
The man who had stood behind Lavington's chair

317
00:28:04,319 --> 00:28:08,880
was not present, and no seat
awaited him. When the young men entered,

318
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:14,400
mister Grisbon was speaking, and his
host, who faced the door,

319
00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:18,920
sat looking down at his untouched soup
plate and turning the spoon about in his

320
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:23,839
small dry hand. It's pretty late
to call them rumors. They were devilishly

321
00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:29,359
close to facts when we left town
this morning, mister Grisbon was saying,

322
00:28:29,559 --> 00:28:34,599
with an unexpected incisiveness of tone.
Mister Lavington laid down his spoon and smiled

323
00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:40,880
interrogatively. Oh facts, what are
facts? Just the way a thing happens

324
00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:44,920
to look at a given minute.
You haven't heard anything from town, mister

325
00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:49,000
Grisbon persisted, not a syllable,
so you see Balch, a little more

326
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:53,319
of that petite marmit, mister Faxson, between Frank and mister Grisbon, please.

327
00:28:53,799 --> 00:29:00,680
The dinner progressed through a series of
complicated courses, ceremoniously benced by a

328
00:29:00,759 --> 00:29:04,640
stout butler, attended by three tall
footmen, and it was evident that mister

329
00:29:04,759 --> 00:29:12,079
Lavington took a somewhat puerile satisfaction in
the pageant that Faxon reflected was probably the

330
00:29:12,200 --> 00:29:17,759
joint in his armor, that and
the flowers. He had changed the subject,

331
00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:22,359
not abruptly but firmly when the young
men entered, but Faxon perceived that

332
00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:29,279
it still possessed the thoughts of the
two elderly visitors, and mister Balch presently

333
00:29:29,319 --> 00:29:33,200
observed, in a voice that seemed
to come from the last survivor down a

334
00:29:33,319 --> 00:29:38,720
mineshaft. If it does come,
it will be the biggest crash since ninety

335
00:29:38,759 --> 00:29:45,160
three. Mister Lavington looked bored.
But polite wall Street can stand crashes better

336
00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:51,680
than it could. Then it's got
a robuster constitution. Yes, But speaking

337
00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:56,160
of constitution, mister Grisbon intervened,
Frank, are you taking care of yourself?

338
00:29:56,599 --> 00:30:00,440
A flush rose to young Rayner's cheeks. Why, of course, isn't

339
00:30:00,440 --> 00:30:03,759
that what I'm here for. You're
here about three days in the month,

340
00:30:03,799 --> 00:30:07,799
aren't you, And the rest of
the time it's crowded restaurants and hot ball

341
00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:11,440
rooms in town. I thought you
were to be shipped off to New Mexico.

342
00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:14,880
Oh, I've got a new man
who says that's all rough. Well,

343
00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:18,359
you don't look as if your new
man were right, said mister Grisbon

344
00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:23,319
bluntly. Faxon saw the lad's color
fade and the rings of shadow deepen under

345
00:30:23,359 --> 00:30:27,680
his gay eyes. At the same
moment, his uncle turned to him with

346
00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:34,000
a renewed intensity of attention. There
was such solicitude in mister Lavington's gaze that

347
00:30:34,079 --> 00:30:41,559
it seemed almost to fling a tangible
shield between his nephew and mister Grisbon's tactless

348
00:30:41,599 --> 00:30:45,480
scrutiny. We think Frank's a good
deal better, he began, the new

349
00:30:45,559 --> 00:30:49,519
doctor. The butler coming up bent
discreetly to whisper a word in his ear,

350
00:30:49,759 --> 00:30:56,319
and the communication caused a sudden change
in mister Lavington's expression. His face

351
00:30:56,440 --> 00:31:00,400
was naturally so colorless that it seemed
not so much to hale as to fade,

352
00:31:00,559 --> 00:31:06,799
to dwindle, and recede into something
blurred and blotted out. He half

353
00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:11,160
rose, sat down again, and
sent a rigid smile about the table.

354
00:31:11,319 --> 00:31:15,720
Will you excuse me the telephone.
Peter's gone with the dinner. With small,

355
00:31:15,839 --> 00:31:18,119
precise steps, he walked out of
the door, which one of the

356
00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:23,559
footmen had hastened to throw open.
A momentary silence fell on the group.

357
00:31:23,839 --> 00:31:29,720
Then mister Grisbon once more addressed himself
to Rayner. You ought to have gone,

358
00:31:29,839 --> 00:31:33,880
my boy, You ought to have
gone. The anxious look returned to

359
00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:37,759
the youth's size. My uncle doesn't
think so. Really, you're not a

360
00:31:37,839 --> 00:31:41,440
baby to be always governed on your
uncle's opinion. You came of age today,

361
00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:45,759
didn't you. Your uncle spoils you, That's what's the matter. The

362
00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:52,200
thrust evidently went home for Rayner laughed
and looked down with a slight accession of

363
00:31:52,279 --> 00:31:56,319
color. But the doctor, use
your common sense, Frank, you had

364
00:31:56,359 --> 00:32:00,240
to try twenty doctors to find one
to tell you what you wanted to be

365
00:32:00,319 --> 00:32:05,880
told. A look of apprehension overshadowed
Rayner's gaiety. Oh come, I say,

366
00:32:06,039 --> 00:32:08,759
what would you do? He stammered, Pack up and jump on the

367
00:32:08,839 --> 00:32:14,960
first train. Mister Grisbon leaned forward
and laid a firm hand on the young

368
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:19,119
man's arm. Look here, my
nephew, Jim Grisbon is out there,

369
00:32:19,240 --> 00:32:22,000
ranching on a big scale. He'll
take you in and be glad to have

370
00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:27,039
you. You say, your new
doctor thinks it won't do you any good,

371
00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:30,319
But he doesn't pretend to say it
will do you harm, does he.

372
00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:32,880
Well, then give it a trial. It'll take you out of hot

373
00:32:32,920 --> 00:32:37,279
theaters and night restaurants anyhow, and
all the rest of it. Hey Bulch,

374
00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:43,559
go said mister Bulch, hollowly.
Go at once, he added,

375
00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:47,119
as if a closer look at the
youth's face had impressed on him the need

376
00:32:47,359 --> 00:32:52,799
of backing up his friend. Young
Rayner had turned ashy pale, He tried

377
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:57,880
to stiffen his mouth into a smile. Do I look as bad as all

378
00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:01,759
that mister Grisbon was helping himself to
terrapin? You look like the day after

379
00:33:01,799 --> 00:33:07,119
an earthquake, he added, concisely. The terrapin had encircled the table and

380
00:33:07,279 --> 00:33:14,839
been deliberately enjoyed by mister Lavington's three
visitors. Rainer Faxon noticed left his plate

381
00:33:15,039 --> 00:33:21,279
untouched before the door was thrown open
to readmit their host. Mister Lavington advanced

382
00:33:21,319 --> 00:33:25,119
with an air of recovered composure.
He seated himself, picked up his napkin,

383
00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:30,559
and consulted the gold monogram de menu. No, don't bring back the

384
00:33:30,599 --> 00:33:34,759
filet some terrapin. Yes, he
looked affably about the table. Sorry to

385
00:33:34,799 --> 00:33:37,279
have deserted you, but the storm
has played the deuce with the wires,

386
00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:40,920
and I had to wait a long
time before I could get a good connection.

387
00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:45,960
It must be blowing up for a
blizzard. Uncle Jack, young Rainer

388
00:33:45,039 --> 00:33:50,920
broke in. Mister Grisbine's been lecturing
me. Mister Lavington was helping himself to

389
00:33:51,079 --> 00:33:54,200
terrapin. Ah, what about he
thinks I ought to have given New Mexico

390
00:33:54,279 --> 00:33:59,240
a show. I want him to
go straight out to my nephew at Santa

391
00:33:59,279 --> 00:34:04,599
Pas, stay there till his next
birthday. Mister Lavington signed to the butler

392
00:34:04,680 --> 00:34:07,320
to hand the turpan to mister Grisbon, who, as he took a second

393
00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:13,440
helping, addressed himself again to Rayner
Jim's in New York. Now and going

394
00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:19,039
back the day after tomorrow in Olephant's
private car. I'll ask Elephant to squeeze

395
00:34:19,039 --> 00:34:21,880
you in if you'll go. And
when you've been out there a week or

396
00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:24,840
two, in the saddle all day
and sleepy nine hours a night, I

397
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:30,960
suspect you won't think much of the
doctor who prescribed New York. Faxxon spoke

398
00:34:30,079 --> 00:34:34,480
up. He knew not why I
was out there once. It's a splendid

399
00:34:34,519 --> 00:34:37,039
life. I saw a fellow,
Oh, a really bad case who'd been

400
00:34:37,079 --> 00:34:42,039
simply made over by it. It
does sound jolly, Rayner laughed, a

401
00:34:42,119 --> 00:34:46,039
sudden eagerness of anticipation in his tone. His uncle looked at him gently.

402
00:34:46,440 --> 00:34:51,840
Perhaps Grisbon's right, it's an opportunity. Faxxon looked up with a start.

403
00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:59,000
The figure dimly perceived in the study
was now more visibly and tangibly planted behind

404
00:34:59,039 --> 00:35:02,559
mister Lavington chair. That's right,
Frank, you see your uncle approves,

405
00:35:02,679 --> 00:35:07,039
and the trip out there with olephant
isn't a thing to be missed. So

406
00:35:07,199 --> 00:35:09,960
drop a few dozen dinners and be
at the Grand Center the day after tomorrow.

407
00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:15,719
At five, mister Grisbon's pleasant gray
eye sought corroboration of his host,

408
00:35:16,199 --> 00:35:22,840
and Faxon, in a cold anguish
of suspense, continued to watch him as

409
00:35:22,840 --> 00:35:28,280
he turned his glance on mister Lavington. One could not look at Lavington without

410
00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:31,960
seeing the presence at his back,
and it was clear that the next minute,

411
00:35:32,119 --> 00:35:37,920
some change in mister Grisbon's expression must
give his watcher a clue. But

412
00:35:38,079 --> 00:35:45,480
mister Grisbon's expression did not change.
The gaze he fixed on his host remained

413
00:35:45,599 --> 00:35:50,920
unperturbed, and the clue he gave
was the startling one of not seeming to

414
00:35:50,960 --> 00:35:54,760
see the other figure. Faxon's first
impulse was to look away, to look

415
00:35:54,840 --> 00:36:00,679
anywhere else, to resort again to
the Champagne glass. The watch for Butler

416
00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:05,440
had already brimmed, but some fatal
attraction at war in him, with an

417
00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:10,639
overwhelming physical resistance, held his eyes
upon the spot they feared. The figure

418
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:17,519
was still standing more distinctly and therefore
more resemblingly, at mister Lavington's back,

419
00:36:17,719 --> 00:36:23,199
And while the latter continued to gaze
affectionately at his nephew, his counterpart,

420
00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:30,320
as before, fixed young Rayner with
eyes of deadly menace. Faxxon, with

421
00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:35,000
what felt like an actual wrench of
muscles, dragged his own eyes from the

422
00:36:35,119 --> 00:36:40,079
sight to scan the other countenances about
the table, But not one revealed the

423
00:36:40,199 --> 00:36:46,360
least consciousness of what he saw,
and a sense of mortal isolation sank upon

424
00:36:46,519 --> 00:36:52,679
him. It's worth considering, certainly. He heard mister Lavington continue, and

425
00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:58,280
as Rayner's face lit up, the
face behind his uncle's chair seemed to gather

426
00:36:58,440 --> 00:37:05,599
into its look all the fierce weariness
of old, unsatisfied hates. That was

427
00:37:05,639 --> 00:37:10,599
the thing that, as the minutes
labored by Faxxon was becoming most conscious of,

428
00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:16,719
the watcher behind the chair was no
longer merely malevolent. He had grown

429
00:37:16,840 --> 00:37:24,360
suddenly unutterably tired. His hatred seemed
to well up out of the very depths

430
00:37:24,400 --> 00:37:30,960
of balked effort and thwarted hopes,
and the fact made him more pitiable and

431
00:37:31,119 --> 00:37:37,960
yet more dire. Faxon's look reverted
to mister Lavington, as if to surmise

432
00:37:37,079 --> 00:37:44,000
in him a corresponding change. At
first none was visible. His pinched smile

433
00:37:44,199 --> 00:37:49,440
was screwed to his blank face,
like a gas light to a whitewashed wall.

434
00:37:49,880 --> 00:37:54,320
Then the fixity of the smile became
ominous. Faxxon saw that its wear

435
00:37:54,679 --> 00:38:00,639
was afraid to let it go.
It was evident that mister la Rington was

436
00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:07,119
unutterably tired too, and the discovery
sent a cold current through Faxxon's veins.

437
00:38:07,639 --> 00:38:13,320
Looking down at his untouched plate,
he caught the soliciting twinkle of the champagne

438
00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:16,920
glass, but the sight of the
wine turned him sick. Well, we'll

439
00:38:16,960 --> 00:38:22,360
go into the details presently, he
heard mister Lavington say, still on the

440
00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:25,559
question of his nephew's future, let's
have a cigar first. No, not

441
00:38:25,719 --> 00:38:30,440
here, Peters. He turned a
smile on Faxxon. When we've had coffee,

442
00:38:30,639 --> 00:38:34,639
I want to show you my pictures. Oh, by the way,

443
00:38:34,719 --> 00:38:37,199
uncle Jack, mister Faxon wants to
know if you've got a double. A

444
00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:43,119
double. Mister Lavington, still smiling, continued to address himself to his guest,

445
00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:45,360
not that I know of, Have
you seen one, mister Faxxon.

446
00:38:45,800 --> 00:38:50,320
Faxxon thought, my god, if
I look up now, they'll both be

447
00:38:50,440 --> 00:38:53,400
looking at me. To avoid raising
his eyes, he made as though to

448
00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:59,119
lift the glass to his lips,
but his hand sank inert and he looked

449
00:38:59,199 --> 00:39:04,519
up. Mister Lavington's glance was politely
bent on him, but with a loosening

450
00:39:04,599 --> 00:39:08,000
of the strain about his heart,
he saw that the figure behind the chair

451
00:39:08,320 --> 00:39:13,920
still kept its gaze on Rayner.
Do you think you've seen my double?

452
00:39:14,039 --> 00:39:19,719
Mister Faxon would the other face turn
if he said yes, Faxon felt a

453
00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:24,719
dryness in his throat. No,
he answered, ah, it's possible,

454
00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:30,880
I've a dozen. I believe I'm
extremely usual looking. Mister Lavington went on

455
00:39:30,079 --> 00:39:37,039
conversationally, and still the other face
watched Rayner. It was a mistake,

456
00:39:37,360 --> 00:39:42,760
a confusion of memory. Faxon heard
himself stammer. Mister Lavington pushed back his

457
00:39:42,920 --> 00:39:47,039
chair, and as he did so, mister Grisbon suddenly leaned forward. Lavington,

458
00:39:47,239 --> 00:39:52,559
what have we been thinking of?
We haven't drunk Frank's health. Mister

459
00:39:52,679 --> 00:39:58,320
Lavington reseated himself. My dear boy, Peter's another bottle. He turned to

460
00:39:58,440 --> 00:40:01,719
his nephew. After such a a
sin of omission, I don't presume to

461
00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:07,400
propose the toast myself, but Frank
knows. Go ahead, Grispon. The

462
00:40:07,519 --> 00:40:10,199
boys shone on his uncle. No, no, Uncle Jack. Mister Grispon

463
00:40:10,280 --> 00:40:15,480
won't mind nobody but you today.
The butler was replenishing the glasses. He

464
00:40:15,559 --> 00:40:22,159
filled mister Lavington's last, and mister
Lavington put out his small hand to raise

465
00:40:22,239 --> 00:40:24,840
it. As he did so,
Faxon looked away. Well, then,

466
00:40:25,079 --> 00:40:30,440
all the good I've wished you in
all the past years, I put it

467
00:40:30,480 --> 00:40:35,719
into the prayer that the coming ones
may be healthy and happy and many.

468
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:42,519
Dear boy Faxon saw the hands about
him reach out for their glasses automatically,

469
00:40:42,639 --> 00:40:46,000
he made the same gesture. His
eyes were still on the table, and

470
00:40:46,119 --> 00:40:52,320
he repeated to himself with a trembling
vehemence, I won't look up. I

471
00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:58,400
won't, I won't. His fingers
clasped the stem of the glass and raised

472
00:40:58,440 --> 00:41:01,480
it to the level of his lips. He saw the other hands making the

473
00:41:01,519 --> 00:41:07,880
same motion. He heard mister Grispin's
genial hear here and mister Balch's hollow echo.

474
00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:13,280
He said to himself, as the
rim of the glass touched his lips,

475
00:41:13,559 --> 00:41:16,480
I won't look up. I swear
I won't. And he looked.

476
00:41:16,719 --> 00:41:22,920
The glass was so full that it
required an extraordinary effort to hold it there,

477
00:41:22,119 --> 00:41:28,960
brimming and suspended during the awful interval
before he could trust his hand to

478
00:41:29,079 --> 00:41:35,519
lower it again, untouched to the
table. It was this merciful preoccupation which

479
00:41:35,559 --> 00:41:39,599
saved him, kept him from crying
out, from losing his hold, from

480
00:41:39,599 --> 00:41:45,480
slipping down into the bottomless blackness that
gaped for him. As long as the

481
00:41:45,519 --> 00:41:51,000
problem of the glass engaged him.
He felt able to keep his seat,

482
00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:55,880
manage his muscles, fit unnoticeably into
the group, But as the glass touched

483
00:41:55,960 --> 00:42:01,880
the table, his last link with
safety snapped. He stood up and dashed

484
00:42:01,960 --> 00:42:08,039
out of the room Chapter four.
In the gallery, the instinct of self

485
00:42:08,079 --> 00:42:14,039
preservation helped him to turn back and
signed to young Rayner not to follow.

486
00:42:14,440 --> 00:42:19,480
He stammered out something about a touch
of dizziness and joining them presently, and

487
00:42:19,559 --> 00:42:23,199
the boy waved an unsuspecting hand and
drew back. At the foot of the

488
00:42:23,280 --> 00:42:28,880
stairs, Faxon ran against a servant. I should like to telephone to Way

489
00:42:28,920 --> 00:42:32,000
more, he said, with dry
lips. Sorry, sir, wires all

490
00:42:32,119 --> 00:42:36,599
down. We've been trying the last
hour to get New York again for mister

491
00:42:36,719 --> 00:42:40,639
Lavington. Faxon shot on to his
room, burst into it, and bolted

492
00:42:40,679 --> 00:42:45,840
the door. The mild lamplight lay
on furniture, flowers, books in the

493
00:42:45,880 --> 00:42:51,639
ashes, A log still glimmered.
He dropped down on the sofa and hid

494
00:42:51,679 --> 00:42:58,039
his face. The room was utterly
silent, The whole house was still nothing

495
00:42:58,119 --> 00:43:02,239
about him gave a hint of what
was going on darkly and dumbly in the

496
00:43:02,280 --> 00:43:07,400
horrible room he had flown from and
with the covering of his eyes. Oblivion

497
00:43:07,599 --> 00:43:12,960
and reassurance seemed to fall on him, but they fell for a moment.

498
00:43:13,079 --> 00:43:19,480
Only then his lids opened again to
the monstrous vision. There it was stamped

499
00:43:19,559 --> 00:43:24,360
on his pupils, a part of
him, forever unindelible, horror burnt into

500
00:43:24,440 --> 00:43:30,639
his body and brain. But why
into his just his? Why had he

501
00:43:30,679 --> 00:43:35,360
alone been chosen to see what he
had seen? What business was it of

502
00:43:35,400 --> 00:43:38,840
his? In God's name? Any
one of the others, thus enlightened,

503
00:43:39,039 --> 00:43:45,239
might have exposed the horror and defeated
it. But he, the one weaponless

504
00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:51,800
and defenseless spectator, the one whom
none of the others would believe or understand

505
00:43:51,880 --> 00:43:57,719
if he attempted to reveal what he
knew, he alone had been singled out

506
00:43:57,800 --> 00:44:02,920
as the victim of this atrocious initiation. Suddenly he sat up, listening.

507
00:44:04,480 --> 00:44:07,440
He had heard a step on the
stairs, someone, no doubt, was

508
00:44:07,519 --> 00:44:12,920
coming to see how he was to
urge him if he felt better to go

509
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:17,280
down and join the smokers. Cautiously
he opened his door. Yes, it

510
00:44:17,480 --> 00:44:23,159
was young Rayner's step. Faxon looked
down the passage, remembered the other stairway,

511
00:44:23,320 --> 00:44:28,440
and darted to it. All he
wanted was to get out of the

512
00:44:28,559 --> 00:44:35,079
house. Not another instant would he
breathe its abominable air. What business was

513
00:44:35,119 --> 00:44:38,760
it of his? In God's name? He reached the opposite end of the

514
00:44:38,840 --> 00:44:44,360
lower gallery, and beyond it saw
the hall by which he had entered.

515
00:44:44,840 --> 00:44:49,639
It was empty, and on a
long table. He recognized his coat and

516
00:44:49,880 --> 00:44:53,440
cap among the furs of the other
travelers. He got into his coat,

517
00:44:53,679 --> 00:45:00,679
unbolted the door, and plunged into
the purifying night. The darkness was deep,

518
00:45:00,880 --> 00:45:05,599
and the cold so intense that for
an instant it stopped his breathing.

519
00:45:06,119 --> 00:45:10,719
Then he perceived that only a thin
snow was falling, and resolutely set his

520
00:45:10,840 --> 00:45:16,000
face for flight. The trees along
the avenue dimly marked his way as he

521
00:45:16,119 --> 00:45:22,800
hastened with long strides over the beaten
snow. Gradually, while he walked,

522
00:45:22,960 --> 00:45:29,119
the tumult in his brain subsided.
The impulse to fly still drove him forward,

523
00:45:29,320 --> 00:45:32,079
but he began to feel that he
was flying from a terror of his

524
00:45:32,159 --> 00:45:37,360
own creating, and that the most
urgent reason for escape was the need of

525
00:45:37,519 --> 00:45:44,840
hiding his state of shunning other eyes
scrutiny till he should regain his balance.

526
00:45:45,400 --> 00:45:51,239
He had spent the long hours in
the train in fruitless broodings on a discouraging

527
00:45:51,400 --> 00:45:58,000
situation, and he remembered how his
bitterness had turned to exasperation when he found

528
00:45:58,119 --> 00:46:01,599
that the way more Sleigh was not
awaiting him. It was absurd, of

529
00:46:01,639 --> 00:46:07,559
course, but though he had joked
with Rainer over missus Colm's forgetfulness to confess

530
00:46:07,840 --> 00:46:13,639
it had cost a pang. That
was what his rootless life had brought him

531
00:46:13,679 --> 00:46:17,719
to. For lack of a personal
stake in things, his sensibility was at

532
00:46:17,719 --> 00:46:24,119
the mercy of such trivial accidents.
Yes, that and the cold and fatigue,

533
00:46:24,280 --> 00:46:30,440
and absence of hope, and the
haunting sense of starved aptitudes. All

534
00:46:30,559 --> 00:46:37,039
these had brought him to the perilous
verge, over which once or twice before

535
00:46:37,320 --> 00:46:42,840
his terrified brain had hung, why
else, in the name of any imaginable

536
00:46:42,920 --> 00:46:47,280
logic, human or devilish, should
he, a stranger, be singled out

537
00:46:47,440 --> 00:46:52,440
for this experience? What could it
mean to him? How was he related

538
00:46:52,559 --> 00:46:58,519
to it? What bearing had it
on his case? Unless indeed it was

539
00:46:58,639 --> 00:47:04,199
just because he was a stranger,
a stranger everywhere, because he had no

540
00:47:04,400 --> 00:47:10,239
personal life, no warm, strong
screen of private egotisms to shield him from

541
00:47:10,280 --> 00:47:16,679
exposure. That he had developed this
abnormal sensitiveness to the vicissitudes of others.

542
00:47:17,199 --> 00:47:22,960
The thought pulled him up with a
shudder. No, such a fate was

543
00:47:22,079 --> 00:47:29,639
too abominable. All that was strong
and sound in him rejected it a thousand

544
00:47:29,719 --> 00:47:37,079
times better regard himself as ill,
disorganized, deluded than as the predestined victim

545
00:47:37,159 --> 00:47:43,239
of such warnings. He reached the
gates and paused before the darkened lodge.

546
00:47:43,280 --> 00:47:49,519
The wind had risen and was sweeping
the snow into his face and lacerating streamers.

547
00:47:50,000 --> 00:47:53,960
The cold had him in its grasp
again, and he stood uncertain should

548
00:47:53,960 --> 00:47:59,920
he put his sanity to the test
and go back. He turned and looked

549
00:48:00,079 --> 00:48:05,000
down the dark drive to the house. A single ray shone through the trees,

550
00:48:05,199 --> 00:48:09,239
evoking a picture of the lights,
the flowers, the faces grouped about

551
00:48:09,320 --> 00:48:15,960
that fatal room. He turned and
plunged out into the road. He remembered

552
00:48:15,000 --> 00:48:20,920
that about a mile from Overdale,
the coachman had pointed out the road to

553
00:48:21,039 --> 00:48:24,920
Northridge, and he began to walk
in that direction. Once in the road,

554
00:48:25,079 --> 00:48:30,199
he had the gale in his face
and the wet snow on his mustache

555
00:48:30,199 --> 00:48:36,480
and eyelashes instantly hardened to metal.
The same metal seemed to be driving a

556
00:48:36,599 --> 00:48:42,000
million blades into his throat and lungs, but he pushed on, desperately,

557
00:48:42,079 --> 00:48:46,840
determined the vision of the warm room
pursuing him. The snow in the road

558
00:48:47,039 --> 00:48:53,079
was deep and uneven. He stumbled
across ruts and sank into drifts, and

559
00:48:53,159 --> 00:49:00,360
the wind rose behind him like a
granite cliff. Now and then he stopped,

560
00:49:00,519 --> 00:49:06,800
gasping as if an invisible hand had
tightened an iron band about his body.

561
00:49:07,280 --> 00:49:14,039
Then he started again, stiffening himself
against the stealthy penetration of the cold.

562
00:49:14,679 --> 00:49:20,519
The snow continued to descend out of
a pall of inscrutable darkness, and

563
00:49:20,719 --> 00:49:25,320
once or twice he paused, fearing
he had missed the road to Northridge,

564
00:49:25,519 --> 00:49:30,800
but seeing no sign of a turn, he plowed on doggedly. At last,

565
00:49:30,960 --> 00:49:35,760
feeling sure that he had walked more
than a mile, he halted and

566
00:49:35,960 --> 00:49:40,800
looked back. The act of turning
brought immediate relief, first because it put

567
00:49:40,840 --> 00:49:46,000
his back to the wind, and
then because far down the road it showed

568
00:49:46,079 --> 00:49:52,800
him the advancing gleam of a lantern. A sleigh was coming, a sleigh

569
00:49:52,800 --> 00:49:57,800
that might perhaps give him a lift
to the village. Fortified by the hope.

570
00:49:57,960 --> 00:50:01,360
He began to walk back toward the
light. It seemed to come forward

571
00:50:01,519 --> 00:50:07,480
very slowly, with unaccountable zigzags and
waverings, and even when he was within

572
00:50:07,519 --> 00:50:12,400
a few yards of it, he
could catch no sound of sleigh bells.

573
00:50:12,880 --> 00:50:17,239
Then the light paused and became stationary
by the roadside, as though carried by

574
00:50:17,320 --> 00:50:23,719
a pedestrian who had stopped exhausted by
the cold. The thought made Faxxen hasten

575
00:50:23,840 --> 00:50:30,360
On, and a moment later he
was stooping over a motionless figure huddled against

576
00:50:30,480 --> 00:50:35,599
the snow bank. The lantern had
dropped from its bear's hand, and Faxon,

577
00:50:35,800 --> 00:50:39,159
fearfully raising it, threw its light
into the face of Frank Rainer.

578
00:50:39,800 --> 00:50:45,360
Rainer, what on earth are you
doing here, the boy smiled back through

579
00:50:45,400 --> 00:50:49,320
his Pallor what are you? I'd
like to know, he retorted, and

580
00:50:49,679 --> 00:50:53,559
scrambling to his feet, with a
clutch on Faxon's arm, he added gaily,

581
00:50:53,800 --> 00:51:00,719
Well I've run you down anyhow.
Thaxxon stood confounded, his heart sinking.

582
00:51:00,199 --> 00:51:05,519
The lad's face was gray. What
madness, he began, Yes,

583
00:51:05,599 --> 00:51:08,119
it is What on earth did you
do it for? I do what?

584
00:51:08,519 --> 00:51:13,440
Why? I was just taking a
walk. I often walk at night.

585
00:51:13,960 --> 00:51:17,199
Frank Rayner burst into a laugh.
On such nights, then you hadn't bolted?

586
00:51:17,599 --> 00:51:22,760
Bolted because I'd done something to offend
you. My uncle thought you had,

587
00:51:22,159 --> 00:51:28,119
Facxon grasped his arm. Did your
uncle send you after me? Well?

588
00:51:28,239 --> 00:51:30,280
He gave me an awful rowing for
not going up to your room with

589
00:51:30,400 --> 00:51:34,239
you when you said you were ill. And when we found you'd gone,

590
00:51:34,440 --> 00:51:37,039
we were frightened, and he was
awfully upset. So I said I'd catch

591
00:51:37,079 --> 00:51:42,000
you. You're not ill? Are
you ill? No? Never better?

592
00:51:42,519 --> 00:51:46,119
Facson picked up the lantern. Come
let's go back. It was awfully hot

593
00:51:46,159 --> 00:51:51,199
in that dining room, he added, yes, I hoped it was only

594
00:51:51,239 --> 00:51:55,519
that. They trudged on in silence
for a few minutes. Then Facson questioned,

595
00:51:55,679 --> 00:52:00,159
you're not too done up? Oh
no, it's a lot easier with

596
00:52:00,159 --> 00:52:04,880
the wind behind us. All right, don't talk anymore. They pushed ahead,

597
00:52:05,079 --> 00:52:08,719
walking in spite of the light that
guided them more slowly than Faxon had

598
00:52:08,760 --> 00:52:15,960
walked alone into the gale. The
fact of his companions stumbling against adrift gave

599
00:52:15,079 --> 00:52:20,360
him a pretext for saying, take
hold of my arm, and Rainer,

600
00:52:20,559 --> 00:52:25,000
obeying, gasped out, I'm blown, so am I who wouldn't be what

601
00:52:25,199 --> 00:52:29,880
a dance you led me if it
hadn't been for one of the servants happening

602
00:52:29,920 --> 00:52:32,360
to see you. Yes, all
right, and now woon't you kindly shut

603
00:52:32,440 --> 00:52:37,360
up? Rayner laughed and hung on
him. Oh the cold doesn't hurt me.

604
00:52:37,159 --> 00:52:43,360
For the first few minutes after Rayner
had overtaken him, anxiety for the

605
00:52:43,440 --> 00:52:49,039
lad had been Faxxon's only thought.
But as each laboring step carried them nearer

606
00:52:49,159 --> 00:52:52,719
to the spot he had been fleeing, the reasons for his flight grew more

607
00:52:52,800 --> 00:52:58,519
ominous and more insistent. No,
he was not ill, he was not

608
00:52:58,679 --> 00:53:05,039
distraught and luded. He was the
instrument singled out to warn and save.

609
00:53:05,360 --> 00:53:10,559
And here he was irresistibly driven,
dragging the victim back to his doom.

610
00:53:10,599 --> 00:53:15,880
The intensity of the conviction had almost
checked his steps, But what could he

611
00:53:15,960 --> 00:53:21,440
do or say? At all costs, he must get Rainer out of the

612
00:53:21,519 --> 00:53:24,800
cold, into the house, and
into his bed. After that he would

613
00:53:24,880 --> 00:53:30,280
act. The snowfall was thickening,
and as they reached a stretch of the

614
00:53:30,360 --> 00:53:35,519
road between open fields, the wind
took them at an angle, lashing their

615
00:53:35,559 --> 00:53:42,199
faces with barbed thongs. Rainer stopped
to take breath and Faxon felt the heavier

616
00:53:42,280 --> 00:53:45,199
pressure of his arm. When we
get to the lodge, can't we telephone

617
00:53:45,239 --> 00:53:50,000
to the stable for sleigh, if
they're not all asleep at the lodge.

618
00:53:50,440 --> 00:53:53,239
Oh, all managed, don't talk, Thaxxon ordered, and they plodded on

619
00:53:54,000 --> 00:53:59,679
at length. The lantern Ray showed
ruts that curved away from the road under

620
00:53:59,719 --> 00:54:05,159
tree darkness. Faxxon's spirit rose,
there's the gate. We'll be there in

621
00:54:05,239 --> 00:54:09,239
five minutes. As he spoke,
he caught about the boundary hedge the gleam

622
00:54:09,280 --> 00:54:14,400
of a light at the farther end
of the dark avenue. It was the

623
00:54:14,440 --> 00:54:19,159
same light that had shown on the
scene, of which every detail was burnt

624
00:54:19,239 --> 00:54:23,760
into his brain, and he felt
again its overpowering reality. No, he

625
00:54:23,880 --> 00:54:28,519
couldn't let the boy go back.
They were at the lodge at last,

626
00:54:28,719 --> 00:54:32,039
and Faxxon was hammering on the door. He said to himself, I'll get

627
00:54:32,119 --> 00:54:37,960
him inside first and make them give
him a hot drink. Then i'll see

628
00:54:37,159 --> 00:54:42,440
I'll find an argument. There was
no answer to his knocking, and after

629
00:54:42,480 --> 00:54:45,639
an interval, Rayner said, look
here, we'd better go on. No,

630
00:54:46,320 --> 00:54:51,920
I can perfectly you shan't go to
the house, I say, Faxxon

631
00:54:52,079 --> 00:54:58,159
furiously redoubled his blows, and at
length step sounded on the stairs. Rayner

632
00:54:58,280 --> 00:55:01,519
was leaning against the lintel, and
as the door opened, the light from

633
00:55:01,559 --> 00:55:07,599
the hall flashed on his pale face
and fixed eyes. Faxxon caught him by

634
00:55:07,599 --> 00:55:13,320
the arm and drew him in.
It was cold out there. He sighed,

635
00:55:13,519 --> 00:55:17,440
and then abruptly, as if invisible
shears at a single stroke had cut

636
00:55:17,480 --> 00:55:22,440
every muscle in his body. He
swerved, drooped on Faxxon's arm, and

637
00:55:22,639 --> 00:55:29,360
seemed to sink into nothing at his
feet. The lodge keeper and Faxon bent

638
00:55:29,480 --> 00:55:34,960
over him, and somehow between them
lifted him into the kitchen and laid him

639
00:55:35,079 --> 00:55:38,559
on a sofa by the stove.
The lodge keeper, stammering, I'll ring

640
00:55:38,639 --> 00:55:43,920
up the house, dashed out of
the room, But Faxxen heard the words

641
00:55:43,960 --> 00:55:50,800
without heeding them. Omens mattered nothing
now beside this woe fulfilled He knelt down

642
00:55:50,920 --> 00:55:54,440
to undo the fur collar about Reyna's
throat, and as he did so he

643
00:55:54,519 --> 00:56:00,920
felt a warm moisture on his hands. He held them up and they were

644
00:56:00,000 --> 00:56:07,920
read. Chapter five. The palms
threaded their endless lines along the Yellow River.

645
00:56:08,360 --> 00:56:14,639
The little steamer lay at the wharf, and George Faxon sitting in the

646
00:56:14,719 --> 00:56:20,519
verandah of the Wooden Hotel, idly
watched the coolies carrying the freight across the

647
00:56:20,639 --> 00:56:24,840
gang plank. He had been looking
at such scenes for two months. Nearly

648
00:56:24,960 --> 00:56:30,800
five had elapsed since he had descended
from the train at Northridge and strained his

649
00:56:30,920 --> 00:56:36,320
eyes for the sleigh that was to
take him to Waymore, Waymore, which

650
00:56:36,320 --> 00:56:40,119
he was never to behold part of
the interval, the first part was still

651
00:56:40,159 --> 00:56:45,840
a great gray blur. Even now
he could not be quite sure how he

652
00:56:45,920 --> 00:56:50,159
had got back to Boston, reached
the house of a cousin, and been

653
00:56:50,199 --> 00:56:55,760
thence transferred to a quiet room looking
out on snow under bare trees. He

654
00:56:55,880 --> 00:57:00,159
looked out a long time at the
same scene, and finally, one day

655
00:57:00,440 --> 00:57:06,039
a man he had known at Harvard
came to see him and invited him to

656
00:57:06,079 --> 00:57:09,559
go out on a business trip to
the Malay Peninsula. You've had a bad

657
00:57:09,599 --> 00:57:14,559
shake up, and it'll do you
no end of good to get away from

658
00:57:14,639 --> 00:57:19,119
things. When the doctor came the
next day, it turned out that he

659
00:57:19,199 --> 00:57:22,320
knew of the plan and approved it. You ought to be quiet for year,

660
00:57:22,599 --> 00:57:28,800
just loaf and look at the landscape, he advised. Faxon felt the

661
00:57:28,880 --> 00:57:34,519
first faint stirrings of curiosity. What's
been the matter with me? Anyhow well

662
00:57:34,679 --> 00:57:38,079
over work? I suppose you must
have been bottling up for a bad breakdown

663
00:57:38,159 --> 00:57:43,559
before you started for New Hampshire last
December. And the shock of that poor

664
00:57:43,599 --> 00:57:47,679
boy's death did the rest. Ah. Yes, Rayner had died, he

665
00:57:47,800 --> 00:57:54,000
remembered. He started for the east, and gradually, by imperceptible degrees,

666
00:57:54,320 --> 00:58:00,239
life crept back into his weary bones
and leaden brain. His friend was very

667
00:58:00,320 --> 00:58:07,000
considerate and forbearing, and they traveled
slowly and talked little. At first,

668
00:58:07,119 --> 00:58:14,559
Faxon had felt a great shrinking from
whatever touched on familiar things. He seldom

669
00:58:14,599 --> 00:58:20,440
looked at a newspaper. He never
opened a letter without a moment's contraction of

670
00:58:20,480 --> 00:58:24,119
the heart. It was not that
he had any special cause for apprehension,

671
00:58:24,360 --> 00:58:30,320
but merely that a great trail of
darkness lay on everything he had looked too,

672
00:58:30,400 --> 00:58:37,480
deep down into the abyss. But
little by little health and energy returned

673
00:58:37,599 --> 00:58:43,320
to him, and with them the
common promptings of curiosity. He was beginning

674
00:58:43,360 --> 00:58:49,119
to wonder how the world was going, And when presently the hotel keeper told

675
00:58:49,199 --> 00:58:52,199
him there were no letters for him
in the steamer's mail, bag. He

676
00:58:52,320 --> 00:58:59,159
felt a distinct sense of disappointment.
His friend had gone into the jungle on

677
00:58:59,239 --> 00:59:04,480
a long excursion, and he was
lonely, unoccupied, and wholesomely bored.

678
00:59:05,119 --> 00:59:09,159
He got up and strolled into the
stuffy reading room. There he found a

679
00:59:09,239 --> 00:59:15,159
game of dominoes, a mutilated picture
puzzle, some copies of Zion's Herald,

680
00:59:15,400 --> 00:59:21,719
and a pile of New York and
London newspapers. He began to glance through

681
00:59:21,719 --> 00:59:25,599
the papers and was disappointed to find
that they were less recent than he had

682
00:59:25,639 --> 00:59:31,000
hoped. Evidently the last number had
been carried off by luckier travelers. He

683
00:59:31,079 --> 00:59:37,360
continued to turn them over, picking
out the American ones first. These,

684
00:59:37,440 --> 00:59:43,400
as it happened, were the oldest. They dated back to December and January

685
00:59:43,440 --> 00:59:46,920
to Faxxon. However, they had
all the flavor of novelty, since they

686
00:59:47,000 --> 00:59:52,760
covered the precise period during which he
had virtually ceased to exist. It had

687
00:59:52,800 --> 00:59:58,880
never before occurred to him to wonder
what had happened in the world during that

688
00:59:59,079 --> 01:00:05,400
interval obliteration, but now he felt
a sudden desire to know. To prolong

689
01:00:05,480 --> 01:00:09,719
the pleasure, he began by sorting
the papers chronologically, and as he found

690
01:00:09,800 --> 01:00:15,039
and spread out the earliest number.
The date at the top of the page

691
01:00:15,280 --> 01:00:21,079
entered into his unconsciousness like a key
slipping into a lock. It was the

692
01:00:21,159 --> 01:00:27,360
seventeenth of December, the date of
the day after his arrival at Northridge.

693
01:00:27,679 --> 01:00:32,159
He glanced at the first page and
read, in blazing characters, reported failure

694
01:00:32,320 --> 01:00:40,119
of opal Cement Company. Lavington's name
involved gigantic exposure of corruption, shakes Wall

695
01:00:40,199 --> 01:00:45,880
Street to its foundations. He read
on, and when he had finished the

696
01:00:45,960 --> 01:00:50,199
first paper, he turned to the
next. There was a gap of three

697
01:00:50,320 --> 01:00:55,639
days, but the opal Cement investigation
still held the center of the stage from

698
01:00:55,639 --> 01:01:01,840
its complex revelations of greed and ruin. His eye wandered to the death notices,

699
01:01:02,360 --> 01:01:08,199
and he read Rayner Suddenly at Northridge, New Hampshire, Francis John,

700
01:01:08,519 --> 01:01:15,159
only, son of the late His
eyes clouded, and he dropped the newspaper

701
01:01:15,480 --> 01:01:20,199
and sat for a long time with
his face in his hands. When he

702
01:01:20,280 --> 01:01:24,679
looked up again, he noticed that
his gesture had pushed the other papers from

703
01:01:24,719 --> 01:01:30,960
the table and scattered them on the
floor at his feet. The uppermost lay

704
01:01:30,000 --> 01:01:37,280
spread out before him, and heavily
his eyes began their search again. John

705
01:01:37,360 --> 01:01:43,880
Lavington comes forward with plan for reconstructing
company offers to put in ten millions of

706
01:01:43,960 --> 01:01:51,159
his own the proposal under consideration by
the District Attorney ten millions, ten millions

707
01:01:51,199 --> 01:01:55,440
of his own. But if John
Lavington was ruined, Faxon stood up with

708
01:01:55,519 --> 01:02:00,679
a cry that was it? Then
that was what the warning meant. And

709
01:02:00,800 --> 01:02:06,440
if he had not fled from it, dashed wildly away from it into the

710
01:02:06,559 --> 01:02:10,679
night, he might have broken the
spell of iniquity. The power of darkness

711
01:02:10,800 --> 01:02:16,000
might not have prevailed. He caught
up the pile of newspapers and began to

712
01:02:16,039 --> 01:02:22,320
glance through each in turn for the
headline Wills admitted to probate. In the

713
01:02:22,440 --> 01:02:25,760
last of all, he found the
paragraph he sought, and it stared up

714
01:02:25,800 --> 01:02:31,800
at him, as if with Rainer's
dying eyes, that that was what he

715
01:02:31,840 --> 01:02:37,880
had done. The powers of pity
had singled him out to warn and save,

716
01:02:38,079 --> 01:02:44,039
and he had closed his ears to
their call, had washed his hands

717
01:02:44,079 --> 01:02:47,519
of it, and fled, washed
his hands of it. That was the

718
01:02:47,599 --> 01:02:52,519
word. It caught him back to
the dreadful moment in the lodge, when

719
01:02:52,920 --> 01:02:59,840
raising himself up from Rainer's side,
he had looked at his hands and seen

720
01:03:00,400 --> 01:03:06,800
that they were read end of The
Triumph of Night by Edith Wharton,