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Speaker 1: The Triumph of Night by Edith Wharton, Chapter one. It

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was clear that the sleigh from Wymore had not come,

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and the shivering young traveler from Boston, who had so

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confidently counted on jumping into it when he left the

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train at Northridge Junction, found himself standing alone on the

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open platform, exposed to the full assault of nightfall and winter.

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The blast that swept him came off New Hampshire snowfields

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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,

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and sharpening its edge against the same bitter black and

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white landscape. Dark, searching and swordlike, it alternately muffled and

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harried its victim, like a bullfighter, now whirling his cloak

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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,

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and that the overcoat in which he had faced the

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relatively temperate airs of Boston seemed no thicker than a

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sheet of paper. On the bleak heights of Northridge, George

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Faxon said to himself that the place was uncommonly well named.

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Speaker 2: It clung to an.

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Speaker 1: Exposed ledge over the valley from which the train had

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lifted him, and the wind combed it with teeth of

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steel that he seemed actually to hear scraping against the

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wooden sides of the station. Other building there was none.

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The village lay far down the road, and thither since

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the way More sleigh had not come, Faxon saw himself

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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

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hostess had forgotten that he was coming. Young as Faxon was,

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this sad lucidity of soul had been acquired as the

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result of long experience, and he knew that the visitors

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who can least afford to hire a carriage are almost

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always those whom their hosts forget to send for Yet

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to say missus colmb had forgotten him was perhaps too

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crude a way of putting it. Similar incidents led him

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to think that she had probably told her maid to

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tell the butler to telephone the coachman to tell one

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of the grooms if no one else needed him to

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drive over to Northridge to fetch the new secretary. But

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on a night like this, what groom who respected his

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rights would fail to forget the order. Faxon's obvious course

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was to struggle through the drifts to the village and

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there route out a sleigh to convey him to Waymore.

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But what if on his arrival at Missus Colmes no

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one remembered to ask him what this devotion to duty

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had cost. That again, was one of the contingencies he

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had expensively learned to look out for, and the perspicacity

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so acquired told him it would be cheaper to spend

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the night at the Northridge Inn and advise Missus Colm

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of his presence there by telephone. He had reached this

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decision and was about to entrust his luggage to a

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vague man with a lantern who seemed to have some

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loose connection with the railway company, when his hopes were

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raised by the sound of sleigh bells. Two vehicles were

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just dashing up to the station, and from the foremost

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there sprang a young man swathed in furs.

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Speaker 2: Waymore.

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Speaker 1: No, these are not the Waymore sleighs.

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Speaker 2: The voice was that of the youth who.

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Speaker 1: Had jumped to the platform, a voice so agreeable that

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in spite of the words, it fell reassuringly on Faxon's ears.

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At the same moment, the wandering station lantern, casting a

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transient light on the speaker, showed his features to be

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in the pleasantest harmony with his voice. He was very

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fair and very young, hardly in the twenties, Faxen thought,

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But his face, though full of a morning freshness, was

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a trifle too thin and fine drawn, as though a

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vivid spirit contended in him with a strain of physical weakness.

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Faxon was perhaps the quicker to notice such delicacies of balance,

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because his own temperament hung on lightly vibrating nerves, which, yet,

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as he believed, would never quite swing him beyond the

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arc of a normal sensibility. You expected a sleagh from waymore.

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The youth continued standing beside Faxon like a slender column

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of fur. Missus Colmbe's secretaire, Mary explained his difficulty, and

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the newcomer brushed it aside with a contemptuous oh, missus

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colmb that carried both speakers a long way toward reciprocal understanding.

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Speaker 2: But then you.

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Speaker 1: 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

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to be answered this evening. Faxon's laugh deepened the sense

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of solidarity which had so promptly established itself between the two.

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The newcomer laughed also. Missus Colm, he explained, was lunching

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at my uncle's to day, and she said you were

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due this evening. But seven hours is a long time

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for missus Calm to remember anything. Well, said Faxen, philosophically,

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I suppose that's one of the reasons why she needs

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a secretary. And I've always the inn at Northridge, he concluded.

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The youth laughed again. He was at the age when

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predicaments are food for gaiety.

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Speaker 2: Oh but you.

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Speaker 1: Haven't, though it burned down last week week the deuce

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it did, said Faxon. But the humor of the situation

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struck him also before its inconvenience. His life four years

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past had been mainly a succession of resigned adaptations, and

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he had learned, before dealing practically with his embarrassments, to

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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

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who can put me up. No one you could put

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up with. Besides, Northridge is three miles off, and our

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place in the opposite direction is a little nearer. Through

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the darkness. Faxon saw his friend sketch a gesture of

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self introduction. My name's Frank Rayner, and I'm staying with

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my uncle at Overdale. I've driven over to meet two

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friends of his who are due in a few minutes

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

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I'm sure Overdale can do you better than Northridge. We're

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only down from town for a few days, but the

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house is always ready for a lot of people. But

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your uncle Faxon could only object with the odd sense

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through his embarrassment that it would be magically dispelled by

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his invisible friend's next words, Oh, my uncle, you'll see

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I answer for him. I dare say you've heard of him?

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John Lavington, John Lavington. There was a certain irony in

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asking if one had heard of John Lavington, even from

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a post of observation as obscure as that of Missus

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Colmes's secretary. The rumor of John Lavington's money, of his pictures,

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his politics, his charities, and his hospitality was as difficult

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to escape as the roar of a cataract in a mountain.

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Speaker 2: Solitude.

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Speaker 1: It might almost have been said that the one place

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in which one would not have expected to come upon

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him was in just such a solitude as now surrounded

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

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But it was just like life, Havington's brilliant ubiquity to

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put one in the wrong even there. Oh, yes, I've

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heard of your uncle. Then you will come, won't you.

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We've only five minutes to wait. Young Rayner urged in

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the tone that dispels scruples by ignoring them, and Faxon

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found himself accepting the invitation as simply as it was offered.

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A delay in the arrival of the New York train

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lengthened their five minutes to fifteen, and as they paced

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the icy platform, Faxon began to see why it had

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seemed the most natural thing in the world to accede

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to his new acquaintance's suggestion. It was because Frank Rayner

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was one of the privileged beings who simplify human intercourse

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by the atmosphere of confidence and good humor they diffuse.

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He produced this effect, Faxon noted by the exercise of

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no gift save his youth, of no art save his sincerity.

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But these qualities were revealed in a smile of such

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appealing sweetness that Faxon felt as never before what nature

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can achieve when she deigns to match the face with

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the mind. He learned that the young man was the

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ward and only nephew of John Lavington, with whom he

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had made his home since the death of his mother.

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The great man's sister, Mister Lavington, Rayner said, had been

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a regular brick to him, But then he is to

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everyone you know, And the young fellow's situation seemed, in

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fact to be perfectly in keeping with his person. Apparently

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the only shade that had ever rested on him was

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cast by the physical weakness which Faxon had already detected.

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Young Rayner had been threatened with a disease of the lungs, which,

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according to the highest authorities, made banishment to Arizona or

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New Mexico inevitable. But luckily my uncle didn't pack me off.

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Most people would have done without getting another opinion. Who's oh,

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an awfully clever chap, a young doctor with a lot

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of new ideas, who simply laughed at my being sent

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away and said I'd do perfectly well in New York

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if I didn't dine out too much, and if I

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dashed off occasionally to Northridge for little fresh air. So

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it's really my uncle's doing that. I'm not in exile,

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and I feel no end better since the new chap

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told me I needn't bother young. Rayner went on to

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confess that he was extremely fond of dining out, dancing,

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and other urban distractions, and Faxon, listening to him, concluded

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that the physician who had refused to cut him off

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altogether from these pleasures was probably a better psychologist than

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

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you know. The sense of elder brotherly concern that forced

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the words from Faxen made him, as he spoke, slip

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his arm impulsively through Frank Rayner's. The latter met the

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movement with a responsive pressure. Oh, I am awfully, awfully,

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And then my uncle has such an eye on me.

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But if your uncle has such an eye on you,

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what does he say to your swallowing knives out here

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in this Siberian wild? Rayner raised his fur coat with

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

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cold's good for me, and it's not the dinners and dancers.

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Speaker 2: What is it?

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Speaker 1: Then, Faxen good humoredly insisted, to which his companion answered

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with a laugh, Well, my uncle says it's being bored,

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and I rather think he's right. His laugh ended in

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a spasm of coughing and a struggle for breath that

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made Faxen, still holding his arm, guide him hastily into

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the shelter of the fireless waiting room. Young Rainer had

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dropped down on the bench against the wall and pulled

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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 us,

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his forehead, which was intensely white and beaded with moisture,

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though his face retained a healthy glow. But Faxon's gaze

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remained fastened to the hand he had uncovered. It was

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so long, so colorless, so wasted, so much older than

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the brow.

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Speaker 2: He passed it over.

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Speaker 1: It's queer, a healthy face, but dying hands. The secretary mused,

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he somehow wished young Rainer had kept on his glove.

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The whistle of the express drew the young men to

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their feet, and the next moment two heavily furred gentlemen

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had descended to the platform and were breasting the rigor

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of the night. Frank Rayner introduced them as mister Grisbon

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and mister Balch, and Faxen, while their luggage was being

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lifted into the second sleigh, discerned them by the roving

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lantern gleam to be an elderly, gray headed pair, apparently

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of the average prosperous business cut. They saluted their host's

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nephew with friendly familiarity, and mister Grisbone, who seemed the

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spokesman of the two, ended his greeting with a genial

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and many more of them dear boy, which suggested to

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Faxon that their arrival coincided with an anniversary, but he

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could not express the inquiry for the seat allotted him

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was at the coachman's side, while Frank Rayner joined his

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uncle's guests inside the sleigh. A swift flight behind such

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horses as one could be sure of, John Lavington's having

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brought them to tall gate posts, an illuminated lodge, and

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an avenue on which the snow had been leveled to

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the smoothness of marble. At the end of the avenue,

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the long house loomed through trees, its principal bulk dark,

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but one wing sending out a ray of welcome, and

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the next moment Faxon was receiving a violent impression of

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

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vast spectacular oak hall like a stage setting, and in

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its unreal middle distance, a small, concise figure, correctly dressed,

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conventionally featured, and utterly unlike his rather floored conception of

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the great John Lavington. The shock of the contrast remained

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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

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see where he comes in was the only way he

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could put it, So difficult was it to fit the

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exuberance of Lavington's public personality into his host's contracted frame

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and manner. Mister Lavington, to whom Faxon's case had been

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rapidly explained by young Rayner, had welcomed him with a

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sort of dry and stilted cordiality that exactly matched his

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narrow face, his stiff hand, the whiff of scent on

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his evening handkerchief. Make yourself at home, At home, he

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had repeated, in a tone that suggested on his own

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part a complete inability to perform the feat. He urged

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on his visitor and a friend of Frank's delighted, make yourself

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thoroughly at home Chapter two. In spite of the balmy

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temperature and complicated conveniences of Faxon's bedroom, the injunction was

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not easy to obey. It was wonderful luck to have

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found a night's shelter under the opulent roof of Overdale,

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and he tasted the physical satisfaction to the full. But

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the place, for all its ingenuities of comfort, was oddly

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cold and unwelcoming. He couldn't have said why, and could

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only suppose that mister Lavington's intense personality intensely negative but

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intense all the same, must, in some occult way have

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penetrated every corner of his dwelling. Perhaps, though, it was

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merely that Faxon himself was tired and hungry, more deeply

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chilled than he had known till he came in from

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the cold and unutterably sick of all strange houses and

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of the prospect of perpetually treading other people's stairs. I

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hope you're not famished. Rayner's slim figure was in the doorway.

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My uncle has a little business to attend to with

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

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Shall I fetch you or can you find your way down?

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Come straight to the dining room the second floor, on

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the left of the long gowery. He disappeared, leaving a

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00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:46,840
ray of warmth behind him, and Faxen relieved, lit a

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cigarette and sat down by the fire. Looking about with

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00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:53,799
less haste, he was struck by a detail that had

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escaped him. The room was full of flowers, a mere

259
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bachelor's room in the wing of a house opened only

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for a few days in the dead middle of a

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new Hampshire winter. Flowers were everywhere, not in senseless profusion,

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but placed with the same conscious art he had remarked

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in the grouping of the blossoming shrubs that filled the hall.

264
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A vase of arms stood on the writing table, a

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cluster of strange hued carnations on the stand at his elbow,

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and from wide buls of glass and porcelain, clumps of

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frisiobulbs diffused their melting fragrance. The fact implied acres of glass,

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00:17:36,799 --> 00:17:39,920
but that was the least interesting part of it. The

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

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00:17:46,480 --> 00:17:51,079
and on who's but John Lavington's a solicitous and sensitive

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passion for that particular embodiment of beauty. Well, it simply

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made the man, as he had appeared to Faxen, all

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the harder to understand. The half hour elapsed, and Faxen,

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rejoicing at the near prospect of food, set out to

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make his way to the dining room. He had not

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noticed the direction he had followed in going to his room,

277
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and was puzzled when he left it to find that

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two staircases of apparently equal importance invited him. He chose

279
00:18:25,079 --> 00:18:28,119
the one to the right and reached at its foot

280
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a long gallery such as Rayner had described. The gallery

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was empty, the doors down its length were closed, but

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Rainer had said the second to the left, and Faxen,

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after pausing for some chance enlightenment, which did not come,

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laid his hand on the second knob to the left.

285
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The room he entered was square, with dusky picture hung

286
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walls in its center, about a table lit by veiled lamps.

287
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He fancied mister Lavington and his guests to be already

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seated at dinner. Then he perceived that the table was

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00:19:07,039 --> 00:19:10,720
covered not with vians, but with papers, and that he

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00:19:10,759 --> 00:19:14,880
had blundered into what seemed to be his host's study.

291
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As he paused in the irresolution of embarrassment, Frank Rayner

292
00:19:19,839 --> 00:19:23,440
looked up. Oh, there's mister Faxon. Why not ask him?

293
00:19:24,039 --> 00:19:27,400
Mister Lavington, from the end of the table, reflected his

294
00:19:27,559 --> 00:19:32,160
nephew's smile in a glance of impartial benevolence. Certainly come in,

295
00:19:32,279 --> 00:19:36,359
mister Faxon, if you won't think it a liberty. Mister Grisbon,

296
00:19:36,559 --> 00:19:40,400
who sat opposite his host, turned his solid head toward

297
00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:44,480
the door. Of course, mister Faxon's an American citizen. Frank

298
00:19:44,559 --> 00:19:47,599
Rayner laughed, that's all right, Oh no, not one of

299
00:19:47,640 --> 00:19:51,680
your pinpointed pens, Uncle Jack. Haven't you got a quill somewhere.

300
00:19:52,279 --> 00:19:56,440
Mister Balch, who spoke slowly and as if reluctantly, in

301
00:19:56,519 --> 00:19:59,480
a muffled voice of which there seemed to be very

302
00:19:59,519 --> 00:20:03,160
little lef left, raised his hand to say, one moment

303
00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:07,440
you acknowledge this to be my last will and testament.

304
00:20:07,680 --> 00:20:11,200
Rayner's laugh redoubled. Well, I won't answer for the last.

305
00:20:11,440 --> 00:20:15,039
It's the first one anyway, It's a mere formula, mister

306
00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:19,400
Balch explained, Well, here goes. Rayner dipped his quill in

307
00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:23,039
the inkstand his uncle had pushed in his direction, and

308
00:20:23,160 --> 00:20:28,599
ashed a gallant signature across the document. Faxon, understanding what

309
00:20:28,839 --> 00:20:32,480
was expected of him, and conjecturing that the young man

310
00:20:32,680 --> 00:20:36,200
was signing his will on the attainment of his majority,

311
00:20:36,480 --> 00:20:40,799
had placed himself behind mister Grisbon and stood awaiting his

312
00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:45,960
turn to affix his name to the instrument. Rayner, having signed,

313
00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:49,000
was about to push the paper across the table to

314
00:20:49,079 --> 00:20:53,160
mister Balch, but the latter, again raising his hand, said

315
00:20:53,359 --> 00:20:56,559
in his sad, imprisoned voice, the seal.

316
00:20:57,200 --> 00:20:58,920
Speaker 2: Oh does there have to be a seal?

317
00:20:59,519 --> 00:21:03,720
Speaker 1: Faxon, looking over mister Grisbon at John Lavington saw a

318
00:21:03,759 --> 00:21:08,680
faint frown between his impassive eyes. Really frank, he seemed,

319
00:21:08,759 --> 00:21:12,599
Faxon thought, slightly irritated by his nephew's frivolity.

320
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:14,359
Speaker 2: Who's got a seal? Frank?

321
00:21:14,440 --> 00:21:17,920
Speaker 1: Rayner continued, glancing about the table. There doesn't seem to

322
00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:23,119
be one here, mister Grisbon interposed. A wafer will do, Lavington,

323
00:21:23,319 --> 00:21:27,400
You have a wafer? Mister Lavington had recovered his serenity.

324
00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:30,000
There must be some in one of the drawers, but

325
00:21:30,079 --> 00:21:32,799
I'm ashamed to say I don't know where my secretary

326
00:21:32,920 --> 00:21:36,039
keeps these things. He ought, of course, to have seen

327
00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:38,880
to it that a wafer was sent with the document.

328
00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:42,799
Oh hang it, Frank Rayner pushed the paper aside. It's

329
00:21:42,799 --> 00:21:45,160
the hand of God, and I'm hungry as a wolf.

330
00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:49,240
Let's dine first, Uncle Jack. I think I've a seal upstairs,

331
00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:55,079
said Faxen. Suddenly, mister Lavington sent him a barely perceptible smile.

332
00:21:55,519 --> 00:21:58,480
So sorry to give you the trouble. Oh, I say,

333
00:21:58,519 --> 00:22:01,559
don't send him after it. Now, let's wait till after dinner.

334
00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:06,680
Mister Lavington continued to smile on his guest, and the latter,

335
00:22:06,920 --> 00:22:10,319
as if under the faint coercion of the smile, turned

336
00:22:10,319 --> 00:22:14,359
from the room and ran upstairs. Having taken the seal

337
00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:18,000
from his writing case, he came down again and once

338
00:22:18,119 --> 00:22:21,480
more opened the door of the study. No one was

339
00:22:21,519 --> 00:22:25,720
speaking when he entered. They were evidently awaiting his return

340
00:22:25,839 --> 00:22:28,839
with the mute impatience of hunger, and he put the

341
00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:33,160
seal in Rayner's reach and stood watching while mister Grisbon

342
00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:35,920
struck a match and held it to one of the

343
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:40,720
candles flanking the inkstand. As the wax descended on the paper,

344
00:22:41,079 --> 00:22:47,039
Faxen remarked again the singular emaciation, the premature physical weariness

345
00:22:47,079 --> 00:22:50,359
of the hand that held it. He wondered if mister

346
00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:54,039
Lavington had ever noticed his nephew's hand, and if it

347
00:22:54,119 --> 00:22:58,039
were not poignantly visible to him now. With this thought

348
00:22:58,119 --> 00:23:01,400
in his mind, Faxen raised his eyes to look at

349
00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:05,960
mister Lavington. The great man's gaze rested on Frank Rayner

350
00:23:06,039 --> 00:23:09,799
with an expression of untroubled benevolence, and at the same

351
00:23:10,039 --> 00:23:14,279
instant Faxon's attention was attracted by the presence in the

352
00:23:14,359 --> 00:23:17,559
room of another person who must have joined the group

353
00:23:17,720 --> 00:23:21,839
while he was upstairs searching for the seal. The newcomer

354
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:25,640
was a man of about mister Lavington's age and figure,

355
00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:29,559
who stood directly behind his chair, and who, at the

356
00:23:29,599 --> 00:23:33,599
moment when Faxen first saw him, was gazing at young

357
00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:38,480
Rayner with an equal intensity of attention. The likeness between

358
00:23:38,559 --> 00:23:42,039
the two men perhaps increased by the fact that the

359
00:23:42,079 --> 00:23:45,480
hooded lamps on the table left the figure behind the

360
00:23:45,559 --> 00:23:49,279
chair and shadow struck Faxon, the more because of the

361
00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:55,119
strange contrast in their expression. John Lavington, during his nephew's

362
00:23:55,119 --> 00:23:58,799
blundering attempt to drop the wax and apply the seal,

363
00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:03,480
continued to fasten on him a look of half amused affection,

364
00:24:03,839 --> 00:24:08,079
while the man behind the chair, so oddly reduplicating the

365
00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:11,759
lines of his features and figure, turned on the boy

366
00:24:11,799 --> 00:24:16,799
a face of pale hostility. The impression was so startling

367
00:24:17,079 --> 00:24:20,759
Faxon forgot what was going on about him. He was

368
00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:25,480
just dimly aware of young Rayner's exclaiming, your turn, mister Grisbon,

369
00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:31,240
of mister Grisbon's ceremoniously protesting no, no, mister Faxon first,

370
00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:35,440
and of the pens being thereupon transferred to his own hand.

371
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:38,039
Speaker 2: He received it with a deadly.

372
00:24:37,759 --> 00:24:41,279
Speaker 1: Sense of being unable to move or even to understand

373
00:24:41,519 --> 00:24:44,880
what was expected of him, till he became conscious of

374
00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:50,359
mister Grisbon's paternally pointing out the precise spot on which

375
00:24:50,440 --> 00:24:54,200
he was to leave his autograph. The effort to fix

376
00:24:54,240 --> 00:24:58,839
his attention and steady his hand prolonged the process of signing,

377
00:24:59,119 --> 00:25:02,319
and when he stood up a strange weight of fatigue

378
00:25:02,359 --> 00:25:06,680
on all his limbs. The figure behind mister Lavington's chair

379
00:25:07,039 --> 00:25:11,480
was gone. Faxon felt an immediate sense of relief. It

380
00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:14,519
was puzzling that the man's exit should have been so

381
00:25:14,799 --> 00:25:18,880
rapid and noiseless. But the door behind mister Lavington was

382
00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:23,039
screened by a tapestry hanging, and Faxon concluded that the

383
00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:26,279
unknown looker on had merely had to raise it to

384
00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:30,160
pass out at any rate. He was gone, and with

385
00:25:30,279 --> 00:25:34,720
his withdrawal the strange weight was lifted. Young Rayner was

386
00:25:34,799 --> 00:25:39,680
lighting a cigarette, Mister Balch meticulously inscribing his name at

387
00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:43,039
the foot of the document. Mister Lavington, his eyes no

388
00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:47,640
longer on his nephew, examining a strange white winged orchid

389
00:25:47,839 --> 00:25:51,920
in the vase at his elbow. Everything suddenly seemed to

390
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:56,359
have grown natural and simple again, and Faxon found himself

391
00:25:56,400 --> 00:26:00,079
responding with a smile to the affable gesture, where with

392
00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:04,920
which his host declared, and now mister Faxon will dine

393
00:26:05,279 --> 00:26:09,240
Chapter three. I wonder how I blundered into the wrong room.

394
00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:11,559
Just now, I thought you told me to take the

395
00:26:11,599 --> 00:26:14,880
second door to the left, Faxon said to Frank Rayner,

396
00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:17,880
as they followed the older men down the gallery. So

397
00:26:18,039 --> 00:26:20,799
I did, but I probably forgot to tell you which

398
00:26:20,839 --> 00:26:24,359
staircase to take coming from your bedroom. I ought to

399
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:27,240
have said the fourth door to the right. It's a

400
00:26:27,279 --> 00:26:30,480
puzzling house because my uncle keeps adding to it from

401
00:26:30,559 --> 00:26:33,519
year to year. He built this room last summer for

402
00:26:33,559 --> 00:26:37,759
his modern pictures. Young Rayner, pausing to open another door,

403
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:41,480
touched an electric button, which sent a circle of light

404
00:26:41,599 --> 00:26:45,400
about the walls of a long room hung with canvases

405
00:26:45,519 --> 00:26:50,279
of the French Impressionist school. Faxon advanced, attracted by a

406
00:26:50,319 --> 00:26:53,359
shimmering monnette, but Rayner laid a hand on his arm.

407
00:26:53,559 --> 00:26:56,799
He bought that last week for a thundering price. But

408
00:26:56,960 --> 00:26:59,880
come along, I'll show you all of this after dinner,

409
00:27:00,119 --> 00:27:03,039
or he will rather he loves it. Does he really

410
00:27:03,079 --> 00:27:07,920
love things? Rainer stared clearly perplexed at the question. Rather

411
00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:12,440
flowers and pictures especially, Haven't you noticed the flowers? I

412
00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:15,920
suppose you think his manner's cold. It seems so at first,

413
00:27:16,079 --> 00:27:20,000
but he's really awfully keen about things. Faxon looked quickly

414
00:27:20,079 --> 00:27:24,359
at the speaker. Has your uncle a brother, brother? No?

415
00:27:24,599 --> 00:27:25,039
Speaker 2: Never had.

416
00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:28,000
Speaker 1: He and my mother were the only ones or any

417
00:27:28,039 --> 00:27:31,680
relation who who looks like him who might be mistaken

418
00:27:31,799 --> 00:27:34,400
for him, not that I ever heard of. Does he

419
00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:38,039
remind you of someone? Yes, that's queer. We'll ask him

420
00:27:38,039 --> 00:27:40,880
if he's got a double come on. But another picture

421
00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:44,839
had arrested Faxen, and some minutes elapsed before he and

422
00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:48,359
his young host reached the dining room. It was a

423
00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:53,920
large room with the same conventionally handsome furniture and delicately

424
00:27:54,039 --> 00:27:58,799
grouped flowers, and Faxon's first glance showed him that only

425
00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:02,279
three men were seated about the dining table. The man

426
00:28:02,319 --> 00:28:06,640
who had stood behind Lavington's chair was not present, and

427
00:28:06,759 --> 00:28:10,359
no seat awaited him. When the young men entered, mister

428
00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:14,519
Grisbon was speaking, and his host, who faced the door,

429
00:28:14,759 --> 00:28:18,720
sat looking down at his untouched soup plate and turning

430
00:28:18,759 --> 00:28:22,160
the spoon about in his small dry hand. It's pretty

431
00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:25,359
late to call them rumors. They were devilishly close to

432
00:28:25,519 --> 00:28:29,440
facts when we left town this morning, mister Grisbone was saying,

433
00:28:29,599 --> 00:28:34,279
with an unexpected incisiveness of tone. Mister Lavington laid down

434
00:28:34,279 --> 00:28:39,279
his spoon and smiled interrogatively. Oh facts, what are facts?

435
00:28:39,599 --> 00:28:41,599
Just the way a thing happens to look at a

436
00:28:41,599 --> 00:28:46,200
given minute. You haven't heard anything from town, mister Grisbon, persisted,

437
00:28:46,759 --> 00:28:50,039
not a syllable, so you see, Balch, a little more

438
00:28:50,039 --> 00:28:53,240
of that? Petit mar mitt, mister Faxon, between Frank and

439
00:28:53,279 --> 00:28:57,000
mister Grisbone, please. The dinner progressed through a series of

440
00:28:57,039 --> 00:29:02,400
complicated courses, ceremoniously dis fenced by a stout butler, attended

441
00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:05,720
by three tall footmen, and it was evident that mister

442
00:29:05,799 --> 00:29:10,799
Lavington took a somewhat puerile satisfaction in the pageant that

443
00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:14,839
Faxen reflected was probably the joint in his armor, that

444
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:18,920
and the flowers. He had changed the subject, not abruptly,

445
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:23,119
but firmly when the young men entered, but Faxen perceived

446
00:29:23,319 --> 00:29:27,359
that it still possessed the thoughts of the two elderly visitors,

447
00:29:27,519 --> 00:29:31,480
and mister Balch presently observed, in a voice that seemed

448
00:29:31,559 --> 00:29:35,240
to come from the last survivor down a mine shaft.

449
00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:38,720
If it does come, it will be the biggest crash

450
00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:44,039
since ninety three. Mister Lavington looked bored. But polite wall

451
00:29:44,119 --> 00:29:47,599
Street can stand crashes better than it could. Then it's

452
00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:52,960
got a robuster constitution. Yes, But speaking of constitution, mister

453
00:29:52,960 --> 00:29:56,799
Grisbon intervened, Frank, are you taking care of yourself? A

454
00:29:56,839 --> 00:30:00,440
flush rose to young Rayner's cheeks. Why, of course, isn't

455
00:30:00,440 --> 00:30:03,279
that what I'm here for. You're here about three days

456
00:30:03,279 --> 00:30:05,039
in the month, aren't you, And the rest of the

457
00:30:05,079 --> 00:30:08,839
time it's crowded restaurants and hot ball rooms in town.

458
00:30:09,119 --> 00:30:12,240
I thought you were to be shipped off to New Mexico. Oh,

459
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:14,920
I've got a new man who says that's all rot. Well,

460
00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:17,079
you don't look as if your new man were right,

461
00:30:17,359 --> 00:30:21,720
said mister Grisbond bluntly. Faxon saw the lad's color fade

462
00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:25,440
and the rings of shadow deepen under his gay eyes.

463
00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:28,720
At the same moment, his uncle turned to him with

464
00:30:28,759 --> 00:30:33,079
a renewed intensity of attention. There was such solicitude in

465
00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:36,880
mister Lavington's gaze that it seemed almost to fling a

466
00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:42,200
tangible shield between his nephew and mister Grisbon's tactless scrutiny.

467
00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:45,279
We think Frank's a good deal better, he began, the

468
00:30:45,359 --> 00:30:49,319
new doctor. The butler coming up bent discreetly to whisper

469
00:30:49,400 --> 00:30:52,559
a word in his ear, and the communication caused a

470
00:30:52,599 --> 00:30:57,160
sudden change in mister Lavington's expression. His face was naturally

471
00:30:57,240 --> 00:31:00,000
so colorless that it seemed not so much to pay

472
00:31:00,079 --> 00:31:04,119
hale as to fade, to dwindle, and recede into something

473
00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:08,480
blurred and blotted out. He half rose, sat down again,

474
00:31:08,759 --> 00:31:11,640
and sent a rigid smile about the table. Will you

475
00:31:11,720 --> 00:31:15,240
excuse me the telephone? Peter's gone with the dinner. With

476
00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:18,680
small precise steps, he walked out of the door, which

477
00:31:18,759 --> 00:31:22,200
one of the footmen had hastened to throw open. A

478
00:31:22,279 --> 00:31:26,400
momentary silence fell on the group. Then mister Grisbone once

479
00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:29,759
more addressed himself to Rayner. You ought to have gone,

480
00:31:29,839 --> 00:31:33,000
my boy, you ought to have gone. The anxious look

481
00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:36,759
returned to the youth's size. My uncle doesn't think so. Really,

482
00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:39,920
you're not a baby to be always governed on your

483
00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:43,720
uncle's opinion. You came of age today, didn't you. Your

484
00:31:43,799 --> 00:31:48,079
uncle spoils you, That's what's the matter. The thrust evidently

485
00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:51,200
went home for Rayner laughed and looked down with a

486
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:55,799
slight accession of color. But the doctor, use your common sense, Frank,

487
00:31:56,039 --> 00:31:58,720
you had to try twenty doctors to find one to

488
00:31:58,759 --> 00:32:01,480
tell you what you wanted to be told. A look

489
00:32:01,519 --> 00:32:04,200
of apprehension overshadowed Rayner's gaiety.

490
00:32:04,559 --> 00:32:06,759
Speaker 2: Oh come, I say, what would you do?

491
00:32:07,079 --> 00:32:10,720
Speaker 1: He stammered, pack up and jump on the first train.

492
00:32:11,279 --> 00:32:14,599
Mister Grisbon leaned forward and laid a firm hand on

493
00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:18,440
the young man's arm. Look here, my nephew, Jim Grisbine

494
00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:21,400
is out there, ranching on a big scale. He'll take

495
00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:24,240
you in and be glad to have you. You say,

496
00:32:24,240 --> 00:32:27,079
your new doctor thinks it won't do you any good,

497
00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:29,759
But he doesn't pretend to say it will do you harm,

498
00:32:30,039 --> 00:32:33,240
does he. Well, then give it a trial. It'll take

499
00:32:33,279 --> 00:32:36,519
you out of hot theaters and night restaurants anyhow, and

500
00:32:36,599 --> 00:32:39,960
all the rest of it. Eh, balch, go, said mister

501
00:32:40,079 --> 00:32:44,160
bull hollowly. Go at once, he added, as if a

502
00:32:44,200 --> 00:32:47,680
closer look at the youth's face had impressed on him

503
00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:51,519
the need of backing up his friend. Young Rayner had

504
00:32:51,559 --> 00:32:55,640
turned ashy pale. He tried to stiffen his mouth into

505
00:32:55,680 --> 00:32:58,079
a smile. Do I look as bad as all that

506
00:32:58,680 --> 00:33:02,000
mister Grisbone was helping himself to terrapin? You look like

507
00:33:02,079 --> 00:33:06,240
the day after an earthquake, he added, concisely. The terrapin

508
00:33:06,359 --> 00:33:10,240
had encircled the table and been deliberately enjoyed by mister

509
00:33:10,319 --> 00:33:15,720
Lavington's three visitors. Rayner Faxon noticed left his plate untouched

510
00:33:15,839 --> 00:33:19,319
before the door was thrown open to readmit their host.

511
00:33:19,799 --> 00:33:23,799
Mister Lavington advanced with an air of recovered composure. He

512
00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:27,799
seated himself, picked up his napkin, and consulted the gold

513
00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:32,160
monogrammed menu. No, don't bring back the filet some terrapin. Yes,

514
00:33:32,359 --> 00:33:35,680
he looked affably about the table. Sorry to have deserted you,

515
00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:38,319
but the storm has played the deuce with the wires,

516
00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:40,480
and I had to wait a long time before I

517
00:33:40,519 --> 00:33:43,559
could get a good connection. It must be blowing up

518
00:33:43,599 --> 00:33:46,880
for a blizzard, Uncle Jack, Young Rayner broke in. Mister

519
00:33:46,960 --> 00:33:52,119
Grisbond's been lecturing me. Mister Lavington was helping himself to terrapin. Ah,

520
00:33:52,279 --> 00:33:54,759
what about he thinks I ought to have given New

521
00:33:54,799 --> 00:33:57,799
Mexico a show. I want him to go straight out

522
00:33:57,839 --> 00:34:00,839
to my nephew at Santa Paz and stay there till

523
00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:04,799
his next birthday. Mister Lavington signed to the butler to

524
00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:07,839
hand the turpan to mister Grisbon, who, as he took

525
00:34:07,839 --> 00:34:12,000
a second helping, addressed himself again to Rayner Jims in

526
00:34:12,079 --> 00:34:14,880
New York. Now and going back the day after tomorrow

527
00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:19,119
in Oliphant's private car. I'll ask Oliphant to squeeze you

528
00:34:19,199 --> 00:34:21,320
in if you'll go. And when you've been out there

529
00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:23,840
a week or two, in the saddle all day and

530
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:27,159
sleeping nine hours a night, I suspect you won't think

531
00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:31,239
much of the doctor who prescribed New York. Faxon spoke up.

532
00:34:31,360 --> 00:34:33,920
He knew not why I was out there once. It's

533
00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:36,760
a splendid life. I saw a fellow, Oh, a really

534
00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:39,880
bad case who'd been simply made over by it. It

535
00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:44,119
does sound jolly, Rayner laughed, a sudden eagerness of anticipation

536
00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:47,800
in his tone. His uncle looked at him gently. Perhaps

537
00:34:47,920 --> 00:34:51,880
Grisbon's right, it's an opportunity. Faxon looked up with a start.

538
00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:55,679
The figure dimly perceived in the study was now more

539
00:34:55,760 --> 00:35:02,039
visibly and tangibly planted behind mister Lavington chair. That's right, Frank.

540
00:35:02,199 --> 00:35:04,639
You see your uncle approves, and the trip out there

541
00:35:04,679 --> 00:35:07,440
with Oliphant isn't a thing to be missed. So drop

542
00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:09,920
a few dozen dinners and be at the Grand Center

543
00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:14,039
the day after tomorrow. At five, mister Grisbon's pleasant gray

544
00:35:14,159 --> 00:35:18,480
eye sought corroboration of his host, and Faxon, in a

545
00:35:18,599 --> 00:35:23,000
cold anguish of suspense, continued to watch him as he

546
00:35:23,079 --> 00:35:27,039
turned his glance on mister Lavington. One could not look

547
00:35:27,079 --> 00:35:30,559
at Lavington without seeing the presence at his back, and

548
00:35:30,679 --> 00:35:34,000
it was clear that the next minute, some change in

549
00:35:34,119 --> 00:35:38,960
mister Grisbon's expression must give his watcher a clue. But

550
00:35:39,159 --> 00:35:43,840
mister Grisbon's expression did not change. The gaze he fixed

551
00:35:43,880 --> 00:35:47,920
on his host remained unperturbed, and the clue he gave

552
00:35:48,199 --> 00:35:51,400
was the startling one of not seeming to see the

553
00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:55,440
other figure. Faxon's first impulse was to look away, to

554
00:35:55,559 --> 00:35:59,519
look anywhere else, to resort again to the Champagne glass

555
00:35:59,559 --> 00:36:03,719
the watch butler had already brimmed, but some fatal attraction

556
00:36:04,079 --> 00:36:08,199
at war in him, with an overwhelming physical resistance, held

557
00:36:08,280 --> 00:36:11,920
his eyes upon the spot they feared. The figure was

558
00:36:11,960 --> 00:36:17,280
still standing more distinctly and therefore more resemblingly at mister

559
00:36:17,360 --> 00:36:22,079
Lavington's back, And while the latter continued to gaze affectionately

560
00:36:22,159 --> 00:36:26,679
at his nephew, his counterpart, as before, fixed young Rayner

561
00:36:26,800 --> 00:36:31,280
with eyes of deadly menace. Faxon, with what felt like

562
00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:34,960
an actual wrench of muscles, dragged his own eyes from

563
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:38,800
the sight to scan the other countenances about the table,

564
00:36:39,079 --> 00:36:43,719
but not one revealed the least consciousness of what he saw,

565
00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:48,559
and a sense of mortal isolation sank upon him. It's

566
00:36:48,559 --> 00:36:52,960
worth considering, certainly. He heard mister Lavington continue, and as

567
00:36:53,039 --> 00:36:56,880
Rayner's face lit up, the face behind his uncle's chair

568
00:36:57,199 --> 00:37:01,639
seemed to gather into its look all the fierce weariness

569
00:37:01,679 --> 00:37:07,000
of old, unsatisfied hates. That was the thing that, as

570
00:37:07,079 --> 00:37:11,639
the minutes labored by Faxon was becoming most conscious of,

571
00:37:12,079 --> 00:37:16,559
the watcher behind the chair was no longer merely malevolent.

572
00:37:17,079 --> 00:37:22,760
He had grown suddenly unutterably tired. His hatred seemed to

573
00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:26,800
well up out of the very depths of balked effort

574
00:37:27,039 --> 00:37:31,639
and thwarted hopes, and the fact made him more pitiable

575
00:37:31,840 --> 00:37:36,679
and yet more dire. Faxon's look reverted to mister Lavington,

576
00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:40,800
as if to surmise in him a corresponding change. At

577
00:37:40,880 --> 00:37:45,079
first none was visible. His pinched smile was screwed to

578
00:37:45,239 --> 00:37:49,480
his blank face, like a gaslight to a white washed wall.

579
00:37:49,960 --> 00:37:54,519
Then the fixity of the smile became ominous. Faxon saw

580
00:37:54,599 --> 00:37:58,119
that its wearer was afraid to let it go. It

581
00:37:58,239 --> 00:38:02,599
was evident that mister lav Rington was unutterably tired too,

582
00:38:02,920 --> 00:38:07,199
and the discovery sent a cold current through Faxon's veins.

583
00:38:07,679 --> 00:38:11,719
Looking down at his untouched plate, he caught the soliciting

584
00:38:11,840 --> 00:38:15,000
twinkle of the champagne glass, but the sight of the

585
00:38:15,039 --> 00:38:19,760
wine turned him sick. Well, we'll go into the details presently,

586
00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:23,000
he heard mister Lavington say, still on the question of

587
00:38:23,039 --> 00:38:27,559
his nephew's future, let's have a cigar first. No, not here, Peters.

588
00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:31,559
He turned his smile on Faxen. When we've had coffee,

589
00:38:31,679 --> 00:38:34,639
I want to show you my pictures. Oh, by the way,

590
00:38:34,760 --> 00:38:37,280
uncle Jack, mister Faxon wants to know if you've got

591
00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:41,559
a double. A double Mister Lavington, still smiling, continued to

592
00:38:41,599 --> 00:38:44,199
address himself to his guest, Not that I know of,

593
00:38:44,719 --> 00:38:48,360
have you seen one, mister Faxon, Faxon thought, my god,

594
00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:51,159
If I look up now, they'll both be looking at me.

595
00:38:51,639 --> 00:38:54,440
To avoid raising his eyes, he made as though to

596
00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:57,719
lift the glass to his lips, but his hand sank

597
00:38:57,880 --> 00:39:02,440
inert and he looked up. Missus Lavington's glance was politely

598
00:39:02,519 --> 00:39:05,280
bent on him, but with a loosening of the strain

599
00:39:05,360 --> 00:39:08,639
about his heart, he saw that the figure behind the

600
00:39:08,760 --> 00:39:12,840
chair still kept its gaze on Rayner. Do you think

601
00:39:12,880 --> 00:39:16,440
you've seen my double, mister Faxon, would the other face

602
00:39:16,559 --> 00:39:20,599
turn if he said yes? Faxon felt a dryness in

603
00:39:20,679 --> 00:39:25,760
his throat. No, he answered, ah, it's possible.

604
00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:27,559
Speaker 2: I've a dozen. I believe I'm.

605
00:39:27,480 --> 00:39:33,079
Speaker 1: Extremely usual looking. Mister Lavington went on conversationally, and still

606
00:39:33,119 --> 00:39:37,519
the other face watched Rayner. It was a mistake, a

607
00:39:37,599 --> 00:39:42,440
confusion of memory. Faxon heard himself stammer. Mister Lavington pushed

608
00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:45,320
back his chair, and as he did so, mister Grisbon

609
00:39:45,599 --> 00:39:49,760
suddenly leaned forward. Lavington, what have we been thinking of?

610
00:39:50,079 --> 00:39:54,960
We haven't drunk Frank's health. Mister Lavington reseated himself. My

611
00:39:55,119 --> 00:39:59,119
dear boy, Peter's another bottle. He turned to his nephew.

612
00:39:59,360 --> 00:40:02,519
After such a a sin of omission. I don't presume

613
00:40:02,639 --> 00:40:06,880
to propose the toast myself, but Frank knows. Go ahead, Crispin.

614
00:40:07,400 --> 00:40:10,440
The boys shone on his uncle. No, no, Uncle Jack,

615
00:40:10,559 --> 00:40:13,000
Mister Crispin won't mind nobody but you.

616
00:40:13,199 --> 00:40:13,559
Speaker 2: To day.

617
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:18,599
Speaker 1: The butler was replenishing the glasses. He filled mister Lavington's last,

618
00:40:18,840 --> 00:40:22,400
and mister Lavington put out his small hand to raise it.

619
00:40:22,760 --> 00:40:26,280
As he did so, Faxon looked away. Well, then all

620
00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:29,559
the good I've wished you in all the past years.

621
00:40:29,880 --> 00:40:32,719
I put it into the prayer that the coming ones

622
00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:37,760
may be healthy and happy and many. Dear boy Faxon

623
00:40:37,920 --> 00:40:42,519
saw the hands about him reach out for their glasses automatically,

624
00:40:42,719 --> 00:40:46,119
he made the same gesture. His eyes were still on

625
00:40:46,239 --> 00:40:51,000
the table, and he repeated to himself with a trembling vehemence.

626
00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:53,760
Speaker 2: I won't look up. I won't, I won't.

627
00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:58,440
Speaker 1: His fingers clasped the stem of the glass and raised

628
00:40:58,480 --> 00:41:01,199
it to the level of his lips. He saw the

629
00:41:01,239 --> 00:41:05,239
other hands making the same motion. He heard mister Crispin's

630
00:41:05,360 --> 00:41:09,920
genial hear, hear, and mister Balch's hollow echo. He said

631
00:41:09,960 --> 00:41:13,760
to himself, as the rim of the glass touched his lips.

632
00:41:13,639 --> 00:41:17,519
Speaker 2: I won't look up. I swear I won't. And he looked.

633
00:41:17,760 --> 00:41:21,360
Speaker 1: The glass was so full that it required an extraordinary

634
00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:25,519
effort to hold it there, brimming and suspended during the

635
00:41:25,639 --> 00:41:29,400
awful interval before he could trust his hand to lower

636
00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:33,840
it again, untouched to the table. It was this merciful

637
00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:38,760
preoccupation which saved him, kept him from crying out, from

638
00:41:38,840 --> 00:41:43,880
losing his hold, from slipping down into the bottomless blackness

639
00:41:43,880 --> 00:41:47,159
that gaped for him as long as the problem of

640
00:41:47,199 --> 00:41:51,000
the glass engaged him, he felt able to keep his seat,

641
00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:55,960
manage his muscles, fit unnoticeably into the group. But as

642
00:41:56,000 --> 00:42:00,800
the glass touched the table, his last link with safety snapped.

643
00:42:01,199 --> 00:42:06,039
He stood up and dashed out of the room Chapter four.

644
00:42:07,079 --> 00:42:10,559
In the gallery, the instinct of self preservation helped him

645
00:42:10,599 --> 00:42:14,079
to turn back and sign to young Rayner not to follow.

646
00:42:14,519 --> 00:42:17,800
He stammered out something about a touch of dizziness and

647
00:42:17,960 --> 00:42:22,000
joining them presently, and the boy waved an unsuspecting hand

648
00:42:22,199 --> 00:42:25,440
and drew back. At the foot of the stairs, Faxen

649
00:42:25,559 --> 00:42:29,159
ran against a servant. I should like to telephone to waymore,

650
00:42:29,320 --> 00:42:33,400
he said, with dry lips. Sorry, sir, wires all down.

651
00:42:33,599 --> 00:42:35,840
We've been trying the last hour to get New York

652
00:42:35,880 --> 00:42:39,639
again for mister Lavington. Faxen shot on to his room,

653
00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:43,400
burst into it, and bolted the door. The mild lamp

654
00:42:43,559 --> 00:42:47,480
light lay on furniture, flowers, books in the ashes, A

655
00:42:47,559 --> 00:42:51,159
log still glimmered. He dropped down on the sofa and

656
00:42:51,320 --> 00:42:55,960
hid his face. The room was utterly silent, The whole

657
00:42:56,000 --> 00:42:59,679
house was still. Nothing about him gave a hint of

658
00:42:59,760 --> 00:43:03,800
what was going on. Darkly and dumbly in the horrible

659
00:43:03,920 --> 00:43:06,920
room he had flown from, and with the covering of

660
00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:11,480
his eyes, oblivion and reassurance seemed to fall on him.

661
00:43:11,559 --> 00:43:14,800
But they fell for a moment. Only then his lids

662
00:43:14,920 --> 00:43:19,519
opened again to the monstrous vision. There it was stamped

663
00:43:19,599 --> 00:43:23,920
on his pupils, a part of him forever, an indelible

664
00:43:24,079 --> 00:43:28,000
horror burnt into his body and brain. But why into

665
00:43:28,119 --> 00:43:32,400
his just his? Why had he alone been chosen to

666
00:43:32,480 --> 00:43:35,519
see what he had seen? What business was it of his?

667
00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:36,639
Speaker 2: In God's name?

668
00:43:37,119 --> 00:43:41,239
Speaker 1: Any one of the others, thus enlightened, might have exposed

669
00:43:41,360 --> 00:43:45,320
the horror and defeated it. But he, the one weaponless

670
00:43:45,480 --> 00:43:49,719
and defenseless spectator, the one whom none of the others

671
00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:53,960
would believe or understand if he attempted to reveal what

672
00:43:54,199 --> 00:43:58,159
he knew, He alone had been singled out as the

673
00:43:58,280 --> 00:44:04,000
victim of this atrocious initiation. Suddenly he sat up, listening.

674
00:44:04,559 --> 00:44:08,239
He had heard a step on the stairs, someone, no doubt,

675
00:44:08,440 --> 00:44:11,280
was coming to see how he was to urge him

676
00:44:11,440 --> 00:44:14,199
if he felt better to go down and join the

677
00:44:14,280 --> 00:44:18,920
smoker's Cautiously, he opened his door. Yes, it was young

678
00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:23,440
Rayner's step. Faxon looked down the passage, remembered the other

679
00:44:23,599 --> 00:44:27,519
stairway and darted to it. All he wanted was to

680
00:44:27,559 --> 00:44:31,360
get out of the house. Not another instant would he

681
00:44:31,440 --> 00:44:35,760
breathe its abominable air. What business was it of his?

682
00:44:36,079 --> 00:44:39,840
In God's name? He reached the opposite end of the

683
00:44:39,880 --> 00:44:43,480
lower gallery, and beyond it saw the hall by which

684
00:44:43,519 --> 00:44:47,480
he had entered. It was empty, and on a long table.

685
00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:51,400
He recognized his coat and cap among the furs of

686
00:44:51,480 --> 00:44:55,920
the other travelers. He got into his coat, unbolted the door,

687
00:44:56,159 --> 00:44:58,760
and plunged into the purifying night.

688
00:44:59,280 --> 00:45:01,159
Speaker 2: The darkness was deep, and.

689
00:45:01,079 --> 00:45:04,920
Speaker 1: The cold so intense that for an instant it stopped

690
00:45:04,920 --> 00:45:09,079
his breathing. Then he perceived that only a thin snow

691
00:45:09,239 --> 00:45:13,519
was falling, and resolutely set his face for flight. The

692
00:45:13,599 --> 00:45:17,039
trees along the avenue dimly marked his way as he

693
00:45:17,159 --> 00:45:22,159
hastened with long strides over the beaten snow. Gradually, while

694
00:45:22,199 --> 00:45:26,599
he walked, the tumult in his brain subsided. The impulse

695
00:45:26,679 --> 00:45:30,280
to fly still drove him forward, but he began to

696
00:45:30,400 --> 00:45:33,079
feel that he was flying from a terror of his

697
00:45:33,199 --> 00:45:37,360
own creating, and that the most urgent reason for escape

698
00:45:37,639 --> 00:45:41,159
was the need of hiding his state of shunning other

699
00:45:41,320 --> 00:45:45,800
eyes scrutiny till he should regain his balance. He had

700
00:45:45,840 --> 00:45:50,079
spent the long hours in the train, in fruitless broodings

701
00:45:50,159 --> 00:45:54,760
on a discouraging situation, and he remembered how his bitterness

702
00:45:54,960 --> 00:45:58,719
had turned to exasperation when he found that the way

703
00:45:58,760 --> 00:46:03,079
more sleigh was not awaiting him. It was absurd, of course,

704
00:46:03,400 --> 00:46:07,639
but though he had joked with Rayner over missus Colm's forgetfulness,

705
00:46:07,840 --> 00:46:11,400
to confess it had cost a pang. That was what

706
00:46:11,559 --> 00:46:15,000
his rootless life had brought him to. For lack of

707
00:46:15,039 --> 00:46:18,880
a personal stake in things, his sensibility was at the

708
00:46:18,960 --> 00:46:24,159
mercy of such trivial accidents. Yes, that and the cold

709
00:46:24,320 --> 00:46:28,360
and fatigue, and absence of hope, and the haunting sense

710
00:46:28,679 --> 00:46:33,440
of starved aptitudes. All these had brought him to the

711
00:46:33,480 --> 00:46:38,320
perilous verge, over which once or twice before his terrified

712
00:46:38,440 --> 00:46:42,000
brain had hung, Why else, in the name of any

713
00:46:42,079 --> 00:46:47,400
imaginable logic, human or devilish, should he, a stranger, be

714
00:46:47,559 --> 00:46:51,880
singled out for this experience? What could it mean to him?

715
00:46:52,159 --> 00:46:55,320
How was he related to it? What bearing had it

716
00:46:55,519 --> 00:46:59,800
on his case? Unless indeed it was just because he

717
00:46:59,960 --> 00:47:04,239
was a stranger, a stranger everywhere, because he had no

718
00:47:04,440 --> 00:47:10,079
personal life, no warm, strong screen of private egotisms to

719
00:47:10,199 --> 00:47:14,480
shield him from exposure. That he had developed this abnormal

720
00:47:14,639 --> 00:47:19,519
sensitiveness to the vicissitudes of others. The thought pulled him

721
00:47:19,639 --> 00:47:24,199
up with a shudder. No, such a fate was too abominable.

722
00:47:24,679 --> 00:47:28,440
All that was strong and sound in him rejected it.

723
00:47:28,880 --> 00:47:34,960
A thousand times better regard himself as ill, disorganized, deluded

724
00:47:35,119 --> 00:47:39,400
than as the predestined victim of such warnings. He reached

725
00:47:39,480 --> 00:47:43,800
the gates and paused before the darkened lodge. The wind

726
00:47:43,920 --> 00:47:47,440
had risen and was sweeping the snow into his face

727
00:47:47,639 --> 00:47:52,400
and lacerating streamers. The cold had him in its grasp again,

728
00:47:52,639 --> 00:47:56,400
and he stood uncertain should he put his sanity to

729
00:47:56,480 --> 00:47:57,960
the test and go back.

730
00:47:58,440 --> 00:48:02,079
Speaker 2: He turned and looked down the dark drive to the house.

731
00:48:02,719 --> 00:48:06,639
Speaker 1: A single ray shone through the trees, evoking a picture

732
00:48:06,679 --> 00:48:10,519
of the lights, the flowers, the faces grouped about that

733
00:48:10,679 --> 00:48:14,719
fatal room. He turned and plunged out into the road.

734
00:48:15,239 --> 00:48:19,000
He remembered that about a mile from Overdale, the coachman

735
00:48:19,119 --> 00:48:22,679
had pointed out the road to Northridge, and he began

736
00:48:22,800 --> 00:48:26,199
to walk in that direction. Once in the road, he

737
00:48:26,280 --> 00:48:29,199
had the gale in his face and the wet snow

738
00:48:29,320 --> 00:48:34,400
on his mustached eyelashes instantly hardened to metal. The same

739
00:48:34,519 --> 00:48:38,280
metal seemed to be driving a million blades into his

740
00:48:38,440 --> 00:48:43,079
throat and lungs. But he pushed on, desperately, determined the

741
00:48:43,199 --> 00:48:47,440
vision of the warm room pursuing him. The snow in

742
00:48:47,480 --> 00:48:51,960
the road was deep and uneven. He stumbled across ruts

743
00:48:52,039 --> 00:48:56,440
and sank into drifts, and the wind rose behind him

744
00:48:56,519 --> 00:49:01,159
like a granite cliff. Now and then he stopped, gasping

745
00:49:01,360 --> 00:49:05,599
as if an invisible hand had tightened an iron band

746
00:49:05,719 --> 00:49:11,320
about his body. Then he started again, stiffening himself against

747
00:49:11,360 --> 00:49:16,280
the stealthy penetration of the cold. The snow continued to

748
00:49:16,400 --> 00:49:21,039
descend out of a pall of inscrutable darkness, and once

749
00:49:21,159 --> 00:49:25,199
or twice he paused, fearing he had missed the road

750
00:49:25,400 --> 00:49:29,159
to Northridge, but seeing no sign of a turn, he

751
00:49:29,280 --> 00:49:33,280
plowed on doggedly. At last, feeling sure that he had

752
00:49:33,280 --> 00:49:36,679
walked more than a mile, he halted and looked back.

753
00:49:37,199 --> 00:49:41,519
The act of turning brought immediate relief, first because it

754
00:49:41,599 --> 00:49:45,320
put his back to the wind, and then because, far

755
00:49:45,440 --> 00:49:49,000
down the road it showed him the advancing gleam of

756
00:49:49,039 --> 00:49:53,320
a lantern. A sleigh was coming, a sleigh that might

757
00:49:53,440 --> 00:49:57,320
perhaps give him a lift to the village. Fortified by

758
00:49:57,360 --> 00:50:00,000
the hope, he began to walk back toward the lane.

759
00:50:00,800 --> 00:50:05,559
It seemed to come forward very slowly, with unaccountable zigzags

760
00:50:05,679 --> 00:50:08,960
and waverings, and even when he was within a few

761
00:50:09,039 --> 00:50:12,440
yards of it, he could catch no sound of sleigh bells.

762
00:50:12,960 --> 00:50:17,000
Then the light paused and became stationary by the roadside,

763
00:50:17,239 --> 00:50:21,400
as though carried by a pedestrian who had stopped exhausted

764
00:50:21,559 --> 00:50:25,440
by the cold. The thought made Faxen hasten on, and

765
00:50:25,559 --> 00:50:29,199
a moment later he was stooping over a motionless figure

766
00:50:29,440 --> 00:50:33,440
huddled against the snow bank. The lantern had dropped from

767
00:50:33,440 --> 00:50:37,800
its bear's hand, and Faxen, fearfully raising it, threw its

768
00:50:37,880 --> 00:50:41,719
light into the face of Frank Rayner. Rayner, What on

769
00:50:41,760 --> 00:50:45,360
earth are you doing here? The boy smiled back through

770
00:50:45,400 --> 00:50:48,880
his Pallor what are you? I'd like to know, he retorted,

771
00:50:49,239 --> 00:50:53,320
and scrambling to his feet, with a clutch on Faxon's arm,

772
00:50:53,519 --> 00:50:57,800
he added gaily, well, I run you down anyhow, Faxen

773
00:50:57,880 --> 00:51:00,760
stood confounded, his heart sinking.

774
00:51:01,239 --> 00:51:02,920
Speaker 2: The lad's face was gray.

775
00:51:03,239 --> 00:51:07,000
Speaker 1: What madness? He began, Yes, it is what on earth

776
00:51:07,039 --> 00:51:07,719
did you do it?

777
00:51:07,760 --> 00:51:08,039
Speaker 2: For?

778
00:51:08,440 --> 00:51:09,159
Speaker 1: I do? What?

779
00:51:09,519 --> 00:51:09,880
Speaker 2: Why?

780
00:51:10,039 --> 00:51:13,000
Speaker 1: I I was just taking a walk. I often walk

781
00:51:13,079 --> 00:51:16,960
at night. Frank Rayner burst into a laugh on such nights.

782
00:51:17,079 --> 00:51:20,719
Then you hadn't bolted, bolted because I'd done something to

783
00:51:20,760 --> 00:51:24,880
offend you. My uncle thought you had, Faxen grasped his arm.

784
00:51:25,280 --> 00:51:27,400
Did your uncle send you after me?

785
00:51:27,920 --> 00:51:28,199
Speaker 2: Well?

786
00:51:28,320 --> 00:51:30,559
Speaker 1: He gave me an awful rowing for not going up

787
00:51:30,599 --> 00:51:32,760
to your room with you when you said you were ill.

788
00:51:32,920 --> 00:51:35,639
And when we found you'd gone, we were frightened, and

789
00:51:35,719 --> 00:51:38,199
he was awfully upset. So I said I'd catch you.

790
00:51:38,639 --> 00:51:39,320
You're not ill?

791
00:51:39,360 --> 00:51:40,400
Speaker 2: Are you ill?

792
00:51:40,719 --> 00:51:45,119
Speaker 1: No? Never better? Faxon picked up the lantern. Come let's

793
00:51:45,159 --> 00:51:48,280
go back. It was awfully hot in that dining room,

794
00:51:48,360 --> 00:51:52,079
he added, yes, I hoped It was only that. They

795
00:51:52,159 --> 00:51:56,559
trudged on in silence for a few minutes. Then Faxen questioned,

796
00:51:56,719 --> 00:51:59,559
you're not too done up? Oh no, it's a lot

797
00:51:59,599 --> 00:52:03,519
easier with the wind behind us. All right, don't talk anymore.

798
00:52:03,920 --> 00:52:07,039
They pushed ahead, walking in spite of the light that

799
00:52:07,239 --> 00:52:11,119
guided them more slowly than Faxen had walked alone into

800
00:52:11,199 --> 00:52:15,079
the gale. The fact of his companions stumbling against a

801
00:52:15,159 --> 00:52:18,960
drift gave him a pretext for saying, take hold of

802
00:52:19,039 --> 00:52:23,800
my arm, and rainer obeying, gasped out, I'm blown so

803
00:52:24,000 --> 00:52:27,440
m who wouldn't be What a dance you led me

804
00:52:27,599 --> 00:52:29,880
if it hadn't been for one of the servants happening

805
00:52:29,960 --> 00:52:32,559
to see you. Yes, all right, and now won't you

806
00:52:32,719 --> 00:52:36,159
kindly shut up? Rayner laughed and hung on him. Oh,

807
00:52:36,199 --> 00:52:39,679
the call doesn't hurt me. For the first few minutes

808
00:52:39,840 --> 00:52:44,159
after Rainer had overtaken him, anxiety for the lad had

809
00:52:44,159 --> 00:52:45,800
been Faxen's only thought.

810
00:52:45,960 --> 00:52:47,000
Speaker 2: But as each.

811
00:52:46,880 --> 00:52:50,360
Speaker 1: Laboring step carried them nearer to the spot he had

812
00:52:50,440 --> 00:52:54,440
been fleeing, the reasons for his flight grew more ominous

813
00:52:54,639 --> 00:52:58,440
and more insistent. No, he was not ill, He was

814
00:52:58,480 --> 00:53:02,880
not distraught and del eluded. He was the instrument singled

815
00:53:03,000 --> 00:53:08,320
out to worn and save. And here he was irresistibly driven,

816
00:53:08,599 --> 00:53:12,840
dragging the victim back to his doom. The intensity of

817
00:53:12,920 --> 00:53:16,840
the conviction had almost checked his steps, But what could

818
00:53:16,840 --> 00:53:20,440
he do or say? At all costs, He must get

819
00:53:20,559 --> 00:53:23,840
Rainer out of the cold, into the house and into

820
00:53:23,880 --> 00:53:28,320
his bed. After that he would act. The snowfall was thickening,

821
00:53:28,639 --> 00:53:31,199
and as they reached a stretch of the road between

822
00:53:31,199 --> 00:53:35,320
open fields, the wind took them at an angle, lashing

823
00:53:35,360 --> 00:53:40,239
their faces with barbed thongs. Rainer stopped to take breath,

824
00:53:40,400 --> 00:53:44,239
and Faxon felt the heavier pressure of his arm. When

825
00:53:44,239 --> 00:53:46,440
we get to the lodge, can't we telephone to the

826
00:53:46,519 --> 00:53:50,599
stable for sleigh if they're not all asleep at the lodge. Oh,

827
00:53:50,639 --> 00:53:54,400
I'll managed, don't talk, Faxen ordered, and they plodded on

828
00:53:55,039 --> 00:53:58,599
at length. The lantern rays showed ruts that curved away

829
00:53:58,719 --> 00:54:03,599
from the road under tree darkness. Faxen's spirit rose, there's

830
00:54:03,639 --> 00:54:07,320
the gate. We'll be there in five minutes. As he spoke,

831
00:54:07,400 --> 00:54:10,480
he caught about the boundary hedge the gleam of a

832
00:54:10,599 --> 00:54:14,000
light at the farther end of the dark avenue. It

833
00:54:14,159 --> 00:54:16,840
was the same light that had shown on the scene,

834
00:54:16,960 --> 00:54:20,760
of which every detail was burnt into his brain, and

835
00:54:20,880 --> 00:54:25,519
he felt again its overpowering reality. No, he couldn't let

836
00:54:25,519 --> 00:54:28,599
the boy go back. They were at the lodge at last,

837
00:54:28,719 --> 00:54:32,480
and Faxon was hammering on the door. He said to himself,

838
00:54:32,639 --> 00:54:35,760
I'll get him inside first and make them give him

839
00:54:35,800 --> 00:54:39,559
a hot drink. Then i'll see I'll find an argument.

840
00:54:40,119 --> 00:54:43,199
There was no answer to his knocking, and after an interval,

841
00:54:43,440 --> 00:54:47,480
Rayner said, look here, we'd better go on. No, I

842
00:54:47,599 --> 00:54:50,880
can perfectly you shan't go to the house, I say.

843
00:54:51,480 --> 00:54:56,320
Faxon furiously redoubled his blows, and at length steps sounded

844
00:54:56,400 --> 00:55:00,400
on the stairs. Rayner was leaning against the lint, and

845
00:55:00,480 --> 00:55:03,800
as the door opened, the light from the hall flashed

846
00:55:03,800 --> 00:55:08,440
on his pale face and fixed eyes. Faxen caught him

847
00:55:08,480 --> 00:55:12,000
by the arm and drew him in. It was cold

848
00:55:12,039 --> 00:55:15,840
out there. He sighed, and then abruptly, as if invisible

849
00:55:15,920 --> 00:55:19,400
shears at a single stroke had cut every muscle in

850
00:55:19,480 --> 00:55:24,119
his body. He swerved, drooped on Faxon's arm, and seemed

851
00:55:24,199 --> 00:55:28,119
to sink into nothing at his feet. The lodge keeper

852
00:55:28,280 --> 00:55:32,760
and Faxen bent over him, and somehow between them lifted

853
00:55:32,840 --> 00:55:35,840
him into the kitchen and laid him on a sofa

854
00:55:35,960 --> 00:55:39,800
by the stove. The lodge keeper, stammering a ring up

855
00:55:39,840 --> 00:55:43,400
the house, dashed out of the room, but Faxen heard

856
00:55:43,400 --> 00:55:48,000
the words without heeding them. Omens mattered nothing now beside

857
00:55:48,039 --> 00:55:52,000
this woe fulfilled He knelt down to undo the fur

858
00:55:52,159 --> 00:55:55,480
collar about Rayner's throat, and as he did so he

859
00:55:55,559 --> 00:56:00,119
felt a warm moisture on his hands. He held them up,

860
00:56:00,440 --> 00:56:01,360
and they were red.

861
00:56:02,920 --> 00:56:03,719
Speaker 2: Chapter five.

862
00:56:04,840 --> 00:56:08,960
Speaker 1: The palms threaded their endless lines along the Yellow River.

863
00:56:09,440 --> 00:56:13,480
The little steamer lay at the wharf and George Faxon,

864
00:56:13,760 --> 00:56:17,960
sitting in the verandah of the Wooden Hotel, idly watched

865
00:56:18,000 --> 00:56:22,159
the coolies carrying the freight across the gang plank. He

866
00:56:22,239 --> 00:56:25,920
had been looking at such scenes for two months. Nearly

867
00:56:26,000 --> 00:56:29,360
five had elapsed since he had descended from the train

868
00:56:29,480 --> 00:56:33,360
at Northridge and strained his eyes for the sleigh that

869
00:56:33,599 --> 00:56:36,639
was to take him to Waymore, Waymore, which he was

870
00:56:36,719 --> 00:56:40,480
never to behold part of the interval, the first part

871
00:56:40,760 --> 00:56:44,000
was still a great gray blur. Even now he could

872
00:56:44,000 --> 00:56:47,519
not be quite sure how he had got back to Boston,

873
00:56:47,800 --> 00:56:51,639
reached the house of a cousin, and been thence transferred

874
00:56:51,880 --> 00:56:55,880
to a quiet room looking out on snow under bare trees.

875
00:56:56,719 --> 00:56:59,559
He looked out a long time at the same scene,

876
00:56:59,760 --> 00:57:02,800
and finally, one day a man he had known at

877
00:57:02,800 --> 00:57:06,239
Harvard came to see him and invited him to go

878
00:57:06,320 --> 00:57:10,039
out on a business trip to the Malay Peninsula. You've

879
00:57:10,079 --> 00:57:12,400
had a bad shake up, and it'll do you no

880
00:57:12,800 --> 00:57:16,039
end of good to get away from things. When the

881
00:57:16,119 --> 00:57:19,119
doctor came the next day, it turned out that he

882
00:57:19,239 --> 00:57:22,119
knew of the plan and approved it. You ought to

883
00:57:22,159 --> 00:57:25,159
be quiet for a year, just loaf and look at

884
00:57:25,159 --> 00:57:30,519
the landscape, he advised, Faxon felt the first faint stirrings

885
00:57:30,559 --> 00:57:34,559
of curiosity. What's been the matter with me? Anyhow well

886
00:57:34,679 --> 00:57:37,840
over work? I suppose you must have been bottling up

887
00:57:37,920 --> 00:57:41,079
for a bad breakdown before you started for New Hampshire

888
00:57:41,199 --> 00:57:44,360
last December. And the shock of that poor boy's death

889
00:57:44,480 --> 00:57:45,159
did the rest.

890
00:57:45,880 --> 00:57:46,280
Speaker 2: Ah.

891
00:57:46,400 --> 00:57:51,480
Speaker 1: Yes, Rayner had died, he remembered. He started for the east,

892
00:57:51,800 --> 00:57:56,920
and gradually, by imperceptible degrees, life crept back into his

893
00:57:57,039 --> 00:58:02,079
weary bones and leaden brain. His friend was very considerate

894
00:58:02,280 --> 00:58:08,000
and forbearing, and they traveled slowly and talked little. At first.

895
00:58:08,199 --> 00:58:12,159
Faxon had felt a great shrinking from whatever touched on

896
00:58:12,320 --> 00:58:16,800
familiar things. He seldom looked at a newspaper. He never

897
00:58:16,920 --> 00:58:21,000
opened a letter without a moment's contraction of the heart.

898
00:58:21,519 --> 00:58:25,159
It was not that he had any special cause for apprehension,

899
00:58:25,360 --> 00:58:28,760
but merely that a great trail of darkness lay on

900
00:58:28,920 --> 00:58:33,559
everything he had looked too, deep down into the abyss.

901
00:58:33,960 --> 00:58:38,119
But little by little health and energy returned to him,

902
00:58:38,440 --> 00:58:42,920
and with them the common promptings of curiosity. He was

903
00:58:42,960 --> 00:58:46,360
beginning to wonder how the world was going, And when

904
00:58:46,679 --> 00:58:50,760
presently the hotel keeper told him there were no letters

905
00:58:50,840 --> 00:58:51,639
for him in the.

906
00:58:51,639 --> 00:58:52,920
Speaker 2: Steamer's mail bag.

907
00:58:53,199 --> 00:58:57,599
Speaker 1: He felt a distinct sense of disappointment. His friend had

908
00:58:57,639 --> 00:59:01,079
gone into the jungle on a long expression, and he

909
00:59:01,159 --> 00:59:06,199
was lonely, unoccupied and wholesomely bored. He got up and

910
00:59:06,400 --> 00:59:10,199
strolled into the stuffy reading room. There he found a

911
00:59:10,239 --> 00:59:14,760
game of dominoes, a mutilated picture puzzle, some copies of

912
00:59:15,119 --> 00:59:19,840
Zion's Herald, and a pile of New York and London newspapers.

913
00:59:20,360 --> 00:59:23,880
He began to glance through the papers and was disappointed

914
00:59:23,920 --> 00:59:27,079
to find that they were less recent than he had hoped.

915
00:59:27,480 --> 00:59:31,440
Evidently the last number had been carried off by luckier travelers.

916
00:59:31,960 --> 00:59:35,639
He continued to turn them over, picking out the American

917
00:59:35,719 --> 00:59:40,119
ones first. These, as it happened, were the oldest. They

918
00:59:40,199 --> 00:59:45,159
dated back to December and January to Faxon. However, they

919
00:59:45,199 --> 00:59:48,519
had all the flavor of novelty, since they covered the

920
00:59:48,559 --> 00:59:52,800
precise period during which he had virtually ceased to exist.

921
00:59:53,440 --> 00:59:56,559
It had never before occurred to him to wonder what

922
00:59:56,760 --> 01:00:00,880
had happened in the world during that interval of obliteration,

923
01:00:01,320 --> 01:00:04,920
but now he felt a sudden desire to know. To

924
01:00:05,000 --> 01:00:09,360
prolong the pleasure, he began by sorting the papers chronologically,

925
01:00:09,800 --> 01:00:12,880
and as he found and spread out the earliest number,

926
01:00:13,119 --> 01:00:15,960
the date at the top of the page entered into

927
01:00:16,000 --> 01:00:20,719
his unconsciousness like a key slipping into a lock. It

928
01:00:20,880 --> 01:00:24,559
was the seventeenth of December, the date of the day

929
01:00:24,880 --> 01:00:28,920
after his arrival at Northridge. He glanced at the first

930
01:00:28,960 --> 01:00:34,000
page and read, in blazing characters, reported failure of opal

931
01:00:34,159 --> 01:00:40,880
Cement Company. Lavington's name involved gigantic exposure of corruption, shakes

932
01:00:40,880 --> 01:00:44,840
Wall Street to its foundations. He read on, and when

933
01:00:44,920 --> 01:00:48,440
he had finished the first paper, he turned to the next.

934
01:00:48,920 --> 01:00:49,480
Speaker 2: There was a.

935
01:00:49,400 --> 01:00:53,960
Speaker 1: Gap of three days that the opal Cement investigation still

936
01:00:54,079 --> 01:00:58,599
held the center of the stage from its complex revelations

937
01:00:58,639 --> 01:01:02,920
of greed and ruin. His eye wandered to the death notices,

938
01:01:03,440 --> 01:01:09,239
and he read Rayner Suddenly at Northridge, New Hampshire, Francis John,

939
01:01:09,519 --> 01:01:13,679
only son of the late His eyes clouded, and he

940
01:01:13,840 --> 01:01:17,519
dropped the newspaper and sat for a long time with

941
01:01:17,599 --> 01:01:21,159
his face in his hands. When he looked up again,

942
01:01:21,480 --> 01:01:25,480
he noticed that his gesture had pushed the other papers

943
01:01:25,519 --> 01:01:28,559
from the table and scattered them on the floor at

944
01:01:28,559 --> 01:01:33,039
his feet. The uppermost lay spread out before him, and

945
01:01:33,199 --> 01:01:38,440
heavily his eyes began their search again. John Lavington comes

946
01:01:38,519 --> 01:01:42,800
forward with plan for reconstructing company, offers to put in

947
01:01:42,960 --> 01:01:47,079
ten millions of his own the proposal under consideration by

948
01:01:47,119 --> 01:01:52,000
the district Attorney ten millions, ten millions of his own.

949
01:01:52,320 --> 01:01:56,480
But if John Lavington was ruined, Faxon stood up with

950
01:01:56,599 --> 01:02:00,440
a cry that was it? Then that was what the

951
01:02:00,480 --> 01:02:03,679
warning meant. And if he had not fled from it,

952
01:02:03,960 --> 01:02:07,559
dashed wildly away from it into the night, he might

953
01:02:07,639 --> 01:02:11,559
have broken the spell of iniquity. The power of darkness

954
01:02:11,840 --> 01:02:15,280
might not have prevailed. He caught up the pile of

955
01:02:15,360 --> 01:02:18,800
newspapers and began to glance through each in turn for

956
01:02:18,840 --> 01:02:23,199
the headline Wills admitted to probate. In the last of all,

957
01:02:23,400 --> 01:02:26,760
he found the paragraph he sought, and it stared up

958
01:02:26,800 --> 01:02:31,719
at him, as if with Rainer's dying eyes. That that

959
01:02:32,239 --> 01:02:32,800
was what.

960
01:02:32,719 --> 01:02:33,400
Speaker 2: He had done.

961
01:02:33,679 --> 01:02:37,880
Speaker 1: The powers of pity had singled him out to warn

962
01:02:38,159 --> 01:02:42,039
and save, and he had closed his ears to their call,

963
01:02:42,639 --> 01:02:46,480
had washed his hands of it, and fled, washed his

964
01:02:46,679 --> 01:02:50,360
hands of it. That was the word. It caught him

965
01:02:50,480 --> 01:02:54,400
back to the dreadful moment in the lodge, when raising

966
01:02:54,519 --> 01:02:58,840
himself up from Rayner's side, he had looked at his hands,

967
01:02:59,280 --> 01:03:04,559
and seen that they were read. End of the Triumph

968
01:03:04,760 --> 01:03:06,840
of Night by Edith Wharton