 Chapter 85 of it is never too late to mend. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. It is never too late to mend by Charles Reid. Chapter 85. A month of and then one day George asked Susan Plump when it would be agreeable to her to marry him. Mary you George replied Susan opening her eyes why never I shall never marry anyone after you must be well aware of that. Susan proceeded to inform George that though foolishness was a part of her character selfishness was not. Recent events have destroyed an agreeable delusion under which she had imagined herself worthy to be Mrs. George Fielding. She therefore though with some reluctance intended to resign that situation to some wiser and better woman than she had turned out. In this agreeable resolution she persisted bearing it occasionally with little showers of tears unaccompanied by the slightest convulsion of the muscles of the face. But as I am not like George Fielding in love with Susan Merton or with self-deception and others, I spare the reader all the pretty things this young lady said and believed and did to postpone her inevitable happiness. Yes inevitable for this sort of thing never yet kept lovers long apart since the world was except in a novel worse than common. I will but relate how that fine fellow George dried these foolish drops on one occasion. Susan said he if I had found you going to be married to another man with the roses on your cheek I should have turned on my heel and back to Australia. But a look in your face was enough you were miserable and any old fool could see your heart was dead against it. Look at you now blooming like a rose so what is the use of us two fighting against human nature. We can't be happier part that has come together. Ah George if I thought your happiness depended on having a foolish wife why you know it does reply the inadvertent agricola that alters the case sooner than you should be unhappy I think I named the day then in short the bells rang a merry-peel and to reconcile Susan to her unavoidable happiness Mr. Eden came down and gave an additional wait in a way of viewing things to the marriage ceremony by officiating it must be owned that this favorable circumstance cost her a few tears too. How so Mr. Reed? Mary sir thus Mr. Eden was what they call eccentric among his other deviations from you see she delivered the meaning of sentences in church along with the words this was a thunder clap to poor Susan she had often heard a chanting machine utter the marriage service all on one note and heard it with a certain smile of unintelligent complacency her sex were out of politeness but when the man Eden told her at the altar with simple earnestness what a high and deep and solemn contract she was making then and there with God and man she began to cry and wept like April through the ceremony I'm not quite done with this pair but leave them a few minutes for some words are due to other characters and to none I think more than to this very Mr. Eden whose zeal and wisdom brought our hero and unheroin happily together through the subtle sequence of causes I have related the prime thread a converted thief Mr. Eden's strength broke down under the prodigious effort to defeat the effect of separate confinement on the bodies and souls of his prisoners Dr. Galson ordered him abroad having now since the removal of halls given the separate and silent system along an impartial trial his last public act was to write at the foot of his report a solemn protest against it as an impious and mad attempt to defy God's will as written on the face of man's nature to crush to those very instincts from which rise communities cities laws prisons churches civilization and to wreck souls and bodies under pretense of curing souls not by knowledge wisdom patients Christian love or any great moral effort but by the easy and physical expedient of turning one key on each prisoner instead of honor score these said Mr. Eden are the dreams of selfish lazy heartless dances and reckless bigots dwarf robes peers with self-deceiving hearts that dream philanthropy fluent lips that can't philanthropy and hands swift to shed blood which is not blood to them because they are mere sensual brutes so low in intelligence that although men are murdered and died before their eyes they cannot see it was murdered because there was no knocking on the head or cutting of throats the Reverend gentleman then formally washed his hands of the blood shed and reason shed of the separate system and resigned his office earnestly requesting at the same time that as soon as the government should come round to his opinion they would permit him to cooperate in any enlightened experiment where God should no longer be defied by a knot of worms as in jail then he went abroad but though professedly hunting healthy visited and inspected half the principal prisons in Europe after many months events justified his prediction the government started a large prison on common sense and humanity and mr. Lacey's interest procured mr. Eden the place of its chaplain this prison was what every prison in the English provinces will be in five years time a well-ordered community an epitome of the world at large for which a prison is to prepare men not unfit them as frenzy dunces would do it was also a self-sustaining community like the world the prisoners a prisoner grown corn and meat war prisoner may close embedding wire lighted by gas made in the prison et cetera et cetera et cetera et cetera the agricultural laborers had outdoor work suited to their future destiny and mechanical trades were zealously ransacked for the city rogues anti-theft rained triumphant no idleness no wicked waste of sweat the members of this community sleep in separate cells as men do in other well-ordered communities but they do not pine and wither and die in cells for offenses committed outside the prison walls here if you see a man caged like a wild beast all day you may be sure he is there not so much for his own good after that of the little community in which he has proved himself unworthy to mix pro tem foul language and contamination art check made it here not by the lazy selfish cruel expedient of universal solitude but by argous like surveillance office so sufficient in number listen with sharp ears and look with keen eyes the contaminator is sure to be seized and confined till prudence if not virtue ties his tongue thus he is disarmed and the better disposed encourage one another compare this legitimate and necessary use of that most terrible of tortures the cell with the tigro asinine use of it in seven english prisons out of nine at the present day it is just the difference between arsenic is used by a good physician and by a poisoner it is the difference between a razor bladed needle pointed knife in the hands of a christian a philosopher a skilled surgeon and the same knife in the hands of a savage a brute a scoundrel or a fanatical idiot mr eden had returned from abroad but a fortnight when he was called on to unite george and susan i have little more to add than that he was very hard worked and supremely happy in his new situation and that i failed to do him justice in these pages but he shall have justice one day when pitiless asses will find themselves more foul in the eyes of the all pure than the thieves they crushed under four walls and the just shall shine forth as the sun and they that turn not crush many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever thomas robinson did not stay long at grassmere things were said in the village that wounded him he'll repute will not stop directly ill conduct does he went to see mr eden sent his name in as mr sinclair was received with open arms and gave the good man a glow of happiness such as most of us i fear go to the grave without feeling or earning he presented him a massive gold ring he had hammered out of a nugget mr eden had never worn a ring in his life but he wore this with an innocent pride and showed it people and valued it more than he would the pit diamond which a french king bought of an english subject and the price was so heavy he paid for it by installment spread over many years robinson very wisely went back to australia and more wisely still married jenny with whom he had corresponded ever since he left her i have no fear he will ever break the eighth commandment again his heart was touched long ago and ever since then his understanding have received conviction upon conviction for oh the blaze of light that enters our souls when our fate puts us in his place in her place in their place whom we used to strike never realizing how it hurt them he is respected for his intelligence and good nature he is sober industrious pushing and punctilious in business one trait of the bohemian remains about every four months a restlessness comes over him then the wise jenny of her own accord proposes a trip poor times eyes sparkle directly off they go together a foolish wife would have made him go alone they come back and my lord goes to his duties with fresh zest till the periodical fit comes again no harm ever comes of it servants are at a great premium masters at a discount in the colony hence a domestic phenomenon which my english readers can hardly can see but i'm told my benerican friends have a faint glimpse of it in the occasional department of their helps in out of the way places now tom and especially jenny had looked forward to reigning in their own house and it was therefore a disappointment when they found themselves snubbed and treated with hot tour and jenny revolted against servant after servant who straight away abdicated and left her forlorn at last their advertisement was answered by a male candidate for menial authority who proved to be mr. miles their late master tom and jenny colored up and both agreed it was out of the question they should feel too ashamed mr. miles answered by offering to better crown he should make them the best servant in the street and strange to say the bargain was struck and he did turn out a model servant he was civil and respectful especially in public and never abused his situation comparing his conduct with his predecessors it really appeared that a gentleman can beat snobs in various relations of life as tom's master and jenny's he had never descended to servility nor was he betrayed into arrogance now that he had risen to be their servant a word about jackie after the meal off the scented rabbit in the bush robinson said slightly to george i thought you promised jackie a hiding well here he is now tom applied the other coloring up is it reasonable and he has just saved our two lives but if you think that i won't take him to task you are much mistaken george then remonstrated with the chief for spoiling abner with his tomahawk jackie opened his eyes with astonishment and admiration here was another instance of the white fellow's wonderful power of seeing things a good way behind him he have closed his eyes and tried in humble imitation to peer back into the past yes he could just manage to see himself very indistinctly giving abner a crack but stop let him see it was impossible to be positive but was not there also some small trifle of insolence in gratitude and above all bungality on the part of this abner when the distance had become too great to see the whole of a transaction why strain the eyes looking at a part finally jackie submitted that these microscopic researches cost a good deal of trouble and on the whole is drive were wiser than the white fellows in this that they reveled in the present and looked on the past as a period that never had been and the future is one that never would be on this george resigned the moral culture of his friend so will is not altogether bad said agricola but bless your heart it isn't a quarter of an inch deep on george's departure jackie being under the temporary impression of his words collected together a mixed company of blacks and march them to his possessions arrived he rang them on the cleverness of the white fellows and invited them to play at europeans behold this ingenious structure said he in australian this is called a house its use is to protect us from the weather at night all you have to do is to notice which way the wind blows and go and lie down on the opposite side of the house and there you are then again when you are cold you won't find a number of wooden articles in the house you go in you bring them out and burn them and are warm he then produced what he had always considered the chef diver of the white races a box of lucifer matches this too was a present from george see what clever fellows they are said he they carry about fire which is fire or not fire at the forge net possessors will and he let off lucifer these the tribe admired but doubted whether all those little sticks had the same marvelous property and would become fire in the hour of knee jackie sneered at their incredulity and let them all off one by one in a series of preliminary experiments this impaired their future usefulness in short they settled there one or two's heads had to be broken for killing the breeders for dinner and that practice stopped but the potbellied youngsters generally celebrate the birth of a lamb by spearing it they slept on the lee side of the house warmed at night by the chairs and tables etc which they lighted they got on very nicely only one fine morning without the slightest warning were they all went off to the woods jackie and all and never returned the remaining bullocks strayed devious and the deuce mclaughlin blindly absorbed the sheep hasty and imperfect as my sketch of this jackie is give it a place in your notebook of sketches for in a few years the australian savage will breathe only in these pages and the sacks and plow will erase his very grave his mill meridian brutus lived but the form and strength he had abused were gone he is the shape of a note of interrogation and by coincidence is now an asker that is he begs receives alms and sets on a gang of burglars with whom he is in league to rob the good christians that show him pity nefestophiles came suddenly to grief when gold was found in victoria he crossed over to that port and robbed one day he robbed the tent of an old man a native of the colony who was digging there with his son a lot of 15 now these currency lads are very sharp and determined the youngster caught a glimpse of the retiring thief and followed him and saw him enter a tent he watched at the entrance and when nefestophiles came out again he put a pistol to the man's breast and shot him dead without a word of remonstrance accusation or explanation a few diggers ran out of their claims if our gold is not on him says the youngster i have made a mistake the gold was found on the carcass and the diggers went coolly back to their work the youngster went directly to the commissioner and told him what he had done i don't see that i'm called on to interfere replied that functionary he was taken in the act you have buried him of course him of course not i i let him lie for whoever chose to own him you let him lie what when there is a printed order from the government stuck over the whole mind that nobody is to leave carrion about you go off directly and bury your carrion or you will get into trouble young man and the official's manner became harsh and threatening if ever a man were shot like a dog surely the assassin of carlo was mr meadows in the prison refused his food and fell into a deep depression but the third day he revived and fell to scheming again he sent to mr levi and offered to give him a long lease of his old house if he would be absent from the trial this was a sore temptation to the old man but meantime stronger measures were taken in his defense and without consulting him one evening that susan and george were in the garden at grassmere suddenly an old woman came toward them with slow and hesitating steps susan fled at the side of her she hated the very name this old woman bore george stood his ground looking sheepish the old woman stood before him trembling violently and fighting against her tears she could not speak but held out a letter to him he took it the ink was rusty it was written 20 years ago it was from his mother to her neighbor mrs meadows then on a visit at newborough telling her how young john had fought for and protected her against a band of drunken ruffians and how grateful she was and i do hope dame he will be his good friends with my lads when they are men as you and i have been this many a day george did not speak for a long time he held the letter and it trembled a little in his hand he looked at the old woman standing a piteous silent supplicant mrs meadows said he scares above a whisper give me this letter if you will be so good i've not got her handwriting except our names in the bible she gave him the letter half reluctantly and looked fearfully and inquiringly in his face he smiled kindly and a sort of proud curl came for a moment to his lip and the woman read the man this royal rustic would not have taken the letter if he had not granted the mother's unspoken prayer god bless you both said she and went on her way the assizes came and meadows two plaintiffs both were absent robinson gone to australia and george forfeited his recognizances and had to pay a hundred pound for it the defendants were freed then isek levi said to himself he will not keep faith with me but he did not know his man meadows had a conscience though an oblique one a promise from him was sacred in his own eyes a man came to grass me and left a hundred pound in that letter for george fielding then he went on to levi and gave him a parcel and a note the parcel contained the title deeds of the house and the note said take the house and the furniture and pay me what you consider they are worth and old man i think you might take your curse off me for i've never known a heart at rest since you laid it on me and you see now our case is altered you have a home now and john meadows has none then the old man was softened and he wrote a line in reply and said three just men shall value the house and furniture and i will pay etc etc put now adversity to profit repent and prosper isek levi wishes you no ill from this day but rather good thus died as mortal feelings are apt to die and enmity its owners thought immortal a steam vessel glided down the tims bound for port philip on the deck were to be seen a little girl crying bitterly this was hannah a stalwart yeoman-like figure who stood unmoved as the shores glided by omnae solemn forty patria and an old woman who held his arm as if she needed to feel him at the moment of leaving her native land this old woman had hated and announced his sins and there was scarce a point of morality on which she thoroughly agreed with him yet at three score years and ten she left her native land with two so objects to comfort this doubt man and went him to repentance he shall repent said she to herself even now his eyes are opening is hard as softening three times he has said to me that george feeling is a better man than i am he will repent again he said to me i have thought too little of you and too much where it was a sin for me even to look he will repent his voice is softer he bears no malice he blames none but himself it is never too late to mend he will repent and i shall see him happy and lay my old bones to rest contented though not where i thought to lay them in grass mere church yard ah you do well to hold that quaint little old figure with that strong arm closer to you than you have done this many years i since you were a curly-headed boy it is a good sign john on neither side of the equator shall you ever find a friend like her all other love is mockery and deceit it is like the mirage of the desert that appears a cool refreshing water and allures the thirsty traveler but flies anon and leaves him disappointed wondering so fair a vision should so futile prove a mother's love is like unto a well sealed and kept secret a deep hidden fount that flows when every other spring is dry so fear would drift peter crawley left to his own resources practices at the county courts in his old neighborhood and drinks with all his clients who are of the lowest imaginable order he complains that he can't pack yet continues the cause of his infirmity living almost entirely upon a cockadoodle broth eggs beat up in brandy and a little water like sip you he is never less alone than when alone with this difference that the companions of pcs solitude do not add to the pleasure of his existence unless somebody can make him see that it is never too late to mend this little road fool and sought will shut up like a knife someday so says a medical friend and then it will be too late it is nine in the evening a little party is collected of farmers and their wives and daughters mrs george feeling rises and says now i must go home for monstrance of hostess george will be at home by now well wait till he comes for you or he won't come for fear of shortening my pleasure susan then explains that george is so foolish that he never will go into the house when she is not in it and here is a drizzle come on and there he will be sitting out in it i know if i don't go and drive him in events justify the prediction the good wife finds her husband sitting on the gate kicking his heels quite contented and peaceable only he would not pay the house the compliment of going into it when she was not there he told her once he looked on it as no better than a coal hole when she was not shining up and down it note well they have been some years married a calm but very tender conjugal love sits at this innocent heart george has made a great concession for an englishman he is solemnly deposited before witnesses his sobriquet of unlucky george not he was careful to explain because he found the great nugget nor because the matter he bought in bathurst for 200 pounds has just been sold by robinson for 12 000 pounds but on account of his being susan's husband and susan is very happy besides the pleasure of loving and being loved she is in her place in creation the class of women a very large one to which she belongs comes into the world to make others happy susan is skillful at this and very successful she makes everybody happy around her and that is so pleasant she makes the man she loves happy and that is delightful my reader shall laugh at her my unfriendly critic shall sneer at her as a heroine of a novel she deserves it but i hope for their own sakes neither will undervalue their original and their passage through life these average women are not the spice of fiction but they are the salt of real life william building is godfather to susan's little boy he can stand by his brother's side and look without compunction on and fielding's grave and think without an unmanly shutter of his own end of chapter 85 end of it is never too late to mend by charles reid