 CHAPTER XXIII NIGHT HAD COME ON As Richard entered the old, elm-shaded, grass-bordered lane leading down from Rainham to Belthorpe, the pale eye of twilight was shut. The wind had tossed up the bank of western cloud, which was now flying broad and unlighted across the sky, broad and balmy, the charioted southwest at full charge behind his panting coursers. As he neared the farm, his heart fluttered and leapt up. He was sure she must be there. She must have returned. Why should she have left for good without writing? He caught suspicion by the throat, making it voiceless. If it lived, he silenced reason. Her not writing was now a proof that she had returned. He listened to nothing but his imperious passion and murmured sweet words for her as if she were by, tender, cherishing epithets of love in the nest. She was there. She moved somewhere about like a silver flame in the dear old house, doing her sweet household duties. His blood began to sing. Oh, happy those within to see her and be about her. By some extraordinary process he contrived to cast a sort of glory round the burly person of farmer Blaise himself. And oh, to have companionship with a seraph, one must know a seraph's bliss, and was not young Tom to be envied. The smell of late clematis brought on the wind and wrapped him, and went to his brain and threw a light over the old red brick house, for he remembered where it grew, and the winter rose-tree, and the jesamine, and the passion-flower, the garden in front with the standard roses tended by her hands, the long wall to the left striped by the branches of the cherry, the peep of a further garden through the wall, and then the orchard, and the fields beyond, the happy circle of her dwelling. It flashed before his eyes while he looked on the darkness. And yet it was the reverse of hope which kindled this light and inspired the momentary calm he experienced. It was despair, exaggerating delusion, willfully building up on a groundless basis. For the tenacity of true passion is terrible, says the pilgrim's script. It will stand against the hosts of heaven, God's great array of facts, rather than surrender its aim, and must be crushed before it will succumb, sent to the lowest pit. He knew she was not there, she was gone. But the power of a will strained to madness fought at it, kept it down, conjured forth her ghost, and would have it as he dictated. Poor youth, the great array of facts was in due order of March. She had breathed her name many times, and once overlaid. Almost a cry for her escaped him. He had not noticed the opening of a door and the noise of a foot along the gravel walk. He was leaning over Cassandra's uneasy neck, watching the one window intently, when a voice addressed him out of the darkness. Be that you, young gentleman, Mr. Feverell? Richard's trance was broken. Mr. Blaze, he said, recognizing the farmer's voice. Good evening to you, sir, returned the farmer. I knew the mayor, though I didn't know you. Rather bluffed tonight it be. Will you step in, Mr. Feverell? It's beginning to spit. Going to be a wildish night, I reckon. Richard dismounted. The farmer called one of his men to hold the mayor, and ushered the young man in. Once there, Richard's conjuration ceased. There was a deadness about the rooms and passages that told of her absence. The walls he touched, these were the vacant shells of her. He had never been in the house since he knew her, and now what strange sweetness and what pangs. Young Tom Blaze was in the parlor, squared over the table in open-mouth examination of an ancient book of the fashions for a summer month, which had elapsed during his mother's minority. Young Tom was respectfully studying the aspects of the radiant beauties of the polite work. He also was a thrall of women, newly enrolled, and full of wonder. What Tom, the farmer sang out, as soon as he had opened the door. There ye be, at your folly again, are ye. What goodly lamb fashions doot ye I'd like to know. Come, shut up and go and see to Mr. Feverell's mare. He's always at that there folly now. I say there never were a better name for a book than that there folly. Talk about attitudes. The farmer laughed his fat sides into a chair, and motioned his visitor to do likewise. It's a comfort there most on him females, he pursued, sounding a thwack on his knee, as he settled himself agreeably in his seat. It don't matter much what they does, except pinching in, wasping in at the waist. Give me nature, I say, woman as she is made, eh, young gentleman? You seem very lonely here, said Richard, glancing round and at the ceiling. Lonely? Quote the farmer. Well, for the matter of that, we be just now, so it happens. I've got my pipe, and Tom have got his folly. He's on one side, the table, and I'm on the other. He gapes and eye gazes. We are a bit lonesome, but there it's for the best. Richard resumed, I hardly expected to see you tonight, Mr. Blaise. Yachted like a man in coming, young gentleman, and I does ye honour for it, said farmer Blaise, with sudden energy and directness. The thing implied by the farmer's words caused Richard to take a quick breath. They looked at each other and looked away, the farmer thrumming on the arm of his chair. Above the mantelpiece, surrounded by tarnished indifferent miniatures of high-collared, well-to-do yeoman of the anterior generation, trying their best not to grin, and high-waisted old ladies smiling and encouraging smile through plentiful cap-puckers. There hung a passably executed half-figure of a naval officer in uniform, grasping a telescope under his left arm, who stood forth clearly as not of their kith and kin. His eyes were blue, his hair light, his bearing that of a man who knows how to carry his head and shoulders. The artist, while giving him an epaulette to indicate his rank, had also recorded the juvenility which a lieutenant in the naval service can retain after arriving at that position, by painting him with smooth cheeks and fresh, ruddy lips. To this portrait Richard's eyes were directed. Farmer Blaise observed it and said, her father, sir. Richard moderated his voice to praise the likeness. Yes, said the farmer, pretty well, next best to have in her, though it's a long way off that. An old family, Mr. Blaise, is it not? Richard asked, in as careless a tone as he could assume. Gentle folks, what's the left of them? replied the farmer, with an equally affected indifference. And that's her father, said Richard, growing bolder to speak of her. That's her father, young gentleman. Mr. Blaise, Richard turned to face him and burst out. Where is she? Ganser, packed off, can't have her here now. The farmer thrummed a step brisker, and eyed the young man's wild face resolutely. Mr. Blaise, Richard leaned forward to get closer to him. He was stunned and hardly aware of what he was saying or doing. Where has she gone? Why did she leave? You needn't to ask, sir. You know, said the farmer, with a side shot of his head. But she did not. It was not her wish to go. No, I think she likes the place. May have she likes it too well. Why did you send her away to make her unhappy, Mr. Blaise? The farmer bluntly denied it was he who made her unhappy. Nobody can't accuse me. Tell you what, sir. I won't have the busybody set to work about her, and there's all the matter. So let you and I come to an understanding. A blind inclination to take offense made Richard sit upright. He forgot it the next minute, and said humbly, Am I the cause of her going? Well, returned the farmer, to speak straight ye be. What can I do, Mr. Blaise, that she may come back again? The young hypocrite asked. Now, said the farmer, you're coming to business. Glad to hear you talking that sensible way, Mr. Feverell. You may guess I want her bad enough. The house ain't itself now. She's away, and I ain't myself. Well, sir, this ye can do. If ye gives me your promise, not to meddle with her at all, I can't make out how you come to be acquainted, not to try to get her to be meeting ye. And if you'd have seen her when she left you would. When did you meet? Last grass, wasn't it? Your word, as a gentleman, not to be writing letters, and spying after her, I'll have her back at once. Back she shall come. Give her up, cried Richard. Aye, that's it, said the farmer. Give her up. The young man checked the annihilation of time that was on his mouth. You sent her away to protect her from me, then, he said savagely. That's not quite it, but that'll do, rejoined the farmer. Do you think I shall harm her, sir? People seem to think she'll harm you young gentlemen, the farmer said with some irony. Harm me? She? What people? People pretty intimate with you, sir. What people? Who spoke of us? Richard began to send a plot, and would not be bonked. Well, sir, look here, said the farmer. It ain't no secret. And if it be, I don't see why I'm to keep it. It appears your education's peculiar. The farmer drawled out the word, as if he were describing the figure of a snake. You ain't to be as other young gentlemen, all the better. You're a fine-bold young gentleman, and your fathers are right to be proud of ye. Well, sir, I'm sure I thank him for it. He comes to hear of you, and loose, and of course he don't want nothing of that. More do I. I meet him there. What's more, I won't have nothing of it. She be my gal. She were left to my protection, and she's a lady, sir. Let me tell ye, you won't find many on him, so well looked as she be, my loose. Well, Mr. Favrelle, it's you, or it's her. One of ye must be out of the way. So we're told. And loose, I do believe she's just as anxious about your education as your father, she says, shall go, and wouldn't write, and it'd break off for the sake of your education. And she'd have kept her word, haven't she? She's a truan. What she says she'll do. True blue she be, my loose. So now, sir, you do the same, and I'll thank ye. Anyone who has tossed a sheet of paper into the fire, and seen it gradually brown with heat, and strike to flame, may conceive the mind of the lover as he listened to this speech. His anger did not evaporate in words, but condensed and sank deep. Mr. Blaise, he said, this is very kind of the people you allude to, but I am of an age now to think and act for myself. I love her, sir. His whole countenance changed, and the muscles of his face quivered. Well, said the farmer appeasingly, we all do at your age, somebody or other. It's natural. I love her, the young man thundered afresh, too much possessed by his passion to have a sense of shame in the confession. Farmer, his voice fell to supplication, will you bring her back? Farmer Blaise made a queer face. He asked, what for, and where was the promise required? But was not the lover's argument conclusive? He said he loved her, and he could not see why her uncle should not in consequence immediately send for her, that they might be together. All very well, quote the farmer, but what's to come of it? What was to come of it? Why, love and more love, and a bit too much, the farmer added grimly. Then you refuse me, farmer, said Richard. I must look to you for keeping her away from me, not to, to these people. You will not have her back, though I tell you I love her better than my life. Farmer Blaise now had to answer him plainly. He had a reason and an objection of his own, and it was that her character was at stake, and God knew whether she herself might not be in danger. He spoke with a kindly candor, not without dignity. He complimented Richard personally, but young people were young people. Barnett's sons were not in the habit of marrying farmer's nieces. At first the son of a system did not comprehend him. When he did, he said, Farmer, if I give you my word of honor, as I hope for heaven, to marry her when I am of age, will you have her back? He was so fervid that to quiet him, the farmer only shook his head doubtfully at the bars of the great, and let his chest fall slowly. Richard caught what seemed to him a glimpse of encouragement in these signs, and observed, it's not because you object to me, Mr. Blaise. The farmer signified it was not that. It's because my father is against me, Richard went on, and undertook to show that love was so sacred a matter that no father could entirely and forever resist his son's inclinations. Argument being a cool field where the farmer could meet and match him. The young man got on the tram road of his passion, and went ahead. He drew pictures of Lucy, of her truth, and his own. He took leaps from life to death, from death to life, mixing implications and prayers in a torrent. Perhaps he did move the stolid old Englishman a little. He was so vehement, and made so visible a sacrifice of his pride. Farmer Blaise tried to pacify him, but it was useless. His jewel he must have. The farmer stretched out his hand for the pipe that a laith botheration. May smoke here now, he said. Not when somebody's present. Smoke in the kitchen then. Don't mind smell? Richard nodded, and watched the operations while the farmer filled and lighted, and began to puff, as if his fate hung on them. Who'd have thought, when you sat over there once of its coming to this, ejaculated the farmer, drawing ease and reflection from tobacco? You didn't think much of her that day, young gentleman? I introduced ye. Well, things come about. Can't you wait till she returns and do course now? This suggestion, the work of the pipe, did but bring on him another torrent. It's queer, said the farmer, putting the mouth of his pipe to his wrinkled up temples. Richard waited for him, and then he laid down the pipe altogether, as no aid in perplexity, and said, after leaning his arm on the table and staring at Richard an instant, Look, young gentleman, my words gone, I've spoke it, I've given him the assurance she shan't be back till the spring, and then I'll have her, and then, well, I do hope, for more reasons than one, ye'll both be wiser, I've got my own notions about her, but I ain't demand to force a girl to marry against her inclines. Depend upon it, I'm not your enemy, Mr. Feverell, you're just the one to make a young girl proud, so wait and see, that's my advice, just take and wait, I've no more to say. Richard's impetuosity had made him really afraid of speaking his notions concerning the projected felicity of young Tom, if indeed they were serious. The farmer repeated that he had no more to say, and Richard with, wait till the spring, wait till the spring, dinning despair in his ears, stood up to depart. Farmer Blaise shook his slack hand in a friendly way, and called out at the door for young Tom, who, dreading allusions to his folly, did not appear. A maid rushed by Richard in the passage and slipped something into his grasp, which fixed on it without further consciousness than that of touch. The mare was led forth by the bantam, a light rain was falling down, strong warm gusts, and the trees were noisy in the night. Farmer Blaise requested Richard at the gate to give him his hand and say, all was well. He liked the young man for his earnestness and honest out-speaking. Richard could not say all was well, but he gave his hand and knitted it to the farmers in a sharp squeeze when he got upon Cassandra and rode into the tumult. A calm, clear dawn succeeded the roaring west and threw its glowing gray image on the waters of the Abbey Lake. Before sunrise, Tom Bakewell was abroad and met the missing youth, his master jogging Cassandra leisurely along the Lowburn Park Road. A sorry couple to look at. Cassandra's flanks were caked with mud, her head drooped, all that was in her had been taken out by that wild night. On what heaths and heavy fallows had she not spent her noble strength recklessly fretting through the darkness. Take the mare, said Richard, dismounting and patting her between the eyes. She's done up, poor old gal. Look to her, Tom, and then come to me in my room. Tom asked no questions. Three days would bring the anniversary of Richard's birth, and though Tom was close, the condition of the mare and the young gentleman's strange freak in riding her out all night, becoming known, prepared everybody at Rainham for the usual bad luck birthday, the profits of which were full of sad gratification. Sir Austin had an unpleasant office to require of his son, no other than that of humbly begging Benson's pardon and washing out the undue blood he had spilt in taking his pound of flesh. Heavy Benson was told to anticipate the demand for pardon and practiced in his mind the most melancholy Christian deportment he could assume on the occasion. But while his son was in this state, Sir Austin considered that he would hardly be brought to see the virtues of the act and did not make the requisition of him and heavy Benson remained drawn up solemnly expectant at doorways and at the foot of the staircase, a psorian carry-outed wherever he could get a step in advance of the young man. While Richard heedlessly passed him as he passed everybody else, his head bent to the ground and his legs bearing him like random instruments of whose service he was unconscious. It was a shock to Benson's implicit belief in his patron and he was not consoled by the philosophic explanation that good in a strong many compounded nature is of slower growth than any other mortal thing and must not be forced. Damnatory doctrines best pleased Benson. He was ready to pardon as a Christian should but he did want his enemy before him on his knees and now though the psorian eye saw more than all the other eyes in the house and saw that there was matter in hand between Tom and his master to breed exceeding discomposure to the system, Benson as he had not received his indemnity and did not wish to encounter fresh perils for nothing held his peace. Sir Austin partly divined what was going on in the breast of his son without conceiving the depths of mistrust his son cherished or quite measuring the intensity of the passion that consumed him. He was very kind and tender with him like a cunning physician who has nevertheless overlooked the change in the disease super induced by one false dose. He meditated his prescriptions carefully and confidently sure that he knew the case and was a match for it. He decreed that Richard's erratic behavior should pass unnoticed. Two days before the birthday he asked him whether he would object to having company to which Richard said have whom you will sir. The preparation for festivity commenced accordingly. On the birthday eve he dined with the rest. Lady Blandish was there and sat penitently at his right. Hippias prognosticated certain indigestion for himself on the morrow. The 18th century wondered whether she should live to see another birthday. Adrienne drank the two years distant term of his tutorship and Algernon went over the list of the low burn men who would cope with Bursley on the morrow. Sir Austin gave ear and a word to all keeping his mental eye for his son. To please Lady Blandish also Adrienne ventured to make trifling jokes about London's Mrs. Grandison. Jokes delicately not decent but so delicately so that it was not decent to perceive it. After dinner Richard left them. Nothing more than commonly peculiar was observed about him beyond the excessive glitter of his eyes. But the baronet said yes yes that will pass. He and Adrienne and Lady Blandish took tea in the library and sat till a late hour discussing casuistries relating mostly to the apple disease. Converse very amusing to the wise youth who could suggest to the two chaste minds situations of the shadiest character with the air of a seeker after truth and lead them unsuspecting where they dared not look about them. The aphorist had elated the heart of his constant fair worshipper with a newly rounded if not newly conceived sentence when they became aware that they were for. Heavy Benson stood among them. He said he had knocked but received no answer. There was however a vestige of surprise and dissatisfaction on his face beholding Adrienne of the company which had not quite worn away and gave place when it did vanish to an aspect of flabby severity. Well Benson well said the baronet. The unmoving man replied if you please sir Austin Mr. Richard well he's out well with bake well well and a carpet bag. The carpet bag might be supposed to contain that funny thing called a young hero's romance in the making. Out Richard was and with a carpet bag which Tom Bakewell carried. He was on the road to Bellingham under heavy rain hasting like an escaped captive wild with joy while Tom shook his skin and grunted at his discomforts. The mail train was to be caught at Bellingham. He knew where to find her now through the intervention of Miss Davenport and thither he was flying an arrow loosed from the bow thither in spite of fathers and friends and plotters to claim her and take her and stand with her against the world. They were both thoroughly wet when they entered Bellingham and Tom's visions were of hot drinks. He hinted the necessity for inward consolation to his master who could answer nothing but Tom Tom I shall see her tomorrow. It was bad traveling in the wet Tom hinted again to provoke the same insane outcry and have his arm seized and furiously shaken into the bargain. Passing the principal in of the place Tom spoke plainly for Brandy. No cried Richard there's not a moment to be lost and as he said it he reeled and fell against Tom muttering indistinctly of faintness and that there was no time to lose. Tom lifted him in his arms and got admission to the inn. Brandy the country's specific was advised by host and hostess and forced into his mouth reviving him sufficiently to cry out Tom the bell's ringing we shall be late. After which he fell back insensible on the sofa where they had stretched him. Excitement of blood and brain had done its work upon him. The youth suffered them to undress him and put him to bed and there he lay forgetful even of love a drowned weed born onward by the tide of the hours. There his father found him. Was the scientific humanist remorseful? He had looked forward to such a crisis as that point in the disease his son was the victim of. When the body would fail and give the spirit calm to conquer the melody knowing very well that the seeds of the evil were not of the spirit. Moreover to see him and have him was a repose after the alarm Benson had sounded. Mark he said to Lady Blandish when he recovers he will not care for her. The lady had accompanied him to the Bellingham Inn on first hearing of Richard Caesar. What an iron man you can be she exclaimed smothering her intuitions she was forgiving the boy his bobble promising at him at least if he would only get well and be the bright flower of promise he once was. Can you look on him? She pleaded. Can you look on him and persevere? It was a hard sight for this man who loved his son so deeply. The youth lay in his strange bed straight and motionless with fever on his cheeks and altered eyes. Old Dr. Clifford of Lowburn was the medical attendant who with head shaking and gathering of lips and reminiscences of ancient arguments guaranteed to do all that leech could do in the matter. The old doctor did admit that Richard's constitution was admirable and answer to his prescriptions like a piano to the musician. But he said at a family consultation for Sir Austin had told him how it stood with the young man. Drugs are not much in cases of this sort. Change that's what's wanted and as soon as may be. Distraction. He ought to see the world and know what he is made of. It's no use my talking I know added the doctor. On the contrary said Sir Austin I am quite of your persuasion and the world he shall see now. We have dipped him in sticks you know doctor Adrian remarked. But doctor said Lady Blandish have you known a case of this sort before? Never my lady said the doctor they're not common in these parts. Country people are tolerably healthy minded. But people and country people have died for love doctor. The doctor had not met any of them. Men or women inquired the baronet. Lady Blandish believed mostly women. Ask the doctor whether they were healthy minded women said the baronet. No you are both looking at the wrong end. Between a highly cultured being and an emotionless animal there is all the difference in the world. But of the two the doctor is nearer the truth. The healthy nature is pretty safe. If he allowed for organization he would be right all together. To feel but not to feel to excess that is the problem. If I can't have the one I chose to some fresh maid I will propose. Adrian hummed a country ballad. End of chapter 23. Chapter 24 of the ordeal of Richard February. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. The ordeal of Richard February by George Meredith. Chapter 24. When the young experiment again knew the hours that rolled him onward. He was in his own room at Rainham. Nothing had changed only a strong fist had knocked him down and stunned him and he opened his eyes to a gray world. He had forgotten what he lived for. He was weak and thin and with a pale memory of things. His functions were the same. Everything surrounding him was the same. He looked upon the old blue hills. The far lying fallows. The river and the woods. He knew them. They seemed to have lost recollection of him. Nor could he find in familiar human faces the secret of intimacy of here to for. They were the same faces. They nodded and smiled to him. What was lost he could not tell. Something had been knocked out of him. He was sensible of his father's sweetness of manner and he was grieved that he could not reply to it. For every sense of shame and reproach had strangely gone. He felt very useless in place of the fiery love for one. He now bore about a cold charity to all. Thus in the heart of the young men died the spring primrose. And while it died another heart was pushing forth the primrose of autumn. The wonderful change in Richard and the wisdom of her admirer now positively proved were exciting matters to Lady Blandish. She was rebuked for certain little rebellious fancies concerning him that had come across her enslaved mind from time to time. For was he not almost a prophet? It distressed the sentimental lady that a love like Richards could pass off in mere smoke and words such as she had heard him speak in Abbey Wood resolved to emptiness. Nay, it humiliated her personally. And the baronettes shrewd for agnostication humiliated her. For how should he know and dare to say that love was a thing of the dust that could be trodden out under the heel of science? But he had said so and he had proved himself right. She heard with wonderment that Richard of his own accord had spoken to his father of the folly he had been guilty of and had begged his pardon. The baronette told her this, adding that the youth had done it in a cold, unwavering way without a movement of his features had evidently done it to throw off the burden of the duty he had conceived. He had thought himself bound to acknowledge that he had been the foolish young fellow, wishing possibly to abjure the fact by and set of penance. He had also given satisfaction to Benson and was become a renovated peaceful spirit whose main object appeared to be to get up his physical strength by exercise and no expenditure of speech. In her company he was composed and courteous. Even when they were alone together he did not exhibit a trace of melancholy sober he seemed as one who has recovered from a drunkenness and has determined to drink no more. The idea struck her that he might be playing a part, but Tom Bakewell in a private conversation they had informed her that he had received an order from his young master one day while boxing with him not to mention the young lady's name to him as long as he lived. And Tom could only suppose that she had offended him. Theoretically wise Lady Blandish had always thought the baronette. She was unprepared to find him thus practically sagacious. She fell many degrees. She wanted something to cling to so she clung to the man who struck her love. Love then was earthly. Its depth could be probed by science. A man lived who could measure it from end to end, foretell its term, handle the young cherub as were he shot out. We who have flown into cousinship with the Empyrean and have sported among immortal hosts our base birth as a child of time is made bare to us our wings are cut. Oh then if science is this victorious enemy of love, let us love science was the logic of the Lady's heart and secretly cherishing the assurance that she should confute him yet and prove him utterly wrong. She gave him the fruits of present success as it is a habit of women to do involuntarily partly. The fires took hold of her. She felt soft emotions such as a girl feels and they flattered her. It was like youth coming back. Pure women have a second youth. The autumn primrose flourished. We are advised by the pilgrim's script that the ways of women which are involution and their practices which are opposition are generally best hit upon by guesswork and a bold word. It being impossible to track them and hunt them down in the ordinary style so that we may not ourselves become involved and opposed let us each of us venture a guess and say a bold word as to how it came that the Lady who trusted love to be eternal groveled to him that shattered her tender faith and loved him. Here the two it had been simply a sentimental delience and gossips had maligned the Lady just when the gossips grew tired of their slander and inclined to look upon her charitably. She set about to deserve every word they had said of her which may instruct us if you please that gossips have only to persist in lying to be crowned with verity or that one has only to endure evil mouths for a period to gain impunity. She was always at the abbey now. She was much closeted with the baronet. It seemed to be understood that she had taken Mrs. Doria's place. Benson and his misogenic soul perceived that she was taking levy verals but any report circulated by Benson was sure to meet discredit and drew the gossips upon himself which made his meditations tragic. No sooner was one woman defeated than another took the field. The object of the system was no sooner safe than its great author was in danger. I can't think what has come to Benson, he said to Adrian. He seems to have received a fresh legacy of several pounds of lead, returned the wise youth and imitating Dr. Clifford's manner. Change is what he wants. Distraction. Send him to Wales for a month, sir, and let Richard go with him. The two victims of women may do each other good. Unfortunately, I can't do without him, said the baronet. Then we must continue to have him on our shoulders all day and on our chests all night. Adrian ejaculated. I think while he preserves this aspect we won't have him at the dinner table, said the baronet. Adrian thought that would be a relief to their digestions and added, you know, sir, what he says? Receiving a negative, Adrian delicately explained to him that Benson's excessive ponderosity of demeanor was caused by anxiety for the safety of his master. You must pardon a faithful fool, sir, he continued, for the baronet became red and exclaimed his stupidity is past belief. I've absolutely to bolt my study door against him. Adrian at once beheld a charming scene in the interior of the study, not unlike one that Benson had visually witnessed, for like a wary prophet, Benson, that he might have warrant for what he foretold of the future had a care to spy upon the present, warned happily by the pilgrim's script of which he was a diligent reader and which says rather emphatically, could we see time's full face? We were wise of him. Not to see time's full face, it is sometimes necessary to look through keyholes, the veteran having a trick of smiling peace to you on one cheek and grimacing confusion on the other behind the curtain, decency and a sense of honor restrain most of us from being thus wise and miserable forever. Benson's excuse was that he believed in his master who was menaced and, moreover, notwithstanding his previous tribulation to spy upon cuban was sweet to him. So he peeped and he saw a sight, he saw time's full face, or in other words he saw the wiles of woman and the weakness of man, which is our history, as Benson would have written it and a great many poets and philosophers have written it. Yet it was but the plucking of the autumn primrose that Benson had seen a somewhat different operation from the plucking of the spring one. Very innocent. Our staid elderly sister has paler blood and has or thinks she has a reason or two about the roots. She is not all instinct for this high cause and for that I know men and know him to be the flower of men. I give myself to him. She makes that lofty inward exclamation while the hand is detaching her from the roots. Even so strong a self-justification, she requires she is not that blind glory in excess which her younger sister can gild the longest leap with. And if moth like she desires the star, she is nervously cautious of candles. Hence her circles about the dangerous human flame are wide and shy. She must be drawn nearer and nearer by a fresh reason. She loves to sentimentalize. Lady Blandish had been sentimentalizing for ten years. She would have preferred to pursue the game. The dark eyed dame was pleased with her smooth life and the soft excitement that did not ruffle it. Not willingly did she let herself be won. Sentimentalists says the pilgrim's script are they who seek to enjoy without incurring the immense debtorship for a thing done. It is, the writer says of sentimentalism elsewhere, a happy pastime and an important science to the timid, the idle and the heartless, but a damning one to them who have anything to forfeit. However, one who could set down the dying for love as a sentimentalism can hardly be accepted as a clear authority. Assuredly he was not one to avoid the incurring of the immense debtorship in any way, but he was a bondsman still to the woman who had forsaken him. And a spoken word would have made it seem his duty to face that public scandal which was the last evil to him. What had so horrified the virtuous Benson Richard had already beheld in Daphne's Bower a simple kissing of the fair white hand. Doubtless the keyhole somehow added to Benson's horror the two similar performances so very innocent had wondrous opposite consequences. The first kindled Richard to a dual woman. The second destroyed Benson's faith in man. But Lady Blandish knew the difference between the two. She understood why the baronet did not speak, excused, and respected him for it. She was content since she must love, to love humbly, and she had besides her pity for his sars to comfort her. A hundred fresh reasons for loving him arose and multiplied every day. He read to her the secret book in his own handwriting composed for Richard's marriage-guide, containing advice and directions to a young husband full of the most tender wisdom and delicacy. So she thought, nay, not wanting in poetry though neither rind nor measure. He expounded to her the distinctive character of the diver's ages of love, giving the palm to the flowers she put forth over that of spring or the summer rose, and while they sat and talked, my wound has healed, he said, how, she asked, at the fountain of your eyes, he replied, and drew the joy of new life from her blushes without incurring further debtorship for a thing done. End of Chapter 24. Chapter 25 of the Ordeal of Richard Feverell. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Ordeal of Richard Feverell by George Meredith Chapter 25. Let it be some apology for the damage caused by the careering hero and a consolation to the quiet wretches dragged along with him at his chariot wheels, that he is generally the last to know when he has made an actual start. Such a mere creature as he, like the rest of us, albeit the head of our fates. By this you perceive the true hero, whether he be a prince or a pop boy, that he does not plot, fortune does all for him. He may be compared to one to whom in an electric circle it is given to carry the battery. We caper and grimace at his will, yet not his the will. Not his the power, to his all fortunes whose puppet he is. She deals her dispensation through him, yea, though our capers be never so comical. He laughs not, intent upon his own business. The true hero asks little services of us here and there. Thinks it quite natural that they should be acceded to and sees nothing ridiculous in the lamentable contortions we must go through to fulfill them. Probably he is the elective fortune because of that notable faculty of being intent upon his own business, which is, says the pilgrim's script, with men to be valued equal to that force which in water makes a stream. This prelude was necessary to the present chapter of Richard's history. It happened that in the turn of the year, and while old earth was busy with her flowers, the fresh wind blew, the little bird sang, and hippiest feverell, the dyspepsy, amazed felt the spring move within him. He communicated his delightful new sensations to the baronet, his brother, whose constant exclamation with regard to him was, poor hippiest, all his machinery is bare, and had no hope that he would ever be in a condition to defend it from view. Nevertheless, hippiest had that hope, and so he told his brother, making great exposure of his machinery to affect the explanation. He spoke of all his physical experiences exaltingly, and with wonder, the achievement of common efforts not usually blazoned, he celebrated as triumphs, and of course, had Adrian on his back very quickly. But he could bear him, or anything, now. It was such ineffable relief to find himself looking out upon the world of mortals, instead of into the black phantasmal abysses of his own complicated frightful structure. My mind doesn't so much seem to haunt itself now, said hippiest, nodding, shortly impuring out of intense puckers, to convey a glimpse of what hellish sufferings his had been, I feel as if I had come above ground. A poor dyspepsy may talk as he will, but he is the one who never gets sympathy or experiences compassion, and it is he whose groaning petitions for charity, he would last route that Christian virtue. Lady Blandish of charitable soul could not listen to hippies, though she had a heart for little mice and flies, and so Austin had also small patients with his brother's gleam of health, which was just enough to make his disease visible. He remembered his early follies and excesses and bent his ear to him, as one man does to another who complains of having to pay a debt legally incurred. I think, said Adrian, seeing how the communications of hippies were received, that when our nemesis takes lodgings in the stomach, it's best to act as Spartan, smile hard and be silent. Richard alone was decently kind to hippies, whether from opposition or real affection, could not be said as the young man was mysterious. He advised his uncle to take exercise, walked with him, cultivated cheerful impressions in him, and pointed out innocent pursuits. He made hippies visit with him some of the poor old folk of the village, who bewailed the loss of his cousin, Austin Wentworth, and did his best to waking him up and give the outer world a stronger hold on him. He succeeded in nothing but in winning his uncle's gratitude. The season bloomed scarce longer than a week for hippies, and then began to languish. The poor dyspepsiae's eager grasp at beautification relaxed. He went underground again. He announced that he felt spongy things. One of the more constant throes of his malady, his bitter face, recurred, he chewed the cud of horrid hallucinations he told Richard he must give up going about with him. People telling of their ailments made him so uncomfortable. The birds were so noisy, paring. The rude bear's soil sickened him. Richard treated him with a gravity equal to his father's. He asked what the doctors said. Oh, the doctors cried hippies with vehement skepticism. No man of sense believes in medicine for chronic disorder. Do you happen to have heard of any new remedy then? Richard, no. They advertise a great many cures for indigestion. I assure you, my dear boy, I wonder whether one can rely upon the authenticity of those signatures. I see no reason why there should be no cure for such a disease. And it's just one of the things a quack, as they call them, would hit upon sooner than one who is in the beaten track. Do you know, Richard, my dear boy, I've often thought that if we could by any means appropriate to our use some of the extraordinary digestive power that a boa constrictor has, in its gastric juices, there is really no manner of reason why we should not comfortably dispose of as much of an ox as our stomachs will hold. And one might eat French dishes without the wretchedness of thinking what's to follow. And this makes me think that those fellows may, after all, have got some truth in them. Some secret that, of course, they require to be paid for. We distrust each other in this world too much, Richard. I've felt inclined once or twice, but it's absurd. If it only alleviated a few of my sufferings, I should be satisfied. I've no hesitation in saying that I should be quite satisfied if it only did away with one or two and left me free to eat and drink as other people do. Not that I mean to try them. It's only a fancy, eh? What a thing health is, my dear boy. Ah, if I were like you, I was in love once. Where are you? Said Richard Cooley regarding him. I've forgotten what I felt, hippie aside. You very much improved, my dear boy. So people say, quote Richard. Hippies looked at him anxiously. If I go to town and get the doctor's opinion about trying a new course, eh, Richard? Will you come with me? I should like your company. We could see London together, you know. Enjoy yourselves, and hippies rubbed his hands. Richard smiled at the feeble glimmer of enjoyment promised by his uncle's eyes, and said he thought it better. They should stay where they were. An answer that might mean anything. Hippies immediately became possessed. By the beguiling project, he went to the baronet and put the matter before him, instancing doctors as the object of his journey, not quacks, of course, and requesting leave to take Richard. Sir Austin was getting uneasy about his son's manner. It was not natural. His heart seemed to be frozen. He had no confidence as he appeared to have no ambition, to have lost the virtues of youth with the poison that had passed out of him. He was disposed to try what effect a little traveling might have on him, and had himself once or twice hinted to Richard that it would be good for him to move about, the young man quietly replying that he did not wish to quit reynum at all, which was too strict a fulfillment of his father's original views in educating him there entirely. On the day that Hippies made his proposal, Adrian, seconded by Lady Blandish, also made one. The sweet spring season stirred in Adrian as well as in others, not to pass through all measures to the joys of the operatic world and bravura glories. He also suggested that it would be advisable to carry Richard to town for a term and let him know his position and some freedom. Sir Austin weighed the two proposals. He was pretty certain that Richard's passion was consumed and that the youth was now only under the burden of its ashes. He had found against his heart at the Bellingham Inn a great lock of golden hair. He had taken it and the lover, after feeling about for it with faint hands, never asked for it. This precious lock Miss Davenport had thrusted into his hand at Bell Thorpe as Lucy's last gift, what size and tears it had weathered. The baronet laid it in Richard's sight one day and beheld him take it up, turn it over and drop it down again calmly as if he were handling any common curiosity. It pacified him on that score. The young man's love was dead. Dr. Clifford said rightly he wanted distractions. The baronet determined that Richard should go. Hippies and Adrian then pressed there several suits as to which should have him. Hippies, when he could forget himself, did not lack sense. He observed that Adrian was not at present a proper companion for Richard and would teach him to look on life from the false point. You don't understand a young philosopher, said the baronet. A young philosopher as an old fool returned. Hippies not thinking that his growl had begotten a phrase. His brother smiled with gratification and applauded him loudly. Excellent worthy of your best days. You're wrong though in applying it to Adrian. He has never been precocious. All he has done has been to bring sound common sense to bear upon what he hears and sees. I think however the baronet added he may want faith in the better qualities of men. And this reflection inclined him not to let his son be alone with Adrian. He gave Richard his choice who saw which way his father's wishes tended and decided so to please him. Naturally it annoyed Adrian extremely. He said to his chief, I suppose you know what you are doing sir. I don't see that we derive any advantage from the family name being made notorious for 20 years of obscene suffering. Man becoming up by word for our constitutional tendency to stomachache distention before we fortunately encountered quackums pill. My uncle's tortures have been huge but I would rather society were not intimate with them under their several headings. Adrian enumerated some of the most important, you know him sir. If he conceives a duty he will do it in the face of every decency all the more obstinate because the conception is rare. If he feels a little brisk the morning after the pill he sends the letter that makes us famous. We go down to posterity with heightened characteristics to say nothing of a contemporary celebrity. Nothing less than our being turned inside out to the rabble. I confess I don't desire to have my machinery made bare to them. Sir Austin assured the wise youth that hippies had arranged to go to Dr. Barum. He softened Adrian's chagrin by telling him that in about two weeks they would follow to London hinting also at our prospective summer campaign. The day was fixed for Richard to depart and the day came. Madame the 18th century called him to her chamber and put into his hand a 50 pound note as her contribution toward his pocket expenses. He did not want it he said but she told him he was a young man and would soon make that fly when he stood on his own feet. The old lady did not at all approve of the system in her heart and she gave her grand-nephew to understand that should he require more he knew where to apply and secrets would be kept. His father presented him with 100 pounds which also Richard said he did not want. He did not care for money. Spend it or not said the baronet perfectly secure in him. Hippies had few injuctions to observe they were to take up quarters at the hotel Algernon's general run of company at the house not being altogether wholesome. The baronet particularly forewarned hippies of the improvements of attempting to restrict the young man's movements and letting him imagine he was under surveillance. Richard having been as it were polter did by despotism was now to grow up straight and bloom again and complete independence as far as he could feel. So did the sage decree and we may pause a moment to reflect how wise were his pre-visions and how successful they must have been had not fortune the great foe to human cleverness turned against him or he against himself. The departure took place on a fine March morning the bird of winter sang from the budding tree in the blue sky sang the bird of summer Adrian rode between Richard and hippies to the Bellingham station invented his disgust on them after his own humorous fashion because it did not rain and damped their ardor in the rear came Lady Blandish and the baronet conversing on the calm summit of success. You have shaped him exactly to resemble yourself. She said pointing with her riding whip to the grave stately figure of the young man outwardly perhaps he answered and led to a discussion on purity and strength the lady saying that she preferred purity but you do not said the baronet and there I admire the always true instinct of women that they all worship strength in whatever form and seem to know it to be the child of heaven whereas purity is but a characteristic a garment and can be spotted how soon for there are questions in this life with which we must grapple or be lost and when hunted by that cold eye of intense inner consciousness the clearer soul becomes a cunning fox if it have not courage to stand and do battle strength indicates a boundless nature like the maker strength is a god to you purity a toy a pretty one and you seem to be fond of playing with it he added with an accustomed slowness the lady listened pleased at the sport of malice which showed that the constraint on his mind had left him it was for women to fight their fight now she only took part in it for amusement this is how the ranks of our enemies are thin no sooner do poor women put up a champion in their midst than she betrays them I see she said actually we are the lovelier vessels you claim the more direct descent men are seedlings women slips nay you have said so she cried out at his gesture protestation laughing but I never printed it oh what you speak answers for print with me exquisite blandish he could not choose but lover tell me what are your plans she asked may a woman know you replied I have none or you would share them I shall study him in the world the difference must wear off I shall mark his inclinations now and he shall be what he inclines to occupation will be his prime safety his cousin Austin's plan of life appears most to his taste and he can serve the people that way as well as in parliament should he have no stronger ambition the clear duty of a man of any wealth is to serve the people as he best hand he shall go among Austin's sit if he wishes it though personally I find no pleasure enrage imaginations and undigested schemes built upon the mere instinct of principles look at him now said the lady he seems to care for nothing not even for the beauty of the day or Adrian's jokes out of the baronet Adrian could be seen to be trying zealously to torment a laugh or a confession of irritation out of his ears stretching out his chin to one and to the other with audible asides Richard he treated as a new instrument of destruction about to be let loose on the slumbering metropolis hippiest as one in an interesting condition and he got so much fun out of the notion of these two journeying together and the mishaps that might occur to them that he esteemed it almost a personal insult for his heroes not to laugh the wise youth's dull life at random had afflicted him with many peculiarities of the professional joker oh the spring the spring he cried as in scorn of his sallies they exchanged their unmeaning remarks on the sweet weather across him you seem both to be uncommonly excited by the operations of turtles rooks and dolls why can't you let them alone wind bloweth cock croweth doodle doo hippie verdith ricky sturdeth sing cuckoo there's an old native pastor why don't you write a spring sonnet ricky the asparagus beds are full of promise i hear an eek the strawberry berries i fancy your pegasus has a taste for what kind of berry was that i saw some verses of yours about once amatory verses to some kind of berry you berry blueberry glue berry pretty verses decidedly warm lips eyes bosom legs legs i don't think you gave her any legs no legs and no nose that appears to be the poetic taste of the day it shall be admitted that you create the very beauties for a chaste people oh might i lie where it leans her loot and defend no moral community that's not a bad image of yours my dear boy her shape is like an antelope upon the eastern hills but as a candid critic i would ask you if the likeness can be considered correct when you give her no legs you will see at the ballet that you are in era about women at present richard that admirable institution which are venerable elders have imported from gallia for the instruction of our gaping youth will edify an astonishment i assure you i used from reading the pilgrim's script to imagine all sorts of things about them till i was taken there and learned that they are very like us after all and then they cease to trouble me mystery is the great danger to youth my son mystery is woman's redoubtable weapon oh richard of the ordeal i'm aware that you've had your lessons in anatomy but nothing will persuade you that an anatomical figure means flesh and blood you can't realize the fact you intend to publish when you're in town it'll be better not to put your name having one's name to avoid my poems is as bad as to an advertising pill i will send you an early copy adrian when i published quote richard hark at that old black bird uncle yes hippiest quiver looking up from the usual subject of his contemplation i'm trying to take an interest him by an old fellow what a chuckle he gives out before he flies not unlike july nightingales you know that bird i told you about the black bird that had its mate shot he used to come to sing to old dame bakewell's bird from the tree opposite a rascal knocked it over the day before yesterday and the dame says her bird hasn't sung a note since extraordinary hippiest muttered abstractedly i remember the verses but where's your moral and to pose the wrath for adrian where's constancy rewarded the house or cock so black of hue with orange tony bill the rascal with his aim so true the poet's little quill where's the moral of that except that all is game to the poet certainly we have a noble example of the devotedness of the female who for three entire days refuses to make herself hurt on account of a defunct male i suppose that's what ricky dwells on as you please my dear adrian says richard and points out large buds to his uncle as they ride by the young greenwood the wise youth was driven to extremity such a lapse from his pupils' heroics to this last verge of arcadian coolness adrian could not believe in harketh this old black bird he cried in his turn and pretending to interpret his fits of song oh what a pretty comedy don't we wear the mask well my fiasco genoa will be our own tomorrow only wait until the train has started jolly jolly jolly we'll be winners yet not a bad verse a ricky my lucious juniors you do the black bird well said richard and looked at him in a manner mildly affable adrian shrugged your young man of wonderful powers emphatically observed meaning to say that richard quite beat him for which opinion richard gravely thanked him and with this they wrote into bellingham there was young tom blaze at the station in a sunday beaver and gala waistcoat in that cloth coming the lord over tom bakewell who had preceded his master in charge of the baggage he likewise was bound for london richard as he was dismounting heard adrian say to the baronet the beast sir appears to be going to fetch beauty but he paid no heed to the words where the young tom heard them or not adrian's look took the lord out of him and he shrunk away into obscurity where the nearest approach to the fashions which the tales of bellingham could supply to him sat upon him more easily and he was not stiffened by the eyes of the superiors whom he sought to rival the baronet lady blandish and adrian remained on horseback and received richard's adieu across the palings he shook hands with each of them in the same kindly cold way eliciting from adrian a marked encomium on his style of doing it the train came up and richard stepped after his uncle into one of the carriages now surely there will come an age when the presentation of science at war with fortune and the fates will be deemed the true epic of modern life and the aspect of a scientific humanist who by dint of incessant watchfulness has maintained a system against those active 40s cannot be reckoned less than sublime even though at the moment he but sit upon his horse on a fine march morning such as this and smile wistfully to behold the son of his heart his system incarnate wave serena due to tutelage neither to eager nor morbidly unwilling to drive his luck alone for a term of two weeks at present i'm aware an audience in patient for blood and glory scorns the stress i'm putting on incidents so minute a picture so little imposing an audience will come to whom it will be given to see the elementary machinery of work who as it were from some slight hint of the straws will feel the winds of march when they do not blow to them will nothing be trivial seeing that they will have in their eyes the invisible conflict going on around us whose features a good not a smile a laugh of ours perpetually changes and they will proceed more over than in real life all hangs together the train is laid in the lifting of an eyebrow that burst upon the field of thousands they will see the links of things as they pass and wonder not as foolish people now do that this great matter came out of that small one such an audience then will participate in the baronet's gratification at his son's demeanor wherein he noted the calm bearing of experience not gained in the usual wanton way and will not be without some excited apprehension at his twinge of astonishment when just as the train went sliding into swiftness he beheld the grave cold self-possessed young man throw himself back in the carriage violently laughing science was at a loss to account for that sir austin checked his mind from inquiring that he might keep suspicion at a distance but he thought it odd and the jarring sensation that ran along his nerves at the site remained with him as he rode home lady blandishes tender womanly intuition batter say you see it was the very thing he wanted he's got his natural spirits already it was adrian put in his word the exact thing he wanted his spirits have returned miraculously something amused him said the baronet with an eye on the puffing train probably something his uncle said or did lady blandish suggested and let off at a gallop her conjecture chance to be quite correct because the virtue's laughter was simple enough hippy as some finding the carriage door closed on him became all at once aware of the bright haired hope which dwells in change for one who does not woo her too frequently and to express his sudden relief from mental despondency at the amorous prospect the dyspepsia bent and gave his hands a sharp rub between his legs which in lucky action brought adrian's pastoral hippie verdant sing cuckoo in such comic colors before richard that a demon of laughter seized him hippie verdant every time he glanced at his uncle the song sprang up and he laughed so immoderately that it looked like madness come upon him why why why what are you laughing at my dear boy said hippies and was provoked by the contagious exercise to a modest ha ha why what are you laughing at uncle quite richard i really don't know hippies chuckle nor i uncle sing cuckoo they laugh themselves into the pleasantest mood imaginable hippies not only came above ground he flew about in the very skies birding like an e blithe creature of the season he remembered old legal jokes and anecdotes of circuit and richard laughed at them all but more at him he was so genuine and childishly fresh and innocently joyful at his own transformation while a lurking doubt in the bottom of his eyes now and then that it might not last and that he must go underground again lent him a look of pathos and humor which tickled his youthful companion irresistibly and made his heart warm to him i tell you what uncle said richard i think traveling's a capital thing the best thing in the world my dear boy hippies returned it makes me wish i'd given up that work of mine and tried it before instead of changing myself to a task we're quite different beings in a minute i am hem what shall we have for dinner leave that to me uncle i shall order for you you know i intend to make you well how gloriously we go along i should like to ride on a railway every day hippies remark they said rather injures the digestion nonsense see how you digest tonight and tomorrow perhaps i shall do something yet side hippies alluding to the vast literary fame he had a four-time dream god i hope i shall have a good night tonight of course you will what after laughing like that ah hippies granted i dare say richard you sleep the moment you get into bed the instant my head's on my pillow and at the moment i wake helps everything helps everything i could hippies from his immense distance and if you put yourself in my hands richard continued you shall do just as i do you shall be well and strong and sing jolly like adrian's blackbird you shall upon my honor uncle he specified the hours of devotion to his uncle's recovery no less than 12 a day that he intended to expend and his cheery robustness almost won his uncle to leap up recklessly and clutch health as his own mind quote hippies with a half-seduce smile mind your dishes are not too savory light food and clarity regular meals and amusement lend your heart to all but give it to none exclaims young wisdom and hippiest mothers yes yes and intimates that the origin of his malady lay in is not following that maxim earlier love ruins us my dear boy he said thinking to preach richard a lesson and richard boisterously broke out the love of monsieur frank cattelli it was the ruin of et cetera hippies blinked exclaiming really my dear boy i never saw you so excited it's the railway it's the fund uncle ah hippies wagged a melancholy head you've got the golden bride keeper if you can that's a pretty fable of your father's i gave him the idea though austin filch is a great many of my ideas here's the idea in verse uncle oh sunless walkers by the tide oh have you seen the golden bride they say that she is fair beyond all women faithful and more fond you know the young inquire comes to a group of penitent sinners by the brink of a stream the howlin answer faithful she is but she forsakes and found yet endless woes she makes and fair but with this curse she's crossed to know her not to she is lost then the doleful party march off in single file solemnly and the fabulous pursues she hath the palace in the west bright hasper lights her to her rest and him the morning star awakes whom to her charmed arms she takes so lives he till he sees the last the maids of baser metal pass and prodigal of the happiness she lends him he asked to share it with one of them there's the silver mate and the copper and the brassy mate and others of them first you know he tries argentine and finds her only 20 to the pound and has a worse experience with copperina till he descends to the scullery and the lower he goes the less obscure become the features of his bride of gold and all her radiance shines forth my uncle first rather blunts the point well keep to her now you've got her says hippies we will uncle look out the farms bypass look at the cattle in the fields and how the lines duck and swim up she claims the whole and not the part the coin of unused heart to gain his golden bride again he hunts with melancholy men and his weight no longer by the morning star not if he doesn't sleep till an hour before it rises hippies interjected you don't rhyme badly but stick to prose poetry is a base metal mate i'm not sure that any writing is good for the digestion i'm afraid it has spoiled mine fear nothing uncle left rigid you shall write in the park with me every day to get an appetite you and i am the golden bride you know that little palm of sandos she rides in the park on a prancing bay she and her squires together her dark locks gleam from up bonnet of gray and tossed with the tossing feather too calmly proud for a glance of pride is the beautiful face as it passes the cockney's nod to each other aside the cock's combs lift their glasses enthroned to her side of her you that can breach the ice wall that guards her securely you have not such bliss though she smile on you each as the heart that can image her purely wasn't sando once a friend of my father's i suppose they quarreled he understands the heart what does he make his humble lover say true madam you may think two-part conditions by a glacier ridge by beauties for the largest heart and all abyss's love can bridge hippies now laugh grimly as men laugh at the emptiness of words largest heart he sneered what's our glacier ridge i've never seen one i can't deny it rhymes with bridge but don't go parading your admiration of that person richard your father will speak to you on the subject when he thinks fit i thought they had quarreled said richard what a pity any murmur to a pleased ear beauties for the largest heart the floor of their conversation was interrupted by the entrance of passengers at a station richard examined their faces with pleasure all faces pleased him human nature set tributary at the feet of him and his golden bride as he could not well talk his thoughts before then he looked out at the windows and enjoyed the changing landscape projecting all sorts of delights for his old friend ripton amusing hazy on the wondrous things he was to do in the world of the great service he was to be to his fellow creatures in the midst of his reveries he was landed in london tom bakewell stood at the carriage door a glance told richard that his squire had something curious on his mind and he gave tom the word to speak out tom edged his master out of hearing and began sputtering a laugh dashed if i can help it so he said that young tom he've come to town dressed that spicy and he don't know his way about no more than a stag he's come to fetch somebody from another rail and he don't know how to get there and he ain't sure about which rail tis look at him mr richard there he goes young tom appeared to have the weight of all london on his beaver who is he come for richard ass don't you know sir you don't like me to mention the name mumble tom bursting to be perfectly intelligible is it for her tom miss lucy sir richard turned away and was seized by hippies who begged him to get out of the noise and problem and caught hold of his slack arm to bear him into a conveyance but richard by wheeling half to the right or left always got his face round to the point where young tom was maneuvering to appear at his ease even when they were seated in the conveyance hippies could not persuade him to drive off he made the excuse that he did not wish to start till there was a clear road at last young tom cast anger by a policeman and doubtless at the officials suggestion bashfully took seed in the cab and was shot into the whirlpool of london richard then angrily asked his driver what he was waiting for are you ill my boy said hippies where's your collar he laughed oddly and made a random answer that he hoped the fellow would drive fast i hate slow motion after being in a railway he said hippies assured him there was something the matter with him nothing uncle nothing said richard looking fiercely candid they say that when the skill and care of men rescue a drowned wretch from extinction and warm the flickering spirit into steady flame such pain it is the blood forcing its way along the drive channels and the heavily taking nerves and the silent heart the struggle of life and death and him grim death relaxing his grip such pain it is he cries out no thanks to them that pull him by inches from the depths of the dead river and he who has thought a love extinct and is surprised by the old fires and the old tyranny he rebels and strives to fight clear of the cloud of forgotten sensations that settle on him such pain it is the old sweet music reviving through his frame in the charm of his passion filing him afresh still was fair lucy the one woman to richard he had forbidden her name but from an instinct of self-defense must the maids of baser metal dominate him anew it is in lucy's shape thinking of her now so near him his darling all her graces or sweetness or truth for despite his bitter blame of her he knew her true swam in a thousand visions before his eyes visions pathetic and full of glory but now rung his heart and now elated it as well might her ship attempt to calm the sea as this young man the violent emotion that began to rage in his breast i shall not see her he said to himself exultingly and at the same moment thought how black was every corner of the earth but that one spot where lucy stood how utterly cheerless the place he was going to then he determined to bear to live in darkness there was a refuge in the idea of a voluntary martyrdom for if i choose i could see her this day within an hour i could see her and touch her hand in oh heaven but i do not choose in a great wave swell through him and was crushed down only to swell again more stormily then tom bakewell's words procured to him that young tom blaze was uncertain where to go for her and that she might be thrown on this Babylon alone and flying from point to point it struck him that they had known at random of a return it had sent him to town to be out of the way they had been miserably plotting against him once more they shall see what right they have to fear me i'll shame them was the first turn taken by his wrathful feelings as he resolved to go and see her safe and calmly return to his uncle whom he sincerely believed not to be one of the conspirators nevertheless after forming that resolve he said still as if there were something fatal in the wheels that bore him away from it perhaps because he knew as some do when passion is lord that his intelligence struggled with him though nonetheless keenly did he feel his wrongs and suspicions his golden bride was waning fast but when hippies ejaculated to cheer him we shall soon be there the spell broke richard stopped the cab saying he wanted to speak to tom and would ride with him the rest of the journey he knew well enough which line of railway his loosey must come by he had studied every town and station on the line before his uncle could express more than a mute remonstrance he jumped out and hailed tom bakewell who came behind with the boxes and baggage in a companion can his head a yard beyond the window to make sure of his arc of safety the vehicle preceding what an extraordinary impetuous boy it is said hippies were in the very street within a minute the stalwart berry dispatched by the baronet to arrange everything for their comfort had opened the door and made his bow mr richard sir evaporated was berry's modulated inquiry behind among the boxes full hippiest ground as he received berry's muscular assistance to a light lunch ready a luncheon was ordered precise at two o'clock sir been in attendance one quarter of an hour a berry sang out to the second cab which with his pyramid of luggage remained stationary some 30 paces distant had his voice the majestic pal deliberately turned his back on them and went off in the contrary direction end of chapter 25 chapter 26 the ordeal of richard feverell this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox.org recording by Rita butros the ordeal of richard feverell by george meredith chapter 26 on the stroke of the hour when ripped in thompson was accustomed to consult his gold watch for practical purposes and sniff freedom and the forthcoming dinner a burglarious foot entered the clerk's office where he sat and a man of a scowling countenance who looked a villain in whom he was afraid he knew slid a letter into his hands nodding that it would be prudent for him to read and be silent ripped in obeyed an alarm apparently the contents of the letter relieved his conscience for he reached down his hat and told mr beasley to inform his father that he had business of pressing importance in the west and should meet him at the station mr beasley zealously waited upon the paternal thompson without delay and together making their observations from the window they beheld a cab of many boxes into which ripton darted and was followed by one in groom's dress it was saturday the day when ripton gave up his law readings magnanimously to bestow himself upon his family and mr thompson liked to have his son's arm as he walked down to the station but that third glass of port which always stood for his second and the groom's suggestion of aristocratic acquaintances prevented mr thompson from interfering so ripton was permitted to depart in the cab ripton made a study of the letter he held it had the preciseness of an imperial mandate dear ripton you are to get lodgings for a lady immediately not a word to a soul then come along with tom r d f lodgings for a lady ripton meditated aloud what sort of lodgings where am i to get lodgings who's the lady i say he addressed the mysterious messenger so your tom bakewell are you tom tom grinned his identity do you remember the rick tom ha ha we got out of that neatly we might all have been transported though i could have convicted you tom safe it's no use coming across a practiced lawyer now tell me ripton having flourished his powers commenced his examination who's this lady better wait till you see mr richards are tom resumed his scowl to reply ah ripton acquiesced is she young tom tom said she was not old handsome tom some might think one thing some another tom said and where does she come from now asked ripton with the friendly cheerfulness of a baffled counselor comes from the country sir a friend of the family i suppose a relation ripton left this insinuating query to be answered by a look tom's face was a dead blank ah ripton took a breath and eyed the mask opposite him why you're quite a scholar tom mr richard is well all right at home come to town this morning with his uncle said tom all well thank you sir ha cried ripton more than ever puzzled now i see you all came to town today and these are your boxes outside so so but mr richard writes for me to get lodgings for a lady there must be some mistake he wrote in a hurry he wants lodgings for you all eh i'm sure i don't know what he wants said tom you'd better go by the letter sir ripton reconsulted that document lodgings for a lady and then come along with tom not a word to a soul i say that looks like but he never cared for them you don't mean to say tom he's been running away with anybody tom fell back upon his first reply better wait till you see mr richard sir and ripton exclaimed hanged if you ain't the tightest witness i ever saw i shouldn't like to have you in a box some of you country fellows beat any number of cockneys you do tom received the compliments stubbornly on his guard and ripton as nothing was to be got out of him said about considering how to perform his friends in junctions deciding firstly that a lady fresh from the country ought to lodge near the parks in which direction he told the cab man to drive thus unaware of his high destiny ripton joined the hero and accepted his character in the new comedy it is nevertheless true that certain favored people do have beneficent omens to prepare them for their parts when the hero is in full career so that they really may be nerved to meet him i and to check him in his course had they that signal courage for instance mrs elizabeth berry a ripen wholesome landlady of advertised lodgings on the borders of kensington noted as she sat rocking her contemplative person before the parlor fire this very march afternoon a supernatural tendency in that fire to burn all on one side which signifies that a wedding approaches the house why who shall say omens are as impassable as heroes it may be because in these affairs the fire is thought to be all on one side enough that the omen exists and spoke its solemn warning to the devout woman mrs berry in her circle was known as a certificated lecturer against the snares of matrimony still that was no reason why she should not like a wedding expectant therefore she watched the one glowing cheek of hymen and with pleasing tremors beheld a cab of many boxes draw up by her bit of garden and a gentleman emerged from it in the set of consulting and advertisement paper the gentleman required lodgings for a lady lodgings for a lady mrs berry could produce and a very rosy at smile for a gentleman so much so that ripped and forgot to ask about the terms which made the landlady and mrs berry leap up to embrace him as the happy man but her experienced woman's eye checked her enthusiasm he had not the air of a bridegroom he did not seem to have a weight on his chest or an itch to twiddle everything with his fingers at any rate he was not the bridegroom for whom omens fly abroad promising to have all ready for the lady within an hour mrs berry fortified him with her card curtsied him back to his cab and floated him off on her smiles the remarkable vehicle which had woven this thread of intrigue through london's streets now proceeded sedately to finish its operations ripton was landed at a hotel in west minster ere he was halfway up the stairs a door opened and his old comrade in adventure rushed down richard allowed no time for salutations have you done it was all he asked for answer ripton handed him mrs berry's card richard took it and left him standing there five minutes elapsed and then ripped and heard the gracious rustle of feminine garments above richard came a little in advance leading and half supporting a figure in a black silk mantle and small black straw bonnet young that was certain though she held her veil so close he could hardly catch the outlines of her face girlishly slender and sweet and simple in appearance the hush that came with her and her soft manner of moving stirred the silly youth to some of those ardors that awaken the night of dames in our bosoms he felt that he would have given considerable sums for her to lift her veil he could see that she was trembling perhaps weeping it was the master of her fate she clung to they passed him without speaking as she went by her head passively bent ripton had a glimpse of noble tresses and a lovely neck great golden curls hung loosely behind pouring from under her bonnet she looked a captive born to the sacrifice what ripped in after a sight of those curls would have given for her just to lift her veil an instant and strike him blind with beauty was fortunately for his ex-checker never demanded of him and he had absolutely been composing speeches as he came along in the cab galant speeches for the lady and sly congratulatory ones for his friend to be delivered as occasion should serve that both might know him a man of the world and be at their ease he forgot the smirking immoralities he had reveled in this was clearly serious ripton did not require to be told that his friend was in love and meant that life and death business called marriage parents and guardians consenting or not presently richard returned to him and said hurriedly i want you now to go to my uncle at our hotel keep him quiet till i come say i had to see you say anything i shall be there by the dinner hour rip i must talk to you alone after dinner ripton feebly attempted to reply that he was due at home he was very curious to hear the plot of the new comedy and besides there was richards face questioning him sternly and confidently for signs of unhesitating obedience he finished his grimaces by asking the name and direction of the hotel richard pressed his hand it is much to obtain even that recognition of our devotion from the hero tom bakewell also received his priming and to judge by his chuckles and grins rather appeared to enjoy the work cut out for him in a few minutes they had driven to their separate destinations ripton was left to the unusual exercise of his fancy such is the nature of youth and its thirst for romance that only to act as a subordinate is pleasant when one unfurls the standard of defiance to parents and guardians he may be sure of raising a lawless troop of adolescent ruffians born rebels to any amount the beardless crew know that they have not a chance of pay but what of that when the rosy prospect of thwarting their elders is in view though it is to see another eat the forbidden fruit they will run all his risks with him gaily ripped and took rank as lieutenant in the enterprise and the moment his heart had sworn the oaths he was rewarded by an exquisite sense of the charms of existence london streets wore a sly laugh to him he walked with a dentified heel the generous youth ogled aristocratic carriages and glanced intimately at the ladies overflowingly happy the crossing sweepers blessed him he hummed lively tunes he turned over old jokes in his mouth unctuously he hugged himself he had a mind to dance down piccadilly and all because a friend of his was running away with a pretty girl and he was in the secret it was only when he stood on the doorstep of Richard's hotel that his jokunned mood was a little dashed by remembering that he had then to commence the duties of his office and must fabricate a plausible story to account for what he knew nothing about a part that the greatest of sages would find it difficult to perform the young however whom sages well may envy seldom fail in lifting their inventive faculties to the level of their spirits and two minutes of hippiest's angry complaints against the friend he serenely inquired for gave ripton his cue where in the very street within a stone's throw of the house and he jumps like a harlequin out of my cabin to another he must be mad that boys got madness in him and carries off all the boxes my dinner pills too and keeps away the whole of the day though he promised to go to the doctor and had a dozen engagements with me said hippiest venting an enraged snarl to sum up his grievances ripton at once told him that the doctor was not at home why you don't mean to say he's been to the doctor hippiest cried out he has called on him twice sir said ripton expressively on leaving me he was going a third time i shouldn't wonder that's what detains him he's so determined by fine degrees ripton ventured to grow circumstantial saying that richard's case was urgent and required immediate medical advice and that both he and his father were of opinion richard should not lose an hour in obtaining it he's alarmed about himself said ripton and tapped his chest hippiest protested he had never heard a word from his nephew of any physical affliction he was afraid of making you anxious i think sir aljun on feverell and richard came in while he was hammering at the alphabet to recollect the first letter of the doctor's name they had met in the hall below and were laughing heartily as they entered the room ripton jumped up to get the initiative have you seen the doctor he asked significantly plucking at richard's fingers richard was all abroad at the question aljun on clapped him on the back what the deuce do you want with dr boy the solid thump awakened him to see matters as they were oh i the doctor he said smiling frankly at his lieutenant why he tells me he'd back me to do milo's trick in a week from the present day uncle he came forward to hippiest i hope you'll excuse me for running off as i did i was in a hurry i left something at the railway this stupid rip thinks i went to the doctor about myself the fact was i wanted to fetch the doctor to see you here so that you might have no trouble you know you can't bear the sight of his instruments and skeletons i've heard you say so you said it said all your marrow in revolt fried your marrow i think were the words and made you see 20 000 different ways of sliding down to the chambers of the grim king don't you remember hippiest emphatically did not remember and he did not believe the story irritation at the mad ravishment of his pillbox rendered him incredulous as he had no means of confuding his nephew all he could do safely to express his disbelief in him was to utter petulant remarks on his powerlessness to appear at the dinner table that day upon which berry just then trumpeting dinner algin on seized one arm of the dyspepsi and richard another and the laughing couple bore him into the room where dinner was laid ripped in sniggering in the rear the really happy man of the party they had fun at the dinner table richard would have it and his gaiety his by play his princely superiority to truth and heroic promise of overriding all our laws his handsome face the lord and possessor of beauty that he looked as it were a star shining on his forehead gained the old complete mastery over ripped in who had been mentally at least half patronizing him till then because he knew more of london and life and was aware that his friend now depended upon him almost entirely after a second circle of the claret the hero caught his lieutenant's eye across the table and said we must go out and talk over that law business rip before you go do you think the old lady has any chance not a bit said ripton authoritatively but it's worth fighting a rip oh certainly was ripton's mature opinion richard observed that ripton's father seemed doubtful ripton cited his father's habitual caution richard made a playful remark on the necessity of sometimes acting in opposition to fathers ripton agreed to it in certain cases yes yes in certain cases said richard pretty legal morality gentlemen aljanon interjected hippies adding and lay too the pair of uncles listened further to the fictitious dialogue well kept up on both sides and in the end desired a statement of the old lady's garrulous case hippies offering to decide what her chances were in law and aljanon to give a common sense judgment rip will tell you said richard deferentially signaling the lawyer i'm a bad hand at these matters tell them how it stands rip ripped and disguised his excessive uneasiness under endeavors to write his position on his chair and inwardly praying speed to the claret jug to come and strengthen his wits began with a careless aspect oh nothing she's a very curious old character she uh wears a wig she uh a very curious old character indeed she uh quite the old style there's no doing anything with her and ripton took a long breath to relieve himself after his elaborate fiction so it appears hippies commented and aljanon asked well and about her wig somebody stole it while richard whose features were grim with suppressed laughter bad the narrator continue ripton lunged for the claret jug he had got an old lady like an oppressive bundle on his brain and he was as helpless as she was in the pangs of ineffectual authorship his ideas shot at her wig and then at her one characteristic of extreme obstinacy and tore back again at her wig but she would not be animated the obstinate old thing would remain a bundle law studies seemed light in comparison with this tremendous task of changing an old lady from a doll to a human creature he flung off some claret perspired freely and with a mental tribute to the cleverness of those author fellows recommends oh nothing she richard knows her better than i do an old lady is somewhere down in suffoc i think we had better advise her not to proceed the expenses of litigation are enormous she i think we had better advise her to stop short and not make any scandal and not make any scandal aljanon took him up come come there's something more than a wig then ripped in was commanded to proceed whether she did or no the luckless fictionist looked straight at his pitiless leader and blurted out dubiously she there's a daughter born with effort ejaculated hippies must give her pause after that and i'll take the opportunity to stretch my length on the sofa hi oh that's true what austin says the general prayer should be for a full stomach and the individual for one that works well for on that basis only are we a match for temporal matters and able to contemplate eternal sententious but true i gave him the idea though take care of your stomachs boys and if ever you hear of a monument proposed to a scientific cook or gastronomic doctor send in your subscriptions or say to him while he lives go forth and be a knight ha they have a good cook at this house he suits me better than ours at reynum i almost wish i had brought my manuscript to town i feel so much better aha i didn't expect to digest at all without my regular incentive i think i shall give it up what do you say to the theater tonight boys richard shouted bravo uncle let mr. thompson finish first said aljanon i want to hear the conclusion of the story the old girl has a wig and a daughter i'll swear somebody runs away with one of the two fill your glass mr. thompson and forward so somebody does ripton received his impetus and they're found in town together he made a fresh jerk she uh that is the old lady found them in company she finds him with her wig on in company said aljanon capital here's matter for the lawyers and you advise her not to proceed under such circumstances of aggravation hippies observed humorously twinkling with his traumatic contentment it's the daughter ripped inside and surrendering to pressure hurried on recklessly a runaway match beautiful girl the only son of a baronette married by special license a the point is he now brightened and spoke from his own element the point is whether the marriage can be annulled as she's of the catholic persuasion and he's a protestant and they're both married underage that's the point having come to the point he breathed extreme relief and saw things more distinctly not a little amazed at his leader's horrified face the two elders were making various absurd inquiries when richard sent his chair to the floor crying what a muddle you're in rip you're mixing half a dozen stories together the old lady i told you about was old dame bakewell and the dispute was concerning a neighbor of hers who encroached on her garden and i said i'd pay the money to see her righted ah said ripped and humbly i was thinking of the other her garden cabbages don't interest me here come along richard beckon to him savagely i'll be back in five minutes uncle he nodded coolly to either the young men left the room in the whole passage they met barry dressed to return to renum richard dropped a helper to the intelligence into his hand and warned him not to gossip much of london barry about perfect discreetness what on earth induced you to talk about protestants and catholics marrying rip said richard as soon as they were in the street why ripped and answered i was so hard pushed for it upon my honor i didn't know what to say i ain't an author you know i can't make a story i was trying to invent a point and i couldn't think of any other and i thought that was just the point likely to make a jolly good dispute capital dinners they give at those crack hotels why did you throw it all upon me i didn't begin on the old lady the hero mused it's odd it's impossible you could have known i'll tell you why rip i wanted to try you you fib well at long range but you don't do at close quarters and single combat you're good behind walls but not worth a shot in the open i just see what you're fit for your staunch that i am certain of you always were lead the way to one of the parks down in that direction you know where she is ripped and led the way his dinner had prepared this young englishman to defy the whole artillery of established morals with the muffled roar of london around them alone in a dark slope of green the hero leaning on his henchman and speaking in a harsh clear undertone delivered his explanations doubtless the true heroic insignia and point of view will be discerned albeit in common privates uniform they've been plotting against me for a year rip when you see her you'll know what it was to have such a creature taken away from you it nearly killed me never mind what she is she's the most perfect and noble creature god ever made it's not only her beauty i don't care so much about that but when you've once seen her she seems to draw music from all the nerves of your body but she's such an angel i worship her and her minds like her face she's pure gold there you'll see her tonight well he pursued after inflating ripton with this rapturous prospect they got her away and i recovered it was mr adrian's work what's my father's objection to her because of her birth she's educated her manners are beautiful full of refinement quick and soft can they show me one of their ladies like her she's the daughter of a naval lieutenant because she's a catholic what has religion to do with he pronounced love a little modestly as it were a blush in his voice well when i recovered i thought i did not care for her it shows how we know ourselves and i cared for nothing i felt as if i had no blood i tried to imitate my dear austin i wish to god he were here i love austin he would understand her he's coming back this year and then but it'll be too late then well my father's always scheming to make me perfect he has never spoken to me a word about her but i can see her in his eyes he wanted to give me a change he said and asked me to come to town with my uncle hippie and i consented it was another plot to get me out of the way as i live i had no more idea of meeting her than a flying to heaven he lifted his face look at those old elm branches how they seem to mix among the stars glittering fruits of winter ripped and tipped his comical nose upward and was in duty bound to say yes though he observed no connection between them and the narrative well the hero went on i came to town there i heard she was coming too coming home it must have been fate ripped in heaven forgive me i was angry with her and i thought i should like to see her once only once and reproach her for being false for she never wrote to me and oh the dear angel what she must have suffered i gave my uncle the slip and got to the railway she was coming by there was a fellow going to meet her a farmer's son and good god they were going to try and make her marry him i remembered it all then a servant of the farm had told me that fellow went to the wrong station i suppose for we saw nothing of him there she was not changed a bit looking lovelier than ever and when she saw me i knew in a minute that she must love me till death you don't know what it is yet rip will you believe it though i was as sure she loved me and had been true as steel as that i shall see her tonight i spoke bitterly to her and she bore it meekly she looked like a saint i told her there was but one hope of life for me she must prove she was true and as i give up all so must she i don't know what i said the thought of losing her made me mad she tried to plead with me to wait it was for my sake i know i pretended like a miserable hypocrite that she did not love me at all i think i said shameful things oh what noble creatures women are she hardly had strength to move i took her to that place where you found us rip she went down on her knees to me i never dreamed of anything in life so lovely as she looked then her eyes were thrown up bright with a crowd of tears her dark brows bent together like pain and beauty meeting in one and her glorious golden hair swept off her shoulders as she hung forward to my hands could i lose such a prize if anything could have persuaded me would not that i thought of daunte's madonna guido's magdalene is there sin in it i see none and if there is it's all mine i swear she's spotless of a thought of sin i see her very soul cease to love her who dares ask me cease to love her why i live on her to see her little chin straining up from her throat as she knelt to me there was one curl that fell across her throat ripton listened for more richard had gone off and amused at the picture well said ripton and how about that young farmer fellow the hero's head was again contemplating the starry branches his lieutenant's question came to him after an interval young tom why it's young tom blaze son of our old enemy rip i like the old man now oh i saw nothing of the fellow lord cried ripton are we going to get into a mess with blazes again i don't like that his commander quietly passed his likes or dislikes but when he goes to the train and finds she's not there ripped and suggested i've provided for that the fool went to the southeast instead of the southwest all warmth all sweetness comes from the southwest i've provided for that friend rip my trusty tom awaits him there as if by accident he tells him he has not seen her and advises him to remain in town and go for her there tomorrow and the day following tom has money for the work young tom ought to see london you know rip like you we shall gain some good clear days and when old blaze hears of it what then i have her she's mine besides he won't hear for a week this tom beats that tom and cunning all wager haha the hero burst out at a recollection what do you think rip my father has some sort of system with me it appears and when i came to town the time before he took me to some people the grandisons and what do you think one of the daughters is a little girl a nice little thing enough very funny and he wants me to wait for her he hasn't said so but i know it i know what he means nobody understands him but me i know he loves me and is one of the best of men but just consider a little girl who just comes up to my elbow isn't it ridiculous did you ever hear such nonsense ripped in emphasized his opinion that it certainly was foolish no no the dyes cast said richard they've been plotting for a year up to this day and this is what comes of it if my father loves me he will love her and if he loves me he'll forgive my acting against his wishes and see it was the only thing to be done come step out what a time we've been and away he went compelling ripped into the sort of strides a drummer boy has to take beside a column of grenadiers ripped in began to wish himself in love seeing that it endowed a man with wind so that he could breathe great size while going at a tremendous pace and experience no sensation of fatigue the hero was communing with the elements his familiars and allowed him to pant as he pleased some keen-eyed kensington urchins noticing the discrepancy between the pedestrian powers of the two aimed their wit at mr thompson junior's expense the pace and nothing but the pace induced ripton to proclaim that they had gone too far when they discovered that they had overshot the mark by half a mile in the street over which stood love star the hero thundered his presence at a door and evoked a flying housemate who knew not mrs berry the hero attached significance to the fact that his instincts should have betrayed him for he could have sworn to that house the door being shut he stood in dead silence haven't you got her card ripped and inquired and heard that it was in the custody of the cab man neither of them could positively bring to mind the number of the house you ought to have chalked it like that fellow in the forty thieves ripped and hazarded a pleasantry which met with no response betrayed by his instincts the magic slaves of love the hero heavily descended the steps ripped and murmured that they were done for his commander turned on him and said take all the houses on the opposite side one after another i'll take these with a rye face ripped and crossed the road altogether subdued by richards native superiority to adverse circumstances then were families aroused then did mortals dimly guess that something portentious was abroad then were laborers all day in the vineyard harshly awakened from their evening's nap hope and fear stalked the street as again and again the loud companion summons is resounded finally ripped and sang out cheerfully he had mrs. berry before him profuse of mellow curtsies richard ran to her and caught her hands she's well upstairs oh quite well only a trifle tired with her journey and fluttering like mrs. berry replied to ripped and alone the lover had flown aloft the wise woman sagely ushered ripped in into her own private parlor there to wait till he was wanted end of chapter 26