WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.760 --> 00:00:05.679 Story eleven of Dubliner's. This is a LibriVox recording. All 2 00:00:05.759 --> 00:00:09.720 LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, 3 00:00:09.839 --> 00:00:14.839 were to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by 4 00:00:14.880 --> 00:00:21.000 Bob Sherman. Dubliner's by James Joyce, Story eleven A painful case. 5 00:00:23.160 --> 00:00:26.839 Mister James Duffy lived in Chapalizod because he wished to 6 00:00:26.839 --> 00:00:29.280 live as far as possible from the city of which 7 00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:32.039 he was a citizen, and because he found all the 8 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:37.200 other suburbs of Dublin mean modern and pretentious. He lived 9 00:00:37.240 --> 00:00:40.560 in an old somber house, and from his windows he 10 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:44.240 could look into the disused distillery or upwards along the 11 00:00:44.280 --> 00:00:48.560 shallow river on which Dublin is built. The lofty walls 12 00:00:48.600 --> 00:00:52.679 of his uncarpeted room were free from pictures. He had 13 00:00:52.759 --> 00:00:56.640 himself bought every article of furniture in the room, a 14 00:00:56.679 --> 00:01:01.799 black iron bedstead, an iron washstand, four cane chairs, a 15 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:05.719 clothes rack, a coal scuttle, a fender and irons, and 16 00:01:05.760 --> 00:01:09.040 a square table on which lay a double desk. A 17 00:01:09.079 --> 00:01:11.519 bookcase had been made in an alcove by means of 18 00:01:11.560 --> 00:01:16.000 shelves of white wood. The bed was clothed with white bedclothes, 19 00:01:16.239 --> 00:01:19.439 and a black and scarlet rug covered the foot. A 20 00:01:19.480 --> 00:01:22.920 little hand mirror hung above the washstand, and during the 21 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:26.480 day a white shaded lamp stood as the sole ornament 22 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:30.599 of the mantelpiece. The books on the white wooden shelves 23 00:01:30.599 --> 00:01:35.560 were arranged from below upwards. According to Bulk. A complete 24 00:01:35.560 --> 00:01:38.719 wordsworth stood at one end of the lowest shelf, and 25 00:01:38.799 --> 00:01:41.760 a copy of the Maynooth Catechism, sewn into the cloth 26 00:01:41.799 --> 00:01:44.359 cover of a notebook stood at one end of the 27 00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:49.519 top shelf. Writing materials were always on the desk. In 28 00:01:49.599 --> 00:01:53.319 the desk lay a manuscript translation of Hauptmann's Michael Kramer, 29 00:01:53.599 --> 00:01:56.239 the stage directions of which were written in purple ink, 30 00:01:56.879 --> 00:01:59.400 and a little sheaf of papers held together by a 31 00:01:59.400 --> 00:02:04.040 brass pin. In these sheets a sentence was inscribed from 32 00:02:04.040 --> 00:02:07.799 time to time, and in an ironical moment, the headline 33 00:02:07.799 --> 00:02:11.039 of an advertisement for bile beans had been pasted onto 34 00:02:11.080 --> 00:02:14.479 the first sheet. On lifting the lid of the desk, 35 00:02:14.879 --> 00:02:19.599 a faint fragrance escaped, the fragrance of new cedar wood pencils, 36 00:02:19.719 --> 00:02:21.919 or of a bottle of gum, or of an over 37 00:02:22.080 --> 00:02:24.599 ripe apple, which might have been left there and forgotten. 38 00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:30.360 Mister Duffy abhorred anything which betokened physical or mental disorder. 39 00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:34.840 A medieval doctor would have called him saturnine. His face, 40 00:02:34.919 --> 00:02:37.919 which carried the entire tale of his years, was of 41 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:41.759 the brown tint of dublin streets. On his long and 42 00:02:41.919 --> 00:02:45.719 rather large head. Grew dry black hair, and a tawny 43 00:02:45.800 --> 00:02:50.319 mustache did not quite cover an unamiable mouth. His cheek 44 00:02:50.360 --> 00:02:53.960 bones also gave his face a harsh character, but there 45 00:02:54.039 --> 00:02:57.039 was no harshness in the eyes, which, looking at the 46 00:02:57.039 --> 00:03:00.520 world from under their tawny eyebrows, gave the depression of 47 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:04.240 a man ever alert to greet a redeeming instinct in others, 48 00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:09.080 but often disappointed. He lived at a little distance from 49 00:03:09.080 --> 00:03:13.280 his body, regarding his own acts with doubtful side glasses. 50 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:17.400 He had an odd autobiographical habit, which led him to 51 00:03:17.439 --> 00:03:20.639 compose in his mind, from time to time a short 52 00:03:20.759 --> 00:03:24.840 sentence about himself, containing a subject in the third person 53 00:03:25.199 --> 00:03:28.240 and a predicate in the past tense. He never gave 54 00:03:28.280 --> 00:03:32.360 alms to beggars and walked firmly carrying a stout hazel. 55 00:03:33.759 --> 00:03:36.400 He had been for many years cashier of a private 56 00:03:36.439 --> 00:03:39.719 bank in Baggot Street. Every morning he came in from 57 00:03:39.759 --> 00:03:43.680 Chapelizod by tram. At midday he went to dan Burke's 58 00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:46.240 and took his lunch a bottle of lager beer and 59 00:03:46.280 --> 00:03:50.120 a small trayful of arrowroot biscuits. At four o'clock he 60 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:53.520 was set free. He dined in an eating house in 61 00:03:53.560 --> 00:03:57.199 George's Street, where he felt himself safe from the society 62 00:03:57.240 --> 00:04:00.159 of Dublin's gilded youth, and where there were there was 63 00:04:00.199 --> 00:04:03.840 a certain plain honesty in the bill of fare. His 64 00:04:03.960 --> 00:04:07.759 evenings were spent either before his landlady's piano or roaming 65 00:04:07.800 --> 00:04:11.680 about the outskirts of the city. His liking for Mozart's 66 00:04:11.800 --> 00:04:15.759 music brought him sometimes to an opera or concert. These 67 00:04:15.840 --> 00:04:20.600 were the only dissipations of his life. He had neither companions, 68 00:04:20.639 --> 00:04:24.560 nor friends, church nor creed. He lived his spiritual life 69 00:04:24.600 --> 00:04:29.240 without any communion with others, visiting his relatives at Christmas 70 00:04:29.279 --> 00:04:33.160 and escorting them to the cemetery when they died. He 71 00:04:33.240 --> 00:04:37.040 performed these two social duties for old Dignity's sake, but 72 00:04:37.160 --> 00:04:40.759 conceded nothing further to the conventions which regulate the civic life. 73 00:04:41.800 --> 00:04:44.600 He allowed himself to think that in certain circumstances, he 74 00:04:44.639 --> 00:04:48.920 would rob his bank. But as these circumstances never arose, 75 00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:54.240 his life rolled out evenly an adventureless tale. One evening, 76 00:04:54.319 --> 00:04:57.480 he found himself sitting beside two ladies in the rotunda. 77 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:02.079 The house, thinly peopled in sight silent, gave distressing prophecy 78 00:05:02.120 --> 00:05:05.639 of failure. The lady who sat next to him looked 79 00:05:05.720 --> 00:05:08.920 round at the deserted house once or twice, and then said, 80 00:05:09.360 --> 00:05:11.639 what a pity there is such a poor house to night. 81 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:14.160 It's so hard on people to have to sing to 82 00:05:14.279 --> 00:05:18.240 empty benches. He took the remark as an invitation to talk. 83 00:05:18.839 --> 00:05:22.319 He was surprised that she seemed so little awkward. While 84 00:05:22.360 --> 00:05:25.560 they talked, he tried to fix her permanently in his memory. 85 00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:28.600 When he learned that the young girl beside her was 86 00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:31.040 her daughter, he judged her to be a year or 87 00:05:31.040 --> 00:05:35.000 so younger than himself. Her face, which must have been handsome, 88 00:05:35.319 --> 00:05:39.319 had remained intelligent. It was an oval face with strongly 89 00:05:39.399 --> 00:05:43.360 marked features. The eyes were very dark blue and steady. 90 00:05:44.040 --> 00:05:47.399 Their gaze began with a defiant note, but was confused 91 00:05:47.399 --> 00:05:50.079 by what seemed a deliberate swoon of the pupil into 92 00:05:50.120 --> 00:05:54.560 the iris revealing for an instant a temperament of great sensibility. 93 00:05:55.360 --> 00:05:59.439 The pupil reasserted itself quickly. This half disclosed nature fell 94 00:05:59.480 --> 00:06:03.240 again under the reign of prudence, and her Astrakhan jacket, 95 00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:06.759 molding a bosom of a certain fullness, struck the note 96 00:06:06.759 --> 00:06:10.480 of defiance more definitely. He met her again a few 97 00:06:10.519 --> 00:06:14.240 weeks afterwards at a concert in Earlsfort Terrace, and seized 98 00:06:14.240 --> 00:06:17.959 the moments when her daughter's attention was diverted to become intimate. 99 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:21.839 She alluded once or twice to her husband, but her 100 00:06:21.879 --> 00:06:24.199 tone was not such as to make the illusion a warning. 101 00:06:25.079 --> 00:06:29.560 Her name was Missus Sinico. Her husband's great great grandfather 102 00:06:29.639 --> 00:06:32.759 had come from Leghorn. Her husband was captain of a 103 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:36.480 mercantile boat plying between Dublin and Holland, and they had 104 00:06:36.519 --> 00:06:40.600 one child. Meeting her a third time by accident, he 105 00:06:40.680 --> 00:06:45.439 found courage to make an appointment. She came. This was 106 00:06:45.480 --> 00:06:49.040 the first of many meetings. They met always in the evening, 107 00:06:49.160 --> 00:06:51.839 and chose the most quiet quarters for their walks together. 108 00:06:52.680 --> 00:06:56.360 Mister Duffy, however, had a distaste for underhand ways, and 109 00:06:56.439 --> 00:06:59.279 finding that they were compelled to meet stealthily, he forced 110 00:06:59.279 --> 00:07:03.000 her to ask him to her house. Captain Sinico encouraged 111 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:06.279 his visits, thinking that his daughter's hand was in question. 112 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:10.160 He had dismissed his wife so sincerely from his gallery 113 00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:12.720 of pleasures that he did not suspect that any one 114 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:15.839 else would take an interest in her. As the husband 115 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:18.839 was often away and the daughter out giving music lessons, 116 00:07:19.240 --> 00:07:22.920 mister Duffy had many opportunities of enjoying the lady's society. 117 00:07:23.720 --> 00:07:27.040 Neither he nor she had had any such adventure before, 118 00:07:27.519 --> 00:07:31.839 and neither was conscious of any incongruity. Little by little 119 00:07:32.240 --> 00:07:35.959 he entangled his thoughts with hers. He lent her books, 120 00:07:36.120 --> 00:07:40.000 provided her with ideas, shared his intellectual life with her. 121 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:45.040 She listened to all. Sometimes, in return for his theories, 122 00:07:45.079 --> 00:07:48.160 she gave out some fact of her own life. With 123 00:07:48.240 --> 00:07:51.480 almost maternal solicitude, she urged him to let his nature 124 00:07:51.519 --> 00:07:55.959 open to the full. She became his confessor. He told 125 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:58.519 her that for some time he had assisted at the 126 00:07:58.560 --> 00:08:01.720 meetings of an Irish socialist party, where he had felt 127 00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:05.279 himself a unique figure amidst a score of sober workmen 128 00:08:05.319 --> 00:08:09.160 in a garret lit by an inefficient oil lamp. When 129 00:08:09.160 --> 00:08:12.000 the party had divided into three sections, each under its 130 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:15.199 own leader and in its own garret. He had discontinued 131 00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:19.639 his attendances. The workmen's discussions, he said, were too timorous. 132 00:08:19.959 --> 00:08:22.600 The interest they took in the question of wages was inordinate. 133 00:08:23.360 --> 00:08:26.079 He felt that they were hard featured realists, and that 134 00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:29.279 they resented an exactitude which was the produce of a 135 00:08:29.360 --> 00:08:34.159 leisure not within their reach. No social revolution, he told her, 136 00:08:34.200 --> 00:08:38.279 would be likely to strike Dublin for some centuries. She 137 00:08:38.399 --> 00:08:40.720 asked him, why did he not write out his thoughts? 138 00:08:41.399 --> 00:08:44.639 For what? He asked her, with careful scorn, to compete 139 00:08:44.679 --> 00:08:49.720 with phrasemongers, incapable of thinking consecutively for sixty seconds, To 140 00:08:49.799 --> 00:08:53.000 submit himself to the criticisms of an obtuse middle class 141 00:08:53.200 --> 00:08:56.840 which entrusted its morality to policemen and its fine arts 142 00:08:56.840 --> 00:09:01.679 to impresarios. He went often to her little cottage outside Dublin. 143 00:09:02.279 --> 00:09:06.440 Often they spent their evenings alone. Little by little, as 144 00:09:06.480 --> 00:09:11.360 their thoughts entangled, they spoke of subjects less remote. Her 145 00:09:11.399 --> 00:09:15.960 companionship was like a warm soil about an exotic. Many 146 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:19.440 times she allowed the dark to fall upon them, refraining 147 00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:23.879 from lighting the lamp. The dark discreet room their isolation. 148 00:09:24.360 --> 00:09:27.840 The music that still vibrated in their ears united them. 149 00:09:28.519 --> 00:09:31.960 This union exalted him, wore away the rough edges of 150 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:37.159 his character, emotionalized his mental life. Sometimes he caught himself 151 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:40.320 listening to the sound of his own voice. He thought 152 00:09:40.360 --> 00:09:43.600 that in her eyes he would ascend to an angelical stature. 153 00:09:44.360 --> 00:09:47.120 And as he attached the fervent nature of his companion 154 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:50.519 more and more closely to him, he heard the strange, 155 00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:54.559 impersonal voice, which he recognized as his own, insisting on 156 00:09:54.679 --> 00:09:59.960 the soul's incurable loneliness. We cannot give ourselves, it says, 157 00:10:00.759 --> 00:10:04.919 we are our own. The end of these discourses was 158 00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:07.519 that one night, during which she had shown every sign 159 00:10:07.559 --> 00:10:11.879 of unusual excitement, missus Sinico caught up his hand passionately 160 00:10:12.039 --> 00:10:15.320 and pressed it to her cheek. Mister Duffy was very 161 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:20.480 much surprised. Her interpretation of his words disillusioned him. He 162 00:10:20.559 --> 00:10:23.399 did not visit her for a week. Then he wrote 163 00:10:23.440 --> 00:10:25.919 to her, asking her to meet him, as he did 164 00:10:25.960 --> 00:10:29.000 not wish their last interview to be troubled by the 165 00:10:29.039 --> 00:10:32.360 influence of their ruined confessional. They met in a little 166 00:10:32.360 --> 00:10:36.159 cake shop near the park gate. It was cold autumn weather, 167 00:10:36.440 --> 00:10:38.480 but in spite of the cold, they wandered up and 168 00:10:38.519 --> 00:10:41.399 down the roads of the park for nearly three hours. 169 00:10:42.360 --> 00:10:47.120 They agreed to break off their intercourse. Every bond, he said, 170 00:10:47.200 --> 00:10:50.519 is a bond to sorrow. When they came out of 171 00:10:50.559 --> 00:10:53.879 the park, they walked in silence towards the tram. But 172 00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:57.600 here she began to tremble so violently that, fearing another 173 00:10:57.639 --> 00:11:00.879 collapse on her part, he bade her goodbye quickly and 174 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:04.440 left her. A few days later he received a parcel 175 00:11:04.600 --> 00:11:09.960 containing his books and music. Four years past, mister Duffy 176 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:13.200 returned to his even way of life. His room still 177 00:11:13.240 --> 00:11:16.679 bore witness of the orderliness of his mind. Some new 178 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:19.879 pieces of music encumbered the music stand in the lower room, 179 00:11:20.279 --> 00:11:23.679 and on his shelves stood two volumes by Nietzsche. Thus 180 00:11:23.720 --> 00:11:28.399 spake Zarathustra and the Gay Science. He wrote seldom in 181 00:11:28.440 --> 00:11:31.480 the sheaf of papers which lay in his desk. One 182 00:11:31.480 --> 00:11:35.000 of his sentences, written two months after his last interview 183 00:11:35.039 --> 00:11:39.000 with missus Sinico, read, love between man and man is 184 00:11:39.039 --> 00:11:44.279 impossible because there must not be sexual intercourse, and friendship 185 00:11:44.360 --> 00:11:47.679 between man and woman is impossible because there must be 186 00:11:47.919 --> 00:11:52.840 sexual intercourse. He kept away from concerts lest he should 187 00:11:52.919 --> 00:11:56.759 meet her. His father died. The junior partner of the 188 00:11:56.799 --> 00:12:00.200 bank retired, and still every morning he went into the 189 00:12:00.240 --> 00:12:03.200 city by tram, and every evening walked home from the 190 00:12:03.279 --> 00:12:07.120 city after having dined moderately in Georgie's Street, and read 191 00:12:07.200 --> 00:12:11.039 the evening paper for dessert. One evening, as he was 192 00:12:11.080 --> 00:12:13.320 about to put a morsel of corned beef and cabbage 193 00:12:13.320 --> 00:12:17.240 into his mouth, his hands stopped. His eyes fixed themselves 194 00:12:17.279 --> 00:12:19.360 on a paragraph in the evening paper, which he had 195 00:12:19.360 --> 00:12:22.919 propped against the water caraffe. He replaced the morsel of 196 00:12:22.919 --> 00:12:26.639 food on his plate and read the paragraph attentively. Then 197 00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:28.960 he drank a glass of water, pushed his plate to 198 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:32.279 one side, doubled the paper down before him between his elbows, 199 00:12:32.600 --> 00:12:36.720 and read the paragraph over and over again. The cabbage 200 00:12:36.759 --> 00:12:39.279 began to deposit a cold white grease on his plate. 201 00:12:39.720 --> 00:12:41.679 The girl came over to him to ask was his 202 00:12:41.759 --> 00:12:44.840 dinner not properly cooked? He said it was very good, 203 00:12:44.879 --> 00:12:47.840 and ate a few mouthfuls of it with difficulty. Then 204 00:12:47.879 --> 00:12:50.919 he paid his bill and went out. He walked along 205 00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:54.639 quickly through the November twilight, his stout hazel stick striking 206 00:12:54.639 --> 00:12:57.960 the ground regularly, the fringe of the buff mail peeping 207 00:12:57.960 --> 00:13:00.360 out of a side pocket of his tight reefer overt 208 00:13:01.039 --> 00:13:03.600 on the lonely road which leads from the park Gate 209 00:13:03.639 --> 00:13:07.440 to Shapelizod. He slackened his pace, his stick struck the 210 00:13:07.480 --> 00:13:11.639 ground less emphatically, and his breath issuing irregularly, almost with 211 00:13:11.720 --> 00:13:15.639 a sighing sound condensed in the wintry air. When he 212 00:13:15.679 --> 00:13:18.399 reached his house, he went up at once to his bedroom, and, 213 00:13:18.519 --> 00:13:21.399 taking the paper from his pocket, read the paragraph again 214 00:13:21.480 --> 00:13:24.080 by the failing light of the window. He read it 215 00:13:24.120 --> 00:13:27.000 not aloud, but moving his lips as a priest does 216 00:13:27.039 --> 00:13:30.639 when he reads the prayer's secreto this was a paragraph. 217 00:13:31.879 --> 00:13:35.279 Death of a Lady at Sydney Parade a painful case. 218 00:13:36.440 --> 00:13:39.559 To day. At the City of Dublin Hospital, the Deputy Coroner, 219 00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:42.360 in the absence of mister Leverett, held an inquest on 220 00:13:42.440 --> 00:13:45.840 the body of missus Emily's Cinico, aged forty three years, 221 00:13:46.279 --> 00:13:50.039 who was killed at Sydney Parade's station yesterday evening. The 222 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:53.200 evidence showed that the deceased lady, while attempting to cross 223 00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:55.720 the line, was knocked down by the engine of the 224 00:13:55.759 --> 00:13:59.679 ten o'clock slow train from Kingstown, thereby sustaining injuries of 225 00:13:59.720 --> 00:14:02.080 the head and right side, which led to her death. 226 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:05.879 James Lennon, driver of the engine, stated that he had 227 00:14:05.919 --> 00:14:08.960 been in the employment of the railway company for fifteen years. 228 00:14:09.600 --> 00:14:11.759 On hearing the guard's whistle, he set the train in 229 00:14:11.840 --> 00:14:14.720 motion and a second or two afterwards brought it to rest. 230 00:14:14.759 --> 00:14:18.399 In response to loud cries. The train was going slowly. 231 00:14:19.200 --> 00:14:22.519 P Dunn, railway porter, stated that as the train was 232 00:14:22.559 --> 00:14:25.279 about to start, he observed a woman attempting to cross 233 00:14:25.320 --> 00:14:28.639 the lines. He ran towards her and shouted, but before 234 00:14:28.679 --> 00:14:31.039 he could reach her, she was caught by the buffer 235 00:14:31.080 --> 00:14:33.799 of the engine and fell to the ground. A juror, 236 00:14:34.279 --> 00:14:39.679 you saw the lady fall? Witness yes. Police Sergeant Crowley 237 00:14:39.799 --> 00:14:42.720 deposed that when he arrived, he found the deceased lying 238 00:14:42.759 --> 00:14:46.360 on the platform, apparently dead. He had the body taken 239 00:14:46.399 --> 00:14:48.919 to the waiting room pending the arrival of the ambulance. 240 00:14:49.440 --> 00:14:54.360 Constable fifty seven corroborated. Doctor Halpin, Assistant house surgeon of 241 00:14:54.399 --> 00:14:57.679 the City of Dublin Hospital, stated that the deceased had 242 00:14:57.679 --> 00:15:01.240 two lower ribs fractured and had sustained severe contusions of 243 00:15:01.240 --> 00:15:03.879 the right shoulder. The right side of the head had 244 00:15:03.919 --> 00:15:06.919 been injured in the fall. The injuries were not sufficient 245 00:15:06.960 --> 00:15:09.919 to have caused death in a normal person. Death, in 246 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:12.799 his opinion, had been probably due to shock and sudden 247 00:15:12.799 --> 00:15:16.919 failure of the heart's action. Mister H. B. Patterson Finley, 248 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:20.399 on behalf of the railway company, expressed his deep regret 249 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:23.919 at the accident. The company had always taken every precaution 250 00:15:24.039 --> 00:15:26.720 to prevent people crossing the lines except by the bridges, 251 00:15:27.159 --> 00:15:29.759 both by placing notices in every station and by the 252 00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:33.600 use of patent spring gates at level crossings. The deceased 253 00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:35.480 had been in the habit of crossing the lines late 254 00:15:35.519 --> 00:15:38.440 at night from platform to platform, and in view of 255 00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:41.360 certain other circumstances of the case, he did not think 256 00:15:41.399 --> 00:15:46.080 the railway officials were to blame. Captain Sinico of Leoville's 257 00:15:46.080 --> 00:15:50.039 Sidney Parade, husband of the deceased, also gave evidence. He 258 00:15:50.159 --> 00:15:52.879 stated that the deceased was his wife. He was not 259 00:15:52.919 --> 00:15:54.919 in Dublin at the time of the accident, as he 260 00:15:54.919 --> 00:15:58.159 had arrived only that morning from Rotterdam. They had been 261 00:15:58.200 --> 00:16:01.320 married for twenty two years and lived happily until about 262 00:16:01.360 --> 00:16:04.200 two years ago, when his wife began to be rather 263 00:16:04.279 --> 00:16:08.919 intemperate in her habits. Miss Mary Cinico said that of late. 264 00:16:09.039 --> 00:16:10.759 Her mother had been in the habit of going out 265 00:16:10.799 --> 00:16:14.600 at night to buy spirits. She witness had often tried 266 00:16:14.639 --> 00:16:16.759 to reason with her mother, and had induced her to 267 00:16:16.840 --> 00:16:19.519 join a league. She was not at home until an 268 00:16:19.519 --> 00:16:23.320 hour after the accident. The jury returned a verdict in 269 00:16:23.360 --> 00:16:27.159 accordance with the medical evidence and exonerated Lenin from all blame. 270 00:16:28.080 --> 00:16:30.840 The deputy coroner said it was a most painful case 271 00:16:31.320 --> 00:16:34.559 and expressed great sympathy with Captain Sinico and his daughter. 272 00:16:35.320 --> 00:16:38.159 He urged on the railway company to take strong measures 273 00:16:38.200 --> 00:16:41.200 to prevent the possibility of similar accidents in the future. 274 00:16:41.759 --> 00:16:45.720 No blame attached to any one. Mister Duffy raised his 275 00:16:45.799 --> 00:16:48.240 eyes from the paper and gazed out of his window 276 00:16:48.279 --> 00:16:52.639 on the cheerless evening landscape. The river lay quiet beside 277 00:16:52.679 --> 00:16:55.720 the empty distillery, and from time to time a light 278 00:16:55.759 --> 00:16:59.960 appeared in some house on the Lucan Road. What an air. 279 00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:04.240 The whole narrative of her death revolted him, and it 280 00:17:04.359 --> 00:17:06.799 revolted him to think that he had ever spoken to 281 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:10.720 her of what he held sacred. The threadbare phrases, the 282 00:17:10.759 --> 00:17:14.720 inane expressions of sympathy, the cautious words of a reporter, 283 00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:18.519 won over to conceal the details of a commonplace vulgar 284 00:17:18.640 --> 00:17:23.680 death attacked his stomach. Not merely had she degraded herself, 285 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:27.839 she had degraded him. He saw the squalid tract of 286 00:17:27.839 --> 00:17:34.079 her vice, miserable and malodorous. His soul's companioned. He thought 287 00:17:34.079 --> 00:17:36.759 of the hobbling wretches whom he had seen carrying cans 288 00:17:36.759 --> 00:17:40.039 and bottles to be filled by the bar man. Just God, 289 00:17:40.200 --> 00:17:43.720 what an end. Evidently she had been unfit to live 290 00:17:44.039 --> 00:17:47.720 without any strength of purpose, an easy prey to habits 291 00:17:48.119 --> 00:17:51.039 one of the wrecks on which civilization has been reared. 292 00:17:51.839 --> 00:17:54.799 But that she could have sunk so low? Was it 293 00:17:54.839 --> 00:17:58.720 possible he had deceived himself so utterly about her? He 294 00:17:58.799 --> 00:18:01.759 remembered her outburst of that night, had interpreted it in 295 00:18:01.799 --> 00:18:04.920 a harsher sense than he had ever done. He had 296 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:07.880 no difficulty now in approving of the course he had taken. 297 00:18:08.599 --> 00:18:11.680 As the light failed and his memory began to wander, 298 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:15.480 he thought her hand touched his. The shock which had 299 00:18:15.559 --> 00:18:19.079 first attacked his stomach, was now attacking his nerves. He 300 00:18:19.119 --> 00:18:21.920 put on his overcoat and hat quickly and went out. 301 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:25.720 The cold air met him on the threshold. It crept 302 00:18:25.759 --> 00:18:28.759 into the sleeves of his coat. When he came to 303 00:18:28.799 --> 00:18:31.640 the public house at chapeliz On Bridge, he went in 304 00:18:31.720 --> 00:18:36.160 and ordered a hot punch. The proprietor served him obsequiously, 305 00:18:36.359 --> 00:18:39.359 but did not venture to talk. There were five or 306 00:18:39.400 --> 00:18:42.039 six workingmen in the shop discussing the value of a 307 00:18:42.079 --> 00:18:46.359 gentleman's estate in County Kildare. They drank at intervals from 308 00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:50.000 their huge pink tumblers and smoked, spitting, often on the 309 00:18:50.079 --> 00:18:53.240 floor and sometimes dragging the sawdust over their spits with 310 00:18:53.319 --> 00:18:57.079 their heavy boots. Mister Duffy sat on his stool and 311 00:18:57.200 --> 00:19:01.200 gazed at them, without seeing or hearing them. After a 312 00:19:01.240 --> 00:19:04.160 while they went out and he called for another punch. 313 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:07.839 He sat a long time over it. The shop was 314 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:11.759 very quiet. The proprietor sprawled on the counter, reading the 315 00:19:11.799 --> 00:19:15.559 Herald and yawning. Now and again. A tram was heard 316 00:19:15.599 --> 00:19:19.799 swishing along the lonely road outside. As he sat there, 317 00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:23.319 living over his life with her and evoking alternately the 318 00:19:23.319 --> 00:19:27.319 two images in which he now conceived her, he realized 319 00:19:27.599 --> 00:19:31.039 that she was dead, that she had ceased to exist, 320 00:19:31.880 --> 00:19:35.960 that she had become a memory. He began to feel 321 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:38.960 ill at ease. He asked himself. What else could he 322 00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:41.839 have done. He could not have carried on a comedy 323 00:19:41.880 --> 00:19:44.400 of deception with her, He could not have lived with 324 00:19:44.440 --> 00:19:47.960 her openly. He had done what seemed to him best. 325 00:19:48.359 --> 00:19:51.599 How was he to blame? Now that she was gone? 326 00:19:52.039 --> 00:19:55.920 He understood how lonely her life must have been, sitting 327 00:19:56.039 --> 00:19:59.839 night after night alone in that room. His life would 328 00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:05.119 be lonely too, until he too died, ceased to exist, 329 00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:10.079 became a memory if any one remembered him. It was 330 00:20:10.119 --> 00:20:12.799 after nine o'clock when he left the shop. The night 331 00:20:12.920 --> 00:20:15.920 was cold and gloomy. He entered the park by the 332 00:20:15.960 --> 00:20:19.640 first gate and walked along under the gaunt trees. He 333 00:20:19.720 --> 00:20:22.359 walked through the bleak alleys where they had walked four 334 00:20:22.440 --> 00:20:26.119 years before. She seemed to be near him in the darkness. 335 00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:29.279 At moments he seemed to feel her voice touch his ear, 336 00:20:29.799 --> 00:20:35.480 her hand touch his He stood still to listen. Why 337 00:20:35.519 --> 00:20:38.960 had he withheld life from her? Why had he sentenced 338 00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:43.759 her to death? He felt his moral nature falling to pieces. 339 00:20:44.680 --> 00:20:46.920 When he gained the crest of the magazine hill, he 340 00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:50.279 halted and looked along the river towards Dublin, the lights 341 00:20:50.319 --> 00:20:53.200 of which burned redly and hospitably in the cold night. 342 00:20:54.279 --> 00:20:56.920 He looked down the slope and at the base, in 343 00:20:56.960 --> 00:20:59.640 the shadow of the wall of the park, he saw 344 00:20:59.640 --> 00:21:04.759 some human figures lying. Those venal and furtive loves filled 345 00:21:04.839 --> 00:21:08.960 him with despair. He gnawed the rectitude of his life. 346 00:21:09.720 --> 00:21:12.640 He felt that he had been outcast from life's feast. 347 00:21:13.839 --> 00:21:17.279 One human being had seemed to love him, and he 348 00:21:17.319 --> 00:21:21.000 had denied her life and happiness. He had sentenced her 349 00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:24.599 to ignominate a death of shame. He knew that the 350 00:21:24.640 --> 00:21:27.400 prostrate creatures down by the wall were watching him and 351 00:21:27.480 --> 00:21:32.200 wished him gone. No one wanted him. He was outcast 352 00:21:32.279 --> 00:21:35.960 from life's feast. He turned his eyes to the gray, 353 00:21:36.079 --> 00:21:40.680 gleaming river winding along towards Dublin. Beyond the river, he 354 00:21:40.720 --> 00:21:44.160 saw a goods train winding out of Kingsbrid's station, like 355 00:21:44.200 --> 00:21:47.400 a worm with a fiery head, winding through the darkness, 356 00:21:47.839 --> 00:21:53.279 obstinately and laboriously. It passed slowly out of sight, but 357 00:21:53.440 --> 00:21:56.440 still he heard in his ears the laborious drone of 358 00:21:56.480 --> 00:22:01.519 the engine reiterating the syllables of her name. He turned 359 00:22:01.519 --> 00:22:03.680 back the way he had come, the rhythm of the 360 00:22:03.720 --> 00:22:07.519 engine pounding in his ears. He began to doubt the 361 00:22:07.599 --> 00:22:11.519 reality of what memory told him. He halted under a 362 00:22:11.559 --> 00:22:15.720 tree and allowed the rhythm to die away. He could 363 00:22:15.759 --> 00:22:17.960 not feel her near him in the darkness, nor her 364 00:22:18.039 --> 00:22:21.960 voice touched his ear. He waited for some minutes, listening. 365 00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:27.319 He could hear nothing. The night was perfectly silent. He 366 00:22:27.400 --> 00:22:35.559 listened again, perfectly silent. He felt that he was alone 367 00:22:35.880 --> 00:22:37.720 and of a painful case.