 CHAPTER 17 Early on the following morning Mary Makebelieve awakened with a start. She felt as if someone had called her and lay for a few moments to see had her mother spoken. But her mother was still asleep. Her slumber was at all times almost as energetic as her waking hours. She twisted constantly and moved her hands and spoke ramblingly. I'd interjections such as, ah well, no matter, certainly not, and indeed I. Shot from her lips like bullets and at intervals a sarcastic sniff fretted or astonished her bedfellow into awakefulness. But now, as she lay, none of these strenuous ejaculations were audible. Size only, weighty and deep-drawn and very tired, broke on her lips and lapsed sadly into the desolate room. Mary Makebelieve lay for a time wondering idly what had awakened her so completely, for her eyes were wide open and every vestige of sleep was gone from her brain. And then she remembered that on this morning and for the first time in her life she had to go to work. That knowledge had gone to bed with her and had awakened her with an imperious urgency. In an instant she sprang out of bed, huddled on sufficient clothing for warmth and set about lighting the fire. She was far too early awake but could not compose herself to lie for another moment in bed. She did not at all welcome the idea of going to work, but the interest attaching to a new thing, the freshness which vitalizes for a time, even the dreariest undertaking, prevented her from ruined with any bitterness her first day's work. Too young a person every work is an adventure, and anything which changes the usual current of life is welcome. The fire also went with her in quite a short time the flames had gathered to ablaze and matured and concentrated to the glowing redness of perfect combustion. Then when the smoke had disappeared with the flames she put on the saucepan of water. Quickly the saucepan boiled and she wet the tea. She cut the bread into slices, put a spoonful of condensed milk into each cup and awakened her mother. All through the breakfast her mother advised her on the doing of her work. She cautioned her daughter when scrubbing woodwork always to scrub against the grain, for this gave a greater purchase to the brush and removed the dirt twice as quickly as the seemingly easy opposite movement. She told her never to save soap, little soap meant much rubbing, and advised that she should scrub two minutes with one hand and then two minutes with the other hand and she was urgent on the necessity of thoroughness in the ringing out of one's floor cloth. As a dry floor cloth takes up twice as much water as a wet one and thus lightens labor. Also she advised Mary to change her positions as frequently as possible to avoid cramp when scrubbing and to kneel up or stand up when ringing her cloths as this would give her a rest and the change of movement would relieve her very greatly and above all to take her time about the business because haste seldom resulted in clean work and was never appreciated by one's employer. Before going out Mary Makebelieve had to arrange for someone to look after her mother during the day. This is an arrangement which among poor people is never difficult of accomplishment. The first to whom she applied was the laboring man's wife in the next room. She was a vast woman with six children and a laugh like the rolling of a great wind. And when Mary Makebelieve advanced her request she shook six children off like her toys and came out on the landing. Run off to your work now honey said she and let she be easy in your mind about your mother for I'll go up to her this minute and when I'm not there myself I'll leave one of the children with her to call me if she wants anything and don't you be frightened at all God help you for she'll be as safe and as comfortable with me as if she was in Jarvis Street Hospital or the rotunda itself what's wrong with her now is it a pain in her head she has or a sick stomach God help her Mary explained briefly and as she went down the stairs she saw the big woman going into her mother's room she had not been out in the streets so early before and had never known the wonder and beauty of the sun in the early morning the streets were almost deserted and the sunlight a most delicate and nearly colorless radiance fell gently on the long silent paths missing the customary throng of people and traffic she seemed almost in a strange country and had to look twice for turnings which she could easily have found with her eyes shut the shutters were up in all the shops and the blinds were down in most of the windows now and again a milk cart came clattering and rattling down a street and now and again a big red painted baker's cart gashed along the road such few pedestrians as she met were poorly dressed men who carried Tommy cans and tools and they were all walking at a great pace as if they feared they were late for somewhere three or four boys passed her running one of these had a great lump of bread in his hand and as he ran he tore pieces off the bread with his teeth and ate them the streets looked cleaner than she had thought they could look and the houses seemed very quiet and beautiful when she came near a policeman she looked at him keenly from a distance hoping and fearing that it might be her friend but she did not see him she had a sinking feeling at the thought that maybe he would be in the Phoenix park that day looking for her and might indeed have been there for the past few days and the thought that he might be seeking for her unavailingly stabbed through her mind like a pain it did not seem right it was not in proportion that so big a man should seek for a mere woman and not find one instantly to hand it was pitiful to think of the huge man looking on this side and on that peering behind trees and through distances and thinking that maybe he was forgotten or scorned Mary make believe almost wept at the idea that he should fancy she scorned him she wondered how under such circumstances a small girl can comfort a big man one may fondle his hand but that is miserably inadequate she was she was twice as big as he was so that she might lift him bodily to her breast and snuggle and hug him like a kitten so comprehensive and embrace alone could atone for the injury to a big man's feelings in about 20 minutes she reached mrs. O'Connor's house and knocked she had to knock half a dozen times before she was admitted and on being admitted had a great deal of trouble explaining who she was and why her mother had not come and that she was quite competent to undertake the work she knew the person who opened the door for her was not mrs. O'Connor because she had not a hair reward on her chin nor had she buck teeth after a little delay she was brought to the scullery and given a great pile of children's clothing to wash and after starting this work she was left to herself for a long time chapter 18 it was a dark house the windows were all withered away behind stiff curtains and the light that labored between these was chastened to the last degree of respectability the doors sculpt behind heavy plush hangings the floors hid themselves decently under thick red and black carpets and the margins which were uncarapeted were disguised by beeswax so that no one knew that they were there at all the narrow hall was steeped in shadow for their two black velvet portiers at distances of six feet apart depended from rods in the ceiling similar polls flopped on each landing of the staircase and no sound was heard in the house at all except dim voices that droned from somewhere muffled and simple cruel and bodyless at ten o'clock having finished the washing Mary was visited by mrs o'connor whom she knew at once by the signs she had been warned of the lady subjected each article that had been washed to a particular scrutiny and with the shadowy gallop of a smile that dashed into and out of sight in an instant said they would do she then conducted Mary to the kitchen and pointing to a cup of tea and two slices of bread invited her to breakfast and left her for six minutes when she reappeared with the suddenness of a marionette and directed her to wash her cup and saucer and then to wash the kitchen and these things also Mary did she got weary very soon but not dispirited because there were many things to look at in the kitchen there were pots of various sizes and metals saucepans little and big jugs of all shapes and a regiment of tea things were ranged on the dresser on the walls were hung great pot lids like the shields of barbarous warriors which she had seen in a storybook under the kitchen table there was a row of boots all wrinkled by usage and each wearing a human and almost intelligent aspect a well wrinkled boot often has an appearance of mad humanity which can chain and almost hypnotize the observer as she lifted the boots out of her way she named each by its face there was grub toes sloucher thump thump hop it twitter hideaway and fairy bell while she was working a young girl came into the kitchen and took up the boots called fairy bell Mary just tossed a look at her as she entered and bent again to her washing then with an extreme perturbation she stole another look the girl was young and as trim as a sunny garden her face was packed with laughter and freedom like a young morning when tender rosy clouds sail in the sky she walked with a light spring of happiness each step seemed to the beginning of a dance light and swift and certain Mary knew her in a pain and her bent face grew redder than the tiles she was scrubbing like lightning she knew her her brain swung in the clamor of where where and even in the question she had the answer for this was the girl she had seen going into the gaiety theater swinging on the arm of her big policeman the girl said good morning to her in a kindly voice and Mary with a swift frightened glance whispered back good morning then the girl went upstairs again and Mary continued to scrub the floor when the kitchen was finished and inspected and approved of she was instructed to wash out the front hall and set about the work at once get it done as quickly as you can said the mistress i'm expecting my nephew here soon and he dislikes washing so Mary bent quickly to her work she was not tired now her hands moved swiftly up and down the floor without effort indeed her actions were almost mechanical the self that was thinking and probing seemed somehow apart from the body bending over the bucket and the hands that scrubbed and dipped and rung she had finished about three quarters of the hall when a couple of sharp wraps came to the door mrs o'connor flew noiselessly up from the kitchen i knew she said bitterly that you would not be finished before he came dry that puddle at once so he can walk in and take the soap out of the way she stood with her hand on the door while Mary followed these directions then when a couple of hasty movements had removed the surplus water mrs o'connor threw the bolt and her nephew entered Mary knew him on the doorstep and her blood froze in terror and boiled again in shame mrs o'connor drew the big policeman inside and kissed him i can't get these people to do things in time says she they are that slow hang up your hat and coat and come into the parlor the policeman with his eyes fixed steadily on Mary began to take off his coat his eyes his mustache all his face and figure seemed to be looking at her he was an enormous and terrifying interrogation he tapped his tough mustache and stepped over the bucket at the entrance to the parlor he stood again and hung his monstrous look on her he seemed about to speak but it was to mrs o'connor his words went how's everything he said and then the door closed behind him Mary with extraordinary slowness knelt down again beside the bucket and began to scrub she worked very deliberately sometimes cleaning the same place two or three times now and again she sighed but without any consciousness of trouble these were sighs which did not seem to belong to her she knew she was sighing but could not exactly see how the dull sounds came from her lips when she had no desire to sigh and did not make any conscious effort to do so her mind was an absolute blank she could think of nothing but the bubbles which broke on the floor and in the bucket and the way the water squeezed down from the cloth there was something she could have thought about if she wanted to but she did not want to mrs o'connor came out in a few minutes inspected the hall and said it would do she paid Mary her wages and told her to come again the next day and Mary went home as she walked along she was very careful not to step on any of the lines on the pavement she walked between these and was distressed because these lines were not equally distant from each other so that she had to make unequal paces as she went end of section nine section ten of the char woman's daughter by james stevens chapters nineteen and twenty this lever vox recording is in the public domain read for you by michelle fry benridge louisiana chapter nineteen the name of the woman from next door was mrs kafity she was big and round and when she walked her dress world about her like a tempest she seemed to be always turning around when she was going straightforward in any direction say towards the press she would turn aside midway so sharply that her clothing spun gustily in her wake this probably came from having many children a mother is continually driving in oblique directions from her household employments to rescue her children from a multitude of perils an infant and a fireplace act upon each other like magnets a small boy is always trying to eat a kettle or a piece of coal or the backbone of a herring a little girl and a slop bucket are in immediate contact the baby has a knife in its mouth the twin is on the point of swallowing a marble or is trying to wash itself in the butter or the cat is about to take a nap on its face indeed the woman who has six children never knows in what direction her next step must be and the continual strain of preserving her progeny converts many a one into regular cyclones of eyes and arms and legs it also induces in some a perpetual good humored irritability wherein one can slap and cuddle a child in the same instant or shout threateningly or lovingly call warningly or murmur encouragingly in an astonishing sequence the woman with six children must both physically and mentally travel at a tangent and when a husband has been badgered or humored into the bargain then the life of such a woman is more complex than is readily understood when mary came home mrs. cavity was sitting on her mother's bed two small children and a cat were also on the bed two slightly bigger children were under the bed and two others were galloping furiously up and down the room at one moment these latter twain were runaway horses at another they were express trains when they were horses they snorted and nade and kicked when they were trains they backed and shunted blue whistles and blew off steam the children under the bed were tigers in a jungle and they made the noises proper to such beasts and such a place they bit each other furiously and howled and growled precisely as tigers do the pair of infants on the bed were playing the game of bump they would stand upright then spring high into the air and come crashing down on the bed which then sprung them partly up again each time they jumped they screamed loudly each time they fell they roared delighted congratulations to each other and when they fell together they fought with strong good humor sometimes they fell on mrs. make believe always they bumped her at the side of the bed their mother sat telling with a gigantic voice a story wherein her husband's sister figured as the despicable person she was to the eye of discernment and this story was punctuated and shot through and dislocated by objurations threats pleadings admirations alarms and despairs addressed to the children separately and en masse by name nickname and hastily created epithet mary halted an amazement in the doorway she could not grasp all the pandemonium at once and while she stood mrs. kafity saw her come on in honey since she yamazes right as a trivet all she wanted was a bit of good company and some children to play with indeed she continued children are the best medicine for a woman that i know of they don't give you time to be sick though creatures patrick john i'll give you a smack on the side of the head if you don't let your little sister alone and don't you nor be vexing him or you'll deserve all you get run inside julia elizabeth cut a slice of bread for the twins and put a bit of sugar on it honey yes elena you can have a slice for yourself too you poor child you well you deserve it mrs. mate believe was sitting up in the bed with two pillows propping up her back one of her long thin arms was stretched out to preserve the twins from being bruised against the wall in their play plainly they had become great friends with her for every now and then they swarmed over her and a hugging match of extreme complexity ensued she looked almost her usual self and all the animation which had been so marked a feature of her personality had returned to her are you better mother said mary mrs. mate believe took her daughter's head in her hands and kissed her until the twins butted them apart clamoring for caresses i am honey she said those children done me good i could have got up at one o'clock i felt so well but mrs. cavity thought i'd better not i did so said mrs. cavity not a foot do you stir out of that bed till your daughter comes home ma'am said i for do you see child many is the time you'd be thinking you are well and feeling as fit as a fiddle and nothing would be doing you but to be up and gallivanting about and then the next day you'd have a relapse and the next day you'd be twice as bad and the day after that they'd be measuring you for your coffin maybe i knew a woman was taken like that up she got i'm as well as ever i was said she and she ate a feed of pig's cheek and cabbage and finished her washing and they buried her in a week it's the queer thing sickness what i say is when you're sick get into bed and stop there it's easy saying that said mrs. mate sure don't i know you poor thing you said mrs. cavity but you should stay in bed as long as you are able to anyhow how did you get on with mrs. o'connor said mrs. mate believe that's the mistress isn't it queried mrs. cavity an old devil i'll bet you mrs. mate believe rapidly and lightly sketched mrs. o'connor's leading peculiarities it's queer the people one has to work for god knows it is said mrs. cavity at this point a grave controversy on work might have arisen but the children caring little for conversation broke into so tumultuous play that talk could not be proceeded with mary was enticed into a game composed in part of pussy four corners and tip and tig with a general flavor of leapfrog working through in five minutes her hair and her stockings were both down and the back of her shirt had crawled three quarters round to the front the twins shouted and bumped on the bed upon which and on mrs. mate believe they rubbed bread and butter and sugar while their mother roared an anecdote at mrs. mate believe in tones that ruled the den as the foghorn rules the waves chapter 20 mary had lavished the entire of her first day's wedges on delicate foods wherewith to tempt her mother's languid appetite and when the morning dawn she arose silently lit the fire wet the tea and spread her purchases out on the side of the bed there was a slice of brawn two pork sausages two eggs three rashes of bacon a bun a penny worth of sweets and a pig's foot these with bread and butter and tea made a collection amid which an invalid might browse with some satisfaction mary then awakened her and sat by in a dream of happiness watching her mother's eyes roll slowly and unbelievingly from item to item mrs. mate believe tipped each article with her first finger and put its right name on it unerringly then she picked out an important looking sweet that had four colors and shone like the sun and put it in her mouth i never saw anything like it you good child you said she mary rocked herself to and fro and laughed loudly for delight and then they ate a bit of everything and were very happy mrs. make believe said that she felt altogether better that morning she had slept like a top all through the night and moreover had a dream wherein she saw her brother patrick standing on the remotest c point of distant america from whence he had shouted loudly across the ocean that he was coming back to ireland soon that he had succeeded very well indeed and that he was not married he had not changed in the slightest degree said mrs. make believe and he looked as young and as jolly as when he was at home with her father and herself in the county meath 22 years before this smallifying dream and the easy sleep which followed it had completely restored her health and spirits mrs. make believe further intimated that she intended to go to work that day it did not fit in with her ideas of propriety that her child should turn into a char woman the more particularly as there was a strong and almost certain possibility of an early betterment of her own and her daughter's fortunes dreams said mrs. make believe did not come for nothing there was more in dreams than was generally understood many and many were the dreams which she herself had been visited by and they had come true so often that she could no longer disregard their promises admonishments or threats of course many people had dreams which were of no consequence and these could usually be traced to gluttony or a flighty in constant imagination drunken people for instance often dreamed strange and terrible things but even while they were awake these people were liable to imaginary enemies whom their clouded eyes and intellects magnified beyond any thoughtful proportions and when they were asleep their dreams would also be subject to this haze and whirl of unreality and hallucination mary said that sometimes she did not dream at all and at other times she dreamed very vividly but usually could not remember what the dream had been about when she awakened and once she had dreamed that someone gave her a shilling which she placed carefully under her pillow and this dream was so real that in the morning she put her hand under the pillow to see if the shilling was there but it was not the very next night she dreamed the same dream and as she put the phantom money under her pillow she said out loudly to herself i am dreaming this and i dreamt it last night also her mother said that if she had the dream for a third time someone would have given her a shilling surely to this mary agreed and admitted that she had tried very hard to dream it on the third night but somehow could not do it when my brother comes home from america said mrs make-believe we'll go away from this part of the city at once i suppose he'd want a rather big house on the south side ref phantom or a terranier away or maybe donnie brooke of course he'll ask me to mind the house for him and keep the servants in order and provide a different dinner every day and all that while you could go out to the neighbors places to play lawn tennis or cricket and have lunch it will be a very great responsibility what kind of dinners would you have said mary mrs make-believe's eyes glistened and she leaned forward in the bed but just as she was about to reply the laboring man in the next room slammed his door and went thundering down the stairs in an instant mrs make-believe bounded from her bed three wide twists put up her hair eight strange billow-like movements put on her clothes as each article of clothing reached a definite point on her person mary stabbed it swiftly with a pin four ordinary pins in this place two safety pins in that then mrs make-believe kissed her daughter 16 times and fled down the stairs and away to her work end of section 10 section 11 of the char woman's daughter by james stevens chapters 21 and 22 this libra vox recording is in the public domain read for you by michelle fry baton Rouge louisiana chapter 21 in a few minutes mrs cavity came into the room she was as every woman is in the morning primed with conversations about husbands for in the morning husbands are unwieldy morose creatures without joy without lightness like even the common elemental interest in their own children and capable of detestably misinterpreting the conversation of their wives it is only by mixing amongst other men that this malignant humor may be dispelled to them the company of men is like a great bath into which a husband will plunge wildly renouncing as he dives wife and children all anchors and securities of hearth and roof and from which he again emerges singularly refreshed and capable of being interested by a wife a family and a home until the next morning to many women this is a grievance amounting often to an affront and although they endeavor even by cooking to heal the singular breach they are utterly unable to do so and perpetually seek the counsel of each other on the subject mrs. cavity had merely asked her husband would he hold the baby while she poured out his stir about and he had incredibly threatened to pour the stir about down the back of her neck if she didn't leave him alone it was upon this morning madness she had desired to consult her friend and when she saw that mrs. make believe had gone away her disappointment was quite evident but this was only for a moment almost all women are possessed of a fine social sense in relation to other women they're always on their best behavior towards one another indeed it often seems as if they feared and must by all possible means placate each other by flattery humor or a serious tactfulness there is very little freedom between them because there is no real freedom or acquaintance but between things polar there is nothing but a superficial resemblance between like and like but between like and unlike there is space wherein both curiosity and spirit may go adventuring extremes must meet it is their urgent necessity the reason for their distance and the greater the distance between them the swifter will be their return and the warmer their impact they may shatter each other to fragments or they may fuse and become indissoluble and new and wonderful but there is no other fertility between the sexes there is a really extraordinary freedom of intercourse they meet each other something more than halfway a man and a woman may become quite intimate in a quarter of an hour almost certainly they will endeavor to explain themselves to each other before many minutes have elapsed but a man and a man will not do this and even less so will a woman and a woman for these are the parallel lines which never meet the acquaintance ship of the latter in particular often begins and ends in an armed and calculating neutrality they preserve their distances and each other's sufferance by the exercise of a grave social tact which never deserves them and which more than anything else has contributed to build the ceremonials which are nearly one half of our civilization it is a common belief amongst men that women cannot live together without quarreling and that they are unable to get work done by other women with any of the goodwill which men display in the same occupations if this is true the reason should not be looked for in any intersexual complications such as fear or an acrid rivalry but only in the perpetually recurring physical disturbances to which as a sex they are subjective and as the ability and willingness of a man to use his fists in response to an affront has imposed sobriety and good humor towards each other in almost all their relations so women have placed barriers of politeness and ceremonial between their fellow women and their own excoriated sensibilities this is cavity therefore dissembled her disappointment and with an increased cordiality addressed herself towards mary sitting down on the bedside she'd discoursed on almost every subject upon which a woman may discourse it is considered that the conversation of women while incessant in its use is rigorously bounded between the parlor and the kitchen are to be more precise between the attic and the scullery but these extremes are more inclusive than is imagined for the attic has an outlook on the stars while the scullery usually opens on the kitchen garden or the dust heap vistas equal to horizons the mysteries of death and birth occupy women far more than is the case with men to whom political and mercantile speculations are more congenial with the immediate buying and selling and all the absolute forms of exchange and barter women are deeply engaged so that the realities of trade are often more intelligible to them than to many merchants if men understood domestic economy have as well as women do then their political economy and their entire consequence statecraft would not be the futile muddle which it is it was all very interesting to marry and moreover she had a great desire for companionship at the moment if she had been left alone it might have become necessary to confront certain thoughts memories pictures from which she had a dim idea it would be wise to keep her distance her work on the previous day the girl she had met in the house the police man from all or any of these recollections she swerved mentally she steadily rejected all impressions that touched upon these the policeman floated vaguely on her consciousness not as a desirable person not even as a person but as a distance as an hour of her childhood as a have forgotten quaintness a memory which it would be better should never be revived indeed her faint thought shadowed him as a person who was dead and would never again be visible to her anymore so resolutely she let him drop down into her mind to some uncomfortable obliot from whence he threatened with feeble insistence to pop up at any moment like a strange question or a sudden shame she hid him in a rosy flush which a breath could have made flame unbearably and she hid from him behind the light garrulity of mrs. cavity through which now and again as though a veil she saw the spike of his helmet a wire bristling moustache a surge of his great shoulders on these ghostly indications she heaped a tornado of words which swamped the wraith but she knew he was waiting to catch her alone and would certainly catch her and the knowledge made her hate him chapter 22 mrs. cavity suggested that she and mary should go out together to purchase that day's dinner and by the time she had draped her shoulders in a shawl buried her head in a bonnet cautioned all her brood against going near the fireplace the coal box and the slot bucket cut a slice of bread for each of them and placed each of them in charge of all the rest mary's more elaborate dressing was within two stages of her hat wait until you have children my dear said mrs. cavity you won't be so panicky then she further told mary that when she was herself younger she had often spent an hour and a half doing up her hair and she had been so particular that the putting on of a blouse or the pinning of a skirt to a belt had tormented her happily for two hours but bless you she bore you get out of all that when you get children wait till you have six of them to be dressed every morning and they with some of their boots lost and the rest of them mixed up and each of them wriggling like an eel on a pan until you have to slap the devil out of them before their stocking can be got on the way they screw their toes up in the wrong places and the way they squeal when you're pinching them and the way they say you've rubbed soap in their eyes mrs. cavity lifted her eyes and her hands to the ceiling in a dumb remonstrance with providence and dropped them again for lonely as one in whom providence has never been really interested you'll have all the dressing you want and a bit over for luck she said she complimented mary on her hair her complexion the smallness of her feet the largeness of her eyes and the slenderness of her waist the width of her hat and of her shoestrings so impartially and inclusively did she compliment her that by the time they went out mary was rosy with appreciation and as self-confident as a young girl is entitled to be it was a beautiful gray day with a messy sky which seemed as if it never could move again or change and as often happens in ireland and cloudy weather the air was so very clear that one could see to a great distance on such days everything stands out in sharp outline a street is no longer a congeries of houses huddled shamefully together and terrified lest anyone should look at them and laugh each house then recaptures its individuality the very roadways are aware of themselves and bear their horses and cars and trams in a competent spirit adorned with modesty as with a garland it has a beauty beyond sunshine for sunshine is only youth and carelessness the impress of a thousand memories the historic visage becomes apparent the quiet face which experience has ripened into knowledge and mellowed into wisdom of charity is seen then the great social beauty shines from the streets under this sky that broods like a thoughtful forehead while they walked mrs. cafferty planned as a general might her campaign of shopping her shopping differed greatly from mrs. make believes and the difference was probably caused by her necessity to feed and clothe eight people as against mrs. make believes too mrs. make believe went to the shop nearest her house and there entered into a staunch personal friendship with the proprietor when she was given anything of doubtful value or material she instantly returned and handed it back and the prices which were first quoted to her and settled upon became to mrs. make believe an unalterable standard from which no departure would be tolerated eggs might go up in price for the remainder of the world but not for her a change of price through mrs. make believe into so wide-eyed so galvanic so powerfully verbal and friendship shattering in anger that her terms were accepted and registered as median exactitudes mrs. cafferty on the other hand new shopkeepers as personal enemies and as foes to the human race who were bent on disboiling the poor and against whom a remorseless warfare should be conducted by all decent people her knowledge of material of quality of degrees of freshness of local and distant prices was profound in clan brazil street she would quote the prices of more street with shattering effect and if the shopkeeper declined to revise his tariff her good-humored voice tone so huge a disapproval that other intending purchasers left the shop impressed by the unmasking of a swindler her method was abrupt she seized an article placed it on the counter and uttered these words six pence and not a penny more i can get it in more street for five pence hey penny she knew all the shops having a cheap line and some special article and therefore her shopping was of a very extended description not that she went from point to point for she continually departed from the line of battle with the remark let's try what they have here and when inside the shop her large eye took in at a glance a thousand details of stock and price which were never afterwards forgotten mrs. cafferty's daughter nora was going to celebrate her first communion in a few days this is a very important ceremony for a young girl and for her mother a white muslin dress and a blue sash a white muslin hat with blue ribbons tan shoes and stockings as your main to the color of tan as may be these all have to be provided it is a time of grave concern for everybody intimately connected with the event every girl in the world has performed this ceremony they have all been clad in these garments and shoes and for a day or so all women of whatever age are in love with the little girl making her first communion perhaps more than anything else it swings the passing stranger back to the time when she was not a woman but a child with present gaiety and curiosity and a future all expectation and adventure therefore the suitable appareling of one's daughter is a public duty and every mother endeavors to do the thing that is right and live if only for one day up to the admiration of her fellow creatures it was a trial but an enjoyable one to mrs. cafferty and mary this matching of tan stockings with tan shoes the shoes were bought and then an almost impossible quest began to find stockings which would exactly go with them thousands of boxes were opened ransacked and waved aside without the absolute color being discovered from shop to shop and from street to street they went and the quest led them through grafting street in route to a shop where months before mrs. cafferty had seen stockings of a color so nearly approximating to tan that they almost might be suitable as they went past the college and entered the winding street mary's heart began to beat she did not see any of the traffic flowing up and down or the jostling busy foot passengers nor did she hear the eager lectures of her companion her eyes were straining up the street towards the crossing she dared not turn back or give any explanation to mrs. cafferty and in a few seconds she saw him gigantic calm the adequate monarch of his world his back was turned to her and the great sweep of his shoulders his solid legs his red neck and close cropped wire rehair were visible to her strangely she had a peculiar feeling of acquaintance and of aloofness intimate knowledge and a separation of sharp finality caused her to stare at him with so intent a curiosity that mrs. cafferty noticed it that's a fine man said she he won't have to go about looking for girls as she spoke they passed by the police man and mary knew that when her eyes left him his gaze almost automatically fell upon her she was glad that he could not see her face she was glad that mrs. cafferty was beside her had she been alone she would have been tempted to walk away very quickly almost to run but her companion gave her courage and self possession so that she walked gallantly but her mind was a fever she could feel his eyes raking her from head to foot she could see his great hand going up to tap his crinkly moustache these things she could see in her terrified mind but she could not think she could only give thanks to god because she had her best clothes on end of section 11 section 12 of the char woman's daughter by james stevens chapters 23 and 24 this labor box recording is in the public domain read for you by michelle fry baton rouge louisiana chapter 23 mrs. make-believe was planning to get back such of her furniture and effects as had been pawned during her illness some of these things she had carried away from her father's house many years before when she got married they had been amongst the earliest objects on which her eyes had rested when she was born and around them her whole life of memories revolved a chair in which her father had sat and on the edge whereof her husband had timidly balanced himself when he came courting her and into which her daughter had been tied when she was a baby a strip of carpet and some knives and forks had formed a portion of her wedding presence she loved these things and had determined that if work could retrieve them they should not be lost forever therefore she had to suffer people like mrs. o'connor not gladly but with the resignation due to the hests of providence which one must obey but may legitimately criticize mrs. make-believe said definitely that she detested the woman she was a cold-eyed person whose only ability was to order about other people who were much better than she was it distressed mrs. make-believe to have to work for such a person to be subject to her commands and liable to her reproofs or advice these were things which seemed to her to be out of all due proportion she did not wish the woman any harm but some day or other she would undoubtedly have to put her in her proper place it was a day to which she looked forward anyone who had a sufficient income could have a house and could employ and pay for outside help without any particular reason for being proud and many people having such an income would certainly have a better appointed house and would be more generous and civil to those who came to work for them everybody of course could not have a policeman for a nephew and there were a great many people who would rather not have anything to do with the policeman at all overbearing rough creatures to whom everybody is a thief if mrs. make-believe had such a nephew she would certainly have wrecked his pride the great beast here mrs. make-believe grew very angry her black eyes blazed her great nose grew thin and white and her hands went leaping in fury you're not in court now you jack and apes you said I with his whiskers and his baton and his feet that were bigger than anything in the world except his ignorant self-conceit have you a daughter ma'am said he what's her age ma'am said he is she a good girl ma'am said he but she had settled him and that woman was prouder of him than a king would be of a crown never mind said mrs. make-believe and she darted fiercely up and down the room tearing pieces off the atmosphere and throwing them behind her in a few minutes however she sat down on the floor and drew her daughter's head to her breast and then staring into the scrap of fire she counseled mary wisely on many affairs of life in the conduct of a girl under all kinds of circumstances to be adequate in spirit if not in physique that was her theme never be a servant in your heart said she to work is nothing the king on his throne the priest kneeling before the holy altar all people in all places had to work but no person at all need be a servant one worked and was paid and went away keeping the integrity of one's soul unspotted and serene if an employer was wise or good or kind mrs. make-believe was prepared to accord such a person instant and humble reverence she would work for such a one until the nails dropped off her fingers and her feet crumpled up under her body but a policeman or a rich person or a person who ordered one about until she died and was buried in the depths of the world she would never give in to such a person or admit anything but their thievishness and ill-breeding bad manners to the life of them said she and might have sailed boisterously away upon an ocean of curses but that mary turned her face closer to her breast and began to speak for suddenly there had come to mary a vision of peace like a green island in the sea it was like a white cloud on a boiling day the sheltered life where all mundane preoccupations were far away where ambition and hope and struggle were incredibly distant foolishness lowly and peaceful and unjaded was that life she could see the nuns pacing quietly in their enclosed gardens fingering their beads as they went to and fro and praying noiselessly for the sins of the world or walking with solemn happiness to the chapel to praise god in their own small companies or going with hidden feet through the great city to nurse the sick and comfort those who had no other comforter than god to pray in a quiet place and not to be afraid anymore or doubtful or despised these things she saw and her heart leaped to them and of these things she spoke to her mother who listened with a tender smile and stroked her hair and hands but her mother did not approve of these things she spoke of nuns with reverence and affection many a gentle sweet woman had she known of that sisterhood many a one before whom she could have abased herself with tears and love but such a life of shelter and restraint could never have been hers nor did she believe it could be mary's for her a woman's business was life the turmoil and strife of it was good to be in it was a cleansing and embracing god did not eat any assistance but man did bitterly he wanted it and the giving of such assistance was the proper business of a woman everywhere there was a man to be helped and the quest of a woman was to find the man who most needed her aid and having found to cleave to him forever in most of the trouble of life she devised men and women not knowing or not doing their duty which was to love one another and to be neighborly and obliging to their fellows a partner a home and children through the loyal cooperation of these she saw happiness and dimly a design of so vast an architecture as scarcely to be discussed the bad and good of humanity moved her to an equal ecstasy of displeasure and approbation but her god was freedom and her religion love freedom even to the last rags of it that remained to a regimented world that was a passion with her she must order her personal life without any ghostly or bodily supervision she would oppose an encroachment on that with her nails and her teeth and this last fringe of freedom was what nuns had sacrificed and all servants and other people had bartered away one must work but one must never be a slave these laws seemed to her equally imperative the structure of the world swung upon them and whoever violated these laws was a traitor to both god and man but mary did not say anything her mother's arms were around her and suddenly she commenced to cry upon a bosom that was not strange there was surely healing in that breast of love a rampart of tenderness against the world a door which would never be closed against her or opened to her enemies chapter 24 in a little city like dublin one meets every person whom one knows within a few days around each bend in the road there is a friend an enemy or a boar striding towards you so that with the piety which is almost religion one says touch wood before turning any corner it was not long therefore until mary again met the big policeman he came up behind her and walked by her side chatting with a pleasant ease in which however her curious mind could discover some obscure distinctions on looking backwards it seemed to mary that he had always come from behind her and the retrospect dulled his glory to the diminishing point for indeed his approach was too consistently policeman like it was too crafty his advent hinted at a gross espionage at a mind which was no longer a man's but a detectives who tracked everybody by instinct and arrested his friends instead of saluting them as they walked along mary was in a fever of discomfort she wished to dumbly that the man would go away but for the wealth of the world she could not have brought herself to hurt the feelings of so big a man to endanger the very dignity of a big man was the thing which no woman could do without a pang the shame of it made her feel hot he might have blushed or stammered and the memory of that would sting her miserably for weeks as though she had insulted an elephant or a baby she could not get away from him she had neither the courage nor the experience which enables a woman to dismiss a man without wounding him and so perforce she continued walking by his side while he treated her to an intelligent dissertation on current political events and the topography of the city of Dublin but undoubtedly there was a change in the policeman and it was not difficult to account for he was more easy and familiar in his speech while formally he had bowed as from the peaks of manly intellect to the pleasant valleys of girlish incompetence he now condescended from the loftiness of a policeman and a person of quality to the quaint gutters of social inferiority to many people mental inferiority and a companion has a charm for it induces in one's proper person a feeling of philosophic detachment a fine effect of personal individuality and superiority which is both bracing and uplifting there is not any particular harm in this progress can be and is accelerated by the hypocrisies and snobbishness all the minor unpleasant adjuncts of mediocrity snobbishness is a peeling infant but it may grow to be deeply whiskered ambition and most virtues are on examination the amalgam of many vices but while intellectual poverty may be forgiven and loved social inequality can only be utilized our fellows however addled or our friends our inferiors or our prey and since the policeman had discovered Mary publicly washing out an alien haul his respect for her had withered and dropped to death almost in an instant whence it appears that there is really only one grave and debasing vice in the world and that is poverty in many little ways the distinction and the difference was apparent to Mary the dignity of the gentleman and the man of the world was partly shorn away the gentleman portion which comprised kindness and reticence had vanished the man of the world remained typified by a familiarity which assumed that this and that understood but not to be mentioned shall be taken for granted a spurious equalization perched gently but insecurely on a non-committal and that base flattery which is the only coin where with a thief can balance his depredations for as they went pacing down the lonely road towards the daughter the policeman diversified his entertaining lore by a succession of compliments which ravaged the heavens and the earth and the deep sea for a fitting symbology Mary's eyes and the gay heavens were placed in juxtaposition and the heavens were censured the vegetable animal and mineral worlds were discomfited the deep sea sustained a root proof and the byproducts of nature and of art drooped into a nothingness too vast even for laughter Mary had not the slightest objection to hearing that all the other women in the world seemed cripples and gargoyles when viewed against her own transcendent splendor and she was prepared to love the person who said this innocently and happily she would have agreed to be an angel or a queen to a man demanding potentates and powers in his sweetheart and would joyfully have equalized matters by discovering the buried god and her lover and believing in it as sincerely as he permitted but this man was not saying the truth she could see him making the things up as he talked there was eagerness in him but no spontaneity it was not even eagerness it was greediness he wanted to eat her up and go away with her bones sticking out of his mouth as the horns of a deer protrude from the jaws of an anaconda veritable evidence to it and his fellows of a victory and an orgy to command respect and envy but he was familiar he was complacent and amazingly she discovered it he was big her vocabulary could not furnish her with the qualifying word a rather epithet for his bigness horrible was suggested and retained but her instinct clamor that there was a fat oozy word somewhere which would have brought comfort to her brains and her hands and feet he did not keep his arms quiet but tapped his remarks into her blouse and her shoulder each time his hands touched her they remained a trifle longer they seemed to be great red spiders they would grip her all around and squeeze her clamily while his face spiked her to death with its mustache and he smiled also he giggled and cut capers his language now was a perpetual witticism at which he laughed in jerks and at which she laughed tightly like an obedient quick echo and then suddenly without a word in a dazing flash his arms were about her there was nobody in sight at all and he was holding her like a great spider and his bristly mustache darted forward to spike her to death and then somehow she was free away from him scutting down the road lightly and fearfully and very swiftly wait wait he called wait but she did not wait end of section 12 section 13 of the char woman's daughter by james stevens chapters 25 26 and 27 thisly revox recording is in the public domain read for you by michelle fry vattenridge louisiana chapter 25 mrs caffity came in that evening for a chat with mrs make-believe there were traces of worry on the lady's face and she hushed the children who trooped in her wake with less of good humor than they were accustomed to instead of threatening to smack them on the head as was usual she did smack them as she walked surrounded by lamentations as by a sea things were not going at all well with her there was a slackness in her husband's trade so that for days together he was idle and although the big woman amended her expenditure in every direction she could not by any means adjust eight robust appetites to a shrunken income she explained her position to mrs make-believe children would not they could not consent to go on shorter rations than they had been accustomed to and it seemed to her that daily almost hourly their appetites grew larger and more terrible she showed her right hand where on the mere usage of a bread knife had scored a ridge which was now a permanent disfigurement god bless me she shouted angrily what right have i to ask the creatures to go hungry am i to beat them when they cry it's not their fault that they want food and it's not my poor man's fault that they haven't any he is ready to work at his trade if anybody wants him to do so and if he can't get work and if the children are hungry whose fault is it mrs caffity held that there was something wrong somewhere but whether the blame was to be allocated to the weather the employer the government or the deity she did not know nor did mrs make-believe know but they were agreed that there was an error somewhere a lack of adjustment with which they had nothing to do but the effects were of were grievously visible in their privations meantime it had become necessary that mrs caffity should adjust herself to a changing environment a rise or fall in wages is automatically followed by a similar enlargement or shrinkage of one's necessities and the consequent difference is registered at all points of one's life contact the physical and mental activities of a well-to-do person can reach out to a horizon while those of very poor people are limited to their immediate stagnant atmosphere and so the lives of a vast portion of society are liable to a ceaseless change a flux swinging from good to bad forever an expansion and constriction against which they have no safeguards and not even any warning in free nature this problem is paralleled by the shrinking and expansion of the seasons the summer with its wealth of food the winter following after with its famine but many wild creatures are able to make a thrifty provision against the bad time which they know comes as certainly and periodically as the good time bees and squirrels and many others fill their barns with the plentiful over-plus of the summer fields birds can migrate and find sunshine and sustenance elsewhere and others again can store during the good season of life energy by means whereof they may sleep healthily through their hard times these organizations can be adjusted to their environments because the changes of the latter are known and can be more or less accurately predicted from any point but the human worker has no such regularity his food period does not ebb and recur with the seasons there is no periodicity in their changes and therefore no possibility for defense or protective action his physical structure uses and excretes energy so rapidly that he cannot store it up and go to sleep on his savings and his harvests are usually so lean and disconnected that the exercise of thrift is equally an impossibility and a mockery the life therefore of such a person is composed of a constant series of adjustments and readjustments and the stern ability wherewith these changes are met and combated are more admirably ingenious than the much praised virtues of ants and bees to which they are constantly directed as to exemplars mrs. caffordy had now less money than she had been used to but she had still the same rent to pay the same number of children to feed and the same personal dignity to support as in her better days and her problem was to make up by some means to which she was a stranger the money which had drifted beyond the reach of her husband the methods by which she could do this were very much restricted children require an attention which occupies the entire of a mother's time and consequently she was prevented from seeking abroad any mitigation of her hardships the occupations which might be engaged in at home were closed to her by mere overwhelming competition the number of women who are prepared to make 10 million shirts for a penny is already far in excess of the demand and so except by a severe undercutting such as a contract to make 20 million shirts for a hey penny work of this description is very difficult to obtain under these circumstances nothing remained for mrs. caffordy but to take in a lodger this is a form of cooperation much practiced among the poorer people the margin of direct profit accruing from such a venture is very small but this is compensated for by the extra spending power achieved a number of people pooling their money in this way can buy to greater advantage and in a cheaper market than is possible to the solitary purchaser and a moderate toll for wear and tear and usage or as it is usually put for rent and attendance gives the small personal profit at which such services are reckoned through the good offices of a neighboring shopkeeper mrs. caffordy had secured a lodger and with the courage which is never separate from despair she had rented a small room beside her own this room by an amazing economy of construction contained a fireplace and a window it was about one square inch in diameter and was undoubtedly a fine room the lodger was to enter into possession on the following day and mrs. caffordy said he was a very nice young man indeed and did not drink chapter 26 mrs. caffordy's lodger duly arrived he was young and as thin as a lathe and he moved with fury he was seldom in the place at all he fled into the house for his food and having eaten it he fled away from the house again and did not reappear until it was time to go to bed what he did with himself in the interval mrs. caffordy did not know but she was prepared to wager her soul the value of which she believed was high on the fact that he was a good young man who never gave the slightest trouble saving that his bedclothes were always lying on the floor in the morning that there was candle grease on one corner of his pillow and that he cleaned his boots on the chair but these were things which one expected a young man to do and the omission of them might have caused one to look curiously at the creature and to doubt his masculinity mrs. make-believe replied that habits of order and neatness were rarely to be found in young people of either sex or especially were these absent in boys who are released in early youth by their mothers from all purely domestic employments a great many people believed as she believed herself that it was not desirable a man or boy should conform too rigidly to household rules she had observed that the comfort of a home was lost to many men if they were expected to take their boots off when they came into the house or to hang their hats up in a special place the women of a household being so constantly endorsed find it easy and business like to obey the small rules which comprise household legislation but as the entire policy of a house was to make it habitable and comfortable for its men folk all domestic ordinances might be strained to the utmost until the compromise was found to modify even exceptional idiosyncrasies a man she held bad to quite sufficient discipline during his working hours and his home should be a place free from every vexatious restraint and wherein he might enjoy as wide a liberty as was good for him these ideas were applauded by mrs. cavity and she supplemented them by a recital of how she managed her own husband and of the ridiculous ease whereby any man may be governed for she had observed that men were very susceptible of control if only the control was not too apparent if a man did a thing twice the doing of that thing became a habit and a passion any interference with which provoked him to an unreasonable like wrath wherein both wives and crockery were equally shattered and therefore a woman had only to observe the personal habits of her beloved and fashion her restrictions according to that standard this meant that the men made the laws and women administered them a wise allocation of prerogatives for she conceived that the executive female function was every whit as important as the creative faculty which brought these laws into being she was quite prepared to leave the creative powers in male hands if they would equally abstain from interference with the subsequent working details for she was of opinion that in the pursuit of comfort not entirely to their credit was it said men were far more anxiously concerned than were women and they flew to their born with an instinct for shortcuts where with women were totally unacquainted but in the young man who had come to lodge with her mrs. confetti discerned a being in whom virtue had concentrated to a degree that almost amounted to a congestion he had instantly played with the children on their being presented to him this was the sign of a good nature before he was acquainted with her ten minutes he had made four jokes this was the sign of a pleasant nature and he sang loudly and unceasingly when he awoke in the morning which was the unveiling index to a happy nature moreover he ate the meals provided for him without any of that particular tedious examination which is so insulting and had complimented mrs. cafferty on an ability to put a taste on food which she was pleased to obtain recognition of both mary and her mother remarked on these details with an admiration which was as much as either politeness or friendship could expect mrs. make-believe solitary method of life had removed her so distantly from youth that information about a young man was almost tonic to her she had never wished for a second husband but had often fancied that a son would have been a wonderful joy to her she considered that a house which had no young man growing up in it was not a house at all and she believed that a boy would love his mother if not more than a daughter could at least with a difference which would be strangely sweet a rash impulsive unquiet love a love which would continually prove her love to the breaking point a love that demanded and demanded with careless assurance that accepted her goodness as unquestioningly as she accepted the fertility of the earth and used her knowing blindly and flatteringly how inexhaustibly rich her depths were she could have wept for this it was priceless beyond kingdoms the smile on a boy's face lifted her to an exaltation her girl was inexpressively sweet surely an island in her wide heart but a little boy her breasts could have filled with milk for him him she could have nourished in the rocks and in desert places he would have been life to her an adventure a barrier against old age an incantation against sorrow a fragrance and a grief and a defiance it was quite plain that mrs. cafferty was satisfied with this addition to her household but the profit which she had expected to accrue from his presence was not the liberal one she had in mind when making the preliminary arrangements for it appeared that the young man had an appetite of which mrs. cafferty spoke with a respect proper to something colossal and awesome a half loaf did not more than break the back of a hunger which could wriggle disastrously over another half loaf so that instead of being relieved by his advent she was confronted by a more immediate and desolating bankruptcy than that from which she had attempted to escape exactly how to deal with this situation she did not know and it was really in order to discuss her peculiar case that she had visited mrs. make-believe she could of course have approached the young man and demanded from him an increase of money that would still be equitable to both parties but she confessed a repugnance to this course she did not like to upgrade or trouble anyone on account of an appetite which was so noteworthy she disliked in any event to raise a question about food her instinct for hospitality was outraged at the thought and as she was herself the victim or the owner of an appetite which had often placed a strain on her revenues a fellow feeling operated still further in mitigation of his disqualification mrs. make-believe's advice was that she should stifle the first fierce and indiscriminate cravings of the young man's hunger by a liberal allowance of stir about which was a cheap wholesome and very satisfying food and in that way his destruction of more costly victuals would be kept within reasonable limits appetite she held was largely a matter of youth and as a boy who was scarcely done growing had no way of modifying his passion for nourishment it would be elapsed from decency to insult him on so legitimate a failing mrs. cafferty thought that this might be done and thanked her friend for the council but mary listening to these political matters conceived mrs. cafferty as a person who had no longer any claim to honor and she pitted the young man whose appetite was thus publicly canvassed and who might at any moment be turned out of house and home on account of a hunger against which he had no safeguard and no remedy chapter twenty-seven it was not long until mary and mrs. cafferty's lodger met as he came in by the hall door one day mary was carrying upstairs a large water bucket the portage of which two or three times a day is so heavy a strain on the dweller in tenements the youth instantly sees the bucket and despite her protestations and appeals he carried it upstairs he walked a few steps in advance of mary whistling cheerfully as he went so she was able to get a good view of him he was so thin that he nearly made her laugh but he carried the bucket the weight of which she had often bowed under with an ease astonishing and so slight a man and there was a spring in his walk which was pleasant to see he laid the bucket down outside her room and requested her urgently to knock at his door whenever she required more water fetched because he would be only too delighted to do it for her and it was not the slightest trouble in the world while he spoke he was stealing glances at her face and mary was stealing glances at his face and when they caught one another doing this at the same moment they both looked hurriedly away and the young man departed to his own place but mary was very angry with this young man she had gone downstairs in her house attire which was not resplendent and she objected to being discovered by any youth in raiment not suitable to such an occasion she could not visualize herself speaking to a man unless she was adorned as for a festivity the gentleman and ladies of whom her mother sometimes spoke and of whom she had often dreamt were never mean in their habillaments the gentleman frequently had green silken jackets with a foam of lace at the wrists and a cascade of the same rich material brawling upon their breasts and the ladies were attired in a magnificent scarcity of clothing the fundamental principle aware of although she was quite assured of its righteousness she did not yet understand indeed at this period mary's interest in dress far transcended any interest she had ever known before she knew intimately the window contents of every costumers shop in grafting and wicklow and dawson streets and could follow with intelligent amazement the apparent trifling but exceedingly important differences of line or seam or flounce which ranked one garment as a creation and its neighbor as a dress she and her mother often discussed the gowns wherein the native dignity of their souls might be adequately comparisoned mrs make believe with a humility which had still a trace of anger admitted that the period when she could have been expressed in color had expired and she decided that a black silk dress with a heavy gold chain falling along her bosom was as much as her soul was now entitled to she had an impatience amounting to contempt for those florid flamboyant souls whose outer physical integument so grievously misrepresented them she thought that after a certain time when she dressed the body and not the soul and discovering an inseparability between the two she held that the mean shrine must hold a very trifling deity and that an ill made or time worn body should never dress gloriously under pain of an accusation of hypocrisy or foolishness but for Mary she planned garments with a freedom and bravery which astonished while it delighted her daughter she combined twenty styles into one style of terrifying originality she conceived dresses of a complexity beyond the labor of any but a divinely inspired needle and others again whose simplicity was almost too tenuous for human speech she discussed robes whose trailing and voluminous richness could with difficulty be supported by ten strong attendance and she had heard of a dress the fabric wearer was of such a gossamer and ethereal insubstancy that it might be packed into a wall nut more conveniently than an ordinary dress could be impressed into a portmanteau Mary's exclamations of delight and longing ranged from every possible dress to every impossible one and then Mrs. Makebelieve reviewed all the dresses she had worn from the age of three years to the present day including wedding and mourning dresses those which were worn at picnics and dances and for traveling with an occasional divergence which comprehended the clothing of her friends and her enemies during the like period she explained the basic principles of dress to her daughter showing that in this art as in all else order cannot be dispensed with there were things a tall person might wear but which a short person might not and the draperies which adorned a portly lady were but pitiable weeds when trailed by her attenuated sister the effect of long thin lines in a fabric will make a short woman appear tall while round thick lines can reduce the altitude of people whose height is a trouble to be combated she illustrated the usage of large and small checks and plaids and all the mazy interweaving of other cloths and she elucidated the mystery of color tone heftone light and shade so interestingly that Mary could scarcely hear enough of her lore she was acquainted with the colors which a dark person may wear and those which are suitable for a fair person and the shades proper to be used by a wide class ranging between these extremes she knew also with a special provision for red haired and sandy folk and those who have no complexion at all certain laws which she formulated were cherished by her daughter as a regular utterances that one should match one's eyes in the house and one's hair in the street was one that one's hat and gloves and shoes were vastly more important than all the rest of one's clothing was another that one's hair and stockings should tone as nearly as possible was a third following these rules she assured her daughter a woman could never be other than well dressed and all of these things Mary learned by heart and asked her mother to tell her more which her mother was quite able and willing to do end of section 13 section 14 of the Char Woman's daughter by James Stevens chapters 28 and 29 this LibriVox recording is in the public domain read for you by Michelle Fry Baton Rouge Louisiana chapter 28 when the sexual instinct is aroused men and dogs and frogs and beetles and such other creatures as are inside or outside of this catalog are very tenacious in pursuit of their ambition we can seldom get away from that which attracts or repels us love and hate are equally magnetic and compelling and each being super normal drags us willfully and woefully in its wake until at last our blind persistency is either routed or appeased and we advance our lords or gnash our teeth as the occasion bids us there is no tragedy more woeful than the victory of hate nor any attainment so hopelessly barren as the sterility of that achievement for hate is finality and finality is the greatest evil which can happen in a world of movement love is the inaugurator displaying his banners on captured peaks and pressing forever to a new and more gracious enterprise but the victories of hate are gained in a ditch from which there is no horizon visible and whence there does not go even one limping courier after Mary fled from the embrace of the great policeman he came to think more closely of her than he had been used but her image was thrown now in anger she came to him like a dull brightness where from desolate thunder might roll at an instant indeed she began to obsess him so that not even the ministrations of his aunt nor the obeisances of that peasant girl the name of whose boots was fairy bell could give him any comfort or wean him from a contemplation which sprawled gloomily between him and his duties to the traffic if he had not discovered the lowliness of her quality his course might have been simple and straightforward the issue in such an event would have narrowed to every man's poser whether he should marry this girl or that girl but the arithmetic whereby such matters are elucidated would at the last have eased his perplexity and the path indicated could have been followed with the fullest freedom on his part and without any disaster to his self love if whichever way his inclination wavered there was any pang of regret and there was bound to be such a feeling would be ultimately waived by his reason or retained as a memorial which have a gratifying saver but the knowledge of Mary's social inferiority complicated matters for although this automatically put her out of the question as his wife her subsequent ill treatment of himself had injected a virus to his blood which was one half a passion for her body and one half a frenzy for vengeance he could have let her go easily enough had she not first let him go for he read dismissal in her action and resented it as a trespass on his own prerogative he had but to stretch out his hand and she would have dropped to it as tamely as a kitten whereas now she alluded his hand would indeed have nothing to do with it and this could not be forgiven he would gladly have beaten her into submission for what right has a slip of a girl to withstand the advances of a man and a police man that is a crooked spirit demanding to be straightened with a truncheon but as we cannot decently or even peaceably beat a girl until she is married to us he had to relinquish that dear idea he would have dismissed her from his mind with the contempt she deserved but alas he could not she clung there like a burr not to be dislodged saving by possession or a beating to shuttering alternatives for she had become detestably dear to him his senses and his self-esteem conspired to heave her to a pedestal where his eyes strained upwards in bewilderment that she who was below him could be above him this was astounding she must be pulled from her eminence and stamped back to her native depths by his own embignant hoofs hence she might be gloriously lifted again with a calm, benign, masculine hand shedding pardons and favors and perhaps the molifying unjunt for her bruises bruises a knee an elbow they were nothing little damages which to kiss was to make well again will not women cherish a bruise that it may be medicine to buy male kisses nature and precedent have both sworn to it but she was out of reach his hand high-flung as it might be could not get to her he went furiously to the phoenix park to st stevens green to outlying leafy spots and sheltered lanes but she was in none of these places he even prowled about the neighborhood of her home and could not meet her once he had seen mary as she came along the road and he drew back into a doorway a young man was marching by her side a young man who gabbled without ceasing and to whom mary chatted again with an equal volubility as they passed by mary caught sight of him and her face went flaming she caught her companion's arm and they hurried down the road at a great pace she had never chattered to him always he had done the talking and she had been an obedient grateful listener nor did he quarrel with her silence but her reserve shocked him it was a pretense worse a lie a masked and hooded falsehood she had surrendered to him willingly and yet drew about her a protective armor of reserve wherein she sculpts immune to the arms which were lawfully victorious is there then no loot for a conqueror we demand the keys of the city walls and unrestricted entry or our torches shall blaze again this chattering mary was a girl whom he had never caught sight of at all she had been hiding from him even in his presence in every aspect she was in anger but she could talk to the fellow with her a skinny whippersnapper whom the breath of a man could shred into remote islas vacuity was this man another insult did she not even wait to bury her dead ah she was not value for his thought a girl so lightly facile might be blown from here to there and she would scarcely notice the difference here and there were the same places to her and him and him were the same person a girl of that type comes to a bad he had seen it often the type and the end and never separate can one not prophecy from facts he saw a slut in a slum a drab hovering by a dark entry and the vision cheered him mightily for one glowing minute and left him unoccupied for the next into which she thronged with the flutter of wings and the sound of a great mocking his aunt tracked his brows back to the responsible duties of his employment and commiserated with him and made a lamentation about matters with which he never had been occupied so that the last tag of his good manners departed from him and he damned her unswervingly into consternation the other pleasant girl whose sweetness he had not so much tasted as sampled had taken to brooding in his presence she sometimes drooped an eye upon him like a question let her look out or maybe he'd blaze into her teeth how menace down her throat until she swooned someone should yield to him a visible and tangible agony to balance his does law probe no deeper than the pillage of a watch can one filch our self-respect and escape free shall not our souls also sue for damages against its aggressor some person rich enough must pay for his lacerations or there was less justice in heaven than in the police courts and it might be that girl's lot to expiate the sins of mary it would be a pleasure if a sour one to make somebody wriggle as he had and somebody should wriggle of that he was blackly determined chapter 29 indeed mrs. kafity's lodger and mary had become quite intimate and it was not through the machinations of either that this had happened ever since mrs. make believe had heard of that young man's appetite and the miseries through which he had to follow it she had been deeply concerned on his behalf she declined to believe that the boy ever got sufficient to eat and she enlarged to her daughter on the seriousness of this privation to a young man disabilities such as a young girl could not comprehend followed in the train of insufficient nourishment mrs. kafity was her friend and was more over a good decent woman against whom the tongue of rumor might wag in vain but mrs. kafity was the mother of six children and her natural kindliness dared not expand to their detriment furthermore the fact of her husband being out of work tended to still further circumscribe the limits of her generosity she devined a lean pot in the kafity household and she saw the young man getting only as much food as mrs. kafity dared to give him so that the pangs of his hunger almost nod at her own vitals under these circumstances she had sought of an opportunity to become better acquainted with him and had very easily succeeded so when mary found him seated on their bed and eating violently of their half loaf if she was astonished at first she was also very glad her mother watched the demolition of their food with a calm happiness for although the amount she could contribute was small every little helped and not alone were his wants assisted but her friend mrs. kafity and her children were also aided by this dulling of an appetite which might have endangered their household peace the young man repaid their hospitality by an easy generosity of speech covering affairs which neither mrs. may believe nor her daughter had many opportunities for studying he spoke of those very interesting matters with which a young man is concerned and his speculations on various subjects while often quite ignorant were sufficiently vivid to be interesting and were wrong in a boyish fashion which was not unpleasant he was very argumentative but was still open to reason therefore mrs. may believe had opportunities for discussion which were seldom granted to her insensibly she adopted the position of guide philosopher and friend to him and mary also found new interests in speech for although the young man thought very differently from her he did think upon her own plane and the things which secretly engrossed him were also the things where with she was deeply preoccupied a community of ignorances may be as binding as a community of interests we have a dull suspicion of that him or her who knows more than we do but the person who is prepared to go out adventuring with us with surmise only for a chart and enjoyment for a guide may use our hand as his own and our pocket says his treasury as the young man had no more shyness than a cat it soon fell out that he and mary took their evening walks together he was a clerk in a large retail establishment and had many things to tell mary which were of great interest to both of them for in his place of business he had both friends and enemies of whom he was able to speak with fluency which was their due mary knew for instance that the chief was bald but decent she could not believe that the connection was natural and that the second in command had neither virtues nor whiskers she saw him as a codfish with a malignant eye he epitomized the vices which belonged in detail to the world but were peculiar to himself in bulk he must be harry in that event language even the young man's could not describe him adequately he ate boys for breakfast and girls for tea with this person the young man was in eternal conflict a bear with little ears and big teeth not open conflict for that would have meant instant dismissal not harry at all a long slimy eel with a lot of sense but a veiled unremitting warfare which occupied all their spare attention the young man knew for an actual fact that someday he would be compelled to hit that chap and it would be a sorry day for the fellow because his ability to hit was startling he told mary of the evil results which had followed some of his blows and mary's incredulity was only heightened by a display of the young man's muscles she extolled these because she thought it was her duty to do so but preserved some doubts of their unique destructiveness once she asked him could he fight a policeman and he assured her that policemen are not able to fight at all singly but only in squads when their warfare is callous and ugly and conducted mainly with their boots so that decent people have no respect for their fighting qualities or their private characters he assured her that not only could he fight a policeman but he could also tyrannize over the seed breed and generation of such a one and moreover he could accomplish this without real exertion against all policemen and soldiers the young man professed an eager hostility and with these bad people he included landlords and many employers of labor his denunciation of these folks might be traced back to the belief that none of them treated one fairly a policeman he averred would arrest a man for next door to nothing and any resistance offered to their spleen rendered the unfortunate prisoner liable to be manhandled in his cell until their outraged dignity was appeased the three capital crimes upon which a man is liable to arrest for are being drunk or disorderly or for refusing to fight and to these perils a young man is peculiarly susceptible and is to that extent interested in the force and critical of their behavior the sight of a soldier annoyed him for he saw a conqueror trampling vangloriously through the capital of his country and the ability of his land to eject the braggart astonished and mortified him landlords had no bowels of compassion there was no kindliness of heart among them nor any wish to assist those whose whole existence was engaged on their behalf he saw them as lazy unproductive glutton's who cried forever give give and who gave nothing in return but an increased insolent tyranny many employers came in the same black category they were people who had disowned all duty to humanity and who saw in themselves the beginning and the end of all things they gratify their acquisitiveness not in order that they might become benefactors of their kind the only righteous freedom of which we know but merely to indulge a petty exercise of power and to attain that approval which is granted to wealth and the giving of which is the great foolishness of mankind these people use their helpers and threw them away they exploited and bought and sold their fellow men while their arrogant self-assurance and the monstrous power which they had gathered for their security shocked him like a thing unbelievable in spite of its reality that such things could be fretted him into clamor he wanted to point them out to all people he saw his neighbors ears clogged and he was prepared to die howling if only he could pierce those encrusted auditories that what was so simple to him should not be understood by everybody he could see plainly and others could not although their eyes looked straightly forward and veritably rolled with intent and consciousness did their eyes and ears and brains act differently to his or was he a singular monster cursed from his birth with madness at times he was prepared to let humanity and Ireland go to the devil their own way he being well assured that without him they were bound quickly for deep perdition of Ireland he sometimes spoke with a fervor of passion which would be outrageous if addressed to a woman surely he saw her as a woman queenly and distressed and very proud he was physically anguished for her and the man who loved her was the very brother of his bones there were some words the effect of which were almost hypnotic on him the isle of the blessed the little dark rose the poor old woman and catalane the daughter of hula haen the mere repetition of these phrases lifted him to an ecstasy they had hidden magical meanings which pricked deeply to his heartstrings and thrilled him to a tempest of pity and love he yearned to do deeds of valor violent grandiose feats which would redound to her credit and make the name of irish men synonymous with either greatness or singularity for as yet the distinction between these words was no more clear to him than it is to any other young man who reads violence says heroism and eccentricity is genius of england he spoke with something like stupefaction as a child cowering in a dark wood tells of the ogre who has slain his father and carried his mother away to a drear captivity in his castle built of bones so he spoke of england he saw an englishman stalking hideously forward with a princess tucked under each arm while their brothers and their knights were netted in enchantment and slept heedless of the wrongs done to their ladies and of the defacement of their shields alas alas and alas for the once proud people of bomba end of session 14