 23. The years past and the destinies of their friend began to take final shape. The bread cast upon the waters returned. The chickens came home to roost. One winter's morning Captain Guthrie Carey brought his ship into Hobsons Bay. The agents of his company sent letters to him there. He took one from the sheath and read it carefully, read it four times. Then he tore it into little pieces and dropped it over the side. The pilot and the first officer wandered at the concentrated gravity of his mane. At the far away look in his cold blue eyes, yet it was a very short and simple letter. There were no names inside and it merely said, I returned by last mail and am at the above address. I shall be at home tomorrow afternoon at five. Of course I am seeing nobody, so we shall be quite undisturbed. Be punctual, if possible. The above address was the big house that had belonged to the late Mr Ewing. Tomorrow afternoon was but an hour off. At five precisely Captain Carey shared his altar in the Palatial Vestable and at the heels of a soft-footed man's servant marched through the warm hall and up the shallow muckled stairs to the familiar drawing room, a long room, the lower end of which was in shadow, and the upper illuminated like a shrine with rosy lamps projecting from the forest of chimney ornament and a great bright red fire twinkling upon tiles and brass. The big palms were in their big pots, spreading and bowing over settees and cozy corners. Every bowl and vase overflowed with the choices flowers, although it was wintry dune and the tea table was ready. The old seductive chairs and tables were grouped upon the Persian hearthrug in the old way, with the sheltering screen half round them. Indications of the desire of the mistress of the house to give him special welcome were too marked and many to be ignored. He was left here to meditate in solitude for a few minutes, and he did all the meditating that was possible in the time. His heart thumped rather faster than was necessary, but his strong face was a picture of composed determination. Indeed it was not easy to recognise the young Guthrie Carey of old Redford days in this stern, tough, substantial man, steady as a rock amid the winds and waves of incalculable fate. Just now he had the look of a military commander braced for a pitch battle, and the V.C. has been one for many a less courageous enterprise than that on which he was now engaged. Leaning his broad shoulders on the ledge of the mantelpiece and roasting his stout calves at the glorious fire, he watched the distant doorway with narrowed but keenly glinting eyes. When he saw the dim curtain lift to let in the light from the landing and a slim woman's figure, he straightened himself and set his teeth hard. It had to be faced and fought, he felt, and the sooner it was over the better for them both. She came fluttering up to him with both hands held out, how white they were against the crepe, and how wonderfully her complexion and her hair was set off by the black robe and the fine lawn bands at throat and wrists. He loathed the mockery of the widow's weeds, but thought he had never seen her look so lovely. Oh, Guthrie, oh, what years it seems. Were you wondering what had become of me, but I couldn't. Somehow I didn't feel that I could before. She cast herself into his arms in the most natural way in the world. He laid one of them round her waist slightly and kissed her brow. Then when she lifted it for the purpose, her mouth, the sweetest woman's mouth that ever made a pair of soft eyes omnipotent. After some seconds of silence, she looked at him questioningly, all a quiver with nervous excitement. Her delicate cheek was pink like a La France Rose. It was so good of you to come. She murmured humbly. It wasn't. It didn't bother you. You were not wanting to do something else. Were you, dear? There was revealed in tone and manner the fact that even selfish Francis had come to care for something more than for herself. No, oh, no, he replied rather breathlessly. I was going up the country this afternoon, but fortunately I got your letter in time. Oh, if you had, what should I have done? I couldn't stand it any longer, Guthrie. It is four whole months since, though it seems like yesterday. And how are you, he broke in, taking a fresh grip of the sword as it were. He held her off from him, glancing at her shoulder, her skirt, anything better eyes, which were her sword, two edged and deadly. Oh, don't look at me, she exclaimed, shrinking. I hate myself in this horrible gown. I feel so mean and hypocritical, though I do mourn for him, Guthrie. You must not think I feel happy because he is dead. No, indeed. I wish I could, but one must conform to a certain extent, mustn't one. And every respect that I can possibly show to his memory, especially after the way he has treated me. I suppose you heard. What? Guthrie had heard, but asked the question to fill time. Five thousand a year, said she, at my absolute and entire disposal, with no restriction or condition of any sort of kind. She made the announcement in a level tone and without a smile, but he detected the triumph and satisfaction underneath, and feeling much the stronger for it. He observed gravely that the dead man was a good man, and I always knew it, Francie, worse luck. Oh, so did I, far, far too good for the likes of me. But, well, we need not talk about that now. We couldn't help ourselves, could we? And the past is past. Everything is different now. Oh, Guthrie, what it is to kiss you without feeling that I am doing wrong. She kissed him as she said it, pressing him to her. Of course, he kissed her back, but his hands on her waist were rigid, as if he wore an evening shirt, and was afraid of her crushing the front of it. She might have noticed this if she had not caught a glimpse of herself at the moment in a mirror behind him. One thing, she said, I did draw the line at. I positively refused to wear a cap. I knew, I knew you couldn't have borne that. Holding her charming head, rippled all over the golden chestnut curls and coils, just in front of his eyes. She pleaded for confirmation of this statement. You couldn't have stood seeing me in a cap, could you, Guthrie? As far as I can judge, he replied, nobody asks you to wear caps these days, whether you're a widow or not. Why, the very grandmothers go about in yellow fringes and things, pretending they are thirty or forty, when everybody knows they are twice that, at the least. When I was a youngster, there used to be old ladies, my mother was one, but the race has died out. I, at any rate, am not an old lady, Mrs Ewing remarked, with a joyous smile. My yellow fringes and things are all my own, and so is my complexion, and so are my teeth. Her smile widened to reveal their pearly excellence. She took his hand and rubbed the back of it on her downy cheek, and laid the palm on her soft, thick blocks. Even yet she did not say that anything was the matter, confident in her still young beauty, and in the fact that he now knew for certain that the bulk of her husband's property was hers. How often she had wondered whether he knew or not, feeling sure that he must have heard the news at some of the many ports he had put into, since it had become a matter of public knowledge, and why he allowed days and weeks, even months, to pass without making a sign. There had always been the cables anyway. She put it down to his delicacy, his sense of awkwardness of the situation, his consideration for her. We will have tea first, she said, touching the bell button, then we shall not be disturbed any more. We can talk dinnertime. Oh, how I wish you could stay for dinner, and a long, long evening, but it is better not to do things of that sort yet, don't you think? Better not to run risks of making scandal now, that there's no longer any need for it. Much better, said Captain Kerry, firmly. And, after all, there are lots of ways that we can meet without doing anything improper. I have thought of heaps. I can go to Sydney. I can go home, for that matter. I am a perfectly free agent, and we have now less than three quarters of a year. Guthrie, I want you to let me have the twelve-month school. It is a long wait, I know, but we shall feel the benefit of it afterwards. Hush. She glanced down the room in alarm, and saw the door open to admit the servant she had summoned. He brought teapot and kettle, hot cakes and muffins, and arranged them with unnecessary carefulness on the little table by the fireside. Hostess and guest watched his slow manoeuvres with an impatient but fascinated gaze, and tried to think about something to talk about for his edification, and could not. Thank you, Willis. That will do, Willis. I'll ring if I want anything else. I don't know, Captain Kerry, whether you are one of those people who despise tea and cake. They were alone once more. Captain Kerry refused the proper refreshment. Mrs Ewing, making no effort to persuade him, took a few mouthfuls hastily. Then she set her cup down, and with a quick flirt of the hand, extinguished the two pink lamps. They were old-fashioned gas lamps, too. We don't want lights to talk by, she said, in a casual way. The firelight is enough. I think firelight at this hour so much the pleasantest, don't you? Oh, yes, he responded desperately, and indeed was glad of the shelter of a shadow on his face, but he said to himself, with clenched hands and a long, in-drawn breath, now comes the tug of war. A very large and wide sofa, low, deep-seated, full of springs and down pillows, stood in the cosy firelight, a great tall, curving screen behind it. Mrs Ewing, as she had done many times before, crossed over to this sofa, sunk in its shielding depths, and looking up at her companion, padded the empty seat beside her. The man hesitated for an instant, and then, as he had done many times before, obeyed the significant gesture. But now the time for preparation, for hesitation, had expired. It was necessary to brace himself for the decisive deed. Even as she clasped her hands beneath his ear, he unclasped them, gently but firmly, and drew them down. With his back to the firelight, she could not see his face, but he could see hers, and the swift change in its expression. She was puzzled and surprised, but as her hands were still held fast in his iron fists, resting on his knee, she was not conscious of the state of the case. My girl, he said, clearing his throat. She had allowed him so many liberties that this mode of address was quite in order. You and I can speak plainly to each other. There's no need for us to beat about the bush, is there? Of course not, she replied. All I'd see as to what this port ended, but jumping to the conclusion that he was going to be proud about the money. It would be an odd thing if we took to being shy at this time of day. It would, wouldn't it? He cleared his throat again, and made a fresh start. Look here, Francie. Don't do that. Listen to me, child. I am not a child, Sue. Allow me to inform you that I was 29 last birthday. She was so pleased to think she was only 29, rich and free, with her life in her hands, and half a year from 30 still, when she might have dragged on till she was old and gray, or in her grave. And why am I not to do that, since when have you lost your taste for kisses? Then suddenly, with an anxious cry, Guthrie, darling, what is the matter with you? Nothing, he said hastily. Nothing, of course, except that we must be serious and sensible, and talk things over quietly, dear. As you say, you are not a child. No more am I. We know the ropes, Francie. Don't we? We've outgrown the delusions of boys and girls. We've had our experiences as men and women, eh? You know what I mean. No need to mince matters, to go in with conventional nonsense. You and I, we can talk straight to each other at a time like this. As he labored painfully to explain, without explaining, her face faded like a sunny landscape when a wet fog crawls over it. For Francie, though it was, she loved him. She loved him all she knew. Guthrie, she moaned piteously, have you left off caring for me? No, Francie, of course I haven't. Have you, while I have been away and in so much trouble, been putting another woman in my place? Certainly not. Is it that you don't like to live on his money, Guthrie? I should not like to live on it. Decidedly not. But the fact is, I haven't given the money a thought. Then why? Why are you like this? I'll tell you, Francie. I'll tell you plainly. It seems infernally brutal, but I'm sure you know I wouldn't say a thing to hurt you if I could help it. Oh, go on. There were red roses in her cheeks now, and a sparkle that was not all firelight in her eyes. It is this, dear. Don't try to take your hands away. I am going to keep them. I must have you listen to me till I'm quite done. It is this, Francie. Love, as very well know, I mean our sort of love, is one thing, and marriage another. What? Oh, is that it? Ah, ah, I see now. Take your own case, said he, with a relentless air. Haven't you proved it up to the hill? Proved what? That marriage is a failure. Of course, marriage is a failure when it is blended into, as I blended into mine, when I was too young and ignorant to know a thing about it. That is not saying it would be a failure now. It would be a dead failure, Francie. I am absolutely convinced of it. Because you have grown tired of me, because somebody else has got hold of you behind my back, because, oh, because you men are all alive, thinking of nothing but the amusement of the hour, sucking a woman's life blood as if she were an orange, and throwing her aside like the useless skin without honour, without constancy, selfish, heartless, treacherous. Hush, Francie, don't talk rubbish. I may be like other men. I've no doubt I am, but I'm not all that. When I make an engagement, I keep it. When I take obligations and responsibilities upon me, I do my best to fulfil them. Most men do, decent men, but they never have justice done them in these cases. In these cases, she echoed scornfully. Everybody knows what their conduct is in these cases. The world is well used to it. Oh, I ought to have known, if I hadn't been the most incredible fool, it was not for want of warnings, but you seemed so different. The idea that you could play with a woman in this way, compromise her, change all her life, and spoil it utterly, and then back out. Oh, oh, can you sit there and tell me that you're having cured no responsibility in your dealings with me, Guthrie, making me love you as I did, making me a bad woman, unfaithful to my good husband, the most honourable, the most trustful of men? Did I do that, honour bright now, Francie? Oh, this is too much. She burst out furiously, springing from her seat, and being dragged back by his iron grasp of her hands. Let me go, sir. I have had insults enough, and in my own house, with no husband to protect me. Sit down, he commanded, and for God's sake, don't. Don't go on like that. I can't stand it. I am not insulting you, dear, not willfully insulting you, not more than I am forced to. I only want us to both to understand the case, as it is. Surely you and I are not afraid to speak out, to face the truth. You are not crying, Francie? No, no indeed. I'm not. Don't you flatter yourself. I am not hurt, and I am not the sort of person to go begging a man to marry me, either. I don't think, I really don't think, that I am quite so poorly off as all that comes to. Here she laughed, but only for an instant. If you were to go down on your knees before me, Guthrie, I would not have you now, after the things you have said to me. The statement calmed and strengthened him. He felt able to say the rest. Quite right, Francie. Dozens of men will come courting you as soon as you go out again, and any one of them will make you a better husband than I should have done, but not a better friend. I hope you will always remember that. Many thanks. Will you be so very kind as to release my hands, Captain Carey? They ache. One moment. I want to make sure, at the last chance, I shall get to explain, to tell you exactly what I mean. You, who are old enough, experienced enough to understand. I don't want to defend myself, Francie. Not at all. I am not the cad to say. The woman tempted me, and I did eat. I don't blame you, dear. I don't blame anybody. A woman is a woman, and a lovely woman like you. Well, the way things are managed in this world, I don't believe she can help herself. But look here, Francie. A man is a man too, and a good deal more so. If you were a girl, I wouldn't say this, but you knew, you knew what you were doing when you laid yourself out to be a sweet and, and kind to a fellow, as you were to me. Did you take me for an old maid or a social purity society? You know you didn't. A man does his best, but he's too heavily handicapped. I won't say by nature, perhaps by habit, which is second nature, and habit of generations, inherited in his blood, and his case is not on all fours with your case. And especially when he is a sailor, so cut off, so deprived, very well. And so it happened, as it happened. Never mind about the right and wrong. What's wrong today may be right tomorrow, and in any case, no arguing can undo what's done. We'll leave that. She sat before him, panting, and the roses in her cheeks were white. Happily, the fire had grown a little dull by this time. For my sake, he continued, speaking slowly, as if trying to think things out. For myself, whether I ought to repent or not, I don't. I can't. Theoretically, I know it is always the man who is in the wrong, and I should have been fairly in the wrong. I should be unfit to live, if you had been an unmarried girl, Francie, or if I had been that, that, oh, she moaned bitterly, grasping his point of view, if not the plain justice of it. But I have brought it on myself, and I have only myself to thank. I made myself cheap, and must take the consequences. It is not that, he said kindly, but still feeling, in his unsophisticated brain, that it was. I don't hold you cheap, my dear. I want to disabuse your mind of that idea, that I am throwing anything in your teeth. Good God, I should think not. It would come ill from me. I have no conventional views about these things. None. But look here now. If you were my wife, I should never see you with another fellow, without thinking. Well, you know what I should think, and feeling myself like poor old Ewing. Oh, I am a brute. It was revealed to him, all at once. Do, do forgive me. Pray, don't apologise, she cried, in a high, shaking voice. It is best, as you say, to speak plainly, not to mince matters, especially as there is no one to call you to account for what you say. And it would be worse for you, ever so much, he continued earnestly, having got into the way of, of this sort of thing. I am afraid I might be tempted again, that I couldn't honestly promise. In short, the fact of the matter is, that we are neither of us domesticated, so to speak. There, that will do, she broke in, coldly furious, but with a volcano in her breast, that threatened eruption and devastation shortly. Will you let me go, Captain Kerry? Or must I call my servants to my assistance? I have only servants now. Yes, yes, and he released one hand. I will, if you will say you forgive me, Francie. I've made an awful mess of it, I know. They rose together, and the other hand was freed. It was the right hand, and she returned it to him immediately. Goodbye, she said, between clenched teeth. He held her tightly, once more. May I come and see you again? May I write? I can say it better, in writing. You have said all that needs to be said. There is no necessity to write. If you write to me, I shall return the letter unopened. But why? It is surely absurd for us to put on airs a dignity with one another. Francie, you don't mean us to part like this. She stepped quickly across the hearth rug, and, with a passionate gesture, pressed the button of the bell, evidently to summon Willis to show him out. So he took up his hat, offended in his turn, and for the first time feeling fairly easy in his mind as to the way he was treating her. But the tragedy at the moment was turned to vulgar comedy by her alarm at the fact that she had struck the bell before relighting the pink lamps. Oh, where are the matches? She whispered excitedly. I can't find them. Here, here, he cried, thumbling through his own pocket box. And there, flurried hands got mixed as she turned the taps while he applied the light to the burners. The instant after they had restored the room to its normal condition, the butler appeared. Mrs Ewing turned to him with the amazing self-possession of the woman accustomed to extricate herself at a moment's notice from an awkward fix. Willis, she said sweetly, and even smiled as she spoke. Will you please have the cab fetched for Captain Carey? He is rather late for a dinner engagement. The butler acknowledged the order and withdrew. In the light of the pink lamps, the late combat ants looked strangely at one another. And you would have married Mary. The woman commented upon the issue of the fight. It was both a taunt and an accusation. The man lifted his brows questioningly, as Adolfs to comprehend her meaning. Has that anything to do with it? He asked. I don't see the collection. The sentences were short, but signified many things. End of Chapter 23 Chapter 24 of Sisters This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. This reading by Lucy Burgoyne. Sisters by Ada Cambridge. Chapter 24 Francis Ewing was a shady name thereafter, to those in the know. Peniquit blood and pride, notwithstanding. She seemed to lose her own sustaining self-respect when she lost the respect of the man she loved. When he showed her with such barbarous and uncompromising candour, the essential difference between a mistress and a wife. Of course, she got over that grievous affair, which for a time broke whatever heart she had to break. Her freedom and her money, her youth and her beauty were still hers, and she made the most of them, and that most was a great deal. In her cosmopolitan sets, she was a popular and distinguished figure. From one fashionably rowdy continental resort to another, she carried her rich jewels and trappings, and her personal magnetism, and sat down for the season to a campaign as social stratagem and sentimental intrigue, to the indulgence of her unbridled appetite for excitement and the admiration of men. And even at the end, when it was time to move on to another bejoil apartment in another place, there was a fresh sculpt at her girdle, and nothing as it were to show for it, until at last her vanity was tempted with the title, and she married an Italian count, who, if all tales were true, paid the debt that he sex owed her with heavy interest. But those tales did not reach the ears of the sisters at home. To them, with the object as suitably impressing them, she wrote an occasional note, of which half the words were titles of nobility, and the humbler relatives accepted the fact of her unapproachable elevation above them. The brains made easy jokes upon the subject. Mr. Goldworthy's jealousy of her was overcome by his pride in the connection. We had a letter from my sister-in-law, the Countess, the other day. He would amably remark, and proceed to repeat and amplify the fashionable intelligence contained therein, instead of taking away her character, as he had been used to do. Deborah was the only sister with whom she can be said to have corresponded, and Deborah had a shrewd suspicion that all was not Gold, but glittered in Francie's lot. Deborah had the best means of knowing, being herself a world traveller, and what is called a society woman, as well known in the resorts of such as Francie's herself. But although they seemed to run so closely, and so much upon the same lines, there was as wide a gap of social difference and non-intimacy between them as between any two of their family. And Deborah was not one to think evil of her own flesh and blood, if it was possible to think good. She too might have filled her letters to Australia with titles of nobility. Nobility of a firmer standing than the Countess and her friends could boast of, had she been inclined to do so. A baroneal hall, dating from the Conquest, a duke or castle, not to speak of a Royal Presence Chamber, was nothing to Deborah Pennyquick after a while. To see her on a crowded London staircase, laughing with a Prince or a Prime Minister, was a common object of the season for a number of years, while vanishing days and first nights would have lacked charm for the society reporter who could not place her fine figure and her French gowns in his pictures of these scenes. Goodwood and cows were familiar with their striking face and her expert interest in horses and yachts. Highland shooting lodgers, English hunting fields, claimed her for their own. Southern Europe, the Nile, Fairet in short, wherever social life was bright, comfortable and select, there she turned up promiscuous as the spirit moved her to be welcomed open-armed as a matter of course. Men, young and old, continued to pay her homage, which was not just the sort of homage they paid to Francis. Proposals of marriage were, or might have been, if not nipped, in the bud, almost as plentiful as invitations to country houses in the autumn. And she relished it all with singular enjoyment until she began to feel the approach of that winter and evening of life which is so sharp a chill for those who have loved the sun. Claude Delville was likewise a denizen of the great world that was hers and not Francis, and close corporation as it was, they were never far of each other's feet, seldom in ignorance of each other's whereabouts. At the same time they also did not touch. It was known throughout the great world which is so small that there was a deadly feud between them and tactful hostesses took pains not to bring them into just a position. In public places when meetings occurred by accident only the most frigid vows were interchanged. Four, in quite early times when the Australian heiress as she was improperly styled was taking London more or less by storm she changed to overhear a brief colloquy not intended for her ears. Who is that glorious woman that came in with the Duchess? I don't see her just now but she had a red frock on with black lace over it dark hair and diamond stars not half as bright and fine as her eyes by jove. It must be Miss Pennyquick an Australian lady she is with the Duchess's party. Oh is that Miss Pennyquick? Well now I can believe what I've heard of her being so charming she carries it in her face. She was charming until she came into her money that has quite spoiled her. It was called Delzel who said it and Deb heard him say it she moved off out of the press that had brought her within reach of his cold voice not to be mistaken by her for any other voice and she vowed through trenched teeth but never again would she come within that distance of him if she could help it. The years as they passed only strengthened this determination each proud inclination of the head each ceremonious lift of the hat added bitterness to their mutual resentment to his feeling that she was spoiled by the money and to her feeling that he willfully misjudged her. The breach was widened by their unconcealed flirtations a description mentally applied to the most ordinary man and woman acquaintances ships on either side but not inappropriate in all cases. Claude ever loved the company of handsome women who appreciated him. Deb naturally inclined to nice men in preference to the nicest women and each liked to show the other that he or she was still of high importance to somebody. Rumours of impending marriage were continually being wafted to his ears or hers but nothing came of them. He was confirmed in luxurious bachelorhood she was aware of many fortune hunters and could not bring herself to value any of her disinterested suitors at the price of her freedom so the one time lovers drifted more and more apart until somehow they lost sight of each other all together and meanwhile the years made them old without their knowing it. She was unreasonably upset on one occasion by the offer of a specific for great hair from a fashionable London hairdresser. It was absolutely permanent harmless and undetectable he said that I am not gray she indignantly informed him whereupon she saw his keen professional eye wonder about her brow as he murmured something about the faint beginnings that might as well be checked. At home she studied the matter carefully in a strong light and called Rosalie her maid to aid her. The little French woman assured her that a microscope was needed to detect a white thread in that beautiful mass of dark nut brown with a microscope no doubt as many as half a dozen might be discerned dimly just were it waived back from madam herself's face. That same afternoon she and Rosalie left town for one of their country house visits. It was a weepy autumn day and she was not as fresh as usual the hairdresser combined with some troublesome shopping had tired her and the disquieting suspicion laid hold of her that she was more easily fatigued than she used to be. While reading her novel in the train she countered her gears and compared herself with the women she knew whose ages were recorded in the pure age and who could therefore be proved to be as old as herself some of them were wrinkled haves carelessness or ill health doubtless she reflected and neither charge could be laid at her door hey ho that horrid man it was dark night when they reached the little station belonging to the mansion that was their goal a dozen other guests and their servants and baggage crowded the platform and half a dozen carriages and luggage breaks the yard behind and Deb was at once in charge of a tall footman Rosalie struggling through the press with dual case and dressing bag chattering French to one of her familiars in the rear distracted station master and porters uncovered to the stately woman as she passed it was all a matter of course to her these days she was too late for the big tea party the men had gone to the smoking room the women to their own firesides after a brief but affectionate interview with her title hostess Deb was soon at hers slipping and dressing gown sip the jaded woman stimulant warming the damp and dizziness out of her assuring herself confidently that she was not an old woman and had no intention of becoming one certainly when Rosalie had dressed her she was entitled to an easy mind the best of everything tonight in vindication of her still unimpaired beauty and potency shimmering brocade of her favorite red and lace like fairy work and then the magnificent satin white breast and massive throat and the stately head crown with the famous five stars whose flashing maid the eye wink and which were dimmed by the light of her dark eyes she surveyed herself with full content when the last touch had been given her and her slow sweet down corridors and grand staircase was a triumphal march she knew that her entrance into the crowd downstairs could not more fail of its customary effect than could the appearance of the sun next morning or one should rather say the announcement of dinner to the tired and hungry shooting men she was met at the foot of the grand staircase by her host and immediately surrounded in the close press of friends she did not notice the strangers time was too short and they were too many a lord of her acquaintance who still hoped to make her his lady took her into dinner and called upon all her powers of wit and riparte to meet his conversational tactics during the meal it was an exhilarating encounter and of sufficient interest to keep her eyes in the boat moreover the table was immense and the chief of the strangers sitting on her side of it a long way off after dinner there was little comedy played on the boards of the toy theater belonging to the house many of the ladies were in their places before the men still craving repose after their hard days work could hoist themselves from their chairs in the dining room dead having helped to coach one of the amateur performers was early in her seat in front some of her admirers did manage to squeeze in beside and behind her from time to time but the particular stranger haughtily held aloof then when the play was over there was an impromptu dance for the theater was an annex to the ballroom it was the young folk who began it but older ladies joined in and all the men but the hardened sportsman who saw a chance to sneak to their snudgery and gun talk before the time the really old women obviously past their dancing days sat around and looked on and gossiped to one another and for a time Deb sat with them she was certainly tired for her and the fact struck her that she had not danced for a long time she had shirk balls having only too many entertainment to choose from she thought it likely that she would be stiff and heavy on her feet from want of practice a horrible idea to her who had once danced like a feather in the wind a good stone had been added to her weight since she had lost both with satisfaction to herself that also was not a pleasing thought so when her dinner lord essay to entice her she shook her head a dozen other men and the cream of them too there was comfort in that followed his example and made her charming compliments when she said laughingly that she was too old for those frivolities too old gracious heavens they apostrophized space it was heartwarming to hear them but they went off easily and were soon dancing with the young girls silks as airy and agile as she had once been and by degrees she drew apart from the old ladies and their talk which she hated to seem even to herself to belong to and presently found herself in the extraordinary position of sitting alone she leaned back in her chair and with eyes half shut looked at the whirling couples and dreamed of the days the dances the youth that were no more she saw not this splendid saloon but a shabby small room in an old bush house the walls not paneled with paintings by a and starred with clusters of electric lights but with rest of homely evergreens and smelling kerosene lamps and amid the happy throng that jostled for room to dance there a young girl and a young man newly betrothed anticipating an immortal paradise in each other's arms and she looked up and saw Claude Delville watching her he was horribly aged illness it seemed and had grown quite white that splendid lover with whom she had danced as no girl here knew how to dance in the golden prime of everything their eyes met and there must have been in both pairs something that neither of them had seen before he crossed to her side at once and she did not freeze him when he got there how do you do i had been wondering if you were going to recognize me how do you do i didn't know you were here i never saw you until this moment i had been standing there for 10 minutes i did not notice i was thinking you were deeply i was trying to guess what you were thinking of i wonder did you i wonder was it by any chance he dropped his voice five creeds she was quite startled and discomposed by this extraordinary divination having no time to decide how she would take it she filled the embarrassed moment with the laugh goodness i'd no idea that my face was such a telltale i believe i was that funny old broom with ridges in the floor and the ceiling nearly on your head how did we manage to dance in it well we did manage somehow didn't we they gazed at the figures willing past them blankly unresponsive to casual stares and smiles they seem to hear the rotten floodgates shut so long ago creak on their rusty hinges heard anything at the ear carts lately yes Alice was married the other day to a widower with 14 children she has not been very happy at home i fear with Harold's wife Harold has the place now you know Jim gave it up to him when he married when who married Harold what's Jim doing he is my manager at Redford Mr Delville smiled darkly he likes that i suppose i don't know whether he likes it or not i'm sure but i do i know that everything's right when he is there married looks no the most confirmed dull bachelor on the face of the earth they fell silent again still gazing into the room deb lay back and found herself clawed lean forward and nursed his name he ought now to have asked news of her sisters that he avoided mentioning any of them being back lately dead not for years i am ashamed to say anybody living at redford miss keen and a few servants only too bad isn't it oh i must go soon and see the old place but this european life somehow the longer you live it the less you feel you can live any other i used to feel that but now one gets awfully tired of things oh i don't but then you keep so horribly young don't you now he turned and looked at her she flushed up like a girl thank you that's a very pleasing compliment although i know you cannot mean it i'd like not to mean it i'd like to have found you as old as i am myself how cruel of you not that you are such a messusla as you would try to make out there are not five years between us he broke in sharply i know that went memory in a flash to a succession of childish birthdays their love tokens and festive celebrations his was in november and his party was usually a picnic hers was in may and was kept in the house with big fires and a tea table crowned with a three-tiered ice cake and blind man's buff and turned the trencher in the evening she recalled wild contests with an imperious little boy who could never conquer her except by stooping to it and the self-conscious silliness at their behavior to each other when they grew from children into boy and girl not much fun in birthdays now dead he seemed to comment on her thoughts oh well she sighed vaguely and at that instant the music stopped someone gave the signal to retire from the ballroom bedwoods they were parted by the crowd that gathered about them when the dancing ceased and he did not find her again even to say good night end of chapter 24 chapter 25 of sisters this is a libra box recording all libra box recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra box.org this reading by Lucy Burgine sisters by Ada Cambridge chapter 25 the shooting men were up first to their early breakfast it seemed to Deb a matter of course the Claude would be of this virile company it was his saving grace as a man when he was young that he was a keen and accomplished sportsman after an indifferent night she rose lazily and late found as she expected only a few more women in the breakfast room and ate her own meal alone at one of the little tables the hostess drifted in amongst the last and stopped a moment to shake hands and exchange a word it seems a beautiful day she said and we shall be making up a party by and by to go out and lunch with the guns you will join us of course but Deb thought of Claude amongst the guns and of the horrible risk of appearing to run after him and she replied sweetly that although she would have loved the outing she was afraid she must stay at home owing to important letters that had to be written for the afternoon post all right said the hostess I'll stay too there are plenty without me and we'll have a drive later on she passed to her breakfast table and Deb rose and went upstairs to see what she could find to attend to in the way of pressing correspondence she had the status of a married lady in this great house as everywhere that is to say a sitting room of her own a very cozy place between tea and the dressing-bell just now however Rosalie was busy in it the maid offered to retire to the adjoining bed chamber but Deb said oh never mind go on and gathering her blotting book and papers went downstairs again to make herself comfortable in the library she loved a good library to sit in and generally found privacy therein at this time of day the library here was magnificent in stately comfort books in thousands busts old masters muffling turkey carpets a great bright still fire an armchair so big and soft that it was strange they could stand empty she drew up one of them and sat a while toasting her feet and turning precious leaves it was the interval covered by Claude's breakfast and then set herself to the business she was supposed to be engaged in dear francy i tried at a half a dozen shops to match your chinese satin but nowhere could i get the exact shade if you like i will try again when i go back to town but if i were you i would not attempt to make it go with any modern stuff which could not help looking crude beside it i would have quite another material and color what do you stay to she paused reflectively the tip of her pen handle between her teeth her eyes fixed absently upon the green park beyond the open window composing a gorgeous costume in her mind before she could even decide whether to advise a ball dress with crepe de chine or tea gown with oriental cashmere one of the noiseless library doors swung back and a man came in without noticing her still figure he strolled over to a certain shelf opened a book that he wanted and stood with his back to her turning over the leaves so he had not gone with the men how horrid and what a nuisance that he should find her here well she was not going to put herself out for him she lowered her pen softly and began to scratch the paper over which she bent absorbly he turned around oh i beg your pardon oh it's you Claude good morning why i thought you would be out with the guns this fine day fine day do you call it there's a wind like a knife and you sit here with the window wide open he marched towards it and shut it with violence it was a great glass door between stone mullions above it and two fellow sheets of glittering transparency three coats of many quarterings enrich the colour scheme of the stately room she watched him with the beginning of a smile upon her lips the humour of the situation appealed to her i like an open window she remarked mildly if you remember i always did he came towards her looking at her gloomily looking himself thin and gray and shivery but always like a prince you have more flesh to keep you warm than i have said he quite roughly thank you she bridled and flushed her massive figure for a woman of her years was perfect but of course she was as sensitive as the world proportion female always used to the suspicion that she was too fat you have not lost the art of paying graceful compliments i meant it for one said he replying to a scoffing tone you put me to shame dead with your vigor and youthfulness i know how old you are and you don't look at by 10 years and you are a beauty still let me tell you it may not be a graceful compliment but at least it is sincere even these girls here nonsense about beauty at my time of life she broke in but she smiled behind her frown and forgave him his remark about her flesh you and i are too old to talk that sort of stuff now do you think i am so very old he asked her standing before her writing table as if inviting a serious judgment she glanced quickly over him his mustache was white his ivory tinted face scratched with fine lines about the eyes he stooped at the shoulders and his chest had hollowed in yet she could have returned his compliment and called him a beauty still he was so to her every line and movement of his body had a distinction all his own and what a shame it is she thought for that profile to crumble away before it had been carved in marble we are in the same boat she answered him there are not five years between us five years put us out of the same boat he rejoined especially when they are virtually 15 dead i know you think me an old man don't you what i think is that you are a sick man she said kindly are you called you used to be so strong for all your slenderness what is the matter with you everything nothing only that i feel old and that i haven't been used to feeling old and that it's so so loathsome i'm sure it is she laughed rallying him i can understand you're being sick if you have come to that but why do you let yourself why do you think about it why do you own to it in that abject way i never do i'm determined not to be an old woman until i am obliged and i don't paint either she added and my hair is my own he seemed to study her cheek and her hair she coloured up dipped her pen and looked at her unfinished letter he wandered off a step or two and returned do you know this thing of hamitons he inquired in a casual way extending the volume he held she took it laying down her pen a considerable literary discussion ensued during which he fetched more books from the shelves to show her it began to appear that he meant to spend the whole morning with her possibly taking it for granted that it was her desire to have him that idea if he entertained it must be corrected at once she resumed her pen with the business like air deb said he then do you mind if i read here for a little while i won't disturb you it's so nice and quiet away from those chattering women oh certainly she politely acquiesce but don't you think they'll want you with all the other men away now is your opportunity to be made much of i don't care to be made much of just because i am the only man oh but you would always be more than that of course i'm not more than an old phogy when the young fellows are around they will take no notice of me at tea time well i'm getting used to it i'm getting to know my place if that was your place you would soon vacate it how can i vacate it when people begin to make me for an old phogy they'll not have the honor of my company in their houses that's very well for you wait till the time comes and i suppose you like it anyhow you seem to enjoy all this waving a hand around as if you were a girl who had never seen anything i'm sick and tired of the whole show they don't have any more to do with it go home home what home have i a lovely flat in town they tell me where you give the best dinners and ladies theater parties and things sure i am hardly ever there i hate the record of london in the season i'm not up to it nowadays and you wouldn't have me stranded in piccadilly at this time of year i presume i'm obliged to spend the winter down south and by the same token i must soon be getting off all these east winds and damp mists will play the juice with my bronchitis oh it's bronchitis is it i knew it was something i suppose you've been cuddling yourself with hot rooms and all sorts of flannel things that's the way people make themselves tender and get chills and chest complaints and get old before their time the doctors insist on flannel the natural wool all of them the greatest mistake in the world i used to wear it because i thought the doctors ought to know and i was always getting colds now i never let a bit of wool touch my skin heaven for years and years and never know what it means to have a cold that is contrary to all the traditions he remarked seriously addressing her hands and back for she was still supposed to be writing her letter i can't believe that it is due to not wearing flannel debbie it's your splendid vitality you're being so different from other people nothing of the sort you try it not just now of course with winter beginning but when warm weather comes again and so on the hostess broke in upon their tethertack while they were still engrossed in this interesting topic she was drawn into it and made a disciple of bydeb who attributed all her own blooming health and practical youthfulness to linen under clothing combined with plenty of fresh air and after all since letter writing was hopeless she did go out to lunch with the guns called remained alone and disconsolate by the library fire she was due to leave the house next day and left although conscience of a strange hankering to stay and during the interval gave mr delzel no further opportunity to talk about his bronchitis and other things he was not aware that she was to go so soon until she was gone and then he found himself with livelier feelings then had stirred his language being for many a day he was not only annoyed and disappointed as being deprived of the refreshment of her stimulating society he was incensed with her mode of departure which seemed to imply an intention to evade him does she still think that i am after her money he asked himself with scorn of her mean suspiciousness just because i was magnanimous enough to ignore the past he went down south to play a little at Monte Carlo and cruise a little in the Mediterranean to kill time through the detestable winter which made itself felt wherever he was and she went to London to see about france's gown and up north to bracing scotland and down to wellwood for christmas and back to the record of london in the spring and neither of them had spent a lonelier time in all their lives quite a fresh and peculiar sense of homelessness and uncomforted old age took possession of them both all through the kaleidoscopic transformation scenes of the seasons through which she moved magnificently old maidhood notwithstanding she was unconsciously seeking him it was her impression from all she had heard of his tastes and ways that he could not keep away from that common rendezvous of his class and kind she did not find him but all the same he was there he returned from his winter haunts sooner than he's want while still the april winds were full of menace for him exposed himself to those winds seeking her caught a chill neglected it a most unusual thing and fell into an illness that confined him to his bed for many weeks it was not until june the dev heard of it he was truly so much of an old phogy now in the society of which he had once been such a distinguished ornament that his disappearance was long unnoticed and when it lasts someone noticed it in Deb's hearing the light and callous way in which his trouble was referred to went to her heart knowing all she knew one of her generous impulses came to her on the spot and an hour later she was at the door at his chambers inquiring after him his man a very jewel of a man received her at the door gravely cautiously keeping it half shut he reported his master mending but still weak and not able to see anyone females of all kinds were sternally discouraged by this prudent person from force of old habit oh of course not said Deb offhandedly just give him my card please and say i'm very glad to hear he is not as ill as i feared i'm pain of dismissal from the best service he had ever known and he had known it now for a long time manton had to find the lady's address as soon as it was supplied to him claude sent for her to come and see him are we old enough now to dispense with chaperones he wrote and the sight of his handwriting after all these long years moved her strangely if you think not bring the deathest old post of your acquaintance only do come i haven't had anybody to speak to for a week of course we are old enough commented Deb as she read the words the idea of fussing about chaperones and that nonsense at our time of life and she proceeded to array herself in her most youthful summer dress which was also the choicest of her stock taking their utmost pains to match toke and gloves while full of indignation against his friends for so shamefully neglecting him boldly she ascended to his sitting room in the wake of tight-lipped manton who presently brought tea and at intervals tended the fire apparently without once casting an eye upon her claude was up and dressed in her honor while fit only for his bed in the midst of the refined luxury that he had gathered about him he looked but the ghost of a man worn with his illness and the fatigue of preparing for her it was one of those english summers that never answered to its name and he sat in a sable lined overcoat considered more respectful than addressing down in a heat that almost choked her but with swelling heart she hurried to his side and after greetings through a chair close up to his took the hand he silently extended and held it in a long warm maternal clasp manton retired and shut the door the invalid lay back on his cushions and closed his eyes the visitor watching him detected an oozing tear the first she had ever seen there how did it happen she crooned and followed the question with many more of the same thought to which he replied as to a mother or a nurse it's this beastly climate he complained it upsets me every time though this is the worst bout i've had yet i really can't stand it debbie even in june when you think you were safe just look at it it was raining slightly as he spoke well why do you try to stand it said she why not come back to your own country you'd be safe there if anywhere i've been thinking of it said he it has been in my mind all winter the thought of that good soaking sunshine that we used to have and think nothing of the riviera is in a patch on it i i'd get warm there but what a life now i am not like you i've got nothing and nobody to go back to i should be giving up everything the little that i have left and god knows life is empty enough as it is well i'm going she broke in and i am nobody he sprung up in his chair you you going time i did she liked i haven't said eyes are my property and my two sisters since goodness knows when he held out his shaking hands his face was working pitifully debbie debbie he wailed like a lost child will you take me will you have me she caught him in her strong arms dearest we will go together she murmured and he fell sobbing on her breast it was not in the least what she had meant to say or to do but the appeal was irresistible it was too terrible to see him him her young prince of such towering pride and beauty brought down to this but she soon had him out of his slough of despond and climbing the hills of hope again with something of his old gallant here the rapidity of his convalescence was astonishing by the end of july he was well enough to be married end of chapter 25 chapter 26 of sisters this is a liberal box recording all liberal box recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liberal box dot org this reading by lucy bergoyne sisters by aida cambridge chapter 26 the first letter signed debba dolezel was addressed strange to say to guthrie curry not to the commander at the s s athrodot via his shipping office but to guthrie carry a squire well would haul norfolk for a great change had taken place in the circumstances of her old friend one day a few years earlier he had been called from the sea somewhere off the coast of south america to take his place as a land owner and land weller amongst the great squires of england quite the very last thing he could have anticipated in his wildest dreams three sons of the reigning carry had been capsized in a gale while out yachting the reigning carry on hearing of the catastrophe had been seized with a fit that proved fatal in a few hours his eldest son's wife as an effect of the same shock had given birth to a stillborn male infant the sole grandson one brother had died childless another leaving daughters only the third guthrie's father was also dead thus the unexpected happen as it has a way of doing in this world and the two penny half penny mate of old redford days had become the head of a county family his experiences had trained him for the change he took it soberly without losing his head a bristling array of blood enemies were gradually transformed into a circle of respectful friends some of them assisted him to settle himself in his unfamiliar seat to teach him the duties of his high station he was teachable but independent not shutting his eyes and opening his mouth to swallow all the old world creeds they chose to put into it but studying every branch of the science of landlordism in the light of his own intelligence and beliefs when he had fairly mastered the situation he married one of his cousins he was in his robust middle age which comes so much later to men than to women she was well on in her 30s a comely sensible well-bred young lady and the most excellent cogiter to a squire knew to the business and eminently wise selection said his brother squires when the engagement was announced the wedding was a great family function and county event it meant that the carries instead of being split up and scattered to the winds remained together united in amity it meant that the dignity of the old house was to be kept up when a year later well would rung bells and lit bonfires in honor of the sun and air nothing seemed wanting to confirm the general impression that our Guthrie was not only a wise but a singularly fortunate man it was an impression that Guthrie shared from the point of view that he had now reached in life he believed himself favored beyond the common lot he loved well wood full of the memorials of his ancient race he enjoyed he settled and comfortable place therein after the homeless roving of so many years the feel of solid land under his feet and under his life for which every sailor pines despite whatever spell the sea may lay on him he was proud of his perfect-mannered wife who was also his good friend and confidant he was ingregulously proud of his handsome boy and the day of the young romance of the great passion of those thought at little fires which beckoned to men whose nature craze for warmth and whose yule is cold that day was passed love is one thing and marriage another he had once said without really meaning it that he had spoken truer than he knew moreover the shocking statement was not nearly so awful as it seemed the very conditions of marriage life are fatal to love as love is understood by the yet unmarried lovers insanely sanguine of human necessity asking the impossible and no blame to them because they are made so but no matter that thing which comes afterwards to the right-minded and well-intentioned in which they don't think worth calling love that sober faithful forbearing friendship that mutual need which endures all the time and is ever more deeply satisfied and satisfying instead of less is not bad substitute yet how the world of imagination dominates the world of fact how much fairer the unseen than the scene how much more precious the good we have not than the good we have in his private desk in his private study guthrie kept just as old mr. penny quick had kept his valentine a faded spotted ochre tinted photograph of paul little lily in the saucer bonnet with lace brides to it that she was married in and when wellwood was humming with shooting parties and the like and its lady doing the honors of the house with all the forethought and devotion that she could bring to the task the stout squire would be sitting in his sanctum under lock and key gazing at the sweet girl face which had the luck to be dead and gone lily in the retrospect of the faultless woman the ideal wife and loves young dreaming one i have had my day was the thought of his heart as he looked across the gulf of strenuous checkered disappointing years to that idol of the far past which her pictured form brought back to him whatever is lacking now i have known the fullness of love and bliss and there is such a thing as a perfect union between man and woman rare as it may be it will be remembered that he was married to her actually for a period not exceeding five weeks in all and debora penny quick who could have made such a magnificent lady of wellwood who was in fact asked to take the post before it was offered to the cousin she came to spend christmas under his roof while still a spinster on the tacit understanding that neither was a subject for nonsense anymore deb and mrs carrie were close friends deb was the godmother at the air the home likeness of wellwood was intensified by her intercourse while there with english redford and the descendants of that brother with whom old mr penny quick had been unable to hit it off hum drum persons whose attraction for her lay in their name and blood and the fact that they could show her the arms and portraits of her ancestors and the wainscotted room in which her father was born it was to wellwood that she went to be married from the old home of the caries she was driven to the old church of the penny quicks full of mouldering monuments to a nearly vanished grace it was buried in its rural solitude far from the railways and gossip mongers and newspaper reporters and the wedding was as quiet as quiet could be guthrie was acting brother and gave her away he never of course disclosed the secret that was his and france his honest brother as he longed to be but perhaps even had she known it and her own austere chastity not withstanding she might have been broad minded enough to judge him kindlier than is the want of the sex which does not know all and have still held him worthy to be to her the friend he was as she knew him she loved him sister life and turn to him naturally when she needed a brother's services and so it was to him that she wrote first at the end of the short wedding day journey just to tell him that she and her bridegroom had arrived safely and the Claude was standing the fatigue much better than they could have hoped she did not write to Francis until she had a husband on the high seas she did not write at all to Mary or Rose not wishing them to know of her marriage until she could personally break it to them it was not difficult to ensure this since for many a year they had all been so separated by their respective circumstances that they were no longer sisters in the old redford sense the business of each was her own and not supposed to interest the rest only such domestic events as were of serious moment were formally reported amongst them and were never deemed serious enough to use the cable fall the pair came home very quietly Sydney was the port of the rival and here Deb divined on the part of her husband a desire to be left in peace to recruit after labourers traveling in the care of his devoted and accomplished man while she went forward to get the fuss over those sisters were the shadows upon his now sunny path although he did not say so he wanted to get to redford without having to kiss them and talk to their offensive men folk on the way so Deb proposed to do what she felt he wished and paid no heed to the dutiful objections which he could not make to sound genuine in her ears she telegraphed instructions to Bob Goldsworthy to engage rooms for her and to meet her signing the message aunt Deborah her only herald Bob was Julie at Spencer Street elegant in curl moustaches and a frock coat become a swell young barrister since she had seen him last he was sure of the impression he could create upon his discriminating aunt and had no notion that her first flashing glance at him was accompanied by a flashing thought of how her adopted son would too surely be ranked by her more discriminating husband with the boundaries of his implacable disdain on the platform while explaining that he knew it was not the proper thing to do in a public place he embraced the majestic figure in the splendid sable cloak Deb said bother the property and kissed him readily charrally however because conscience of teeth that were not penny quick teeth and perversely objecting to the faultless costume but looking at the frock coat she perceived mourning band upon the sleeve another encircled his glittering tall hat not oh Bob not your mother she gasped he shook his head and asked a question about her luggage aunt rose your uncle oh aunt deb don't she is my aunt i know but he bob spread deprecating hands they are both well i believe i think i heard that the 50th baby arrived last week is that your maid in the brown oh but bob tell me they haven't lost any of those nice children i do trust i should hardly have been in mourning on their account no fat and tough as little pigs by the look of them it is my father aunt deb i thought you knew what she stopped on their way towards rosalie and the luggage van you don't say yes a couple of months ago the martyr wrote to you i have been wandering from place to place the letter never reached me pneumonia supervaning upon influenza that is what the doctors called it but it was really a complication of disorders some of them have long standing between you and me aunt deb he took a great deal more than was good for him laterally and that told upon him his blood was bad you know he was always a self-indulgent man deb nodded forgetting that it was a son who spoke she was saying to herself benna goldsworthy whom we made sure would live forever benna goldsworthy of all people what a relief that will be to claude and then she thought of her widowed sister with the rush of pity and compunction he was her husband after all bogs light attention to the subject was already gone he was staring at one of the great trunks covered with foreign labels rosalie was telling him how many more mrs delzel had oh yes said deb confused and crimson i forgot to mention i suppose you don't know that i am married to an old friend of our family your mother will know him well by the way bob i must go and see her at once we'll have some lunch first i must wash and change my clothes then will you stay at the hotel and settle rosalie and see to things no i would rather go alone stay in town and dine with me and don't look so shocked my good boy as if i'd cut you off with a shilling my marriage will make no difference to you aren't dead with dignified reproach as if i thought of that but somehow she felt sure he did think of it they had luncheon together at the hotel and sat a while to digest it and talk things over while they sip coffee he told her how he had furnished his bachelor rooms the artistic woodwork the curious the colors how he had hunted for the right shade of red what he had given for a particular rug which alone would blend and harmonize she was brightly interested in these things and promised to go and see them she was to go to lunch next day he thought he could safely undertake not to poison her with bad cooking or unsound wine he lived in chambers in parliament place this engagement booked she asked him for his mother's address mary lived in a small street in richman such a slum said bob disgustedly but she would do it in spite of all that i could say and rush there too when he had hardly been dead a week it was not decent as i told her to be advertising the sale two days after the funeral but she is a peculiar woman she is a penny quick said mrs delzel reprovingly she would not care to go on living in a house that she had ceased to have the right to live in i should not myself but she might have gone to another place you must insist on her going to another i am afraid my influence is not enough to persuade her my dear boy i am convinced that if you asked her to walk into a burning fiery furnace she would do it to please you without a moment's hesitation she is that way in some things poor dear but in others i may talk till i have no voice left and she won't listen and she was set on the scheme she has a mania for for that sort of thing one would never believe that she was your sister she would hate to live like other people she simply loves to be a nobody i can't understand it you try your influence with her will you well order of courage for me and i will put on my things he pressed her to allow him to escort her which was obviously the proper thing when she refused again and went off like any nobody alone he returned to his chambers leaving rosalie to the unimportant persons whose business it was to look after her mrs breen's house was in east melbourne and deb directed the coachman to drive there first she remembered the 50th baby that was but a few days old i must see how the poor child is doing deb said not alluding to the baby and soon she saw again the exquisitely kept garden large for that locality and the spacious white house almost glittering in the sun she had sniffed at the borger's villa she thought at borger's still but who could help admiring those window panes like diamonds and that grass like velvet and that air a perfect well-being which pervaded every inch at the place as the carriage entered the fine wrought iron gates a flock of little brains attached to a perambulator two nurses and five dogs were coming out of it and she stopped to a cost and kiss them each child was as fresh as a daisy it's hair like floss silk with careful brushing its petticoats as dainty as its frock its socks and boots immaculate there was nanny her godchild shot up slim and tall from the dumpling baby that her aunt remembered showing plainly the milky fair sunny faced wholesome woman that she was presently to become deb gazed at her with aches of regret she had thought them forever stifled includes all sufficing companionship for her own lost motherhood and of lesser but still poignant regret that she had not been allowed to adopt nanny in bob goldsworthy's place the joy of dressing and taking out a daughter at that stamp of having her at home with one to make the tea and to chat with and to lean on old casire came to the door casire sleek and placid like the family she served delighted to welcome the distinguished traveler but still more delighted to brag about the last brain baby a lovely boy without a spot or blemish said casire three times over and that makes 11 and not one too many and miss rose doing fine thank you i'll go and prepare her for this surprise so it don't upset her constants quite a grown young lady met her aunt on the stairs kathleen and lucy rose from the piano in the drawing room where they had been entertaining their mother at a safe distance with their latest learned pieces they too had to be greeted and kissed and sweated flesh to kiss no lips could ask for my husband may be a draper rose had often said but i'll trouble you to show me a duke with a handsome a family mentally deb compared the cool flower petal cheeks of her brain nieces with her goldsworthy nephew's mouth covering those unpleasant teeth it would have been fairer to compare him with her brain nephews but there the contrast would have been nearly as great john at business with his father and penny quick learning station management with the simpsons at thunderboo had the fresh and cleanly appearance of all roses children in physical matters they were as clean as they looked bob did not look unclean but with all his excessive smartness he looked unfresh that look and the thing it meant were his father's legacy to him at last deb reached her sister's room it was another addition to their ever-growing house and marked like each former one the ever-growing prosperity of the shop supporting it the fastidious traveled eye appraised the rich rugs and hangings the massive sweep the delicately furnished bed and took in the general air of warm luxury and unstinted comfort even before it fell upon rose herself rose fat and fair and the picture of content sitting in the softest of armchairs and the smartest of gowns and slippers by the brightest of wood fires with a table full of new novels and magazines on one side of her and a frilly cradle on the other my husband may be a draper she had remarked at various times but he does give me a good home Deb so long homeless amid her wealth conceded at this moment without a grudge that roses humble little arrow of ambition had fairly hit the mark they embraced with all the warmth of the old red for days a few hosty questions and answers were exchanged and their heads met over the cradle you poor child Deb exclaimed as a matter of form haven't you done with this kind of thing yet oh said rose i should feel lost without one now and we wanted another boy we have only three you know isn't here darling number 11 fast asleep was fished from his downy bed and laid in his aunt's arms eagerly extended for him his clothes might have been woven by fairies and he smelled like a violet bed in spring strange thrills sharper than those that nanny had set going shook Deb's big heart as she cuddled and kissed him the older i get she confessed the greater fool i am about a baby and you do have such nice babies rose yes simp and rose they are nicer than most certainly i'm sure i don't know why her eyes bloated on the white bundle she fidgeted to get it back ah debbie i wish i wish you knew i know you do my dear love deb a little quealy and she returned the baby in order to hunt for her handkerchief and if you must know the truth so do i it's tantalizing to see you with more than your share while i have none and never shall have worse luck well blowing her nose cheerfully it's no use crying over spilt milk is it and i tipped the can over myself so i can't complain how's peter rose told her how peter was so dear so good and then had so much to say about the children one by one through all the 11 of them that it was quite in a hurry at last that deb disclosed her secret and rose not only sustained no shock which would have been bad for her that could see nothing in the marriage worth fussing about except the fact that it came too late for a family such as thoughtedly domestic person was she she mourned and condoled over the spilt milk so sure that deb was that hungrily lapping up drops with the dust at the floor that deb grew almost angry she took back her own words and said she was glad there was no children to come between her and her husband who needed only each other she implied that this union had a higher significance than could be grasped by a mere suckler of fuels nice feels no doubt a chronicler of small beer however good the brew she believed it too love great solemn immortal love passionate and suffering was a thing unknown too comfortable commonplace rose as doubtless to peter also they were dear good people and fortunate in their ignorance and what had spared them but it was annoying when ignorance assumed superior knowledge and wanted to teach its grandmother to suck eggs was it come to this that a marriage and a family were synonymous terms no indeed nor ever would while intelligent men and women walked the earth deb reserved the more sacred confidences for mary's ear mary had loved strangely indeed but tragically with pain and loss the dignified concomitance of the divine state mary would understand end of chapter 26