 a pair of blue eyes chapter 38 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 org recording by tag Heinz a pair of blue eyes by Thomas Hardy chapter 38 jealousy is cruel as the grave Steven Ponder not a little on his meeting with his old friend and once beloved exemplar he was grieved for amid all the distractions of his latter years a still small voice of fidelity tonight had lingered on in him perhaps his staunchness was because night had ever treated him as a mere disciple even to snubbing him sometimes and had at last though unwittingly inflicted upon him the greatest snub of all that of taking away his sweetheart the emotional side of his constitution was built rather after a feminine than a male model and that tremendous wound from night's hand may have tended to keep alive a warmth which solicitousness would have extinguished altogether night and his part was vexed after they had parted that he had not taken Steven in hand a little after the old manner those words which Smith had let fall concerning somebody having a prior claim to Elfride would if ordered when the man was younger have provoked such a query as come tell me all about it my lad from night and Steven would straightway have delivered himself of all he knew on the subject Steven the ingenuous boy though now obliterated externally by Steven the contriving man returned to night's memory vividly that afternoon he was at present but a sojourner in London and after attending to the two or three matters of business which remain to be done that day he walked abstractedly into the gloomy corridors of the British Museum for the half hour previous to their closing that meeting with Smith had reunited the present with the past closing up the chasm of his absence from England as if it had never existed until the final circumstances of his previous time of residence in London formed but a yesterday to the circumstances now the conflict that then had rage in him concerning Elfride's swan court revived strengthened by its sleep indeed in those many months of absence though quelling the intention to make her his wife he had never forgotten that she was the type of woman adapted to his nature and instead of trying to obliterate thoughts over all together he had grown to regard them as an infirmity it was necessary to tolerate night returned to his hotel much earlier in the evening than he would have done in the ordinary course of things he did not care to think whether this arose from a friendly wish to close the gap that had slowly been widening between himself and his earliest acquaintance or from a hankering desire to hear the meaning of the dark oracles Steven had hastily pronounced be tokening that he knew something more of Elfride than night had supposed he made a hasty dinner inquired for Smith and soon was ushered into the young man's presence whom he found sitting in front of a comfortable fire beside a table spread with a few scientific periodicals and art reviews I have come to see you after all said night my man was odd this morning and it seemed desirable to call but that you had too much sense to notice Steven I know put it down to my wanderings in France and Italy don't say another word but sit down I'm only too glad to see you again Steven would hardly have cared to tell night just then that the minute before night was announced he had been reading over some old letters of Elfrides there were not many and until tonight had been sealed up and stowed away in a corner of his leather trunk with a few other mementos and relics which had accompanied him in his travels the familiar sights and sounds of London the meeting with his friend had with him also revived that sense of abiding continuity with regard to Elfride and love which is absent at the other side of the world had to some extent suspended though never ruptured he had first intended only to look over these letters on the outside then he read one then another until the whole was thus reused as a stimulus to sad memories he folded them away again placed them in his pocket and instead of going on with an examination into the state of the artistic world had remained musing on the strange circumstance that he had returned to find night not the husband of Elfride after all the possibility of any given gratification begets a cumulative sense of its necessity Stephen gave the rain to his imagination and felt more intensely than he had felt for many months that without Elfride his life would never be any great pleasure to himself or honor to his maker they sat by the fire chatting on external and random subjects neither caring to be the first to approach the matter each most long to discuss on the table with the periodicals late two or three pocket books one of them being open night seeing from the exposed page that the contents were sketches only began turning the leaves over carelessly with his finger when sometime later Stephen was out of the room night proceeded to pass the interval by looking at the sketches more carefully the first crude ideas pertaining to dwellings of all kinds were roughly outlined on the different pages antiquities have been copied fragments of Indian columns colossal statues and outlandish ornament from the temples of Elephanta and Kenner I were carelessly intruded upon by outlines of modern doors windows roofs cooking stoves and household furniture everything in short which comes within the range of a practicing architect's experience who travels with his eyes open among these occasionally appeared rough delineations of medieval subjects for carving or illumination heads of virgins saints and prophets Stephen was not professedly a freehand draftsman but he drew the human figure with correctness and skill in its numerous repetitions on the sides and edges of the leaves night began to notice the peculiarity all the feminine saints had one type of feature there were large Nimbay and small Nimbay about their drooping heads but the face was always the same that profile how well night knew that profile had there been but one specimen of the familiar countenance he might have passed over the resemblance as accidental but a repetition meant more night thought anew of Smith's hasty words earlier in the day and looked at the sketches again and again on the young man's entry night said with palpable agitation Stephen who are these intended for Stephen looked over the book with utter unconcern saints and angels done in my leisure moments they were intended as designs for the stained glass of an English church but whom do you idealize by that type of woman you always adopt for the virgin nobody then a thought raced along Stephen's mind and he looked up at his friend the truth is Stephen's introduction of Elfride's liniments had been so unconscious that he had not at first understood his companion's drift the hand like the tongue easily acquires the trick of repetition by rote without calling in the mind to assist at all and this had been the case here young men who cannot write verses about their loves generally take to portraying them and in the early days of his attachment Stephen had never been weary of outlining Elfride the lay figure of Stephen's sketches now initiated an adjustment of many things night had recognized her the opportunity of comparing notes had come unsought Elfride swancourt to whom I was engaged he said quietly Stephen I know what you mean by speaking like that oh was it Elfride you the man Stephen yes and you are thinking why did I conceal the fact from you that time at endelstow are you not yes and more more I did it for the best blame me if you will I did it for the best and now say how could I be with you afterwards as I had been before I don't know at all I can't say night remained fixed and thought and once he murmured I had a suspicion this afternoon that there might be some such meaning in your words about my taking her away but I dismissed it how came you to know her he presently asked in an almost peremptory tone I went down about the church years ago now when you were with Huey of course of course well I can't understand it his tones rose I don't know what to say you're hoodwinking me like this for so long I don't see that I have hoodwinked you at all yes yes but night arose from the seat and began pacing up and down the room his face was markedly pale and his voice perturbed as he said you did not act as I should have acted towards you under these circumstances I feel it deeply and I tell you plainly I shall never forget it what your behavior at that meeting in the family vault when I told you we were going to be married deception dishonesty everywhere all the worlds of a piece Stephen did not much like this misconstruction of his motives even though it was but the hasty conclusion of a friend disturbed by emotion I could do no other wise than I did with due regard to her he said stiffly indeed said night in the bitterest tone of reproach nor could you with due regard to her have married her I suppose I have hoped longed that he who turns out to be you would ultimately have done that I am much obliged you for that hope but you talk very mysteriously I think I had about the best reason anybody could have had for not doing that oh what reason was it that I could not you ought to have made an opportunity you ought to do so now and bear justice to her Stephen tried night carried beyond himself that you know very well and it hurts and wounds me more than you dream to find you never have tried to make any reparation to a woman of that kind so trusting so apt to be run away with by her feelings poor little fool so much the worse for her hey you talk like a madman you took her away from me did you not picking up what another chose down can scarcely be called taking away however we should not agree too well upon that subject so we had better part but I am quite certain you miss apprehend something most grievously said Stephen shaken to the bottom of his heart what have I done tell me I have lost Elfride but is that such a sin was it her doing or yours what's what that you parted I will tell you honestly it was hers entirely entirely what was her reason I can hardly say but I will tell you the story without reserve Stephen until today had unhesitatingly held that she grew tired of him and turned to night but he did not like to advance that statement now or even to think the thought to fancy otherwise accorded better with the hope to which night's estrangement had given birth that love for his friend was not the direct cause but a result of her suspension of love for himself such a matter must not be allowed to breed a score between us night returned relapsing into a manner which concealed all his true feeling as if confidence was now intolerable I do see that your reticence towards me in the vault may have been dictated by potential considerations he concluded artificially it was a strange thing altogether but not of much importance I suppose at this distance of time and it does not concern me now though I don't mind hearing your story these words from night uttered with such an air of renunciation and apparent indifference prompted smith to speak on perhaps with a little complacency of his old secret engagement to Elfride he told the details of its origin and the peremptory words and actions of her father to extinguish their love night persevered in the tone and manner of a disinterested outsider it had become more than ever imperative to screen his emotions from Stephen's eye the young man would otherwise be less frank and their meeting would be again embittered what was the use of untoward candor Stephen had now arrived at a point in his ingenuous narrative where he left a vicarage because of her father's manner night's interest increased their love seemed so innocent and childlike thus far it is a nice point in casuistry he observed to decide whether you were culpable or not in not telling mr swan court that your parishioners were friends of his it is only human nature to hold your tongue under the circumstances well what was the result of your dismissal by him that we agreed to be secretly fateful and to ensure this we thought we would marry night suspense and agitation rose higher when Stephen entered upon this phase of the subject do you mind telling on he said studying his manner of speech oh not at all then Stephen gave in full the particulars of the meeting with Elfride at the railway station the necessity they were under of going to London unless the ceremony were to be postponed the long journey of the afternoon and evening her timidity and revulsion of feeling its culmination on reaching London the crossing over to the down platform and their immediate departure again solely in obedience to her wish the journey all night their anxious watching for the dawn their arrival at st. Lawrence's at last were detailed and he told how a village woman named jetway was the only person who recognized them either going or coming and how dreadfully this terrified Elfride he told how we waited in the fields whilst this then reproachful sweetheart went for her pony and how the last kiss he ever gave her was given a mile out of the town on the way to Endelstow these things Stephen related with a will he believed that in doing so he established word by word the reasonableness of his claim to Elfride cursor cursed that woman that miserable letter that part of this oh god night began pacing the room again and uttered this at further end what did you say said Stephen turning around say did i say anything oh i was merely thinking about your story and the oddness of my having a fancy for the same woman afterwards and that now i i have forgotten her almost and neither of us care about her except just as a friend you know hey night still continued at the further end of the room somewhat in shadow exactly said Stephen inwardly exultant for he was really deceived by night's offhand manner yet he was deceived less by the completeness of night's disguise than by the persuasive power which lay in the fact that night had never before deceived him in anything so this supposition that his companion had ceased to love Elfride was an enormous lightning of the weight which had turned the scale against him admitting that Elfride could love another man after you said the elder under the same varnish of careless criticism she was none the worse for that experience the worse of course she was none the worse did you ever think it a while thoughtless thing for her to do indeed i never did said Stephen i persuaded her she saw no harm in it till she decided to return nor did i nor was there except to the extent of indiscretion directly she thought it was wrong she would go no further that was it i had just begun to think it wrong too such a childish escapade might have been misrepresented by any evil disposed person might it not it might but i never heard that it was nobody who really knew all the circumstances one of the otherwise than smile if all the world had known it Elfride would still have remained the only one who thought her actionless sin poor child she always persisted in thinking so and was frightened more than enough Stephen do you love her now well i like her i always shall you know he said evasively and with all the strategy love suggested but i have not seen her for so long that i can hardly be expected to love her do you love her still how shall i answer without being ashamed what fickle beings we men are Stephen men may love strongest for a while but women love longest i used to love her in my way you know yes i understand ah and i used to love her in my way in fact i loved her a good deal at one time but travel has a tendency to obliterate early fancies it has it has truly perhaps the most extraordinary feature in this conversation was the circumstance that though each interlocutor had at first his suspicions of the other's abiding passion awakened by several little acts neither would allow himself to see that his friend might now be speaking deceitfully as well as he Stephen resumed night now that matters are smooth between us i think i must leave you you won't mind my hurrying off to my quarters you'll stay to some sort of supper surely didn't you come to dinner you must really excuse me this once then you'll drop into breakfast tomorrow i should be rather pressed for time an early breakfast which shall interfere with nothing i'll come said night with as much readiness as it will be possible to graft upon a huge stock of reluctance yes early eight o'clock say as we are under the same roof anytime you like eight it shall be and night left him to wear a mask to disemble his feelings as he had in their late miserable conversation was such torture that he could no longer support it it was the first time in night's life that he had ever been so entirely the player of a park and the man he had thus deceived was Stephen who had docilely looked up to him from youth as a superior of unblemished integrity he went to bed and allowed the fever of his excitement to rage uncontroll Stephen it was only he whose arrival only Stephen there was an anti-climax of absurdity which night wretched and conscience-stricken as he was could not help recognizing Stephen was but a boy to him where the great grief lay was in perceiving that the very innocence of Elfida in reading her little fault as one so grave was what had fatally misled him had Elfida with any degree of coolness asserted that she had done no harm the poisonous breath of the dead Mrs Jethway would have been inoperative why did he not make his little docile girl tell more if on that subject he had only exercised the imperitiveness customary with him on others all might have been revealed it smote his heart like a switch when he remembered how gently she had borne his scourging speeches never answering him with a single reproach only assuring him of her unbounded love night blessed Elfida for her sweetness and forgot her fault he pictured with a vivid fancy those fair summer scenes with her he again saw her as at her first meeting timid at speaking yet in her eagerness to be explanatory borne forward almost against her well how she would wait for him in green places without showing any of the ordinary woman the affectations of indifference how proud she was to be seen walking with him bearing legibly in her eyes the thought that he was the greatest genius in the world he formed a resolution and after that could make pretence of slumber no longer rising and dressing himself he sat down and waited for day that night Steven was restless too not because of the unwantedness of a return to English scenery not because he was about to meet his parents and settle down for a while to English cottage life he was indulging in dreams and for the nonce the warehouses of Bombay and the planes and forts of Puna were but a shadow's shadow his dream was based on this one atom of fact Elfida and night had become separated and their engagement was as if it had never been their rupture must have occurred soon after Steven's discovery of the fact of the union and Steven went on to think what's so probable as that a return of her air into affection to him was the cause Steven's opinions in the matter were those of a lover and not the balanced judgment of an unbiased spectator his naturally sanguine spirit built hope upon hope till scarcely a doubt remained in his mind that her lingering tenderness for him had in some way been perceived by night and had provoked their partying to go and see Elfida was a suggestion of impulses it was impossible to withstand at any rate to run down from st. Launces to Castle Boterel a distance of less than 20 miles and glide like a ghost about their old haunts making stealthy inquiries about her would be a fascinating way of passing the first spare hours after reaching home on the day after tomorrow he was now a richer man than heretofore standing on his own bottom and the definite position in which he had rooted himself nullified old global distinctions he had become illustrious even sanguine klaris judging from the tone of the worthy mayor of st. Launces end of chapter 38 a pair of blue eyes chapter 39 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Tide Hines a pair of blue eyes by Thomas Hardy chapter 39 each to the loved one's side the friends and rivals breakfasted together the next morning not a word was said on either side upon the matter discussed the previous evening so glibly and so hollily Stephen was absorbed a greater part of the time in wishing he were not forced to stay in town yet another day I don't intend to leave for st. Launces till tomorrow as you know he said tonight at the end of the meal what are you going to do with yourself today I have an engagement just before 10 said night deliberately and after that time I was call upon two or three people I'll look for you this evening said Stephen yes do you may as well come up and down with me that is if we can meet I may not sleep in London tonight in fact I'm absolutely unsettled as to my movements yet however the first thing I'm going to do is get my baggage shifted from this place to beads in goodbye for the present I'll write to you you know if I can't meet you it now wanted a quarter to nine o'clock when night was gone Stephen felt yet more impatient of the circumstance that another day would have to drag itself away weirdly before he could set out for that spot of earth where on a soft thought of him might perhaps be nourished still on a sudden he admitted to his mind the possibility that the engagement he was waiting in town to keep might be postponed without much harm it was no sooner perceived than attempted looking at his watch he found it wanted 40 minutes to the departure of the 10 o'clock train from Paddington we'd left him with a surplus quarter of an hour before it would be necessary to start for the station scribbling a hasty note or two one putting off the business meeting another tonight apologizing for not being able to see him in the evening paying his bill and leaving his heavier luggage to follow him by goods train he jumped into a cab and rattled off to the great western station shortly afterwards he took a seat in the railway carriage the guard paused on his whistle to let into the next compartment to Smith's a man of whom Stephen had caught but a hasty glimpse as he ran across the platform at the last moment Smith sank back into the carriage stilled by perplexity the man was like night astonishingly like him what's a possible it could be he to have got there he must have driven like the wind to beads in and hardly ever lighted before starting again no it could not be he that was not his way of doing things during the early part of the journey Stephen Smith's thoughts busied themselves till his brain seemed swollen one subject was concerning his own approaching actions he was a day earlier than his letter to his parents had stated and his arrangement with them had been that they should meet him at Plymouth a plan which pleased the wordy couple beyond expression once before the same engagement had been made which he had then quashed by anti-dating his arrival this time he would go right on to Castle Bottle ramble in that well-known neighbourhood during the evening and next morning making inquiries and return to Plymouth to meet them as arranged the contrivance which would leave their cherished project undisturbed relieving his own impatience also at Chippenham there was a little waiting and some loosening and attaching of carriages Stephen looked out at the same moment another man's head emerged from the adjoining window each looked in the other's face night and Stephen confronted one another you here said the younger man yes it seems that you are too said night strangely yes the selfishness of love and the cruelty of jealousy were fairly exemplified at this moment each of the two men looked at his friend as he had never looked at him before each was troubled at the other's presence i thought you said you were not coming till tomorrow remarked night i did it was an afterthought to come today this journey was your engagement then no it was not this is an afterthought of mine too i left a note to explain it and account for my not being able to meet you this evening as we arranged so did i for you you don't look well you did not this morning i have a headache you are paler today than you were i too have been suffering from headache we have to wait here a few minutes i think they walked up and down the platform each one more and more embarrassingly concerned with the awkwardness of his friend's presence they reached the end of the footway and paused in sheer absent-mindedness steven's vacant eyes rested upon the operations of some porters who were shifting a dark and curious looking van from the rear of the train to shunt another which was between it and the four part of the train this operation having been concluded the two friends returned to the side of their carriage will you come in here said night not very warmly i have my rug and portmanteau and umbrella with me it is rather bothering to move now said steven reluctantly why not you come here i have my traps too it is hardly worthwhile to shift them for i shall see you again you know oh yes and each got into his own place just at starting a man on the platform held up his hands and stopped the train steven looked out to see what was the matter one of the officials was exclaiming to another that carriage should have been attached again can't you see it's for the main line quick what fools are in the world what a confounded nuisance these stoppages are exclaimed night impatiently looking out from his compartment well what is it that singular carriage we saw has been unfastened from our train by mistake it seems said steven he was watching the process of attaching it the van or carriage which he now recognize as having seen at paddington before he started was rich and solemn rather than gloomy an aspect it seemed to be quite new and of modern design and its impressive personality attracted the notice of others beside himself he beheld it gradually wheeled forward by two men on each side slower and more sadly it seemed to approach then a slight concussion and they were connected with it and off again steven sat all the afternoon pondering upon the reason of night's unexpected reappearance was he going as far as castle bottle if so he could only have one object in view a visit to elfride and what an idea it seemed at Plymouth Smith Park took of a little refreshment and then went round to the side from which the train started for Camelton the new station near castle bottle and endles though night was already there steven walked up and stood beside him without speaking two men at this moment crept out from among the wheels of the waiting train the carriage is light enough said one in the grim tone light is vanity full of nothing nothing in size but a good deal in signification said the other a man of brighter mind and manners Smith then perceived that to their train was attached the same carriage of grand and dark aspect which had haunted them all the way from London you were going on i suppose said night turning to steven after idly looking at the same object yes we may as well travel together for the remaining distance maybe not certainly we will and they both entered the same door evening drew on a pace a chance to be the eve of st valentine's that bishop of blessed memory two youthful lovers and the sun shone low under the rim of a tick hard plow decorating the eminences of the landscape with crowns of orange fire as the train changed its direction on a curve the same rays stretched in through the window and coaxed open night's half closed eyes you'll get out of st lounges i suppose he murmured no said steven i am not expected till tomorrow night was silent and you are you going to endelstow said the younger man pointedly since you ask i can do no less than say i am steven continued night slowly and with more resolution of manner than he had shown all the day i'm going to endelstow to see if elfride swancourt is still free and if so to ask her to be my wife so am i said steven smith i think you lose your labor night returned with decision naturally you do there was a strong accent of bitterness in steven's voice you might have said hope instead of think he added i might have done no such thing i gave you my opinion elfride swancourt may have loved you once no doubt but it was when she was so young that she hardly knew her mind thank you said steven laconically she knew her mind as well as i did we are the same age if you hadn't interfered don't say that don't say it steven how can you make out that i interfered be just please well said his friend she was mine before she was yours you know that and it seemed a hard thing to find that you had got her and that if it had not been for you all might have turned out well for me steven spoke with a swelling heart and looked out of the window to hide the emotion that would make itself visible upon his face that is absurd said knight in a kinder tone for you to look at the matter in that light what i tell you is for your own good you naturally do not like to realize the truth that her liking for you was only a girl's first fancy which has no root ever it is not true said steven passionately it was you put me out and now you'll be pushing in again between us and depriving me of my chance again my right that's what it is how ungenerous of you to come in you and try to take her away from me when you had won her i did not interfere and you might i think mr knight do by me as i did by you don't mr me you were as well in the world as i am now first love is deepest and that was mine who told you that said knight superciliously i had her first love and it was through me that you and she parted i can guess that well enough it was and if i were to explain to you in what way that operated imparting us i should convince you that you do quite wrong in intruding upon her that as i said at first your labor will be lost i don't use to explain because the particulars are painful but if you don't listen to me go on for heaven's sake i don't care what you do my boy you have no right to dominate over me as you do just because when i was a lad i was accustomed to look up to you as a master and you helped me a little for which i was grateful to you and have loved you you assume too much now and step in before me it is cruel it is unjust of you to injure me so knight showed himself keenly hurt at this steven those words are untrue and unworthy of any man and they are unworthy of you you know you wrong me if you have ever profited by any instruction of mine i am only too glad to know it you know it was given ungluggingly and that i have never once looked upon it as making you in any way a debtor to me steven's naturally gentle nature was touched and it was in a troubled voice that he said yes yes i am unjust in that i own it this is st lancer's station i think are you going to get out knight's manner of returning to the matter in hand drew steven again into himself no i told you i was going to end though he resolutely replied knight's features became impassive and he said no more the train continued rattling on and steven lent back in his corner and closed his eyes the yellows of evening had turned to browns the dusky shades ticked and a flying cloud of dust occasionally struck the window born upon a chilling breeze which blew from the northeast the previously gilded but now dreary hills began to lose their daylight aspects of retundity and to become black discs van dyke against the sky all nature wearing the cloak that six o'clock casts over the landscape at this time of the year steven started up in bewilderment after a long stillness and it was some time before he recollected himself well how real how real he exclaimed brushing his hand across his eyes what is said knight that dream i fell asleep for a few minutes and i've had a dream the most vivid i ever remember he weirdly looked out into the glow they were now drawing near to camelton the lighting of the lamps was perceptible through the veil of evening each flame starting into existence at intervals and blinking weakly against the gusts of wind well what did you dream said knight moodley oh nothing to be told it was a sort of incubus there's never anything in dreams i hardly supposed there was i know that however what i saw vividly dreamt was this since you would like to hear it was the brightest of bright mornings at east end of the church and you and i stood by the front far away in the chancel lord luxellian was standing alone cold and impassive and utterly unlike his usual self but i knew it was he inside the altar rail stood a strange clergyman with his book open he looked up and said to lord luxellian where is the bride lord luxellian said there is no bride at that moment somebody came in at the door and i knew her to be lady luxellian who died he turned and said to her i thought you were in the vault below us but that could have only been a dream of mine come on then she came on and in brushing between us she chilled me so with cold that i exclaimed the life has gone out of me and in the way of dreams i awoke but here we are at camelton they were slowly entering the station what are you going to do said knight do you really intend to call on the swan courts by no means i'm going to make enquiries first i shall stay at the luxellian arms tonight you will go right on to endles though i suppose at once i can hardly do that at this time of day perhaps you are not aware that the family her father at any rate is at variance with me as much as with you i didn't know it and that i cannot rush into the house as an old friend any more than you can certainly i have the privileges of a distant relationship whatever they may be knight let down the window and looked ahead there are a great many people at the station he said they seem all to be on the lookout for us when the train stopped the half estranged friends could perceive by the lamp light that the assemblage of idlers enclose as a kernel a group of men and black cloaks a side gate in the platform railing was open and outside this stood a dark vehicle which they could not at first characterize then knight saw on its upper part forms against the sky like cedars by night and knew the vehicle to be a hearse few people were at the carriage doors to meet the passengers the majority had congregated at this upper end knight and steven alighted and turned for a moment in the same direction the somber van which had accompanied them all day from london now began to reveal that their destination was also its own it had been drawn up exactly opposite the open gate the bystanders all fell back forming a clear lane from the gateway to the van and the men and cloaks entered the latter conveyance they are laborers i fancy said steven ah it is strange but i recognize three of them as endless though men rather remarkable this presently they began to come out two and two and under the rays of the lamp they were seen to bear between them a light colored coffin of satin wood brightly polished and without a nail the eight men took the burden upon their shoulders and slowly crossed with it over to the gate night and steven went outside and came close to the procession as it moved off a carriage belonging to the cortege turned round close to a lamp the rays shone upon the face of the vicar of endlstow mr swancourt looking many years older than when they had seen him last steven and knight involuntarily drew back knight spoke to a bystander what does mr swancourt to do with that funeral he's the lady's father said the bystander what lady's father said knight in a voice so hollow that the man stared at him the father the lady in the coffin she died in London you know and she'd been brought here by this train she used to be taken home tonight and buried tomorrow knight stood staring blindly at where the hearse had been as if he saw it or someone there then he turned and beheld a lithe form of steven bowed down like that of an old man he took his young friend's arm and led him away from the light end of chapter 39 a pair of blue eyes chapter 40 this is a liberal vox recording all liberal vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liberal vox dot org recording by tyke heins a pair of blue eyes by thomas hardy chapter 40 welcome proud lady half an hour has passed two miserable men are wandering in the darkness up the miles of road from camelton to endelstow that she'd broken her heart said henry knight can it be that i have killed her i was bitter with her steven and she has died and may god have no mercy upon me how can you have killed her more than i why i went away from her stole away almost and didn't tell her i should not come again and at that last meeting i did not kiss her once but let her miserably go i have been a fool a fool i wish the most abject confession of it before crowds of my countrymen could in any way make amends to my darling for the intense cruelty i have shown her here darling said steven with a sort of laugh any man can say that i suppose any man can i know this she was my darling before she was yours and after two if anybody has a right to call her his own it is i you talk like a man in the dark which is what you are did she ever do anything for you risk her name for instance for you yes she did said steven emphatically not entirely did she ever live for you prove she could not live without you laugh and weep for you yes never did she ever risk her life for you no my darling did for me then it was in kindness only when did she risk her life for you to save mine on the cliff yonder the poor child was with me looking at the approach of the puff and steamboat and i slipped down we both had an hour's escape i wish we had died there ah but wait steven pleaded with wet eyes she went on that cliff to see me arrive home she had promised it she told me she would months before and would she have gone there had she not cared for me at all you have an idea that elfride died for you no doubt said knight with a mournful sarcasm too nervous to support itself never mind if we find that she died yours i'll say no more ever and if we find she died yours i'll say no more very well so which i'll be the dark clouds into which the sun had sunk had begun to drop brain in an increasing volume can we wait somewhere till this shower is over said steven desultoryly as you will but it's not worthwhile we'll hear the particulars and return don't let people know who we are i am not much now they had reached a point at which the road branched into two just outside the west village one fork of the diverging routes passing into the latter place the other stretching on to east endelstow having come some of the distance by the footpath they now found that the hearse was only a little in advance of them i fancy it has turned off to east endelstow can you see i cannot you must be mistaken knight and steven entered the village a bar of fiery light lay across the road proceeding from the half open door of a smithy in which bellows were heard blowing and a hammer ringing the rain had increased and the mechanically turned for shelter towards the warm and cosy scene close at their heels came another man without overcoat or umbrella and with a parcel under his arm in a wet evening he said to the two friends as he passed by them they stood in the outer penthouse but the man went into the fire the smith ceases blowing and began talking to the man who had entered they have walked all away from camelton said the latter was obliged to come tonight you know he held the parcel which was a flat one towards the firelight to learn if the rain had penetrated it resting it edgewise on the forge he supported it perpendicularly with one hand wiping his face with the handkerchief he held in the other i suppose you know what you've got here he observed to the smith no i don't say the smith pausing again on his bellows as the rain's not over i'll show you said the bearer he laid the tin and broad package which had acute angles in different directions flat upon the anvil and the smith blew up the fire to give him more light first after untying the package a sheet of brown paper was removed this was laid flat then he unfolded a piece of bays this also he spread flat on the paper the third covering was a wrapper of tissue paper which was spread out in its turn the enclosure was revealed and he held it up for the smith's inspection oh i see said the smith kindling with the chastened interest and drawing close boy young lady ah terrible melancholy thing so soon two knight and steven turned their heads and looked and what's that continued the smith that's the coronet beautifully finished isn't it ah that costs some money tis this funny bit of metalwork as ever i see that tis it came from the same people as the coffin you know but was not ready soon enough to be sent round to the house in London yesterday i got to fix it on this very night the carefully packed articles were a coffin plate and coronet knight and steven came forward the undertaker's man on seeing them look for the inscription civilly turned it round towards them and each red almost at one moment by the ruddy light of the calls elf frida wife of spencer hugel luxellian fifteenth baron luxellian died february the 10th 18 they read it and read it and read it again steven on a night as if animated by one soul then steven put his hand upon knight's arm and they retired from the yellow glow further further till the chill darkness enclosed around them and the quiet sky asserted its presence overhead as a dim gray sheet of blank monotony where shall we go said steven i don't know along silence ensued elf frida married said steven then in a tin whisper as if he feared to let the assertion loose on the world false whispered night and dead denied us both i hate false i hate it night made no answer nothing was heard by them now saved a slow measurement of time by their beating pulses the soft touch of the dribbling rain upon their clothes and the low purr of the blacksmith's bellows hard by shall we follow elf frida any further steven said no let us leave her alone she is beyond our love and let her be beyond our approach since we don't know half the reasons that made her do as she did steven how can we say even now that she was not pure and true in heart night's voice had now become mild and gentle as a child's he went on can we call her ambitious no circumstance has as usual overpowered her purpose fragile and delicate as she liable to be overthrown in a moment by the coarse elements of accident i know that's it don't you it may be it must be let us go on they began to bend their steps towards castle botterl with her they had sent their bags from camelton they wandered on in silence for many minutes steven then paused and lightly put his hand within night's arm i wonder how she came to die he said in a broken whisper shall we return and learn a little more they turned back again and entering endelstow a second time came to a door which was standing open it was that of an inn called the welcome home and the house appeared to have been recently repaired and entirely modernized the name too was not that of the landlord as formerly but martin canisters night and smith entered the inn was quite silent and they followed the passage till they reached the kitchen where a huge fire was burning which roared up the chimney and sent over the floor ceiling and newly whitened walls a glare so intense as to make the candle quite a secondary light a woman in a white apron and black gown was standing there alone behind a cleanly scrubbed deal table steven first and night afterwards recognized her as unity who had been parlor made at the vicarage and young ladies made at the crags unity said steven softly don't you know me she looked inquiringly a moment and her face cleared up mr smith ah that's it she said and that's mr night i beg you sit down perhaps you know that since i saw you last i've married martin canister how long have you been married about five months we were married the same day that my dear miss elf reader became lady luxellan tears appeared in unity's eyes and fell them and fell down her cheek in spite of efforts to the contrary the pain of the two men in resolutely controlling themselves when thus example to admit relief of the same kind was distressing they both turned their backs and walked a few steps away then unity said will you go into the parlor gentlemen let us stay here with her night whispered and turning said no we will sit here we want to rest and dry ourselves for a time if you please that evening the sorrowing friends sat with the hostess beside the large fire night in the recess formed with a chimney breast where he was in shade and by showing a little confidence they won hers and she told them what they had stayed to hear the latter history of poor elf reader one day after you mr night had left us for the last time she was missed from the crags and her father went after her and brought her home ill where she went to i never knew but she was very unwell for weeks afterwards and she said to me that she didn't care what became of her and wish she could die when she was better i said she would live to be married yet and then she said yes i'll do anything for the benefit of my family so as to turn my useless life to some practical account well it began like this about law luxellian courtinger the first lady luxellian had died and he was in great trouble because the little girls were left motherless after a while they used to come and see her in their little black frocks for they liked her as well or better than their own mother that's true they used to call her little mama these children made her a shade livelier but she was not the girl she had been i could see that and she grew thinner a good deal well my lord got to ask the swan courts offner and offner to dinner nobody else of the acquaintance and at last the vicar's family were backwards and forwards at all hours of the day well people say the little girls asked their father to let me self-freedom come and live with them and that he said perhaps he would if they were good children however the time went on and one day i said miss elfrida you don't look so well as you used to and though nobody else seemed to notice it i do she laughed a little and said i shall live to be married yet as you told me shall you miss i am glad to hear that i said who do you think i'm going to be married to she said again mr night i suppose said i oh she cried and turned off so white and before i could get to her she had sunk down the gate but closed and fainted away well then she came to herself after a time and said unity now we'll go on with our conversation better not today miss i said yes we will she said whom do you think i'm going to be married to i don't know i said this time guess she said teasing my lord is it says i yes tis is she in a sick wild way but he don't come courting much did i ah you don't know she said and told me it was going to be in october after that she fleshed up a bit whether it was with the thought of getting away from the home or not i don't know for perhaps i may as well speak plainly and tell you that her home was no home to her now her father was bitter to her and harsh upon her and though mrs swancourt was well enough in her way it was a sort of cold politeness that was not worth much and a little thing and a worrying time of it all together about a month before the wedding she and my lord and the two children used to ride about together upon horseback and a very pretty sight to wear and if you believe me i never saw him once with her unless the children were with her too which made the courting strange looking i and my lord is so handsome you know so that at last i think she rather liked him and i have seen her smile and blush a bit at things he said he wanted her the more because the children did for everybody could see that she would be a most tender mother to them and a friend and playmate too and my lord is not only handsome but a splendid quarter and up to all the ways of it so we made her the beautifulest presence ah one i combined a lovely bracelet with diamonds and emeralds oh how red her face came when she saw it the old roses came back to her cheeks for a minute or two then i helped dress her the day we both were married it was the last service i did her poor child when she was ready i ran upstairs and slipped my own wedding gown on and away they went and away went martin and i and no sooner had my lord or my lady been married than the person married us it was a very quiet pair of weddings hardly anybody knew it well hope will hold its own in a young heart if so be it can and my lady freshened up a bit for my lord was so handsome and so kind how came she to die and away from home murmur night don't you see sir she fell off again of force they'd be married long and my lord took her abroad for a change of scene they were coming home and it got as far as london when she was taken very ill and couldn't be moved and there she died was he very fond of her what my lord oh he was very fond of her very beyond everything not suddenly but by slow degrees positive nature to win people more when they knew her well he'd have died for i believe poor my lord he's a broken now the funeral is tomorrow yes my husband is now at the vault of the masons opening the steps and cleaning down the walls the next day the two men walked up the familiar valley from castle bottle to east end of the church and when the funeral was over and everyone had left the lawn like churchyard the pair went softly down the steps of the luxelian vault and under the low-growing arches they held be held once before lit up then as now in the new niche of the crypt lay a rather new coffin which had lost some of its luster and the newer coffin still bright and untarnished in the slightest degree beside the ladder was the dark form of a man kneeling on the damp floor his body flung across the coffin his hands clasped and his whole frame seemingly given up another abandonment to grief he was still young younger perhaps than night and even now showed how graceful was his figure and symmetrical his build he murmured a prayer half aloud and was quite unconscious that two others were standing within a few yards of him night and steven had advanced to where they once stood beside alfrida on the day all three had met there before she had herself gone down into silence like her ancestors and shut her bright blue eyes forever not until then did they see the kneeling figure in the dim light night instantly recognized the mourner as lord luxelian the bereaved husband of alfrida they felt themselves to be intruders night pressed steven back and they silently withdrew as they had entered come away he said in a broken voice we have no right to be there another stands before us nearer to her than we and side by side they both retrace their steps down the gray still valley to castle bottle end of chapter 40 end of a pair of blue eyes