WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.840 --> 00:00:05.040 Chapter four of The Feasting Dead by John Metcalf. This 2 00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:09.080 LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Ben Tucker. 3 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:14.720 Chapter four. Disheartening news was confirmed in a letter from 4 00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:17.440 him the next morning, explaining that he would have joined 5 00:00:17.480 --> 00:00:20.760 me instantly had not his partner been somewhat indisposed and 6 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:25.559 hardly capable till the promised Tuesday of shouldering the extra work. Well, 7 00:00:25.640 --> 00:00:27.120 it was more than I had had the right to 8 00:00:27.160 --> 00:00:29.079 hope that my friend should have been able to arrange 9 00:00:29.079 --> 00:00:32.719 to get away at all, and heaven knew I blessed him. 10 00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:36.399 During the weekend, however, my feeling of tension increased and 11 00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:40.520 was appreciably heightened, as it happened by my host's ill humor. 12 00:00:41.479 --> 00:00:44.479 Monsieur Viaillon, after our recent row, had offered me a 13 00:00:44.479 --> 00:00:47.880 somewhat grudging apology for his rudeness, but now he was 14 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:51.560 exasperated again upon a different score. While I had had 15 00:00:51.600 --> 00:00:55.200 from Goderic a cheering and reassuring letter, he had received 16 00:00:55.200 --> 00:00:58.920 it seemed a violent and upsetting one. The aunt he 17 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:02.159 told me, with whom Les Petite as been staying, had 18 00:01:02.200 --> 00:01:06.079 written saying she was compelled to visit Tunisi on business. 19 00:01:06.799 --> 00:01:09.400 It might be for several months, and must accordingly send 20 00:01:09.439 --> 00:01:12.640 her brother in law's children home. It is an excuse, 21 00:01:13.159 --> 00:01:17.959 he fumed, business pah Z cannot come here. Yet not 22 00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:21.879 yet my sympathy for him, when I remembered the plight 23 00:01:21.920 --> 00:01:24.719 of my own boy was not excessive, and privily I 24 00:01:24.760 --> 00:01:27.879 blamed no aunt for getting sick of young Marcel and Augustine. 25 00:01:28.359 --> 00:01:30.719 But the matter set my mind running with a revival 26 00:01:30.760 --> 00:01:34.159 of curiosity on the connection or, in the case of denis, 27 00:01:34.319 --> 00:01:38.799 actual relationship between our respective families. For it was through 28 00:01:38.840 --> 00:01:42.359 the sister of this same discredited and disobliging lady that 29 00:01:42.519 --> 00:01:46.959 it existed. She had been, before her marriage to Monsieur Vignon, 30 00:01:47.319 --> 00:01:52.439 a Mademoiselle Drouard, and by a common ancestor of regenerations back, 31 00:01:52.519 --> 00:01:54.719 a cousin, though I do not think they knew each 32 00:01:54.760 --> 00:01:58.439 other of my wife's. This train of thought led naturally 33 00:01:58.519 --> 00:02:01.760 to a reconsideration of the whole question of Monsieur Vignon's 34 00:02:01.799 --> 00:02:04.879 conduct and attitude throughout, and here I was, as far 35 00:02:04.920 --> 00:02:08.400 as ever from a satisfactory conclusion. He had blown hot 36 00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:12.560 and cold, and been by turns solicitous and callous, courteous 37 00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:15.639 and grossly and polite. He had been contrite enough, if 38 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:18.879 it were that, to break off the holiday exchange arrangement, 39 00:02:19.280 --> 00:02:23.599 yet insufficiently honest to warn me plainly about Raoul. He 40 00:02:23.639 --> 00:02:26.000 had had the grace later to wire me twice after 41 00:02:26.039 --> 00:02:28.400 Dennis had run away to France, But then when I 42 00:02:28.479 --> 00:02:30.960 arrived for the retrieval of my truant had given me 43 00:02:31.039 --> 00:02:34.719 no help. There was no making the man out. I 44 00:02:34.719 --> 00:02:38.120 had been puzzling alone upon the Saturday evening over these 45 00:02:38.159 --> 00:02:41.280 and allied problems when I heard a confused noise of 46 00:02:41.360 --> 00:02:45.439 angry shouting. The sounds seemed to come from the direction 47 00:02:45.560 --> 00:02:49.520 of the stables, suggesting by their volume and persistence, that 48 00:02:49.879 --> 00:02:53.560 several persons, possibly a dozen or so, were engaged in 49 00:02:53.599 --> 00:02:56.520 a violent fracas. But by the time I had gone 50 00:02:56.560 --> 00:02:59.719 out to look, just as the hubbub had rather suddenly subsided. 51 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:03.520 The disputants must evidently have stopped their fight and scattered. 52 00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:08.400 Crossing the basse cour However, I saw a man limping 53 00:03:08.439 --> 00:03:11.159 painfully and holding a blood stained rag to his face. 54 00:03:11.879 --> 00:03:14.280 I recognized him as a fellow I had noticed driving 55 00:03:14.319 --> 00:03:17.000 one of the wagons that carried hay or milk and 56 00:03:17.120 --> 00:03:20.240 butter from the Lettoi, and might have asked him what 57 00:03:20.280 --> 00:03:22.280 the trouble was, had I not, at that moment caught 58 00:03:22.319 --> 00:03:25.520 from somewhere within the shrilly furious tones of Monsieur Vignon 59 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:29.199 As to this incident. It was again from dor Lot 60 00:03:29.319 --> 00:03:32.840 that I received enlightenment and complete though it was his 61 00:03:32.919 --> 00:03:35.759 master who made no allusion to the matter. Having retired 62 00:03:35.800 --> 00:03:39.199 immediately after dinner, he do'r low brought me my customary 63 00:03:39.199 --> 00:03:42.159 glass of lonely brandy in the library and said that 64 00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:46.599 passel of rascals from Sainte Aauvin were after Baptiste and 65 00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:50.400 your boys this afternoon and nearly had them too. What, 66 00:03:50.879 --> 00:03:53.960 I exclaimed, alarmed, After my boy, what for is he 67 00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:58.159 all right? The man replied coldly, addressing the ceiling. It appeared, 68 00:03:58.199 --> 00:03:58.759 rather than. 69 00:03:58.599 --> 00:04:03.439 Me, the young Monsieur is entirely unharmed since they were 70 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:07.759 unable to catch him. But Baptiste, that one, he certainly 71 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:12.120 got a scratcher too. But why why should they be attacked, 72 00:04:13.199 --> 00:04:18.160 Dorleo shrugged, spreading his hands. People here, monsieur are superstitious. 73 00:04:18.879 --> 00:04:22.079 They are believers in all kinds of nonsense, and possibly 74 00:04:22.120 --> 00:04:26.040 as a young Monsieur had been doing something quite inadvertently 75 00:04:26.120 --> 00:04:30.160 which caused them to suspect him song Deer most wrongfully 76 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:35.759 of dealing in in such matters. I cannot tell enfant 77 00:04:35.879 --> 00:04:39.079 the two of them, he and Baptiste, were pursued by 78 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:43.360 this band of ignor remesses and ruffians into our very yard, 79 00:04:43.879 --> 00:04:48.000 where they found a refuge. It is unfortunate, he added, 80 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:52.920 as if meditatively, that certainly, even of our own servants, 81 00:04:52.959 --> 00:04:56.759 who should take sides with this rabber, enough, it is 82 00:04:56.800 --> 00:05:01.240 no longer my affair, or properly my concern. Dixis bleis tomorrow. 83 00:05:02.279 --> 00:05:05.920 I was exceedingly disturbed not only by Dorlau's story and 84 00:05:05.959 --> 00:05:09.399 its implications, but also, if to a less degree, by 85 00:05:09.399 --> 00:05:12.120 his announcement of departure. It would have been foolish to 86 00:05:12.120 --> 00:05:14.360 regard him as an ally. Yet he had not been 87 00:05:14.480 --> 00:05:18.800 actively hostile, and latterly had constituted almost my only source 88 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:23.240 of news concerning Denis. As to the tale itself, more 89 00:05:23.319 --> 00:05:26.839 lay behind it, obviously than Dorleau would disclose. But of 90 00:05:26.920 --> 00:05:30.879 this I could guess at a good deal amongst the peasantry. 91 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:34.040 Denis would but to naturally be a prime object of suspicion. 92 00:05:34.639 --> 00:05:36.920 And it was really a wonder he had evaded molestation 93 00:05:37.199 --> 00:05:42.040 if he had till now the man Batiste surmisably had 94 00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:45.519 been his friend or his associate, and fallen consequently under 95 00:05:45.560 --> 00:05:49.199 the same stigma. Evidently, the business had attained the proportions 96 00:05:49.240 --> 00:05:52.560 of a feud, and Monsieur Viallan's ranks within the chateau 97 00:05:52.600 --> 00:05:55.800 had been split. Dor Lo, I fancied, would not lack 98 00:05:55.839 --> 00:05:59.319 company upon the train tomorrow. While I was counting the 99 00:05:59.360 --> 00:06:02.319 hours to god arrival, with a fresh sense of urgency, 100 00:06:02.639 --> 00:06:07.160 I renewed vainly my efforts to lessen Dennis's hostility. I 101 00:06:07.199 --> 00:06:10.240 no longer hoped now for a full reconciliation so speedily, 102 00:06:10.720 --> 00:06:13.519 but short of that I would have liked before Goderic 103 00:06:13.600 --> 00:06:15.639 lent me what help he could to be at all 104 00:06:15.680 --> 00:06:19.439 events on speaking terms with my own child. Twice I 105 00:06:19.480 --> 00:06:22.319 tried to talk with him through his locked door, receiving 106 00:06:22.360 --> 00:06:24.920 on the first occasion no reply, and on the second 107 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:29.240 the response, Oh go away, I hate you. And twice 108 00:06:29.399 --> 00:06:32.360 also I got with an undignified hailing distance of him 109 00:06:32.519 --> 00:06:35.439 in the grounds, only to be humiliated by his almost 110 00:06:35.439 --> 00:06:39.959 off handedly contemptuous flight. Obviously, at any time I might 111 00:06:40.040 --> 00:06:43.720 probably have rallied Monsieur Vagnon's odds and ends of still 112 00:06:43.720 --> 00:06:46.920 faithful retainers. A further couple had left with door low 113 00:06:46.959 --> 00:06:49.439 in the morning to round up my quarry, and then 114 00:06:49.480 --> 00:06:53.920 forced him as my prisoner, to parley. But such trappings 115 00:06:53.959 --> 00:06:56.519 or waylayings would have been very much against the grain, and, 116 00:06:57.120 --> 00:06:59.519 as I saw it, then, have done more harm than good. 117 00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:03.319 What I would wonder could be his view of the position, 118 00:07:04.120 --> 00:07:08.120 How in his own opinion was he faring Pretty Evidently 119 00:07:08.160 --> 00:07:10.639 he had expected, or at least hoped, to find his 120 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:14.199 odious playmate here and had not. Monsieur Vignon told me 121 00:07:14.279 --> 00:07:16.839 that he Dennis, would do his best to get Raoul back, 122 00:07:17.839 --> 00:07:19.800 and that, however, so far as I could judge, he 123 00:07:19.879 --> 00:07:23.560 had been disappointed. What had become of the physical Raoul, 124 00:07:23.920 --> 00:07:28.519 of the physical aspect of him, I had no idea. Presumably, 125 00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:31.120 after my half throttling of him, he had returned somehow 126 00:07:31.160 --> 00:07:34.839 to France, but had not yet I trusted reappeared in 127 00:07:34.879 --> 00:07:38.240 his old haunts. Upon this point I could have to 128 00:07:38.279 --> 00:07:41.959 be sure no certainty. But whoever or whatever the creature was, 129 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:44.959 its headquarters seemed to lie on this side of the channel, 130 00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:48.480 and the next step of minimum precaution was to transport 131 00:07:48.519 --> 00:07:54.079 Denis to the other Monday and tomorrow Godteric would be here. Indeed, 132 00:07:54.079 --> 00:07:57.600 a letter for him au Sooins de Monsieur Vignon had 133 00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:01.680 rather surprisingly preceded him, already arriving together with one from 134 00:08:01.720 --> 00:08:06.199 me from Jenny. The weather was still gloomy, rainless but boding, 135 00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:11.120 and again I strolled dejectedly around the nearer fields. The landscape, 136 00:08:11.160 --> 00:08:14.120 as before was sere and sullen, but its mood, to 137 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:18.279 my imagining, had subtly changed, the sense of stealthy ferment 138 00:08:18.360 --> 00:08:21.600 and evil. Quickening had departed, and the drab acres had 139 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:24.800 an empty look, as if delivered or relieved of something. 140 00:08:25.800 --> 00:08:29.680 Loth to accuse myself of being over fanciful, I stared 141 00:08:29.680 --> 00:08:32.600 about me, seeking for anything that might account more factually 142 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:37.519 for this impression, but could find nothing. Merely the scarecrow 143 00:08:37.559 --> 00:08:40.399 I had noticed formerly had gone, having been removed and 144 00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:44.000 set up for whatever none too obvious reason, as I 145 00:08:44.080 --> 00:08:48.039 subsequently discovered in another field considerably closer to the house, 146 00:08:49.559 --> 00:08:50.879 I wandered slowly. 147 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:53.559 Back to the chateau. Help was at last at hand, 148 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:58.080 for Goderic should be here tomorrow evening. Yet my heart 149 00:08:58.200 --> 00:09:03.399 was curiously unlightened the countryside, lowering in secret with that 150 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:07.519 discharged and voided aspect of an ominous fulfillment, seemed to 151 00:09:07.519 --> 00:09:10.559 wear a mien of hidden ridicule, of some kind of 152 00:09:10.600 --> 00:09:14.200 deceptive somnolence and inward mockery, as though it were laughing 153 00:09:14.240 --> 00:09:17.320 at me up its sleeve. Nonsense. I tried to think, 154 00:09:18.080 --> 00:09:23.240 what utter nonsense? With a derisive apt theatricality. A trio 155 00:09:23.240 --> 00:09:27.159 of stage property bats, encouraged by the dusk, skimmed past 156 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:29.080 me as I turned by the corner of a barn, 157 00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:34.919 and then suddenly I had a shock. Hello, Daddy, said Denis. 158 00:09:35.960 --> 00:09:38.759 He was there in front of me, shyly, smiling and 159 00:09:38.759 --> 00:09:40.879 addressing me in this form he had discarded for some 160 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:44.840 years as babyish. His clothes were stained and torn, and 161 00:09:44.919 --> 00:09:48.000 his cheeks wand under their grime. I did not believe 162 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:51.399 he had washed properly for days. But it was far 163 00:09:51.480 --> 00:09:54.799 less his ragamuffin air that horrified me than his manner. 164 00:09:55.279 --> 00:09:59.840 It was flat and almost bored, yet confident, casual and unconstrained, 165 00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:02.759 and some utterly wrong way, as though he were so 166 00:10:02.879 --> 00:10:04.919 tired out with whatever he had been up to that 167 00:10:05.279 --> 00:10:08.519 he had forgotten even what it was. How could he 168 00:10:08.639 --> 00:10:12.200 else have carried it? Off with this weary this to 169 00:10:12.240 --> 00:10:16.240 me actually hideous a plume. He stood gazing at me 170 00:10:16.279 --> 00:10:19.360 in a sort of forlorn and rather vacant friendliness, as 171 00:10:19.360 --> 00:10:22.879 if nothing had happened, as if he were completely unconscious 172 00:10:22.919 --> 00:10:26.759 of my misery or his own. Come in, I think, 173 00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:31.240 I said to him, And and talk things over, shall we? Yes, 174 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:36.519 he replied absently. All right, I'm hungry too, he paused, 175 00:10:36.559 --> 00:10:41.200 then added reconsideringly, and as a careful qualification, that is, 176 00:10:41.519 --> 00:10:45.240 you know, not really very We had begun to walk 177 00:10:45.279 --> 00:10:48.039 on from the barn, and the fading light shone briefly 178 00:10:48.080 --> 00:10:51.240 on his face, discovering there a look that sickened me, 179 00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:54.720 but is not easy to describe. It was at once 180 00:10:54.840 --> 00:10:58.039 wily and exhausted, an expression, so to speak, of a 181 00:10:58.120 --> 00:11:03.639 supreme irrelevance or perviousness, to the situation of a precarious unconcern, 182 00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:07.559 and hard frivolity or falsity, a falsity all the worse 183 00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:11.799 for being undeliberate and still childish. My gorge rose as 184 00:11:11.919 --> 00:11:16.639 at something odious. Rage filled me, and to my dismay, 185 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:20.240 I found my fists clenched to strike him. It was 186 00:11:20.279 --> 00:11:24.960 with the greatest effort that I controlled the impulse, Denis, 187 00:11:25.080 --> 00:11:30.440 I heard myself saying, Dennis, my anger had turned suddenly 188 00:11:30.480 --> 00:11:33.159 to yearning, and I had him unresisting in my arms. 189 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:37.440 He was light as a feather, limply yielding and weighing nothing, 190 00:11:37.879 --> 00:11:41.399 almost nothing, I felt, while I strained him to me, 191 00:11:41.480 --> 00:11:43.720 as if he were liable at any instant to melt 192 00:11:43.720 --> 00:11:47.120 away from my embrace into thin air. At the chateau, 193 00:11:47.200 --> 00:11:50.240 when we entered, Monsieur Viagnon had just come into the hall, 194 00:11:50.600 --> 00:11:54.200 gaping at us as though quite confounded. I do not 195 00:11:54.279 --> 00:11:57.039 really know how the next few hours passed, what words 196 00:11:57.039 --> 00:11:59.399 were said, or what was done in them, I do 197 00:11:59.519 --> 00:12:02.279 know and remmember that they were not happy or triumphant 198 00:12:02.360 --> 00:12:06.879 hours alas far from that, A deep emotional conviction of 199 00:12:06.919 --> 00:12:10.919 impending sorrow or calamity persisted, and I could not banish 200 00:12:10.919 --> 00:12:14.480 it superficially. It was to the good that the pursuits, 201 00:12:14.559 --> 00:12:18.039 the trappings and lassoings I had envisaged, were dispensed with. 202 00:12:18.559 --> 00:12:23.879 Yet what had I instead not, Denis? That was the trouble. 203 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:26.559 It was only the curious shell of him I had. 204 00:12:27.240 --> 00:12:31.879 He was a wandling, almost changeling, something that most horribly 205 00:12:31.919 --> 00:12:34.600 denied each trait and feature of the Denis I recalled, 206 00:12:35.080 --> 00:12:39.600 and of which the contemplation could but be agonizing. Nonetheless, 207 00:12:39.639 --> 00:12:42.159 as I say, this unexpected turn of events was a 208 00:12:42.240 --> 00:12:47.519 practical simplification. Presumably Denis would come quietly and not have 209 00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:50.559 to be dragged home a prisoner goderic when he arrived, 210 00:12:50.559 --> 00:12:53.039 would have nothing to do but go back with us again. 211 00:12:53.840 --> 00:12:58.720 And then are you tired? I believe, I asked once, 212 00:12:59.080 --> 00:13:04.159 after all the the camping out, he regarded me queerly, 213 00:13:04.360 --> 00:13:08.840 had cocked with the suspicious, quasi intelligent incomprehension. The notion 214 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:14.399 visited me dreadfully of a parrot, A a little yes, er, 215 00:13:14.519 --> 00:13:17.879 a little that was all. But the manner, if not 216 00:13:17.919 --> 00:13:21.200 the matter of the reply, had remained vaguely hostile and 217 00:13:21.360 --> 00:13:26.639 violently unsatisfactory. His tone held a deplorable sort of cunning, 218 00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:30.320 or of fancied cunning, as if despite his sudden yielding, 219 00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:32.919 he still had an ace hidden somewhere in the pack, 220 00:13:33.559 --> 00:13:37.240 or thought he had what had prompted his surrender. Had 221 00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:40.200 he merely wearied of roughing it and craved the ordinary 222 00:13:40.240 --> 00:13:43.759 home comforts he had missed now for three weeks. Had 223 00:13:43.799 --> 00:13:47.519 his designs, whatever was their nature, been frustrated or miscarried, 224 00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:50.080 so that at last he had had to give them up. 225 00:13:51.240 --> 00:13:54.360 Or had he possibly decided that my reinforcement by Goderick, 226 00:13:54.679 --> 00:13:57.279 of whose coming, apart from servants gossip, he could have 227 00:13:57.320 --> 00:13:59.320 got wind in any case from the letter in the hall, 228 00:14:00.200 --> 00:14:02.000 be too much for him, and that he might as 229 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:05.159 well cave in to me right away. I must wait 230 00:14:05.200 --> 00:14:08.000 to find out all that for the time was not propiteous. 231 00:14:08.080 --> 00:14:13.080 Yet I felt for direct catechizings. Fortunately, perhaps for that 232 00:14:13.159 --> 00:14:16.240 event at any rate, this question did not arise, as 233 00:14:16.279 --> 00:14:19.440 Denis professed himself so drowsy that as soon as he 234 00:14:19.480 --> 00:14:22.320 had had his tea and then a bath, he went 235 00:14:22.360 --> 00:14:26.480 to bed of Monsieur Villon. Save for his startled apparition 236 00:14:26.559 --> 00:14:29.480 in the hall, I had seen nothing since lunch. I 237 00:14:29.559 --> 00:14:31.919 dined alone, and after a couple of pipes in the 238 00:14:31.960 --> 00:14:35.799 Petit Sidon, was glad to get up to my room. Dennis, 239 00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:39.159 and I reflected, had forgotten, or at least perhaps on 240 00:14:39.240 --> 00:14:42.240 both sides, Simmy deliberately omitted to say good night to 241 00:14:42.279 --> 00:14:45.279 each other. I wondered whether he were yet awake, or 242 00:14:45.639 --> 00:14:48.320 if his sleep were half as troubled as I feared. 243 00:14:48.399 --> 00:14:51.879 Likely in his father's case, what dreams would visit him 244 00:14:52.639 --> 00:14:55.200 next day. I was in two minds about taking Denis 245 00:14:55.200 --> 00:14:58.320 with me to the station to meet Godderic, deciding finally 246 00:14:58.360 --> 00:15:01.679 against it. I did not think he would slip off again, 247 00:15:01.960 --> 00:15:04.639 and if he did, it would only prove his capitulation, 248 00:15:05.039 --> 00:15:09.279 no real capitulation after all. As to that, indeed, I 249 00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:13.120 still felt something disquietingly planned or spurious in it, But 250 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:16.240 my misgivings did not include now any apprehensions of his 251 00:15:16.759 --> 00:15:21.200 renewed and literal bolting. Nothing much had happened during the morning. 252 00:15:21.559 --> 00:15:25.559 Monsieur Vaillon, encountering me just before lunch, congratulated me with 253 00:15:25.639 --> 00:15:29.639 a deathly simper on my improved entente with Dennis, and 254 00:15:29.879 --> 00:15:32.720 made no difficulties over lending me the car, which I 255 00:15:32.799 --> 00:15:35.200 was mightily relieved he did not propose to drive this 256 00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:38.679 time himself. God Eric would stay one night at the chateau, 257 00:15:38.879 --> 00:15:41.720 and tomorrow the three of us would return to England. 258 00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:44.960 I pictured my friend's surprise when he learned of the 259 00:15:44.960 --> 00:15:48.200 fresh development. In a sense, he would have had his 260 00:15:48.360 --> 00:15:50.840 journey for nothing. But I didn't think he would mind 261 00:15:50.879 --> 00:15:55.039 that a wire yesterday evening might just have caught and 262 00:15:55.120 --> 00:15:59.519 stopped him. But actually Dennis's unexpected surrender had put everything 263 00:15:59.519 --> 00:16:02.039 else out of my head, and I was selfishly glad 264 00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:05.679 now that it had. At the station, I had still 265 00:16:05.679 --> 00:16:08.320 ten minutes to wait, and outside the yard entrance to 266 00:16:08.360 --> 00:16:11.360 the baggage office, I noticed a wagon drawn up and 267 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:14.200 a long box being unloaded from it and then carried 268 00:16:14.240 --> 00:16:17.360 into the clerk. The wagon I could recognize as from 269 00:16:17.399 --> 00:16:20.480 the chateau, and the fellow awkwardly shouldering the box was 270 00:16:20.600 --> 00:16:23.399 I was pretty sure that same batiste I had seen 271 00:16:23.480 --> 00:16:25.919 limping with the blood stained kerchief to his face in 272 00:16:25.960 --> 00:16:29.279 the basque cour two days ago. As he climbed again 273 00:16:29.320 --> 00:16:32.600 into his seat, the Chef de Guere himself came out 274 00:16:32.639 --> 00:16:35.519 to confer for a few moments with him in an undertone. 275 00:16:35.960 --> 00:16:39.279 But here, at last was Goderick's train. It had scarcely clinked, 276 00:16:39.279 --> 00:16:42.080 puffing to a standstill, before he leaped out and clasped 277 00:16:42.120 --> 00:16:42.919 my hand in his. 278 00:16:44.360 --> 00:16:44.679 Well. 279 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:48.399 He was saying, it's rather like one's twothaches fleeing on 280 00:16:48.480 --> 00:16:51.559 the dentist door step. If I hadn't come for nothing, 281 00:16:51.639 --> 00:16:53.919 as you are so kind as to suggest, you and 282 00:16:53.960 --> 00:16:58.279 your young Jackanapes would probably still be at Loggerheads. We 283 00:16:58.279 --> 00:17:01.840 were approaching the chateau when I wondered Goderick's hearty vigor. 284 00:17:01.960 --> 00:17:05.119 His very tone of cheerful likeness was a gust of 285 00:17:05.119 --> 00:17:08.720 health and hope from another world. And yet I doubted, 286 00:17:08.920 --> 00:17:13.440 and was even somehow shocked. If we're not still at 287 00:17:13.480 --> 00:17:17.279 Loggerheads as it is, I remembered, answering, you'll see for yourself. 288 00:17:17.319 --> 00:17:21.880 Presently we drove under the porte cochere and alighted. Monsieur 289 00:17:21.960 --> 00:17:24.880 Viagnon was there to greet us all politeness. A small 290 00:17:24.920 --> 00:17:30.279 dim figure hung back, hugging the shadows. Hello, scallywagg called 291 00:17:30.279 --> 00:17:34.559 Goderic II, come out of that. Dennis moved forwards, undecidedly, 292 00:17:34.839 --> 00:17:39.039 his face again horrified me by its hollow wanness. M 293 00:17:39.920 --> 00:17:44.039 Godderic commented, not altogether a walking advertisement of anything. I 294 00:17:44.119 --> 00:17:47.640 must say, that's the deserts of being a wall nineteen 295 00:17:47.720 --> 00:17:48.359 days adrift. 296 00:17:48.359 --> 00:17:48.519 Eh. 297 00:17:48.839 --> 00:17:51.039 But we won't clap him in the glass house this time, 298 00:17:51.119 --> 00:17:54.720 Sergeant Major. Once more, I gave a mental gasp. I 299 00:17:54.759 --> 00:17:56.920 did not know whether to admire or be scared out 300 00:17:56.920 --> 00:18:00.000 of my wits by Godderick's breeziness. Wasn't it I am 301 00:18:00.039 --> 00:18:03.720 misdoubted a trifle overdone. It jolted me, I think, not 302 00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:06.400 so much through a fear of its effect on Denis 303 00:18:06.559 --> 00:18:09.799 as by appearing almost too temporarious, a defiance of the 304 00:18:09.799 --> 00:18:13.880 evil gods. But Dennis did not seem to mind this joshing. 305 00:18:14.400 --> 00:18:17.559 He even smiled faintly as Goderic persevered with his hearty 306 00:18:17.599 --> 00:18:23.119 badinage and ate under the friendly bombardment a reasonably good tea. Nonetheless, 307 00:18:23.160 --> 00:18:26.759 I could divine beneath his fun, poking that Goderic was concerned. 308 00:18:27.440 --> 00:18:30.160 When Denis had gone off to see the horses fed, 309 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:35.319 he said, with Jiji, my friend's expression became grave. What 310 00:18:35.400 --> 00:18:36.240 do you make of this? 311 00:18:36.279 --> 00:18:36.759 Have good? 312 00:18:37.160 --> 00:18:42.680 He surprised me by inquiring I why I I want 313 00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:46.039 you to tell me, of course, but first I'd be 314 00:18:46.119 --> 00:18:48.599 interested in your opinions, so far as you have any. 315 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:53.000 Do you, for instance? Really? He broke off, Wait a bit? 316 00:18:53.160 --> 00:18:55.920 Are we likely to be disturbed here? Our perfect host 317 00:18:56.039 --> 00:18:59.640 isn't liable to butt in, is he? I shouldn't think 318 00:18:59.680 --> 00:19:02.920 so completely haywire these days, and we probably won't see 319 00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:07.880 him again. This evening suits me and if but at 320 00:19:07.880 --> 00:19:11.319 this moment to falsify my prophecy monsieur Vallon did, but 321 00:19:11.519 --> 00:19:15.839 in insisting upon entertaining us with the most oddly vapid 322 00:19:15.880 --> 00:19:19.319 small talk until and throughout dinner. And it was only 323 00:19:19.400 --> 00:19:22.440 when he had at length proffered his excuses and retired 324 00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:27.480 that I and Goderic could continue our discussion. Dennis himself, 325 00:19:27.519 --> 00:19:30.960 as on the previous night, had gone early to his bed. Well, 326 00:19:31.440 --> 00:19:35.240 Goderiic resumed, what is your feeling about the whole thing now, 327 00:19:35.720 --> 00:19:39.559 for example, and putting a conceivable crack brained impersonation out 328 00:19:39.559 --> 00:19:42.160 of it, as I think we may. Do you actually 329 00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:44.960 believe that the pernicious loon we both knew down in 330 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.039 Hampshire is the same privage whose grave you've said you 331 00:19:49.119 --> 00:19:55.920 saw near here last week. It it certainly sounds nonsense, 332 00:19:56.319 --> 00:20:01.559 I replied, nonsense, Yes, naturally it does. But even nonsense 333 00:20:01.680 --> 00:20:06.200 can be dynamic in its proper realm, where its writ 334 00:20:06.359 --> 00:20:10.640 runs and it holds sway. It isn't nonsense, and it 335 00:20:10.680 --> 00:20:14.160 can often effectually intrude into a sphere beyond its own. 336 00:20:15.440 --> 00:20:18.640 It has become at least mentally real for Dennis, and 337 00:20:18.759 --> 00:20:21.279 also up to a point for you. I just wanted 338 00:20:21.279 --> 00:20:25.039 to know how real. I tell you, I don't know 339 00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:29.160 it simply doesn't add up, all right, It doesn't if 340 00:20:29.200 --> 00:20:32.880 it did. For instance, this damned sallly door could eventually 341 00:20:32.880 --> 00:20:36.079 be detraced and be run in for something. But for 342 00:20:36.119 --> 00:20:38.920 what exactly in what terms could you prefer a charge? 343 00:20:39.319 --> 00:20:43.000 I'd hate to see you trying. The notion would be 344 00:20:43.079 --> 00:20:46.240 quite absurd, which just shows you that it can't add 345 00:20:46.359 --> 00:20:49.559 up for us in any ordinary way. But the next 346 00:20:49.559 --> 00:20:52.319 obvious practical step, anyhow, is to get your boy as 347 00:20:52.359 --> 00:20:54.920 clear of it all as we can, and pray that 348 00:20:55.079 --> 00:21:02.160 later he'll well respond to treatment. But what do you think, honestly? 349 00:21:02.480 --> 00:21:07.119 Is I faltered? I know what you're going to ask, 350 00:21:07.279 --> 00:21:12.880 Well is it? Or again is it? How can I tell? It? 351 00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:16.440 Was there that precious Gabie was, and it appeared to 352 00:21:16.440 --> 00:21:19.759 be more or less passibly a man, and for some 353 00:21:19.839 --> 00:21:23.200 revolting reason it wore mittens. Also, it had an arm 354 00:21:23.200 --> 00:21:27.039 which acted up pretty unorthodoxly. What I don't see is 355 00:21:27.079 --> 00:21:31.240 how a mere throttling, a semi throttling could have snuffed 356 00:21:31.240 --> 00:21:33.880 it out and cabashed it at all events, temporarily as 357 00:21:33.880 --> 00:21:37.000 it seems to have done. No doubt that rubbed in 358 00:21:37.039 --> 00:21:39.240 the fact that it wasn't too popular and would be 359 00:21:39.240 --> 00:21:43.279 a deterrent to some extent, but god Eric too hesitated, 360 00:21:43.319 --> 00:21:46.839 then went on, I don't fancy we can get much 361 00:21:46.920 --> 00:21:50.200 forward or along those lines. It's easy enough to say 362 00:21:50.240 --> 00:21:53.359 the whole thing's farcical, and if you could feel that 363 00:21:53.519 --> 00:21:55.880 as well as say it, it would be fine. What 364 00:21:55.960 --> 00:21:59.759 about the poltergeist noises? Did they still go on? I 365 00:21:59.880 --> 00:22:03.240 was told so, I've not heard them here myself and 366 00:22:03.319 --> 00:22:07.559 the haunted room where you're persuaded the original feefaw FuMB demised, 367 00:22:08.039 --> 00:22:10.440 how does that come into it? Did our host admit 368 00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:13.079 definitely that Privosh number one had died? 369 00:22:13.119 --> 00:22:13.319 There? 370 00:22:14.519 --> 00:22:19.680 Definitely no Indeed, he's never said anything definite or straightforward. 371 00:22:20.200 --> 00:22:22.440 When I did, as it were, challenge him to deny 372 00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:27.160 that the first prevoge had died where I felt he had. 373 00:22:27.599 --> 00:22:30.480 He just behaved quite weirdly and was abominably rude and 374 00:22:30.519 --> 00:22:34.640 accused me of going mad. For some while longer our 375 00:22:34.680 --> 00:22:37.640 talk continued without leading us to any more concrete conclusion 376 00:22:37.680 --> 00:22:40.359 than we had reached already. That our sole hope for 377 00:22:40.400 --> 00:22:43.119 Dennis lay in getting him away immediately, and that when 378 00:22:43.160 --> 00:22:45.720 this was done, it would be only in the nick 379 00:22:45.720 --> 00:22:49.039 of time. We thought god Erick and I that we 380 00:22:49.039 --> 00:22:52.039 were bringing Dennis home, and that morning we treated our 381 00:22:52.079 --> 00:22:54.519 precious freight as if no precaution for its safety could 382 00:22:54.559 --> 00:22:58.400 be excessive. Dennis was actually, and in literal truth, so 383 00:22:58.519 --> 00:23:01.319 worn and wasted that such an attitude would have been 384 00:23:01.359 --> 00:23:03.799 natural in any case, and I think we both felt 385 00:23:03.839 --> 00:23:07.119 that unless the greatest care were exercised, he might, as 386 00:23:07.160 --> 00:23:09.759 it were, collapse in our hands or be blown away 387 00:23:09.799 --> 00:23:13.839 by a puff. His eyes were lustreless and his skin dry, 388 00:23:14.440 --> 00:23:17.200 and his manner held some ingredient I could not define, 389 00:23:17.720 --> 00:23:22.920 at once apathetic and expectant, or perhaps apprehensive. The day 390 00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:26.960 had broken cloudily after for me a restless night. I 391 00:23:27.000 --> 00:23:30.240 had had dreams, but could not recall them clearly. Mostly 392 00:23:30.279 --> 00:23:33.799 they had been of absurdities of Monsieur Vaillon addressing a 393 00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:37.559 meeting of puppets in the library, of Dorlew roller skating 394 00:23:37.640 --> 00:23:41.519 somewhere overhead, and even of the ridiculous scarecrow shifting from 395 00:23:41.519 --> 00:23:44.200 field to field in a continued march towards the house. 396 00:23:45.200 --> 00:23:48.920 But their persisting savor was oppressive, and I had woken 397 00:23:48.960 --> 00:23:52.400 from them with nerves jangled. Our train was to leave 398 00:23:52.480 --> 00:23:55.279 Fawant at about ten thirty, and we had risen. We 399 00:23:55.359 --> 00:24:00.200 realized rather unnecessarily early. Denis, glancing at us distraightly from 400 00:24:00.319 --> 00:24:05.279 under lowered brows ate an extremely sketchy breakfast. Once he 401 00:24:05.319 --> 00:24:08.519