1 00:00:00,920 --> 00:00:05,599 Speaker 1: Section nine of the Best Ghost Stories. This is a 2 00:00:05,639 --> 00:00:10,160 LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. 3 00:00:10,839 --> 00:00:15,640 For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. 4 00:00:16,600 --> 00:00:22,519 Read by Winnifred Assman The Best Ghost Stories The Phantom 5 00:00:22,600 --> 00:00:30,000 Rickshaw by Rudyard Kipling. May no ill dreams disturb my rest, 6 00:00:30,679 --> 00:00:37,759 nor powers of darkness me molested evening hymn. One of 7 00:00:37,799 --> 00:00:41,840 the few advantages that India has over England is a 8 00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:46,280 certain great no ability. After five years service, a man 9 00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:50,399 is directly or indirectly acquainted with the two or three 10 00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:54,240 hundred civilians in his province, all the messes of ten 11 00:00:54,320 --> 00:00:58,039 or twelve regiments and batteries, and some fifteen hundred other 12 00:00:58,119 --> 00:01:02,359 people of the non official carets. In ten years his 13 00:01:02,479 --> 00:01:05,400 knowledge should be doubled, and at the end of twenty 14 00:01:05,519 --> 00:01:09,719 he knows or knows something about almost every Englishman in 15 00:01:09,799 --> 00:01:14,640 the Empire, and may travel anywhere and everywhere without paying 16 00:01:14,719 --> 00:01:20,719 hotel bills. Globetrotters who expect entertainment as a right have 17 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:25,640 even within my memory, blunted this open heartedness, But none 18 00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:28,040 the less to day, if you belong to the inner 19 00:01:28,079 --> 00:01:31,239 circle and are neither a bear nor a black sheep. 20 00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:34,480 All houses are open to you, and our small world 21 00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:39,280 is very kind and helpful. Rickett of Camartha stayed with 22 00:01:39,400 --> 00:01:44,120 Polder of cumaeon some fifteen years ago. He meant to 23 00:01:44,159 --> 00:01:47,239 stay two nights only, but was knocked down by rheumatic 24 00:01:47,319 --> 00:01:52,879 fever and for six weeks disorganized Polder's establishment, stopped Polder's work, 25 00:01:53,079 --> 00:01:57,159 and nearly died in Polder's bedroom. Polder behaves as though 26 00:01:57,200 --> 00:02:00,200 he had been placed under eternal obligation by ricket It, 27 00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:03,680 and yearly sends the little Rickets a box of presents 28 00:02:03,719 --> 00:02:07,879 and toys. It is the same everywhere. The men who 29 00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:10,599 do not take the trouble to conceal from you their 30 00:02:10,639 --> 00:02:13,960 opinion that you are an incompetent ass, and the women 31 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:18,439 who blacken your character and misunderstand your wife's amusements, will 32 00:02:18,479 --> 00:02:21,280 work themselves to the bone in your behalf if you 33 00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:27,280 fall sick or into serious trouble. Heatherly, the doctor kept, 34 00:02:27,439 --> 00:02:30,800 in addition to his regular practice, a hospital on his 35 00:02:30,919 --> 00:02:35,159 private account, an arrangement of loose boxes for incurables. His 36 00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:37,639 friends called it, but it was really a sort of 37 00:02:37,719 --> 00:02:40,639 fitting up shed for craft that had been damaged by 38 00:02:40,680 --> 00:02:44,759 stress of weather. The weather in India is often sultry, 39 00:02:45,039 --> 00:02:48,039 and since the tail of bricks is a fixed quantity 40 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:51,039 and the only liberty allowed is permission to work over 41 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:54,719 time and get no thanks, men occasionally break down and 42 00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:59,000 become as mixed as the metaphors in this sentence. Heatherly 43 00:02:59,199 --> 00:03:02,639 is the nicest doctor that ever was, and his invariable 44 00:03:02,719 --> 00:03:07,000 prescription to all his patients is lie low, go slow, 45 00:03:07,080 --> 00:03:11,719 and keep cool. He says that more men are killed 46 00:03:11,719 --> 00:03:16,280 by overwork than the importance of this world justifies. He 47 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:20,719 maintains that overwork slew Pansee, who died under his hands 48 00:03:20,759 --> 00:03:24,000 about three years ago. He has, of course the right 49 00:03:24,039 --> 00:03:27,439 to speak authoritatively, and he laughs at my theory that 50 00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:30,240 there was a crack in Pansy's head and a little 51 00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:33,039 bit of the dark world came through and pressed him 52 00:03:33,039 --> 00:03:37,879 to death. Panse went off the handle, says Heatherly, after 53 00:03:37,919 --> 00:03:41,360 the stimulus of long leave at home. He may or 54 00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:44,159 he may not have behaved like a blackguard to missus 55 00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:47,280 Keith Wessington. My notion is that the work of the 56 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:51,000 Katabundi's settlement ran him off his legs, and that he 57 00:03:51,039 --> 00:03:53,879 took to brooding and making much of an ordinary p 58 00:03:54,039 --> 00:03:58,479 and O flirtation. He certainly was engaged to Miss Mannering, 59 00:03:58,919 --> 00:04:02,280 and she certainly broke off the engagement. Then he took 60 00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:06,800 a feverish chill, and all that nonsense about ghosts developed itself. 61 00:04:07,280 --> 00:04:11,400 Over work started his illness, kept it alight and killed him. 62 00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:15,560 Poor devil. Write him off to the system. One man 63 00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:17,759 to do the work of two and a half men. 64 00:04:19,199 --> 00:04:21,600 I do not believe this. I used to sit up 65 00:04:21,600 --> 00:04:25,279 with Panze sometimes when Heatherly was called out to visit patients, 66 00:04:25,759 --> 00:04:28,759 and I happened to be within claim. The man would 67 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:32,120 make me most unhappy by describing in a low, even 68 00:04:32,279 --> 00:04:36,480 voice the procession of men, women, children and devils that 69 00:04:36,639 --> 00:04:39,360 was always passing at the bottom of his bed. He 70 00:04:39,439 --> 00:04:43,439 had a sick man's command of language. When he recovered, 71 00:04:43,519 --> 00:04:45,920 I suggested that he should write out the whole affair, 72 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:49,639 from beginning to end, knowing that ink might assist him 73 00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:53,480 to ease his mind. When little boys have learned a 74 00:04:53,519 --> 00:04:56,199 new bad word, they are never happy till they have 75 00:04:56,319 --> 00:05:00,000 chalked it up on a door, And this also is literature. 76 00:05:02,079 --> 00:05:04,480 He was in a high fever while he was writing, 77 00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:07,800 and the Blood and Thunder magazine style he adopted did 78 00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:11,560 not calm him. Two months afterward, he was reported fit 79 00:05:11,680 --> 00:05:13,959 for duty, but in spite of the fact that he 80 00:05:14,040 --> 00:05:17,839 was urgently needed to help an undermanned commission stagger through 81 00:05:17,839 --> 00:05:21,720 a deficit, he preferred to die, vowing at the last 82 00:05:21,879 --> 00:05:25,879 that he was hag written. I secured his manuscript before 83 00:05:25,920 --> 00:05:28,920 he died, and this is his version of the affair, 84 00:05:29,279 --> 00:05:34,279 dated eighteen eighty five. My doctor tells me that I 85 00:05:34,360 --> 00:05:37,839 need rest and change of air. It is not improbable 86 00:05:37,879 --> 00:05:40,959 that I shall get both ere long rest that neither 87 00:05:41,040 --> 00:05:44,560 the red coated orderly nor the mid day gun can break, 88 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:48,000 and change of air far beyond that which any homeward 89 00:05:48,040 --> 00:05:51,519 bound steamer can give me. In the meantime, I am 90 00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:54,959 resolved to stay where I am, and, in flat defiance 91 00:05:54,959 --> 00:05:57,680 of my doctor's orders, to take all the world into 92 00:05:57,720 --> 00:06:02,160 my confidence. You shall learn for yourselves the precise nature 93 00:06:02,199 --> 00:06:06,319 of my malady, and shall too judge for yourselves whether 94 00:06:06,399 --> 00:06:09,279 any man born of woman on this weary earth was 95 00:06:09,319 --> 00:06:13,879 ever so tormented as I speaking now as a condemned 96 00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:18,000 criminal might speak. Ere the drop bolts are drawn. My story, 97 00:06:18,040 --> 00:06:21,879 wild and hideously improbable, as it may appear, demands at 98 00:06:21,959 --> 00:06:26,920 least attention that it will ever receive credence. I utterly disbelieve. 99 00:06:27,879 --> 00:06:30,360 Two months ago I should have scouted as mad or 100 00:06:30,439 --> 00:06:33,319 drunk the man who had dared tell me the like. 101 00:06:34,279 --> 00:06:37,160 Two months ago, I was the happiest man in India 102 00:06:37,680 --> 00:06:40,399 to day, from Peshawar to the sea. There is no 103 00:06:40,439 --> 00:06:43,920 one more wretched. My doctor and I are the only 104 00:06:43,959 --> 00:06:48,759 two who know this. His explanation is that my brain, digestion, 105 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:52,560 and eyesight are all slightly affected, giving rise to my 106 00:06:52,639 --> 00:06:58,560 frequent and persistent delusions. Delusions. Indeed, I call him a fool, 107 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:02,079 but he attends me still with the same unwearied smile, 108 00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:07,040 the same bland, professional manner, the same neatly trimmed red whiskers, 109 00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:11,120 till I begin to suspect that I am an ungrateful, 110 00:07:11,399 --> 00:07:17,279 evil tempered invalid. But you shall judge for yourselves. Three 111 00:07:17,319 --> 00:07:20,959 years ago, it was my fortune, my great misfortune, to 112 00:07:21,079 --> 00:07:25,240 sail from Gravesend to Bombay on return from long leave, 113 00:07:25,480 --> 00:07:29,319 with one Agnes Keith Wessington, wife of an officer on 114 00:07:29,360 --> 00:07:32,759 the Bombay side. It does not in the least concern 115 00:07:32,839 --> 00:07:35,720 you to know what manner of woman she was. Be 116 00:07:35,800 --> 00:07:38,879 content with the knowledge that ere the voyage had ended. 117 00:07:39,279 --> 00:07:43,040 Both she and I were desperately and unreasoningly in love 118 00:07:43,240 --> 00:07:46,360 with one another. Heaven knows that I can make the 119 00:07:46,399 --> 00:07:50,839 admission now without one particle of vanity. In matters of 120 00:07:50,879 --> 00:07:54,240 this sort, there is always one who gives and another 121 00:07:54,279 --> 00:07:58,439 who accepts. From the first day of our ill omened attachment, 122 00:07:58,680 --> 00:08:02,040 I was conscious that Agnes's passion was a stronger, a 123 00:08:02,079 --> 00:08:05,720 more dominant, and, if I may use the expression, a 124 00:08:05,759 --> 00:08:10,040 purer sentiment than mine. Whether she recognized the fact then, 125 00:08:10,120 --> 00:08:13,920 I do not know. Afterwards, it was bitterly plain to 126 00:08:13,959 --> 00:08:17,680 both of us. Arrived at Bombay in the spring of 127 00:08:17,720 --> 00:08:20,879 the year, we went our respective ways to meet no 128 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:23,600 more for the next three or four months, when my 129 00:08:23,800 --> 00:08:27,439 leave and her love took us both to Simla. There 130 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:30,360 we spent the season together, and there my fire of 131 00:08:30,399 --> 00:08:33,759 straw burnt itself out to a pitiful end. With the 132 00:08:33,799 --> 00:08:38,879 closing year. I attempt no excuse, I make no apology. 133 00:08:39,679 --> 00:08:42,320 Missus Wessington had given up much for my sake, and 134 00:08:42,480 --> 00:08:46,039 was prepared to give up all from my own lips. 135 00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:49,399 In August eighteen eighty two, she learnt that I was 136 00:08:49,440 --> 00:08:52,960 sick of her presence, tired of her company, and weary 137 00:08:53,080 --> 00:08:56,399 of the sound of her voice. Ninety nine women out 138 00:08:56,440 --> 00:08:59,000 of a hundred would have wearied of me as I 139 00:08:59,080 --> 00:09:02,399 wearied of them. Seventy five of that number would have 140 00:09:02,440 --> 00:09:07,440 promptly avenged themselves by active and obtrusive flirtation with other men. 141 00:09:07,759 --> 00:09:11,919 Missus Wessington was the hundredth on her. Neither my openly 142 00:09:11,960 --> 00:09:16,279 expressed aversion nor the cutting brutalities with which I garnished 143 00:09:16,279 --> 00:09:21,519 our interviews had the least effect. Jack Darling was her 144 00:09:21,559 --> 00:09:25,519 one eternal cuckoo cry. I'm sure it's all a mistake, 145 00:09:25,879 --> 00:09:29,279 a hideous mistake, and we'll be good friends again some day. 146 00:09:29,840 --> 00:09:34,039 Please forgive me, Jack Dear. I was the offender, and 147 00:09:34,159 --> 00:09:39,000 I knew it. That knowledge transformed my pity into passive endurance, 148 00:09:39,279 --> 00:09:43,240 and eventually into blind hate, the same instinct I suppose 149 00:09:43,559 --> 00:09:46,600 which prompts a man to savagely stamp on the spider 150 00:09:46,679 --> 00:09:49,600 he has but half killed. And with this hate in 151 00:09:49,639 --> 00:09:52,440 my bosom, the season of eighteen eighty two came to 152 00:09:52,480 --> 00:09:57,279 an end. Next year, we met again at Simla, she 153 00:09:57,480 --> 00:10:01,440 with her monotonous face and timid attempts at reconciliation, and 154 00:10:01,559 --> 00:10:04,840 I with loathing of her in every fiber of my frame. 155 00:10:05,840 --> 00:10:08,960 Several times I could not avoid meeting her alone, and 156 00:10:09,080 --> 00:10:13,039 on each occasion her words were identically the same. Still 157 00:10:13,080 --> 00:10:16,480 the unreasoning wail that it was all a mistake, and 158 00:10:16,519 --> 00:10:20,759 still the hope of eventually making friends. I might have seen, 159 00:10:20,840 --> 00:10:23,399 had I cared to look, that that hope only was 160 00:10:23,480 --> 00:10:27,480 keeping her alive. She grew more wan and thin month 161 00:10:27,559 --> 00:10:30,759 by month. You will agree with me at least that 162 00:10:30,799 --> 00:10:34,679 such conduct would have driven any one to despair. It 163 00:10:34,759 --> 00:10:40,039 was uncalled for, childish, unwomanly. I maintained that she was 164 00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:44,200 much to blame. And again, sometimes in the black, fever 165 00:10:44,279 --> 00:10:47,320 stricken night watches, I have begun to think that I 166 00:10:47,480 --> 00:10:50,360 might have been a little kinder to her, But that 167 00:10:50,440 --> 00:10:54,360 really is a delusion. I could not have continued pretending 168 00:10:54,399 --> 00:10:57,000 to love her when I didn't, could I. It would 169 00:10:57,000 --> 00:11:01,000 have been unfair to us both. Last year we met 170 00:11:01,039 --> 00:11:04,919 again on the same terms as before, the same weary 171 00:11:05,039 --> 00:11:08,639 appeals and the same curt answers from my lips. At 172 00:11:08,720 --> 00:11:11,159 least I would make her see how wholly wrong and 173 00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:15,720 hopeless were her attempts at resuming the old relationship. As 174 00:11:15,759 --> 00:11:18,840 the season wore on, we fell apart. That is to 175 00:11:18,919 --> 00:11:22,000 say she found it difficult to meet me, for I 176 00:11:22,120 --> 00:11:26,759 had other and more absorbing interests to attend to. When 177 00:11:26,799 --> 00:11:29,159 I think it over quietly in my sick room, the 178 00:11:29,200 --> 00:11:33,320 season of eighteen eighty four seems a confused nightmare, wherein 179 00:11:33,399 --> 00:11:37,840 light and shade were fantastically intermingled my courtship of little 180 00:11:37,919 --> 00:11:43,000 Kitty Mannering, my hopes, doubts and fears, our long rides together, 181 00:11:43,600 --> 00:11:47,759 my trembling avowal of attachment, her reply, and now and 182 00:11:47,799 --> 00:11:50,679 again a vision of a white face flitting by in 183 00:11:50,759 --> 00:11:53,879 the rickshaw with the black and white liveries. I once 184 00:11:54,080 --> 00:11:59,000 watched for so earnestly the wave of Missus Wessington's gloved hand, 185 00:11:59,600 --> 00:12:01,759 and when she she met me alone, which was but 186 00:12:01,919 --> 00:12:08,639 seldom the irksome monotony of her appeal. I loved Kitty Mannering, honestly, 187 00:12:08,799 --> 00:12:11,759 heartily loved her, and with my love for her grew 188 00:12:11,799 --> 00:12:16,039 my hatred for Agnes. In August, Kitty and I were engaged. 189 00:12:16,759 --> 00:12:20,960 The next day, I met those accursed magpie Jampanese at 190 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:24,360 the back of Jackal, and, moved by some passing sentiment 191 00:12:24,440 --> 00:12:28,879 of pity, stopped to tell Missus Wessington everything she knew 192 00:12:28,919 --> 00:12:34,279 it already, so I hear you're engaged, Jack, Dear, Then, 193 00:12:34,360 --> 00:12:37,440 without a moment's pause, I'm sure it's all a mistake, 194 00:12:37,679 --> 00:12:41,200 a hideous mistake. We shall be as good friends some day, Jack, 195 00:12:41,240 --> 00:12:45,320 as we ever were. My answer might have made even 196 00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:48,799 a man WinCE. It cut the dying woman before me 197 00:12:48,960 --> 00:12:52,080 like the blow of a whip. Please forgive me, Jack, 198 00:12:52,159 --> 00:12:54,679 I didn't mean to make you angry, but it's true. 199 00:12:54,799 --> 00:12:59,759 It's true, and Missus Wessington broke down completely. I turned 200 00:12:59,759 --> 00:13:02,519 away and left her to finish her journey in peace, 201 00:13:03,080 --> 00:13:05,919 feeling but only for a moment or two, that I 202 00:13:06,200 --> 00:13:10,519 had been an unutterably mean hound. I looked back and 203 00:13:10,559 --> 00:13:13,039 saw that she had turned her rickshaw with the idea 204 00:13:13,120 --> 00:13:17,679 I suppose of overtaking me. The scene and its surroundings 205 00:13:17,720 --> 00:13:21,840 were photographed on my memory. The rain swept sky we 206 00:13:21,879 --> 00:13:24,559 were at the end of the wet weather, The sodden 207 00:13:24,679 --> 00:13:28,480 dingy pines, the muddy road, and the black powder riven 208 00:13:28,519 --> 00:13:32,600 cliffs formed a gloomy background, against which the black and 209 00:13:32,639 --> 00:13:36,759 white liveries of the Japanese, the yellow paneled rickshaw, and 210 00:13:36,799 --> 00:13:41,960 Missus Wessington's down bowed golden head stood out clearly. She 211 00:13:42,080 --> 00:13:44,879 was holding her handkerchief in her left hand and was 212 00:13:44,960 --> 00:13:49,120 leaning back, exhausted against the rickshaw cushions. I turned my 213 00:13:49,200 --> 00:13:52,679 horse up a by path near the Sanjowli Reservoir and 214 00:13:52,799 --> 00:13:57,080 literally ran away. Once I fancied, I heard a faint 215 00:13:57,159 --> 00:14:01,559 call of Jack. This may have been imagination. I never 216 00:14:01,600 --> 00:14:05,240 stopped to verify it. Ten minutes later I came across 217 00:14:05,320 --> 00:14:08,120 Kitty on horseback, and in the delight of a long 218 00:14:08,240 --> 00:14:12,600 ride with her, forgot all about the interview. A week later, 219 00:14:12,759 --> 00:14:16,919 Missus Wessington died and the inexpressible burden of her existence 220 00:14:17,039 --> 00:14:21,399 was removed from my life. I went plainsward, perfectly happy. 221 00:14:22,399 --> 00:14:25,480 Before three months were over, I had forgotten all about her, 222 00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:28,639 except that at times the discovery of some of her 223 00:14:28,679 --> 00:14:33,960 old letters reminded me unpleasantly of our bygone relationship. By 224 00:14:34,039 --> 00:14:37,559 January I had disinterred what was left of our correspondence 225 00:14:37,879 --> 00:14:41,799 from among my scattered belongings and had burnt it. At 226 00:14:41,799 --> 00:14:44,679 the beginning of April of this year, eighteen eighty five, 227 00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:49,279 I was at Simla, semi deserted Cymbla once more, and 228 00:14:49,440 --> 00:14:53,039 was deep in lovers talks and walks with Kitty it 229 00:14:53,120 --> 00:14:55,240 was decided that we should be married at the end 230 00:14:55,240 --> 00:14:59,480 of June. You will understand therefore that loving Kitty as 231 00:14:59,480 --> 00:15:02,200 I did, I am not saying too much when I 232 00:15:02,279 --> 00:15:05,840 pronounced myself to have been at the time the happiest 233 00:15:05,919 --> 00:15:11,159 man in India. Fourteen delightful days passed almost before I 234 00:15:11,279 --> 00:15:14,919 noticed their flight. Then, aroused to the sense of what 235 00:15:15,080 --> 00:15:19,080 was proper among mortal's circumstances we were, I pointed out 236 00:15:19,080 --> 00:15:21,879 to Kitty that an engagement ring was the outward and 237 00:15:21,960 --> 00:15:25,679 visible sign of her dignity as an engaged girl, and 238 00:15:25,720 --> 00:15:28,559 that she must forthwith come to Hamilton's to be measured 239 00:15:28,600 --> 00:15:32,080 for one. Up to that moment, I give you my word, 240 00:15:32,440 --> 00:15:36,519 we had completely forgotten so trivial a matter to Hamilton's. 241 00:15:36,559 --> 00:15:40,159 We accordingly went on the fifteenth of April eighteen eighty five. 242 00:15:41,240 --> 00:15:44,720 Remember that, whatever my doctor may say to the contrary, 243 00:15:45,159 --> 00:15:49,000 I was then in perfect health, enjoying a well balanced 244 00:15:49,080 --> 00:15:54,120 mind and an absolutely tranquil spirit. Kitty and I entered 245 00:15:54,159 --> 00:15:58,600 Hamilton's shop together, and there, regardless of the order of affairs, 246 00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:02,159 I measured kitty finger for the ring in the presence 247 00:16:02,159 --> 00:16:05,799 of the amused assistant. The ring was a sapphire with 248 00:16:05,840 --> 00:16:10,279 two diamonds. We then rode out down the slope that 249 00:16:10,360 --> 00:16:15,000 leads to the Combermere Bridge and Peleeti's shop. While my 250 00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:18,840 whaler was cautiously feeling his way over the loose shale, 251 00:16:19,320 --> 00:16:22,879 and Kitty was laughing and chattering at my side. While 252 00:16:22,919 --> 00:16:25,279 all simla, that is to say, as much of it 253 00:16:25,559 --> 00:16:28,480 as had then come from the plains, was grouped round 254 00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:32,240 the reading room and Peleidi's veranda, I was aware that 255 00:16:32,279 --> 00:16:35,720 some one, apparently at a vast distance, was calling me 256 00:16:35,799 --> 00:16:39,159 by my Christian name. It struck me that I had 257 00:16:39,240 --> 00:16:42,039 heard the voice before, but when and where I could 258 00:16:42,039 --> 00:16:45,440 not at once determine. In the short space it took 259 00:16:45,519 --> 00:16:48,639 to cover the road between the path from Hamilton's Shop 260 00:16:48,799 --> 00:16:52,039 and the first plank of the Combermere Bridge, I had 261 00:16:52,080 --> 00:16:54,960 thought over half a dozen people who might have committed 262 00:16:55,000 --> 00:16:58,600 such a solicism, and had eventually decided that it must 263 00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:03,200 have been some singing in my ears. Immediately opposite Pelete's shop, 264 00:17:03,399 --> 00:17:06,559 my eye was arrested by the sight of four Japanese 265 00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:10,519 in black and white livery pulling a yellow panel cheap 266 00:17:10,759 --> 00:17:14,680 bizarre rickshaw. In a moment, my mind flew back to 267 00:17:14,759 --> 00:17:18,000 the previous season and Missus Wessington with a sense of 268 00:17:18,079 --> 00:17:21,799 irritation and disgust. Was it not enough that the woman 269 00:17:21,920 --> 00:17:24,039 was dead and done with without her black and white 270 00:17:24,119 --> 00:17:29,440 servitors reappearing to spoil the day's happiness? Whoever employed them? Now? 271 00:17:29,519 --> 00:17:32,200 I thought I would call upon and ask, as a 272 00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:36,559 personal favor, to change her Japanese livery. I would hire 273 00:17:36,599 --> 00:17:40,039 the men myself, and if necessary, buy their coats from 274 00:17:40,039 --> 00:17:43,480 off their backs. It is impossible to say here what 275 00:17:43,599 --> 00:17:49,519 a flood of undesirable memories their presents evoked, Kitty, I cried, 276 00:17:50,119 --> 00:17:53,880 there are poor Missus Wessings Japanese turned up again. I 277 00:17:53,960 --> 00:17:58,400 wonder who has them now? Kitty had known Missus Wessington 278 00:17:58,480 --> 00:18:01,920 slightly last season and had always been interested in the 279 00:18:01,960 --> 00:18:07,519 sickly woman. What where, she asked, I can't see them anywhere. 280 00:18:08,759 --> 00:18:12,119 Even as she spoke, her horse, swerving from a laden mule, 281 00:18:12,519 --> 00:18:16,319 threw himself directly in front of the advancing rickshaw. I 282 00:18:16,359 --> 00:18:19,440 had scarcely time to utter a word of warning when, 283 00:18:19,519 --> 00:18:24,920 to my unutterable horror, horse and rider passed through men 284 00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:29,279 and carriage as if they had been thin air. What's 285 00:18:29,319 --> 00:18:33,519 the matter, cried Kitty? What made you call out so foolishly, Jack. 286 00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:37,279 If I am engaged, I don't want all creation to 287 00:18:37,359 --> 00:18:40,039 know about it. There was lots of space between the 288 00:18:40,119 --> 00:18:43,000 mule and the veranda, and if you think I can't 289 00:18:43,079 --> 00:18:48,519 ride there. Whereupon wilful Kitty set off her dainty little 290 00:18:48,559 --> 00:18:51,200 head in the air at a hand gallop in the 291 00:18:51,200 --> 00:18:55,880 direction of the bandstand, fully expecting, as she herself afterwards 292 00:18:55,920 --> 00:18:59,480 told me that I should follow her. What was the matter? 293 00:19:00,480 --> 00:19:04,680 Nothing indeed, either that I was mad or drunk, or 294 00:19:04,680 --> 00:19:08,200 that Simla was haunted with devils. I reined in my 295 00:19:08,279 --> 00:19:13,079 impatient cob and turned round. The rickshaw had turned too, 296 00:19:13,119 --> 00:19:16,640 and now stood immediately facing me near the left railing 297 00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:22,680 of the Combermere Bridge. Jack, Jack, Darling. There was no 298 00:19:22,759 --> 00:19:25,759 mistake about the words. This time they rang through my 299 00:19:25,880 --> 00:19:28,039 brain as if they had been shouted to my ear. 300 00:19:29,039 --> 00:19:33,240 It's some hideous mistake, I'm sure. Please forgive me, Jack, 301 00:19:33,319 --> 00:19:37,880 and let's be friends again. The rickshaw hood had fallen 302 00:19:37,960 --> 00:19:41,799 back and inside, as I hope and daily pray for 303 00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:45,359 the death I dread by night sat missus Keith Wessington, 304 00:19:45,759 --> 00:19:49,440 handkerchief in hand and golden head bowed on her breast. 305 00:19:51,400 --> 00:19:55,079 How long I stared motionless. I do not know. Finally 306 00:19:55,160 --> 00:19:58,160 I was aroused by my groom, taking the whaler's bridle 307 00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:01,599 and asking whether I was ill. I tumbled off my 308 00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:05,680 horse and dashed, half fainting into Palid's for a glass 309 00:20:05,680 --> 00:20:09,480 of cherry brandy. There two or three couples were gathered 310 00:20:09,559 --> 00:20:13,359 round the coffee tables, discussing the gossip of the day. 311 00:20:13,440 --> 00:20:16,640 Their trivialities were more comforting to me just then than 312 00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:20,440 the consolations of religion could have been. I plunged into 313 00:20:20,440 --> 00:20:24,359 the midst of the conversation at once, chatted, laughed, and 314 00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:26,559 jested with a face when I caught a glimpse of 315 00:20:26,559 --> 00:20:29,000 it in a mirror as white and drawn as that 316 00:20:29,079 --> 00:20:33,240 of a corpse. Three or four men noticed my condition, and, 317 00:20:33,319 --> 00:20:36,640 evidently setting it down to the results of over many pegs, 318 00:20:37,079 --> 00:20:39,640 charitably endeavored to draw me apart from the rest of 319 00:20:39,640 --> 00:20:43,480 the loungers. But I refused to be led away. I 320 00:20:43,559 --> 00:20:46,759 wanted the company of my kind. As a child rushes 321 00:20:46,799 --> 00:20:49,319 into the midst of a dinner party after a fright 322 00:20:49,359 --> 00:20:52,440 in the dark. I must have talked for about ten 323 00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:55,240 minutes or so, though it seemed an eternity to me 324 00:20:55,839 --> 00:20:59,039 when I heard Kitty's dear voice outside inquiring for me. 325 00:21:00,039 --> 00:21:03,119 In another minute, she had entered the shop, prepared to 326 00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:06,720 roundly upbraid me for failing so signally in my duties. 327 00:21:07,519 --> 00:21:12,480 Something in my face stopped her. Why Jack, she cried, 328 00:21:12,759 --> 00:21:16,440 what have you been doing? What has happened? Are you ill? 329 00:21:17,599 --> 00:21:20,440 Thus driven into a direct lie, I said that the 330 00:21:20,480 --> 00:21:23,039 sun had been a little too much for me. It 331 00:21:23,079 --> 00:21:26,240 was close upon five o'clock of a cloudy April afternoon, 332 00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:29,519 and the sun had been hidden all day. I saw 333 00:21:29,559 --> 00:21:31,480 my mistake as soon as the words were out of 334 00:21:31,519 --> 00:21:36,319 my mouth, attempted to recover it, blundered hopelessly, and followed 335 00:21:36,400 --> 00:21:39,240 Kitty in a regal rage out of doors. Amid the 336 00:21:39,279 --> 00:21:43,359 smiles of my acquaintances. I made some excuse I have 337 00:21:43,440 --> 00:21:46,599 forgotten what on the score of my feeling faint, and 338 00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:50,160 cantered away to my hotel, leaving Kitty to finish the 339 00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:54,759 ride by herself. In my room, I sat down and 340 00:21:54,839 --> 00:21:58,200 tried calmly to reason out the matter. Here was I 341 00:21:58,559 --> 00:22:03,880 theobald Jack Pansay, a well educated Bengal civilian in the 342 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:08,799 year of Grace eighteen eighty five, presumably sane, certainly healthy, 343 00:22:09,279 --> 00:22:12,799 driven in terror from my sweetheart's side, by the apparition 344 00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:14,839 of a woman who had been dead and buried eight 345 00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:18,519 months ago. These were facts that I could not blink. 346 00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:22,039 Nothing was further from my thought than any memory of 347 00:22:22,079 --> 00:22:26,480 Missus Wessington. When Kitty and I left Hamilton's shop, nothing 348 00:22:26,559 --> 00:22:30,640 was more utterly commonplace than the stretch of wall opposite Pelides. 349 00:22:31,759 --> 00:22:35,000 It was broad daylight, the road was full of people, 350 00:22:35,519 --> 00:22:38,920 and yet here look you, in defiance of every law 351 00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:43,240 of probability, in direct outrage of nature's ordinance, there had 352 00:22:43,279 --> 00:22:48,279 appeared to me a face from the grave. Kitty's arab 353 00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:52,079 had gone through the rickshaw, so that my first hope 354 00:22:52,119 --> 00:22:55,680 that some woman marvelously like Missus Wessington had hired the 355 00:22:55,720 --> 00:22:58,559 carriage and the coolies with their old livery was lost. 356 00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:02,200 Again and again I went round this treadmill of thought, 357 00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:05,720 and again and again gave up, baffled and in despair. 358 00:23:06,559 --> 00:23:10,680 The voice was as inexplicable as the apparition. I had 359 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:13,920 originally some wild notion of confiding it all to Kitty, 360 00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:18,079 of begging her to marry me at once, and in 361 00:23:18,160 --> 00:23:22,720 her arms, defying the ghostly occupant of the rickshaw. After all, 362 00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:26,400 I argued, the presence of the rickshaw is in itself 363 00:23:26,519 --> 00:23:30,279 enough to prove the existence of a spectral illusion. One 364 00:23:30,279 --> 00:23:33,039 may see ghosts of men and women, but surely never 365 00:23:33,119 --> 00:23:37,519 of coolies and carriages. The whole thing is absurd, fancy 366 00:23:37,559 --> 00:23:41,240 the ghost of a hill man. Next morning, I sent 367 00:23:41,279 --> 00:23:44,720 a penitent note to Kitty, imploring her to overlook my 368 00:23:44,799 --> 00:23:49,160 strange conduct of the previous afternoon. My divinity was still 369 00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:54,039 very wroth, and a personal apology was necessary, I explained, 370 00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:57,960 with a fluency born of night long pondering over a falsehood, 371 00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:00,519 that I had been attacked with a sudden palpation of 372 00:24:00,559 --> 00:24:05,480 the heart, the result of indigestion. This eminently practical solution 373 00:24:05,759 --> 00:24:09,440 had its effect, and Kitty and I rode out that afternoon, 374 00:24:09,480 --> 00:24:13,480 with the shadow of my first lie dividing us. Nothing 375 00:24:13,480 --> 00:24:16,799 would please her save a canter round Jacko. With my 376 00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:20,880 nerves still unstrung from the previous night, I feebly protested 377 00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:26,480 against the notion, suggesting observatory hill Jutah, the Bwoalogungs Road, 378 00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:31,400 anything rather than the jackal round. Kitty was angry and 379 00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:34,640 a little hurt, so I yielded, from fear of provoking 380 00:24:34,799 --> 00:24:38,839 further misunderstanding, and we set out together towards Chota Simla. 381 00:24:39,839 --> 00:24:42,839 We walked a greater part of the way, and according 382 00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:45,880 to our custom, cantered from a mile or so below 383 00:24:45,960 --> 00:24:49,000 the convent to the stretch of level road by the 384 00:24:49,039 --> 00:24:53,839 San Jali Reservoir. The wretched horses appeared to fly, and 385 00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:57,119 my heart beat quicker and quicker. As we neared the 386 00:24:57,200 --> 00:25:00,119 crest of the ascent. My mind had been fully of 387 00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:03,559 missus Wessington all the afternoon, and every inch of the 388 00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:06,680 Jackal Road bore a witness to our old time walks 389 00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:10,160 and talks. The boulders were full of it. The pines 390 00:25:10,359 --> 00:25:14,480 sang it aloud overhead, the rain fed torrents giggled and 391 00:25:14,559 --> 00:25:18,559 chuckled unseen over the shameful story, and the wind in 392 00:25:18,599 --> 00:25:23,519 my ears chanted the iniquity aloud as a fitting climax. 393 00:25:23,759 --> 00:25:26,599 In the middle of the level men called the Ladies Mile, 394 00:25:27,079 --> 00:25:31,079 the horror was awaiting me. No other rickshaw was in sight, 395 00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:36,079 only the four black and white Jampanese, the yellow paneled carriage, 396 00:25:36,079 --> 00:25:39,720 and the golden head of the woman within, all apparently 397 00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:41,880 just as I had left them eight months and one 398 00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:46,279 fortnight ago. For an instant I fancied that Kitty must 399 00:25:46,279 --> 00:25:49,759 see what I saw. We were so marvelously sympathetic in 400 00:25:49,839 --> 00:25:54,920 all things. Her next words, undeceived me not a soul 401 00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:57,839 in sight. Come along, Jack, and I'll race you to 402 00:25:57,880 --> 00:26:02,079 the reservoir buildings. Her wiry little Arab was off like 403 00:26:02,079 --> 00:26:05,680 a bird, my whaler following close behind, and in this 404 00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:09,200 order we dashed under the cliffs. Half a minute brought 405 00:26:09,279 --> 00:26:12,440 us within fifty yards of the rickshaw. I pulled my 406 00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:15,759 whaler and fell back a little. The rickshaw was directly 407 00:26:15,799 --> 00:26:18,279 in the middle of the road, and once more the 408 00:26:18,359 --> 00:26:23,240 Arab passed through it. My horse following Jack, Jack, dear, 409 00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:27,000 please forgive me, rang with a wail in my ears, 410 00:26:27,519 --> 00:26:31,759 and after an interval it's all a mistake, a hideous mistake. 411 00:26:33,079 --> 00:26:36,240 I spurred my horse like a man possessed. When I 412 00:26:36,279 --> 00:26:38,960 turned my head at the reservoir works, the black and 413 00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:43,039 white liveries were still waiting, patiently, waiting under the gray 414 00:26:43,119 --> 00:26:45,839 hill side, and the wind brought me a mocking echo 415 00:26:46,079 --> 00:26:49,680 of the words I had just heard. Kitty bantered me 416 00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:52,519 a good deal on my silence. Throughout the remainder of 417 00:26:52,559 --> 00:26:56,119 the ride, I had been talking up till then wildly 418 00:26:56,279 --> 00:26:59,119 and at random to save my life. I could not 419 00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:02,839 speak afterwards naturally, and from san Jowli to the church 420 00:27:03,039 --> 00:27:06,480 wisely held my tongue. I was to dine with the 421 00:27:06,519 --> 00:27:09,920 Mannerings that night, and had barely time to canter home 422 00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:14,000 to dress. On the road to Elysium Hill, I overheard 423 00:27:14,279 --> 00:27:18,039 two men talking together in the dusk. It's a curious thing, 424 00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:22,480 said one, how completely all trace of it disappeared. You know, 425 00:27:22,599 --> 00:27:25,680 my wife was insanely fond of the woman, never could 426 00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:28,519 see anything in her myself, and wanted me to pick 427 00:27:28,599 --> 00:27:30,759 up her old rickshaw and coolies if they were to 428 00:27:30,799 --> 00:27:34,079 be got for love or money. Morbid sort of fancy, 429 00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:35,960 I call it, But I've got to do what the 430 00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:39,119 mem Sahib tells me. Would you believe that the man 431 00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:41,640 she hired it from tells me that all four of 432 00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:44,640 the men they were brothers, died of cholera on the 433 00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:47,519 way to hard work, poor devils. And the rickshaw has 434 00:27:47,599 --> 00:27:50,799 been broken up by the man himself told me he 435 00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:55,759 never used a dead mem Sahib's rickshaw spoilt his luck. 436 00:27:56,480 --> 00:28:01,039 Queer notion, wasn't it fancy, poor little missus Wessington spoiling 437 00:28:01,079 --> 00:28:04,839 any one's luck except her own. I laughed aloud at 438 00:28:04,839 --> 00:28:07,119 this point, and my laugh jarred on me as I 439 00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:11,160 uttered it. So there were ghosts of rickshaws after all, 440 00:28:11,599 --> 00:28:15,079 and ghostly employments in the other world. How much did 441 00:28:15,079 --> 00:28:18,839 Missus Wessington give her men? What were there hours? Where 442 00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:22,759 did they go? And for visible answer to my last question, 443 00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:26,759 I saw the infernal thing blocking my path in the twilight. 444 00:28:27,599 --> 00:28:30,680 The dead traveled fast and by short cuts unknown to 445 00:28:30,839 --> 00:28:35,440 ordinary coolies. I laughed aloud a second time and checked 446 00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:38,599 my laughter suddenly, for I was afraid I was going mad. 447 00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:42,240 Mad to a certain extent I must have been, for 448 00:28:42,359 --> 00:28:44,839 I recollect that I reined in my horse at the 449 00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:48,599 head of the rickshaw and politely wished Missus Wessington good evening. 450 00:28:49,599 --> 00:28:52,680 Her answer was one I knew only too well. I 451 00:28:52,759 --> 00:28:55,559 listened to the end and replied that I had heard 452 00:28:55,599 --> 00:28:58,079 it all before, but should be delighted if she had 453 00:28:58,119 --> 00:29:02,640 anything further to say. Some malignant devil stronger than I 454 00:29:02,759 --> 00:29:05,519 must have entered into me that evening, for I have 455 00:29:05,599 --> 00:29:08,480 a dim recollection of talking the commonplaces of the day 456 00:29:08,839 --> 00:29:10,920 for five minutes to the thing in front of me. 457 00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:17,119 Mad is a hatter, poor devil or drunk Max try 458 00:29:17,119 --> 00:29:20,720 and get him to come home. Surely that was not 459 00:29:20,839 --> 00:29:24,960 missus Wessington's voice. The two men had overheard me speaking 460 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,920 to the empty air and had returned to look after me. 461 00:29:28,759 --> 00:29:31,680 They were very kind and considerate, and from their words 462 00:29:31,720 --> 00:29:35,559 evidently gathered that I was extremely drunk. I thanked them 463 00:29:35,599 --> 00:29:39,839 confusedly and cantered away to my hotel. There changed and 464 00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:43,359 arrived at the Mannerings ten minutes late. I pleaded the 465 00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:46,400 darkness of the night as an excuse, was rebuked by 466 00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:52,039 Kitty for my unloverlike tardiness, and sat down. The conversation 467 00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:55,480 had already become general and under cover of it. I 468 00:29:55,599 --> 00:29:58,799 was addressing some tender small talk to my sweetheart when 469 00:29:58,839 --> 00:30:01,240 I was aware that at the further end of the table, 470 00:30:01,559 --> 00:30:05,079 a short, red whiskered man was describing with much broidery 471 00:30:05,359 --> 00:30:09,799 his encounter with a mad unknown that evening. A few 472 00:30:09,839 --> 00:30:12,960 sentences convinced me that he was repeating the incident of 473 00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:15,839 half an hour ago. In the middle of the story, 474 00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:19,279 he looked round for applause, as professional story tellers do, 475 00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:23,880 caught my eye and straightway collapsed. There was a moment's 476 00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:27,519 awkward silence, and the red whiskered man muttered something to 477 00:30:27,559 --> 00:30:31,960 the effect that he had forgotten the rest, thereby sacrificing 478 00:30:31,960 --> 00:30:34,519 a reputation as a good story teller which he had 479 00:30:34,519 --> 00:30:38,319 built up for six seasons past. I blessed him from 480 00:30:38,319 --> 00:30:42,079 the bottom of my heart and went on with my fish. 481 00:30:43,039 --> 00:30:45,720 In the fullness of time, that dinner came to an end, 482 00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:49,480 and with genuine regret, I tore myself away from Kitty, 483 00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:52,440 as certain as I was of my own existence, that 484 00:30:52,599 --> 00:30:56,200 it would be waiting for me outside the door. The 485 00:30:56,240 --> 00:30:58,680 red whiskered man, who had been introduced to me as 486 00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:02,599 Doctor Heatherley of Simla, volunteered to bear me company as 487 00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:06,079 far as our roads lay together. I accepted his offer 488 00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:11,359 with gratitude. My instinct had not deceived me. It lay 489 00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:14,599 in readiness in them all, and in what seemed devilish 490 00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:18,359 mockery of our ways. With a lighted head lamp, the 491 00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:20,839 red whiskered man went to the point at once, in 492 00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:23,160 a manner that showed he had been thinking over it 493 00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:27,480 all dinner time. I say, Pansy, what the deuce was 494 00:31:27,519 --> 00:31:29,799 the matter with you? This evening on the Elysium Road. 495 00:31:31,079 --> 00:31:34,000 The suddenness of the question wrenched an answer from me 496 00:31:34,119 --> 00:31:38,319 before I was aware that, said I pointing to it. 497 00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:42,920 That may be either d T or eyes for aught. 498 00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:45,799 I know now you don't liquor. I saw as much 499 00:31:45,839 --> 00:31:49,000 at dinner, so it can't be d T. There's nothing 500 00:31:49,039 --> 00:31:52,240 whatever where you're pointing, though you're sweating and trembling with 501 00:31:52,319 --> 00:31:56,400 fright like a scared pony. Therefore, I conclude that its eyes, 502 00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:00,240 and I ought to understand all about them. Come along 503 00:32:00,319 --> 00:32:04,960 home with me. I'm on the Blessington Lower Road. To 504 00:32:05,039 --> 00:32:08,119 my intense delight, the rickshaw, instead of waiting for us, 505 00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:12,960 kept about twenty yards ahead. And this too, whether we walked, trotted, 506 00:32:13,119 --> 00:32:16,559 or cantered. In the course of that long night ride, 507 00:32:16,759 --> 00:32:19,160 I had told my companion almost as much as I 508 00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:23,160 have told you here. Well, you've spoilt one of the 509 00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:26,160 best tales I've ever laid tongue to, said he. But 510 00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:28,480 I'll forgive you for the sake of what you've gone through. 511 00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:30,839 Now come home and do what I tell you. And 512 00:32:30,880 --> 00:32:33,119 when I've cured you, young man, let this be a 513 00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:36,720 lesson to you to steer clear of women and indigestible 514 00:32:36,759 --> 00:32:40,720 food till the day of your death. The rickshaw kept 515 00:32:40,759 --> 00:32:44,000 steadily in front and my red whiskered friend seemed to 516 00:32:44,039 --> 00:32:47,519 derive great pleasure from my account of its exact whereabouts, 517 00:32:48,759 --> 00:32:52,720 eyes pansy all eyes, brain and stomach, And the greatest 518 00:32:52,759 --> 00:32:55,960 of these three is stomach. You've too much conceited brain, 519 00:32:56,279 --> 00:33:00,440 too little stomach and thoroughly unhealthy eyes. Catch you stomach 520 00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:03,720 straight and the rest follows. And all that's French for 521 00:33:03,799 --> 00:33:06,680 a liver pill. I'll take sole medical charge of you 522 00:33:06,759 --> 00:33:10,039 from this hour, for you're too interesting a phenomenon to 523 00:33:10,079 --> 00:33:13,519 be passed over. By this time, we were deep in 524 00:33:13,559 --> 00:33:16,440 the shadow of the Blessington Lower Road, and the rickshaw 525 00:33:16,519 --> 00:33:19,480 came to a dead stop under a pine clad overhanging 526 00:33:19,519 --> 00:33:25,279 shale cliff. Instinctively I halted, too, giving my reason heatherly 527 00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:28,599 wrapped out an oath. Now, if you think I'm going 528 00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:30,880 to spend a cold night on the hill side for 529 00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:34,599 the sake of a stomach, comebrain, come eye, illusion, Lord, 530 00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:38,920 have mercy. What's that? There was a muffled report, a 531 00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:42,559 blinding smother of dust just in front of us, a crack, 532 00:33:43,039 --> 00:33:46,279 the noise of rent boughs, and about ten yards of 533 00:33:46,279 --> 00:33:51,039 the cliff side pines undergrowth, and all slid down into 534 00:33:51,079 --> 00:33:55,519 the road below, completely blocking it up. The uprooted trees 535 00:33:55,759 --> 00:33:58,640 swayed and tottered for a moment like drunken giants in 536 00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:01,960 the gloom, and then fell prone among their fellows with 537 00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:06,880 a thunderous crash. Our two horses stood motionless and sweating 538 00:34:06,920 --> 00:34:10,119 with fear. As soon as the rattle of falling earth 539 00:34:10,159 --> 00:34:14,760 and stone had subsided, my companion muttered, Man, if we'd 540 00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:17,239 gone forward, we should have been ten feet deep in 541 00:34:17,320 --> 00:34:20,679 our graves by now. There are more things in heaven 542 00:34:20,719 --> 00:34:24,119 and earth. Come home, Pansey, and thank God, I want 543 00:34:24,119 --> 00:34:28,679 to drink badly. We retraced our way over the Church Ridge, 544 00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:32,440 and I arrived at doctor Heatherley's house shortly after midnight. 545 00:34:33,559 --> 00:34:37,639 His attempts towards my cure commenced almost immediately, and for 546 00:34:37,679 --> 00:34:40,880 a week I never left his sight. Many a time 547 00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:42,800 in the course of that week did I bless the 548 00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:46,000 good fortune which had thrown me in contact with Simla's 549 00:34:46,079 --> 00:34:50,119 best and kindest doctor. Day by day, my spirits grew 550 00:34:50,199 --> 00:34:54,199 lighter and more equable. Day by day too, I became 551 00:34:54,239 --> 00:34:57,679 more and more inclined to fall in with Heatherly's spectral 552 00:34:57,760 --> 00:35:02,960 illusion theory implicating eyes, brain, and stomach. I wrote to 553 00:35:03,039 --> 00:35:06,159 Kitty telling her that a slight sprain caused by a 554 00:35:06,239 --> 00:35:08,960 fall from my horse kept me indoors for a few days, 555 00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:11,760 and that I should be recovered before she had time 556 00:35:11,800 --> 00:35:16,800 to regret my absence. Heatherly's treatment was simple to a degree. 557 00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:20,599 It consisted of liver pills, cold water baths, and strong 558 00:35:20,679 --> 00:35:24,599 exercise taken in the dusk or at early dawn. For, 559 00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:28,159 as he sagely observed, a man with a sprained ankle 560 00:35:28,239 --> 00:35:31,239 doesn't walk a dozen miles a day, and your young 561 00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:34,920 woman might be wondering if she saw you at the 562 00:35:35,039 --> 00:35:37,880 end of the week. After much examination of pupil and 563 00:35:37,960 --> 00:35:42,639 pulse and strict injunctions as to diet and pedestrianism, Heatherly 564 00:35:42,679 --> 00:35:45,320 dismissed me as brusquely as he had taken charge of me. 565 00:35:46,159 --> 00:35:50,639 Here is his parting benediction. Man, I certify to your 566 00:35:50,679 --> 00:35:53,320 mental cure, and that's as much as to say I've 567 00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:56,519 cured most of your bodily ailments. Now get your traps 568 00:35:56,519 --> 00:35:58,400 out of this as soon as you can, and be 569 00:35:58,480 --> 00:36:02,280 off to make love to miss Kit. I was endeavoring 570 00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:05,599 to express my thanks for his kindness. He cut me short. 571 00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:08,599 Don't think I did this because I like you. I 572 00:36:08,679 --> 00:36:11,719 gather that you've behaved like a blagguard all through, but 573 00:36:11,840 --> 00:36:14,400 all the same you're a phenomena, and as queer a 574 00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:17,280 phenomenon as you are a blagguard. Now go out and 575 00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:19,679 see if you can find the eyes, brain and stomach 576 00:36:19,719 --> 00:36:22,360 business again. I'll give you a lack for each time 577 00:36:22,400 --> 00:36:25,480 you see it. Half an hour later I was in 578 00:36:25,559 --> 00:36:29,079 the Mannering's drawing room with Kitty, drunk with the intoxication 579 00:36:29,199 --> 00:36:32,360 of present happiness and the foreknowledge that I should never 580 00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:36,760 more be troubled with its hideous presence. Strong in the 581 00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:40,199 sense of my newfound security, I proposed a ride at once, 582 00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:45,360 and by preference a canter round Jacko. Never have I 583 00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:49,519 felt so well, so overladen with vitality and mere animal 584 00:36:49,559 --> 00:36:52,440 spirits as I did on the afternoon of the thirtieth 585 00:36:52,440 --> 00:36:55,519 of April. Kitty was delighted at the change in my 586 00:36:55,599 --> 00:36:59,280 appearance and complimented me on it in her delightfully frank 587 00:36:59,320 --> 00:37:03,800 and outspoken manner. We left the Mannering's house together, laughing 588 00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:07,280 and talking, and cantered along the Chota Simla road. As 589 00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:12,039 of old, I was in haste to reach the Sanjowli Reservoir, 590 00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:16,599 and there make my assurance doubly sure. The horses did 591 00:37:16,639 --> 00:37:19,840 their best, but seemed all too slow to my impatient mind. 592 00:37:20,679 --> 00:37:25,039 Kitty was astonished at my boisterousness. Why Jack, she cried, 593 00:37:25,039 --> 00:37:28,000 at last, you are behaving like a child. What are 594 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:31,519 you doing? We were just below the convent, and from 595 00:37:31,559 --> 00:37:34,880 sheer wantonness, I was making my whaler plunge in curve 596 00:37:34,920 --> 00:37:37,239 it across the road as I tickled it with the 597 00:37:37,280 --> 00:37:41,639 loop of my riding whip. Doing I answered, nothing, dear, 598 00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:44,599 that's just it. If you'd been doing nothing for a 599 00:37:44,639 --> 00:37:47,679 week except lie up, you'd be as riotous as I, 600 00:37:48,840 --> 00:37:52,400 singing and murmuring in your feastful mirth, joying to feel 601 00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:56,639 yourself alive. Lord over nature, Lord of the visible earth, 602 00:37:57,199 --> 00:38:01,760 Lord of the senses. Five. My quotation was hardly out 603 00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:04,320 of my lips before we had rounded the corner above 604 00:38:04,360 --> 00:38:07,360 the convent, and a few yards further on could see 605 00:38:07,360 --> 00:38:10,559 a cross to San Jowley. In the center of the 606 00:38:10,639 --> 00:38:14,079 level road stood the black and white liveries, the yellow 607 00:38:14,079 --> 00:38:19,239 paneled rickshaw, and missus Keith Wessington. I pulled up, looked, 608 00:38:19,639 --> 00:38:23,320 rubbed my eyes, and I believe must have said something. 609 00:38:24,360 --> 00:38:26,440 The next thing, I knew was that I was lying 610 00:38:26,519 --> 00:38:29,760 face downward on the road, with Kitty kneeling above me 611 00:38:29,880 --> 00:38:35,239 in tears. Has it gone, child, I gasped. Kitty only 612 00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:39,719 wept more bitterly. Has what gone? Jack? Dear? What does 613 00:38:39,760 --> 00:38:43,119 it all mean? There must be a mistake somewhere, Jack, 614 00:38:43,599 --> 00:38:47,840 A hideous mistake. Her last words brought me to my feet, 615 00:38:48,519 --> 00:38:52,360 mad raving for the time being. Yes, there is a 616 00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:56,559 mistake somewhere, I repeated, A hideous mistake. Come and look 617 00:38:56,599 --> 00:39:00,360 at it. I have an indistinct idea that I dragged 618 00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:02,760 Kitty by the wrist along the road up to where 619 00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:05,920 it stood, and implored her, for pity's sake, to speak 620 00:39:05,960 --> 00:39:09,000 to it, to tell it that we were betrothed, that 621 00:39:09,119 --> 00:39:11,880 neither death nor hell could break the tie between us 622 00:39:12,440 --> 00:39:15,239 and Kitty only knows how much more to the same effect. 623 00:39:16,239 --> 00:39:19,400 Now and again, I appealed passionately to the terror in 624 00:39:19,440 --> 00:39:22,239 the rickshaw to bear witness to all I had said, 625 00:39:22,599 --> 00:39:24,840 and to release me from a torture that was killing 626 00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:28,119 me as I talked. I suppose I must have told 627 00:39:28,199 --> 00:39:31,800 Kitty of my old relations with Missus Wessington, for I 628 00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:35,039 saw her listen intently with white face and blazing eyes. 629 00:39:37,119 --> 00:39:41,519 Thank you, mister Pansy, she said, that's quite enough. Bring 630 00:39:41,599 --> 00:39:47,079 my horse. The grooms, impassive as orientals always are, had 631 00:39:47,079 --> 00:39:50,360 come up with the recaptured horses, and as Kitty sprang 632 00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:53,440 into her saddle, I caught hold of the bridle, entreating 633 00:39:53,480 --> 00:39:57,039 her to hear me out and forgive. My answer was 634 00:39:57,039 --> 00:39:59,599 the cut of her riding whip across my face from 635 00:39:59,679 --> 00:40:02,719 mouth to ay, and a word or two of farewell 636 00:40:02,840 --> 00:40:06,760 that even now I cannot write down. So I judged, 637 00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:10,639 and judged rightly that Kitty knew all, and I staggered 638 00:40:10,679 --> 00:40:13,679 back to the side of the rickshaw. My face was 639 00:40:13,719 --> 00:40:17,000 cut and bleeding, and the blow of the riding whip 640 00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:21,199 had raised a livid blue wheel on it. I had 641 00:40:21,239 --> 00:40:24,800 no self respect. Just then Heatherly, who must have been 642 00:40:24,840 --> 00:40:29,320 following Kitty and me at a distance, cantered up. Doctor, 643 00:40:29,599 --> 00:40:33,400 I said, pointing to my face, here's miss Mannering's signature 644 00:40:33,440 --> 00:40:36,239 to my order of dismissal, and I'll thank you for 645 00:40:36,280 --> 00:40:40,639 that lack as soon as convenient. Heatherly's face, even in 646 00:40:40,760 --> 00:40:45,119 my abject misery, moved me to laugh. I'll stake my 647 00:40:45,199 --> 00:40:49,679 professional reputation, he began, don't be a fool, I whispered, 648 00:40:50,079 --> 00:40:53,400 I've lost my life's happiness and you'd better take me home. 649 00:40:54,719 --> 00:40:58,079 As I spoke, the rickshaw was gone. Then I lost 650 00:40:58,159 --> 00:41:01,239 all knowledge of what was passing. The crest of Jackal 651 00:41:01,320 --> 00:41:04,119 seemed to heave and roll like the crest of a cloud, 652 00:41:04,280 --> 00:41:08,400 and fall in upon me. Seven days later, on the 653 00:41:08,440 --> 00:41:11,119 seventh of May. That is to say, I was aware 654 00:41:11,159 --> 00:41:13,719 that I was lying in Heatherly's room as weak as 655 00:41:13,719 --> 00:41:17,800 a little child. Heatherly was watching me intently from behind 656 00:41:17,800 --> 00:41:21,280 the papers on his writing table. His first words were 657 00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:24,519 not very encouraging, but I was too far spent to 658 00:41:24,599 --> 00:41:28,079 be much moved by them. Here's miss Kitty has sent 659 00:41:28,159 --> 00:41:31,679 back your letters. You corresponded a good deal, you young people. 660 00:41:32,239 --> 00:41:34,280 Here's a packet that looks like a ring and a 661 00:41:34,360 --> 00:41:37,679 cheerful sort of a note from Mannering Papa, which I've 662 00:41:37,679 --> 00:41:41,000 taken the liberty of reading and burning. The old Gentleman's 663 00:41:41,039 --> 00:41:46,599 not pleased with you, and Kitty, I asked Dully rather 664 00:41:46,719 --> 00:41:49,760 more drawn than her father. From what she says, by 665 00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:51,800 the same token, you must have been letting out any 666 00:41:51,880 --> 00:41:55,440 number of queer reminiscences just before I met you. Says 667 00:41:55,480 --> 00:41:57,559 that a man who would have behaved to a woman 668 00:41:57,840 --> 00:42:00,599 as you did to missus. Wessington ought to kill himself 669 00:42:00,599 --> 00:42:03,519 out of sheer pity for his kind. She's a hot 670 00:42:03,559 --> 00:42:06,800 headed little viago. You're a mash. We'll have it too 671 00:42:06,920 --> 00:42:09,440 that you were suffering from d T. When that row 672 00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:12,719 on the Jackal Road turned up, says she'll die before 673 00:42:12,719 --> 00:42:16,199 she ever speaks to you again. I groaned and turned 674 00:42:16,199 --> 00:42:19,360 over on the other side. Now you've got your choice, 675 00:42:19,400 --> 00:42:22,679 my friend. This engagement has to be broken off, and 676 00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:24,800 the mannerings don't want to be too hard on you. 677 00:42:25,599 --> 00:42:29,199 Was it broken through d T or epileptic fits? Sorry, 678 00:42:29,199 --> 00:42:31,719 I can't offer you a better exchange unless you'd prefer 679 00:42:31,800 --> 00:42:35,559 hereditary insanity. Say the word and I'll tell em it's fits. 680 00:42:36,280 --> 00:42:39,760 All Simla knows about that scene on the Lady's Mile. Come, 681 00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:43,599 I'll give you five minutes to think over it. During 682 00:42:43,639 --> 00:42:46,840 those five minutes, I believe that I explored thoroughly the 683 00:42:46,920 --> 00:42:49,920 lowest circles of the inferno which it has permitted man 684 00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:53,000 to tread on Earth. And at the same time, I 685 00:42:53,079 --> 00:42:58,320 myself was watching myself faltering through the dark labyrinths of doubt, misery, 686 00:42:58,559 --> 00:43:02,440 and utter despair. I wondered, as Heatherly in his chair 687 00:43:02,519 --> 00:43:07,000 might have wondered, what dreadful alternative I should adopt. Presently 688 00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:10,199 I heard myself answering in a voice I hardly recognized. 689 00:43:11,639 --> 00:43:16,400 They're confoundedly particular about morality in these parts. Give em fits, 690 00:43:16,519 --> 00:43:19,760 Heatherly and my love. Now let me sleep a bit longer. 691 00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:24,079 Then my two selves joined, and it was only I, 692 00:43:25,199 --> 00:43:28,880 half crazed, devil driven I that tossed in my bed, 693 00:43:29,159 --> 00:43:31,840 tracing step by step the history of the past month. 694 00:43:33,119 --> 00:43:36,159 But I am in Simla, I kept repeating to myself. 695 00:43:36,840 --> 00:43:40,039 I Jack Pansy am in Simla, and there are no 696 00:43:40,159 --> 00:43:44,159 ghosts here. It's unreasonable of that woman to pretend there are. 697 00:43:44,960 --> 00:43:47,840 Why couldn't Agnes have left me alone? I never did 698 00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:50,400 her any harm. It might just as well have been 699 00:43:50,440 --> 00:43:53,519 me as Agnes, only I'd never have come back on 700 00:43:53,559 --> 00:43:56,960 purpose to kill her. Why can't I be left alone? 701 00:43:57,360 --> 00:44:01,119 Left alone and happy? It was high noon when I 702 00:44:01,159 --> 00:44:03,559 first awoke, and the sun was low in the sky. 703 00:44:03,679 --> 00:44:07,320 Before I slept, slept as the tortured criminal sleeps on 704 00:44:07,400 --> 00:44:12,039 his rack, too worn to feel further pain. Next day 705 00:44:12,079 --> 00:44:15,039 I could not leave my bed, Heatherly told me in 706 00:44:15,079 --> 00:44:18,000 the morning that he had received an answer from mister Mannering, 707 00:44:18,400 --> 00:44:22,679 and that thanks to his Heatherly's friendly offices, the story 708 00:44:22,719 --> 00:44:25,239 of my affliction had traveled through the length and breadth 709 00:44:25,320 --> 00:44:28,639 of Simla, where I was on all sides much pitied. 710 00:44:29,760 --> 00:44:32,960 And that's rather more than you deserve, he concluded, pleasantly. 711 00:44:33,719 --> 00:44:36,320 Though the Lord knows you've been going through a pretty 712 00:44:36,400 --> 00:44:41,159 severe mill. Never mind will cure you yet perverse phenomenon. 713 00:44:42,280 --> 00:44:45,480 I declined firmly to be cured. You've been much too 714 00:44:45,519 --> 00:44:48,400 good to me already, old man, said I. But I 715 00:44:48,440 --> 00:44:51,760 don't think I need trouble you further. In my heart, 716 00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:54,559 I knew that nothing Heatherlely could do would lighten the 717 00:44:54,559 --> 00:44:58,039 burden that had been laid upon me. With that knowledge 718 00:44:58,119 --> 00:45:02,000 came also a sense of hopeless, impotent rebellion against the 719 00:45:02,079 --> 00:45:05,400 unreasonableness of it all. There were scores of men no 720 00:45:05,519 --> 00:45:08,679 better than I whose punishments had at least been reserved 721 00:45:08,800 --> 00:45:11,880 for another world, and I felt that it was bitterly, 722 00:45:12,119 --> 00:45:15,360 cruelly unfair that I alone should have been singled out 723 00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:18,920 for so hideous a fate. This mood would in time 724 00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:22,000 give place to another where it seemed that the rickshaw 725 00:45:22,119 --> 00:45:25,400 and I were the only realities in a world of shadows. 726 00:45:26,039 --> 00:45:29,840 That Kiddy was a ghost, that mannering Heatherly and all 727 00:45:29,880 --> 00:45:32,440 the other men and women I knew were all ghosts, 728 00:45:32,719 --> 00:45:36,639 and the great Gray Hills themselves, but vain shadows devised 729 00:45:36,679 --> 00:45:41,320 to torture me. From mood to mood. I tossed backwards 730 00:45:41,360 --> 00:45:45,320 and forwards for seven weary days, my body growing daily 731 00:45:45,360 --> 00:45:49,199 stronger and stronger, until the bedroom looking glass told me 732 00:45:49,280 --> 00:45:51,840 that I had returned to every day life and was 733 00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:56,760 as other men once more. Curiously enough, my face showed 734 00:45:56,760 --> 00:45:59,599 no signs of the struggle I had gone through. It 735 00:45:59,639 --> 00:46:03,079 was pale, indeed, but as expressionless and commonplace as ever. 736 00:46:04,000 --> 00:46:08,039 I had expected some permanent alteration, visible evidence of the 737 00:46:08,079 --> 00:46:13,079 disease that was eating me away. I found nothing. On 738 00:46:13,119 --> 00:46:15,800 the fifteenth of May, I left Heatherley's house at eleven 739 00:46:15,800 --> 00:46:18,960 o'clock in the morning, and the instinct of the bachelor 740 00:46:19,159 --> 00:46:22,320 drove me to the club. There I found that every 741 00:46:22,360 --> 00:46:25,440 man knew my story as told by Heatherly, and was, 742 00:46:25,559 --> 00:46:31,360 in clumsy fashion abnormally kind and attentive. Nevertheless, I recognized 743 00:46:31,480 --> 00:46:34,039 that for the rest of my natural life I should 744 00:46:34,039 --> 00:46:37,559 be among but not of my fellows, and I envied 745 00:46:37,639 --> 00:46:40,880 very bitterly, indeed, the laughing coolies on the mall below. 746 00:46:41,880 --> 00:46:44,599 I lunched at the club, and at four o'clock wandered 747 00:46:44,639 --> 00:46:47,800 aimlessly down the mall in the vague hope of meeting Kitty. 748 00:46:48,800 --> 00:46:52,079 Close to the bandstand. The Black and White liveries joined me, 749 00:46:52,559 --> 00:46:55,679 and I heard missus Wessington's old appeal at my side. 750 00:46:56,400 --> 00:46:58,760 I had been expecting this ever since I came out, 751 00:46:59,280 --> 00:47:03,000 and was only so at her delay. The phantom rickshaw 752 00:47:03,039 --> 00:47:05,480 and I went side by side along the Chota Simla 753 00:47:05,559 --> 00:47:09,159 road in silence. Close to the bazaar, Kitty and a 754 00:47:09,199 --> 00:47:13,119 man on horseback overtook and passed us. For any sign 755 00:47:13,239 --> 00:47:15,519 she gave I might have been a dog in the road. 756 00:47:16,239 --> 00:47:18,599 She did not even pay me the compliment of quickening 757 00:47:18,639 --> 00:47:22,440 her pace, though the rainy afternoon had served for an excuse. 758 00:47:24,239 --> 00:47:27,159 So Kitty and her companion and I and my ghostly 759 00:47:27,239 --> 00:47:31,199 light o Love crept round jackal in couples. The road 760 00:47:31,360 --> 00:47:35,039 was streaming with water, the pines dripped like roof pipes 761 00:47:35,039 --> 00:47:38,320 on the rocks below, and the air was full of fine, 762 00:47:38,559 --> 00:47:42,239 driving rain. Two or three times I found myself saying 763 00:47:42,360 --> 00:47:47,400 to myself, almost aloud, I'm Jack Pansey, on leave at Simla, 764 00:47:47,719 --> 00:47:52,119 at Simla, every day, ordinary Simla. I mustn't forget that. 765 00:47:52,559 --> 00:47:56,119 I mustn't forget that. Then I would try to recollect 766 00:47:56,320 --> 00:47:58,239 some of the gossip I had heard at the club, 767 00:47:58,840 --> 00:48:02,079 the prices of so and so horses, anything in fact 768 00:48:02,079 --> 00:48:05,559 that related to the workaday Anglo Indian world I knew 769 00:48:05,599 --> 00:48:10,559 so well. I even repeated the multiplication table rapidly to 770 00:48:10,599 --> 00:48:13,119 myself to make quite sure that I was not taking 771 00:48:13,199 --> 00:48:16,719 leave of my senses. It gave me much comfort and 772 00:48:16,840 --> 00:48:19,679 must have prevented my hearing Missus Wessington for a time. 773 00:48:20,920 --> 00:48:24,199 Once more, I wearily climbed the convent slope and entered 774 00:48:24,199 --> 00:48:28,079 the level road. Here, Kitty and the man started off 775 00:48:28,119 --> 00:48:31,119 at a canter, and I was left alone with Missus Wessington. 776 00:48:32,239 --> 00:48:35,280 Agnes said, I will you put back your hood and 777 00:48:35,360 --> 00:48:39,599 tell me what it all means? The hood dropped noiselessly, 778 00:48:39,719 --> 00:48:41,920 and I was face to face with my dead and 779 00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:45,440 buried mistress. She was wearing the dress in which I 780 00:48:45,480 --> 00:48:49,400 had last seen her alive, carried the same tiny handkerchief 781 00:48:49,480 --> 00:48:52,320 in her right hand and the same card case in 782 00:48:52,400 --> 00:48:56,079 her left a woman eight months dead with a card case. 783 00:48:57,599 --> 00:49:00,800 I had to pin myself down to the multiplication, and 784 00:49:00,840 --> 00:49:03,480 to set both hands on the stone parapet of the road, 785 00:49:03,880 --> 00:49:08,519 to assure myself that that, at least was real, Agnes, 786 00:49:08,679 --> 00:49:11,960 I repeated, for pity's sake, tell me what it all means. 787 00:49:13,159 --> 00:49:16,719 Missus Wessington leant forward with that odd quick turn of 788 00:49:16,760 --> 00:49:19,400 the head I used to know so well, and spoke. 789 00:49:20,639 --> 00:49:23,760 If my story had not already so madly over leaped 790 00:49:23,840 --> 00:49:26,960 the bounds of all human belief, I should apologize to 791 00:49:27,039 --> 00:49:30,079 you now, as I know that no one, no, not 792 00:49:30,119 --> 00:49:32,840 even Kitty, for whom it is written as some sort 793 00:49:32,880 --> 00:49:35,800 of justification of my conduct, will believe me. I will 794 00:49:35,840 --> 00:49:39,880 go on. Missus Wessington spoke, and I walked with her 795 00:49:40,159 --> 00:49:42,960 from the san Jowly Road to the turning below the 796 00:49:42,960 --> 00:49:45,519 Commander in Chief's house, as I might walk by the 797 00:49:45,559 --> 00:49:50,119 side of any living woman's rickshaw. Deep in conversation. The 798 00:49:50,159 --> 00:49:53,119 second and most tormenting of my moods of sickness had 799 00:49:53,119 --> 00:49:56,000 suddenly laid hold upon me, and like the prince in 800 00:49:56,079 --> 00:50:00,000 Tennyson's poem, I seemed to move amid a world of ghosts. 801 00:50:01,079 --> 00:50:03,480 There had been a garden party at the Commander in Chiefs, 802 00:50:03,920 --> 00:50:06,960 and we too joined the crowd of homeward bound folk. 803 00:50:07,800 --> 00:50:10,239 As I saw them, then, it seemed that they were 804 00:50:10,280 --> 00:50:15,599 the shadows, impalpable, fantastic shadows that divided for Missus Wessington's 805 00:50:15,639 --> 00:50:19,280 rickshaw to pass through. What we said during the course 806 00:50:19,320 --> 00:50:22,159 of that weird interview I cannot, indeed I dare not 807 00:50:22,320 --> 00:50:26,239 tell Heatherlely's comment would have been a short laugh and 808 00:50:26,320 --> 00:50:28,760 a remark that I had been mashing a brain, eye 809 00:50:28,760 --> 00:50:32,199 and stomach chimera. It was a ghastly and yet in 810 00:50:32,239 --> 00:50:37,599 some indefinable way, a marvelously dear experience. Could it be possible? 811 00:50:37,719 --> 00:50:40,599 I wondered that I was in this life to woo 812 00:50:40,719 --> 00:50:43,280 a second time the woman I had killed by my 813 00:50:43,360 --> 00:50:48,039 own neglect and cruelty. I met Kitty on the homeward road, 814 00:50:48,559 --> 00:50:52,960 a shadow among shadows. If I were to describe all 815 00:50:53,000 --> 00:50:55,840 the incidents of the next fortnight in their order, my 816 00:50:55,920 --> 00:50:58,679 story would never come to an end, and your patience 817 00:50:58,719 --> 00:51:03,239 would be exhausted. Morning after morning and evening after evening. 818 00:51:03,599 --> 00:51:06,880 The ghostly rickshaw and I used to wander through Simla together. 819 00:51:07,679 --> 00:51:11,159 Wherever I went there the four black and white liveries 820 00:51:11,199 --> 00:51:14,159 followed me and bore me company to and from my 821 00:51:14,239 --> 00:51:18,119 hotel at the theater. I found them amid the crowd 822 00:51:18,159 --> 00:51:22,199 of yelling Jampanese outside the Club Veranda, after a long 823 00:51:22,239 --> 00:51:25,880 evening of whist at the birthday ball, waiting patiently for 824 00:51:25,960 --> 00:51:29,800 my reappearance, and in broad daylight when I went calling, 825 00:51:30,679 --> 00:51:33,519 save that it cast no shadow, the rickshaw was in 826 00:51:33,639 --> 00:51:36,440 every respect as real to look upon as one of 827 00:51:36,480 --> 00:51:40,119 wood and iron. More than once, indeed, I have had 828 00:51:40,159 --> 00:51:43,760 to check myself from warning some hard riding friend against 829 00:51:43,800 --> 00:51:47,320 cantering over it. More than once I have walked down 830 00:51:47,360 --> 00:51:50,719 them all deep in conversation with Missus Wessington, to the 831 00:51:50,840 --> 00:51:55,800 unspeakable amazement of the passers by. Before I had been out, 832 00:51:55,840 --> 00:51:58,840 and about a week I learned that the fit theory 833 00:51:59,119 --> 00:52:03,239 had been discard in favor of insanity. However, I made 834 00:52:03,239 --> 00:52:06,840 no change in my mode of life. I called Rode 835 00:52:07,039 --> 00:52:09,880 and dined out as freely as ever. I had a 836 00:52:09,920 --> 00:52:12,800 passion for the society of my kind, which I had 837 00:52:12,800 --> 00:52:16,480 never felt before. I hungered to be among the realities 838 00:52:16,519 --> 00:52:19,519 of life, and at the same time I felt vaguely 839 00:52:19,639 --> 00:52:22,639 unhappy when I had been separated too long from my 840 00:52:22,679 --> 00:52:27,760 ghostly companion. It would be almost impossible to describe my 841 00:52:27,920 --> 00:52:31,000 varying moods from the fifteenth of May up to to day. 842 00:52:32,440 --> 00:52:35,400 The presence of the rickshaw filled me by turns with horror, 843 00:52:35,719 --> 00:52:39,320 blind fear, a dim sort of pleasure, and utter despair. 844 00:52:40,280 --> 00:52:42,800 I dared not leave Simla, and I knew that my 845 00:52:42,880 --> 00:52:46,039 stay there was killing me. I knew moreover that it 846 00:52:46,079 --> 00:52:49,320 was my destiny to die slowly and a little every day. 847 00:52:50,239 --> 00:52:52,840 My only anxiety was to get the penance over as 848 00:52:52,880 --> 00:52:56,920 quietly as might be. Alternately, I hungered for a sight 849 00:52:56,920 --> 00:53:01,039 of Kitty and watched her outrageous flirtation with my successor, 850 00:53:01,679 --> 00:53:06,760 to speak more accurately, my successors, with amused interest. She 851 00:53:06,960 --> 00:53:09,039 was as much out of my life as I was 852 00:53:09,079 --> 00:53:12,840 out of hers. By day, I wandered with missus Wessington, 853 00:53:13,239 --> 00:53:17,119 almost content. By night, I implored Heaven to let me 854 00:53:17,199 --> 00:53:19,119 return to the world as I used to know it. 855 00:53:19,960 --> 00:53:23,199 Above all these varying moods lay the sensation of dull, 856 00:53:23,519 --> 00:53:27,280 numbing wonder that the scene and the unseen should mingle 857 00:53:27,360 --> 00:53:30,800 so strangely on this earth, to hound one poor soul 858 00:53:30,920 --> 00:53:38,039 to its grave. August twenty seventh Heatherly has been indefatigable 859 00:53:38,159 --> 00:53:41,280 in his attendance on me, and only yesterday told me 860 00:53:41,519 --> 00:53:44,199 that I ought to send in an application for sick leave, 861 00:53:44,960 --> 00:53:48,320 an application to escape the company of a phantom, a 862 00:53:48,400 --> 00:53:51,679 request that the government would graciously permit me to get 863 00:53:51,760 --> 00:53:54,559 rid of five ghosts and an airy rickshaw by going 864 00:53:54,639 --> 00:54:00,000 to England. Heatherly's proposition moved me to almost hysterical life. 865 00:54:00,039 --> 00:54:03,400 After I told him that I should await the end 866 00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:06,440 quietly at Simla. And I am sure that the end 867 00:54:06,519 --> 00:54:09,880 is not far off. Believe me that I dread its 868 00:54:09,920 --> 00:54:13,320 advent more than any word can say. And I torture 869 00:54:13,400 --> 00:54:16,800 myself knightly with a thousand speculations as to the manner 870 00:54:16,800 --> 00:54:20,400 of my death. Shall I die in my bed decently 871 00:54:20,559 --> 00:54:23,960 and as an English gentleman would die, Or in one 872 00:54:24,079 --> 00:54:26,639 last walk on the mall, will my soul be wrenched 873 00:54:26,639 --> 00:54:29,639 from me to take its place forever and ever by 874 00:54:29,639 --> 00:54:33,760 the side of that ghastly phanfasm Shall I return to 875 00:54:33,840 --> 00:54:37,159 my old lost allegiance in the next world. Or shall 876 00:54:37,199 --> 00:54:40,000 I meet Agnes, loathing her and bound to her side 877 00:54:40,159 --> 00:54:43,960 through all eternity? Shall we too hover over the scene 878 00:54:44,000 --> 00:54:47,119 of our lives till the end of time. As the 879 00:54:47,199 --> 00:54:50,400 day of my death draws nearer, the intense horror that 880 00:54:50,480 --> 00:54:54,519 all living flesh feels towards escaped spirits from beyond the 881 00:54:54,559 --> 00:54:58,559 grave grows more and more powerful. It is an awful 882 00:54:58,639 --> 00:55:01,639 thing to go down quick among the dead, with scarcely 883 00:55:01,679 --> 00:55:04,760 one half of your life completed. It is a thousand 884 00:55:04,840 --> 00:55:07,880 times more awful to wait, as I do, in your 885 00:55:07,920 --> 00:55:12,880 midst For I know not what unimaginable terror. Pity me, 886 00:55:13,079 --> 00:55:15,800 at least on the score of my delusion. For I 887 00:55:15,840 --> 00:55:18,119 know you will never believe what I have written here. 888 00:55:19,000 --> 00:55:21,199 Yet as surely as ever a man was done to 889 00:55:21,239 --> 00:55:24,559 death by the powers of darkness, I am that man 890 00:55:26,000 --> 00:55:29,599 in justice too. Pity her, For as surely as ever 891 00:55:29,639 --> 00:55:33,760 woman was killed by man, I killed Missus Wessington. And 892 00:55:33,840 --> 00:55:37,639 the last portion of my punishment is even now upon me. 893 00:55:40,400 --> 00:55:46,119 End of Section nine